Related Teaching Activities

“I’m a teacher. A teacher is someone who leads. There is no magic here. I do not walk on water.
I do not part the sea. I just love children.” (Marva Collins)

This quote summarizes how I feel about teaching and why I do what I do as a teacher educator.
Marva Collins defines a teacher as someone who leads. While I put every effort into teaching
courses that will prepare teacher candidates for the realities of the classroom, I do not believe
this is enough. If a teacher is someone who leads, I see value in working outside of my teaching
course load to be an invited guest lecturer for a course, course point person, mentor teacher
candidates, serve on a dissertation committee, be the Bloomington/Normal PDS liaison, and
support cooperating teachers.

Invited Guest Lecturer/Speaker In Fall 2017, I was invited by Dr. Ryan Brown to speak to his
TCH 501 Intro to Doctoral Scholarship course to discuss my experience in my doctoral program
and what I did to get into academia (see Appendix 1). Also, during Fall 2017 I was invited by the
RSO Unite to discuss urban education. In Spring 2018, Dr. Amy Hurd invited me to participate
in the Early Career Faculty Panel for graduate students. I share with graduate students how I
became an assistant professor and my experience my first semester. In Summer 2018, I was
invited by a faculty member, Leah Carrington at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA to give a
guest lecture on Supporting Students from Racially Diverse Backgrounds (see Appendix 2).

Course Point Person In Fall 2019, I became the point person for TCH 204. The course
continues to focus on developing teacher candidates ability to think like a professional
elementary educator. In addition, the course focuses on preparing teacher candidates to create
equitable learning environments. Before Fall 2019 began, I met with Non-Tenure Track (NTT)
faculty to answer their questions regarding the course and provide them with resources (e.g.,
syllabus, course calendar, assignment guidelines) to help them set their course up.

Bloomington/Normal PDS (Professional Development School) Liaison In Fall 2019, I

accepted the role of the Bloomington/Normal PDS Liaison (see Appendix 3). In this role, I am
holding bi-monthly meetings with the site coordinator and other PDS faculty. I have developed a
plan to build relationships with principals in Bloomington/Normal. Also, I have proposed the
idea of paying cooperating teachers more money as a stipend by requiring that they attend five
sessions of professional development where they will receive $50 per session. At each
professional development session cooperating teachers will learn how to support teacher
candidates in their classrooms by focusing on culturally responsive teaching, creating equitable
learning communities, and restorative practices.
Institute of Teachers of Color (ITOC) Fellow, University of California, Riverside In an
effort to make sure that I am culturally responsive and being a professional model for my
students and showing them how to support racially and socioeconomically diverse learners, I
applied for the Institute of Teachers of Color (ITOC) Fellowship at the University of California,
Riverside, CA. I was accepted as a fellow for the Summer 2019 ITOC Fellowship (see Appendix
4). The purpose of this fellowship is to provide a professional development space for teachers of
color to explore the racial climate of their institutions, receive leadership training to navigate
these realities, and strategize how to create racially transformative classroom communities. As a
fellow, I was able to share with my experiences as a teacher educator of color and come up with
strategies that I will implement in my courses to support prospective teachers as I work to
prepare them to teach racially diverse students. I was assigned a mentor that I worked closely
with during my time at the fellowship and she was able to hear my ideas and strategies for doing
this work. She evaluated some of the PowerPoints that I have shared in previous course
discussions and resources I have shared as teaching content for TCH 204 and TCH 205. My
mentor provided feedback on my PowerPoints and resources, as well as shared additional
resources which offered me an opportunity to brainstorm new ways to help my students support
racially diverse learners. I also had the opportunity to work in small groups with teacher
educators from around the U.S. and discuss how we address topics of racial literacy, social
justice, equity, and bias. I shared things that I am doing in my ISU courses and my peers were
able to provide feedback on some of the practices that I am using and provide additional
strategies and ideas.

Supporting Cooperating Teachers In TCH 205, I have had opportunities to develop

relationships with cooperating teachers in Decatur Public Schools. I have created strong
partnerships with teachers and have had the opportunity to co-teach lessons with some of the
teachers. In Spring 2019, I co-authored an article with one of the cooperating teachers at Franklin
Elementary School in Decatur, IL about the work that we are doing with the Equity & Diversity
Cohort. One of the Cooperating Teachers, Mrs. Green has expressed how happy she is with how
things are going (see Appendix 5).