The Collective Responsibility for Our Students: A Deep Dive
The salient point of this episode revolves around the imperative that "these humans are our collective responsibility." As we delve into the complexities surrounding children with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and English language learners, we engage in a profound discussion on the importance of fostering an inclusive educational environment. Our conversation features Melanie Ulinger, the Director of Special Education, Curriculum, and Instruction at the Brocton Central School District, who shares insights on supporting marginalized student populations. This episode emphasizes the necessity of intentional collaboration among educators to address the multifaceted needs of all students, advocating for their holistic development. We invite you to join us in this exploration of how we might collectively cultivate hope and ensure that every child receives the education they rightfully deserve.
The intricacies of modern education demand that we reflect upon our collective responsibility towards the students we serve. In this enlightening episode, we delve into the vital themes of inclusivity and empowerment, particularly for children with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and English language learners. Our esteemed guest, Melanie Ulinger, Director of Special Education, Curriculum, and Instruction at Brocton Central School District, offers profound insights into the necessity of recognizing each student as a complex and dynamic individual. This discourse extends beyond traditional educational frameworks, urging educators to adopt a transformational rather than transactional approach to teaching. By fostering a supportive environment, we can cultivate hope and resilience in our students, ensuring that they not only survive but thrive in their educational journeys. The conversation emphasizes the importance of intentionality in our educational practices, as we strive to address the diverse needs of all learners within our classrooms, ultimately promoting a culture of care and community.
Through the lens of the Brocton experience, we explore how systemic changes can facilitate greater access to learning opportunities for marginalized groups. Melanie articulates the significance of understanding the evolving landscape of student needs, particularly post-pandemic, and how educational institutions must adapt to meet these challenges head-on. The episode culminates in a call to action for educators to engage in reflective practices that honor the humanity of every student. We must recognize that each child, regardless of their background or challenges, possesses unique strengths and potential that deserve to be nurtured. This episode serves as a clarion call for educators to embrace their roles as facilitators of hope and advocates for equity, ensuring that no child is abandoned in the pursuit of knowledge and personal growth.
Takeaways:
- The overarching theme of this episode emphasizes our collective responsibility towards marginalized children, especially those with IEPs and English language learners.
- We delve into the importance of intentionality in educational practices to foster a supportive and inclusive environment for all students.
- The dialogue highlights the need for educators to address the diverse strengths and needs of every child, advocating for a holistic approach to education.
- The episode underscores the pivotal role of community in shaping an effective educational landscape that recognizes and nurtures the humanity of each learner.
Transcript
These humans are our collective responsibility.
Speaker A:Well, who are these humans we're talking about?
Speaker A:Find out.
Speaker A:A new episode of the Wheelhouse begins right now.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to give us a listen.
Speaker A:Season nine features a panel of four like minded friends and colleagues.
Speaker A:Cathy Mone, Michael Pipa, Dr.
Speaker A:Alicia Monroe, and yours truly.
Speaker A:We've opened up the conversation this season to think about empowering educators to cultivate hope.
Speaker A:In this fourth episode, we are so incredibly pleased to welcome Melanie Ollinger, Director of Special Education curriculum and Instruction at the Brockton Central School District in Brockton, New York to the Wheelhouse.
Speaker A:And we're going to focus our attention on two groups of children who are often marginalized, children with IEPs and children whose primary language is not English.
Speaker A:At the end of the day, what we do for some children is even bigger than cultivating hope or killing dreams.
Speaker A:It's a matter of life and death.
Speaker A:You know, this was such a great conversation and there were so many intriguing ideas that we brought to the space.
Speaker A:I hope you'll listen to the entire episode to hear the details, but among those, I think you'll find these intriguing.
Speaker A:It's intentional.
Speaker A:It's about the intentional work of the team who comes together to support these children who happen to have IEPs or who happen to be English language learners or.
Speaker A:It's about all humans, the complex, dynamic individuals who are our students.
Speaker A:It's about how we address the strengths and needs of the whole child or even, you know, every single one of us needs an iep.
Speaker A:At the end of this episode, I'm going to invite you to join our community and check out our newsletter.
Speaker A:Together, let's cultivate hope for each and every student.
Speaker A:And now, episode four and our special guest, Melanie Ullinger.
Speaker A:You are not going to want to miss this.
Speaker A:Take a listen.
Speaker A:Good morning and welcome to episode four in this season of the Wheelhouse.
Speaker A:I'm super excited to have this conversation with our guest this morning and with our panel.
Speaker A:But before we welcome our guest, let's just say good morning to Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr.
Speaker A:Alicia Munro.
Speaker A:Good morning, my friends.
Speaker B:Good morning.
Speaker A:Good to see you.
Speaker B:I know it's like all of this time together, we're starting to really speak in unison.
Speaker B:Isn't that lovely?
Speaker B:We're just all over the country, yet we're here together and speaking in one voice.
Speaker A:It felt like I was a choir director, right?
Speaker B:And I was like, live.
Speaker A:And all of a sudden there was.
Speaker A:There was all of this.
Speaker A:So good morning, everybody.
Speaker A:Let's Try that again.
Speaker A:Good morning, everyone.
Speaker C:Good morning.
Speaker A:Oh, that's so, that's like, that's like music to my ears.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker E:That's just, don't make me sing.
Speaker B:We'll just, just like, don't, don't get all crazy like that because.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:It would be scary at this time of morning.
Speaker A:So I have, I'm super excited about this conversation and I'm super excited about welcoming another dear friend and like minded colleague to this conversation.
Speaker A:So I want to say good morning and a huge shout out to Melanie Ollinger, who's the director of special education curriculum and instruction at the Brockton Central School District in Brockton, New York.
Speaker A:Good morning, Melanie.
Speaker E:Good morning, everyone.
Speaker E:I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker A:We are thrilled to have you.
Speaker E:Well, thank you.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:So we've been talking about in the last, you're our first guest in season nine.
Speaker A:Isn't that cool?
Speaker E:Oh, I am so honored.
Speaker E:Yes, that is very cool.
Speaker E:Thank you.
Speaker A:I've been looking forward to this conversation.
Speaker A:We have conversations all the time, but now we're going to actually do it in the wheelhouse and put that out there for the world.
Speaker A:So we've been talking a lot so far as we're getting ready to engage in other conversations with guests from all over the country.
Speaker A:And I'm thrilled that you're joining us this morning.
Speaker A:We've been talking a lot about our guiding principles.
Speaker A:We've been talking about what does it mean to empower educators to do this work, really moving away from this transactional approach to schooling to being transformational for each and every student.
Speaker A:Last week we had a great conversation around what does it really look like if we are creating classrooms where each student feels optimistic, they feel supported, they feel completely connected, they feel like they have the ability to be who they are, to learn important, relevant information and to become who they're meant to be.
Speaker A:And I thought it was really would be really appropriate, given the world we live in today, that we really honor and focus this conversation on too often marginalized and forgotten groups, namely children with IEPs or special education students.
Speaker A:I hate labels.
Speaker A:So I really like the phrase children with IEPs because they're just children they happen to have, you know, they have, they happen to have an additional set of resources and needs.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That are, that are appropriate to them.
Speaker A:And then of course, our English language learners.
Speaker A:So just my, let's just talk about for just a moment.
Speaker A:Why is it so important for us to talk about children with IEPs and English language learners in the wake of all of this conversation that we're having.
Speaker A:Why do you think, you know, why are we all.
Speaker A:Because we've all talked about it before this episode started.
Speaker A:We're all excited to have this conversation about children, about and for children with IEPs and children who are English language learners.
Speaker A:Why are we so excited about that?
Speaker E:I think for me, even before we get into the specifics about students with IEPs and English language learners, we have to remember that all humans are complex, dynamic individuals.
Speaker E:And in the education system, we have to respond to each of their strengths and needs in order to really educate the whole child.
Speaker E:And like you said, students who receive the support of an IEP or students that receive the supports through the English language learning teacher or other resources, the only difference there for me is that we're putting it down on paper and saying we're agreeing to these things, and this is how we're going to try and guarantee you access to discovering who you are as a complex, dynamic individual.
Speaker A:I love how you are using those terms, complex, dynamic individuals, because these are just children, right?
Speaker A:And if we really look at it, they're no different.
Speaker A:They're no different than everybody else.
Speaker A:This is just about really understanding their needs, which may be in some cases, more specific, more complex, but that's it.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Melanie, I.
Speaker C:I wanted to jump in and zero in on your including all of our kids in that recognition that all of our kids are dynamic and complex.
Speaker C:And when Grant asked that opening question, I started thinking to myself, what is it about the EL student?
Speaker C:What is it about the IEP student that I find so engaging and so exciting as an educator?
Speaker C:And it's because I'm already cued by the, you know, designation that here is sort of the umbrella of potential need that this person may have in order to have access to learning.
Speaker C:And it cues me to be sensitive and thoughtful, inquisitive and curious and observant.
Speaker C:And then what ends up happening, of course, if I work long enough with that mindset, is it shifts to every single other child I work with.
Speaker C:And I began my career when ieps were a brand new concept.
Speaker C:And quickly the light bulb went on and I thought, every single one of us needs one of these things.
Speaker C:Every single one of us.
Speaker C:And so I love that in beginning, you are setting us up to understand that the learner who happens to be an L, the learner who happens to have an iep, they're learners.
Speaker C:And the cueing the designation gives us and causes us is really something we need to be doing with each child.
Speaker E:I think that pause when we see those designations, I think as an educator, we can take that pause, make that note, and I hope it shifts perspective that you know, from as an educator being access to information.
Speaker E:But access to information while mitigating barriers and assisting to overcome those obstacles, I think is really important that we take that pause and consider our role in that for these two groups of students in particular.
Speaker B:What's jumping out to me, Melanie, and I know that you have been on this journey with Grant, as he's co authored the book on powerful student care, really just lifting up the tenets of community and thinking about what does that really look like for each stud to be a valued member within that community?
Speaker B:What does that look like?
Speaker B:So when you're saying all of these very profound phrases in words around dynamic and complex humans and being able to have access to the resources, the material in order to achieve their educational goals, what has that really been looking like for you within your setting to be able to ensure that students that, as Grant, you know, lifted up, are often marginalized?
Speaker B:What does that look like for you to be able to support and create this community?
Speaker E:Sure.
Speaker E:So in the work that Grant has done with me and my district, we really took a hard look at our community of needs, both within the school setting and outside of the school setting.
Speaker E:And we really had hard conversations about the profile of our students, how they were coming to school, how prepared they were for a variety of things.
Speaker E:Not just learning their ABCs, reading and writing, but being able to sit and sustain learning, being able to organize information in their mind in a productive way to produce whatever the teacher's asking them to produce.
Speaker E:So we had to really look at the characteristics of both of our communities and say, okay, this may not still be the community it was in the past.
Speaker E:It may not be the community that we have in the future, but this is what we have right now.
Speaker E:And how are we going to address what we have right now?
Speaker E:Not what we would like to have or had in the past, but what do we have right now?
Speaker E:And that allowed us to say, you know what?
Speaker E:We really do have a tier one level of students that have diverse learning needs that go beyond the scope of academics.
Speaker E:It goes into their social emotional development.
Speaker E:It goes into their physical development, their behavior management.
Speaker E:All of those pockets that I think for all of us on the call, when.
Speaker E:When we were in school, school didn't address all those pockets.
Speaker E:It was strictly a place where you went to access academics and determine a college career path.
Speaker E:And all that other social, emotional stuff was sort of left by the wayside or dealt with in a different environment like home.
Speaker E:So when we approach our tier one, we are really looking at at Brockton, what are the characteristics of all learners?
Speaker E:Academically, social, emotionally, behaviorally, physically?
Speaker E:And how can we as an administrative team minimize barriers to accessing education in all those ways so that students know we care for them, we respect their individual journey, and we're going to show you multiple pathways to achieve success.
Speaker D:So for me, as I listen to you, Melanie, we know that education is a human right.
Speaker D:So the fact that you centered humanity in your opening statement gave me goosebumps because that's who we have to look at.
Speaker D:The beauty of our diversity with that said, in the work that I'm engaged in, what I see and I wanted to know literally what your observations are, I see students coming to school and they're ready to learn.
Speaker D:For some students, that's the only safe space they have where they can trust and be loved.
Speaker D:But where I see a lot of the disparity and the dichotomy and thinking is around our educators.
Speaker D:Are they ready, willing and able to teach?
Speaker D:Are they willing to engage?
Speaker D:I walk through schools and non compliance sits at the lowest hanging fruit on the tree, which is, do they have their manipulatives in hand so that they can learn at their maximum level?
Speaker D:When we talk around equity and access, can they access the lesson with the manipulatives in hand?
Speaker D:And it seems like within the differentiation of instructions or the lack of ability to plan a holistic lesson where all students are seen, there's a bit of a gap, not a bit, a considerable gap between the philosophy of education of the teachers in the classroom to what the students receive and how they engage.
Speaker D:I'd like to hear your thoughts around that.
Speaker E:Absolutely.
Speaker E:And I couldn't agree more that I think there are real needs that are showing up in schools when it comes to to different groups of teachers and how well prepared they have been in their educational preparation programs.
Speaker E:I think there's a lot of disparity in how teachers are trained to work with all individuals and how they're trained to work with students with IEPs and English language learners.
Speaker E:So not everyone receives the same training coming in to a school.
Speaker E:I think that lack of consistency in educational training programs is a place where a lot of focus needs to be on how we can improve there.
Speaker E:For us at Brockton, prior to the work we started with Grant, one of the things we noticed after the pandemic was exactly what I said before, that that our student population in general has changed so we took inventory of what the needs were and we said, okay, the first way we're going to try and address the needs that we're seeing in all groups, but in particular the students that end up being identified as students who need IEPs or students whose primary language is not English.
Speaker E:We put into place a tier one support system where we had occupational therapists and speech pathologists pushing into all of our pre K through two classrooms and providing differentiated tier 1 support to try and get those language skills built up.
Speaker E:Vocabulary, background knowledge, fine motor, sensory, all those things to try and mitigate some of those hurdles we were seeing.
Speaker E:When Grant came on board, we developed really a vision of how we're going to educate our students in Brockton.
Speaker E:And it's taking that academic, social, emotional, behavioral idea and wrapping it around this culture of care.
Speaker E:And from there we said, well, how are we going to make our teachers know what to do with students?
Speaker E:And again, stemming from those marginalized groups, how do we get them to not only be able to support, help, assist, and allow access to instruction for students with IEPs and English language learners, but again, all students who may be struggling?
Speaker E:And we developed this asynchronous professional development platform that we fondly call Brockton Quick Bites.
Speaker E:And we push out monthly nuggets of professional development in all of these things.
Speaker E:And one of them that we spent some time doing really focused on universal design for learning and creating a lesson plan template that was unique to us, that took components of udl, traditional lesson planning, social, emotional, behavioral supports, medical supports, and kind of wrapped it all together into a template that teachers, if they chose, could use to prepare for all students.
Speaker E:But most importantly, include in that preparation how you're going to support your diverse learners in special education or whose primary language is not English.
Speaker C:Melanie, I love that the district decided to utilize the talents of occupational therapists, speech pathologists, those folks who are already so finely tuned to assess where access is being interrupted for a learner and when they're in the gen ed environment working with their gen ed colleague.
Speaker C:I'm wondering, can you talk a little bit about any feedback you may have heard from gen ed teachers after a partnership has existed for a little bit that, you know, was, was, was somehow revelatory as a result of that work?
Speaker E:Sure.
Speaker E:So as with all new things, people kind of categorized some of this as an initiative that would die down as soon as we, you know, didn't have funding for something or the schedule didn't quite work out, or, you know, what have you.
Speaker E:And again, we really Said, no, we're standing on this and we're finding a way to help kids at the entry level.
Speaker E:And after a little bit of work of encouragement with that partnership being there to support their growth and development through their mistakes, through the things that go well.
Speaker E:We have seen teachers say, I've had teachers say, you know, on day one when Grant came into my classroom, I thought for sure we were going to be referring and putting that child to an out of district placement.
Speaker E:Now we have seen that with the proper supports, related services, materials, oh, that child can be included or by going out of the room to receive special education support, you know, for 40 minutes a day in reading, the child can come back and still participate in all these other areas.
Speaker E:Or with the English language learner teacher pushing into the general education classroom, that student developed their language at a quicker pace than maybe would have happened if it was strictly a pull out or the other students are incidentally benefiting from having a special education teacher, having an English language teacher, having a related service provider also help them tap into their needs, their strengths, their interests.
Speaker E:So it's been very lovely to see this partnership unfold and really see students go through our tiered systems.
Speaker E:Our multi level system of supports has been really nice to see in action because sometimes I think we look at response to intervention and MTSs as like a dream that is hard to achieve.
Speaker E:And I think when there is intentional planning and preparation, you can really establish a more well developed and effective tiered model for students.
Speaker B:Intentional was exactly the word that I was going to lift up that.
Speaker B:That's what I heard.
Speaker B:I also was hearing that it's about the team of people that come around.
Speaker B:It's not about a person, it's not about, yes, that document allows for students with IEPs to say, okay, here are the requirements and we have to put that in action.
Speaker B:But what I heard was regardless of any of that, these humans are our collective responsibility.
Speaker B:And so how are we coming together to ensure that each and every student is successful and has access to everything that they need in order to be successful?
Speaker B:It is about a team being intentional coming together.
Speaker B:Melanie.
Speaker B:And that's what I heard you lift up.
Speaker D:I also heard the essence of community and shared vision.
Speaker D:And Melanie, I know that was hard to achieve, right, because you're in an ecosystem of dynamic educators.
Speaker D:Oftentimes when I sit in facilitate professional development across the country and around the world, I always say educators are just the worst.
Speaker D:We, you know, we are the worst ones.
Speaker D:And everybody laughs because we're all educators in the Space.
Speaker D:I wanted to know, how did you come about developing that shared vision, getting the buy in the common language and common lens?
Speaker D:Are we all observing the same thing?
Speaker D:Because that's what we feed into these critical conversations that are necessary to really place our students on a plateau for success.
Speaker E:Once again.
Speaker E:The pandemic, I think, was a blessing for this work.
Speaker E:It, I think, gave us permission to explore education, instruction, and learning in a different way than we had ever talked about it before.
Speaker E:I think that I'm grateful for the team of leaders and educators that I work with that I bring a unique perspective to my leadership team as a district leader in special education and curriculum.
Speaker E:So I can see a lot of things across the district that not everyone else can kind of see.
Speaker E:So I started bringing up, you know, just little pieces of things that I saw or picked up along the way and started putting the puzzle together.
Speaker E:My superintendent said, you know what?
Speaker E:Let's try to get some support in here to help us really flush this out.
Speaker E:That prompted our work with Grant, and he really challenged us to define who we were as a district.
Speaker E:And we had some really long, hard conversations that really challenged us to think about students and learning in a professional and personal way, because personally, we have to bring what we believe into the profession, and we wanted to make sure that we were standing on solid ground.
Speaker E:So we developed what was called the Brockton Story, or what is called, because it is our living document in which we kind of make all of our decisions from.
Speaker E:It's our guiding principles that we have as a district.
Speaker E:It's our compass north.
Speaker E:And we really committed to establishing new vision, mission, and goals that really centered around this notion that when our students graduate and exit from our district, the highest accolade we could have as a community would be that our students wanted to live in our community and send their children to Brockton Central School because they had such an experience learning there.
Speaker E:And that's what takes us on this journey.
Speaker E:That's what focuses our journey and really grounds us in the practices that we're establishing.
Speaker A:I just have to tell you, I'm really, really glad that you mentioned that, because that particular part of the work always is, for me, the outsider who's helping you guys do great things and you guys are doing great things, that when you guys vocalized that, that was huge, right?
Speaker A:That we would create a learning experience that was so powerful for our children that they would want their own children to experience the exact same thing.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:You know, that is not the norm.
Speaker A:That is not the norm.
Speaker A:That is a huge aspirational leap and jump, and that is your driving force.
Speaker A:We talk about that all the time, and I share that example everywhere I go because I think it's so incredibly powerful.
Speaker A:So thank you for lifting that part of the story, because I think that is really important.
Speaker E:It is important, and I think that more schools should reflect on that.
Speaker E:I think that as we're building teacher preparation programs, we should think about what kind of teachers do we want to prepare and develop to have those same goals for where they end up being employed.
Speaker E:I think there's so much more to education in today's world than ever before, and it's a really exciting time if we allow it to be and if we can really keep children at the center of those conversations.
Speaker B:I think grounding ourselves in our why is vital as humans.
Speaker B:You know, why, why.
Speaker B:Why do we exist?
Speaker B:I'm going to get, like, you know, super deep and think like, why?
Speaker B:Why do we exist?
Speaker B:And it.
Speaker B:What's my purpose in this world, in every space in which I'm fortunate to be a part of?
Speaker B:I think when we talk about and we hear about educational burnout, there's so much, all of these things, and that sense of purpose and understanding of why we exist and what we're doing allows for us to show up in such a way that we're.
Speaker B:We're ready.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's exhausting.
Speaker B:We're responsible and are very fortunate to be a part of all of these lives.
Speaker E:Lives.
Speaker B:Working with humans is exhausting, as it should be.
Speaker B:But there's no greater joy than being able to be a part of that.
Speaker B:And if we don't know what that is, and we're not constantly reminding ourselves within our district, within our classroom spaces of why we're here, then, yeah, we feel overwhelmed.
Speaker A:Because we've been programmed to think about this from a transactional lens.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:I get these students at the beginning of the year, and they're so far behind, and I'm going to be judged by where I get them.
Speaker A:Come May, they have to take this test.
Speaker A:And everybody's.
Speaker A:We're all going to pay the price for how.
Speaker A:For how they do on this particular test.
Speaker A:And it's all about, right.
Speaker A:Reducing.
Speaker A:Reducing the identities of children and educators to test scores.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Which is such a hugely discriminatory practice to limit our children's identity to a test score in ELA and math.
Speaker A:And then we think about the additional challenges, right?
Speaker A:We think about the additional challenges for a child who doesn't have the academic vocabulary in English because they don't speak English at home.
Speaker A:And we think about that daunting task that we have ahead of us.
Speaker A:And then we think about children who have some additional needs and some additional barriers and we gotta get them.
Speaker A:And then we, you know, so it's no wonder approaching this from the transactional lens that some really ugly biases come into play because the pressure, the pressure to be transactional is so strong.
Speaker A:And what we've talked about today is once again the importance of humanizing the learning environment not only for, for educators, but most importantly for our children who come seeking their life today and their life in the future.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker A:Even when they don't know that that's what they come to school for.
Speaker C:I'm hearing in your comments, Grant, of how do we move from a transactional frame to a transformational one?
Speaker C:And listening to the story of Brockton, Melanie, I'm hearing how your district had the difficult conversation that helped you arrive at a place that talked about your story as a school community.
Speaker C:And it sounds a lot like this school community is a community hub.
Speaker C:And in asking those difficult questions of yourselves to create that initial vision, what you ended up doing invariably was talking about culture and talking about climate and the things that influence it.
Speaker C:And how do we align our practices moving forward with the vision we have for our culture and climate, with the vision we have for what our school is about and ultimately should produce.
Speaker C:And in doing that, you moved from the transactional model to the transformational one.
Speaker C:You're still in process.
Speaker C:Of course, we don't look at this through rose colored lenses.
Speaker C:Teachers are struggling, kids continue to struggle.
Speaker C:The process is messy, but people are doing things differently and recognizing that because of that different, powerful results that they value are now happening.
Speaker C:And that is so exciting.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:The traditional ways of thinking about learning and educating just were not effective for the students that we had in front of us.
Speaker E:And we saw, you know, it wasn't like it was making our test scores improve, it wasn't making attendance improve, it wasn't necessarily reducing suspensions.
Speaker E:So the way we had always done things wasn't necessarily giving us the biggest bang for our buck, so to speak.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:So like you said, Michael, we are by no means perfect in implementing our vision and our desires for our students.
Speaker E:But what we do have is a mindset that requires us to think in a way that is different from before.
Speaker E:And with that, over time, change can occur.
Speaker D:The mindset is going to allow you to preserve and keep your identity because that's what's sacred.
Speaker D:It's that identity piece.
Speaker D:And that's, that's where the work, that's what, that's where that real work happens.
Speaker D:When I heard the Brockton story and how that was co created, and I know how my dear Grant does his work, so I know that that was deep work and that you were real uncomfortable, right?
Speaker D:But then the dust settled.
Speaker D:It's that identity piece that's going to sustain and maintain that Brockton legacy within all of the frenzy that's going on now in the climate, okay, that's trickling down from Washington and everywhere else.
Speaker D:It's the identity piece that I want you all to keep and hold sacred because that's, that's the stuff, okay, the good stuff that will keep your eyes on that pride.
Speaker D:So I, I honor that.
Speaker E:Thank you.
Speaker E:That really does mean a lot.
Speaker E:Grant pushed us into a state of reflection where we were really checking our own biases, checking in on our own experiences, the things that had gone in education, the things that had gone well, the things that worked, that didn't work, and really force us to have conversations that as a professional of almost 30 years, I've never had these conversations with colleagues before.
Speaker E:And it was probably one of the most solidifying factors in me really understanding who I am as an educator and what I bring to my leadership team and what I can then bring to our families and students.
Speaker A:And that's a wrap of episode four in this season of the Wheelhouse.
Speaker A:Again, a very special thank you to Melanie Ullinger, Director of Special education curriculum and Instruction at the Brockton Central School District in Brockton, New York.
Speaker A:Are you a like minded educator who's committed to promoting hope?
Speaker A:If so, I hope you'll subscribe to our all new Wheelhouse newsletter.
Speaker A:Go simply to thewheelhouse.substack.com and think about these questions.
Speaker A:We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker A:How are you accepting the collective responsibility for these humans?
Speaker A:How are you building community and establishing a shared vision that recognizes the humanity of each complex, dynamic individual?
Speaker A:How can we here at the Wheelhouse help you reach these aspirational leaps and jumps?
Speaker A:We really do want to hear from you and we hope that you'll subscribe to our all new newsletter.
Speaker A:The Wheelhouse is a production of Students Matter.
Speaker A:New episodes of season nine will drop every Tuesday morning beginning February 25th and continuing through April 29th.
Speaker A:Our show's theme music, Off We Go, was written and performed by Cody Martin and obtained through soundstripe.com you can find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Speaker A:And of course, stop by our website and check out what we offer at www.ourstudentsmatter.org.
Speaker A:you can subscribe to this podcast on either itunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts together.
Speaker A:Our goal is to prove to each and every student and each and every teacher that they are both distinctive and irreplaceable.
Speaker A:Until next time.
Speaker A:Remember, we got this.
