February 25, 2021 RCSD Educator Blog
Message from Jamey Schrey
I just finished a book, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. In the book, the author repeatedly and deliberately refers to Rosa Parks as Mrs.Parks because the formal title was a proper title not given to many black women during Rosa Park’s life. If you have a chance, the book is both interesting and enlightening. I just picked up the copy of the abridged version for my children.
What I learned in reading the book and about the many accomplishments of Mrs. Parks is that much of the history I learned throughout my education provided only one-dimensional achievements of Black Americans. For example, summarizing the civil rights movement saying Rosa Parks sat down, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood up. But what I learned was that Mrs. Parks spent decades before the famous bus act and decades after fighting the criminal justice system, which began alongside her husband in 1931, supporting the defense of the Scottsboro Boys. Along with fighting the criminal justice system, she spent years as a sexual assault advocate. All of her work was dangerous, tireless, and for many years forced her family into poverty, regularly receiving death threats, having to leave their town, and suffering from stress-related ulcers. Her work was not a single act that changed history but years of efforts that pushed our democracy to pay attention to injustices in the hope of finding justice.
One of our close family friends, Hafisa, grew up in South Africa, her father working for Nelson Mandela and a University professor. Hafisa’s grandfather, a famous poet, was run out of the country because he was black and fighting against apartheid. Hafisa has now lived in the United States for almost 15 years and continued to be shocked that the United States still does not acknowledge its history, most importantly recognizing that Americans were owned as slaves. In South Africa, memorialization societies, museums, and other public education institutions have begun to recognize colonial and apartheid-era monuments as teaching opportunities. Most South Africans, both white and black, believe it is vital that the country preserve and learn from the past as it seeks to move forward to a bright future. In the United States, we take a month to acknowledge a cutout section of our history quilt to wrap ourselves up in and celebrate Black History Month. But shouldn’t the quilt of our history be woven together, tightly, the threads of honesty, by binding our history into one large quilt? And while parts may be tattered and honestly embarrassing to acknowledge, in the absence of recognizing the truth and talking about the many Black Americans that have contributed to our nation, we will not learn to be a better, more prosperous, and more educated society? Shouldn’t we look to other countries across the globe that have addressed their history of injustices, memorialized the people who were wrongly treated, to provide opportunities to know better and to do better?
Hence, why The Legacy Museum was monumented. Have you heard of this Museum? Prior to the pandemic, my sister and I were planning a trip to Alabama to go to this fantastic museum.
On the museum’s website:
EJI believes that the history of racial inequality and economic injustice in the United States has created continuing challenges for all Americans. More must be done to advance our collective goal of equal justice for all. The United States has done very little to acknowledge the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation. As a result, people of color are disproportionately marginalized, disadvantaged, and mistreated. The American criminal justice system is compromised by racial disparities and unreliability that are influenced by a presumption of guilt and dangerousness that is often assigned to people of color. For more than a decade, EJI has been conducting extensive research into the history of racial injustice and the narratives that have sustained injustice across generations. Our new museum is the physical manifestation of that research.
Listen to Bryan Stevenson, the founder of EJI and author of Just Mercy.
In an education research book titled, I Used to Think . . . And Now I Think . . ., Dr. Richard Elmore, a tremendous educator who recently passed away, uses content borrowed from an exercise often used at the end of teacher professional development sessions, in which participants write down how what they’ve learned has changed their thinking. The hope of the exercise is that people will continue to reflect and grow as educators.
I tried out this exercise with The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.
I used to think that Rosa Parks was an average citizen that stood up for her rights one day. And now I think I was naive and know that she was a much greater force in the civil rights movement.
I used to think that I knew a lot about slavery and Black Americans’ wrongful incarceration, and now I think there is much more I need to learn.
I used to think that I am open-minded and in touch with my biases, and now I know that it is a lifetime of work that I must engage in to be consciously competent and grow as a human.
I used to think that schools were foundational for a healthy democracy, and now I think I am still correct.
I used to think that discussion of equity and access was critical, and now I think it is time to press forward on the systemic issues and not just talk about them.
I used to think that it is weird to have just a month for Black History, and now I think that our diversity and honest history should be told, celebrated, mourned, and learned from every month of the year.
I used to think that there was lots of work to do within our schools to support our children, and now I think that my analysis underestimated what we can do as educators to shape our nation.
#Knowbetteranddobetter
#Wecandobettertogether
#Workinprogress
Thank you for your work with children,
Jamey
________________________________________________________________________
- Teacher of the Year - Jennifer Milne (Crestmont)
- Teacher of the Year - Lisa Shrider (Eich)
- Classified Employee of the Year (
Instructional Support) - Michelle Watkins (Woodbridge) - Classified Employee of the Year (Office/
Clerical) - Michele Vergara (Eich) - Classified Employee of the Year (
Maintenance/Custodial) - Paul Smith (Crestmont)
All K-5 math assessments have been completed and shared in your “Shared with Me” Otus folder. Please continue to walk the students through the different types of questions so they know how to work with the assessment. Please reach out to Megan Spears with any questions.
K-5 Science
NGSS Essential Standards and Hand-on-Activity Support
Watch this video to find out more!
We have purchased the Hands-on-Activity kits for K-5 Discovery Education! Please connect with your principal about plans.
To support Discovery Education, the science kits, and the NGSS standards, these resources will support you and your PLC when planning science lessons. These are preliminary materials and will be revised as we continue to work with the NGSS standards.
I (Megan) am also excited to announce that we have some amazing Optional Monday PD opportunities supporting science coming up. Mark your calendars and save the dates! The optional first PD will be with Discovery Education on March 15, 2021. This training will focus on all DE Experience has to offer. Learn how to power up your lessons through maximizing your search results using a variety of strategies to efficiently locate video segments, images, songs, audiobooks, text, interactives, channels, and more. Please reach out to Megan Spears with any questions.
In your “Shared with Me” folder in Otus, you will now see CAASPP practice tests for you to use with your students. This is an optional resource to support you and your students as you prepare for CAASPP. You can still take practice assessments through TOMS. There are benefits of using both practice tests in TOMS and the ones we created in Otus.
In partnership with California Health and Human Services, RCSD proudly offers COVID-19 surveillance testing for its asymptomatic employees on a once-a-week basis starting in March.
This testing is for RCSD Staff and on-site daycare agency staff only. Staff must register ONCE through the Color Platform and then test at their assigned site. Staff may not test at other sites without permission by the COVID Response Team. See your administrator or supervisor for details.
Click here for the March schedule. Thanks!
The District has been informed that the State is releasing a certain number of vaccinations to the County Office of Education for distribution to employees in the education field. Distribution from PCOE to Districts will be based upon the number of employees who at the present time have not received or been scheduled for at least their first dose of the vaccination. This is an opportunity for employees who would like to get a vaccination. Survey consists of your name, site, position, have you received or are scheduled for vaccination and finally would you like to receive a vaccination. We ask for your name only so we know who to contact when we receive vouchers for vaccinations.
We are on a short turnaround time as PCOE has requested information be submitted by 12:00 noon tomorrow, February 26, 2021.
In order to provide accurate information to PCOE, please complete this quick Google Form form by 10:00 a.m. Friday, February 26, 2021.
FAQ’s regarding COVID at work
Please click here for some commonly asked questions from staff regarding COVID-19. We will continue to update this sheet as more questions come in. Thank you.
Click here for more info or go to bit.ly/Survivorregistration
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