It's Pride Month! Let's celebrate in our schools.

It's Pride! How are you going to celebrate Pride not only this month but every day of the year? 

As educators, we all want the same thing for our students and their families. We want our schools to be safe, welcoming places for teaching and learning. That means ensuring all students and families see themselves in our schools and our communities. 

But where do we begin? 

With your union, of course!  

Your union is a support for you and your students whether you are LGBTQ or an ally. NYSUT not only has an LGBTQ Committee but also has a resource center that includes information such as sample contract language and welcoming LGBTQ educators into your school. Our LGBTQ Committee also has a Twitter account, a Facebook page and its own dedicated NYSUT web page. At NYSUT, we are committed to equality for everyone. Check out https://www.nysut.org/resources/special-resources-sites/lgbtq and explore the resource center and more.

At the Education and Learning Trust (ELT), the professional development arm of your union, we have seminars for teachers that can assist you in creating a safe, welcoming environment: 

•  Addressing Anti-LGBTQ Bullying and Harassment in Schools
•  Inclusive Curriculum: Incorporating LGBTQ Topics into the Classroom
•  Creating Safer Spaces for LGBTQ Students

For our SRPs:

•  Our World, Our Students

Training for both teachers and SRPs:

•  Dignity Act: Training in Harassment, Bullying, Cyberbullying and Discrimination in Schools: Prevention & Intervention 
  

Want to learn about the seminars your union has to offer?  Go to https://elt.nysut.org/. 

Who else can help you celebrate Pride in schools? Your school librarian! Your school librarian can ensure the literature selections in your school are inclusive. By examining our classroom and school libraries to ensure a variety of reading materials are available, all students will be able to recognize themselves and their families in the books we use.  

Below is a small list of reading materials educators can use to start to create that safe and welcoming environment for their students:

• AND TANGO MAKES THREE by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell and Henry Cole. It is a picture book based on the true story of two male penguins raising a penguin chick in the Central Park Zoo. A great book for the little ones.
  
• TeachingBooks.net LGBTQ Collection - A BOCES compiled LGBTQ Collection that includes over 800 books.
  https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?adv=title&go=1&culturalArea=LGBTQ
• School Library Journal, "Pride for Tweens|Great Books" - School Library Journal usually updates this list each June. https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=great-books-pride-for-tweens
• School Library Journal, "Happy Pride! 26 LGBTQIA+ Titles for Teens" https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=26-lgbtqia-titles-for-teens
• Rainbow (A Round Table of the American Library Association), LGBTQIA+ Resources for Children -A bibliography of various resources compiled by the Rainbow Round Table (RRT) of the American Library Association. This round table serves the information needs of the LGBTQIA+ professional library community. http://www.ala.org/rt/rrt/popularresources/children 

Our LGBTQ Committee also hosted a "book tasting" event.  You can learn more about that event and the books chosen: https://www.nysut.org/news/2019/september/nysut-lgbtq-committee-to-host-book-tasting-event

Here are some powerful questions we can ask ourselves to show Pride all year long in our schools:

•  Does your school have a student Gay Straight Alliance or a Gender-Sexuality Alliance? 
•  Does your school have inclusive curricula and policies?  
•  Does your school use preferred names and respect everyone's pronouns?
  
•  Has your school created a supportive environment for all educators?

Your union can assist you, NYSUT has the resources and works in partnership with organizations like GLSEN: https://www.glsen.org/. Another great resource is Welcoming Schools: https://www.welcomingschools.org/

On a personal note, when I was a local NYSUT president, we began working on changes big and small to make our schools more welcoming. 

Training was provided for any teacher or SRP who wanted it, so we could create safe spaces, appropriately teach all students and be better colleagues to our LGBTQ siblings. 

We also began conversations about changing forms that families have to complete. Changing words like mother and father to parent or guardian to be more inclusive of all families. 

June is usually a month packed full of celebrations, gatherings, parades and events. While many of those activities cannot take place in our current COVID environment, let's find ways we can celebrate remotely and safely to make our world one where we all see ourselves and feel a part of the fabric of our communities.  

What Can We Do?

Our hearts are broken and we feel shattered. As a white woman, I will never know the pain, disappointment, hurt, and anger my black sisters and brothers are feeling. Nor can I imagine the unthinkable grief experienced by Mr. George Floyd's family following his homicide.   

As educators and unionists, we can harness our collective power to teach young people and make this world better and more just for everyone. To accomplish this, we must become the agents of change our students and society so desperately need. Our union has valuable resources to help members and their local unions. 

At NYSUT we are committed to social justice. NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer, Philippe Abraham, oversees this work and has curated an array of resources for our members. Learn more at https://www.nysut.org/resources/special-resources-sites/social-justice. And join President Andy Pallotta and Secretary-Treasurer Philippe Abraham at Together We Rise: A Virtual Vigil for Justice, Action and Peace on Monday, June 8 from 4-6 PM. RSVP here: https://www.nysut.org/news/2020/june/vigil.

What else can we do? We can build stronger family, school and community connections and relationships. At NYSUT we have a proven, powerful Family and School Engagement approach that can help strengthen your community connections. Our work highlights innovative ways of engaging families using evidence-based strategies such as home visits, academic parent teacher teams, and student-led conferences and is applicable to all communities. Contact Carolyn Williams in NYSUT's Research and Educational Services Department to learn more (Carolyn.Williams@nysut.org).  

We can use restorative practices, culturally responsive practices and teach about bias. Our Education and Learning Trust (ELT), the professional development arm of your union, is ready to assist you with this work. Our R&ES department developed a Restorative Practice workshop for ELT, which includes an introduction of key ideas and components of restorative practices, reasons and research behind using restorative practices and restorative circles.Through a grant provided by the NEA, Research and Educational Services, ELT and UAlbany has been able to work with school districts on combating systemic racism and implicit bias. Interested? We may be able to tailor learning to meet the needs in your school community. To learn more about this transformative work, contact Bernice Rivera at Bernice.Rivera@nysut.org. 

 

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has lessons available on Share My Lesson: 

• Teaching about Race and Racism: Lesson Plans and Resources: https://sharemylesson.com/collections/race-and-racism
• Social Justice Issues: Lesson Plans, Resources and Activities: https://sharemylesson.com/node/277426

The National Education Association (NEA) also has resources on their website for educators in the Issues and Actions section and Tools and Ideas section of their website http://www.nea.org/.  And they posted new resources on June 6, 2020 found here: https://neaedjustice.org/racial-justice-resources-justice-for-black-lives/?utm_source=edaction&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=J4BL

NYSUT has led on the issue of our teacher shortage and the need for a more diverse workforce in New York state. NYSUT believes all students benefit from a diverse workforce, and we are actively working to recruit more diverse students and career changers into the profession. If you would like to be a part of this work, find out how you can help by visiting our website https://www.nysut.org/resources/special-resources-sites/teaching-gateway or by contacting Greg McCrea to get more involved. (Greg.McCrea@nysut.org) 

And while I could never list all of the resources available to educators here...there are many available. Take this one from the Community Technical Assistance Center of New York. The information below can help educators teach about racial trauma and oppression. 

https://technicalassistanceatny

The point in writing all of this is simple. So many of us are asking ourselves, "What can we do?" In our roles as educators, community members and activists the answer is always the same: We can teach. 

May you remain safe and strong during this time, and may you never stop fighting for equality for yourselves, your families or your students.