You Don’t Have to Be a Critical Race Scholar to Apply a Critical Race Lens to Your Practice

In education, we have a tendency to overcomplicate things by getting caught up with sophisticated academic jargon for things that, I believe, are common sense. …

Black Students Are Not ‘Marginalized,’ They Are the Center of Our Work

So many headlines these days are about how Black students are “falling behind” during the pandemic. They’re “missing” and “lost.” But the truth is, Black…

Restorative Justice Isn’t Just for the Students, It’s for the Adults Too

Let’s face it: Our public schools are, in the main, alienating and repressive institutions whose function it is to provide our society with an army…

We Can’t Just Teach About Heroes and Holidays and Call It Culturally Responsive

In a recent training on culturally responsive teaching, I was introduced to a theory called the “Stages of Multicultural Transformation.” It goes something like this.…

Here’s Why We Must Open Schools to Authentic Parent Partnership

When I taught first grade on the Navajo Nation, I’ll never forget when one of my fellow teachers—now my wife—wanted to host an event that…

White Teacher, Here’s How You Can Successfully Partner With Black Families

The show was going really well. We were in Pittsburgh, taping a live 8 Black Hands podcast episode at the State of Black Learning Conference,…

Forget Implicit Bias, Let’s Talk about Explicit Bias in Education

Last month I kicked off a training on ways to use language as an asset to unleash the critical thinking potential of English learners with…

The Last Thing We Need Is a Negative Teacher. 5 Tips to Keep It Positive This School Year.

It’s that time of year again. The start of a new school year presents teachers with the opportunity to create new goals, build relationships and reconsider…

Ninety-Six Percent of Pennsylvania’s Teachers Are White. That’s a Problem.

Imagine a doctor knowing vital, life-saving information about your health, but not sharing it with you. It would be not only unacceptable, it would be…

Hope and Outrage: A Tale of Two White Dudes

Outrage: Racist White Dude in Texas So, apparently Black Kids only get into Ivy League schools to fill quotas? It’s official, I’m Harvard bound 🎓…