Changing Course: Reimagining Education for America's Students

During an educators' meeting in Memphis, KeAsia Norman, a BIPOC educator and aspiring school leader said, “If a school isn’t actively engaged in the community, it’s just another building.” In this special live episode, host Jonathan Santos Silva is joined by a panel of innovative BIPOC educators and Teach For America alumni passionate about radically re-imagining the role of school within communities. Through their unique insights, we learn how to transform school buildings into vital community spaces that better reflect their students’ and staff’s needs.

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio. 

Featured speakers include:

Each of these educators have been featured in One Day Studio’s video storytelling. To learn more about their work please check out the following resources:

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with Teach for America leaders about the importance of investing in BIPOC educators and the work TFA is doing to remove the barriers that keep them out of the classroom.

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Resources:

In this special bonus episode, we hear from guest host Kayla Camacho, a 2014 Teach For America Dallas-Fort Worth alum, and leaders across Teach for America’s network who are innovating culturally relevant methods for recruiting and supporting Native educators to better serve Native students' success.

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio. 

Resources:

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with Amanda Fernandez, CEO and Founder of Latinos for Education (L4E) in Boston, MA, and Jay Alvarez, a high school educator in Houston, TX, and participant in L4E’s Latinx Teachers’ Fellowship, about the impact of increasing opportunities for Latinx educators.

As the first Latinx-founded and led nonprofit dedicated to creating leadership pathways for emerging Latinx leaders, Latinos for Education is committed to building an ecosystem of Latinx advocates by infusing Latinx talent into positions of influence. By developing, placing, and connecting essential Latinx leaders in the education sector, L4E strives to break down barriers to educational opportunities for the next generation of Latinx students.

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Resources:

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with Dr. Wenimo Okoya, Founder of Healing Schools Project. Based in Newark, New Jersey, the non-profit intentionally centers the experience of BIPOC educators, believing that when interventions are built around those furthest away from systemic privilege, educators and students of all backgrounds benefit. Healed teachers heal students. 

Healing Schools Project helps educators from around the country collectively address toxic school cultures that cause burnout and steer them out of the classroom. By creating school cultures that value community care over self-care, Healing Schools Project helps teachers and students thrive by build healthy and sustainable school environments. 

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with leaders and educators from Brothers Liberating Our Communities (BLOC) in Kansas City, Missouri, about making teaching a sustainable career for Black men. Inspired by the work of Sharif El-Mekki from the Center for Black Educator Development (featured in Episode 201), BLOC began curating professional development specifically for Black men in education. Through connection, development, and engagement, the team has retained 100% of BLOC members. Founder Cornell Ellis and the team at BLOC hope that one day all students will have access to equal representation and revolutionary Black male educators.

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with leaders and educators from Nashville Teacher Residency (NTR) in Nashville, Tennessee, to explore how the next generation of teachers may already be working within our schools.

Nashville Teacher Residency is a one-year program focused on rebuilding the teacher pipeline using Tennessee’s “Grow Your Own” model. By sourcing teacher candidates already working within local schools (e.g., cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals, or behavior interventionists), the program provides financial resources to help residents transition into the education field and earn their teaching licenses. With support from highly effective mentor teachers, NTR positions passionate teachers with diverse professional experiences to become high-performing full-time educators who enrich the lives of the students they are already committed to. 

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Host Jonathan Santos Silva speaks with leaders and educators from The Center for Black Educator Development in Philadelphia, PA, about how to create safe spaces that value and invest in young Black leaders. The Center is the first teaching academy in Philadelphia dedicated to investing in the next generation of Black teachers, starting as early as high school. Guided by the lens that excellent education is a political act, Sharif El-Mekki and his team at the Center demonstrate how restoring education to disenfranchised students is the purest form of activism.

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Changing Course, a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio, is back with Season Two! Host Jonathan Santos Silva (South Dakota ‘10) will sit down with innovative nonprofits from across the country that are committed to attracting, training, and retaining BIPOC educators. Each episode will feature thoughtful conversations about how organizations are investing in and providing careers where BIPOC staff can flourish. Season Two of Changing Course is back in January 2023.

Changing Course is a podcast from Teach For America's One Day Studio.

Bonus Episode in Partnership with UnTextbooked: Gavin Scott, currently a Sophomore at Columbia University, interviews Dr. Brenda Child, author of the book Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families 1900-1940 and his Great Aunt Babe. They talk about Native boarding schools across North America and how they affected the lives of the students that attended them (some of which were Gavin’s ancestors). It offers a look at a particular set of experiences at Native boarding schools and is not meant to be reflective of all boarding schools across the U.S. and Canada at all moments in history.

About UnTextbooked: United by their curiosity and a thirst for knowledge that extends beyond the classroom, the UnTextbooked podcast is a global student-led search for truth. UnTextbooked is not affiliated with Teach For America.