so culturally responsive teaching is a
pedagogy that recognizes the importance
of infusing the students cultural
references in all of their learning
right we see it on a k-12 level all the
time we see teachers trying to make sure
that their students are getting the key
knowledge and adds their culture into it
we’ve seen it also inside the classroom
as well on a college level Brown
University actually has a department
focusing on culturally responsive
teaching as an important aspect of
student development one of my friends I
don’t know if you can tell by the
beautiful face that I put on for you
today I used some great moisturizer but
I’ve been working in Student Development
in higher education for about 12 years
now and what I do recognize is as
important and essential it is to be
culturally responsive in the classroom
it is even more so to make sure that we
are representing our students as
cultural influences and their
representation outside of the classroom
and what that means to me is that we
have to have a conversation about
student development and student
leadership I’m just gonna give you a few
items a few tidbits a few points that
are gonna help us understand what we
need to do to better recognize how to do
so so the first thing I want to talk to
you about is raising the level of your
communication we have to have authentic
conversations with our young folks and
not just our young folks but anyone who
considers themselves a student the
conversations have to be not only
authentic but they have to be raised at
another level and for me when I think
about communication the first thing that
comes to mind is hip-hop I’m a hip-hop
head grown up in that era and the thing
that I remember is a great DJ if you’ve
ever been to a party that had a terrible
DJ you already know what happens the
blending is not right the sound is a
little bit
off the DJs not on time see culturally
responsive leadership because that’s
what we’re gonna be talking about it’s
saying we can be the DJs in the
leadership spaces that means we have to
not blend the two sounds together or
blend the two students together that
doesn’t mean that we have to make sure
that the parties always turn up we have
to make sure that our students are
turning out into our spaces of cultural
development every single day say I’m a
hip hop head I told y’all this so
another thing that I also love about hip
hop and the original elements is
graffiti art and what I love about
graffiti art is that graffiti art is
this representation of colors when
everyone thought it was only supposed to
be black and white now what does that
have to do with cultural development and
culturally responsive leadership I’ll
tell you we have to start diversifying
our views our student leaders are not
one color one gender one type of
individual for us to be culturally
responsive and responsible as leaders as
educators as students you know we have
to do we have to start getting our spray
cans out and changing the colors
reaching the spaces and the places that
you never thought you could reach you
have received graffiti art sometimes
it’s moving across trains sometimes it’s
on the top of high towers and you wonder
how did they get those beautiful colors
there see I told y’all I’m a hip-hop
head and what I love about hip-hop also
was breakdancing and see breakdancing
was little thing in my house that we
could not do cuz my mom she’s a Haitian
woman that said we are not going to be
breakdancing anything in this house but
they were the risk takers for you to be
a culturally responsive educator you
have to take a risk you cannot be this
individual that is stuck in your
standard ways thinking that I can just
go in my merry way and be fine and dandy
you have to take a risk you have to go
to a place that you never thought you
could reach you have to go to a left
when they’ve always told you that right
was the way to go see I told you I love
hip-hop and this importance and its
relationship to culturally responsive
teaching and education and leadership I
can’t I can’t say enough about the fact
that I’m also an MC when I think about
culturally responsive leadership in its
effect and its impact on communication I
always say see I was born in
with crack was attacking blacks it rap
on the map and quickly adapted to that
and back to the back was cool in the
city schools and not in tougher than TN
I pity the fools too overzealous
storytellers reciting a boss out of this
world like spike when he was Mars was
going far into Boston across color that
Mike Tyson was still nice and it all
about others it was a time when Buster
was robbed Robin in here Jordan was
scoring often versus Boston satisfaction
the way to Jackson’s acted Sam acted a
crackhead but still made it happen my
versatile flow is like dusty Michael in
well so you know that I must be hot
worst Pape the campus like I’m Basquiat
and I’ll tell me now you ready and not
see that’s authentic sixteen but I still
got some bars left don’t get a twist
this yeah but we’ve got to be able to
have authentic conversations see the MC
was somebody I was able to go off the
top of their head or tell a story
because we need storytellers we need to
make sure that the important messages
that are happening right in front of our
face are moving along in history we
cannot be stuck in one space and that’s
why the communication levels have to go
up see can I tell you another thing
about culturally responsive leadership
here’s what I call trill edu we keepin
it trill right when I talk about
culturally responsive leadership we have
to start thinking about how do we
reshape our leadership curriculum model
for social change in leadership and so
forth and so on and the reason why I
scoff a little bit about that because
that model was introduced in 1993 and
there’s nothing wrong with being
introduced in 1993 but you know who else
was also around in 1993 Sears I’ll tell
you who else was the biggest and the
baddest in 1993 Macy’s Blockbuster Video
the biggest and the baddest in 1993 and
then all of a sudden something happened
there was a reshape in the culture in
those places just weren’t quite ready
and as educators we have to be ready we
can’t be those individuals that are
stuck in the past that have not
innovated right because innovation my
friends it’s oxygen for you to truly
breathe to catch a breath
you have to completely be involved and
be in love with the idea of not only
embracing the past with making sure that
every step of the present and the future
is paid attention to and evolving on a
day to day see I’m from New York City
and as a New Yorker things that are
synonymous with my beautiful city are
slices of pizza the Empire State
Building rudeness that’s not true that
last part that’s not true but you know
what’s also synonymous with New York
City are yellow cabs and about seven or
eight years ago a New York City yellow
cab was worth 1.3 million dollars that
means if you wanted to drive a yellow
cab in New York you have to have 1.3
million dollars today my friends 7 years
later it is worth 250 thousand dollars
they got left they got left my father
used to say listen if y’all are not
downstairs by 8:15 a.m. y’all are
getting left and I used to say no way
we’re getting left we’ll be all right
every morning we went down there my
mother my sister and I and we said we’ll
be fine we go downstairs right and it
would be all good until that one morning
my mom took her time that day and we was
it was about eight sixteen and I said
mom we were about to get left I lived in
the hood so you know the elevators were
slow and it was always a super trying to
ask us with the water still hot so we
gotta go my dad’s about to leave I got
outside and that car was gone I first
thought mouse that what kind of
parenting is this I got to go to school
in the morning but then my dad played a
trick on us he pulled around the corner
and said I told y’all at any time you
can get left and I said whoa that showed
me my friends then not only could I get
left by that car but I can get left in
any particular space that I occupy and
so can you and that’s why we must
innovate that’s why we must continue to
change that’s why we must continue to
adapt to all the different things listen
I hear you you may not be on snapchat or
you may not be posting Instagram
stories but if you consider yourself an
educator you better understand what
those terms even mean you better
understand what the the new snapchat
update means to your students you need
to understand if your students are
watching Netflix or not but beyond all
of those things you need to understand
the pain than the struggle that your
students are going through when students
are telling you listen my pronouns are
him or he or her or they if you’re not
being culturally responsive you know
what you’re doing you’re getting left
you have to understand from all points
of walk what does it mean to be leaders
to be change agents right now the third
thing that I always talk about if you
don’t mind me going to my notebook cause
I’m gonna write I’m a poet so sometimes
I like to keep my words coast to me and
when I think about this last thing I
want to talk to you about I talk about
redefining the definition of what it
means to be an educator see you’re an
educator there are people in this room
that are my students they’re my
educators there are people in this room
that are older than me they’re my
educators there are people in this room
that I’ve never even met in my life and
they are my educators you know what they
are also my students I’m also a student
to them we have to redefine the idea of
what it means to be an educator if we
truly want to be culturally responsive
in our educational process everyone is
an educator that’s what I call we call
it the trill edu way everyone is an
educator but in the same regards
everyone is also a student we’re not in
this space where we’re going to live in
these hierarchies where one person
because they have X amount of degrees or
X amount of experience is automatically
the expert in every particular field
there are people that are way more
knowledgeable to me then me rather in
science or the math fields or maybe even
literature as well but there’s spaces
that we can all learn together and
that’s what culturally responsive
education and leadership is today we
always fight to figure out where can we
find leaders so often I have college
students come to me and they say Jeff I
know what to do after I graduate Jeff I
can’t find a job in my major Jeff I’m
struggling to recognize what happens
next and I say you know what we didn’t
do a good enough job being culturally
responsive to you we did not prepare you
for the innovations that are happening
outside of your space and that’s what we
have to do if we want to change
education in my friend that’s what I’m
here to do this is not me having a
conversation with you this is me
announcing the movement to reshape and
change the idea of education this is not
just me announcing this movement but I
always go to my notebook because it has
influences to me and I go to this quote
by one of my favorite people in history
you might have heard of her she goes by
the name of Harriet Tubman and what
Harriet Tubman once said was I grew up a
neglected weed ignorant of liberty
having no experience of and I grew up a
neglected we’ve so many of our students
right now are being neglected by
educators who are not prepared to be
culturally responsive we have so many
students that are ignorant of leadership
because our educators are choosing not
to be culturally responsive but you know
what I love about that quote is that
although she was a neglected weed
although she was ignorant of Liberty
somehow someway she made multiple trips
over five to nine trips back and forth
to identify something she didn’t even
know existed imagine that imagine
finding leadership finding something
that you didn’t even know existed
you had no line set of this thing in the
future but Harriet Tubman told you we’re
gonna find freedom so what we’re gonna
do today is make this commitment to find
leadership freedom to find the existence
that is going to push us to a space of
cultural responsibility and
responsiveness this is where we
announced the movement this was day one
and there’s many more days to come so
let’s band together let’s find what
education truly means let’s be
culturally responsive let’s innovate and
find our oxygen
thank you very much [Applause]
pedagogy that recognizes the importance
of infusing the students cultural
references in all of their learning
right we see it on a k-12 level all the
time we see teachers trying to make sure
that their students are getting the key
knowledge and adds their culture into it
we’ve seen it also inside the classroom
as well on a college level Brown
University actually has a department
focusing on culturally responsive
teaching as an important aspect of
student development one of my friends I
don’t know if you can tell by the
beautiful face that I put on for you
today I used some great moisturizer but
I’ve been working in Student Development
in higher education for about 12 years
now and what I do recognize is as
important and essential it is to be
culturally responsive in the classroom
it is even more so to make sure that we
are representing our students as
cultural influences and their
representation outside of the classroom
and what that means to me is that we
have to have a conversation about
student development and student
leadership I’m just gonna give you a few
items a few tidbits a few points that
are gonna help us understand what we
need to do to better recognize how to do
so so the first thing I want to talk to
you about is raising the level of your
communication we have to have authentic
conversations with our young folks and
not just our young folks but anyone who
considers themselves a student the
conversations have to be not only
authentic but they have to be raised at
another level and for me when I think
about communication the first thing that
comes to mind is hip-hop I’m a hip-hop
head grown up in that era and the thing
that I remember is a great DJ if you’ve
ever been to a party that had a terrible
DJ you already know what happens the
blending is not right the sound is a
little bit
off the DJs not on time see culturally
responsive leadership because that’s
what we’re gonna be talking about it’s
saying we can be the DJs in the
leadership spaces that means we have to
not blend the two sounds together or
blend the two students together that
doesn’t mean that we have to make sure
that the parties always turn up we have
to make sure that our students are
turning out into our spaces of cultural
development every single day say I’m a
hip hop head I told y’all this so
another thing that I also love about hip
hop and the original elements is
graffiti art and what I love about
graffiti art is that graffiti art is
this representation of colors when
everyone thought it was only supposed to
be black and white now what does that
have to do with cultural development and
culturally responsive leadership I’ll
tell you we have to start diversifying
our views our student leaders are not
one color one gender one type of
individual for us to be culturally
responsive and responsible as leaders as
educators as students you know we have
to do we have to start getting our spray
cans out and changing the colors
reaching the spaces and the places that
you never thought you could reach you
have received graffiti art sometimes
it’s moving across trains sometimes it’s
on the top of high towers and you wonder
how did they get those beautiful colors
there see I told y’all I’m a hip-hop
head and what I love about hip-hop also
was breakdancing and see breakdancing
was little thing in my house that we
could not do cuz my mom she’s a Haitian
woman that said we are not going to be
breakdancing anything in this house but
they were the risk takers for you to be
a culturally responsive educator you
have to take a risk you cannot be this
individual that is stuck in your
standard ways thinking that I can just
go in my merry way and be fine and dandy
you have to take a risk you have to go
to a place that you never thought you
could reach you have to go to a left
when they’ve always told you that right
was the way to go see I told you I love
hip-hop and this importance and its
relationship to culturally responsive
teaching and education and leadership I
can’t I can’t say enough about the fact
that I’m also an MC when I think about
culturally responsive leadership in its
effect and its impact on communication I
always say see I was born in
with crack was attacking blacks it rap
on the map and quickly adapted to that
and back to the back was cool in the
city schools and not in tougher than TN
I pity the fools too overzealous
storytellers reciting a boss out of this
world like spike when he was Mars was
going far into Boston across color that
Mike Tyson was still nice and it all
about others it was a time when Buster
was robbed Robin in here Jordan was
scoring often versus Boston satisfaction
the way to Jackson’s acted Sam acted a
crackhead but still made it happen my
versatile flow is like dusty Michael in
well so you know that I must be hot
worst Pape the campus like I’m Basquiat
and I’ll tell me now you ready and not
see that’s authentic sixteen but I still
got some bars left don’t get a twist
this yeah but we’ve got to be able to
have authentic conversations see the MC
was somebody I was able to go off the
top of their head or tell a story
because we need storytellers we need to
make sure that the important messages
that are happening right in front of our
face are moving along in history we
cannot be stuck in one space and that’s
why the communication levels have to go
up see can I tell you another thing
about culturally responsive leadership
here’s what I call trill edu we keepin
it trill right when I talk about
culturally responsive leadership we have
to start thinking about how do we
reshape our leadership curriculum model
for social change in leadership and so
forth and so on and the reason why I
scoff a little bit about that because
that model was introduced in 1993 and
there’s nothing wrong with being
introduced in 1993 but you know who else
was also around in 1993 Sears I’ll tell
you who else was the biggest and the
baddest in 1993 Macy’s Blockbuster Video
the biggest and the baddest in 1993 and
then all of a sudden something happened
there was a reshape in the culture in
those places just weren’t quite ready
and as educators we have to be ready we
can’t be those individuals that are
stuck in the past that have not
innovated right because innovation my
friends it’s oxygen for you to truly
breathe to catch a breath
you have to completely be involved and
be in love with the idea of not only
embracing the past with making sure that
every step of the present and the future
is paid attention to and evolving on a
day to day see I’m from New York City
and as a New Yorker things that are
synonymous with my beautiful city are
slices of pizza the Empire State
Building rudeness that’s not true that
last part that’s not true but you know
what’s also synonymous with New York
City are yellow cabs and about seven or
eight years ago a New York City yellow
cab was worth 1.3 million dollars that
means if you wanted to drive a yellow
cab in New York you have to have 1.3
million dollars today my friends 7 years
later it is worth 250 thousand dollars
they got left they got left my father
used to say listen if y’all are not
downstairs by 8:15 a.m. y’all are
getting left and I used to say no way
we’re getting left we’ll be all right
every morning we went down there my
mother my sister and I and we said we’ll
be fine we go downstairs right and it
would be all good until that one morning
my mom took her time that day and we was
it was about eight sixteen and I said
mom we were about to get left I lived in
the hood so you know the elevators were
slow and it was always a super trying to
ask us with the water still hot so we
gotta go my dad’s about to leave I got
outside and that car was gone I first
thought mouse that what kind of
parenting is this I got to go to school
in the morning but then my dad played a
trick on us he pulled around the corner
and said I told y’all at any time you
can get left and I said whoa that showed
me my friends then not only could I get
left by that car but I can get left in
any particular space that I occupy and
so can you and that’s why we must
innovate that’s why we must continue to
change that’s why we must continue to
adapt to all the different things listen
I hear you you may not be on snapchat or
you may not be posting Instagram
stories but if you consider yourself an
educator you better understand what
those terms even mean you better
understand what the the new snapchat
update means to your students you need
to understand if your students are
watching Netflix or not but beyond all
of those things you need to understand
the pain than the struggle that your
students are going through when students
are telling you listen my pronouns are
him or he or her or they if you’re not
being culturally responsive you know
what you’re doing you’re getting left
you have to understand from all points
of walk what does it mean to be leaders
to be change agents right now the third
thing that I always talk about if you
don’t mind me going to my notebook cause
I’m gonna write I’m a poet so sometimes
I like to keep my words coast to me and
when I think about this last thing I
want to talk to you about I talk about
redefining the definition of what it
means to be an educator see you’re an
educator there are people in this room
that are my students they’re my
educators there are people in this room
that are older than me they’re my
educators there are people in this room
that I’ve never even met in my life and
they are my educators you know what they
are also my students I’m also a student
to them we have to redefine the idea of
what it means to be an educator if we
truly want to be culturally responsive
in our educational process everyone is
an educator that’s what I call we call
it the trill edu way everyone is an
educator but in the same regards
everyone is also a student we’re not in
this space where we’re going to live in
these hierarchies where one person
because they have X amount of degrees or
X amount of experience is automatically
the expert in every particular field
there are people that are way more
knowledgeable to me then me rather in
science or the math fields or maybe even
literature as well but there’s spaces
that we can all learn together and
that’s what culturally responsive
education and leadership is today we
always fight to figure out where can we
find leaders so often I have college
students come to me and they say Jeff I
know what to do after I graduate Jeff I
can’t find a job in my major Jeff I’m
struggling to recognize what happens
next and I say you know what we didn’t
do a good enough job being culturally
responsive to you we did not prepare you
for the innovations that are happening
outside of your space and that’s what we
have to do if we want to change
education in my friend that’s what I’m
here to do this is not me having a
conversation with you this is me
announcing the movement to reshape and
change the idea of education this is not
just me announcing this movement but I
always go to my notebook because it has
influences to me and I go to this quote
by one of my favorite people in history
you might have heard of her she goes by
the name of Harriet Tubman and what
Harriet Tubman once said was I grew up a
neglected weed ignorant of liberty
having no experience of and I grew up a
neglected we’ve so many of our students
right now are being neglected by
educators who are not prepared to be
culturally responsive we have so many
students that are ignorant of leadership
because our educators are choosing not
to be culturally responsive but you know
what I love about that quote is that
although she was a neglected weed
although she was ignorant of Liberty
somehow someway she made multiple trips
over five to nine trips back and forth
to identify something she didn’t even
know existed imagine that imagine
finding leadership finding something
that you didn’t even know existed
you had no line set of this thing in the
future but Harriet Tubman told you we’re
gonna find freedom so what we’re gonna
do today is make this commitment to find
leadership freedom to find the existence
that is going to push us to a space of
cultural responsibility and
responsiveness this is where we
announced the movement this was day one
and there’s many more days to come so
let’s band together let’s find what
education truly means let’s be
culturally responsive let’s innovate and
find our oxygen
thank you very much [Applause]
Please follow and like us: