Note: Today’s Easter episode is a special edition specifically for Christian educators. While the episode offers great guiding questions to all educators, scriptures are used as a foundation for this episode.

“There’s no hate like Christian love” is an all too common phrase these days. And as I get ready for my Easter morning church service, I feel shame at what the face of the Christian community has become. I found myself hesitating in using the word “we” when I said Christians. It saddens me that a pillar of my upbringing no longer feels like something to be proud of. I know many others who are believers–loving, accepting ones–who feel the same. This is for us as well.

A Message to Christian Educators

How can educators make campuses a place of healing and wholeness? What actions do we need to take to ensure that no one feels condemned, that everyone feels accepted (not just John 3:16, but John 3:17 as well)? Why do we take actions that have the opposite affect on our campuses and in our communities? Particularly, for those of us who are “of the household of faith”, do we model love or are we volcanoes of condemnation erupting over everything we don’t agree with? Do our actions and words, like lava, destroy and disrupt? Or do they, bring healing and love even in the darkest situations?

WWJD (iykyk)? For those celebrating Easter as the Resurrection, let’s use this time of revival to rethink our actions and ideologies. If they don’t bring light and love, we are a part of the problem. Use the guiding questions in this week’s episode and let’s all work to change the current face of Christianity by being carriers of love, grace and healing in our classrooms, on our campuses and in our communities.

Remember the old adage, “what you see is what you get”? Well, that phrase is officially from a bygone era. Now what you see may be what you get, but what you’re getting may not be real. With AI tools becoming less expensive and more accessible, deepfakes are increasingly finding their way into our media feeds.

Trump, Politics and AI Deepfakes

Consider the recent Donald Trump deepfake arrest video. According to a March 24th Atlantic article, it has been viewed over 5 million times. How many of those 5 million people thought it was real? How many of those people even know to be aware of AI generated images, videos and news?

As educators, we have an incredible opportunity to help our students be better critical thinkers. In addition to last week’s SmallBites episode on media bias, we can help our students–and staff–to be aware of high quality deepfakes. For those of us who like the information in long form, here is Todd C. Helmus’ Rand Corporation article, “Artificial Intelligence, Deepfakes, and Disinformation, A Primer”. And for those who want to get right to the solution, MIT Media Lab’s “Detect DeepFakes: How to counteract misinformation created by AI” is for you. And for those looking for a great media literacy warm-up or bell ringer, here’s a practice site from the above MIT article that you can use to help your students learn to recognize deepfakes.

For more information or to book a keynote or session with Hedreich, click here.

Welcome back, listeners!

There was so much I took in during my hiatus, that it was hard to choose ONE thing to come back with. But decide I did: CRT. The last time I did an episode I could still count how many laws banning “CRT” there were on my hands and toes. That is no longer the case.

While 28 states have no restriction, almost half the states either have restrictions in place OR have laws in progress of being banned.

The fact is, K12 teachers are not teaching CRT. It is not now, nor has it ever been history, conversations around race and identity or criticizing racial injustices. Those are all conversations protected by the first amendment and common in countries calling themselves democracies.

Not only are these laws vague and terrifying for teachers trying to do what they have been educated to do, they support indoctrination. The fact is, that there are some ugly truths in our history. Enslavement, genocide, child rape, physical and sexual abuse of men, women and children are not things we want to think about. They are also not things we talk about in any graphic detail in schools. However, those events are a part of our history. And if we are to show our children true patriotism, we are to teach them to love our country with all her flaws. That means we too need to accept the truths of who we are, the good, the bad, the very bad.

We cannot not erase the history of some to paint a rose colored picture of others, and we have to fight against those who believe this is in our collective best interest. This country is better than that, or at least, we should be. My only ask this week is that you pay attention to your local elections. The children need your voice. The teachers need your voice. Our country needs your voice.

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When educators are asked in my workshops, what the main goal of a media concern is, they generally answer “to inform”. For those of us who think in terms of author’s purpose, what other answer could there be, right? Usually, after a little prompting, someone comes up with “to make money”. We all want to pay our bills, so this is not an indictment. But it does mean that the stories that sell are the stories that get pushed. Bad news sells. Now, that is an indictment–for humanity. We buy bad news so we get more bad news. And if your bad news is biased (which it almost always is), that’s bad news for people on your campus who may be consuming their bad news from other outlets.

Helping Students to Navigate Difficult World Happenings

How can we help our students to navigate difficult topics if we are against some of them? How can they all be our students if we are against some of them? How can we work and play well with others if the morning news cycle has us mad at “others” as we pull into the parking lot?

Mental health PSA: Consume less news, it’s healthy and it’s an easy way to feel less stressed. Next, as you consume less media, be aware that you are getting a balanced diet and not consuming whatever the algorithm and your clickbait friends feed you. Here’s AllSides Media, a site that can help with that. And if you’d like a course on how you can use this resource with your staff and students,

Just because the podcast is still on hiatus, doesn’t mean there isn’t lots going on behind the scenes. In addition to course development and educational advocacy, helping educators in places like Phoenix at Solution Tree’s Summit on PLC at Work or those in Maine doing a yearlong book study of Finding Your Blind Spots is keeping the small (and bigger) bites of knowledge flowing.

Even if you aren’t registered for any upcoming events or webinars, browse the SmallBites YouTube channel or read the latest educational article from Edutopia. There’s still so much we can do to make a difference for the next generation–one small bite at a time!

Enjoy this recent post on the latest AI tools that I wrote for Edutopia. Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter or Tiktok to let me know what you think!

What have you learned? In two and a half years of SmallBites, how have the equity strategies talked about influenced your practice? What are you doing differently because of what you’ve learned? Let me know here or on Twitter, Instagram or Tiktok. I’ll be looking forward to your answers. Additionally, SmallBites is on hiatus until spring to get some courses and webinars up and running. Be on the lookout for new resources in 2023!

With 90% of teachers surveyed by NEA experiencing burnout, the education industry obviously has room for growth in the ways teachers are supported in the workplace. As stated in last week’s episode, wellness initiatives do not ensure teacher wellness. This week and next, SmallBites has enlisted author and burnout researcher Dr. Kevin Leichtman of TLC Educate to give district and campus leaders insight and impactful strategies to help them help teachers stave off burnout. 

Retaining talented, well trained teachers is the best way to ensure equitable learning environments for all students.

Read more on burnout here.

About the guest:

Kevin Leichtman received his Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from Florida Atlantic University, where he also completed a Master’s degree in Curriculum & Instruction. His dissertation study was on new teacher burnout. His research has been published in a textbook on andragogy and pedagogy, and he is the author of “Teacher’s Guide to the Mental Edge” and his upcoming book, “The Perfect Ten: Ten Students, Ten Mindsets, One New Definition of Perfect.”

Kevin is also an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University, teaching equity and diversity courses to education majors. Kevin has developed curriculum, professional development, and presented on the topics of mindset, burnout, and equity to teachers, schools, and students across the nation.

Connect with Kevin:

Twitter: @KevinLeichtman

Tiktok: @tlceducates

Instagram: @kevinleichtman

With all the talk of teacher wellness, I find that in the lives of the teachers I know, and in the lives of teachers they know, there is a lot of yoga, a lot of meditation, a lot of emoji checking in and tons of surveys about what’s working. What classroom educators are missing is time; and that means working in schools that support a healthy work-life balance.

While it’s common knowledge that teacher workload and stress have increased over the last few decades, the common solutions don’t seem to address the stressors in a way that makes teachers feel supported. According to EdWeek, chart 1 clearly shows that wellness initiatives popular with district administrators are among the least popular with teachers.

What’s Missing?

What are districts missing? There are many reasons that teachers have a higher burnout rate than any other US workers, but work life balance is one of teachers’s top concerns. Yet, Google searches for teacher wellness are full of SEL strategies, yoga, meditation and other band-aids that could be effective, if teachers had the time to practice them consistently. How can administrators give teachers the one thing they really need—time?

1. Conduct blind surveys on wellness initiatives (really blind, requiring no campus or grade level information).

Combat the fear of being disparaged because of educator anonymity. Teachers need to comfortable sharing their thoughts without fear of retribution.

2. Shadow beginning and seasoned teachers to pilot every initiative before district-wide implementation.

Like with most tasks, everything takes longer than you expect.  By shadowing teachers in the real-world classroom, you’ll be able to evaluate (and tweak) your initiative’s implementation, not just implement an idea with no real world testing.

3. Adjust your scope or year-at-a-glance documents to utilize 80%, rather than 100% of the instructional block.

The awards ceremony, the field trip, the fire drill, the active shooter practice, the student melt down, the emergency coverage—these are all regular events that influence the number of minutes actually available for instructional purposes. If your scope is based on bell-to-bell teaching, teachers will be perpetually behind. And remember, mindful moments, brain breaks, student questions, ‘wait time’, classroom clean up and many other class community activities are also instructional, even if they are not connected to the content.

Wellness initiatives often look good on paper but lack impact. Reducing teacher workload is the number one way to retain a quality teaching staff. And a retaining a quality teaching staff is at the core of equitable learning experiences for all students.

When is the last time you saw a student with trisomy 21 on the field playing drums? When you grew up, were gender non-conforming, male presenting students allowed to be a part of color guard or dance team? Were Afrocentric hairstyles represented on the field—even gracing the heads of Eurocentric students? Were girls even drum majors?

Bands of America Represent!

This week, I got a needed rest from the toil of fighting to elevate the voices of all students. This week, I went to the Bands of America Super Regionals and unexpectedly got to bask in the progress that I often miss, while helping others to see what still needs to be fixed in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. For that, I am grateful.

How can you be a part of this progress? How can you make room on your campuses for cultures and stories that have traditionally been missing in our country’s classrooms?

Here are three resources to help you increase representation in the performing arts.

Add classical music by composers who are not White males to your repertoire.

Study famous artists who are not White or European.

Use this Quizlet as a jumping off place to research minoritized playwrights. Then, select one act plays by writers of non-European descent for UIL.

And for all other contents, here is a collection of resources for all contents looking for ways to highlight traditionally non-centered narratives.

As we celebrate another ’cultural month’ with dedicated to Native American History, let’s remember that representation matters all year.

And btw, don’t forget to vote. Here is my favorite resource, the Ballotpedia sample ballot tool.

And if you have problems at the pools, call or text 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) to speak with a trained Election Protection volunteer.