Thoughts on Our First Week Back: Abolitionist and Global Education All Online in a Global Pandemic

It's been difficult thinking about coming back. Yes, I am so excited to see my students whom I have missed terribly and have spent the summer thinking about all the lessons I want to teach, subjects that empower and are relevant to students, give my students the tools to recognize white supremacy, challenge and dismantle it. I want to talk about uprisings, the overtly different ways police treat protesters, and to name Jacob Blake, so that my students do not ignore, brush off, or forget yet another display of lethal white violence.

I am also coming back to teach fully online. The district has switched to a new platform, and all students (and teachers) are coming back with limited training on using a completely new system. My students are likely scared and restless, worried about getting sick, or their parents getting sick, almost without a doubt students who are mourning the loss of loved ones. I am also an English Language Development teacher and am worried about my English Language Learners, getting almost no direction or support for these students, children who will suffer the most, dealing with these same anxieties, but with the difficulties of learning a new language. Imagine getting 8 emails from 8 different teachers all in a foreign language. I have been learning Spanish for years and it still takes me 30 minutes to get through a chapter of a children's book, much less detailed instructions about navigating platforms, assignments, and teachers. While my students are likely energized to discuss difficult issues, there are many students also traumatized, overwhelmed by all the issues facing them, by the interruption of everything they have known.

For this reason, I offer this advice, to myself, but to other teachers ready to dive into your global education, anti-racist curriculum. Take it slow. Build a community in which your students feel safe. This does not mean leaving behind Abolitionist teaching to focus on syllabus work and tech troubleshooting (though yes, I'm sure we'll all have to take some time for these things). This means taking the time to show the students through your actions and introductions that you are co-conspirator in dismantling systemic racism, that you see each one of your students and each one knows it. Also, take time to reflect on each action. Why are you doing what you're doing? Why do you believe it s an act that shows students you are on their side? I believe when we don't ask these questions, we begin to fall into a form of virtue signaling, saying the right things, but not following them up with action and i. Here are a few tips:

1. Name your pronouns. I think naming your pronouns when you introduce yourself is vital to creating a space where all students feel acknowledged. I like to begin with my own pronouns because it takes the onus off of children, especially for students who would feel pressured to bring it up if never mentioned. I also feel like for many adolescents who are in the process of understanding themselves, asking to share one's pronoun in front of the class can be extremely distressing. After naming my own pronouns, I will often give students a survey before introductions which will ask students both their pronouns, and how they would like me to refer to them with others (including parents). This gives students an option to share something about themselves that they may not be comfortable with sharing with the entire class. Full disclosure: I do not know that this is the best way, it s just currently what I see as the best way to make sure that I am from the very beginning showing my students care, gentleness, and human dignity. I am always willing, in fact, welcome challenges to this approach. My goal is not to be right, but to know that my students are safe and thriving.

2. Be open and honest about who you are and what you plan to teach. I do not try to convince my students that am objective. I tell them I have a perspective and that I will be teaching from it. Of course, I will try to be fair, to teach truth, but if I tell my students that I am the bearer of all information in front of the class, then I will be lying, and my students will know it. I believe that we are part of a learning community, which is something we hear a lot, but to me, it means that I can be challenged by my students, that I will change my curriculum and teaching based on their needs, and that I will use their ideas, their knowledge, their history, and their passion to develop as a teacher and a person.

3. Name the stolen indigenous land that we stand, teach, and learn upon. This is a simple and powerful way of showing respect and taking a step towards correcting the stories and practices that erase indigenous people's history and culture and toward inviting and honoring the truth. (Statement taken from the US Department of Arts and Culture). I think if you want to signal to your students that you plan to teach them a curriculum outside a white, colonial perspective, we have to explicitly address these narratives at all levels, beginning the class with a statement that tells your BIPOC students they might be able to trust you, that reminds your white students that no aspect of their lives is fully removed from our racist history, not even the ground the walk on. Lastly, remember, these are just first steps. If you acknowledge indigenous land, but then go on to teach only white authors, or a history of America based solely on wars and presidents, the initial statement will be hollow.

4. Lastly, take the time to get to know your students, make sure they feel safe, and ready. I know we all have tons of curriculum to get through, but Abolitionist teaching calls us to not only teach, but support, love, and care for our students. I cannot believe that rushing on with heavy academics when students are overwhelmed and scared, faced with a curriculum that never asks what learning would be relevant to their lives.