Prompt 1

What does it mean to be a teacher of color in today’s schools?

— JH

Greensboro, North Carolina 2022

I went to Woolworth's as a teenager to buy

things every Saturday.

They went to protest.

By the time I got there, the lunch counters

were a thing of the past.

A good teacher has a good memory.

A good teacher

remembers lunch counters

and jails

and sit ins

and lynchings

and how her grandfather

s-l-o-w-l-y

self-destructed

when they destroyed

his business

because he would have been rich

would have been

could have been

should have been

one contract at a time

rich

A good teacher has a good memory.

— HH

Relentless testing and video games make many scholars lethargic during the school day. This photo was taken at approximately 9:00 a.m. school starts at 8:20. The ability to engage students becomes increasingly difficult yearly as we compete with social media and music.

— Deborah Bartley-Carter

Teaching is for the Birds

The branches on this tree symbolize the administrative support for teachers of color. It feels like the system is fragile and unpredictable. Debates in social media about what we teach and how we teach puts the profession under a magnifying glass. The bird nest symbolizes the teachers of color. The nest is beautiful and strong and able to survive in the tree even without much support. The nest is visible and vulnerable to all of the elements. Just like the birds in the nest, Teachers of color learn, retreat to a safe place, be still, and have faith in the unknown. This picture captures the metaphor perfectly. Being a teacher of color is like being a nest in an leafless tree. Exposed to the elements with little support.

— Nagla Bedir

This image represents the content that as a teacher of color I can risk my job teaching. All of the content that if, my white co-worker taught, the response would be wildly different.

— Myra Bellamy

This is the second empty desk of a Black educator that has resigned within the past 2 months. You don’t want to disappoint your students in an urban district, but you also have to think about your mental health and/or family. I’m filling this seat temporarily so students can have a teacher.