Teach The Children The Truth! Ethnic Studies and Raza Studies In The TK-12 Classroom

Today, I am delighted to bring to you an interview with OUSD's very own Leah Aguilera, the TOSA (or Teacher On Special Assignment) in charge of building Ethnic Studies at the TK-8 level while also supporting existing work at the 9-12 grade level. Leah will share her personal journey through education as well as the incredible work she is doing to keep Ethnic Studies alive and well in one of the Bay Area's largest and most supportive districts.

For those of you who may be interested in reaching out to Leah, please email her at [email protected]

To reach the OUSD Ethnic Studies website, go to ethnicstudies.ousd.org

Also, please check out the 10-year anniversary summer institute the folks in Arizona are offering this summer from June 30-July 2 by visiting their website at https://www.xicanxinstitute.org/

Stay blessed, In Lak'ech.

Welcome to this week's episode! This week, you will hear from former and current students in my Comparative Ethnic Studies and Raza Studies classes at both Madison Park Academy and James Logan High School. As we continue to field attacks from the radical right, we must uplift the voices of the youth who continue to find their voices in our classrooms and in the streets of this country and the world. I offer audio posts and student work samples that demonstrate what young people can do when provided with the context and the capability of speaking truth to their lives.

Please visit the website that accompanies this podcast, or email me directly at [email protected] to share your own student work and reflections. 

In Lak'ech.

Welcome back to Teach The Children The Truth! Ethnic Studies and Raza Studies in the TK-12 Classroom. 

I know we are coming off of a heavy weekend and in the middle of what I can only imagine is a challenging week with our students and families trying to make sense of what we saw in the footage of the murder of Tyre Nichols. I pray you have all found a way to digest and process this new information and that you are taking the necessary steps to heal and move into a space of positive action. I pray for this young man's family and friends, and I ask La Creadora to guide him to his Ancestors. 

Today we have the second half of a two-part series with Mario García, a veteran educator for the Oakland Unified School District. If you missed last week's episode, I invite you to pause this one and go back to Episode 04 so that you can hear Mario's entire story. You can read a little more about him below.

Bio:

Mario Vallejo García was born in Southern California on the last day of 1973.  His family then moved north to Oakland, CA, soon thereafter, when he was only 2 months old.  In Oakland, his parents became very involved in the community and educational activism there, particularly as it connected to the Chicano Movement.  Among many other things, they were heavily involved with the establishment of both Centro Infantíl de La Raza Preschool and La Escuelita Elementary School, two of the very first bilingual, Chicano/Latino-oriented schools in the Bay Area.

Mario attended all Oakland Public Schools in his early education, including Centro and La Escuelita.  He graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1992 before starting his freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall of that year. He graduated from UCB with Honors in the Spring of 1997 with a major in Ethnic Studies and a minor in Education.  Upon graduation, Mario was soon hired by the Oakland Unified School District and has worked there ever since.  As a full-time classroom teacher, he taught grades 3-5 for 23 years at Stonehurst Elementary (now Esperanza/Korematsu Discovery Academy) and EnCompass Academy, both in the East Oakland flatlands.  For the last 3 years, he has been working as an EEIP (Enrichment & Early Intervention Program) teacher at EnCompass, where he wears many hats and provides various forms of school-wide support for all TK-5 classes, including small group and whole class ELA/ELD and math instruction, Newcomer support, and Physical Education.  He hopes to continue to work with and serve youth and his beloved Oakland community at large for many years to come.

If you would like more information about Mario's work or would like to reach out to him, you can find him at [email protected], or you can also email me at ttcttinfo.com, and I'll put you in touch with him.

To get in touch with Dr. Cesar Cruz, please check out his Homie's Empowerment page and reach out to him there.

If you would like more information about some of the organizations designing Ethnic Studies curricula and supporting current and future Ethnic Studies educators, please check out the following links below:

Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (CA)

Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing (AZ)

I will continue to share resources with you here in the episode notes, as well as on my website at teachthechildrenthetruth.com in future episodes. Please check out my website and share your resources so we can network and build to make Ethnic Studies thrive!

In Lak'ech.

Welcome to Teach The Children The Truth! Ethnic Studies and Raza Studies in the TK-12 Classroom. We have the first of many exciting interviews to share with you today! This is the first of a two-part series with Mario García, a veteran educator for the Oakland Unified School District. Part 2 will air next Wednesday on all podcast platforms, so please come back to hear Mario's entire interview and to share in the wisdom he has to offer our Ethnic Studies community. 

Bio:

Mario Vallejo García was born in Southern California on the last day of 1973.  His family then moved north to Oakland, CA, soon thereafter, when he was only 2 months old.  In Oakland, his parents became very involved in the community and educational activism there, particularly as it connected to the Chicano Movement.  Among many other things, they were heavily involved with the establishment of both Centro Infantíl de La Raza Preschool and La Escuelita Elementary School, two of the very first bilingual, Chicano/Latino-oriented schools in the Bay Area.

Mario attended all Oakland Public Schools in his early education, including Centro and La Escuelita.  He graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1992 before starting his freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall of that year. He graduated from UCB with Honors in the Spring of 1997 with a major in Ethnic Studies and a minor in Education.  Upon graduation, Mario was soon hired by the Oakland Unified School District and has worked there ever since.  As a full-time classroom teacher, he taught grades 3-5 for 23 years at Stonehurst Elementary (now Esperanza/Korematsu Discovery Academy) and EnCompass Academy, both in the East Oakland flatlands.  For the last 3 years, he has been working as an EEIP (Enrichment & Early Intervention Program) teacher at EnCompass, where he wears many hats and provides various forms of school-wide support for all TK-5 classes, including small group and whole class ELA/ELD and math instruction, Newcomer support, and Physical Education.  He hopes to continue to work with and serve youth and his beloved Oakland community at large for many years to come.

If you would like more information about Mario's work or would like to reach out to him, you can find him at [email protected], or you can also email me at ttcttinfo.com, and I'll put you in touch with him.

If you would like more information about some of the organizations designing Ethnic Studies curricula and supporting current and future Ethnic Studies educators, please check out the following links below:

Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (CA)

Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing (AZ)

I will continue to share resources with you here in the episode notes, as well as on my website at teachthechildrenthetruth.com in future episodes. Please check out my website and share your resources so we can network and build to make Ethnic Studies thrive!

In Lak'ech.