Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:00:40]:
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome back, folks, to another episode, The art of advocacy. We're doing our sense of belonging series. As you might have heard already, if you followed me enough, you know In the process of writing my 2nd book. It's called don't bring boxed macaroni to the potluck. And so I'm excited to present to you another session As I am putting things together, as I'm doing my research so if you're out there, feel free to say hello. Welcome to those.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:01:12]:
If you're an educator, let us know where you're Where you're watching from, and, tell us what position you hold. You know? I wanna know those things too. I'm really excited for what I have to present to you today. We'll go through all of that. As always, this is a brave space, so feel free to drop in any of your comments or your questions, and Let's get to it. So I'm a pull up these slides, man. We gonna get we gonna get going right here. So let's see.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:01:37]:
Today's topic is Get this out of your head. You're never completely done learning. Hey. Get this out of your head. You're never completely done learning. Alright. As always, as a reminder, k. You know, I got a current book out.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:01:56]:
Eakins Equity, Becoming an Advocate for All Students. That is currently out. And, so, yeah, if you hadn't picked it up already, make sure you grab yourself a copy. And, also, also, I'll just add this too. If you bought it off of one of those online Website that sells books. There's a particular one that's pretty well, actually, it's it's it's one of these here. I'm not gonna say which one it is. But if you did buy it off of there, do me a favor.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:02:20]:
Just Shoot. And you and you enjoyed the book, do me a favor and provide some positive feedback. That helps out my brother. So I appreciate that if you could. Alright. Let me bring this back up so you can see. Alright. So we're doing a 4 part series.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:02:34]:
K? Like I said, I'm in a process to write another chapter. We're doing a 4 part series, and it's all about you. K. Making it personal. K. Now last week, we talked about believe to achieve the influence of social learning in education. And today, we'll be talking about get this out of your head. You're completely you're never completely done learning.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:02:57]:
And so the next week, we'll be talking about not taking a stance is taking a stance, and then we'll wrap up the 4 part series With the fear of not doing it right. K. So that is what we have upcoming. So we've got 2 more weeks, then I'm gonna take a little break because I'm gonna get do some research, do some more writing, boom, boom, boom, put it all together, and then I'll present some more, information. We'll do some more sessions later. So if you already are not subscribed to the channel. If you haven't clicked the bell, please subscribe to the channel. Make sure you're doing those things, and, let's let's keep it moving.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:03:32]:
Alright. Today's agenda, limitations of self perceived knowledge, myths of professional development, how to make PDs memorable And relevant. So that's what we'll be talking about today. Let's start with limitations of self perceived knowledge. Alright? Now I got a quote from lean equity book, page 165. It says, keep yourself open to interactions and experiences that might shift your values as the world becomes more complex and our communities become more diverse, It is likely that your perspectives will evolve as it is enriched by new voices. One of the things that I have enjoyed thoroughly from being a podcaster, from being a consultant in educational spaces, one of the things I have enjoyed the most is how much I have gotten a chance to learn as I go. I started this show, L, 5 years ago, back in 2018, I started the podcast.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:04:34]:
I mean, just based off a lot of the experiences that I had, going on here where I live, And I was like, okay. I wanna know how I can be better. I wanna do this research. I wanna support others. And not only that. I wanna serve. I wanna, share this with other people as well. And so that was part of the process.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:04:53]:
And over these years, you know, I've done well over 300 episodes on the lean equity podcast. And as a result, I've just learned so much. But you know what? I'll be honest. I've I've made some mistakes. So this quote when I wrote this quote, it it hits hard Because, you know, it says that it is likely that your perspective will evolve as it is enriched enriched My new voices. Let me tell you a couple things. You know, I I've I've come across some things where I I've had to humble myself. I I had to you know, when we do this work or if we have these lived experiences, sometimes we feel like, you know what? I know everything.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:05:31]:
I've done everything. I've learned. I've read all the books. I've watched all the movies. I've watched all the documentaries. I know what All about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Shoot. I represent a certain group or a certain identity that has historically been marginalized.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:05:47]:
And so sometimes we leave it there, or I have a best friend. I got a colleague. I got a mentor. I can always just reach out to them, And I can ask questions. And so somebody like myself who does a lot of training, I always say this is a journey. There's no there's I mean, there's always more that we can learn. And at the end of the day, me, who identifies as a male, who identifies As a heterosexual, there's gonna be a lot of things that I will never experience and know what it's like because there's certain identities that I do not I do not have. Right? And and I'll never know what it's like to be discriminated in a lot of ways.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:06:27]:
And so there's I just think that there's no way that I could abs absolutely know or feel what it's like for certain things. I'll give you an example. I was doing a I was doing a workshop. I'm gonna tell you, you know, I I made a mistake, you know, oversight, if you will. I remember we were having a conversation. It was about a 100 people in this room, And I'm I'm making this presentation. And I mentioned something about, You know, sometimes you wanna speak up and you wanna do this work, but you feel like you don't have enough clout. And I said the words, you feel as if you're on the bottom of the totem pole.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:07:04]:
That was a comment that I made, not thinking anything of it. Not too long after, I had a Native American individual that raised their hand And say, you know what? It's it's it's interesting that today's conversation is all about microaggressions, but I listened to you as our trainer mentioned The the the phrase bottom of the totem pole, and I find that offensive. And I appreciate that audience member. First of all, I'm glad that I created a space In which someone felt comfortable to raise their hand and share this in front of a 100 people and basically called me out. And I and I wasn't offended at all because, again, I'm on a journey too. You and And I said, thank you so much. Thank you so much for saying this to me because I honestly I didn't have any intentions to harm anybody. It wasn't something I was I I it was clearly an accident on oversight on my end.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:07:54]:
However, you are totally right. And I wanted to validate their their thoughts or sentiment because they're right. That would be a microaggression. Right? I'll give you another example. I remember doing another session. This one was virtual, And I had my presentation. I had my PowerPoint going, and we're talking about, Muslim women. That was something that we're in conversation.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:08:19]:
So I remember we're on a slide. There was a picture of a woman with a hijab one. Someone raised their hand their virtual hand, I guess, in the Zoom call, and they said, you know what? The challenge that we see a lot and he he he identified as Muslim. He said the challenge that we see is often our Muslim women are depicted as only wearing hijabs. And he said, there's so much more to our culture. There's so much more to our faith. And it seems like as a microaggression, it seems like the only time that Women are presented within our culture as wearing hijabs, and that's not always the case. Again, there's more to it.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:08:59]:
And I took that feedback, and I said, you know what? You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. And that's not something I thought about. It's an identity that I have or I have a close relation to. I was trying to be diverse in my in my presentation. And so this this is why we were having this conversation, but you're absolutely right. There's a lot more to the culture and to the community. And One of those valuable lessons that I think is very important from these 2 stories that I've shared with you is the importance of, 1, being open to feedback.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:09:33]:
Because you know what these individuals, they should. They spoke their mind and you could see the passion in their voice. And so for some of us, we get pushback. We get that feedback that's brought to us as something we weren't expecting to hear. We said something very, very confidently and someone's pushing back and they're right. But how often do we get defensive about it? Oh, I didn't mean that. And so I had to take the that feedback and I and it was lessons learned. So again, someone that does Someone that does trainings, that does workshops all the time.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:10:10]:
You know, I have made mistakes. I've made mistakes as an educator. I've made mistakes, throughout my my professional career and also my personal life. Right? No one's perfect. We're human beings. So I think it's important to come into this open minded. K. We're talking about creating a sense of belonging, and I can't tell you how many people I've talked to that will tell me stuff like, oh, Well, I grew up in the same neighborhood as these kids or I I had the same experiences as this person or my cousin or my nephew L, my children are dealing with something similar, and I could I respect that.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:10:48]:
I respect that, But your experience is your experience. Your child's experience is their experience. Now we can definitely learn from those things. We can definitely take those, like, as examples. And and and you know what? I saw something happen to my child, or I saw something happen to my neighbor's child. And I said, that's not That's not something that I would like to see, or I would like to do within my classroom or within my school building. I don't want those type of things. We can learn from that, but sometimes people will say that's as far as I'm gonna go.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:11:19]:
I don't wanna hear anything else you had to say. I'll you know, they'll shut it down Because they feel like they know everything. And I'm telling you today, again, as someone who literally does trainings and workshops all the time, Who's on stage all the time, who does podcast interviews all the time. You'd never there. There's Always room for growth. There's always more that we can learn. I'm a living testimony of that. So what are some ways that we can learn more? Well, let's talk about it.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:11:51]:
Some ways that you can learn More. I mean, somebody seemed pretty straightforward, but, I think it's very important to bring up. Continue in education. K? Higher education, you know, work with your master's certificates, things like that. There's also conferences, PLCs, and books. I think all of these are some ways to Learn more to hone your craft, to sharpen that knife, if you will. Maybe that's not the best idea, but to sharpen your skills. Maybe that's what I'm trying to say.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:12:26]:
Sharpen your skills. I think these are all ways that you can do that. I remember I had a supervisor that used to tell us, you know what? Professional development is very important, and I believe in sending my staff to conferences and events. However, In order to go to a conference, if you want us to pay for it, you have to present or at least put in a a, abstract or, or, you know, submit a proposal. You have to present, put in a proposal. And if you do get an opportunity to present, You need to come back and teach us, what you learn or what you present as part of a staff meeting. You know? They wanted you to participate, and I and I and I it was a a piece that I had never thought about or considered because I just thought, oh, well, you know, I'm a staff member. You Hold send me here or there, but it's an investment.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:13:21]:
Right? The school, the organization is investing in you. And is there a way that you can give what you've learned, what you presented? Is is there a way that you can bring those things back And not only shared with the the audience members that are at you know, all the participants within this event or this conference, But also your internal department as well. Because if you work with students, if you work with kids, Guess what? You're not the only one that is going to interact with those individuals. K? You got a whole team. You got a whole, school. You got a whole Organization that is tied and and involved with students, how can it not benefit when you are presenting this information to them as well, especially those who weren't able to attend the same conference or able to attend your session. And, again, PLCs are very important, and then also books. Finding books, I always say it, finding books written by people With those lived experience, always use those as priorities, and then anything L, I recommend as being Eakins supplementary Resource.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:14:35]:
K? Let's move into myths, professional development. So my school leaders to my school leaders, You may have seen this before. You might have experienced this. You have those staff members who feel like, It is. Here it is right here. Had those staff members that feel like professional development is a waste of time. I wanna dispel some of those myths. Well, there's actually some research that's gonna dispel some of that those myths.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:15:08]:
At the end of the day, Professional development needs to be specific and intentional. Okay. So that needs Eakins that it needs to be practical, engaging, and relevant. So if you're a school leader, you you you you gotta understand that everything doesn't need to, that's the best way to say this. Again, I think the relevant piece is probably relevant and engaging. Those are some some areas that that needs to be really honed in on. Alright. So let's talk about what does some of the research say.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:15:40]:
K? Some of the research talks about it. I'm gonna just bring up 2 myths. I'm gonna discuss 2 myths that are out there in regards to professional development. And these 2 myths, you hear them a lot. Okay. 1 professional learning is a waste of time And money. You hear that a lot. Well, truth is there's a lot of evidence that shows that professional development can lead to shifts in teacher skills and instructional practice and significantly improve student Learning.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:16:15]:
K. Significantly improve student learning. Here's the thing. Maybe we need to rephrase this. Because if you think if you're one of those individual that feels and I felt this way too. I mean, again, as my t I remember going to a class, a professional development. You know, especially when we have those either school wide or they're, you know, district wide, and so there's, like, one Session or, like, only a couple sessions to choose from. It is supposed to cater to every staff member from your lunch workers to your teachers, to your principals.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:16:50]:
And everybody's supposed to go to these same sessions, and it's it's very broad. Right? And so folks will say, well, this is this doesn't apply to me. This doesn't Otain to me these kind of things. So I was one of those individuals who you should say that all the time. I remember sitting in sessions. I was like, dude, I just wasted an hour of my life I can never get back. K? This is this I could have been grading papers. Could have been grading papers right now.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:17:13]:
Instead, I had to sit through this Professional development has nothing to do with me. So I think we need to rephrase this myth. Professional learning is a waste of time and money. It's not A waste of time and money. Bad professional learning is a waste of time and learning. K. Research so shows that there's If you get adequate professional development and you offer that to your school, your teachers, things like that, there has shown a lot of evidence that shows that it does help instructional practices. It does improve student belonging.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:17:50]:
It does improve a lot of areas that the target goal is supposed to. However, if we don't do a good job vetting the professional development or if we just use boxed professional development that's not catered Specifically from an equitable standpoint to our specific needs, then, yeah, we're gonna waste our time and we're gonna waste money. However, no, there's a lot of effective professional development out there. So when we're creating a sense of belonging Now let's just say we've done, assessments for from our students, culture assessments or some sort of belonging assessments that we've, that we've given to our students. And now we're taking that feedback and say, okay. Students say they feel like they don't belong, or students say that they feel like the teachers don't care about them. Finding the right professional development or right support, maybe social emotional learning strategies. Maybe it's, other areas.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:18:49]:
Maybe some some cultural responsiveness. Alright. Whatever it might be, it needs to be vetted. And I think some of the other keys to that is it needs to be engaging, practical. K? And I wanna share some strategies towards the end of ways that we can make Professional L, memorable. K. Now let's go to the next myth here. Myth number 2.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:19:14]:
Professional learning is more effective for early career teachers and less effective Veteran teachers. Oh, boy. Sheldon. What did you just say? You just you just touched your nerve. I'm gonna leave this up for a second so I can take a sip of water. Oh, boy. Hear it all the time. Oh, PDs is only for the new teachers.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:19:41]:
I've been in the game 20 years. I've been in the game 10, 5 years, and it doesn't apply. I'm not going to learn anything new. However, the truth really is professional development opportunities have been shown to support teachers L at all levels and experience. Okay. Now it's true. It is true that often, especially the newer teachers here's the things to consider. Let me let's start here.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:20:07]:
Here's the things to consider. Teachers within the 1st 5 years of their teaching career are more than likely especially your 1st year, 2nd year teachers are more than likely gonna get more hand holding, then a 5 to 10 year 15 year old year, not year old, 15 year veteran. Okay. That's the reality. Okay. So, but it doesn't necessarily mean that a teacher who's been in the game for a while can't learn Anything else? Old dogs can learn tricks or whatever whatever the I may y'all not dogs. You you know what I'm saying? Right? It's not too late. Alright.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:20:44]:
Now I have I and I and again, I do trainings. I do workshops, and I've had veteran teachers tell me I've never this is the best best PD I've ever got. Right? Or they'll say, you know, I've never learned these things, or you provided some perspectives that I never thought about or considered. K. Now there are gonna be some teachers. So again, it's not that it's impossible. Right? It's not that it's impossible, but there are gonna be some teachers that, honestly, they're gonna have close minded. They've been teaching the same thing for years.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:21:13]:
They won't change no matter what. You know? You just bring them all the data, all the They just gonna teach the same thing. K? And I know it's frustrating, especially from a leadership standpoint when you're trying to get some teachers To Eakins of break out of their those old habits. Look. That was effective 10 years ago, or that book made sense 10 years ago, but you know what? We just discovered That the author of that book, the original name of this book has some racist racist slurs in it. You know what? There's some other books that we should probably use now. You know, those quote unquote classics. Right? So there's Times when you're gonna have the staff members that are not gonna wanna change, like, no matter what you say.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:21:57]:
Right? And and I and I that's one thing I've learned as a trainer. It's a little no matter What I say, I, I could, I can give you all the stats and all of that. I can, I can, I could do it hour long, almost special comedy special And and and all I could do something that hype you up? That'll get you rah rah. Everybody's good to go. At the end of the day, there's gonna be people that at the end of the day, they're they're just come close Find it. There's nothing you can say or do to change your mind, and it is what it is at the end of the day. There's some folks that's like that. K? But there's also yeah.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:22:32]:
I'm not not trying to say sound negative, but there's also some folks that, you know what, present it in a way That's digestible. That's practical and engaging, and you'll see some changes happen. Alright. Well, let's talk about that. Shout out because, you know, you probably are thinking, well, how do I make it meaningful, memorable, and L? Okay? Well, let's talk about how to make PDs memorable and relevant. K. I give you 3 strategies. You know me.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:23:03]:
I like to give 3 strategies. I don't just wanna sit here and talk about education and do better. I wanna give you some stuff to go home with. So first one, From my experience so when I first started doing workshops 5 years ago when I first started, and I ain't gonna lie, when I first started doing workshop, I was a little nervous. K? And and I was still trying to figure some things out. And when I first started doing it, I would just Eakins of present stuff, you know, here's some strategies. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, But it was very generic, very general. Now what I like to do is I like to give real life situations Because I've discovered that a lot of educators, whether they're 1st year teachers, whether they're staff members, whatever position they hold, a lot of times people want talking points And they want practical responses.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:23:49]:
I mean, I've never been a checklist person. I will maintain it. I'm not a checklist person. I always say we're not baking a cake. K? You bake a cake, And you get the ingredients and boom, boom, boom. Because things are different. You know? This the context changes. I don't believe in that.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:24:08]:
However, I like to ask whoever I'm working with. You know, if I'm working with a school principal or superintendent, whoever it is, I like to ask some questions. Like, can you pull your teachers? Can you pull your staff ahead of time, anonymously, and ask them to bring up some topics or situations that they have struggled with in the past. You ask these questions, pull them, send that information to me, that feedback to me, and I will put, put a workshop together based off of that. I've done it plenty of times. I found it very effective. The feedback is very positive Because individuals like this is exactly what I needed. I had this situation occur in the hallway.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:24:52]:
I had this situation occur in my classroom, And I did not know how to handle it. I didn't know how to bring it up to you. I didn't have the words to say Students caught me off guard at the time wasn't prepared, but you gave me talking points. So I found that scenario based PDs are very important. It doesn't necessarily all have to be in regards to teaching classroom management type of things, But I've I do a lot of trainings that are more, whole large groups where there could be individuals of all different professional backgrounds. And maybe they're dealing with certain types of issues, bullying maybe, or or some other challenges. And I like to get those scenarios, Work with them in small groups, then come to a larger group format, and we run down what we did, how we would handle these situations. I have a lot of activities in that sense.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:25:48]:
Okay. I found that very effective. Okay. Now the strategy that I recommend is Staff input put. Right? This Eakins leads me to my next point. So as I mentioned, pulling your staff members, but also allowing them or providing them opportunities to, co design. Alright. Sometimes when we're at the top level, you know, maybe we're school building leaders or or district leaders or organizational leaders.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:26:14]:
We don't always see what's happening on the ground, like boots on the ground folks and really offering them opportunities from your staff members To co design your PD day, right? Or, or even present as well. The other thing that I wanna add to that piece involving staff input is a lot of times staff will feel like, you know, I'm you know? Yeah. I got a day off because today is, Your school is closed for PD day, and that's nice. However, you know, I'm not a big fan of, You know, we're let's say this is a a brand new initiative that this new leader has come in, and now they're promote promoting, and there's only 2 sessions that I can go to. There's a morning session, and there's an afternoon session, but there's literally 2 sessions off. So I like to say, you know, if there's ways that, Let's say your equity is you know, your your day is focused on equity or inclusive or or belonging, whatever it is. Right? Offer 3 different sessions around belonging. So now your staff members has an opportunity to choose 1 of those 2 or 3, you know, 2 or 3 topics.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:27:28]:
K. And let's say you're planning the day and say, hey. Kate. Okay, folks. Here's a staff meeting. We're gonna have professional development day in 2 weeks, and here's the certain topics that we can choose from. Which ones would you prefer? Again, now you're getting staff input on this. K.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:27:47]:
It's not just like, okay. They show up for staff professional development day, And the sessions are already chosen for them, k, but they've already had some say, some buy in, if you will, to what Classes or trainings they're gonna attend. K. They have a heads up as well. Alright. And the last 1 Okay. And you would think this is something that we would think about, but I I've missed this as well in the past. But the last 1 here, student led PDs student led PDs.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:28:19]:
Think about it. We have to remove the young people Are exclusively the learners and adults are exclusively the teachers. Who are we serving? When we go to p d's, When you go to professional development is to what better serve your commit community may be better, but ultimately Better serve your students and their families who better to learn from. We talk about co teaching and learning from our students from a classroom level. You talk about that all the time, but we don't always talk about the importance value learning from our students. Imagine having a PD day where there's 3 to 4 Sessions, 45 minutes, an hour long sessions, all presented from a student's perspective. We have groups of kids, 2 or 3 students presenting. This is what we prefer or what we would appreciate when we walk into a classroom.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:29:26]:
This is what we would like to see in our classrooms. This is what our this these are some suggestions on how our school experience can be better. Now I think it's important to also add, yes, Especially if you're in high school, middle school level, even at the elementary level, they're probably gonna need some adult guidance. So if you again, being proactive, you're planning ahead, and, again, you're wanting to create a sense of belonging. K? Take your scoop, maybe your student leadership, or take a a group of students and say, okay. Here's how you do a presentation. Here's how that's set up to the PowerPoint. Review it with them.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:30:05]:
Go help them support them in their efforts so that because they're gonna be nervous. Right? They're gonna show up to PD day. They're gonna be nervous. So if we support them and practice with them and and and guide them through this process and work together and collaborate because they would know They would know what they're experiencing. I think they would have an idea as far as what would probably benefit them. Now I run a lot of student affinity groups, and my trainer, Darlene shout out to Darlene. She does an amazing job where she does, these working sessions. And these working sessions are essentially opportunities for the students to identify maybe a challenge that they're facing within school, within their experiences at school, And she works with them.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:30:51]:
Say, okay. What if money wasn't an issue, resources wasn't an issue, What would make your your day perfect? What would be a perfect school day for you? Or what would be a great experience for you? What are some challenges that you're facing within your school setting That we would love to see change. Right? And not only does she L them Eakins of narrow those down, But she also helps them find solutions. I think about it, like, from if you're a school leader and you got students complaining about their experience. Oh, you know, we feel like, the kid the teachers don't like us. And you have a 1000000 things already on your plate, maybe some financial stuff, some hirings, and you got teacher shortages. You got all these things. Now you got students complaining about their experiences.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:31:40]:
But what if, Yeah. They complain about their experiences or at least letting you know what making it aware to you, but they also provide you with 3 or 4 options. Now here's some suggestions. If you were to do this, if we did this Eakins of training, if we offer this, you know, presenting these things. So she helps them do that, and then she helps some do it in a form of a PowerPoint. Student led PDs are very effective, but it's an area that we often forget about. Again, we talk about doing it in our classrooms. Let your students teach lessons and then present, but we don't always do it on a larger scale.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:32:18]:
Again, they will need some they will need support, but those are some things that we can do, which I believe will make Professional development, memorable and relevant. Again, scenario based PDs, real life situations, scenarios, Talking points. Teachers wanna know, what exactly should I say? How how do I handle this? Providing a staff input And then student led PDs. K? Now at the end of the day, Someone asked me this earlier this week. What is the greatest opportunity and challenge facing organizations Valuing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. I love that they added in belonging. K? Because I've talked about it in the past. We talked, you know, inclusion is important, very important, but what are we including Are students into? What what setting, environment are we including our students into? Alright.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:33:20]:
Do they feel as if they belong? Hey. That's a piece that's important. But I think at the end of the day, the the greatest challenges, okay, going back to the greatest challenges. And I love the question that they they brought. You know, I love this question. I was like, yo. This is dope. Because here's the thing.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:33:37]:
Diverse equity inclusion, you hear those turn I mean, with our political scheme, They they get such a bad rep. Such a bad rep. They you know, you are automatically go to race. Oh, this has gotta be a black and brown thing. You know? This is gonna be an opportunity for folks to say white people are bad or, you know, we hate you know, just just stuff. But I'm like, no. There's just so much more. If we can just take a moment to have an open mind and engage in a conversation, there's the opportunity.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:34:10]:
But we have so many people that are so set. You hear diversity. You hear equity. You hear inclusion, and they just shut down. Going back to making this personal, you have not arrived. You there's so much more that you can learn, and the opportunity is there. But you have to be willing and open to this conversation. What is it if I'm doing this work and my neighbor isn't? Or if I see something happen, I could have a conversation with them.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:34:41]:
So I think there's a lot of opportunity, but, again, that's the challenge. Those the DEI DEI Or diverse equity inclusion. However you wanna say it. You hear that and it boom automatically trigger triggers so many folks. Shuts down the conversation. And so and I've said this before. It's like, we we say, You know, equities, you know, oh, equity is so bad, blah blah blah. But if I say differentiated instruction, it's not a problem.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:35:15]:
I think sometimes we're battling semantics and not looking at the bigger picture. Could be a sleight of hand or, you know, look this way, don't look that way Eakins of thing. But I think if we spend so much time hung up on semantics, The work doesn't get done. I think we can all agree that we want the best for our students. We recognize the we're raising future generations, We spend all our time oh, he said diversity. Oh, I'm not going to that session. I I I can't go to this d DEI session because I already know. You don't know nothing about the the trainer, the presenter.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:35:55]:
You know nothing about what the session's about. You just read something, and you just assume, oh, DI, this is not gonna apply to me because I am not a person of color, not considering that there's so I'm not a person of color. I'm not Part of the LGBTQ plus community. So none of this applies to me. But guess what? Maybe your best friend Has that identity or you have students that have those identities. You're an educator. You're in front of them. You teach a class.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:36:23]:
Don't you think it'd be important to learn? What are some ways and strategies that I can be culturally responsive? You hear the word culture responsive, and it triggers folks. Oh, that's critical race theory. There's just so much convolution when it comes to These terms that are meant to provide support for our student at the end of the day, we want the best for them. We spend so much time on semantics. Final thoughts. Final thoughts. Alright. Here's here's 2 takeaways for today.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:37:01]:
1, lived experiences Does not always equal expert knowledge. K? I know a lot of people, especially my folks of color, my colleagues of color, they will say, well, I I know, live, read this every day, and I and I again, I'm a person of color as well. And I and I feel like, yes, I have lived experiences. When it comes to racism, when it comes to discrimination, I feel like I've been looked over. I I I feel like I've had opportunities, where I had to prove myself. I've had to code switch. Doing a lot of things. But, again, as a person who professionally does this work, there's so much more that I can learn.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:37:39]:
I don't know everything. There's things that I will never ever experience. But if I shut everything down because, oh, I'm a person of color, or, oh, I'm a woman, Or all these things. Well, I know what it's like. Yeah. You might again, your experience is your experience. My experiences are my experiences. Doesn't apply everywhere.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:38:00]:
K? A lot of basic principles are very are are relevant or present there. However, there's so much more But I can learn, and I'm constantly trying to engage in these conversations so that I can learn more, so I can be the best version I can be. However, it is a journey. And the last part is even if you can't relate, You can still empathize. A lot of folks will tell me, well, I don't again, I don't have those identities. It doesn't apply to me. Why should I care? There's that quote from John Dewey, and I'm gonna paraphrase it. Essentially, it's Do what you would do for your own children.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:38:44]:
So maybe you don't personally have it, or maybe no one within your family or someone you close to you think Has these identities or has these challenges? But what if it was your child? What if it was you? Would you care then? What if the cameras go away? We're watching on media, and we see these things happening on media, New social media, those kind of things puts our focus there. And maybe we feel, We feel some some emotion, some empathy, then when the cameras go away, doesn't mean that those challenges, those issues go away. Just because the news isn't showing it 100% all the time, 247, doesn't mean that those challenges go away. K? So even if you can't relate, You can empathize. Folks, if you are enjoying this series, if you are enjoying this series, again, I have 2 more weeks On the 4 part series, if you are enjoying it, subscribe to the channel, please, or share with someone as well. That supports Everything that we're doing here, and, again, I appreciate you for joining me for today's session. That's all. That's all I have for you today.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:39:59]:
So let's remember the words of doctor Martin Luther King Junior. If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't, Walked and crawled. But by all means, keep moving. Let's continue to be a voice in Eakins Equity.

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