Michael Arnold is a 19-year-old Oklahoma City high school student with Down Syndrome. His mother, Linda Arnold, helped him compose this report to share with classmates and teachers.
Francesina R. Jackson has worked as an administrator in teacher education programs. She has served as an evaluator with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
Kaplan teaches in the Africana Studies Department at the University of South Florida, Tampa. He was the Executive Director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews for Tampa Bay and served as an advisor to President Clinton’s race relations task force. In 1998, he received a National Hero of Education Award from the U.S. Department of Education for his multicultural work in Florida schools. His most recent book is The Myth of Post-Racial America.
Karen is a second-grade master teacher at Aspire Monarch Academy in Oakland, California. In addition to teaching, Schreiner is a mentor teacher with the Aspire Teacher Residency Program, coaching and co-teaching with a resident teacher. She is a culture lead teacher at Monarch, working with the Culture Leadership Team to improve school culture and climate. In 2016, she was awarded the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching. Twitter: @schreink.
Chris teaches senior-level science in the same Rochester school district he attended as a student. At World of Inquiry School #58, he uses science instruction to empower his students, emphasizing the links between math, science and social justice. Widmaier holds multiple leadership roles at his school and is a founding member of the Rochester Regional Teacher Empowerment Network. He received the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2016.
Caits Meissner has been an arts and community educator for more than 10 years in New York City. Currently she serves as Education Programs Manager at Tribeca Film Institute.
Rebecca S. Bigler, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests are social cognition in children, gender role development and racial stereotyping.
Chris Hoeh is a second-grade teacher at Cambridge Friends School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has developed an academically rigorous, multi-disciplinary, yearlong social studies curriculum that follows the creation of clothing from cotton. Each step in this process is connected to historical and contemporary struggles for social justice. Hoeh has led anti-racist study groups and shares his substantial experience as a mentor to practicing teachers. He is also a recipient of the 2014 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Matthew Swoveland is an educator at Roca, an organization that works with very high risk young people in Chelsea, Mass. He is passionate about education as a key element in the reintegration of young people after gang involvement and incarceration. He has taught everything from classical Greek tragedy to a history of cheese in the western world. Above all, he believes in the power of relationships to transform the ways we process information, build meaning, and relate with others.
Mary is a fourth-grade teacher in Salem, Oregon. Each day she leaves the classroom with pockets full of intercepted notes and gratitude for the opportunity to learn with a roomful of 9-year-olds.
