My Experience at the People of Color Conference

Last week I traveled with eleven of my colleagues and six students from the Upper School to Nashville, Tennessee. We were in the heart of the city in the downtown area. We walked daily to the People of Color Conference held at the Music City Center.

Over the course of three days I attended six workshops, participated in my affinity group twice and heard some amazing speakers. I vigorously took notes each day and upon my return I have been spending a lot of time reflecting, reviewing and thinking about the best way I can incorporate what I learned into what it is I do here at Wheeler.

Here's what I have come up with so far....

 1. I plan to share my identity and culture with my students and encourage them to do the same.

2. In one of the workshops I attended a kindergarten teacher shared how she writes good morning in a different language every two weeks. During those two weeks students work on pronunciation and learning about the country or countries where the language is spoken. I plan to incorporate that idea in to my  class greeting as well. I will use the library databases to help students learn about the language and countries. Through this tactic I can expose our youngest students to the world beyond what they see in their everyday lives.

3. Luz Santana an advocate for minority women spoke to an audience of over 6,000 people myself included. She spoke at length  about the idea of encouraging students to continue to ask questions. She presented studies that had showed over time our children are not asking questions once they reach a certain age. This may be caused by fear and  a lack of confidence in their abilities.  She encouraged us as educators to create space for children to ask questions daily. Their ability to ask will empower our students to be advocates for themselves and others in the present and in the future. I am currently restructuring my curriculum so that I can provide my students the opportunity to ask questions and to seek answers.