WEBVTT

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Good morning class.

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First of all, just an honor.

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Thank you for having me, I
appreciate this.

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A couple of years ago, I had the honor
of attending a panel,

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a conference at The Science Leadership 
Academy in Philadelphia.

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A black male educator by the name of
Derek McCoy,

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was asked a question around 
sustainability,

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and what are the things that constantly 
keep him sustained as he's working.

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And without missing a beat, the first
thing he said was,

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"Have you read Jose Vilson's blog?
His posts just keep me going."

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"Excuse me?" I was shocked, I didn't know
what to do.

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I was just there at the panel, I didn't
even know he was there,

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and I hadn't met him. It was the first
time I'd met him.

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It's thousands and thousands of miles
away, and here he is saying,

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I've inspired him by my posts 
and through my blog.

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And so, when I talk about teacher voice
out there,

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I'm always thinking about
what it means to actually be a teacher,

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a full-time teacher.

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I'm a full-time math teacher in Washington
Heights, New York,

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and I'm proud to represent that.

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And I also know because of this,

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I need to be very thoughtful about 
the things I say and do out there.

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Because there's a lot of people who say,
"Well, teachers shouldn't be speaking up.

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There's no reason for them to talk when 
we can do all the talking."

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"Um, excuse me? Okay, so then we have some
work to do."

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Teacher voice.

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The individual and collective expression

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of meaningful professional opinion based
on classroom experience and expertise.

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Now, these are the four guiding principles
when I talk about teacher voice

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there are four pieces that I always 
concentrate on,

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when I'm talking about teacher voice.

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The first is the individual element.

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When people say, "The way you create true
change is by starting with the individual"

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our identities, our cultures, our ways of
being,

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inform our pedagogies and the cultures 
that are in our own classrooms

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and so we have to constantly be thoughtful
about the ways we interact with our kids,

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in order for us to be the best 
practitioners as possible,

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and in order for us to have a real teacher
voice about this work.

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And also, please keep in mind,

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we don't always have to be the best 
speaker in the classroom,

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because we ought to be the best listeners.

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Now, the second element is this collective

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because I can't think about my own
profession,

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without thinking about the person that is
outsdie of my walls,

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not just the person next door, but 
across the hallway

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and perhaps across the city, across the 
state, across the country, right?

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And you think about this.

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If you're a good teacher, 
you know who you are.

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Even when you don't speak 
the same language,

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or you don't always have
the same cultures,

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there are touchpoints about 
all of our experiences

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that allow us to be good teachers
for each other and for ourselves.

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There are things that we know about 
the teaching profession,

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that we know what that's like.

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And so when I ask you for collective,

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I'm also thinking about not just everybody
who's across the country,

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and even across the world,

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but across institutions too.

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So including our prisons and our museums,

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there are educators there too.

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We need to think about all of these
educators.

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And then, again, when we come together,

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whether we're celebrating our 
best and most accomplished teachers,

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or we're protesting together in any 
number of states,

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when our voices when they come together, 
they often get to be the loudest.

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The third element is experience.

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And when I talk about experience, it 
means that our stories matter too.

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When you think about research, policy, 
practice,

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you best believe that a teacher 
better be somewhere in there.

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You can't just sanitize us, you have 
to be able to include us.

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And then, when we're not included, we 
have to be able to fight back.

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What you see in front of you,

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two years ago, I was given a teacher
performance rating of developing.

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My teacher practices were "effective,"

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but unfortunately the data that had 
come out was "ineffective,"

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so somewhere in the 
middle was "developing."

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And of course, mind you,

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four-fifths of my students' data had
mysteriously disappeared,

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and it just confounded me, I just didn't 
know what was going on.

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But even still,

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it kind of hurt to think about the fact 
that I had put in so much work

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and yet the assessments that were chosen
were not reflective of the people we were

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and the work that had been done 
in our classroom.

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And that's where expertise comes in.

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Because there are things that 
we know about our students.

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There are things we think about 
our students on the daily.

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We know how to not just write lesson plans
and do-now's and closings.

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We also know how to create communities
in our own classrooms.

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We know how to get kids to ask questions
and to teach us, right?

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Cause that's an important part 
of the listening piece.

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We know, we know, and it's okay 
to say that we know.

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That's an important part of all this work.

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Because everytime I'm talking about
whatever it is I'm talking about

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I always think back to my kids.

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I'm always thoughtful about the kids who I
have in my classroom.

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Children of immigrants, 
children of workers,

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children of parents who've entrusted me 
on a daily basis, and for years now,

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to make sure that their kids are 
well-educated

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and well-prepared for the world 
we live in. Human beings, right?

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The picture you see here by the way

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is a picture of my students with the
statue of Theodore Roosevelt

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at the American Museum 
of Natural History.

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Now, at first I didn't really want to take
the picture.

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But when I thought about it,
I said to myself,

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Well? Imagine if Teddy was having to sit
next to people, immigrants,

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who wouldn't want to assimilate 
into this country?

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Imagine having a teacher who believed
in students.

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So when I tell you that a teacher who 
believes in students

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is core to our democracy,

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this is the picture I'm talking about.

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I think about all the teachers 
who are passionate about this,

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who've sacrificed their livelihoods,
who've sacrificed their lives

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to make sure that our students feel social
justice within their classrooms,

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their neighborhoods, who've been 
out there on a daily basis,

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who've visited the churches, gone to
parent meetings, who know what it's like

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to be directly affected by so many 
of the policies that don't work for us.

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I work for them because they 
keep me on my toes.

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They are the best educators.

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And speaking of which, the best 
educator in our house

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also happens to be not just 
in the audience

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but also, the best mother she could
possibly be to our son, Alejandro.

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And when I think about Luz, when I think
about Alejandro,

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they teach me lessons everyday.
They teach me constant lessons.

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And so I'm always thinking about,
"Oh my gosh,

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How am I gonna be a better teacher, when
they're already so much better than I am

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at whatever it is that I'm trying to do.
But they keep me grounded

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even when my voice shakes.

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I think about the thousands 
and thousands of students

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who I've had the pleasure, 
the honor of teaching

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over thirteen-going-on-fourteen years now.

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A career that has spanned so 
many lifetimes it feels like.

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And whenever I look at these students, 
I'm always like,

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"Oh my gosh, I've taught you!"

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So many of my kids have gone to so
many different places.

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And even when they don't go to places
that I necessarily am happy about?

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I know that I've done everything I 
possibly could in my being

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to make sure that they felt like human 
beings in my classroom.

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And that is the work.

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And it keeps me up at times.

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I know that when I go to my desk,

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and I wake up, and I think about failing 
and winning and failing and winning,

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I also know that I've created lesson
plans that can engage my kids

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and bring them in, and I say good morning.

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And when parents come in, I'm always like,

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"A su orden."

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Which means, I'm at your service, I'm here
for you, I'm here to teach kids.

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How welcoming is that?

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These are the things that 
keep me up at night,

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these are the things that keep me
up early in the morning as well.

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This is the love work.

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This is the thing we're 
constantly striving for,

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So when I say Teacher Voice, it's not 
just about being the loudest.

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It's about using our actions and 
aligning them to the work we're doing

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and that we say we're doing.

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We want our kids to be reflected in
curriculum,

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in our practices, in our pedagogy,

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and we want them to feel like 
they have a belonging somewhere.

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What is it like to feel like you 
have a home?

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Not just your actual home.

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For so many of our kids, 
they may not have one.

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What is it like to actually create that
and have the power to be able to do that?

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I don't know, but I know 
what I know.

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And furthermore, I also know, that I'm
willing to do this forever and ever.

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I'm so passionate about this, I gotta keep
going.

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Are you gonna join me?