Episode 3: The Teacher As Change Agent with Julia Hendrix

Email for Julia: julia.hendrix@reading.k12.ma.us

Transcript:

(transcribed by kayla.r.fainer@gmail.com)

Melissa Milner  0:00

Hi, this is Melissa Milner. Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast. The goal of this weekly podcast is to help you explore your passions and learn from others in education and beyond to better your teaching. The Teacher As... will highlight uncommon parallels to teaching, as well as share practical ideas for the classroom. 

In this episode, I interview my principal, Julia Hendrix. She's a leader in the area of talking to students, parents and teachers about equity and opening up the dialogue. I felt it was important to start The Teacher As... with something that is close to my heart, which is all students feeling that they belong. A sense of belonging comes from having these hard discussions. 

Also in this interview, Julia talks about starting the year and all the difficulties that go along with that. And we also laugh a little bit. So without further ado, here's my interview with Julia Hendrix. Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast, Julia Hendrix! What do you want The Teacher As... podcast listeners to know about you and your work?

Julia Hendrix  1:14

Well, I think the most important thing to know about me and my work, but I think also to know about the work of being a principal or a building leader in general, is that you have to really love being in a school building where anything can happen at any time. I like a lot of things about this job. 

But one of the things that I like the most is that no two days are ever the same. And I think it's also important to really enjoy conversations with people, with children and adults, because the work is really about building relationships and knowing people. And you have to be willing to do a lot of listening and talking to make that happen.

Melissa Milner  2:09

Sounds exactly like what I see day in and day out from you. You're very true to that whole philosophy.

Julia Hendrix  2:17

Well, I think one of the things that's made the current situation difficult is that the things that I think are really important about running a school or about working in a school are the things that are missing right now, which is those kinds of daily reinforcement of relationships,

Melissa Milner  2:36

Very difficult. So thinking about your work so far as a principal or math coach, whatever, what is your proudest moment in your professional work so far?

Julia Hendrix  2:50

I don't know if I have one proudest moment in my professional work. I think that the moments, plural moments, that I feel the most proud of are the times when I see teachers and children, students, willing to take a risk and not being afraid of what's going to happen if they try something and it doesn't work out. I think so many times-- and that's what I really try to instill in people. 

I don't want children or adults out there just doing crazy things that don't make any sense. But I want people to be willing to take thoughtful risk and maybe not know exactly what's going to happen when you try this. But you still are willing to try it. And I feel like so much good thinking and good ideas don't get turned into reality because people are afraid of what if it doesn't work. 

And so I think I'm very proud of the moments when I see the people around me-- when I realize that people really understand that about me, that I'm not going to get angry or mad if you try something in a thoughtful way that turns out not to work. I'm going to get more upset if people aren't willing to try things. I don't know if that's clear, but that's, I think, what makes me proudest, when I feel like, okay, people feel safe enough in this environment. They are really willing to take risks.

Melissa Milner  4:32

Yes, that's very powerful.

Julia Hendrix  4:33

That's when I feel like I know I've done my job.

Melissa Milner  4:36

I think you foster that in your staff, because you're constantly taking risks, calculated, well thought out, researched risks. We see that and it empowers us. So amen.

 Julia Hendrix  4:49

Thank you.

Melissa Milner  4:50

You're welcome. So talk about risks, what structures need to be changed in education to allow for equity?

Julia Hendrix  4:58

Well, that's a really interesting question. Because as you know, our school is very much a predominantly white school in terms of both the staff and the students. But that doesn't mean that we cannot and should not be addressing issues of equity. Not just because we do have students and some staff who are not from the majority culture or white culture, but also because it's better for all of us if we have equity. 

But there's always the question of how do you do that in a predominantly or majority white environment. And actually, one of the structures that really needs to change that I was actually talking in a meeting about today is hiring and how we hire for diversity. And just in the past few months, I've been thinking about, what are the questions we should be asking applicants? What are the things that should be in our job descriptions that put equity and anti-bias thinking to the front of our hires? 

And I've been in a couple of meetings with the Director of Human Resources and some other colleagues where we're beginning to think about what needs to change about our hiring practices so that we have a more diverse pool of educators in our district. And so that's one structure I've been thinking a lot about lately.

Another structure, and actually one of the positive things about this shutdown for me is that I've become much more facile using technology. And I realized that a lot of our committees at Birch Meadow, especially community committees, we end up having people who are very constrained by being able to be in the building at certain times for meetings. And we're now going to take a lot of those meetings and make them virtual. And as a result of that, we now have a M.E.T.C.O. parent who's going to be on our school site council next year, because we're going to do the meetings virtually. 

And I think about that as such a-- it seems like such a small structure, but it's not one that ever occurred to me, that by doing that we could increase the diversity of representation on school committees. So I think when you say what structures need to be changed in education to offer equity, I'm beginning to think all of them, which is a little overwhelming.

I mean, even in our most recent hire for a classroom teacher, one of the questions we asked was, if money was not an object, describe your ideal classroom library. And when we asked the question, one of the things that we were expecting to hear from a candidate we would hire is a discussion about creating a classroom library that has diverse representations, both in fictional characters and in nonfiction books. And so it was like a very simple question. But our lens about the response to that question, it was very specific about one of the things we wanted. Somebody who came in and talked only about the books that they read as a child and only wanting to recreate that kind of library was not what we wanted to hear. 

I feel like all our structures need to change. And I know one of the things I'm looking at this summer is looking at the new social studies framework. And I'm going to try to find some resources for discussing the history of people of color and underrepresented populations for every grade level that align with the new frameworks. And I've been talking to the humanities coordinator about this. So honestly, the more I do this work, the more I come to the conclusion that we need to change everything, which is kind of overwhelming.

Melissa Milner  9:02

Yeah. Well, it's interesting. When you mentioned the social studies, I've been reading Stamped From the Beginning.

Julia Hendrix  9:09

Oh, it's on my list.

Melissa Milner  9:11

It's absolutely unbelievable. And it's like, we never learned any of this in school. And then I looked at the social studies MA frameworks, and they really tried to start to incorporate these things. But I'm looking at it, and I'm saying, this is not enough. This is not where it needs to be. 

So if that's that risk taking where if it tells me I should teach about the impact of explorers, I'm going to go further than what it says right here. Because we're missing a lot. But I know you're working on a project or something with literature, like diverse books?

 Julia Hendrix  9:48

The school site council and I applied for it. We did not get a grant to do equity book bags for Birch Meadow School. So I'm still trying to figure out how to do that. I do have a workshop I've developed with two other educators who I have a group with around using children's books as a way to study primarily United States history, even though we do have some Canadian history thrown in there as well. And using books about different historical events, and I call it "The History You Were Not Taught." And then recreating a US history timeline from the information you get from these books so that we can overlay this whole history of African Americans, of Mexican Americans, of indigenous peoples, of Japanese Americans, overlay it over the more traditional timeline that we were taught in school.

Melissa Milner  10:56

Right. You did that at our staff meeting.

Julia Hendrix  10:58

I've done that in a staff meeting. And then I was going to be doing it at a conference that got shut down this Spring. But that is something that I am working on. And I think, really, the other thing I'm working on, and this is a challenge, even though it's a really good challenge, is really getting community conversations about race going. And not only in the staff, but also in the family community. 

So I've developed my Zoom skills so I can do this. So we had a meeting in June, and really the focus of the meeting in June was why is it so hard to talk about race. And I'm taking the responses that people gave after that meeting to set a topic or conversational theme for July 16th's meeting, which once again, people can come to. 

And it's going to be focused conversations. And it's not designed to teach anybody anything new, but more to promote a productive conversation about our own attitudes about race, and our own experiences with race and our own feelings about them, so that our whole community can begin to become comfortable with these conversations and begin thinking about these things.

Melissa Milner  12:18

Amazing. As I said, you're basically a revolutionary.

Julia Hendrix  12:24

Well, thank you. I think it's hard. It was interesting. One of the comments that made me laugh is when I had the survey at the end of the June community conversation, and it was, you've got to get more men to come to these, which I thought was very funny.

Melissa Milner  12:47

So the next question you sort of already answered, but I want to make sure there's nothing else. What are you zooming in on right now in your work?

[ZOOMING IN SOUNDBITE]

 Julia Hendrix  12:58

The thing that I'm zooming in on that gives me satisfaction and a feeling that I'm doing something that really matters is the work around equity and anti-bias. And that's tremendously, and I've talked a lot about that, and that is kind of overwhelming and inspiring work at the same time. I'm also zooming in on, at this exact moment in my work, how are we going to start the school year?

Melissa Milner  13:34

Yeah, that little chestnut.

Julia Hendrix  13:36

That's kind of an adventure. We have the additional issue of we're going to be three classrooms short at the beginning of the school year because of the delayed delivery of modulars. So I'm trying right now just to figure out the logistics of who's going to be being educated in which learning space. The work around equity and anti-bias-- and frankly, and I say this to students constantly, my first job as a principal is to make Birch Meadow School a school that is safe for people, safe for their bodies and safe for their feelings. 

And what I am realizing is safe with their feelings really encompasses all of this anti-bias work that has not been-- that is a huge part of the safety for all the children. Not just for children of color, but for all the children. And so that's what I feel like is the really important thing I'm doing right now.

Melissa Milner  14:36

Yes. Is there anything else you want to talk about before we get to one of my favorite questions?

Julia Hendrix  14:44

No, I think we're good.

Melissa Milner  14:48

This was amazing. So what is your favorite movie, and why?

Julia Hendrix  14:54

Well, I love this question. And I have to say, if you had asked me this six months ago, I would have said my favorite movie is All About Eve.

Melissa Milner  15:06

I love that movie.

Julia Hendrix  15:07

I just love that movie. I think it is so incredibly well written, and so clever and just so fascinating. And the idea that I think it might have been Marilyn Monroe's very first movie when she's the starlet at the dinner, at the party. But I just love that movie. However, lately, and I think this speaks to probably our current situation, I am finding myself more and more in love with What's Up, Doc?. Do you know What's Up, Doc?

Melissa Milner  15:44

Of course.

Julia Hendrix  15:46

I watched it again recently, and I am now visiting my family in South Carolina. And I was thinking about telling my mother, we need to watch What's Up, Doc? together. I'm beginning to think-- It used to be I watched All About Eve every few months. But I think I might be watching What's Up, Doc?, because my son watched it with me one time. And he said, the thing about this movie, it has every device from every comedy movie ever. And you think it's going to be too much, but it's really not.

Melissa Milner  16:20

That's great.

Julia Hendrix  16:21

I'd say that that might be getting ready to elbow All About Eve out of my first place slot for movies.

Melissa Milner  16:31

Fascinating. I ask this question, because it really tells a lot about a person, what their favorite movie is. So that is really interesting.

Julia Hendrix  16:39

What is your favorite movie, and why?

Melissa Milner  16:41

My favorite movie, and I'm going to share it in my very first episode, but I can share it with you now. And it's not for reasons that people usually think. My favorite movie is Jaws.

Julia Hendrix  16:52

Oh! And because?

Melissa Milner  16:55

It's actually about people who are very different, and in the beginning, very antagonistic towards each other, have to come together to solve a problem. And since I was a little kid, I love that about that movie once they're on that boat. Once he says that famous line, it turns into a lesson on working together. Wow. Yeah.

Julia Hendrix  17:20

I'm feeling that my reasons for my favorite movies are so much less thoughtful than your reason for yours.

Melissa Milner  17:27

I already wrote a blog about it, I post about it, you know, cuz I'm like, why is this my favorite movie? It's just about some silly shark. Okay, I watched it when I was very young, and I was impressionable. And then I'm like, no, it's once we're on that boat with those three men, and they're showing each other their scars. And they're like, wait, we have something in common. And very well written, very underrated for that.

Julia Hendrix  17:52

Well, maybe I have to rewatch it with that lens.

Melissa Milner  17:55

Julia, thank you so much for taking your time out during your summer, even though you work all summer long to be on The Teacher As... podcast.

Julia Hendrix  18:03

Well, you are very welcome. Thank you so much for giving me the chance to talk with you.

Melissa Milner 18:08

If you enjoyed this episode, and have not done so already, please hit the subscribe button for The Teacher As... podcast so you can get future episodes. For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. My contact information for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are also on my website. 

I am sending a special thanks to Linda and Lester Fleishman, my mom and dad, for being so supportive. They are the voices you hear in the Zooming In soundbite. And my dad composed and performed the background music you're hearing right now. My intro music was “Upbeat Party” by Scott Holmes. 

So what are you zooming in on right now? I would love to hear from you. My hope is that we all share what we're doing in the classroom in order to teach, remind, affirm and inspire each other. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap!