May-June 2019 Advisor

MAY–JUNE 2019 CEA ADVISOR 15

TORRINGTON TEACHER ALANA CROSBY RECEIVES 2019 CEA HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS AWARD

The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) NQAPIA is a federation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) organizations. Its mission is to develop leadership, promote visibility, educate its community, enhance grassroots organizing, expand collaborations, and challenge anti-LGBTQ bias and racism. In the Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (API) community, coming out to family can be difficult. LGBTQ children feel being open about sexual orientation will shame or dishonor their family, but staying in the closet takes a greater toll, leading to isolation, depression, and even suicide. NQAPIA has launched a multifaceted international campaign to promote the acceptance of LGBTQ people in API families and to diversify the faces and languages of those who support the LGBTQ community. The “Family Is Still Family” campaign offers a powerful message: offer your LGBTQ child a lifeline, support their coming out, and keep the family strong and unified. This campaign includes 26 translated resources, including “Coming Out to API Families: Talking Points for API LGBTQ Youth,” which address fundamental questions about sexual orientation and gender identity for parents and family members. It also provides a series of international workshops with culturally receptive peer support for API families and young people struggling to come out to their parents. NQAPIA and several parents developed a series of translated one-page fact sheets for parents of LGBTQ children. The multilingual fact sheets answer basic questions about being LGBTQ and dispel common misperceptions. They are in multiple Asian languages and scripts—the largest number of languages ever translated from a single LGBTQ document. For more information, visit nqapia.org . True Colors has been offering face-to-face comprehensive LGBTQ cultural competency training for over 25 years. In an effort to make training more widely available, the group is also implementing a webinar and video series this summer. While face-to-face sessions can focus on concrete skills, case studies, and learning labs, True Colors believes that much initial training can be done online. They are asking for feedback on course offerings, which include • LGBTQ 101 (definitions, risks and protective factors, key ways to demonstrate competency) • Supporting families of LGBTQ youth (an overview of the basics) • Transgender children and youth: an overview of current best practices in policy for school or agency settings • Non-binary youth (an overview of their unique concerns and needs) What other topics would you like to see offered? What do your colleagues need that might be delivered via self-directed modules, webinars, or consultations? Send your thoughts and feedback to director@ourtruecolors.org . RECOMMENDED RESOURCES True Colors Seeking Teacher Feedback on Webinar Topics

online resources, graphic organizers, presentation guidelines, roundtable discussions, and grading rubrics. Crosby attended the Connecticut Council of Social Studies New England Regional Conference last year, where she made connections with experts from Harvard University. She reached out to other professionals at institutions of higher

Alana Crosby is this year’s recipient of the Mahatma Gandhi/Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award. The award was presented to her on May 10 at the CEA Representative Assembly. A social studies coordinator/teacher at Torrington Middle School, Crosby created the seventh grade world regional geography curriculum, using the overarching essential question, “How will you make a difference?” Along with her colleague Veronica Gelormino, Crosby worked tirelessly to create a curriculum that examines world leaders from the eastern hemisphere throughout history. The curriculum they created started with Confucius and ended with Malala Yousafzai, and included, among others, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad, Mao, Mahatma Gandhi, and Mandela. Their curriculum encourages students to study the conflicts of their choice, identify the methods of protest, and reflect upon their learning using Google Slides to present their information. It includes detailed lesson plans, each stating the lesson guide, focus statements, questions, and themes. There are reliable platform was Race and Equity in Education and the training was delivered by a Connecticut-based organization named RE-CENTER ( RE-Center.org ). The primary goal of the program was to teach participants how to engage in constructive conversations around racial, social, and economic justice issues that impact school environments and to gain strategies for organizing and activating members around those issues. One session focused on five shifts to co-create equity—namely, Mainstream to Margin, Colorblind to Color Conscious, Deficit to Systemic, Equality to Equity, and Intent to Harm to Impact. The participants were also given a framework for historically and currently included (mainstream) and excluded (margin) groups which consisted of a list of -isms, such as racism, classism, sexism, and sizeism, and phobias such as Islamophobia and xenophobia. The group discussed who is Transgender Students. In this timely workshop presented by Robin McHaelen, the founder and current executive director of True Colors, Inc., over 70 CEA members learned how the traditional “he/she” binary system is no longer applicable in our society. The “both/and/neither/nor” identities inherent in transgender, gender creative, and gender fluid students or coworkers can raise questions and concerns for students and school staff. McHaelen discussed the differences between orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, and gender expression and identified strategies, tools, and ideas for ensuring that schools provide a welcome and affirming environment. On May 16, CEA’s Human and Civil Rights Commission sponsored a statewide workshop called Getting a Grip on Gender: Working with Educators Get Closer Look at Transgender Student Issues

learning as well as colleagues in secondary education, and she co-taught professional development sessions on teaching religion in the classroom. Crosby’s work has made the teaching of social studies in both middle school and high school richer.

Robin McHaelen of True Colors, Inc. asks workshop participants to consider gender norms and how they can impact students’ experiences in school.

CEA Members Attend National Seminar on Race and Equity in Education In January, seven CEA members were invited to New Orleans to attend a seminar hosted by NEA’s Minority Leadership Training Program and Women’s Leadership Training Program. The seminar’s historically included/mainstreamed (whites) and who is historically or currently excluded (people of color, African, Asian, Latinx, Native Americans). They were asked to think about when they may have excluded someone or been excluded themselves. Most were able to identify a time they did one or experienced the other.

Moreover, wearing their #RedforEd shirts, some participants took a bus to Baton Rouge to canvass for educators. Despite significant poverty in some neighborhoods, most residents expressed support for an annual tax that would be allocated specifically for education in Louisiana. Waterbury Teachers’ Association member Sean Mosley shared, “The most invigorating experience was traveling to some of the other areas of Louisiana and going door-to- door to speak with residents about their concerns pertaining to public education.” Upon their return to Connecticut, CEA members expressed excitement about sharing the knowledge gained at this program with members of their local Associations and continuing the difficult but necessary conversations about race and equity.

CEA’s delegation to the NEA Minority Leadership and Women’s Leadership Training Programs’ Seminar in New Orleans included (left to right) Loretha Felton, Nicole Campbell, Margaret Seclen, Nicola Able, Michele King-Vasquez, Tricia Conduah, and Sean Mosley.