Jess Lifshitz

I think about what we, as educators, will say in years from now when we are asked, “How did you help kids through the crisis when human beings were being dragged off the streets by masked folks with guns?” For some of us the answer is sadly going to be, “Oh. We doubled down on phonics instruction.”

Halloween Letter Home Dear Families and Caretakers, Halloween is quickly approaching! While dressing up and celebrating the holiday provide opportunities for fun and community building, they can also create situations w...

This year the letter home about Halloween costumes and ways to help us ensure they are not harmful, feels particularly important. Teachers, please feel free to use in whatever ways feel helpful!

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

If you want to teach students to read media critically, to seek out reliable resources and multiple perspectives and support them as they process their emotions in response to that, that is important work that must be done with care and such deliberate intentions. That does NOT happen in a debate.

Teachers: DO NOT DEBATE ICE IN YOUR CLASSROOM! To ask students to witness their own humanity and safety being debated by their classmates is harmful. This is a reality that is causing harm and fear and pain to so many young people.

What they are asking us to do is not teaching. It is moving through curriculum. And I fear for what that means for our students.

Yes, there is good reason to be deeply concerned about what is happening in our schools. But no, it is not because of our test scores.

We hope you’ll join us in the work of building toolkits that help us create LGBTQ-affirming schools. Register today to secure your spot! 2/2 #IREL25

We can’t imagine moving through the world of education without the light that Jess consistently provides for children, families, and communities. Now more than ever we need this light and each other. 1/2

Join us virtually on Saturday, September 27th. Find more information at theirel.org.

Saturday, September 27th Teaching Towards Freedom. Register at theirel.org.

Presenters: Dr. Sonja Cherry Paul and Tricia Ebarvia.

A note from Sonja and Tricia.

About the founders.

The school year has started and I find myself already in desperate need of the kind of community rooted in justice and liberation. I am so grateful that @sonjacherrypaul.bsky.social and @triciaebarvia.bsky.social are bringing us back together again for another Teaching Towards Freedom.

Might I add that I’m terrified of what this coming year will bring.

Y’all. I’m trying something new this year. I am going to completely ignore the start of the school year. Until it arrives. I’m going to hold on to summer until it is gone. I’m going to welcome my students with a big open heart and a lot of love and whatever I can plan in the time I’m given.

Dining room table filled with random household objects in small plastic bags.

How you know back to school time is right around the corner…

I’m so grateful to @triciaebarvia.bsky.social and @sonjacherrypaul.bsky.social and #IREL for reminding me of the power of Dr. Love’s work.

So when we can’t do what used to work, we find new ways to do the work. And for me that is to work on developing my own “liberatory consciousness” and helping those around me to do the same.

While so much seems to be moving further and further away from feeling possible to do, we can still do this. Our goal in this PD is to find ways to continue to create inclusive spaces while feeling as if our hands are tied in regards to so many of the tools we used to do.

As I prepare for this work, it feels hopefully that this is one thing that cannot be regulated away from us. The ability to listen to the stories of young people in order to grow our empathy and understanding.

I’m running a PD in a few weeks where we are using Dr. Barbara J Love’s framework for developing a liberatory consciousness as we center the stories of young people talking about their school experiences and how those experiences were impacting by various facets of identity.

I can only hope that as more and more districts move away from this kind of powerful writing instruction, we can continue to talk about what we are losing in the hopes that one day we can get it back.

Finding Your Voice Isn't Just For Students. It's For Teachers, Too | KQED The Moth podcast resonated with teacher Jessica Lifshitz as a teaching tool because speaking in front of audience can be the pathway to finding community.

I am incredibly grateful to the folks at @kqednews.kqed.org and @mindshift-kqed.bsky.social for giving me a chance to share some of the work and writing that we did with our fifth graders this year.

www.kqed.org/mindshift/65...

But. What we can do is continue to talk about the work that is possible and what we gain when we reimagine what literacy instruction can look like.

Next year, we will no longer be teaching that curriculum. Instead we will be teaching out of a workbook and teaching with a scripted curriculum. I believe that what we are losing is far more significant than what will be gained. And I feel mostly powerless to change any of it.

and helps to create the kinds of human beings who can heal this world we are living in.

I am so proud of what we have built and believe that it not only turns kids into better readers and writers, but it also affirms student identity, builds empathy for and understanding of other people who they share this world with

For two decades now, I have worked with my fifth grade colleagues to build a literacy curriculum that weaves together reading and writing instruction with the kind of work that helps kids understand the ways in which we can use reading and writing to create positive change in the world.

Flyer advertising the workshops and facilitators of IREL and the special guest author, Jaqueline Woodson. Event is July 9th and 10th and is completely virtual.

There’s still time to register:

TheIREL.org

Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan prior to the investiture ceremony of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson September 30, 2022.

These three women are writing dissents like our lives depend on it. I’m grateful for their work documenting the severity of the crises of this moment.

Whenever there is a chance, show up and be loud. Do not make it easier for anyone to side with injustice. Make justice the better and easier choice. Because that is what keeps us moving forward when there is so much that threatens to push us back.

Tell them at school board meetings and at staff meetings and at community forums. Tell them at parent-teacher conferences and tell them at coffees with the superintendent. Thank them when they read books to our kids that celebrate LGBTQ+ lives and loudly criticize when they don’t.