Today DPS came through and invested in all these teacher leaders in the form of providing time, stipends (gasp), instructional and research support, technology (Swivl cams are a little scary to me) and a Skype call from @Ready4rigor herself. 
We are part of a cohort of Culturally Responsive Teaching Fellows tasked with conducting research and spreading best practices for CRT throughout the district.
People say a lot about DPS, but what I can say is I've never worked in a district that hired women of color as part of a Culture and Equity Leadership team and payed them full time salaries to research, develop, and roll out best practices in CRT on a continual basis.
CRT is not a trend, gimmicky bag of tricks, or toolkit for accessing children in "hard to serve" schools--again, pointing out the normalized lingo as problematic because they are not hard for ME to serve in.
What follows are some of my notes from the phenomenal lecture given by @Ready4rigor today. Ideas are HERS. I'm just passing them along. #citeasista
"CRT is a way to use design principles to help students become the architects of their own learning."
"Build confidence and competence. Competence precedes confidence."
"Use neuroscience [found in CRT and The Brain] to figure out what we need to stop doing, what we can keep doing, and what we need to change."
Learn the difference between Multicultural Ed. Social Justice Ed. And Culturally Responsive Ed.
"Students who ate dependent [upon the teacher] start negative narration about/ within themselves and won't engage in productive struggle."
"If you don't attend to helping the learner learner carry cognitive load, you are creating dependent learners."
"CRT is equity by design. Schools have deliberately and systematically weakened cognitive ability which is the most insidious because it affects students' confidence." This is inequity by design.
"Move from ritual and strategic compliance toward the zone of proximal development."
"You can talk about implicit bias all day long, but why aren't folks having courageous conversations about why kids still aren't reading in 7th grade?"
"How can you engage Ss and build confidence if they feel like school is a hostile space?"
"It can take 18 to 24 MONTHS to get to a place where learning is student initiated, a student is self-aware. Self- directed, and uses a combination of learning moves independently."
"CRT is not a toolkit for Black and brown children." Free yourself from that belief.
"Nurture [how you were brought up to experience care] is software to the brain's hardware."
"Use culture as a cognitive scaffold"
"Tune in to student REACTIONS to your moves. Students can close their own learning gaps with teachers as a vehicle to that process."
"Emotions are contagious. Ask yourself, 'How do I change the emotional tenor in the classroom?'"
"Give students an intellectually safe environment. When you think CRT is only about relationships, you are continuing to advance inequity by design."
Read the book. It will change your life, but more importantly, the lives of the children you serve.
For @Ready4rigor --Thank you ma'am for your work, for your wisdom, and for getting straight to the heart of the matter. Honored to be in your presence for a little while today ✊🏾💕
