Welcome to the Cultural Curriculum Chat™ Podcast — where culture meets curriculum, and conversations spark real change. Hosted by author, educator, DEI consultant, and cultural storyteller Jebeh Edmunds, this show is your weekly guide to creating inclusive spaces where every voice is seen, valued, and celebrated.
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Welcome to the Cultural Curriculum Chat™ — where culture lives, learning grows, and equity leads.
On today’s episode I chat with author Tiffaney Whyte. Tiffaney is an Author, Elementary Special Education teacher, business owner, and mother of two young adults who resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Tiffaney is originally from Brooklyn, New York. She is passionate about spreading joy and positivity in her classroom.
Tiffaney created her brand "De'AvionBlu Innovations to empower and motivate fellow Educators as they cultivate young minds.
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Hello everyone. This is Jebba Edmonds, and welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat Podcast. I am just so excited. I have a wonderful teacher who shares her bright light with her students and infuses inclusion and, multicultural educational practices that we can learn from every day. So welcome Tiffaney Whyte and I'm just gonna share real quick with about Tiffaney. Tiffaney Whyte is an author, an elementary special education teacher, business owner, and mother of two young adults who resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Tiffany is originally from Brooklyn, New York. She is passionate about spreading joy and positivity in her classroom. Tiffaney created her brand De'Avion Blu Blue Innovations to empower and motivate fellow educators as they Cultivate Young Minds. Tiffaney's motto is, do what makes you happy. Create joy for yourself. When you find that, keep going and don't stop. In 2014, Tiffaney started, her teachers wear yellow on Monday campaign. This initiative promotes joy and positivity among educators by having them wear something yellow every Monday of the school year. And I'm just so honored to have you in the guest chair. Tiffaney welcome, welcome, welcome, thank you for having me here. Oh, thank you. I just have been a big fan of your work. Uh, you've got a wonderful, book, out called Nicole in the fifth grade desk. I can't wait to order it. And you have lots of strategies for educators. Your, your t-shirts, I mean, everything you just embody is inspiration. That just keeps us going, especially in this work. And can you share with our audience. Tiffaney, What is your story? I know you're from BK, but what else, you know, that helps us learn more about you and your work? Okay. My name is Tiffaney. I am an educator, a mom, sister, aunt, all of those things. And my story is that I've always wanted to be an educator. Growing up, I always wanted to be an educator. That was my lifelong dream and I accomplished it. Right. My story is I have two children, two young adult, as you said, and. Love bringing joy and positivity to everyone that I meet. It's important for me for someone to feel something when they meet me or for me to feel something when I meet them, especially the young adults and the young children that I work with every day. What did you observe, you know, in your formative years, um, before you became a mother and an educator? Um, was there something missing that you wish you had in education that reflected you? So here's the thing, there was nothing missing in education that I didn't have that didn't reflect me. So I, um, went to school in Brooklyn, New York, very diverse community, right? And, um, all of my teachers looked like me. Sound like me. They were of West Indian background. I went to a seven day Adventist elementary school from pre-K to eighth grade. So every educator that I had looked like me, right until I went to high school. And when I went to high school, I had educators of different backgrounds. So my educational years were wonderful. The teachers were of Caribbean descent, so, um, one thing they would say is, listen, your mother already told me what to do with you when you act up. So I already knew that. So it was like a real community, you know? So I loved my, elementary years. I love my high school year, um, because they really embody the culture.. That's amazing. And like you said too, your educators around, were a part of your community as a whole and I feel like a lot of us educators need that parental support and backing and that your teacher said, yeah, we have your parents backing, so don't try it Like they, you know. Yeah. They warn me often of that. Yes, yes. And, and it's with love too, you know, to say, if anything, everyone is surrounding you and we've got you. And yeah, I I just love that. I love that, uh, story. That's very positive. As a parent, what experiences have you, embodied yourself and reflected as a parent and as an educator with your students Now, so I was a young adult parent, right? My daughter's 24. So that just tells you I was a young adult parent. So as a young adult parent, I had to navigate through a lot of stereotypes. and I had to navigate through. What I wanted to do with my life and how I can accomplish those things. And I really had to take a step back and look at, my environment and look at the people around me and look at what were they doing that I didn't do or that I can do. You know? And a lot of the times, um, I teach fifth grade, but a lot of the times I have to tell my students just a little bit about my story. I have to tell them that, you know, I am an educator, but you know, sometimes you do not make mistakes, but sometimes you do take learning curves, and even though you have those curves, you can still accomplish the things that you wanna do. I did. You know, I, I had learning curves, being a young mother, first year college student. I had a lot of learning curves, but I still was able to persevere and still make my accomplishments, my greatest accomplishments, you know? And I am super proud of myself for that. Yes, that's amazing Tiffaney. And I love how you reframe that mistakes. There's a lot of shame behind the word mistake, but how you say learning curve. And as educators, we're constantly lifelong learners. When you said fifth grade, I mean, you already have my fifth grade teacher, heart cuz I taught fifth grade too. It's like, oh, we would've been awesome teammates. I love teaching fifth grade. I've taught kindergarten. I've taught first grade, second grade, third grade. I taught high school one year, but it's something about teaching fifth grade that just lights me up. I love it. Yes. Oh, I mean, and, and thank you so much. Yeah. Because those fifth graders, they need to know, especially getting over that transitional period to junior high. School. It's like, oh, you're gonna have a lot of learning curves, but don't let that deter you from your ultimate hopes and dreams, you know? And I, I really like that. Another thing I found on your, um, your platform that was really affirming is your affirmation cards on your mirrors. And how the words, you know, I'm drippy, I'm popping. Like, those are like fifth grade young people talk and that they can see themselves, you know, and stand up a little taller. Sit up a little taller. The materials and the content that you're sharing with a lot of us teachers is such a gift because a lot of us educators are thinking, okay, what can we do? Especially. Halfway through the school year, how do we boost morale? And you have things that are quick and easy to do, and you can do it, in a minute, to get things ready and going for your students. Is there anything else that you can suggest to us teachers, that is specific to, multicultural education and inclusion practices that they could use.. So I'm gonna suggest very simple things. So I love music. Music is like my heart and my soul, and I feel like music always bridges everybody together. You know, if you're having a down day, a happy day, you put on a song and everybody kind of like gets into the groove of music and you can always incorporate any kind of cultural. Music and people would love it. Music brings joy, music and sadness. Music brings happiness, but I love. Incorporating music into my daily, work. Every morning I'm listening to music in the car, whether it's rap music, soca music, reggae music, trap music, whatever. And then when I come to school, I'm doing the same thing too. I'm, on, in the hallway. So I have hallway duties. I make sure that I'm playing music, I'm singing music. I can't sing, but the kids tell me every day that I'm a great singer. But I'm not love that. I love it. No, I try to encompass everything, music. And at my school, it's not diverse in culture. But when I play music, I make sure that I play a diversity of music. Like, you know, because I want to always bring in my culture. into anything I do. Oh, I love that. And, and you said music just brings that energy and it keeps kids engaged and, you know, um, I'm from Liberia originally, and I immigrated to Minnesota with my parents and even like, doing, you know, some Afro beats. Steering brain breaks and things like that to keep 'em going. And then we're journaling and there's, a mandarin flute in the background, or some Celtic music in between snack, you're right. It just, it's a great transitional period of starting your day, keeping things going. I just love that and yeah, you sing better than me. I've seen you post a thing. So to me, that's what like you are singing at the top of your lungs on good nineties. And I can just imagine your students, you know, like, oh man, here we go. But that's the thing. I feel like as an educator, you really wanna hook your students in. You kind of have to go all out, you know, to really have them remember you and how you make them feel at the end of the day, like, yeah, cause it's all about relationships and how you make, you know, I read something the other day that said that education is not centered. It has to be relationship centered. And I was like, wow, that's important. Cause relationships with your students. It's how you kind of navigate how they're doing, what they're doing, and what they're going to do for you. Yes. You know? Oh, and they show you their best when you give them that safe space and that, you know, that feeling of, oh yeah, let's try it. So yeah, sometimes I'll do the Tootsie Roll in between hand writing, way back in the day. But those are the things you have to try and I just know even. Uh, my students that are adults now come back and go, oh, we used to do the birthday dance. It's like, yeah, Things like that, you know, that relationship piece. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yes, you have talked about music, you've talked about, you know, learning curves. Let's share more about your work as an. Author I am love books and I can't wait to read your book. I just ordered it so I can't wait to read it and put it on my YouTube to go, yes, I know her. thank you. Thank you, thank you so much. Nicole and the fifth grade desk was inspired by my students and my niece, right? So my niece had the hardest time with school and my students. I feel like that transition from fifth grade to sixth grade can be a very tiresome, so I came up with the. A desk that talks to them and the desk is gonna tell them about the first day and tell them all about the great things that we do in fifth grade and tell 'em all about the great things that your teachers are going to be and how you're gonna feel. And then it does have some educational background cuz we talk about figurative language. I add, try to add some standard and some content in there, figurative language and. The most important part is that desks don't speak, right? They don't talk, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So to have a desk talk is the epitome of figurative language, right? So it's just an all around great book about a student that looked like me having a conversation with a desk and a teacher that looks like her so I really, I loved writing Nicole the fifth grade desk. It just came to me one. I've been thinking about it for a long time, but I was like, ah, nah. And then I was like, you know what Tiffaney, this is a great story and I think everyone needs to read it. You know, despite that it says fifth grade, it can go for any grade level. Cause students are always scared in the beginning of the school year. Middle the school year, ending the school year. Cuz I have students start, I had a student start last week, Monday, the first day of school. First day of my school. So, you know, you can. Read Nicole in the fifth grade desk. Oh, I'm so excited. And trust me, I can't wait to share it out. And audience, I will definitely send the information of where you can order Tiffaney's, uh, Nicole in the fifth grade desk. I just love it how you're saying we're seniors of the building, you know, like, yes, sit I just love that. And you're right, every grade level in elementary school at. School, middle school, there's always that new kid that comes in that's uneasy, even if you're all new on the first day. We all have those jitters of what to expect and what to do and I can't wait to share this book with the audience and any other things before we wrap up, Tiffaney? It's just been so nice to speak with you and hang out with another fellow educator this morning and anything else? Others? Fifth grade. Fifth grade, fellow educator, I'm just so thankful this journey has been an amazing journey and it didn't start out that way. The reason why I started this journey is because I was down. about teaching and I felt like I didn't, I felt like I wasn't appreciated or I felt like I was being, picked on and I wanted something to motivate me, and this journey motivated me and. In fact, it motivated me to motivate other people. Right. So that's why I always try to make sure that, I'm positive upbeat because I wanna motivate educators. Cause our job is very tiresome. Yes. Sometimes it can be helpless, selfless. And I wanna make sure I motivate. Us all to appreciate and love the things that we do. Aw, and you are a Miss Queen motivator. I tell you. I look forward to every Monday going, okay. I love that shirt. Ooh, I like that one. Okay. I gotta just be brave one of these days and tag you Just do it. Just do it. Yes. Oh, thank you so much Tiffany. I really appreciate you on our show and yes. Cultural curriculum chat friends. I will send all of Tiffaney's information of how you can follow her and purchase her book and all of her amazing, brand of Davion Blue Innovations and to keep us motivated because yes, we're halfway through the school year. All right, thanks again.
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