Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:00:00]:
Advocates to another episode of the Leading Equity Podcast. A podcast that focuses on supporting educators with the tools and resources necessary to ensure equity at their schools. Today's special guest is miss Naomi Riley. So without further ado, Naomi, thank you so much for joining us today.

Naomi Riley [00:00:17]:
Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:00:19]:
Pleasure is mine. Looking forward to today's topic. But before we get into it, I'd love for you to share with our audience a little bit about yourself and what you currently do.

Naomi Riley [00:00:27]:
My name is Naomi. I am a, multi business owner and run various projects. The one I'm talking to you today about is our text pledge project. It is a education consulting business that focuses on some of our country's biggest dilemmas. This is created as a result of a distracted driving accident where I felt the need to really just hone in on some things that were going on in society and how we can educate you and kind of help them navigate their way through a kinda crazy society.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:01:02]:
Alright. Well, yeah, it's crazy society. It's it's a very lightweight to say it. There's just so much going on these days. But let let's do this because one of the things that really was intriguing about just having a conversation with you is one that I like to visit from time to time in regards to why we should have those, quote, unquote, uncomfortable conversations within a classroom. I know folks will say, oh, you know, this is math class or this is reading and whatever it is, and we shouldn't have conversations outside of those subject matters. So I'm just curious on your end, why is it important to have uncomfortable conversations?

Naomi Riley [00:01:41]:
One of the things that I feel is important, while we're educating our youth is really look for the signs that are going on within their students. I think that as educators, we can read students quite easily when they're in our classroom to see whether or not they're having good or bad days. Right? And sometimes those conversation, yes, they are hard to have. But simply just by saying, hey. Is is everything okay? Is everything going on? And getting down to a student's level, that is gonna be key. Students need to know that they have a trusted adviser in their corner. Sometimes you can feel so alone and so isolated. Right? They can do that.

Naomi Riley [00:02:24]:
They're just like us, but sometimes they're a little bit more, emotional to say. I've had 3 kids of my own, so I know what they're like. It's really important just to let students know that that area that you're teaching in is a safe space, place for them to come to and just say, hey. I'm needing some help.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:02:42]:
Yeah. And and it's not always easy for kids to open up to us about these things. So what are maybe some things that you need to do to get to that point, to where you can ask a student those Eakins of questions, and get a, I guess, an honest upfront answer back.

Naomi Riley [00:03:02]:
Let me give you an example of me Okay. And and what I would do. So just in a classroom situation, I always come up with scenarios. Like, I give examples of things that I've gone through personally in my life, whether it be from my youth or from just days dealing. I have 2 French bulldogs at home, and I say I swear they're like children. They have attitudes, emotions, and everything else of their own. And so I'll give examples of things that I go through, in my daily life to keep it humble and to keep it more on a level of, hey. We're all human.

Naomi Riley [00:03:38]:
We no. Not one of us are better than another. I am here to educate you, but I'm also here to advise and and be your safe space. I think that sometimes, you know, we can get lost in a space of, yes, it's my job to teach you, and, yes, it's my job to educate you on this subject and help you test right. But at the end of the day, we still need to know, is there something going on in the home environment that's causing the student to not meet grade levels or to to just withdraw. Right? Because we wanna definitely help the student as best as we can to get out of a bad situation if there's something going on that they're they can't even handle.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:04:22]:
Okay. And and the other piece that I would add to it is just making sure that we have a a strong relationship with students. And then also being upfront and vulnerable ourselves. I think sometimes we ask our students to share and and give up of themselves if we don't do it that are you know, we we got same we got similar issues at home that our kids are dealing with, but we're not bringing you know, so we as adults, sometimes, we feel like, you know, our kids look up to us. And so because they look up to us, we want to present ourselves in a certain light. But and so we guard some of our feelings and our emotions and our thoughts, which doesn't necessarily help build those opportunities for our students to share with us.

Naomi Riley [00:05:02]:
That's a huge part of raising and and educating youth is is just really getting on their level as best as we can. And I wanna encourage, you know, the teachers too that if you have, you know, the high achievers, the ones that you know are just great examples for students, make sure that they are aware too because sometimes students confide in others, not always that teacher because maybe that might be an uncomfortable situation. The way that we relate to one another is always different. Right? So someone might relate to me because I'm a woman. Someone might relate to you because you're a man. But student may relate to a high achieving student just because they're a student. So whomever they choose to relate to to keep that safe space, it's important to to understand and and and for teachers to know too that those high achievers need to be coming to you and saying, hey. Something's going on in the home or there's something going on with so and so.

Naomi Riley [00:06:01]:
And I just, you know, asked them to talk to you. We dealt with a incident not too long ago with a student who confided in one other person. And, unfortunately, this one student didn't make the steps that they needed to deal with or to to relate to another person or an adult, and the other student ended up taking his life. So, you know, for us as, you know, advisers, it's really important that all students understand that secrets should never be kept within the student eye. They need to come to the educators. They need to come to the counselors to say, hey. Can you just check? So, unfortunately, sometimes things happen that were just are out of our control, but the best thing we can do is just relate as as best as as possible to them.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:06:57]:
Right. Unfortunately, those those things happen. So let's talk about that. So because we've Eakins of gone from us as adults having difficult conversations with students, but then I'm also hearing it's important for the students' peer relationships, to be strong enough to where they can report, not be viewed as you know, there's always that, oh, you're you're snitching on me, or you're ratted me out. And so there's that fear that if I a student has shared with me that something's going to happen or they want to do something or hurt somebody or hurt L, but I don't wanna get develop a bad relationship with my peers, so I don't wanna say nothing and ultimately things can happen. What are some kind of strategies maybe that you could suggest for developing those peer relationships to where students do feel comfortable with talking to an adult or a teacher, somebody letting them know, hey. This is what's happening. This is what what what we'll share with me.

Naomi Riley [00:07:54]:
Yeah. So there's a lot of great resources nowadays where, things can be kept confidential. Right? So there is a resource called Okay To Say. It has to deal with everything that a student may be struggling with. Students can reach out at at any point, and it will get back to the idea is is that it's supposed to get back to counselors and educators. However, there are many things still within the streamlines or the help lines that will kind of fall through. So getting back to the peer to peer relationships, they are so, so important. Yes.

Naomi Riley [00:08:34]:
They've trusted you with a secret. Yes. I understand that. However, it's the student's job, especially as someone they have trusted to say, this is not okay. This is not okay. For what you've just told me, this is not okay. If there is a student that was ever to say, I'm gonna hurt myself or I'm gonna do something that everyone's gonna regret. That's not okay.

Naomi Riley [00:08:58]:
So we want to make sure that the students understand that's not okay. There's something that we need to handle right away and and right now because we don't want anything about to happen to them or anyone else around them. A lot of the things that I do talk about is is how we make others feel has a direct reflection on the person that made them feel that way. Mhmm. Not them. Right? So be the one that's making them feel bad. So I will talk about how, at the end of the day, how they direct the the way that their life goes. So at the end of the day, we can say we're sorry.

Naomi Riley [00:09:36]:
We didn't mean to do that, or I'm asking for your forgiveness or things like that. Right? But at the end of the day, that line has been broken. And so how your life navigates is it can be in a completely different direction. So our actions really need to be in line with our gut instincts and what's telling us to do what's right.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:09:59]:
Are there scenarios that you work with students to develop those skills? Because, I mean, I feel like we can just tell students, okay. It's not okay if your your classmate's telling you this or that. Do you work with them as L, or they're part of your activity books where they there are scenarios maybe that can be discussed within the class if the students can learn those skills?

Naomi Riley [00:10:19]:
Yeah. I I mean, our activity books that we've got activities on mental wellness, on acts of violence, what to watch out for. We have different things for our students on back in our day, I think we knew it as stranger danger. And here's what can happen if if you tried, you know, certain alcoholic drug alcohol and drugs and and things like that. Well, now our educational pieces have everything in them. So we have everything from what is distracted driving, how are we gonna help our parents avoid it? I think that, you and I, as an older generation, when we we started getting those phones, we didn't have rules, right, set in place. And so we would have our phones. Well, now we're such a show showing, hey.

Naomi Riley [00:11:05]:
We we definitely don't need those things in our hand that caused another distracted distraction. Right? So distractions are all around us. So our our pieces go from distracted driving. They also go from discrimination. And so every single and exobiolets, there's 10 different categories. And every single educational materials that we have, all the little ebooks, really give a lot of different activities that you can use in your classroom and then, different activities to show students, hey. The way that you're acting today is gonna navigate your right life for the rest of your life. So we felt it was really, really important just to make these resources available for students.

Naomi Riley [00:11:46]:
Now the students can get involved in so many different ways, and we love to hear feedback from them just to say how it's making a difference. I think I mentioned that the student that passed away. Right? So sister came on board a project, I wanna say was in the fall, and it has made such a difference in her life. So he was 14. Max was 14, but Brooke is in her twenties, in her young twenties. She's still a college student. And she has just enveloped our program and has said it has made such a huge difference just in being able to tell her brother's story, but tell others how she can help his legacy live on for awareness and Eakins known that we always need to reach out for help when it's needed.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:12:35]:
So it's impacting others. Do you have other examples? Because, I'm thinking about there's a safety piece. And and when we say safety, what does that mean? Because I've heard you mention a couple of times, safe space. So are we saying more the safety from a physical environment is safe here? Are we discussing it from a, yours should feel safe to communicate, express yourself? What what do we mean when we're talking about a safe safe space?

Naomi Riley [00:13:05]:
K. So this one is a little bit of a tough area. Right? Because safe spaces are, yes. We want our physical our area around us, of course, we want that to be safe. Right?

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:13:14]:
Mhmm.

Naomi Riley [00:13:15]:
However, when students share and and this goes for any individual. When you share too much of yourself, that can create more problems. Right? And so you want to always make sure that you're you're going to that trusted adviser or that trusted source. Have those people around you that you can confide in and that you can share parts about what's going on in in your life or your classroom or in a student's life. I mean, there's always gonna be issues where one will struggle. Right? But, you know, none of us are perfect. We just have to keep looking for resources that we can use to help our students and to help us move forward. So one thing that we did incorporate was mental wellness.

Naomi Riley [00:13:59]:
We're hearing a lot in mental health. What I have done is I've shown through our books on how all of these issues that we're seeing in society today correlate with our mental health. Okay? So our mental health is not in check if there's things that are going on at home, like domestic abuse and assault, discrimination. Our mental health is not in check. You can get me going on this topic for a long time. It's really, really important. The way that our society has changed over the last 40 years is incredible. What we're seeing now versus what we saw 40 years ago is just mind blowing, the changes that we've have happened.

Naomi Riley [00:14:42]:
And I I'm a curiosity person, so I will chase change. I love it. I think it's amazing, and I just need I'm a constant learner. Right? This concept came up. I'm like, okay. So right now, we're looking at mental health. There's a lot of issues with mental health too. Right? There's mental illnesses, and then there's also what goes on in our brain and and what we tell ourselves.

Naomi Riley [00:15:05]:
And we need to have the trusted advisers that we are there that are there. Because if we share too much of our self, that's not good. Rumors start. And then and then everybody starts talking. We don't like that. That's not good. It would just go to the people that you trust and then the students. And, of course, and this goes for adults too.

Naomi Riley [00:15:25]:
You know? If there is something really, really wrong and there's something really, really going on, it it's so important. Just find the correct help for someone to get their mindset straight. We do have books for adults too, so we're more than happy to share those. All your listeners today, I'm definitely, giving, all all of our free resources for you just to post on online so that they can utilize them.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:15:49]:
Absolutely. And and, folks, there will be links in the show notes for all the resources that Naomi is sharing with us. And I love that you brought up the mental health piece because that is not always talked about. Again, especially from a school setting, you often tend to spend a lot of time on academics, which makes sense. Yeah, I understand that but also the mental health is is very important. So as far as like you putting things together on the mental health side of things, what, what kind of thoughts were put into that? Like what what did you wanna make sure was or maybe goals that you wanted to target when it comes to mental health with your activities?

Naomi Riley [00:16:29]:
Yeah. So you went through a a lot of various things when we went through our our mental health. And so constantly focusing in on the things that you can do now to make your life better and well is always key. So each, our mental health and wellness books are geared towards uplifting a student and uplifting an individual. I think for the high school books, we brought in various stories and and things that we can do to just hone it in. Right? One of the things that I always talk about is focus on 3 to 5 things that you can get done for the day. K? So that's a that's a great one. We get so busy in our lives.

Naomi Riley [00:17:16]:
Right? And and the day can get away from us so quickly. But if we spend just a 2 2 or 2 minutes of our time to say write down 3 to 5 things I know I wanna get done in that day, it really helps give us a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. So we can look back at that little list of 2 or 3 things, and then we can say, oh my gosh. Okay. I got that done. I got that done. Now I can go back, and we can go to the next one. Right? So that is a really great thing.

Naomi Riley [00:17:48]:
Another thing is just spend a little bit of time in the morning practicing gratitude for the things that you have here and now. A lot of, people and individuals have a home and they have meals provided, and it's some things that others are really praying for. It's so, so important that we really focus in and being grateful for the things that we have here and now. Those, it will help set their mind to say, okay. Yeah. This might not be so great in my life or this isn't so great. But you know what? I still have a family. I still have a home.

Naomi Riley [00:18:23]:
I still have meals provided for me, and I'm moving forward. And then I'm gonna focus in on some things that I can do to help myself move forward every day. So just to give you a little example, when I was in a I was in a distracted driving accident and I had a brain injury and several several other injuries. I was looking up at a ceiling thinking I don't wanna be here, you know, in 2017. I didn't understand why my our God left me here. My uncle was killed 1 month after my car accident from a distracted driving accident. And when you go through rehab and you have to recalibrate your whole life and actions and your your thought processes and everything else, my whole neural pathways had to had to be recalibrated. And so just getting back to the mental health piece, you know, putting one step in front of the other.

Naomi Riley [00:19:15]:
There were days that I didn't think I was gonna ever be able to walk a straight line or ever learn how to remember a story structure or different things. Now my neuro pathways were developed so well that I became a savant, and I wanted to study and help kind of hear some of the issues we're seeing in society. But, you know, anyone at any point in their life can change what's going on around them. But sometimes we just get stuck in our ways, and Yeah. We need to stop doing that. Change is actually a good thing. We need to stop fearing change and and face everything and rise. Use that motto instead of fear, fear change.

Naomi Riley [00:19:55]:
You get so sad in those ways. So.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:19:57]:
Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people don't like change, and I'm I'm one of those people. I I don't know. I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty set in my ways. I get very routine oriented. And,

Naomi Riley [00:20:07]:
we all do a little. Yeah. That's

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:20:11]:
why I'm so disciplined, I guess, because, like, I'm just I get into the routine, get into the groove, and I'm very predictable. Like, you know exactly what I'm gonna be doing. So

Naomi Riley [00:20:21]:
Yeah. That's okay. I'm pretty predictable too with my routine and everyday life, so I get it. There's certain things, but we can focus in on it's just when is occur and things happen like that, you just really have to, oh, man. What what do I have to do? Things either happen to us or because somebody else caused them. And how we deal with it and how we get through it is is gonna be the hardest thing.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:20:46]:
I'll say this, Naomi. I I have learned a lot, and I've enjoyed the conversation about having difficult, uncomfortable conversations. Provide to our listeners.

Naomi Riley [00:21:01]:
Well, I just wanna encourage all the educators and parents out there to go to TextPLUDs and actually on the show notes. You can download any of our educational resources, learn about them. We will have educational materials for adults as well. They're all free free to use, and hopefully they will help uplift your soul to think differently. I commend this show and everything that it's doing because we all of us need to just really hone in and and make the changes we need to create a better life for our children's futures.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:21:34]:
There we go. Mhmm. If we have some folks that want to connect with you, what's the best way to reach you online?

Naomi Riley [00:21:40]:
Yeah. So you can reach me on Instagram or Facebook or any of the social media channels. I'm out there and naomieloreilly.com.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:21:49]:
So Alright. Naomi, it has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time.

Naomi Riley [00:21:54]:
Pleasure is all mine. Thank you.

Are you subscribed to the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

Now if you enjoy listening to the show, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other advocates find the podcast and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!