Author: Sean A. Fisher Senior and Educational Associates Consulting Firm, LLC
Data-focused instructional leader with nearly a decade of certified school leadership experience, strong believer in “Teachers as the Administrators’ Primary Client” approach to increasing student academic achievement, effective facilitator of team meetings & small group discussions, fully committed to developing a culture of learning based on data-driven “Curriculum, Assessment & Instructional Delivery” to create stronger learning opportunities for all stakeholders.
This year, our team attended NCDRL for the first time. NCDRL is a national conference focused on advancing equity and eliminating discrimination in all spaces. During this year’s conference, I met some really cool people at Ohio State University’s NCDRL National Conference on Diversity, Race, and Learning. This conference was “Lit” as my more contemporary friends might say. There were so many committed practitioners. I learned so much about age discrimination, gender discrimination, and so much more. I learned strategies for creating measurable equity outcomes for projects requiring C-suite interaction. Our team will definitely return for next year’s conference.
Our team just finished attending two days of learning at The Ohio State University’s NCDRL: National Conference on Diversity, Race & Learning where we delivered a breakout session on “The Power Affinity Groups to Give Voice and Create Safe Spaces for Black Men and Boys in K12 Institutions”. The breakout session was well attended, standing-room-only.
After our session concluded, we had many attendee requests for photos and book signings. It was a great feeling to have so many key leaders relate and connect with our call to action. Additionally, we met some phenomenal equity leaders and practitioners.
Our team will definitely be returning next year, for more information on NCDRL, check out the following link:
Horace E. Stone, Jr., M.Ed. – Sean A. Fisher, Sr., Ed.S., PHR – Steve Elam, M.Ed.
Dear Colleagues:
Greetings! Please consider checking out our team’s upcoming presentation if you’re free. We will deliver a session at Ohio State University’s’ NCDRL: National Conference on Diversity, Race, and Learning. The conference will be on Monday and Tuesday (May 6th and 7th), but our session is on 5/7/2024, and the details are as follows:
Title: The Power of Affinity Groups to Give Voice and Create Safe Spaces for Black Men and Boys in K-12 Institutions.
Room: Highland – Theatre Style (50+ Attendees)
Presenter(s):
1. Sean A. Fisher Sr., Ed.S., PHR (Education Consultant) – The Fisher Education Consulting Group, LLC
2. Horace E. Stone Jr., M.Ed. (Education Consultant) – The Fisher Education Consulting Group, LLC
3. Steve Elam, M.Ed. (Education Consultant) – SEEDs: Steven Elam Educational Solutions, LLC
SYNOPSIS: This session will focus on delivering strategies and ideas for creating safe spaces (and giving voice) for Adult Black men education professionals, Young Black men scholars, and Black Boy Scholars learning or working in K-12 Educational spaces. Information will be delivered through three varying practitioner lenses encompassing grades K-8, 9-12, and adult education professionals. Presenters will discuss important topics in this session, including mental health, racism, pay inequity, and gender discrimination. The presentation will culminate with a 20-minute Q&A Session. Also, attendees will receive a presentation-specific downloadable electronic workbook (graphic organizer) to capture notes: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/42824the-power-of-affinity-groups-to-create-safe-spaces-1pdf/267613443.
Greetings! If you’re free, please consider checking out our team’s upcoming presentation. We will be delivering a session at Ohio State University’s’ NCDRL: National Conference on Diversity, Race, and Learning. The conference will be on Monday and Tuesday (May 6th and 7th), but our session is on 5/7/2024, and the details are as follows:
Title: The Power of Affinity Groups to Create Safe Spaces for Black Men and Boys to Have Voice in K-12 Institutions.
Today, our channel had Renee Youssif-Farlow as our educator guest. Renee is a multilingual prekindergarten for a Michigan school district serving America’s largest Muslim and Arabic population. Renee has been a teacher for 14 years, she has a bachelors in early elementary education and a Master’s degree in Education Administration. She has experience teaching locally but has also taught for multiple years abroad in India.
During the interview, she shared strategies for supporting English Language Learners. Also, she shared strategies for building instructional equity in student learning by differentiating lesson plans. Renee gave strategies for giving students a voice in her along with building a sense of community and togetherness. Renee discussed how race, ethnicity, culture, and poverty affect student learning. Last, she closed the conversation by sharing an important message of perseverance and focus with new and preservice teachers. Again, our team was very lucky to have Renee as a guest. We look forward to having her back soon.
Today, our channel was graced by the opportunity to converse with awesome guest Sarah Weeks. Sarah is currently working as a university-level English Teacher in The Republic of Korea where she lives with her husband and two sons. During our conversation, Sara took time to share her experiences as a Korean-American female teaching in the United States K-12 school system and her experiences teaching abroad in South Korea wherein her race didn’t matter as much but her status as an immigrant to Korea did matter. She discussed Race, Gender, and Education from an American and global perspective. At the end of our time together, Sarah delivered a special message for aspiring educators.
Sarah Weeks, MAT, TESOL
About Sarah, Sarah was born in Seoul, South Korea, and adopted to the United States at 5 months old. She was raised in downriver Michigan by White parents and was always interested and felt she could be successful in areas like computers, art, physical therapy, writing, or education. It wasn’t until she began teaching in the Math Corps program in Detroit at Wayne State University that she felt sure she wanted to pursue the field of education. Though always tending to prefer English, she decided on a double major in Secondary Education with majors in Math and English.
After teaching high school math for two years, she emigrated to South Korea partially as a teaching field change and as a way to explore her racial and cultural origins. As someone who has always been fascinated by the way the constructs of race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, and gender intertwine and shape not only our views of ourselves but the views others have of us, she feels that it was a necessary journey in her exploration of identity. She took a great interest in learning about the Korean educational system as well as workplace etiquette and differences for two years while teaching at a middle school in Daegu.
To continue her growth in the field, she returned to Boston this time for 3 years where she spent one year teaching at a charter school in Dorchester. The remaining two years teaching and working as a program coordinator at an adult education ESL institute and a local college to help foreign students transition linguistically and culturally to university student life in America. At the same time, she completed a Master’s in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages with a focus on adult instruction. At the same time, she met an amazing Korean man and decided once again to return to Korea in 2017 and is now married and raising two beautiful sons.
Since then, she’s been teaching mostly Korean students who want to become English teachers themselves at a university in the Gangwon province of Korea as well as contributing to the community by teaching conversation English classes, judging speech contests, and teaching local government workers to help prepare for activities that ranged from working in the Pyeongchang Olympics to studying abroad. It has been an exciting journey, and she very much continues to look forward to further adventure, growth, and exploration.
Today, our CEO: Sean Fisher had the great pleasure of interviewing veteran Special Education Teacher and Case Manager, Mrs. Contessa Brady. Contessa has been an educator in the greater Dallas area for the last 20 years, she’s had the experience of working on both affluent and economically disadvantaged campuses. Also, she is a certified English Language Arts teacher, Special Education teacher, and English as a Second Language teacher.
During the interview, Contessa shared her thoughts on equitable education and the pathways towards achieving it. She talked about the challenges of teaching students with verifying barriers to learning. She discussed how the pandemic has changed the classroom. Contessa offered strategies for giving students voice and choice in her classroom. Also, she broached the topic of race and gender in education and its impact on student outcomes, and she shared a unique perspective on how her race and gender as a Black Woman have positively impacted her ability to be effective as a teacher.
Contessa closed the interview by delivering a heartfelt message to new and pre-service teachers, We are beyond overjoyed to have had Contessa as a guest to share her wisdom and knowledge with us. We look forward to having her return soon.
Today, our cohort conducted its’ first meeting to celebrate 🍾 the new year. We chose to engage each other in an open-dialogue format check-in style instead of utilizing our normal more detailed agenda. The relaxed format allowed us to focus on relationship building, giving voice, and identifying what each person needed socially and emotionally from the space to feel supported.
To our great surprise, we were joined by a legendary federal education program administrator and Black Community Advocate: Mrs. Carrie A. R. Reeves. Mrs. Reeves is the former director of The Upward Bound Trio Program located on the campus of Case Western Reserve University for two decades. She is now retired but still very active in her community (Carrie A. R. Reeves is a lifelong member of East Mt. Zion Baptist Church and a representative for the Central community. A member of the usher board, Reeves is an active member of her church, as she has been since she moved to Cleveland as a young girl).
Mrs. Reeves dropped in to share some jewels of wisdom with our cohort. She helped us reconnect to our roots with a brief review of history and led us in a discussion on education and the Black community from segregation in the 1950s until now. It was awesome learning from our honored elders. Also, it was great to hear strategies for educating black boys and young men from a woman’s perspective. We were indeed so blessed to have Mrs. Reeves join us.
Additionally, we had such wonderful guests in our midst as urban education radio & podcast show host: Steve Elam, higher education retention expert: Dr. Warren Glen, and veteran urban education teacher-leader: Horace E. Stone Jr. Please consider joining us for our next cohort meeting on Saturday, February 10, 2024 (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM EST). Please the following link to join us:
Educating Black Scholars in The African Diaspora Roundtable Discussion Series for pre-K through 16 Black Men Educators, and Education Leaders Saturday, February 10 · 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Time zone: Eastern Standard Time Google Meet joining info Video call link: https://meet.google.com/rfa-tpaj-oxp Or dial: (US) +1 413-341-0149 PIN: 402 798 175# More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/rfa-tpaj-oxp?pin=6900795257872
Sean A. Fisher Senior and Educational Associates Consulting Firm, LLC 