Getting Started in Anti-Racist Self-Education (for Teachers)

It's June 2020, and I'm a white educator doing self-reflection on where I need to grow, what I need to learn, and what parts of my curriculum and classroom need to change. 

I'm not trying to position myself as an expert on anti-racist education in this post. In fact, at first I hesitated to write this post at all, because 1) I was afraid of being or seeming performative and 2) hesitation to take up space in this conversation. However, educators with any extent of an online community, including myself, cannot be silent - so I'm here to uplift some of the articles, videos, people, and blog posts that I have found most helpful this month, in the hopes that they may be helpful to some of you as well. 

The links in this post are not sponsored in any way; they range from having an anti-racism focus to ones that more generally help diversify and/or decolonize a curriculum or bookshelf. These are also merely a starting point for me, and this list is not intended to be comprehensive.

To be honest, I don't know what changes are coming to my classroom yet in response to what I'm learning - mainly because, as of the time of this posting, I do not have a clear picture of what funds my school has left for new books next year and what I can purchase or fundraise by myself. But the point is that I'm on the journey, and I hope you'll consider coming with me and/or furthering my education. 

Feel free to drop a suggested website or resource in the comments. 

Inside my Farmhouse Classroom Makeover (with links!)

this post contains affiliate links

For many years, my classroom just didn't look or feel right. While I knew that the actions inside a classroom mattered more than what was on the walls, I also wanted it to look... well, at least clean and organized. 

Thus began a very gradual, years-long process of taking my room from a color-clashing mess to a comparatively calmer, semi farmhouse look. Some of the materials I bought, and some were reimbursed or bought by the school, but it did not happen overnight and was, again, a process of finding out what did and didn't work for seventh and eighth graders.