WEBVTT - This file was automatically generated by VIMEO 0 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:11.700 Everything is relational 1 00:00:10.700 --> 00:00:14.600 in a school and in the teaching 2 00:00:14.600 --> 00:00:15.100 process, the learning process. 3 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.500 Everything is about relationships. 4 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:23.400 The relationship that we have with each other with ourselves 5 00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:25.800 with what we're learning with 6 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:26.800 the families. 7 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.500 It's the work with the policies. It's 8 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:34.700 worth it to build those relationships because it 9 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:35.400 impacts 10 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:39.400 how teachers teach how leaders lead. And when 11 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:42.400 relationships are not strong learning doesn't 12 00:00:42.400 --> 00:00:42.700 happen. 13 00:00:45.400 --> 00:00:48.700 When I was in this doctoral program at teacher's 14 00:00:48.700 --> 00:00:52.100 college, we had to really think about our earliest 15 00:00:51.100 --> 00:00:54.300 experiences with race. We also 16 00:00:54.300 --> 00:00:57.600 learned about like the correlation between your earliest 17 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.600 experience with race and how you 18 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:03.400 interact with people today. We then had 19 00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:06.700 to write an autobiography about our 20 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:09.400 racial cultural and ethnic identity. 21 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:12.500 And I thought that this would be really powerful to do in a 22 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:16.100 school. I had the staff do their own racial 23 00:01:15.100 --> 00:01:18.800 autobiographies. I shared 24 00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:21.700 a racial and ethnic identity statement that 25 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:24.600 I wrote about who I was. I wanted to 26 00:01:24.600 --> 00:01:27.500 model it for them. I wanted to model the vulnerability. 27 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:31.400 Because I didn't want to ask them to do something that 28 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:32.600 I was unwilling to do. 29 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:36.200 What I found was that there were some of us who have 30 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:39.800 worked together for more than 20 years and had 31 00:01:39.800 --> 00:01:42.400 no idea where we were 32 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:42.900 from. 33 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:46.600 You can look at someone and make many assumptions about 34 00:01:46.600 --> 00:01:49.500 what you think where they're from what their 35 00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:51.800 background is and be entirely incorrect. 36 00:01:52.600 --> 00:01:55.200 And if you don't open opportunities for people to 37 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.200 share in this way, you have to create the space for this 38 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:00.700 to be done. Sometimes it just doesn't happen naturally. 39 00:02:02.800 --> 00:02:06.400 And it was not easy for everyone. There were 40 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:08.300 some people that were uncomfortable with 41 00:02:08.300 --> 00:02:11.500 that and that is okay and we 42 00:02:11.500 --> 00:02:14.700 felt like this was, you know a process and 43 00:02:14.700 --> 00:02:17.800 that we wanted to meet people where they were but at 44 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:20.800 the same time have everybody understand that this 45 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.100 is something that we're doing we're going to 46 00:02:23.100 --> 00:02:26.400 do it together. And so the teachers then share 47 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:29.100 these autobiographies with the students. We hung them 48 00:02:29.100 --> 00:02:32.400 up on the walls of the school and the students 49 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:35.400 were absolutely mesmerized. They think that 50 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:38.500 we live at the school. They don't realize that we have lives 51 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:42.100 and we have children and we you know that we're humans. And 52 00:02:41.100 --> 00:02:43.900 then the students created theirs. 53 00:02:44.300 --> 00:02:47.200 It was beautiful to learn about 54 00:02:47.200 --> 00:02:50.300 the students. The families got involved because the 55 00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:53.300 students needed to find about the upper bringing so they needed to include 56 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:57.100 their families. They did their presentations and 57 00:02:56.100 --> 00:02:59.100 we've done it every year since then. 58 00:03:00.700 --> 00:03:03.600 and I did share it with a couple of other principles and 59 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:06.000 one in particular was able to 60 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:09.600 do the same thing and absolutely transformed her 61 00:03:09.600 --> 00:03:12.600 school culture from one 62 00:03:12.600 --> 00:03:15.300 that they didn't feel embraced the cultures 63 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:18.700 of the students to one that feels so much 64 00:03:18.700 --> 00:03:21.500 love and pride that it's a 65 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:22.500 beautiful thing to see.