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AEA Hosts Educator Roundtable for Teacher Appreciation Week
TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK
For teacher appreciation week this year AEA held an educator roundtable listening event with a representative from the Arkansas Department of Education.
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AEA President Carol Fleming and Dr. Kimberly Pride, assistant commissioner of Learning Services with the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education invited educators to share their thoughts, experiences and challenges associated with working in schools during a pandemic. “We work together to ensure educators like you have a stronger voice,” Fleming said while introducing the panelists. “That is why we are here this evening to hear your voice. We know educators are the experts on what our students need. We want you to be heard and respected.” The following hour-long conversation touched on a wide range of topics, from confusion caused by constantly changing rules during the pandemic, to increasing violence in school buildings. Panelists Roy Vaughn and LaToya Morgan from the LREA and Patrick Bruce from North Little Rock Education Association said our community needs to step up and address societal issues before they spill into dangerous situations at schools. “I can only speak for the school which I teach at now or the school district I teach in,” Vaughn said. “We saw the numbers in our community for violence going up long before we started seeing that violence come into our school buildings.
- Carol Fleming, AEA President
We made no plan. We did nothing to prepare for this situation. Now we’re here and what are we doing? We have to start being proactive instead of reactive.”
Morgan said she reached out following a violent incident in Pine Bluff, but her efforts to help were rebuffed. She spoke with a student who had a cast on his arm and discovered it was the result of a shooting. “He didn’t even know what trauma was,” she said. “He’d been shot. His friend was murdered, and no one has pulled him aside and talked to him.” Morgan said the majority of students being affected are students of color, and underlying issues are going unresolved. “We’re not having those uncomfortable conversations that need to be had,” she said. “We’re not building the capacity of their families. “We need time to develop relationships, authentic relationships, intentional relationships and ask people what they need,” she said. “Until we really help families, until we support parents the way that they need to be supported, a lot of what we do is null and void. It may resolve, but we can get more if we attack the root of the problem.”
