Act

It was difficult to explore the Racial Equity Tools website from a computer, but it was incredibly user friendly on my phone. I enjoyed listening to various podcasts, and plan to make this part of my drives during the week. I typically will listen to podcasts talking about murder mysteries or my favorite TV shows, but I really enjoyed listening to podcasts about social justice issues. The one I listened to first was actually listed on racial equity tools, but it took me to irresistible.org and it was about “Adapting Strategy & Building Power in Crisis”. It begins by talking about how COVID is affecting the shift in politics and how it is affecting political views, but then begins to discuss how it SHOULD be used to discuss how we are dealing with the crisis our young people face. Racial Equity Tools has many tools available, not just podcasts.

This resource discussed the options and provided suggestions on how to design and conduct a successful survey project.

The Steps in designing a Survey Project
1.     Establish the goals of the project - What you want to learn
2.     Determine your sample - Whom you will interview
3.     Choose interviewing methodology - How you will interview
4.     Create your questionnaire - What you will ask
5.     Pre-test the questionnaire, if practical - Test the questions
6.     Conduct interviews and enter data - Ask the questions
7.     Analyze the data - Produce the reports   

The racial equity tools website was blocked on my school computer so I explored the other resource and read the "facilitating critical conversations with students" publication, which I saved for use with preservice teachers (and for my own later use!). I appreciated the sections on the appropriate terms to use and the authors' directive to spend time completing certain activities prior to beginning the conversations. Self-exploration and reflection are key to bridging chasms caused by personal and institutional racism. The self-ratings for comfort levels helped to identify why certain topics are more uncomfortable than others and how to push yourself to grow in these areas, since all areas are critical for our students. The "destigmatizing privilege" excerpt was interesting because I do feel that in order to grow, we must learn to be aware of our own emotions and experiences and learn to feel more comfortable with the work that needs to be done. Overwhelming guilt could potentially prevent an individual from addressing their own issues.