I wasn’t sure what to expect when coming to Cohort 21 in the Fall. I knew I wanted to continue developing some of the Pluralism work I had begun at my school. At the first and second F2F I worked with the guiding question of “How might we create an intentional GSA program that embraces our school community?”
While at the time I was happy with this question, as I chipped away at this I began to come to some realizations. I set out to change the structure of our school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance and the activities it initiated around campus. It began with a more focused approach to our weekly meetings; along with being somewhat of a drop-in space for anyone who wants it, we began having directed conversations about Global issues and relevant topics within the 2SLGBTQIA+ Community. Although our attendance was smaller than in the past, I found I had students who were keenly invested in the issues we were dealing with. We also hosted our 3rd annual Pride Week at the school. Due to a late April Snow Storm some of our events were cancelled. However, as usual we adapted and the results were great. When our guest speaker was not able to appear, it forced me to step up and tell my own coming out story to the entire school (something I wasn’t entirely excited about). The feedback was incredible I found the raw, vulnerable, and authentic version I was able to share connected me to students I had not reached in the past. We are currently working on succession in our GSA and how that will continue into the coming year.
While I felt I had some success with my HMW question, I realized that I may have started too small, and in actuality I was involved in embracing intentionality across the school. This led to my question changing at the 3rd F2F,“How might we intentionally amplify diverse voices across the school?” This question allowed me to consider some of my other roles at the school. This year I have been a part of the Community Read. A Book Club for our entire school Grades 6 – 12. In which our students read and interacted with the graphic novel The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen. As a school, we explored the intersectionality within the novel of culture, language, relationships, and sexuality. As the Head of English, I have also worked the past 5 years on diversifying our curriculum and making sure the voices reflected in our teaching represent the students at our school. We have added a wide variety of ethnicities, religions, identities, and exceptionalities within our texts and explore the way they see the world.
My big takeaway from Cohort is Success looks different for everyone. While I do not feel like I was successful in answering my specific HMW question, I realize that the question I ended with is a continuous challenge and something I strive for in my job every day. I would like to explore how this can be done across the school as I feel at times the English and Socials departments get tasked with meeting a pluralistic quota. There were moments throughout this process when I felt I wasn’t making any headway with my plan, and there were moments when I felt great success. I think it is important to recognize that all of this is part of the journey and to go easy on yourself. To exact intentional change is not something that is going to happen over night.
Overall I found the Cohort process to be extremely helpful, not only in establishing an actionable plan and executing some success, but also in helping me to recognize the impact and part I play in my larger school community.