Our Classroom

What happens when thoughtful, intentional content is met with noise, criticism, or misunderstanding?

In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán reflects on a recent moment of pushback and reframes it as an opportunity for leadership. Instead of reacting defensively, this conversation explores what it means to lead with curiosity—especially when discussions around curriculum, culture, and terms like “decolonize” spark strong responses.

This episode is not about winning arguments. It’s about understanding what sits beneath reaction, staying grounded in purpose, and continuing to serve students with clarity and care.

What reactions do you notice when curriculum or texts are questioned or expanded?

How do you typically respond to pushback—internally and externally?

What might curiosity look like in moments where defensiveness feels easier?

What is the difference between expanding curriculum and erasing it?

Teach in Truth.

Lead with Courage.

Belong to a Community That Gets It.

If you’re navigating these kinds of moments in your classroom or leadership—and want a space to reflect, grow, and stay grounded in this work—you’re invited to explore My Classroom Gold:

https://www.multiculturalclassroom.com/founding-member

Follow @multiculturalclassroom

Subscribe to Our Classroom wherever you listen

Share this episode with an educator who is learning to lead with curiosity

Students today are encountering global events in real time. News about protests, war, political instability, and humanitarian crises travels quickly through social media, and many young people are trying to make sense of it all without much context.

In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán explores how educators can approach conversations about global unrest with care and clarity. Instead of avoiding difficult topics, Roberto shares three practical strategies teachers can use to help students process complex world events while maintaining a classroom culture rooted in curiosity, empathy, and critical thinking.

This episode offers a reminder that educators don’t need to have all the answers—but they can help students ask better questions.

What global events are your students currently talking about?

How can you create space for questions without turning the classroom into a debate stage?

What strategies help students move from reaction to understanding?

Teach in Truth.

Lead with Courage.

Belong to a Community That Gets It.

Join My Classroom Gold — a community of educators committed to equity, truth, and impact.

👉 https://www.multiculturalclassroom.com/founding-member

Bad Bunny’s halftime show gave us culture, joy, and conversation, but it also gave us curriculum.

In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán breaks down the symbolism behind the performance and explores how it can be used in classrooms as a powerful teaching text. From the sugar cane field imagery to the Puerto Rican flag, from honoring his mother’s maiden name to featuring Ricky Martin and centering Spanish language, this conversation examines how representation, history, gender, language, and class were all embedded in the visuals.

This episode is about more than a halftime show. It’s about how culture carries memory and how educators can teach with it, not around it.

Come for Bad Bunny. Stay for community. Teach in Truth. Lead with Courage. Belong to a Community That Gets It.

If you’re an educator committed to equity, truth, and impact—and want to continue doing this work in community—learn more about My Classroom Gold: 

https://www.multiculturalclassroom.com/founding-member

Anger is often treated as something dangerous, especially when it comes from the margins. In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán reflects on anger not as a problem to eliminate, but as information worth listening to. Drawing connections between poetry, education, and the present moment, this conversation explores how anger is policed, silenced, and misunderstood, and how it can become a catalyst for care, accountability, and protection when we choose to engage it with intention.

Teach in Truth.

Lead with Courage.

Belong to a Community That Gets It.

If you’re looking for a space to continue reflecting, learning, and navigating uncertainty alongside other educators committed to equity, truth, and impact, you’re invited to explore My Classroom Gold.

No pressure—just an open door.

Follow @multiculturalclassroom

Subscribe to Our Classroom wherever you listen

Share this episode with someone who might need permission to slow down

When we label student behavior as “misbehavior,” whose norms are we actually using — and who gets left out of that definition? In this episode of Our Classroom, Lorena Germán joins to help us explore how behavior, SEL, race, and power intersect, and what becomes possible when educators move from managing behavior to understanding it through an antiracist lens.

Teach in Truth.

Lead with Courage.

Belong to a Community That Gets It.

If you’re looking for a space to continue reflecting, learning, and navigating uncertainty alongside other educators committed to equity, truth, and impact, you’re invited to explore My Classroom Gold.

No pressure—just an open door.

Follow @multiculturalclassroom

Subscribe to Our Classroom wherever you listen

Share this episode with someone who might need permission to slow down

Recorded from Panama City on the day of arrival, this episode of Our Classroom is a quiet, journal-style reflection on what it means to teach while still orienting—emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Host Roberto Germán explores the idea of arrival as both a physical and professional experience. Through travel, observation, and humility, he draws parallels between navigating a new place and navigating the uncertainty many educators are facing right now.

This episode isn’t about answers or strategies. It’s about permission—to slow down, to pay attention, and to remain human in the work.

Teaching while still “arriving”

Humility as a professional posture

The pressure to perform certainty in unstable times

Paying attention as a form of care

Why slowing down can be an act of wisdom

Community as a place to hold complexity

Teach in Truth.

Lead with Courage.

Belong to a Community That Gets It.

If you’re looking for a space to continue reflecting, learning, and navigating uncertainty alongside other educators committed to equity, truth, and impact, you’re invited to explore My Classroom Gold.

https://www.multiculturalclassroom.com/founding-member

No pressure—just an open door.

Follow @multiculturalclassroom

Subscribe to Our Classroom wherever you listen

Share this episode with someone who might need permission to slow down

In this episode of Our Classroom, host Roberto Germán reflects on what it means to teach in truth when the ground beneath education feels unstable. Sparked by a powerful question raised during a Teaching in Truth masterclass, this conversation explores fear, uncertainty, and responsibility in today’s classrooms—particularly for immigrant families and communities of color.

Rather than offering quick fixes or scripted responses, Roberto invites educators to sit with the tension: how do we stay human, ethical, and grounded when schools no longer feel universally safe? This episode centers history, names systems, and reminds listeners that clarity and courage are often cultivated in community, not isolation.

Chapters

0:00 – Welcome to Our Classroom
1:20 – When School No Longer Feels Safe
3:45 – Teaching in Truth Means Naming Systems
6:10 – Why Neutrality Isn’t Neutral
8:30 – Community Is Not Optional
11:00 – When There Are No Easy Answers
13:30 – Sustainability Over Solutions
15:30 – Teach in Truth. Lead with Courage. (CTA)

What tensions am I currently holding in my teaching practice?

Where have I felt pressure to have answers instead of asking better questions?

Who do I turn to when the work feels heavy or unclear?

Teach in Truth.

Lead with Courage.

Belong to a Community That Gets It.

My Classroom Gold is a community of educators committed to equity, truth, and impact—designed for those who want to keep learning, reflecting, and leading with integrity in complex times.

https://www.multiculturalclassroom.com/founding-member

Follow @multiculturalclassroom

Subscribe to Our Classroom wherever you listen

Share this episode with a colleague who’s navigating uncertainty

In this episode of Our Classroom, host Roberto Germán explores how emotion and identity serve as the gateway to authentic literacy engagement. Drawing from his presentation Reading with Purpose, Writing with Passion, Roberto invites educators to rethink what truly keeps students — especially reluctant and multilingual writers — from fully engaging with reading and writing.

Through student testimony, classroom strategies, and reflections from Blue Ink Tears, this episode centers literacy as a human experience before it becomes an academic one. When students are seen, heard, and affirmed, reading and writing transform from tasks into tools for expression, healing, and connection.

CHAPTERS

0:00 – Welcome to Our Classroom
1:10 – What Keeps Students from Engaging with Literacy
3:00 – Emotion as an Entry Point to Writing
5:00 – Identity, Language & Student Confidence
7:00 – Books as Mirrors, Not Just Texts
9:00 – Instructional Strategies that Humanize Literacy
11:30 – A Writing Invitation You Can Use Tomorrow
13:00 – Patterns Across Classrooms
14:30 – Teach in Truth, Lead with Courage (CTA)

Featured Student Voice

“When he talked about his feelings, it made me more confident to talk about mine.” — José Reyes, 9th Grade, Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School

Resources & Next Steps

Blue Ink Tears by Roberto Germán

Author Visits & Workshops: multiculturalclassroom.com

Follow: @multiculturalclassroom

Join the Community

Teach in Truth.

Lead with Courage.

Belong to a Community That Gets It.

Join My Classroom Gold — a community of educators committed to equity, truth, and impact.

In this episode of Our Classroom, host Roberto Germán explores what it means to boldly serve boys of color—not just academically, but emotionally, culturally, and holistically. Drawing from Roberto’s live session at the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Annual Convention in Denver, Colorado, this conversation centers identity, storytelling, emotional literacy, and high expectations rooted in love.

If you teach, mentor, parent, coach, or work alongside boys of color, this episode offers concrete shifts in mindset and practice that affirm humanity rather than manage behavior.

CHAPTERS

0:00 – Welcome to Our Classroom

1:00 – Why Boys of Color Need Better Support

2:30 – Emotion Is Not Defiance

4:30 – When Boys Are Seen, They Speak

6:00 – Identity Is Complex, Not Confused

7:30 – Commitments for Educators

10:00 – Create Space, Not Silence

11:30 – Teach in Truth, Lead with Courage

Anger as communication, not misbehavior

Storytelling and poetry as emotional containers

Identity as complex, multilingual, whole

High expectations as a form of love

Rewriting deficit narratives in classrooms

Creating space rather than controlling behavior

Teach in truth.

Lead with courage.

Belong to a community that gets it.

Become a founding member of My Classroom Gold — a community for educators committed to equity, truth, and impact.

Follow @multiculturalclassroom

Subscribe to Our Classroom on all platforms

Explore resources at multiculturalclassroom.com

If this message resonated, share it with someone who serves boys of color and help build a culture of love, truth, and accountability.

In this episode of Our Classroom, Roberto Germán shares a powerful testimony from community member Justin Luttrull about a moment that unfolded in a breakout session at Calvin University.

A professor teaching about book bans and the difference between harmful books and books that expose harm cited the work of Lorena Germán — and mentioned that he listens to Roberto’s podcast.

This unexpected story, coming from a white professor in Grand Rapids, Michigan, serves as a reminder that our work travels farther than we ever see. It speaks to representation, legacy, and the impact of culturally grounded education across communities and generations.

This is an episode about encouragement, legacy, and the quiet ways our work changes the world.

0:00 – Welcome to Our Classroom
1:00 – Justin’s Testimony
2:30 – Representation in Unexpected Places
4:30 – Why This Matters for Educators
6:00 – Staying Faithful to the Work
7:30 – A Call to Community
9:00 – Outro: Keep Leading with Curiosity