Meet Dr. Tami

Meet Dr. Tami!  In this episode we will learn more about Dr. Tami and her journey as an educator. She will share some of her experiences as an equity educator.  She will also highlight some plans for  for future episodes 

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 Good morning and welcome to the very first episode of the dragon fly rising podcast. I am Dr. Tami Dean. I will be your host. The focus of today's podcast is. Meet me meet Dr. Tammy, who am I? And what am I about? And give you a little introduction. Into the plans we have for this podcast. So welcome. I'm so glad that you're here to join us today. 

 A little bit about my myself.  I am a career long educator. I've been doing. Education for. 25 years now. Which sounds so crazy every time I say that. Cause I really don't feel that old. I really feel like the nineties were just 10 

years ago, but I digress and that's a totally different topic. 

But anyway, 

I am a lifelong 

educator. Like many of you or some of you may be new to starting off in education. But I can tell you my 

journey. In this field 

has been anything, but what I thought it might be. As an undergraduate student in barking on my my educational studies. 

So.  

I I'm a Midwesterner. Mostly. 

And I'm currently living in 

Texas.  

I'm a Texas transplant. It fits well with 

my love of the sun. I did grow up mostly in Minnesota and went to college in Illinois. And then found my myself here in Texas six, maybe seven years ago at this point. 

So I'm super excited to be here. I'm super excited for 

and grateful for all the opportunities. 

That have been presented to me. Throughout my career, even if they 

weren't necessarily. What I thought I would, I would be doing so.  I'm going to backtrack a bit into.  How I got started here in a 

minute. I've worn lots of hats. 

In education. I've taught 

and worked with. Elementary students, middle school students, high school students. 

I have been a literacy center director and 

supported. Teachers and students with 

implementing disciplinary. Literacy 

strategies and content area literacy 

strategies. I have been an educator of pre-service teachers. 

As well as working with practicing teachers 

on best practice in the classroom and what that looks like. In a variety of ways lots of literacy methods courses, as well as courses Around social justice and considering, and reflecting on how that affects Educational spaces.  

And I can get more into that journey here in a second. I have. Let's see. Oh, I've been in educational management. I've been a consultant. I've been a coach. I connect with districts. In other roles across 

the country, so lots of 

different 

Opportunities for me throughout my career. 

Most of which were not a part of my original plan. And I hope that speaks to some of you in letting you know that it's okay. Really, I'm 

also, I'm a woman of 

faith and I have been very grateful. To, to God on this journey and 

showing me the path that is meant for me. All of it grounded in my passion. 

Which has ended up here with dragonfly rising. .   Just to back up a little bit Where, where did I start? I, you know, you'll see, I'm going to ask our future guests. About their equity journey. So I felt like it was fitting for me to share that with you all also is a start and I really feel like that journey.  

Unofficially 

my equity joutney 

began 

just with my personal life and experience 

being a.  Multi-racial person growing up in the 

 

 nineties before. To be quite honest, they really knew what to do with that. 

It made for some.  Interesting experiences for me. And as I continued and grew like, and thinking about education and 

reflecting on.  

Those persons that I had an 

opportunity to engage with or didn't 

growing up and, and, and don't get me wrong. I had a. Fabulous. Public school education 

I really can.  Quite say that that's an area of privilege that I was blessed to receive. That set me up for some other.  Opportunities. But , you know, part of that experience though, was also being a bit on the outside is not, you know, fitting in the norm. And you know, perhaps this is a more detailed conversation later. 

About that journey of awareness and identification for myself. But I think that 

That's probably where the start.  Of 

all of this was so I have.  Always been.  

And forever will be. One is. To really speak up.  About things that are unjust. Or that I feel 

are wrong. And don't 

value and honor people.  And I think.  It wasn't 

until 

my undergraduate experience that I really hit the catalyst of what this looks like for me as an educator or a future educator, because I, you know, at the time I was an undergraduate student,  

And so I'm going to go back to, I think this is the official, like where all of this began for me and you'll hear me say. 

Throughout this time.  This is a journey. I think. So often 

people think. That.  Equity and education, social justice, culturally responsive teaching. Leadership. Instruction. 

Restorative justice, like.  If I'm going to quote unquote, do. These things. Or learn or know about these things. That.  I do this workshop or I do this class or I, I, I get this coaching then. 

Now 

now it's it. Now I've done it. Right. And there's a history. Of that in education, like what is the next silver bullet or what does that mean? And, and I'm here to say like, just like most things and most great things in life. 

It gets better. The more time you spend with it. The more you learn, the more you can self-reflect the more you can think about. Your own personal connection. And intersectionality of experience.  And life and how those pieces.  Affect you. Right? So.  I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but I always think that. 

Dr.  

Gloria Ladson billings. And I'm going to talk about her in a second.  

Dr. Gloria Ladson billings has been a huge influence. On me as an educator and a career, but she talks about Cultural competence. Right. And, and the wreck.  Recognition. That even if I come from. The same. Culture race. Similar experience as another person, whether that be an adult, whether that be a student in your classroom.  

They may or may not. Right.  Be exactly the same and honoring that individuality while in that community.  

Of those, those people. And I think that's an important.  Place to be because it begins to move us away from.  Stereotypes and grouping folks together, which.  

You'll you'll hear me say this. Is very human. Right. It's very human. To group and categorize. Cause that's how we make sense of the world. Bias is a part of humanity.  It's it's what we do with it. And in, in this journey, and as we continue to learn and explore different topics and talk with other educators who are doing this work in the field, we'll, we'll kind of dig more into that. So I want to come back to 

Dr. Gloria Ladson billings. I had the privilege of the opportunity to read her book. Dreamkeepers as an undergraduate student. My professor at the time was Dr. Floriano. Ronnie. I have no idea where she is, but if she hears this, thank you so much. You have set the catalyst for my whole career. From that one book.  

Oh, my gosh, that's getting me emotional.  

So.  

I read her 

book and I started to think about.  How do we. Or how do I.  Right, because at the end of the day, I'm only in control of myself.  

How do 

I.  Use.  What I know. And what I've 

learned from this book about.  Responding and honoring.  Students and their ways of knowing and being an expression. And who they are as people and taking an asset view. Of those students.  To my classroom. And how do they, and then this is also juxtapose, right? With my own reflection about myself and.  

To be honest, and this is probably similar to a lot of people of color is, you know, not having the opportunity to engage potentially with. A teacher or educator that looked like you or Gave you an opportunity to see yourself in that, in that person.  And so I was just thinking about that. Like,  

What were my opportunities to engage differently. 

As a student.  

And then how could I do it differently? As an educator.  And so that really set the tone. For me as an educator and everything. I did from that point on.  And you can see that.  In.  The classes I taught as a K-12 teacher. Working with teachers in the many ways that I've done that in a variety of ways. 

Preparing future teachers in that way also,  So.  

That just led to.  I started working in a, in a middle school. And fun fact about me. I did not want to be a middle school teacher. That's one of these parts of this fun journey.  And he knows it's so crazy when I reflect back at the time. Cause when I was finishing up undergraduate education and teaching jobs were hard to find.  

And.  This is a point of reflection. And I think not for this particular episode, but something I keep pondering like, right. How did we get to where we are today? Where we used to have, you know, have so many people that it was hard to find an education job to now it's hard to find the educators for that job. 

So. Something.  Something has shifted, which we can talk about those somethings. And I will save that for a future episode, but 

So this goes back to I D I didn't really want to become a middle school teacher. I double majored in the craziest two choices. I was an education and music double major. So all the courses that required all the time.  Outside of class you know, preparing to teach learning music. And so it was insane. Plus I worked almost full-time as a. 

As a undergraduate student. So lots of things happening there. And so the state of Illinois, because I went to college in Illinois, came out at the time, I was about finishing like, oh, you you've taken these courses. If you take this one extra class, right. They really wanted people to be focused on adolescents. 

And the uniqueness and importance of, of adolescent development.  To become a middle school teacher to be certified to teach middle school. So me being Tammy Dean.  I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Let me just take this extra class. So I did. So anyway.  This is also me saying, you know, just do it just if you're not sure, just do it because you never know where it's going to lead. So that puts me in teaching in a middle school with middle school concept, like true middle school concept, like teaming time to team, like collaborating with your team. 

And all of these things. So I had the honor of pairing with some fabulous educators. And I had a coat, another co-teacher I taught reading in.  Language arts at the time at this middle school. There was another, there was two of us on the team and we quickly connected as colleagues as. 

You know, friends and all of the things and.  So, what we really noticed was like the experience of these students, or lack there of like their opportunity to really engage with rich reading and 

literature. 

The school, you know, had a very high population of students from low SES. 

Predominantly marginalized students. And they just hadn't been given.  

Quite frankly, what they should have been given as opportunities as students.  And so this is about the time I'm also embarking on my master's degree. And so my research has focused on culturally responsive. Texts. And connecting those with students as well as like reciprocal teaching. So really like providing ownership to students and choice, right. Because when. 

Students have an opportunity to use their voice. You get to learn so many amazing things. So. 

We ended up selecting bud, not buddy as a part of the study. And the response from the students.  Was just. Amazing. 

They're like, oh, where do I find more books like this? Why haven't I been able to read more books like this?  And.  This one small decision.  Which in the moment may not seem so big, but the.  The books you choose. Are important, set up a catalyst for them to look for more.  Texts or books or authors that, that engage them in the same way. 

And opened up to.  

Opportunity. And recognition. I am a reader because a lot of these students were, you know, technically behind. So these were sixth grade students. 

And 

there's an opportunity gap there for them. You know, they're like, oh, a lot of your students are reading in second and third grade level. Right. So how do we scaffold that experience to still make it valuable and honor them? 

So anyway. Super exciting students started seeing themselves as readers.  So that's amazing. 

Not even sure where I want to go from here on this, on this journey. I ended up 

You know, this is where you walk the walk, right? So Really building community and relationships with students was at the heart of that. Because when you build community and relationships with students, And you show up and you show up as your person and in your humanity.  I really believe that's where.  



You can take things forward.  And so it was those relationships.  

That caused some other professional challenges for me. In that, I don't think those relationships were valued at the time.  By the administration.  And.  

As unfortunate as that is.  This is one. Of those times where.  How do I, for me standing in my value. Is always number one. And so I wasn't going to compromise on that. And didn't, and so that led me to another opportunity I'm in a different district working. At the district level as a, an assessment coordinator for our district 

And I had. Always.  Thought I would get my doctorate, not even sure where that came from.  

And.  So, you know, This is like, In the mid two thousands. I had a lot of crazy personal things happening at the time. Like. You know, gasoline was ridiculous. And just expenses. And, you know, I had two small children at the time. Anyway. So I decided.  That now was the time. So I'd spend about four years at the district that I was at. 

You know, now is the time to make a shift. Let me apply for this research assistant position. And if I get that, this is what I'm doing, I'm going to go get my doctorate full time. Didn't quite know what I was going to do with that because originally, you know, this is where I say like, Best-laid plans, right? 

My career trajectory as I wanted to be an assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, because really like back to my undergraduate years, like I felt so compelled about the importance of selecting. What was in front of students. And so.  But spending some time at the district level. 

Highlighted that that may not be exactly. It may not be what I thought it was. So how do I maybe do that differently? So, anyway, Get the, get the job. As a research assistant on a Spencer grant with two amazing. Amazing people. Dr. Tom crumbler and Dr. Laura Hansfield. They're amazing. So I appreciate them for the opportunity, because again, this is a new trajectory, right? 

So I'm 

studying. 

And digging in. So. As a doctorate student My focus, I got to study so deep. Into.  Theories and social justice and, you know, Oh, my gosh. I just read so many things. Well, that's another thing you should know about me. I'm an avid reader. So we're going to talk a lot about texts and books and things. Whether that's young adult books or, or professional books, all the books. I have a book challenge every year for myself, but so I got to read and do all the things and then I had. 

I was, I was, I was blessed with the opportunity to. Build and design courses and started teaching undergraduate courses, as well as finishing my doctorate work and infuse these practices around social justice, into literacy methods and methodology and how we, how we teach and. Engage with students specifically in the literacy world at that time.  

And.  That was just powerful and phenomenal. And there's, there's so many details I could go into there, but I'm sure they'll come out as we continue this journey.  

But.  

That led to.  You know, my dissertation. Where I'm really thinking about, okay, we've done and talked about all of these things. That an ideas and ways of being and engaging with students. And so what happens.  When they leave our teacher education prep course, and they go into student teaching and start being engaging with districts. Full-time.  

And. The long and short of it is, is it was challenging. And it was hard because, you know, districts and schools have a culture and there's different pressures put on them from outside forces and policy makers and people that maybe have not been in this space. Well, a lot of them have not been. 

In education, but they're making policy and rules for educators. So sometimes.  The wrong things, get valued and pushed out of the best intentions for the outcome. 

Or expectations that are placed on 

them. Right. Because now we have, you know, throughout this time and my career, now we have.  You know, failing schools and we're rating schools and we're racing to the top and we're leaving no one behind and all of these things are happening. And so how.  

We're engaging with students.  Like, are we really reading?  Or are we going through acts of reading that are focused on skills, right? Because the best way to get better at anything. Anything is to do it over and over and over again. But if I only do it in five minute increments,  Like the length of time, it takes me to do that. Gets it. It gets expedited. 

Exponentially longer.  Okay, I'll get off that soap box. Cause that's really.  

A topic again for another time, but so.  Really engaged me at that. And I kept thinking like, how do for me, how does that change happen?  

And.  

So, and after that, then I moved to a couple of different institutions of higher ed and work with pre-service teachers and, and practicing teachers. And. The question became right.  And then consulted in there. So worn lots of hats. It's a very complex trajectory. It's it's fabulous though. 

And 

how.  

How.  Do we make that change? How does that change happen is really the question I've been asking myself.  For a number of years. Right? So to me, that connection comes back to.  How are we engaging with the educators who are in the schools?  With the students.  And.  

So here we are today.  Because that's where the.  The power is I'm going to go back to something I said earlier, right? Like I can only control myself.  And you.  

Can only control you. And while we can use our voice. To help influence and our vote to help influence.  

The outside things that are happening. I still can choose.  

What I do and how I do it with people on a daily basis. And whether those people. Are the adults that I come in contact with.  Or if they're the students.  That I engage with. And students can be. K-12 students that can be.  College students.  

We're all. Hopefully. Students in some way. But really thinking about that. So that leads us here.  This is truly my passion and my calling. To engage with this work.  And talk about it.  And learn about it. So.  I have a connection, lots of connections with.  Professional educators. Who are doing the work who do different types of work around this. So I can continue to learn.  

I have things that I've learned that I'm going to share with you all throughout this journey, but I also want to connect you to other people, right? Because I am one person in one on one voice in one way of thinking. And I think there's value in this community. There's value in this equity community.  

On how each of our. Intersectional.  

Experience.  Provides a different perspective.  Or a different way of thinking or an opportunity or a tool or a conversation. To lead to the ultimate outcome, which for me is.  The student, the person who's doing the learning, like how do we engage them with the learning? And then as a,  how do we support. 

The educator.  Who's looking to do this. So.  I'm not going to have a magic bullet. There's not a do this, then that. There's a lot of who's in front of you. Where are you in this journey and where do you want to go?  So I really want you to be thinking about as we.  Start having conversations with educators in the coming weeks. I'll be starting to share some resources and tools with you and talking through how to use them or what it could look like or what I've seen it look like. 

In your classrooms. Or with your students or out there in the world. Depending on the topic.  What.  What is the next thing for you? Like, how can you.  So I want you to ask yourself, how can I use my voice today?  What is the one next step I'm going to take, because we don't mean to run the whole race in a day.  

Or in a school year, this is a marathon and we're going to be continuing on this race and we'll try something and we'll reflect and we'll adjust and we'll move forward. And.  

The intent.  Behind it. Can help support our impact.  But we want to make sure in this reflection, That our intent and impact are aligned with the goal.  

So 

I think I'm going to end there.  I hope you got a little view into me as a, as a person, as an educator. I'll be sharing more of my story as we talk with other educators in the field. And as we dive into Ways that you can do this. For you as well. So I would love to hear more about things you're interested in hearing or learning about. If you go to my website, there's a podcast inquiry form. Please fill that out. Let me know what you're interested in learning or hearing about. 

If you want to join me on the podcast, I would love to have you, so please fill that out. Let me know. And of course, click subscribe. So you don't miss any future episodes. So thank you so much for your time today. It's been such a pleasure sharing, a little bit of myself with you, and I look forward to continuing to engage with you on dragon fly, rising and the dragon fly rising podcast. 

I hope you have a wonderful day and use your voice today.