"It's so disrespectful to come into someone's class and not be engaged."

"We have all experienced dramatic shifts in teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic which certainly qualifies as an extraordinary circumstance, and "It sounds like..." has helped me to employ intentional empathy as both a teacher and an instructional coach."

"Culturally responsive teaching allows [students] to draw on their social and cultural fluencies in order to build and deepen understandings."

"Teaching that activates and leverages background knowledge is an equity issue."

"The officer who pressed his knee in the neck of George Floyd was indifferent to his humanity. Many of our students experience a similar indifference in school."

"When schools serve African-American students well, they provide safe spaces and meaningful opportunities to think in rigorous ways while also being able to draw from their social and cultural fluencies."

"If you don't see race, you are unlikely to see the full experience of non-white students."

"Culturally Responsive Education...requires us to give careful consideration to context..

"Our goal as educators is to see our students as asset-filled beings, and then to apply that awareness in classroom instruction.

"One of my favorite strategies for supporting the resilience of students is to capture snapshots of their successful engagement in school so I can show them back to kiddos in a sort of highlight-reel of their greatest moments in the classroom."

"Students can often explain understandings to each other in ways that don't always occur to teachers."

"The connection that students feel to teachers and school spaces is an enormously important factor in our efforts to close the racial/ethnic and class-based performance and achievement gaps that persist in American schools."

"...authoritarian-style mandates will not likely change people's practices."

“The coordination of dynamic and engaging classroom discussions hinges on how well the teacher is able to garner momentum around ‘serve-and-return’ exchanges that are evenly distributed amongst the students and not beholden to the input of the teacher…”

“Questions are to a teacher what the Lasso of Truth is to Wonder Woman, and what his utility belt is to Batman. Questions are the tools that–when used well–are both a source and expression of brilliant teachers’ super powers.”

“Honest and active listening is an imperative strategy when approaching issues of race and Implicit Bias in the classroom.”

“The teacher’s task is to prepare today’s students to responsibly employ their moral and political consciousness for the greater good of our democracy.”

“Students’ capacity for transfer is a function of the instruction that engineers emotional experiences to frame what might otherwise remain abstract concepts, ideas, or skills.”

“The question for practice becomes: What protective factors can match and mitigate the risk factors the student currently encounters? This reminds us that a student exposed to trauma should not be thought of as incapable. The child is full of promise–if the risk is mitigated.”

“Though the public handling of sensitive subjects may be terrifying to adults, we risk losing credibility when we send signals to our students that we would rather not engage in discourse likely to evoke strong feelings and disagreement.”