Featured Teachers
ITOC fellows are racial justice leaders in K-12 schools. Their passion, thoughtfulness and creativity have led to curriculum, initiatives and community building that transform school culture and learning at school sites across the nation. Here, we highlight profiles of select ITOC fellows that have received Racial Justice Teacher Innovation Grants (RJ-TIGs) from ITOC and can contribute to the learning and inspiration of other K-12 educators and school leaders.
Altagracia Montilla is the Executive Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the non-profit organization: The Center of Supportive Schools. In addition to her role as executive director, she is also the Lead Community Schools Director for the organization. Growing up in South Bronx, Altagracia knew at a young age that she wanted to become an educator. Testing into a very selective high school, she saw a major difference between the school she attended and the one her middle school friends attended. “While they went to schools with worn out materials and dry teaching,” Altagracia says, “my high school provided smart-boards and computers in every classroom, college courses, international trips, and a wide selection of electives to choose from. I didn’t think it was fair for a test score to divide us or justify the difference in the quality of education that we received.” From this experience, Altagracia was motivated to become an educator so that she could “support students in seeing the brilliance in themselves and to challenge the ways the education system tries to tell them they are not.”
Altagracia received the RJ-TIG to support her project, “How Racist Are We? Assessing Racial Justice in Schools to Identify Next Steps.” This project is designed to help teachers throughout the course of an academic year to identify where their schools stand on a spectrum between “racist schools” to “anti-racist school.” Through this project, she will coach teachers to implement their own racial justice action plans. The project evolved out of a workshop Altagracia presented of the same title during the 9th Annual ITOC conference, in which she discussed her experiences exploring a racial justice framework at a school and implementing a racial justice action plan. Through this project, Altagracia says she hopes to “alleviate some of the invisible tax teachers of Color experience by providing teachers with the language and frameworks to understand their school’s progress towards racial justice.”
Altagracia received the RJ-TIG to support her project, “How Racist Are We? Assessing Racial Justice in Schools to Identify Next Steps.” This project is designed to help teachers throughout the course of an academic year to identify where their schools stand on a spectrum between “racist schools” to “anti-racist school.” Through this project, she will coach teachers to implement their own racial justice action plans. The project evolved out of a workshop Altagracia presented of the same title during the 9th Annual ITOC conference, in which she discussed her experiences exploring a racial justice framework at a school and implementing a racial justice action plan. Through this project, Altagracia says she hopes to “alleviate some of the invisible tax teachers of Color experience by providing teachers with the language and frameworks to understand their school’s progress towards racial justice.”
Tamasha Emedi, is from Olympia, Washington. Growing up, Tamasha dreamt of becoming president one day. As she began to learn more about politics, Tamasha realized that what she really wanted to do was become an educator and contribute to a school system that respected students. For Tamasha, being an educator means modeling a future without oppression in her own classroom.
As a recipient of the 2019-2020 Racial Justice Teacher Innovation Grant (RJ-TIG), Tamasha is building bridges for Queer educators of Color in the Pacific Northwest. Tamasha’s project involves connecting Queer people of Color from around Seattle and South King County who work towards liberation by asking: “Can we create spaces for holistic approaches to self-care and affirmation for teachers of Color?” Tamasha’s inspiration for this work stems from her experience at the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice (ITOC) conference. At ITOC, she admired the ways in which participants not only engaged in workshops together, but also shared meals and sleeping spaces together. Tamasha now hopes to bring something similar from ITOC to teachers of Color in her surrounding communities.
As a recipient of the 2019-2020 Racial Justice Teacher Innovation Grant (RJ-TIG), Tamasha is building bridges for Queer educators of Color in the Pacific Northwest. Tamasha’s project involves connecting Queer people of Color from around Seattle and South King County who work towards liberation by asking: “Can we create spaces for holistic approaches to self-care and affirmation for teachers of Color?” Tamasha’s inspiration for this work stems from her experience at the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice (ITOC) conference. At ITOC, she admired the ways in which participants not only engaged in workshops together, but also shared meals and sleeping spaces together. Tamasha now hopes to bring something similar from ITOC to teachers of Color in her surrounding communities.
Martha Torres was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and immigrated to California at seven years old. Growing up in East LA, Martha attended Pacific Palisades High School, where she became a tutor and advocate for students who had just arrived from mostly Mexico and did not speak English. Through this experience, she was motivated to become a teacher. Martha currently teaches at the same elementary school she attended as a child.
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Ines Mendoza is from South Gate, CA and moved to Cerritos, CA at six years old. Having always felt frustrated about the injustices people of color experienced, she decided to become an educator right after the 2016 elections in order to make a difference in the lives of youth. As an educator, Ines strives to advocate on behalf of her students’ needs, and does her best to value their culture and validate their stories and feelings. Ines is currently in her second year of teaching Kindergarten and 1st grade in south LA and is working towards ensuring that her school is a safe and happy space for students.
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Ines and Martha have partnered together to create the Los Angeles Teachers Committed to Racial Justice project. As recipients of the 2019-2020 Racial Justice Teacher Innovation Grant (RJ-TIG), Ines and Martha will use the grant and program to collective teachers, and start after-school programs for 5th and 6th grade students at various schools. The program will focus on the cultural wealth of students, as they are guided to build relationships with each other and their community. Ines plans to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of Watts and its history of resistance and resiliency, and Martha wants to center the community history of resistance in East Los Angeles as the foundation to students' learning.
Michael Espinoza is a teacher at Branham High School in San Jose, CA, where he teaches English for freshmen, Advanced Placement (AP) Literature for juniors and seniors, and AVID for juniors and seniors. A second year teacher, racial justice guides Michael’s teaching philosophy as he works towards building more equitable representation of students of Color within AP courses and a safe and welcoming school for marginalized students. In the face of school-wide racial tensions, Michael helped to form the group Latinos Unidos to engage students in deep conversations about race-related issues. A student led organization, the members of Latinos Unidos work together towards brainstorming ideas and ways to combat racism within their own school and district.
Michael first attended ITOC after graduating from his teacher credential program in 2017, and finding ITOC a space of rejuvenation and healing, he returned a year later. There he found connections with educators who validated his experiences as a new teacher of Color, and to further this work, he joined the Alliance for Black and Brown Advocacy (ABBA) along with other teachers who have attended ITOC. ABBA is a group dedicated to supporting new teachers of Color through their credential programs and first years of teaching, and is also responsive in times of injustice towards Black and Brown communities. Taking what he learned at ITOC back to his context, Michael is currently collaborating with a colleague to create justice-focused school-wide professional development to foster better relationships between teachers and students of Color. He is a recipient of the 2018-2019 Racial Justice Teacher Innovation Grant (RJ-TIG) and will present his work at the 2019 ITOC convening. Centering Latinx Students at School, the grant has been used towards the aforementioned Latinos Unidos organization, to support the development of a conference built around leadership in the Latinx community, and a scholarship to be presented to a Latinx student later this year. (3/19)
Michael first attended ITOC after graduating from his teacher credential program in 2017, and finding ITOC a space of rejuvenation and healing, he returned a year later. There he found connections with educators who validated his experiences as a new teacher of Color, and to further this work, he joined the Alliance for Black and Brown Advocacy (ABBA) along with other teachers who have attended ITOC. ABBA is a group dedicated to supporting new teachers of Color through their credential programs and first years of teaching, and is also responsive in times of injustice towards Black and Brown communities. Taking what he learned at ITOC back to his context, Michael is currently collaborating with a colleague to create justice-focused school-wide professional development to foster better relationships between teachers and students of Color. He is a recipient of the 2018-2019 Racial Justice Teacher Innovation Grant (RJ-TIG) and will present his work at the 2019 ITOC convening. Centering Latinx Students at School, the grant has been used towards the aforementioned Latinos Unidos organization, to support the development of a conference built around leadership in the Latinx community, and a scholarship to be presented to a Latinx student later this year. (3/19)
“ITOC has impacted my work as an artist, as an educator, as a scholar and as an activist.” - Luis
Luis Genaro Garcia has served as an art teacher at Nava College Prep Academy and his alma mater, Thomas Jefferson High School, in Los Angeles, CA for the last fourteen years. He also holds a Ph.D. in Education from Claremont Graduate University. A notable Chicano artist whose work has been featured in shows across the nation, Luis uses art to develop students’ awareness of social injustice within their communities, studying problems such as racism, sexism, machismo, and patriarchy, and wanting students to see how these issues affect their education and everyday lives. An art unit he has developed uses the game of La Loteria (a game similar to bingo) to analyze the artwork of its traditional game cards, and recreate them to challenge issues of race, class, and gender by using students' occupational knowledge of their parents.
Since 2013, Luis has collaborated with ITOC, as a participant, presenter, and photographer, documenting the conference and facilitating workshops such as Educators for Immigrant Rights: Critical Strategies and Global Struggles, and La Loteria and Art Education as Creative Resistance: Embracing Working Class Occupations in Our Classrooms. Luis says that ITOC has influenced his critical consciousness as an artist, educator, scholar, and activist, and it has allowed him to connect with other like-minded teachers who have inspired him to implement new ideas in his own classroom.
A United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) member, Luis participated in the recent strike in the fight to improve L.A. public schools, where he joined fellow teachers for days in pouring rain. Participating in the marches and demonstrations, Luis used his talent as an artist to create stencils and picket signs for others to use, including a sign which read: “Invest in Students’ Future,” depicted by a face of a graduating student. He also created a protest sign of the popular counter-image to the dehumanizing migrant road sign found on California’s Interstate 5 freeway (see photo). Luis’ most memorable moment from the strike includes a day where he took students to Plaza de Cultura y Artes for a photography exhibit so they could access learning and engagement without crossing the picket line. Now that the strike is over, while he is proud of the collaborative resistance demonstrated by teachers to improve the conditions of their schools and students, he still feels there is much more that needs to change in LAUSD to justly serve communities. As he continues to cultivate students’ critical understanding of the world through arts education, we at ITOC are so inspired by Luis and are grateful for his transformative work! (2/2019)
Since 2013, Luis has collaborated with ITOC, as a participant, presenter, and photographer, documenting the conference and facilitating workshops such as Educators for Immigrant Rights: Critical Strategies and Global Struggles, and La Loteria and Art Education as Creative Resistance: Embracing Working Class Occupations in Our Classrooms. Luis says that ITOC has influenced his critical consciousness as an artist, educator, scholar, and activist, and it has allowed him to connect with other like-minded teachers who have inspired him to implement new ideas in his own classroom.
A United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) member, Luis participated in the recent strike in the fight to improve L.A. public schools, where he joined fellow teachers for days in pouring rain. Participating in the marches and demonstrations, Luis used his talent as an artist to create stencils and picket signs for others to use, including a sign which read: “Invest in Students’ Future,” depicted by a face of a graduating student. He also created a protest sign of the popular counter-image to the dehumanizing migrant road sign found on California’s Interstate 5 freeway (see photo). Luis’ most memorable moment from the strike includes a day where he took students to Plaza de Cultura y Artes for a photography exhibit so they could access learning and engagement without crossing the picket line. Now that the strike is over, while he is proud of the collaborative resistance demonstrated by teachers to improve the conditions of their schools and students, he still feels there is much more that needs to change in LAUSD to justly serve communities. As he continues to cultivate students’ critical understanding of the world through arts education, we at ITOC are so inspired by Luis and are grateful for his transformative work! (2/2019)
Emi Ito is a Japanese American Multiracial mother and elementary school teacher. She has been passionate about teaching Japanese American history to elementary age children for her 17 years of teaching in Bay Area public schools. She currently serves as the Committee Chair for Tsuru for Solidarity’s Families & Kids Committee and is a Steering Committee member of Japanese Americans for Justice. She is a Dharma Teacher at her Buddhist Church, has taught many years in a Japanese American summer program in the Bay Area, and has directed and run after school programs focused on the experiences of Multiracial and Transracially adopted youth. Last year she wrote a document titled, the Bill of Responsibilities for Multiracial People of Color With Light Skin & White Passing Privilege, which was inspired by the work of Dr. Maria PP Root. She is honored to work with a dynamic and dedicated group of individuals via Tsuru for Solidarity and Japanese Americans for Justice, to make our collective work to fight injustice intergenerational and inclusive of our children
After her first year at ITOC in 2015 and in response to the pervasiveness of cultural appropriation during Halloween, Emi created a flyer for caregivers that guided her elementary school towards pro-active, structural change. Emi explains, "The Ethnically/Racially/Culturally Based Halloween Costume Flyer is an invitation for communities to begin thinking and talking together about concrete ways we can all help to build equitable, inclusive, safe, and ultimately respectful learning communities for our children. When we plant the seeds of respect early-on, we reap the benefits of growing a learning culture that values and honors all people and all voices.“ By engaging caregivers around the negative impact of these common practices on racially minorized communities, and actual constructive ways to guide and think about the impact of their choices on others, Emi is working to ensure a school where all children feel safe, welcome and culturally celebrated. See the flyer below in English or Spanish.
After her first year at ITOC in 2015 and in response to the pervasiveness of cultural appropriation during Halloween, Emi created a flyer for caregivers that guided her elementary school towards pro-active, structural change. Emi explains, "The Ethnically/Racially/Culturally Based Halloween Costume Flyer is an invitation for communities to begin thinking and talking together about concrete ways we can all help to build equitable, inclusive, safe, and ultimately respectful learning communities for our children. When we plant the seeds of respect early-on, we reap the benefits of growing a learning culture that values and honors all people and all voices.“ By engaging caregivers around the negative impact of these common practices on racially minorized communities, and actual constructive ways to guide and think about the impact of their choices on others, Emi is working to ensure a school where all children feel safe, welcome and culturally celebrated. See the flyer below in English or Spanish.
Classroom Circles of Care by Emi Ito: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TvjRvGf-8awg8FASC5pbinyCNBPHimQv/view?usp=sharing