 Anyone want to start? Welcome everyone to Coral's OER hangout. My name is Carl Blythe. I'm the director of Coral that stands for the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning and we produce objects for learning that are open. That means that they carry a creative commons license and that gives you that gives in users people who find the object on the internet that allows them to play this game of open education along with us. What does that mean? Well in case in foreign language learning that means that you can take the textbook or take the lesson or whatever it is, the OER and you can adapt it to your own classroom. And OER what we're going to talk about today is the notion of inclusivity, how to make your language curriculum more inclusive and there's a strong connection between the concept of openness, open language and inclusivity. As everybody, teachers like to complain all the time about generic textbooks. Textbooks because of, well, they're trying to go after market share, the biggest market possible and in order to do that commercial publishers often kind of make them more and more genetic, generic. So if you wanted to take your let's say a textbook and adapt it to your classroom, you would likely include more diversity into that. You'd likely include different kinds of students who have different kinds of interests. You come from different backgrounds and so forth. And the whole point of open education then is to open things up and let more people have access. That's really where it started. So today we have two Spanish instructors. Kia London and Jennifer White and they're going to both talk to us about this concept of inclusivity and how it relates to OER or open educational resources. I should mention at the outset that we have an OER course that really here at Coral you can go to if you go to our homepage, the Coral homepage, there is a tab that says open education and you click on that and we give you lots of links and lots of videos. But we have an entire course that teaches people about the ins and outs of open education, including how to choose the appropriate license because there are many different open licenses, kinds of research possibilities, all kinds of things that relate to OER. But the way we'll do this then since this is an informal chat with two people here, Kia and Jennifer. They're going to talk for a little while. Kia's first up and she'll talk from five to seven minutes and then we'll follow that up with Jennifer. And your questions, if you think of something that pops into your head and you want to ask a question to Kia or to Jennifer, go ahead and type that in in the chat box at the bottom of the page there. You just click on that and we will monitor that and make sure that in during at the Q&A at the end that Kia and Jennifer will get your questions. Okay, that's pretty simple. So Kia, I'm going to let you have the floor now and let's get going. All right, sounds good. First of all, hello everyone. My name is Kia London. I've been teaching for about 14 years now, Spanish at the elementary, middle and high school level and currently at the middle school level. And I truly enjoy it, truly enjoy sharing my passion for learning with my students. It's also an excellent connection to my ancestry as well. So it's a wonderful thing. So the topic of inclusivity. I know on a weekly and a daily basis, I make a consistent effort to make sure that I am being inclusive and that the way I'm presenting materials to my students has a very inclusive perspective. With the current department that I'm a part of right now, there is a textbook. However, what I do, I take a look at the vocabulary and just certain structures that the students need to know. And then from there, I bring in my own resources that I use, utilize. Either things that I've I've experienced by traveling abroad or either through teachers pay teachers or lots of times pictures. So one of the main things for me in the classroom. I really make an effort to tie in the Afro Latin culture. As a part of being inclusive. I grew up Learning Academic Spanish, although my parents did speak to me in Spanish at home, but the academic part started when I was in middle school and all the way up through high school. And then, of course, college and post grad, but I noticed that the very first time I heard about the African diaspora. Was in college and I remember being in classrooms where it wasn't even mentioned that it is possible for a person of African descent. To have Latin or Hispanic heritage as well. And I know at that point that just opened up a world of just opportunity for me and it really connected a lot of things. So in terms of connecting that today. I utilize pictures with my students. I'd say if if the goal is inclusivity and you're just if this is like a new term or, you know, something you want to get a little bit more involved in. I definitely always tell teachers, start with pictures. So with that being said, Every week we tend to focus on a particular person and this particular person can be from an outside experience that I've had, like, for example, the Super Bowl. I thought that was an excellent way to be able to tie that into the classroom. And I we focused on the dance that was being performed that Shakira learned the champeta. And so with that in mind, being able to tie that in. And being able to show a brief glimpse of that dance to my students. I was able to talk to my students about the background. The important thing is that I really wanted my students to understand where that African connection and is coming from. And initially when I started the discussion, you know, some of them were just like, Oh, well, migrating or immigrating. And I'm like, Well, you know, I'm sure that there was there has been some of that since then. But I really brought them back to the very beginning of just Africans that were sold into slavery and how now we have a diverse amount of ethnically diverse amount of different people. So I think for them, they didn't quite realize that, but I wanted to make sure that I was able to tie all of that in. So definitely with pictures. Different people, we do picture talk. If it's a picture, for example, I'm trying to think who we did lately. Conchabuica. Conchabuica is a singer from Guinea Equatorial. Just a wonderful singer. She's got a background in R&B, jazz, blues. And so what I did, I would post up a picture about her. And so I would scaffold some questions for my students. I teach a lot of novice learners. So between novice and intermediate low and we would do what we call picture talk for them to be able to talk about that particular picture. And then of course I would tie in, you know, other facts about her where Guinea Equatorial is located in so forth, which also I know from just my experience and a few other educators and that all sometimes Guinea Equatorial tends to be overlooked or either not as included as much. I'm sure a lot of people are including that particular Spanish-speaking country. But I know just with different educators that I've spoken with, there might be a drop of information about that particular country, but it's often not as included as it should be in the classroom. So those are just a few things. Pictures. Were there any questions? I don't know. No. Okay. No, no, no. That's great, Zia. Thank you so much. So we'll come back to your notion of finding pictures, starting with pictures. As you said, the concept of picture talk. I agree with you. I think it's a great place to start to include, you start with images and making making sure that your images are much more inclusive in that supplement a kind of a generic textbook. But Jennifer, let's give it over to you now. So you will talk about the notion of inclusivity in your classroom. Her, Micah. All right. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. Good. All right. Well, so my name is Jennifer White and I'm from the Donoho School and the type of school that I work in is a school where it's more, it's a college prep. So a lot of the people pay to come to school and it's that their education is very and extremely important. I have 100% parent participation. So I probably have a different type of experience than a lot of teachers. They probably think, Oh, I would love something like that. And with that I take advantage of because in my school itself, we don't have a lot of diversity, but when it comes to diversity with in our city, we have the most diverse school as far as Indians and Chinese and other other places. I don't have hardly any Afro Latinos, but, but I am probably the only one that they know in their whole life. So, so I'm from the Dominican Republic. And when I introduce myself to my students, I tell them I am an Afro Latina. So my mom and dad are from the Dominican Republic, my sister to she was born in New York, and I was born actually there. And it's like my whole life is a way that I include my inclusivity in my classroom, because just like Kia was talking about pictures. I use pictures to but I use it in a different way I use my family members, like a lot of times I take a million pictures So I sometimes will post pictures of my family being in a boat stuck in the middle of camp in Panama, you know it's raining and they'll be a picture of my husband, my daughter, and a cousin of mine that's really dark or not that dark or someone that looks Asian and we're all on the same boat and wait wait Senora why are those people are all Afro Latinos and I'll be like yeah that you know the one that's Asian is she's she's from Panama to all of these people are Panamanians to see for them to see wow okay there's Asian Panamanians there's African Panamanians there's light skin Panamanians it's like it's really cool to see that just in my family alone, I can bring that inclusivity in there. So every time I said I do like a worksheet. There's a picture on it. It's like I don't just give a worksheet that's just words on it I always put a picture, not the ones I print out if I were ever to give them something to print out like a test that doesn't have a picture but anything that I do on Google classroom. I put a picture of food, I put a picture of people dancing I mean authentic photos of people dancing authentic photos of people eating and the food because I want to provoke the questions because sometimes in inclusivity you don't need to like just tell them about it you just need to surround them with it. So sometimes I'll say okay we're going to have a guest speaker and it could be about anything let's see if I have a unit on sports. I don't have to tell them what color the person is is coming to speak it could be an Afro Latino and I never have to even say they're Afro Latino I could just say okay this person is coming. I'm just from Puerto Rico, and I want you to meet this person but the person happens to be a dark skin person. You know, and that's what I like to shock them because it's not. We're not in the month of black history, we're just talking about sports, but it happens to be a person of color so I want them to be able to see the people see Afro Latinos which I live in Alabama and it's not like I live in Alabama we were in I'm in an area where where the bombing of the bus happens, you know where the freedom riders are where blacks and whites are still struggling with their color people are still saying black boy black girl kind of stuff and I happen to be the only person of color in the whole school. I think I have a responsibility to bring the people of color in here, even if they have to be Indian or anything like that. So, and even that I like to even bring Afro Latinos that don't look that don't look so African I don't want to be offensive but sometimes they look like they're Indian. So I like to bring them in here as a guest speaker. I, I always ask my community which I love my community I'm very involved, but I'm always asking my community please whenever you get a chance in the year. I do come visit my classroom. And if they ever say yes I moved the heaven and earth to bring them in to tie them in the unit to just bring them in like one time I had a friend from Cuba she actually lives in Cuba. And she showed up because she's a missionary. And, and she happens to be Afro Afro Latina, and she says hey I mean you know I'm going to preach at this church and I said wait, can you come to my school tomorrow I'll make you some empanadas. Oh yeah, I'll be your empanada so she said yes I text my my supervisor he said yes and automatically if we were talking about let's say the unit on. Let's see like right now I'm doing Africa, but I'm doing future plans if I were to do a unit on future plans or the future. I can tell her hey can you tie in something about what you would like to do in the future or when when you were younger what the what were your aspirations, what did you want to do. So sometimes hands on activities are really good like he was saying about music I love merengue, I dance merengue every day. I come in the classroom, they hear merengue they hear salsa and I'm just dancing even while I'm writing on the board. I kid you not every one of my students knows how to dance merengue and salsa. And that's why I look crazy right now because I've been sweating from dancing. Gosh is crazy. But we just had a Spanish Club meeting and with all those kids they all said Senora why let's let's do Zumba let's let's have let's do some salsa merengue and bachata I mean for them to know those words is because I'm constantly saying that. Hey guys dances bachata with me I don't even say let's learn this vocabulary. I don't say, Oh guys this is salsa. This is merengue. They just walk in see me dancing. Hey come on do this merengue with me hey you Johnny get up here do it come on come on let's shake it shake it shake it you know and it's like, Okay, sometimes hands on inclusivity is good. And I even like to include I know this is about Afro Latinos but sometimes the Asian Americans or those that are not American, I try to tie the Afro Latinos and the Hispanic culture to them. And I will say hey you know that in Panama, there's a section just that the Chinese were there they settled there and I know a lot of a lot of Chinese that are Afro Latino Chinese and they're like what and I always try to find a way to connect with all my kids. And sometimes I can't connect in some way but sometimes there is a way like with food. And sometimes like every culture has some kind of beef turnover or you know one of those shells that have meat inside, and I like to always try to explore you know where did that come from. Where did one rose con guandules come from this is a mixture of models and Christianos you know the, the mixture of the cultures that's important who are the moors or, and sometimes it's like just using your whole life that's the wonderful language instructor is that the whole world is your classroom and that's my that's my philosophy of teaching is that everything is at my disposal. I can ask anybody to come speak about anything because they could bring their whole life with them and just minimize what part I need for them to speak to speak about. So, so that's what I really do that's how I do with inclusivity, this is how I involve my students is pretty much they're just part of my life. My kids are, are an extension of my students are an extension of me I feel like this is my passion. We're planning a quinceañera right now my daughter, and a lot of quinceañeras are not. I don't see a lot of quinceañeras are Afro Latinos. I put it upon myself to invite the whole school to the quinceañera Lord help me, but, but this this quinceañera that I'm planning is like the only quinceañera my students will ever go to. And it's a great that it's going to be an Afro Latina child that's going to be doing it so when they see others they're not going to be surprised that oh yeah yeah you know they they they're able to do it they can do it too. So, I guess that's pretty much what what I would say that it's my inclusivity how I include Afro Latinos in every day, every day lessons not just once a month, because once a month is not good enough and like he was saying she'll she'll bring people and everything like when that show that that movie that mini series from that this came out when they see us. It was an English series on Netflix and it was explosive and it was heartbreaking but some of my students saw it and when they came to class and said oh my goodness this is. This made me cry I would say hey you know that the main character in that movie is Dominicano. And then we start researching hey yeah he's Dominican grew up in New York. And it's like I'm always trying to tie the Afro Latino culture to anything that they might be interested if it's the baseball players. I always tell them hey you know, you know, baseball is my national sport back home you know look at Sammy so I mean look at all these people and then what they end up doing is that they come they come to me with these conversations. They say hey you see how this guy struck out the other day Senorah why and I'm like look I don't watch baseball anymore but but that's pretty cool that they go out of their way to tell me that they're interested in the subjects I'm bringing to them that before me. Like you know how before Christ after Christ is like before Senorah why after Senorah why before me, they didn't know anything they didn't know anybody wouldn't approach anybody of color. But then after Senorah why which I'm not trying to give myself you know any credit at all is just that I'm saying it's so good as teachers that we have that power that we can always say hey look. You can do more than this no matter how rich you are and no matter how many countries you visited you still can continue learning. And that's what my students do a lot they for spring break they're leaving they're trying to leave the country even though the corona virus is going on. They're trying to leave the country they always travel, but they always send me these little messages hey. I'm over here in Bahamas and I met a Dominicano and he's he looks just like you and it's like wow that just warms my heart when they say hey I ate an empanada or I spoke Spanish. And it's always something that that as world language instructors we we just have like this just special power. Don't you think that you know we just have like it's just we can do whatever we want. If we're if we don't if we have the liberty of course if we don't have the right the right leadership before us and I guess we won't and I'm a bit blessed to be able to have good leadership and and I've been able to do as much as I could and when I say I do whatever I want it's not that I just I'm crazy and I just. don't have any discipline is just that I can have teachable moments and I don't let those pass. So you have any questions or anything. A lot of questions actually coming in. So let me get things going I'm going to ask a question. Thank you. Thank you Jennifer that was really great and I can tell that both of you are really wonderful teachers because you bring so much of yourself into the classroom. You just said something Jennifer we can do so much it's wonderful to be a world language teacher because we can do. We can do all these things and it both of you are talking about a particular kind of like expanding the curriculum to include Afro Latinos which is fine. But of course inclusivity is a huge topic and you can take it in many different directions. And so I was also because I was thinking of the first thing that came to my mind was inclusive language and the whole Latinx phenomenon how people are trying to think about gender in a different way and how to be more inclusive about gender varieties. Do any of you touch on that topic. I have I've I've brought it up in my class. I don't want my kids to be ignorant. So I bring it up by talk about colorism. I talk about Latinx. And I bring it up. My kids are those type of kids that they they won't engage in conversations that they feel uncomfortable with. And it seems like with the community that I'm part of. I haven't had a good conversation yet. It's like I haven't been successful to be able to bring out and say hey what do you think about this or or what do you think about the genders and everything. And they're just not there. We're not in a big city like Atlanta or or New York where they feel they feel comfortable. These are kids that are how can I say they're like they're like the parents put them here so they're so they can be safe from a lot of things. Not that I'm telling you that the genders are not safe. I'm just saying that most of the people here are pretty much the same people. And a lot of people that attend church or part very religious and and I haven't been able to get there. So it's something that I haven't been able to hit just like what sometimes when I talk about racism same thing because that ties in with that. And when I talk about racism and I talk about black people being abused. I have that problem that they don't they don't like to really talk about it because they feel like this guilt. And I don't know how to fix that. I may be any more years with my group, but I haven't been able for them to to open up as much to tell me hey I don't believe in that or I don't think about that they just pretty much stay quiet. So maybe Kia has more success with with that question. Um, yeah, I mean, I'm definitely like Jennifer like we have very similar experiences so I am the only teacher of African descent in my school. So I feel like just some of the conversations that Jennifer was just sharing like I've had to kind of ease my way like into those conversations with my students because the population predominantly white. However, it is becoming a little bit more ethnically diverse. So, I know this year, especially I'm going to go back to pictures. I, we did a short story on Zendaya, and what I purposely did to initiate and engage them in some conversation. I put a picture of her with her hair curly and just her natural state. Because I think a lot of the students have seen her with her hair, where it's blown out or either straighten and I know immediately with one particular group it was oh what happened to her hair and I'm like well what do you mean, what do you mean what happened to her And so, um, you know I was able to engage them in a little bit of dialogue of just like well nothing's wrong with her hair it's just it's curly it's in our natural state. You know, is there a certain type of hair that you feel is better than the other. So we really you know and that's just really like how I've kind of been touching on certain things. I know recently our district last year actually they had a specialist come in and talk to the teachers about cisgender and transgender students and so I know recently this year we had another professional workshop about it just with our staff and the thing about it with the Latinx movement. I've known for a while like I've read I've co-present it with different teachers that have more information on that when it comes to the cisgender pronouns and so I think for a while I kind of held it for a little bit because I was like, let me see, you know, so the minute after the staff met and had, you know, like a training presentation, then I started introducing it to my students and just as Jennifer said, like I put it up there of just, okay, so you know, you know, this is what this means. And I did ask them like how many of you all have seen the E as the ending, and some of them did, you know, and some of them didn't quite know what that meant. And that's how I've presented it and I've told them, you know, if you feel you want to use this as an option that's perfectly fine, but this is just for you to know, you know, FYI. Great, thank you so much. We have a lot of questions coming in from people so I just wanted to address some of those. Someone asked, do you have texts in Spanish that talk about colorism poems or narratives and Roberto suggested black in Latin America by Henry Louis Gates junior but do you have any other ideas, Jennifer Ikea. I know that we had we do have a Facebook group called Incorporating Afro Latino culture in Spanish classrooms is anybody's welcome to join that group we have great great people in there and it's teachers like you and me and every time they encounter a certain topic with Afro Latinos colorism, they put it on that page and that's where I've gotten a lot of my resources. So I really need you to join that page of you can it's called Incorporating Afro Latino culture in Spanish classrooms, and just getting that get in there and we've been around for about a year. So if you scroll down you'll find a lot of information about about about colorism black in Latin America, Henry Louis Gates is something that I'm very, very big fan of his. So that's where I first started that's where I found out that I was black like I didn't know I was black. I know that sounds funny but I didn't know it's black until I played a video like that, when I was doing student teaching, and when one of the girls that was my color said, you know, she he asked the girl do it is negative and she's like yeah and I was like, Oh, my gosh and in the middle of the class I started crying. I was like, like, oh my gosh I got to get it together. If she's black and she's Mexican and I never thought of a Mexican is black, then that means I'm black and then as a Dominican Dominican people don't say they're black. So I've never been told I was black so I really I really look for those titles and when I see students that are like me that they don't consider themselves that I'm not trying to push it on them but I'm trying to show them that hey there's other people like you out there and they consider themselves black so anyway but please look at that Facebook page because it has so much information I couldn't even begin to tell you it's really good. Great and I want to bring to people's attention that when things come up we're trying to put it into the chat chat room. So you see that Sarah has just given you the link for the Afro Latino culture including Afro Latino culture and Spanish classrooms of boom there it is. Thanks for that tip. Yeah, we had another good recommendation from Ziva about finding pictures. You can go to organizations websites like SOS Racismo or places like that so I'm like, good advice. Let's see what other questions we have. So Ziva also asked what do you guys do to include history and culture that is not dance related so I think you already kind of talked about other things but are there other like maybe I think you mentioned food already. What other cultural things do you like sharing with your students. I know for me like I, we use a lot of stories. We use a lot of stories and I know right now, the textbook that I have right now there's, they have an option for you to utilize stories alongside you know the grammar in the vocab. So I'll take those stories. I'll do I might change some things. I might change the name of the person or either where the person is from, especially if I want to highlight a particular Spanish speaking country that's that can be seen as like overlooked. That's one way that I really worked to engage the students through stories. And then that way we can at least, you know, talk about where the country is and where it's located. I know recently I did that with one particular story with my novice learners. We changed the location to Guinea Equatorial, and I gave the character, the name Omar, which happens to be a very common name in that particular country. And I know initially the story was centered around someone that was from Spain. I just really wanted to make sure and touch on that particular country that can be often overlooked or so but stories are a great way to include into your, your instruction as well. Someone actually mentioned to that they look at critical representations of race and telenovelas I don't know if either of you have done that. Yeah, that's, that's really important to if you're using telenovelas or any type of series, or even just literature, you do want to be mindful of the type of representation that's being portrayed. Because you don't necessarily want to fall, have a character that falls into what people are used to seeing like that stereotype of someone that is of African descent. So that's really, really important as well. I think there's a good one. There's a good telenovela called Bolivar, which is not one that you can show the students but if you know if you've seen it before, you can go ahead and fast forward certain parts of that but yeah telenoval is really, really a good way of teaching history they have a good stories. So that that the question brought up the notion of criticality or taking a look at at colorism as it may exist in the target culture, not just our culture, but then kind of going a little bit deeper. I was wondering if either one of you have looked at your own textbooks as kind of having an ideology or a particular perspective. Is that too risky. My textbook is not very good. I really don't exactly that's the point at all. My textbook has no pictures on it. I mean that's even worse, but the text in the past. Yeah they don't they don't include a lot of things and even going back to one of the telenovelas that we watch is called Silvana and I would look at that and and I even went to an actual presentation that said oh this this telenovela is very diverse but what they were talking about diversity they were saying that a girl has red hair red curly hair, one has blond, one has black hair. And I thought that's diversity for you. Okay, I guess it would be but no, you know, so I sent a letter to Telemundo right away I was like, what are you guys doing. I mean this does not portray Miami I grew up there and that they're saying that that's Miami and I like that's not Miami and they actually filmed in my high school Miami and I was like Miami does not look like that the students I went to school with did not look like that and and sometimes you know you have to be that teacher to write that mean letter to a network and say why isn't there more representation of people of color or are different of different people that just just one one class of people and they don't respond but I did get to since I was able to speak out on that the person that presented an act full about I forgot what was the name I was called Edu novella she uses Silvana singlana as part of they do homework they watch it. They kind of clean it up and the kids can watch it and learn Spanish and they love this type of homework so if you've ever heard of edu novella is really good. But they don't have any people of color but ever since I complained. Now they make sure even some of the avatars are black. They make sure they have got people with curly hair and then the lady that manages that now she's constantly looking for product that has include more inclusivity more people of color more more diversity. So, so I think that that's that's something that we do we do need to speak up as teachers we don't have a lot of time to write letters but sometimes when it involves your kid your kids involves your content your your your life then it's good to just go ahead and send a letter and complain because more of us complain then maybe the networks would change. Yeah, that's great to hear it sounds like it can work actually. Good recommendations from people. Roberto shared a few links if you want to talk about political uproar in different countries and tie it to the text in the time of the butterflies. I don't know what level that is, or if you guys have used that in your classes. Yeah, I use that book one year it was a little hard for my Spanish three I had to read it with them. And then I gave him a portion of it to read for the summer and then we watched the movie. The good thing about that book is that it talks about Trujillo and that that was the dictator of the Dominican Republic and how he killed so many Haitians and, and how these butterflies these three women the Mirabal sisters are now heroes. But this legacy still continue like in the Dominican Republic as we speak through he is the dictator is great grandchild is running for president. So it's like whoa, this is like history, repeating themselves and thank God I brought up that book to my it was my Spanish three but now that they're in college they're writing to me and saying, Oh no through he is running for president. Like, no, don't bow and we're like, well, we don't know what he's up to you know he grew up in the United States but it's so cool how you brought up historic facts. In Spanish class and then it's like it's catching up to you is like whoa we're hearing the word through he you again we're hearing hearing his name. Okay, what does he think of Haitians now and what is the conflict with Haiti in the Dominican Republic and, and it's something that oh my goodness we're continuously writing history, even though we read it and they haven't, you know, let's say not much has changed, but, but it's good to involve the kids and that that Mirabal sister and the time of the butterflies really good, really good text it is really hard it's not one of those that you can just assign. It would be better to watch the movie study it show and put them in stories like Pia says I love that idea, putting things in story maybe write it yourself and narrated or do it like a story time a little at a time, and then ask them questions. But as far as the movie you can show that there's nothing vulgar that I know of that movie. Okay, thanks. And then we just had another good tip from Esther and this is similar to what you both said Kia and Jennifer about just including things you don't always have to call attention to something you can just kind of slip it in there and the students will notice so she said the same thing about including different kinds of families, single mothers and dad same sex partners and things like that to Carl's question about gender. Let's see what other questions we have. Someone said public culture is a good representation and cultural aspects. I'm apologies for my pronunciation. So that's another piece of advice. Someone else said Ziva said I introduced my students to Latin American history and the legacy of slavery in Spanish. And usually so that they understand the huge diaspora and then racial concepts do you do things like this, or have any advice on how you talk, or introduce links between the history of slavery to first place Africans in every country. So, sounds like they're asking yet just how do you introduce the concept of slavery to very beginner students in all the different countries. I'm trying to, well, I know since I've since my students are accustomed to now, Afro Latin culture and the different multifaceted aspects of it. I was, and it's funny because I felt a little bit of fear about this for some reason, but they're novice learners. I'm not necessarily sure what their curriculum is like for history or, you know, social sciences, but I really, again, it began with that question of just, okay, so where did the term what why do we have Afro port that eacons or why do we have Afro Cubans, what's the connection. And I, that was how I presented it. At the time and it was, I want to say it was around the time where we were talking about a picture and or, or a story I can't remember offhand. And I waited, you know, and that's when some of those answers came was a migration or is it you know immigration. And I can probably count on my head that two students on my hand two students actually knew that it had something to do with slavery so I don't know if a lot of the students knew, but they just weren't necessarily comfortable to kind of say something. But that's really how I presented that question. And again, this was, you know, after so many classes of introducing them and showcasing the Afro Latin culture, just being able to see if that can make the if they can make that connection. And if it's something that you're doing for the first time, you know, maybe start out with expectations of just okay, we're going to, you know, talk about something. Historically, let's just remember to be mindful of different perspectives and so forth. You know, however it is that she want to phrase it but that was really how I, you know, preface the question to them. And they were, they were pretty quiet. You know, it was just like, oh, slavery, you know, so but it, you know, it's history. So actually, the person who asked that question said that she teaches at the university level too. So I imagine it would, it might differ a little bit depending on who the students are and how old they are too, although I'm sure university students might not always make that connection. Jennifer, what were you going to say? No, I was going to say that just like Kia that I have the same issue. If I bring up slavery, nobody wants to talk about that. Like I said, I talked about guilt before. Like I just feel like they starts, you know, just looking away and not not wanting to bring that up. But I what I did this year that was different when I presented at Apple was that I I gave everybody a questionnaire all the kids and I said what what do you and senior white have similar, you know, like a questionnaire about stuff that you want to know about these kids what how much do they know about slavery how much do they know about, about blacks and because there's none in your class that help me have like three black students in my school. So I asked them I said what do you, what are the similarities of you and senior whites. What is your heritage do you know what that is, do you know what racism is and what what is that to you and it's something that is very private. I told them write it down you don't have to even put your name on it, just write it down. And then I had to like read that and see where they're at and even with reading. They're not wanting to open up this is in the low level we're talking about Spanish one level. And now they don't, they don't want to open up yet it's like Kia says after a long time that they know you well, then you can openly talk about it not like just like she said it's history you bring it up so after that that's when I bring up Spain and Africa what's the relationship I said what's up with these two countries. Hey, what's up with them motherland number one motherland number two hey those are my two mothers. Why, why they have so much conflict, because we're mixed we're right in the middle and that's I bring it up like I'm in the middle of two mothers, and then that's how I started saying okay, this is how it started. And I don't know if you learn this in history but the slave and I start talking about the slave ship and where they went and I give them fun facts to like hey did you know that more slaves went to Brazil than to the United States. And that's how we started and when I start with like fun facts and we do a cahoot about it. And maybe you could open up a little bit. Not, I'm just trying to get that relationship with my kids open, not that I'm trying to make fun or make it that this is fun the slavery is fun, just trying to make it where I need them to open up so that they can talk. But Spanish one really is not is not the level where they they feel maybe comfortable with you unless they know you and they know everybody in that room. Thank you. And do you do all that. Do you do a lot of that in English than to or is that on the in Spanish. I do it. I do it in English. Okay, I say that in those kinds of things I say in English but in in between I speak Spanish so it's like I'll be like blah blah blah blah and then I'll say, See, porque donde soy tengo dos mothers I have two mothers and I'll speak like that in Spanish one, when I'm trying to get a point across about something about history, then I'll say it in English and Spanish. Thanks. Okay, so we have one other piece of advice from Roberto this is a good idea he says, you can also introduce for Latino culture through fashion. So I don't know if you can try that at all, but he shared a link that sounds like a fun way of introducing it. Does anyone else have any more questions I think I've gone through all the questions. Now, people are sharing a lot of really good tips in the chat. Yeah, I think we're, we're talking about something. The difficulty of talking about difficult topics I mean the idea of either stigma, like our guilt. It stirs up a lot of, it stirs up a lot of emotion. And so I think both of you are talking about how to handle these things. And, you know, kind of an open way, but also in a way that's level appropriate to them I mean we're not, it's not at a university level let's say but you're talking about middle school. So I'm just struck by how, you know, kind of complicated it is, because you're introducing new territory new ideas that they probably don't have a lot of background to talk about and to unpack. So I can we say and a critical discussion of yeah but they they really need it sounds like they just need a lot of scaffolding to help them. Really not only analyze the facts on the ground what they may be in the Dominican Republic but even what they think about it themselves in their own cold. This is probably really unexplored territory for them in their own culture, which is the whole purpose of language, world languages because it gets them to explore those areas that are usually pretty unexplored, but it calls for I don't know I guess what I'm trying to say is it calls for a set of skills. That go beyond what most teachers often think is what's required in a language classroom. True I know that with us on my school was formed mainly because there was, you know how they had segregation and then when when they came together the blacks and the whites came together. For the first time, then my school was created, and it was created what they said have told me is that they have created it so they could be a safe, a safe environment for kids but I'm still digging up to see who was the first black kid that ever came to the school and, and I tell these kids is like, just like you said it's like it opens these wounds that they don't know they have because then a lot of my kids, especially the my white kids say, I don't have a culture. We don't have all of that stuff. We don't have that. When you're saying about heritage and traditions. What is that and it's like you have them you do something every year you do it at the same time every year you give out gifts you do. You do have culture, but sometimes when we bring them all this culture and all this information they feel like they're lacking a bit and then they're feeling like, okay. You know what's wrong with us and then sometimes they go back home and ask parents, where are we from I do have a heritage project and they have to go back several generations as far as they can to find out where they came from. And most parents they come back and they're like, we don't know we've been in Alabama our lives or we were in New York after that and we don't know where and it's like is the parents haven't told the kids that they're from England somewhere or Irish, maybe a lot of the kids some some of them cry because they don't know and in a language classroom I've noticed that this is probably like a safe place. And it has to be a place where the students have to trust their teacher just like music teachers have a relationship with the band kids and the sports have relationship with those athletes is like the world language teacher has to have a special relationship with kids where the kids can be open to come and ask these questions. And, and you want them to dig into their culture where they grow up, and they know who they are and it's sometimes I feel like I'm trying to teach them who they are like come on guys, you got to know who you are. And they're like we don't know who we are and that sometimes that just breaks my heart that is like the parents are not really as as a fluent as they are and has traveled as they are and as smart and with so much money like they don't know who they are. And it's like they're hiding things from them and sometimes that's kind of tough to break through. I want to make one last comment. I think I attended a talk by a Spanish teacher about this the same topic inclusivity I believe it was that actual. And she was making the comment that when people talk about inclusivity they typically focus on race, just as we've been talking about kind of ethnicity and race that comes to mind. She was saying that in textbooks and commercially produced textbooks in particular that there's kind of like a tourist or a marketing angle you want to show the pretty pictures of all the popular places to go so the beaches and the best places and then the cities and so forth. And she said that her job. She, she thought I want to work against that and try to show a more authentic representation of the various cultures and countries that she was talking about. So she said, Yes, I am trying to to get more racial racial diversity but I'm also trying to include people with disabilities are poor people. I mean you never going to talk it's always the middle class family or the upper middle class family. And eventually she was saying there is definite stereotypes in textbooks and my attempt at inclusivity is just to work against that to kind of deconstruct it and show all of these countries are so much more complicated than that book that you have or holding in your hands, And I thought that was a really good way of thinking about it. She even said I remember she said, I'm a vegetarian and it drives me crazy and she's Latina, I'm a vegetarian it drives me crazy all these enchiladas and all this kind of stuff that I don't any of that stuff. So she said I do a whole unit on vegetarian in Latin America. So I mean the whole point is, you know, inclusivity just keeps going and going and going. Any last questions or recommendations. I don't see any questions. Okay. Well, let's wrap things up right now then. And I want to bring to people's attention, not only as I mentioned at the outset of our OER course, we have an entire course devoted to OER. Even though we've been talking about inclusivity, we're we're linking that to the notion of openness. Open education literally means to break down barriers so that we give more people access to education, number one. So for example, textbooks can be quite expensive. And we have this wonderful thing called the Internet and our two teachers Kia and Jennifer were talking about bringing in content into the classroom. So that's a great example of using the open resources available on the Internet. So take a look at that course. Also, we have something called learn L OER in and that's essentially a network of teachers who are using OER creating OER. And we want to make sure that we give you credit for that if you're an OER developer, and then put you in touch with other people in the OER world. And finally, Coral is a U.S. Department of Foreign Language Resource Center, and all our money comes from the U.S. Congress. So we have to make sure that what we're doing is having an impact on the community. So would you please take this real quick survey? You have the URL. It only takes about five minutes. They're just a series of real quick questions. And we need that for our gathering of information for the federal government. I want to thank our two speakers today, Kia London and Jennifer White. You guys sound like absolutely awesome teachers and you're, you're teaching your students a lot more than just Spanish. So thanks for hanging out with us and talking about the wonderful world of OER. Thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. The link to the surveys also in the chat room. Right. It literally only takes five minutes. Do it right now. Thank you guys.