Creating Inclusive Spaces to Support Resiliency with Nita Creekmore, ep. 183

Creating Inclusive Spaces to Support Resiliency with Nita Creekmore, ep. 183, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran  00:01

Trying to get coaching cycle started and feeling like you just can’t make it work. I’ve got the email course for you. Realistic coaching cycles is a mini course sent right to your inbox. It’s five days of short videos that will teach you exactly what you need to do to start coaching cycles. document your work with a teacher and help them implement the learning you’ve done together. Get it for free at buzzigwithmsb.com/cycles and start your coaching cycles today. Welcome to instructional coaching with Miss B, where we believe that every teacher deserves a coach and every coach does do. I’m Chrissy Beltran, an elementary teacher who became a coach, and I had to create my own coaching program that worked. Now I teach coaches how to design their coaching programs, build a school wide action plan and use differentiated strategies to support teachers. Plus, I’ve got a special spot in my heart for literacy coaches. Now let’s dig into the episode. Hey, coach, and welcome to Episode 183, creating inclusive spaces to support teacher resiliency. With my guest, Anita Creekmore. We are wrapping up our series on motivation, morale and mindset. Because this is a big issue that we’re having right now with with our faculty, you know, they’re struggling with morale, they’re struggling with motivation, or mindset is not always the best. And so I wanted to make sure that you had some tools to help you with this, I have a really great resource called SEL tools for teachers. So if you actually head to my store buzzigwithmsb.com, and go to the shop, you can find my SEL, social emotional learning tools that you can use with teachers during PLC meetings, or whenever you’re working one on one with a teacher to help them figure out which things are within their control how they can respond to different situations, and maybe what situations are kind of triggering for them. I also have a free resource that you might love called coaching resistant teachers, it is a free email course that you can grab. And I think you would really enjoy it because it will help you kind of change the trajectory of the way that you’re working with teachers who are being resistant to you to you or your support. It helps us walk through a process that will kind of analyze what’s actually going on and make some positive change, you can grab that at buzzigwithmsb.com/resistance. And I have one more thing that you might want to know about. You might you’ve probably heard a lot about this idea of teacher resiliency. And it’s one of the things that Elena Aguilar writes about, she talks about resiliency in her book onward. And it’s full of amazing monthly information and ideas for supporting teacher resiliency throughout the year. So I have a really cool study guide that you can use that Alaina shared with me that you can use to work with a book study group, or even just to help yourself work through the text. And so I’m going to share that with you, there’s going to be a link for you in the show notes, either on the blog at buzzing with myspace.com/episode 183. Or you can get them in the link in the podcast player. But it’s a really great study guide that you might love. And so I’m excited to share my guests with you today because my friend Anita Creekmore, has been working with bright morning on this idea of resiliency as well. And so the way she approaches it, it’s so important and real that I wanted her to come on this podcast and share about it with us need to provide support to schools all about creative, inclusive, creating inclusive spaces that support teacher resiliency. So this is so essential right now, when times are tough. And that seems to be the way things are always going to be now. Why? So I really excited to welcome Anita today. So thank you for being here today. Anita.

Nita Creekmore  03:29

Thank you for having me, Chrissy.

Chrissy Beltran  03:32

Oh, great. I’m so excited to talk to you about this topic. You’ve been on this podcast before actually, you’ve been a guest, I think in the first season where you’re talking about building relationships. And so it makes sense that this topic would be still in your wheelhouse, right? So as a quick way to introduce yourself, I would love to know Who do you help and how do you spend most of your time and energy at work?

Nita Creekmore  03:53

Okay, so I I help a whole host of people but, um, as far as like professionally, I feel like you know, definitely coaches. It’s someone that I serve other coaches, educators, teachers, and definitely thinking about resiliency. In that area. I also help to like build and cultivate teams. And so just education as a whole I feel like it’s far from being an instructional coaches areas that. Like I serve and I love serving in that capacity. Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  04:28

I love it. And what is this is a bonus fun question. What is your favorite thing to do on a Friday night?

Nita Creekmore  04:36

Okay, my favorite thing to do on a Friday night is to take a hot bath, get into my pajamas and watch a movie. Mostly like a Lifetime movie because it’s like, low lift low thinking like I just can kind of watch and really just be amused by it. I might have like a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Those are ways I’d kind of like to like decompress on a Friday night. I love it. Definitely after the kids go to bed. And we’ve done like some family stuff. But yeah, that’s usually how I spend my Friday evenings when I don’t have anything going on. Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  05:11

mine is very similar. Except I don’t watch lifetime my gummies to watch lifetime. I used to teaser and I’d say Lifetime Television for crazy women.

Nita Creekmore  05:23

I love it. Because I’m like, This is so fun. Like, I mean, yeah, it is. So predictable. Like, assignments, like predictable. It’s like he’s behind the door. Like, it’s just one of those things. It’s like lolis Yes,

Chrissy Beltran  05:39

I totally get that I’ve been rewatching monk, because for the same reason, I just wanted my brain to rest because I watched like House of the dragon. And then I rewatched Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and all these very heavy drama shows. And I was like, let’s just watch.

Nita Creekmore  05:53

Yeah, there you go. Let’s just do something easy. No, but yeah, that’s usually that’s usually how I like to spend my Friday. I love it. Relaxing. So

Chrissy Beltran  06:02

your work has centered around this idea of resiliency, or a lot of your work anyway, that I’ve seen. So can you explain what resilience means? Like when we’re talking about a teacher context?

Nita Creekmore  06:14

Who it’s like, how we weather the storm. Right? And so a lot of my work and working with like Elena aguar I work with right morning. And then I also have like, my own love, teach black business as well. And thinking about how I can get through whatever it is I get through How can I like, add to my day to day, knowing that life is gonna happen. And I say this, like life be life. And like, that’s just how it is? How can I push through? How can I get through it? And not like, in a way that sounds like, you know, like, be positive or like smile or whatever. But like one of those things. It’s like, Yeah, I had I faced something hard. And how did I get over that hump? Like, what did I do for myself to get over that hump? How did I speak life into myself to get over that hump? What are some strategies that I have in my tool belt for myself, because everyone’s is different like to get over whatever the hump that life brings. And to be able to face that and get up each day. And education, because education is hard. And after pandemic, it’s like 20,000 times harder. And it’s like one of those things is like, how can I get up each day? And still look at myself in the mirror and say, girl, you did it like you you push through?

Chrissy Beltran  07:30

I like that idea of the tools in your toolbox. Those are like your, your coping strategies or your mechanisms that you use to get through the hard things.

Nita Creekmore  07:37

Yeah. So absolutely. You

Chrissy Beltran  07:41

talk about creating inclusive spaces as a way to build resiliency, right? So what does an inclusive space look like in a grade level PLC? Or across the campus?

Nita Creekmore  07:52

Yeah, so Okay, thanks for that question. I love that question. And I’m thinking about inclusive spaces, for me is one that’s psychologically safe. It’s a space where folks can feel from any walks of life, any race, any gender, any non gender, whatever can come into that space and feel like, I feel safe here, I feel safe enough to speak my truth, I feel safe enough to offer my voice. I feel safe enough to do this work together collaboratively, collaboratively with the folks that I’m with, right? And so like building that psychological safety is one having a sense of belonging, like how do you create a sense of belonging amongst your team, amongst your staff amongst your school, where everyone feels like they belong? And we’re differences are celebrated, right? Where there’s a difference between me being black, you know, what I mean? And Latina, right? And so like, even in thinking about that, like someone else’s black and someone else’s Latina, how do we create those differences? Where we’re like, yeah, we are different. And we’re celebrating those differences. And where can we find commonality as well. And so it’s one of those things, that’s very, it can be very nuanced. And at the same time, it could be something that is so simple, right, and clean in creating the psychologically safe environments where everyone feels like a part of the team, a part of the environment versus like others. And so it’s one of those cultivation strategies that you have to continuously build amongst your team. And a lot of that is through conversation. A lot of that is through transparency, and authenticity. And some of those conversations may feel hard. And I don’t want to call them hard, but I think they can feel hard. It’s one of those conversations that sometimes you may have like, sweaty pits, or you can feel it in your body where you’re like, Oh, I feel uncomfortable having this conversation. But without the conversation, how can change happen? And so it’s one of those things that that’s way to build that inclusive space, whether it’s a team, whether it’s like a teacher to admin relationship, any of those things that’s happening Everyone feels like included in the space that you’re in.

Chrissy Beltran  10:04

And so if I’m walking it, let’s say that there’s like a grade level, and they’re meeting together, and I’m walking in and I am observing this grade level, how, what are some indicators that that includes the space has been created?

Nita Creekmore  10:20

Okay, thanks. Another great question. So one and indicators where everyone you see everyone talking, everyone has a voice, like everyone feels like they have a voice and is contributed to the conversation. That’s one great way. Another thing is healthy conflict. Like, in the midst of it that someone can someone feels comfortable enough to be like, Oh, I don’t I don’t agree you about that. Right. So you’re sitting in a meeting, and they’re saying, I don’t agree, and they’re doing so in a healthy way? Well, they want to hear that, why don’t you agree? What are some reasons you don’t agree? And really value, even in the midst of like, conflict, that person’s voice, right. And when someone is not sharing their voice, lifting up that voice, so maybe it’s like having equity a voice? Maybe it’s like, ooh, Chrystia heard that you haven’t said anything or haven’t talked, you know, you want to share about X, Y and Z, right? Just something so simple as that is like, Chrissy I see you, I’ve noticed you. And I’ve also noticed that you haven’t engaged in the conversation is there anything you want to share, and whether or not you choose to or not, it’s offering that space there at the same time. So that’s one great way to notice and note whether or not folks are sharing focus or feel that they can disagree. And folks feel valued in that. So it’s one of those things. Also, if someone is, let’s say, bringing emotions into the conversation, I will even say that, right. And so I’ve been learning a lot about being able to lift up emotions, even at work. So it’s one of the things that’s super important to say, okay, oh, we just got this thing down from District, How’s everyone feeling about a, you know, this new curriculum or this new policy, having one feeling about that, and let’s talk about that. So we can move through that in order to engage in this in a healthy way. All of those things coming together is how you will be able to like visually see an inclusive space, whether it’s a team or whether it’s a school, those are some visuals right there.

Chrissy Beltran  12:21

I like that. Because I think that there’s kind of a misconception about inclusive spaces, you know, that it’s more about, like, maybe the trappings of an inclusive space, like, you know, the, like people get very caught up in what’s posted on the walls, or which I do think that can be a piece of it, obviously, representation and things, it can be helpful. The real inclusion is the way that we are interacting with each other, right, that we are all part of the conversation.

Nita Creekmore  12:50

100% 100% It’s one of those things that like, like the difference between like diversity and inclusion, right, and so like, diversity is like, yeah, I might be a part of the staff. Yeah, but how can you live me being a part of the staff to a part where it’s like, even being a part of the staff, I feel enmeshed, like enmeshed in the staff, like I am a part of it, I can speak my truth. I can say what I need to say, I feel valued. And all of those things in in the midst of the community. Amen.

Chrissy Beltran  13:21

Yeah. And I think we have what you’re saying makes so much sense, because it’s just part of like a natural progression of like, over at first versity was like a huge thing, getting people in the positions was the stuff that had to happen, because they were not in the positions, right, but we’re not being hired. You know, kids are not being taught by teachers of color, things like that. So getting people in the school in the second, you know, in college for these programs, getting kids taught by these teachers was the first step. And now it’s like, Okay, now we can see that that’s not enough. So now the next piece is this, because I think people also get kind of stressed out about, oh, my gosh, like, now this is a new thing. And this is a new thing, there’s always going to be a new thing. B and it’s not like a new thing. I mean, the goal is the same, right? The goal is like the Star Trek type, you know, world where we rightly work, you know, all together to accomplish something great. But it takes all these steps to get there because change is incremental. And that’s just how people are.

Nita Creekmore  14:20

Yeah, and I think too, I think when you think about okay, let’s having a diverse workspace or a diverse teaching staff. Initially, I think the goal was the purpose was hopefully the same, like yeah, not to just have someone of color being a part of the staff, but someone of color that contributes to the staff that you know, what I mean, feels valued and safe. So it’s one of those things it’s like, yeah, you have folks of color, black indigenous people of color in the space. How are you going to retain these people? How are you going to make them feel valued and that they’re part of it? And the same thing goes with like students, right? And so it’s like One of the things that’s like, students also need to be able to see people of color, you know what I mean to be a teacher at their school or being a principal at their school or being a leader, you know, some type of leader in their school, they need to see that as well, whether kids are white, black, purple, or green, you know, they need that. And so how do we do that in a way where everyone feels like they’re a part of this inclusive community and feel celebrated? As well as noticing things that we have in common and commonalities as well?

Chrissy Beltran  15:35

Yeah, so that’s, I really liked that foundation that you set for us because now I’m thinking about, okay, how does this inclusive space support teacher resiliency? How does that make it? Like, what is the connection between these two things?

Nita Creekmore  15:49

Yeah, that’s one of those things. So so if you’re including if you have an inclusive space, and let’s just say, for me, as a black teacher, I’m in that space, you can either fill up, help to fill up my resilience cup, or keep pushing until I have to feel like I have to use my tools. So much more, right. And so it’s one of those things, and I’ve been in those spaces where I’ve had to continuously pour into my resilience cup continuously do that, because I felt like I wasn’t valued. I felt like my voice wasn’t heard. I felt like I was a token, I felt like, you know what I mean, and so it’s, it’s not just what’s happening inside, it’s what’s happening on my day to day, although I was a teacher in the classroom, I love what I did with the students that I was, it was like a constant push and pull as far as my resiliency was concerned. And so that resiliency is not a space if they Okay, continue to be in a toxic work environment. Great for me in that space. It’s a resiliency was tied to do I need to stay in this talk. And it’s toxic. We’re working environment as much as I love the kid. And as much as I do that, how do I continue to fill my resiliency cup, right? And use my tools but not have to feel like I’m, I’m, I’m drowning, right. And so, in that space, I had to release myself of being in a toxic work environment. And that was a choice that I made in my resiliency, right. And so sometimes there are hard choices you have to make in order to continue to be resilient and continue to, you know, really give yourself the gift of not only being resilient, but just being able to sustain in this world. And so, the connection between education and resiliency, or an educator of resiliency, is really getting to know yourself really getting to know being self aware, and being able to know what tools do you need to use at what time and sometimes the tools or tools that you’re like, oh, like as an educator leaving a space is so hard. And so it’s one of those things of asking yourself the question, and making pivots in order to support that?

Chrissy Beltran  18:06

What are some of the other tools that you’re talking about? Like leaving a space would be like, I just cannot survive in this space anymore? Right? What are some of the things that you might employ to that before that happens?

Nita Creekmore  18:18

Okay, um, definitely community. So I will say that so one of those resiliency tools is having a community of folks to help lift you up. So that’s definitely a resiliency tool. Another one is speaking life into myself, like affirmations. That’s one of the things that I still use some of this agency, my office with all the all the sticky notes and affirmations that I have for myself, personally, for me, is a higher being a higher power for me that God, my spirituality is definitely something that helps me to be resilience, each and every day, connecting with other people outside of work. So having something for myself outside of work was one of the things early on in education that I didn’t do for myself that I would be really drowning myself in my work in and then also taking care of my kids and then not having anything that’s just for me, outside of that. So maybe even for me, it would now it’s yoga, practicing yoga. And at the time, when I’m thinking about it, it was it was one of those things, I was like, Okay, this is something I do for myself, it doesn’t always have to be an exercise activity, but that does help to build resilience, whether you’re taking a walk outside, moving your body is is going to be a tool for resilience. And another thing is like breathing, like breathing exercises, and my breath and meditation, and those are things that really helped me so those are some examples of a resiliency toolbelt that looks different on everyone like if you if the one is invisible, but like for everybody, it would look so different. are what your needs are. But those are some tools that really helped me to be resilient. Yeah, thank

Chrissy Beltran  20:05

you. So if an instructional coaches listening who, you know, obviously, we’re not administration, we’re in this weird little Limbo place in between admin and teachers, how can a coach go about supporting inclusive spaces just to their own actions and interaction with teachers, because sometimes we have admin that is not really being thoughtful about inclusion, whether it’s for, you know, whether we’re not really including people of color, or people of different genders, or people of, you know, different ethnicities. And so, or languages, you know, maybe we’re because like I, where I work, for example, in El Paso, Texas, the majority of people are bilingual. And it’s a very common thing in certain spaces for Spanish to be spoken, you know, just conversationally, and I mean, many of our schools have dual language programs where Spanish is taught, you know, but for a large chunk of the day, so many of our teachers are bilingual as well. And so that, you know, I mean, it’s gone pretty much are the days of, well, we don’t speak Spanish here, certainly not here. That’s not something I ever hear here. I know that happened, places. Still, people are harassed for speaking of other than English, but, but your accent is another one. So, you know, people who are, are faced with, like, if someone is bilingual, and goes to another place, if they do have an accent, other than like a standard American accent, American English accent, you know, those are all people who may feel less included. And so sometimes administration does not. They’re not purposefully, including people, like they’re not creating these spaces, but the coach may recognize that problem and be like, Okay, what can I do, because this is creating really bad morale is is creating a really icky place that people don’t want to be in.

Nita Creekmore  21:56

I would say, it’s time for you to coach up. And I know that’s really hard. And when I say Coach up, I mean, Coach up to your administration, because as an instructional coach, you may not have the power to make that change, but you have influence. And so and so one of those things is what I would say is, is to coach up to your administration, and when you see things happening, to speak up and say something, right. And it’s one of those things that again, you may have sweaty pits, doing it and do it anyway, have a nice day, respectful conversation, where you’re coaching up, but I think you should have, also, when you’re coaching up to administration, and to leadership, is to have evidence to support some of the things that you’re saying, right? And so not just having a general statement, but saying, you know, I’m just, I’m thinking about, you know, the fact that we, you know, we serve, let’s just say, and this is, we’re talking about this during Black History Month, but like, let’s just say, we’re not we have 70% Black students, and I haven’t seen us talk about Black History Month, not one time, right? We have, you know, indigenous peoples month, or, you know, this, we haven’t talked about that we haven’t been, and not just in a month, but like ongoing, right, let’s just say, you know, and so those are just some examples. I’m thinking of the top of my head right now. But like, you should have evidence where it’s not occurring, when you’re going to coach up with your administration and why it’s so important. You should, I feel like, that’s so hard for me to say, because I feel like it should be like that should be like, people should know why it’s important. But it’s important when you’re going to coach up to have the evidence there. And then maybe having some solution, hey, I was thinking about doing this. I’m doing this time, think about that, like, you know, and this is why I want to do that. That’s one way is coaching. Another way is having conversation, like let’s say, hopefully have relationships with your teachers where your teachers come to you anyway. So they may come to you and say, I have a problem with the fact that I feel like I’m not included in a lot of the things or my culture is not included, or you know, in some of the things that we do around the school, or I have a problem with that. And so having those conversations with the folks that you coach is going to be also important, right? And it’s important for the folks that you’re coaching knows you’re an advocate for them. So you’re going to be advocating for them in places that they may not be, you’re going to lift their names up or their culture or inclusivity of in every faith that you’re in. And then before all of that is wondering like thinking about what why is this important to you as a coach? Right, your purpose in that so taking it back to even yourself and knowing this is important to me, because, right? And thinking through that even before you have any of these conversations, why is that important to you? And being an instructional coach. And so I would even say start there and and then go to other spaces. But yeah, those are some things that that come up for me and thinking about ways to coach and be an instructional coach with influence because I’ve been in such a place you have influenced you do you feel like you’re in the middle? Sometimes Sometimes I feel like I’m like being tugged from like, admin and being tugged, you know, you feel like that. But the truth of the matter is you do have influence, you have influence. And so there is agency in that. And I would say use that, to put the good was a good role. You

Chrissy Beltran  25:35

mentioned lifting up someone’s culture in these different settings. What does it look like to lift up somebody’s culture?

Nita Creekmore  25:42

Oh, it can look at so many different ways. So okay, so it would it would be just getting to know someone like getting even on a team, right? Um, a lot of folks that I that I would be on a team with didn’t know that I was had a Creole background, and you guided with it, like I have a Creole background and everything. What does that mean? Like having conversation when you’re especially when you’re trying even when you’re trying to build teams, let’s just even think about, you know, we’re there for the kids, right? Now, let’s think about a teacher team. For you to really work well with your teacher team, like really well with them is really to get to know who they are, how do they identify, right? And so some of that is just having conversations about that. And then some folks are like, well, we don’t have time. Well, you have to make time in order to cultivate those relationships, because that does help. And collaborating and working together as a team, when you know, that’s wrong. So then if you’re like, if you’re doing a project, you’re starting to do this project, let’s say you’re bringing in different businesses and talking about economic. Well, you would naturally because you know, like, Oh, my goodness, Anita would want to bring in some black on businesses, right? Like, what are some black owned businesses that can come and talk to our kid? Right? What about the mosaic, so like, bringing that inclusivity already in there, the more you get used to like it, everyone bringing it into the folks so that our kids can see different cultures, different people, black owned businesses, you know, Latinx businesses coming in, right and bringing it in? That’s what we do naturally. Right? It’s so inclusivity. Just it’s just the it’s restarting to fight against the white supremacy, right, in the sense that, like, it’s always going to be this way. No, like, we come from a host of different backgrounds and experiences and bringing that in. And so if you know that that’s how I identify, and I know, that’s how you identify, we’re like, yes, let’s bring in pieces of ourselves into our day, pieces of our children into our day. Right? So having those same type of conversation with our students, right with our administration. So then, we know like each other in a way that what defines us. Right? And what has what has built us up into the people that we are each and every day. Yeah. Yeah, an example. Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  27:58

like that, um, whoever I can remember planning a unit about, like nursery rhymes. And we were, I was planning with some of our bilingual, dual language first grade teachers, and I don’t have a knowledge of nursery rhymes in Spanish, like, I don’t have a knowledge of Mexican nursery rhymes. So, you know, they were they were like, Oh, well, we used to say this one, or we would do we knew this one. And this is one that was like Canada down. So they were able to compile, you know, a list of things that they wanted to share with their students. Because they, you know, we, and we use them to teach the things that we had to teach, but we were, you know, accessing this cultural knowledge that they had, that I did not have, you know, I wasn’t raised speaking Spanish or any of those things. So, like, even within a, maybe a race or an ethnicity, you know, you can have, there’s so many differences still, that it’s not just about, you know, oh, Mexican heritage month, and that’s American heritage, okay. But that’s like, that’s a piece of of my identity, but like, the farther you go back, there’s all in like, my, my parents, my mom is actually white, and my dad is Hispanic. And so like, there’s a lot going on, you know, and when did we lay cross, you know, what will what generation Am I like, I’m, I’m not like, first generation, like, my husband is, you know, I’m like, gay nation. So things are very different. And then we have, you know, teachers who were raised in Mexico and came over as adults and you know, and gained their citizenship and things later in life. And so people have so much to bring to the table. And it it’s so interesting. Once we can start talking to people about their experiences, whether that is race or gender or whatever background it is. Yeah, because there’s so much out there that we like, like, it’s like reading a book, you know, like lives. Yeah.

Nita Creekmore  29:48

And it’s, it’s so it’s, it’s one of those things to know that like, you know, like for me, like black folks aren’t a monolith, right? We come from different backgrounds, like basically what you’re saying. And it’s so in Interesting, right. And so like, if I know that I’m curious and interested in I’m 44 years old, right, and thinking about what a 14 year old in a classroom would want to, like you pour into them, right knowledge that you have, but they also bring their own knowledge and background. So this space as well, right. And so, and inclusivity, to me is like threading it all together, and then realize that you have to add more thread because there’s so much and so much to add. And once you kind of opened the door to that curiosity, and that healthy discussion around being inclusive, whatever you’re bringing in, and, you know, to me, it’s just, it’s just the sweet spot. And so it’s like, when when folks fight against it, I don’t, I don’t understand it, you know, because I it. Because it’s just so sweet. And it’s interesting, because, you know, when I was a teacher, I’m always a teacher, but you know, when I was in school, in classrooms, you know, and I would teach lesson, you know, that I have, like, let’s say, of different cultures, I think in things like that, the kids would just, they would just be sponges, I mean, they would eat it up, and there was love it, and they would talk about their own and where they connect, and were different and where they, you know, and it’s, and I would see that as an educator, so that I guess I just don’t, that’s what makes it so hard for me when when folks try to fight against, you know, inclusive faces or inclusivity. You know, I just saw something online about in Florida, they were having, like, I don’t know, what part of Florida a permission slip. So parents had the right to assign a permission slip for a book to be read by, like, it was a book by a black author, and they had to be sent the permission slips out. And I’m like, what, like, where are we? Like, yeah, it’s like, one of those things, it’s like, you know, we really need to, like, push against, you know, it’s one of those. So, when you’re thinking about inclusive spaces, and you’re thinking about that is a, that is closing the door, and making things just one sided. And we are we are multifaceted. And I think it’s important to just be a whole, the whole human being, and, you know, and to just be in community with others and love others. Like I don’t, I don’t understand it. But yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  32:36

so how can people keep learning from you? If they want to learn more about your work? Where can they where can they go?

Nita Creekmore  32:45

Oh, okay, so they can find me, I’d love Teach Plus, on Instagram, Facebook, and threads, they can find me on there as well. I am on Twitter too, but I don’t I don’t engage in Twitter as much. Um, and then also I have me my husband wrote a book. It’s called every connection matters. And we’re talking about building, maintaining and restoring relationships. And so yeah, that book just came out through ASCD. And I’m super excited about it. And yeah, that’s where they can find me.

Chrissy Beltran  33:13

That’s awesome. The book looks fantastic. I thought the other day as well online, and I’m really excited about it. And I hope that people grab it to learn from you.

Nita Creekmore  33:23

Thank you so much.

Chrissy Beltran  33:24

Thank you. Thank you for being here. Right coach, I hope that gave you some things to think about as you’re working with your teams and your school. Next week, we are starting a new little series about better instruction. And I have the fantastic Karen Hess as my guest I really look forward to sharing that episode with you because we’re going to talk all about rigor by design, not by chance, how we plan for it and support teachers in the in creating rigorous and awesome lessons. So I will share that with you next week. And until then, happy coaching

Chrissy Beltran  33:57

now that you’ve got so much to think about head over to buzzigwithmsb.com to grab some free downloads, become a VIP, and check out the podcast show notes. Happy coaching!