Educate Teachers, LLC
Follow Us
  • Home
  • About Us
  • About Our Courses
  • Upcoming Online Courses
  • Buildings & Districts
  • Fees & Options
  • FAQ
  • Email Us
Picture
EDUCATE TEACHERS NEWS
Picture
Picture
September 2020
Picture
"People are not born prejudiced but learn the behavior. And if it can be learned, it can be unlearned."
Jane Elliott
Picture
​“I don't fancy colors of the face, I'm always attracted to colors of the brain.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson



​“The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery.”
― Frederick Douglass
                                                                                         
​                                                                          
Heroes of the American Revolution
Picture
Around 9,000 African Americans became Black Patriots. Between 200,000 and 250,000 Black soldiers and militia served the American cause during the revolution in total, that would mean black soldiers made up approximately four percent of the Patriots' numbers. Of the 9,000 Black soldiers, 5,000 were combat dedicated troops.
Because every month is
Black History month!

​
​​

​​​
Picture
Black Heroes of the American Revolution (Odyssey Books) Paperback – January 2, 1992 by Burke Davis (Author)

Black Heroes of the American Revolution (Odyssey Books) Paperback – January 2, 1992
by Burke Davis  (Author)

​The lives of Crispus Attucks who escaped slavery and was killed in the Boston Massacre; Edward Hector the wagoner of Brandywine; Austin Dabney, sharp shooter; William Lee, confidant to George Washington and others are examined in the great book. 


Picture

Juneteenth

Picture
Juneteenth...an American Holiday
What is it and why is it so important to all Americans and all people everywhere. 

January 1, 1863, "Freedom's Eve," African American slaves heard the news that the Emancipation Proclamation had been placed in force. 
Readings of the proclamation took place all over the south. Black people were legally free. 
At least some Black people.
The Emancipation Proclamation could not be enacted in places under confederate rule. Consequently, Texas, the confederate state most western, did not free African Americans until June 19, 1865. Union troops rode into Galveston Bay, Texas and declared that slavery had been abolished freeing more than 250,000 Black people in that state. 
The day was named Juneteenth by the people who had been emancipated from slavery. 

The History of Juneteenth
National Registry of Juneteenth Celebrations
www.juneteenth.com/history.htm



Recharge & De-stress with Our Educators' Self-Care Series!
Recharge your batteries this summer with our new Educators' Self Care series
Express: ​I'm So Vulnerable!
How to Be Resilient in a Chaotic World
(3 credit hour Iowa license renewal)
Part of the Educators' Self-Care Series
Picture
Resiliency is the ability to recover quickly from life’s problems. Psychological resilience is the ability to emotionally cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status swiftly. In order to do that, we humans have to dig deep into our coping skills and internal strength and safeguard and defend ourselves from the negative impact of tension and strife; and, tension and strife can get pretty horrible.
As adults, we deal with the aging process in ourselves and our parents. We deal with each developmental level our children go through and hold on for the long ride through their adolescence. It’s tough enough when things go right, when we are healthy, our children are healthy and our parents are healthy. It is a real balancing act when things go wrong and we are caught in the cross fire of dual or even triple tragedies.
 
How do resilient people, adults and children, make it through? Why do some people get through trauma relatively unscathed and others end up with a life time of debilitating mental and physical problems? We will explore these questions and more in this class.
 

I’m So Vulnerable: How to Become Resilient in a Chaotic World is a class designed to help participants define what it means to be vulnerable and how to achieve resiliency. The class will explore:
Basic brain functioning and how neurons and synapses work to form our habits, as well as the neuroscience behind our thoughts.
*
​The key elements for building a healthy self-image and creating a resilient and strong self.
​*
Managing anger, calming our minds and bodies, and using the red zone vs green zone strategy to understand how to control defensiveness.
*
How to fine tune and enhance our emotions for the positive with special attention given to how to deal with our negative thoughts and our inner critic.  
​*
How to build on the characteristics of compassion, mindfulness, grit, gratitude, confidence, motivation, intimacy, courage, aspiration and generosity within ourselves. ​

The world can be chaotic. Our lives can be chaotic. Teaching can definitely be chaotic! Life can throw us off our balance, make us feel ungrounded -- vulnerable. Make your self-care a priority this summer by doing something for yourself and taking a step towards living your best life.
​

Join us July 15th...Ends August 28th
Click here to learn more or register!

I'm So Vulnerable! How to Be Resilient in a Chaotic World
Picture

Express: I'm So Stressed!
​Mindfulness & Meditation for Teachers & Students

(3 credit hour Iowa license renewal)
Part of the Educators' Self-Care Series
Picture
Mindfulness is the ability to know what is happening inside of your brain at all times; to live in the moment. Pretty basic and unsophisticated, but there’s nothing basic or unsophisticated about this life changing concept. It’s hard to be in the moment regardless of how much we know it is right for us. We think about the past and live unhappy moments over and over again and we stress about the future thinking the worst possible scenarios. 
Anyone in education is under a huge amount of stress in their school life. Added to that, most educators have family commitments and are squeezed in the sandwich generation raising kids and dealing with aging parents. As educators, we need now, more than ever, to practice mindfulness for ourselves, our families and our students. Mindfulness is a practice that can transform us, bring us peace, heal our bodies and our minds and allow us to enjoy our lives. ​
​Express: I’m So Stressed! Mindfulness & Meditation for Teachers & Students explores the many facets of mindfulness and how to integrate it into our daily lives. It provides information for teachers, students and parents and gives examples and practices. Educators will understand the importance of mindfulness for themselves and for their students. The question is not “do we have time for mindfulness?” The question is “can we afford not to make the time for mindfulness?”
Express: I’m So Stressed! Mindfulness & Meditation for Teachers & Students is a class designed to bring into alignment the mental and physical self by promoting calm, self-discipline and patience through mindfulness practices and meditation exercises. This class will provide a look at the nature of mindfulness, the benefits of mindfulness and the how-tos of mindfulness. ​
Join us July 15th...Ends August 28th
Click here to learn more or register!
​​

I'm So Stressed! Mindfulness & Meditation for Teachers & Students
Picture

Express: I'm So Tired! An Educator's Guide to Self-Care
(3 credit hour Iowa license renewal course)
Part of the Educators' Self-Care Series
Picture
Most of the teachers who have taken our classes are passionate, talented, dedicated and hardworking. They are also stretched thin by demands of family, friends and job. Guess who gets taken care of last? They do!!!! 
 
​Teaching is stressful. We watch our students struggle with poverty, abuse, learning problems and a myriad number of other difficulties.  It takes its toll on our quality of life and our performance. 
 It takes its toll on our quality of life and our performance.  We need to take time for ourselves and to learn how to be healthy emotionally and physically; we need an action-plan.​
I’m So Tired! An Educator’s Guide to Self-Care, provides realistic ways to become healthier and take care of ourselves. This class explains the issues, identifies the problems and helps to remediate and treat those issues that keep educators sick and stressed out. 
​Start the new year out right and make a plan for YOU! Class starts February 19th. ​​​
Join us August 12th to September 25th
​Click here to learn more or registration!

So Tired! An Educators Guide to Self-Care
Picture

July Featured Class of the Month
EXPRESS CLASS
 A Spoonful of Sugar: Restorative Practices in the Classroom
Starts July 15th...Ends August 28th

(3 credit hour IA license renewal)
​____________
Picture
Mary Poppins was right; a spoon full of sugar does make the medicine go down. Let’s face it, learning isn’t always easy for students to lap up or teachers to impart. Thrown into the mix, is the ever present spectrum of behavior issues ranging from distraction and moving to all out acts of aggression.  Very few teachers today have problem free classes and all too many have students who display behavior that is totally inconsistent with learning.
 
What research and our own experience has told us is that punishment, alienation, isolation and pushing students away doesn’t work in the long run…and sometimes it doesn’t work even in the short run. It’s time to rethink the way we manage behavior in our schools and classrooms and provide a framework for restorative practices that empowers our students to change and eliminate destructive behavior for good. 
 
A Spoonful of Sugar…Restorative Practices in the Classroom is a 3 credit Iowa license renewal course that will show educators why punitive practices are ineffective, lead to disaffected and underachieving students and play a role in the school-to-prison-pipeline.  Participants will learn how to implement restorative practices from communication techniques and structures and supports to peace-building and peacemaking strategies in order to establish classrooms built on collective respect developing students with the tools and understanding to self-regulate and self-manage. It’s all about sugar and little about vinegar.
STOP THE CYCLE OF UNPRODUCTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE PUNISHMENT

​Click here to join us for
​Examining

 A Spoonful of Sugar: Restorative Practices in the Classroom
S
tarts July 15th...Ends August 28th
Required Text:

Better than carrots or stick: Restorative practices for positive classroom management. Smith, D., Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2015).  Alexandria, VA: ASCD.  


Picture

Picture
Educate Teachers
​Online Professional Development Classes

July classes start on the 15th! Get the credits you need with modified, self-paced courses flexible enough to fit any teacher's busy schedule.
All courses are accredited. Choose from:
EXPRESS Courses:
6 week Iowa License Renewal Courses

Examining Courses:
​8-9 week courses that can be taken for Iowa License Renewal or EDMA Graduate Credit
​
Visit our website to learn more and register for upcoming classes
https://www.educateteachers.org/

Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Follow us on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for upcoming class information, education articles & news and creative classroom ideas & strategies!
Reader's Corner
Is it time we talk to our children and each other about race and racism?
Children's books to start the conversation on race. Recommended for adults too!
Not Quite Snow White Hardcover – July 9, 2019
by Ashley Franklin  (Author), Ebony Glenn (Illustrator)
None of us are Snow White but we are wonderful beings with our own unique and valuable talents. A darling, talented little girl learns that she can be Snow White even if she isn't white. 
Picture

I Am Enough Hardcover – March 6, 2018
by Grace Byers  (Author), Keturah A. Bobo (Illustrator)

A beautiful lyrical ode about loving and respecting ourselves and each other. 
Picture

Sulwe Hardcover – Picture Book, October 15, 2019
by Lupita Nyong'o (Author), Vashti Harrison  (Illustrator)​ 
Beauty comes from within as this beautiful picture books tells us. Our value is not based on our skin color, it is based on the goodness of our hearts. 


Picture

Did You Know?
In our courts, Black male offenders continue to receive longer sentences than
similarly situated White male offenders. Black male offenders receive sentences on average 19.1 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders.  
How just
is
​our justice system?
Picture

​The school-to-prison pipeline provides a step-by-step look at a system in which students, many minority and poor, are sent from schools to juvenile detention facilities and then to prison. Many of these students do not commit any crimes. They are the marginalized members of our society and they are criminalized as youth. Policies and practices that put these students at risk are called Zero Tolerance and schools enacted the Zero Tolerance stance to "get tough." Instead, what it did was get rid of the very people that needed the schools the most-the disenfranchised. 
Once students get connected with the law, they are pushed out of the school building and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Harsh punishment for minor infractions include expulsions, suspensions and exclusions. 
The US government supports the school to prison pipeline financially by funding youth incarceration. 
The school-to-prison pipeline overwhelming  impacts Black students, which mirrors the over-representation of this group in America's prisons and jails.
How do we end the school to prison pipeline?

Get rid of zero tolerance policies.

​Choose positive ways to discipline. This is called Restorative Discipline and it has resulted in better school climate and more opportunities. 
Restorative discipline gives both students and educators different and more productive ways to deal with issues. Students need to feel safe and they need to feel they are being heard. Dignity and respect are vital. 


The Treasure Trove
Educator Resource of the Month
Picture

Florida Education PBS 
​
​(click on the subject for additional info)
 
The Abolitionists: The Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War

​
The Abolitionists: Frederick Douglass Writes His Autobiography


The Abolitionists: Defying the Fugitive Slave Law


The Abolitionists: Will Kansas Be a Free Soil State?

​The Abolitionists: John Brown Puts His Accusers on Trial​


A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to Be
​Anti-Racist
Larissa Wright-Elson
​
is the English and Language Arts Curriculum Coordinator for the Anchorage School District. She holds a master's degree in educational technology, is a Google for Education Certified Trainer, and is National Board Certified in Adolescent & Young Adult English/Language Arts. Her experience includes 18 years in the classroom teaching awesome students in grades 7 through 12, writing curriculum, and supporting teachers with technology integration. Larissa was the 2016 lead PBS Digital Innovator. 

​Larissa's words are a call to action for all of us.
"There is no quick fix for systemic racism. It requires continued, ongoing effort to dismantle white supremacy. But I also have hope. With our combined voices and our combined intelligence, we fight for racial justice and usher change. My Black students, colleagues and friends are in pain. As a white person, as a mother of white sons, as a white educator, it is incumbent on me to be more aware, to learn more, to empathize, to listen and to support others as we work to dismantle white supremacy and forge a new way forward."  

Read the full text of Larrisa's comments  

Together we can do this!
Picture
Stay Strong
Stay Determined

George Floyd's Death: An American Tragedy: Our own Thoughts
We have seen it and heard about it over and over. A black person dies at the hands of law enforcement. Is it justified? Is it not? Until the advent of body cameras and the ability of the average citizen to video tape, we were asked to take sides. Whose side are you on? Is there a side...or is there just right and wrong?
In this blog, Reflecting on George Floyd's Death and Police Violence Towards Black Americans we are asked to examine our feelings as Americans and as human beings. Anyone who hasn't see racism in action in our country lives in a box. It is all over and we watch it all too often consume our students and their families. It stains our existence in inexorable ways and brands us for life. Skin color matters in our country. Looks matter. Money matters. Intellect matters. 
When we go back to school, and we will, we will be given the opportunity to talk with all of our students of every color, socio economic status, gender, culture and religious background. 
We have to start the conversation and it has to keep going. We have to stamp out racism in our lives, in our communities and in our nation. 
The mantle of responsibility for societal change has rested heavily on the shoulders of educators throughout our country's history.

What are others saying? This blog brings to life the gut wrenching horror of racism placed firmly on the events leading up to George Floyd's death.  Events that we have watch over and over again...
REFLECTING ON GEORGE FLOYD’S DEATH AND POLICE VIOLENCE TOWARDS BLACK AMERICANS

Facing History and Ourselves
www.facinghistory.org/educator-resources/current-events/reflecting-george-floyds-death-police-violence-towards-black-americans?utm_source=hellobar&utm_medium=topbar-desktop
​


Jane Elliot exemplifies the strength of the American teacher in fighting racism. She is an anti racism activist and teacher. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, she conducted her now famous  "Blue eyes–Brown eyes" exercise in her classroom in Iowa. The impact on her students was immense. She still conducts the exercise and speaks at national venues. 

Are we ready to conduct the "Blue eyes–Brown eyes" exercise? Click on this link to answer that question.

The following is an excerpt from a presentation Jane gives. She is speaking: 
“Anybody here who considers themselves a member of the white race, stand up,” Elliott said. A handful of people stood.

“Anybody here who considers themselves a member of the black race, stand up.” Ten or so people got up.

“Stand up if you consider yourself part of the brown race,” she said next.

“Hispanic,” one young man corrected as he stood.

People glanced at each other awkwardly as Elliott continued. “Stand up if you consider yourself part of the yellow race,” she said. “Stand up if you consider yourself part of the red race,” she said, until everyone was standing.

Elliott studied the room.

“Now everyone who considers themselves part of the human race, sit down,” she said.

Everyone sat down.​

Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott's famous experiment says about race 50 years on
Karina Bland
 Find Out
What race are you?
​
Proudly powered by Weebly