As another school year draws to a close, so does another round of our Voices of Change Writing Fellowship – a program that brings together a diverse cohort of kindergarten educators and school leaders. to grade 12 to share their experiences. Our 2022-23 cohort included eight talented scholars who worked with our scholarship editors to publish powerful stories that exposed the myriad of challenges and issues occurring in schools and classrooms across the country.

These fellows tackled complex issues including mental health issues, teacher burnout, school safety and dealing with fear, highlighting various ways in which teaching and learning have been influenced by various societal forces. And they explored how their own identities and backgrounds shape their experiences.

As we completed our work with our second cohort of fellows, we asked them to reflect on their storytelling experiences and share the most meaningful story they posted during the fellowship. Here’s what they had to say.

Whitney Aragaki

“How office chairs became a lesson in what we deserve in public schools” was the most meaningful story for me. The idea for the story came from a moment that happened in class on an unassuming day – a moment that I could have ignored or quietly lingered on any other day. Fortunately, I was able to share an experience that offered perspective on how we intentionally and unintentionally frame public education. The article sparked a dialogue on social media and hopefully contributed to a larger conversation about the state of education in our country.

Katerra Billy

During my time as a Fellow, the most meaningful story I posted was “My students deserve a classroom. Instead, I teach them in a hallway. This story was significant because I really stood in my reality and decided to have the audacity to go there. I always considered myself an advocate, but I never had a platform to shed light on this unjust truth until this brotherhood. It felt good to take on my role as an advocate for my students in an authentic way, walking and talking. I got so many comments about this story – it turns out, unfortunately, teaching students in a hallway is very common.

Isabel Bozada Jones

The most significant story I posted during the fellowship was “To improve a child’s education, we must let old practices die”. This story represents an internal shift from a mindset of scarcity to abundance, which I have tried to cultivate throughout the past year. At the end of the story, I think back to my first year of teaching when I first saw my class and was filled with hope and wonder. As I head into next year, I intentionally return to this place of possibility and wonder what we can do to reimagine our schools as a place where all students can have a great educational experience and where all educators can find lasting and fulfilling professional work. life.

Alice Dominguez

One of my favorite lines — which I often say to my students — is “to write is to think”, so it’s only natural that I liked to write “My students have no hope for the future. It is up to us to show them the way forward. Writing this story has allowed me to reflect on some teaching moments that I am not proud of and turn them into a more productive setting. I hope readers who feel equally hopeless in the face of our endless challenges have remembered the value of community strength.

patrick harris

My stories were full-length mirrors of my reality. The one that best reflects where I am in my journey as an educator is my latest story, “Teaching was my dream. Now I wonder if this is delaying my other passions. It was the hardest to write because of the sheer cognitive dissonance I was dealing with at the time. On the one hand, I love teaching and I’m grateful to be able to stay the course, even on a difficult journey. On the other hand, I have other passions that I believe teaching prevents me from exploring. I learned while writing this story that even if I don’t have the answer, it’s just as powerful to tell my story and challenge the system. Writing this essay has opened the door to self-exploration that I know will make me a better human and a better teacher.

Matt Homrich-Knieling

The most personal and honest article I’ve written – “I used to struggle with where to send my kids to school. Now I’m struggling to send them at all. – carried the most meaning to me. For this piece, I drew inspiration from my experiences as a student, educator, and parent. Through this essay, I was able to process and address serious issues that I found myself to consider recently: Are schools an institution I trust to care for and protect my children Can schools do more harm than good How can we imagine alternatives to school to protect and humanize Young people? Although my essay did not provide definitive answers to these questions, it helped create space for me to reflect on them and sparked powerful conversations with friends and strangers.

Avery Thrush

The most significant story I posted during the fellowship was my first, “They say teaching gets easier after first year. What happens when it doesn’t? In this essay, I explored the intense exhaustion I experienced upon returning to the classroom for my second year of teaching in the fall of 2021. As the words poured out of me, I realized this was a story I had burst into telling, not just for my own catharsis, but for my friends and colleagues with whom I shared those difficult months at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after.

Corey Winchester

My final story, “What I Learned From My Students Who Became Teachers,” was the most meaningful and impactful to me. For this story, I met five of my former students who became high school history teachers. Looking back, it was the culmination of my previous three stories and gave me the opportunity to have a conversation with people who share the same values, dreams and hopes for what teaching and learning can be. Being a public school teacher in the United States can be traumatic, difficult, and thankless, and this story has given me the opportunity to extend my grace, practice wellness, and engage in healing. For that, I am grateful.

big questions

In addition to asking our scholars to reflect on the stories they have written, we also asked them to share some of the big questions they have about teaching and learning as they approach the next school year. . Not surprisingly, their responses reflect the critical perspectives they brought to their stories. Some asked questions about how to reinvent traditional and alternative structures of teaching and learning environments. Others asked questions about what it takes to create inclusive and accessible classrooms that disrupt power dynamics and engage students in an increasingly digital world. And some asked questions about how best to provide space, resources and support mechanisms for teachers to thrive and succeed.

“What I know now is that our parenting issues are even more deeply tangled, multi-layered and rooted than I ever imagined,” Avery Thrush wrote. We are grateful to our comrades for boldly and courageously sharing their stories of these multilevel challenges. We are also grateful to Aisha Douglas, Deitra Colquitt, Geoffrey Carlisle and Jennifer Yoo Brannon – former fellows of our inaugural cohort – who mentored our fellows last year.

As a cohort of fellows become alumni, we look forward to welcoming a new cohort of incoming fellows who will offer new perspectives that will continue to highlight the needs, challenges, and moments of joy experienced by educators and to give a new voice to the issues that impact K-12 education today.

We are delighted to introduce our cohort of 2023-24 scholars. Meet them here and stay tuned for their stories, which we’ll post in the coming months.