I need for not only my school administration but the district administration to look deep within themselves to truly understand the DEI work that has been done so far and to see how they can enhance that at every level. This covers most aspects of the day from ability grouping to sending home practice work to looking at those students that need extra help in math or reading. I feel as though there are lots of “data meetings” held throughout the year and that we place kids in classes or give them additional support based on a score on a test or sometimes two tests. But I continue to think of things that include things such as attendance. Has anyone looked at this child’s attendance? Has anyone noticed that the child misses more than 35-40 days per year but when you delve further into the child’s file, there is no information on what has been done to look into why the child misses so much school.  We see a test score and give them an additional intervention block…..band-aid applied. 

I’ve always believed that every behavior has a reason. Meaning that whether it is a positive or a negative behavior, there is a reason. We, as teachers, may not always know what the reason is but I feel that we should be willing to open our eyes to the fact that there may be something that we might be missing.  More eyes on a child, their patterns, data and history, the better.  As educators and as humans, we all bring a different scope to any situation, shouldn’t we utilize all of our strengths? 

I feel that the same thing goes for our staff. If we want to have students feel empowered, they have to be in situations where they can be successful. We must continue to teach staff/teachers how to meet all of the academic needs of students. Much like every student is at a different place emotionally and socially, the same can be true for one’s academics. It’s very hard to find two students who are academically identical in every way.  Teachers must be able to adjust and meet students where they are at in their classroom and in each subject.  More training and PD needs to be provided by in-house professionals and by bringing in more so that all staff can feel comfortable teaching any student in their classroom, no matter where they are academically.  We all need to be teachers of literacy, no matter what our title may be.