With her recently released book, Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations, visionary Nawal Qarooni illuminates why we all need to follow her lead to:
In this episode, Nawal explains why it matters HOW families engage with school and how to shift our classroom practices to value process over perfectionism. Nawal shares stories about shared literacy experiences, highlighting her brilliant collective care work with family labsites. Listeners will be inspired and excited to purchase Nawal’s book using promo code (AFL04) on Routledge.com for 20% off (*** promo code expires March 31, 2024).
Episode Mentions:
Resources from Nawal:
Connect and Learn with Nawal:
Get solutions from Schoolutions!
#solutionsfromschoolutions #schoolutionsinspires #schoolutionspodcast
With her recently released book, Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations, visionary Nawal Qarooni illuminates why we all need to follow her lead to:
In this episode, Nawal explains why it matters HOW families engage with school and how to shift our classroom practices to value process over perfectionism. Nawal shares stories about shared literacy experiences, highlighting her brilliant collective care work with family labsites. Listeners will be inspired and excited to purchase Nawal’s book using promo code (AFL04) on Routledge.com for 20% off (*** promo code expires March 31, 2024).
Episode Mentions:
Resources from Nawal:
Connect and Learn with Nawal:
Get solutions from Schoolutions!
#solutionsfromschoolutions #schoolutionsinspires #schoolutionspodcast
[00:00:00] Olivia: Welcome to Schoolutions, where listening will leave you inspired by solutions to issues you or others you know may be struggling with in the public education system today. I am Olivia Wahl, and I am humbled to share my brilliant guest with you today, Nawal Qarooni. Let me tell you a little bit about Nawal.
[00:00:23] Olivia: Nawal Qarooni is a Jersey-based educator, writer, and adjunct professor who supports a holistic approach to literacy instruction and family experiences in schools across the country. Drawing on her work as an inquiry-based leader, mother, and proud daughter of immigrants, Nawal's pedagogy is centered in the rich and authentic learning all families gift their children every day.
[00:00:47] Olivia: She and her team of coaches at NQC Literacy work with schools and districts to collectively grow teacher practice and children's literacy lives. Our conversation today will focus on Nawal's recently released book. I have it right here: Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Elevating Home Experiences, and Classroom Practices for Collective Care. Nawal and Routledge Publishing are so generous to offer a promo code that I will make sure to talk into this episode's show notes. Nawal, thank you so much for taking the time to have this really important conversation. Welcome.
[00:01:25] Nawal: Oh, Olivia. I'm such a fan of Schoolutions and just your podcast and your work. So thank you for having me.
[00:01:30] Olivia: Well, before we jump into talking about the book and your brilliant work, I start every episode by asking guests to speak about an inspiring educator from their lives. Would you share with listeners? Oh,
[00:01:45] Nawal: Oh my goodness. I had an amazing teacher growing up named Mrs. Evans, who, um, was also the mother of one of my classmates. Um, she was our history teacher. I had her for more than one year. Um, and she just, she made learning come alive. And she did that by making the topics, information, um, and just content connected to who we were as people outside of the classroom walls. Um, so I'd never forget her. She, uh, moved to Palo Alto. I'm still in touch with her.
[00:02:23] Olivia: That's my favorite to know that how these adults imprint on us and it's such a gift to be in touch with former students and to also be in touch with educators that it's so important to let them know that they inspired us in the ways that they did. Um, and something I just heard you say is she recognized and brought your culture, brought who you were into the conversation.
[00:02:48] Olivia: So, I always name an issue, um, as a reason that I sought you and your brilliance out to be a guest on the podcast. And I'm actually going to borrow from one of my favorite human's words besides you, Cornelius Minor, um, Cornelius wrote the beautiful forward to your book. And, um, he so eloquently. says that, “Fear has compelled some among us to opine, ‘school should just be school’ - a place where children leave the world outside, and learners come inside for simple reading and writing.”
[00:03:25] Olivia: Well, that's an issue, isn't it? Because our children are beautiful humans that bring a world of culture and their families need to be welcomed into our buildings as well. Um, and then he goes on: “This book is a guide for how to strengthen our teaching with vitality of our families. It is about how to invite caregivers in; when so adulting is pushing them away-away from their children, away from school, away from each other, and away from the experience of being themselves.”
[00:03:54] Olivia: This book is a phenomenal step forward, um, and I said to you earlier, there's nothing like this out there. There's nothing like this. And so I cannot recommend it highly enough, um, for caregivers, for educators, for administrators, for everyone and anyone out there that's looking to build that home-school connection. Um, this is it. You've hit it. And so let's jump in. I'm so excited.
[00:04:30] Nawal: Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Olivia.
[00:04:32] Olivia: Um, you really begin with framing the book around the Kilim, um, that I I'd love for you to speak to what that is for listeners. And then you articulate that It really is a metaphor for a pedagogical stance. So could you speak to that?
[00:04:52] Nawal: Yeah. When I was thinking about what, um, what makes my home, you know, a lot of people say, of course, where, you know, home is where the heart is; home is where nourishment for me is; where my mother is cooking, where, you know, my like Persian food is cooking. Um, but another piece is these rugs, these Persian rugs. These rugs from the Middle East, from Afghanistan, from Morocco. Um, that we had all over our house growing up, they're really thin, um, and they're all, there's no, not a, they're not duplicated, right, because they're handmade, they're often vegetable dyed. Um, and the beauty of them is that they're, they're truly wonky and they're irregular size because, you know, they're made by humans who are imperfect, but then more than that, stories can be found on them.
[00:05:34] Nawal: And so if you look at them and if you kind of analyze them, them, um, you'll notice interesting patterns that change. You'll notice even stories being told within them. And often when you buy them in these bazaars and we would go to the Middle East and we would like, you know, haggle at the at the at the market for them. Um, they would tell you the story of the people who made them and they would say, you can see here this woman was in love because these represent loving images. This actually is a love letter. This was, you know, unrequited love. This one is, um, someone who had a farm outside her window and you can see the different animals and why.
[00:06:09] Nawal: And so, I love the idea as a pedagogical stance and a metaphor of something that is both grounding, something that is imperfect, something that is woven with natural materials, something that we've like authentically been creating forever, um, in the Middle East to kind of ground us that can kind of represent how I approach education and caregiving, um, in the imperfections, right? And the natural tendencies that come to us.
[00:06:37] Olivia: Yeah. So I want to, let's pause there because, you know, you articulate in the book that perfectionism really is harmful to children. So let's go in that direction with the conversation. Why? Why is it important to recognize that, um, perfectionism is not where we're going when it comes to education?
[00:07:00] Nawal: Well, we know from, you know, Tema Okun, Dr. Tema Okun's work around White Supremacy Culture, that perfectionism is one of the, um, one of the tenants and one of the components that really, like, uh, breaks us down in a society that demands, uh, a certain kind of way. To be a certain kind of way. For us to produce a certain kind of way that is harmful for many reasons, but mostly because no child is going to learn the same way. No child is going to produce the same way. And what I see in my students, especially, and in my own children, especially based on how the teacher has given the assignment or how the teacher has shared that, uh, piece of work or examples; is that my kids will come back and say, well, I could do it like this or like this.
[00:07:45] Nawal: Or they'll say, this is the only way. My teacher wants it to be in this format, filled in this way. The example showed me that I had to do it this way, as opposed to here are a variety of different ways and use your critical thinking and make a big mess as you get to your own final way. And I think that, um, you know, I see that even in my son who is like obsessed with art, he just got, you know, a bunch of sketch pads and, you know, pencils for Christmas and for the holidays. And he will rip out every page that he doesn't love, that he doesn't think is like exactly perfect. And I keep trying to tell him, like, put the date on it and let's keep it. And let's look at it over time to see how your work has changed. And he, he's not used to it. He can't tolerate it.
[00:08:27] Olivia: It's, it's fascinating. Um, so you also speak to process before we jump to the idea of process, I want to go backwards because something I found so fascinating, is your journey. And that notion of unlearning that you had to do as a student, as an adult, as, um, a mom. So I'd love for you to share your story and what brought you to where you are today.
[00:09:04] Nawal: I think so much of, um, how we, how we were raised has to do with what our parents wanted for us and what our parents believe equals success. And so if my immigrant parents who are Iranian, uh, you know, drill into me that like being an engineer, being a doctor equals success, um, if my Iranian parents and these are not necessarily my parents, right? My parents are; actually they've done some unlearning themselves and some, you know, kind of progressive thinking around this as my, you know, as my siblings have totally bucked trends as you know, uh, I think, I think it's important for us to understand that we are products of who our parents and our caregivers believed success was.
[00:09:46] Nawal: And so, as a result, you know, I dropped out of I was at, um, University of Michigan for med school. I dropped out of, like, pre-med as soon as math became difficult for me. I went to journalism school and I was a journalist. I think that probably my parents were okay with all of this because I was, you know, earning scholarships along the way and degrees and accolades. So they felt all right with it. But I think part of my own on learning was as a mother of four you can't control everything. You can't be perfect in everything. You don't know the answers to everything. You have to ask your kids to like think alongside you if you don't know the answers, and you have to be really okay with saying, I'm not perfect. Um, and I think like the teacher-child relationship is so much, it's so similar to the caregiver-child relationship in that we're trying to show that we have all the information and all the answers and we know what's best. But sometimes you can say that we don't.
[00:10:45] Olivia: I think actually really refreshing when, when we are able to put it out there into the universe that we don't have all of the answers and you know what, I need to circle back and think about that more, or let's research this together. And, you know, as I read your words, um, just unfolding on the pages, I thought so much about you as a child and what I wished some of your teachers would have given you, um, just to recognize the brilliance and the beauty of your family. And so, you know, why did you write this book? You know, why do we need to nourish family collaboration work?
[00:11:34] Nawal: Well, I think know, as I, as I just like became a mother of four and like during the COVID pandemic, I think it was like very clear that all; that schools still don't quote, have it right when it comes to relationships. And that and that depending on the teacher population and the student population, whether or not they're similar or different, there were these kind of big rifts between admin, teachers, and families, there were these kind of big barriers that needed to be broken down. Part of it came out of Chicago Public Schools and the funding that I got to, um, and the funding that I got to kind of design and think through a family engagement or literacy program with COVID funds so that one-off experiences wouldn't suck all the money out of that funding.
[00:12:19] Nawal: But more and more, I realized that caregiving and educating in the literacy classroom; our goals were the same and that families and admin families and schools just didn't maybe realize that. That that conversation wasn't happening. And that the conversation wasn't happening in a way that really strengthened all families, wherever they were coming from.
[00:12:39] Nawal: Right? I like, I have that part in my book that talks about my literacy life spinning on a different plane than my, um, my life as a very, like, highly literate, like, you know, good student in school, but that this to me felt like two different parts of myself. And I think so much of culturally sustaining pedagogy and so much of what we talk about right now is about weaving as much as we can between kids' identities, kids' languages, right, and everything that's happening in the classroom. But this is just like one extra step an additional layer, an additional piece that can't be forgotten. It's like moving the center of gravity so that we're like thinking also about where families are coming from.
[00:13:18] Olivia: Well, I would say too, so many of the conversations I've been having recently, actually, it's, it's about being on the team child. And so the team child is not just within the walls of the school. Oh my gosh. Every human that is in touch with that child has a different nuance or a glimpse as to who they are with personality, with strengths that we can capitalize upon if we have everyone at the table. So then I need to ask you; why does it matter so much how we interact with our caregivers?
[00:13:57] Nawal: Well, there are such small slights that we don't realize we inadvertently bring about. Even if we don't mean to, that I recognized I was doing in myself and then on the side of the parent that I also don't realize, I'm not understanding when it comes to what the the teacher is trying to achieve. And I noticed that because I have like friends with social capital, you know, are able to potentially to ask me questions about the misinterpreted documents that are coming home or the conversation they had with a teacher. But not not all families have someone to ask.
[00:14:29] Nawal: And so it occurred to me that, like, you know, one of the main pieces we need to do is to make sure that families are armed with a bunch of questions that they should feel comfortable asking, like, some advocacy questions that, of course, comes in all kinds of different languages. Um, but even part of my research was so interesting, Olivia, that families were saying things like there are physical barriers to coming to school. Like the secretaries are not nice or I don't feel comfortable just like physically going into the building because I didn't do school well myself. Um, you know, or I just, you know, they put them, you know, if there's a meeting, the parents are in these big, big bulking parents sitting in tiny chairs.
[00:15:08] Nawal: There were even these like really small things that maybe school had not thought of. Um, that even on like a one-off literacy night, it still felt like an unequal balance of power because teachers were on stage and families were on the ground. And so what does that do to the power, you know, dynamic, you think about that for like writing conferences or reading conferences in the classroom and how we say, like, you know, teachers need to crouch down, then be beside the child and be even under and behind the child to, like, give the child some sort of, like, mice, um, the same goes for parents, um, and caregivers.
[00:15:39] Olivia: It does, yeah.
[00:15:42] Nawal: I mean, I guess the, the other piece is just how we get to know kids across the school year, um, and it's not just like at the beginning. Of course, we need to get to know families at the beginning, but it's also continuous to just like check in with families and make eye contact and see if that, you know, in some ways and see if there's anything changed about the family dynamic.
[00:16:00] Nawal: And if we're not going to make eye contact, then, you know, all the other ways, all the other modes, whether that's like a Google form or a note or a check-in or drop-in moments that you can pick up. Um, because family dynamics are changing all the time and that so hugely affects the way that the kids are behaving, acting, and absorbing in the classroom.
[00:16:19] Olivia: It sure does. You know, I'm going through something as a mom right now that I can't put my finger on it, and there's this bizarre shift that happens when your child leaves elementary and goes into the middle school or high school setting, and I feel like there's an assumption that once a child is in middle or high school, the parents don't show up as much. And I feel this bizarre disconnect, not to the fault of the school district or to the fault of the school. But, you know, even trying to get a glimpse from my younger son of what his day is like, what's going on. I feel like I cannot get my finger on the pulse no matter what I ask. And I wonder, too, I've really been thinking about this.
[00:17:05] Olivia: I wonder if a lot of it also has to do with everything shifting to Canvas or Google Classroom. I know how to navigate Canvas, yet I still feel like there's just this disconnect with really just face-to-face being able to hear and understand, you know, how is he doing is in his perception and in- the grownups’ perception. I don't know. It's interesting.
[00:17:32] Nawal: I think that’s totally true. And when we were, you know, when I was writing this book and this book went on, a major publishing journey, you know, between publishers, et cetera. Um, but we were talking about where it fits and does this fit in K-8? Does it fit in K-5? Do, does K-12 need family engagement?
[00:17:49] Nawal: Um, and I definitely advocated for K-12 just because of family labsites and family experiences and the idea of, which we talk about at the end of the book, um but the idea of low stakes invitations for family to come into the classroom, no matter what the grade is, is so important because it breaks down the stress of, you know, I have a, I have a seventh grader.
[00:18:09] Nawal: She in seventh grade? Yeah, she's in seventh grade—my goodness. My 12-year-old going on 25-year- old. Um, she, you know, I go in for presentations and it's very much yeah. Oh, these are my friends’ moms are coming in at this time, or parents are coming in at this time. Don't come at, don't come at a different time, make sure that you don't come at any other time, or you're gonna, right, like there's so much, she has anxiety about how I'm gonna show up, and when I'm gonna show up.
[00:18:33] Olivia: Well, there's the pressure, yeah.
[00:18:33] Nawal: Right, and if you kind of eliminate, reduce that by having the additional invites. Having way more invitations. Having more low-stakes invitations. Have kind of these like fly on the wall; you can come and observe a minilesson and do a shared literacy experience alongside your kid. How, imagine like how that would relieve the pressure of the one event.
[00:18:55] Olivia: Yeah, it's so true. And I think the other piece that I continue to think about it, especially after reading the book, um, a couple of times, is the idea of process that we need to shift our class and practice to focus on process and really make sure our caregivers understand. Because like you, I have a lot of caregivers reach out to me saying, what does this mean? Trying to be an interpreter for them. Can you speak to why process is a critical piece in this work?
[00:19:28] Nawal: I think to families who don't know much about the holistic literacy classroom or, or you know, kind of progressive education or the kind of education we hope to achieve in our, you know, like super strong literacy classrooms, they don't realize that we're not only looking for these snazzy final polished pieces. And that the child who comes in knowing this is like a Cornelius Minor-ism, but the child who comes in learning, having learned that already is not someone who you taught. And so to show a kid and the parents, this is your seed idea; this is what you, you know, what you brainstormed. This is the mess it took for you to your job as a classroom teacher is to grow the children from wherever they are. And so we want to show caregivers that growth, no matter where they started from. And I think families are used to just getting the finals. And so it looks like something pretty, and they want the pretty final thing instead of looking at all that it took, all that brainpower it took, all that grappling with and, um, confusion that it took before you got to the end. Yeah,
[00:20:28] Olivia: Yeah. I, I, I agree. And I also think that with technology, there are so many ways to think of a Google Doc to be able to show the different revisions that a writing piece goes through. And just to even let families know, like your child worked so hard on this piece with coaching and conferring and applied the, the conferences that we had the conversations. Um, uh, I also really, I think a lot about the shared literacy experiences. And, um, when I was teaching in San Diego it was a really interesting dynamic. We had a very large Somali population, um, in the school that I was teaching and, and a lot, there was a family center right on the campus, which was a dream. And we would be in touch with the caregivers. They would just come right into our classrooms and it was a complete open-door policy. Um, and it was a privilege.
[00:21:28] Olivia: And I think that a lot of the women were empowered to work outside of the home where the father stayed home with the children. So it was it was different than what you would assume in some cultures. And a lot of the women were coming in and asking lots of questions about education and empowering their daughters to be learners.
[00:21:52] Olivia: And so I think a lot about that. And I wish as a teacher, I had more of a structure to welcome families in with the idea of a family labsite that I learned from you in this resource, because I always felt like I didn't, I wasn't prepared enough. And they were perfectly happy sitting and learning and just being with their child in the classroom environment. Um, but I'd love for listeners to understand from you, what is a family labsite and how can it really work with collective care?
[00:22:27] Nawal: So I use family labsites as one piece of the work that we do. So once I like work with districts and teachers to make sure that we're unpacking our biases around what families should look like, sound like and act like; um, once we've looked at the curriculum and kind of thought about the ways of intersection to think about where we can invite families to either listen to their stories, honor their stories, invite their expertise in a variety of ways.
[00:22:50] Nawal: Another piece are these family labsites where I invite, um I invite families to come in. I tend to do it right after drop off, right before pickup, so that families, you know, can come at different times. I encourage relatives to come. I encourage a sibling in the building to come if a family member cannot come. Um, yes, uh, little kids can come. I usually have like a child on my hip while I'm doing this. Um, and I basically just run it like a workshop, like a minilesson that is. Part of the curriculum, so it doesn't feel in isolation and it doesn't feel like a separate thing that I have to schedule or plan for.
[00:23:26] Nawal: Um, and I have that same kind of template of: What did I do? What did the kids do? What did you notice? In case folks want to take notes, often they don't. I do a little, so I'll model something. I'll have the kids turn and talk with a family member. I'll have them extend; I'll walk around and confer. I'll have them extend the work a little bit in some independent work. Usually the independent work looks like them talking in whatever language, me going and excitedly, um, you know, pushing them to continue. Uh, and maybe like adding an additional tip. Um, if it's a writing workshop, it tends to be like the value of the shared pen and the value of both the parent and or caregiver and the child working on one piece of paper.
[00:24:12] Nawal: It's like there's incredible power in them like co-building something. I like to do neighborhood maps where then they discuss and share like memories or moments that they remember happened in different places, then that becomes the fodder for the writing that the kids are going to do later. Um, I do it with all grade levels. Teachers are usually clustered behind me so that they can, like, observe these websites. But if you then, when you extend it yourself, you don't invite right, you don't invite anybody except your own class parents. Um. And then usually like I send the children to continue working and I debrief with the families.
[00:24:43] Nawal: So I say like, this is where this lesson sits. I'm at this part of the curriculum. I might just like give some general tips. I usually give like a tear sheet that they can take home with some additional reminders of how this like applies to their life work. Um, you know, everything from like, if you're watching a movie, you might pause it and ask these questions; if you're reading at night. So some things that I know my family does anyway, um, that can feel like kind of no stress additional while I’m cooking kind of kinds of tips. Um, and what happens over time is these family labsites become so like they become more frequent and so the families know what you're trying to achieve in the literacy classroom. So the questions are more on point when work comes home.
[00:25:24] Nawal: So you feel as a classroom teacher that you have more collaboration and collaborators because all of a sudden you have more teachers. All of a sudden you have families, you know, in LA, I have families that take like multiple buses and wouldn't miss it. Um, I have families that, you know, send a sibling, like from an eighth-grade classroom to come to their second-grader’s classroom and they get so excited.
[00:25:44] Nawal: Sometimes they do have families that don't show up. And so I cluster kids together to work with a different adult and a different caregiver. And that's also fine. It becomes part of the fabric of how family labsites work. It's like, oh, you can borrow a grownup. Can you join in with another grown-up? Um, you don't want to, of course, alienate children in any way. But, um, things come up and if you offer enough, you will have, you will have families come because what I learned in my interviews, uh, with stakeholder interviews in Chicago, is that families don't want to miss time with their children. That's what families want time with their children. They don't want to come to like assemblies where they're being like lectured at. They want to, they don't want to miss time and they don't want to miss like events where the child is shining. And you always have the kids just like. They're all just grinning. That's, that's what labsites are. It's just like, everyone is grinning from ear to ear. It's the smiles. It's the time.
[00:26:32] Olivia: It's beautiful, is what it is. I want to, logistically, how often did you hold them and what time of day seemed to work out best for you and having folks show up?
[00:26:46] Nawal: I have literally done after school, before school, and in the evening, like equally. Based on what do we know about that school, that population, what the teachers say about those families, and then also make your, you will know your school best, right? And so because I work with districts, you know, 10 or 12 days across the year, I'll do it like once per season myself, um, like once every three months or something. Um, but then teachers pick up and do in between, right? So they'll do these like low stakes in addition. Um, you can also do it like connected to curriculum. So like, if you want to do it at the beginning for like the brainstorming sessions, those ones are often easy. If you want to do writing, we also toggle between reading and writing. I've had teachers do it for math. So they have like math collections, math, um, minilessons so that families can understand math, which I like, I love that cross curricular like on the siloed work. So important.
[00:27:34] Olivia: It's so important. And you're reminding me when I was teaching at PS 116 in New York City, um, we alternated every other Friday. And now I'm realizing it was very much a labsite. It was from 8:00am-8:30am every other Friday. And one Friday was focused on literacy. A second Friday was focused on mathematics. And it was in a workshop structure. What I wish, like the way you just described, there are pieces I did not have in place. So I'm so glad you spoke to that. I wish I would have done a structured debrief with the families, um, and given them some anchor questions to look and listen for during the mini. And then I did move around and confer. So that that was good. Um, but I also, I feel like we can always enhance our practice.
[00:28:24] Olivia: And again, if a caregiver was not able to come because they have to work, we, the children were so excited to buddy up. And what I found was the very most important piece is the transparency. That no child was surprised that morning or that event that their caregiver was not able to come. There was open communication. This event's happening. Um, the caregiver felt like we were covering their child, so they had didn't feel guilt. That's right. That, that alleviation because we do have to work. We cannot attend every event. Um, and I think that's important too, that we recognize families are working and caregivers are working so hard to provide every level for their children. Um, so…
[00:29:19] Nawal: That’s probably, like, my, that's my main hope for this book, um, is that, is that everyone who reads it gets validation and also the feeling of reverence for every family. Um, that just, like, I have my hand on my heart the whole entire time that I'm, like, with families in these minilessons because I'm so grateful for their time and because I know how much it Every single caregiver is like grappling with no matter what it looks like on the surface. Even if it looks like this caregiver has everything set up perfectly and it's moving smoothly, I'm sure that there are anxieties underlying. I'm sure that they're, you know, fighting their own secret battles. And so I feel that for every, I feel that for every family.
[00:29:58] Olivia: Um, my dream for this book as I've gotten to know you, I just, I think you're the bee's knees. I think you're an amazing human being. And my dream for this is really that we can continue to have conversations across tables and next to caregivers that we may see as so vastly different from who we are in our beliefs or our upbringing and just really work so hard to open up conversations and doors instead of focusing on that notion of separation that I feel like the world has become stuck in.
[00:30:40] Olivia: And this book, Nawal, it really opens up all of these tools for conversations. You offer gorgeous questions that are just such an access point to these conversations being opened. Um, but that's my dream. It's really that this book and you and your work can offer that, um, bridge for these conversations and collaborations to happen. So I'm just grateful for you in this world. Well, thank you.
[00:31:11] Nawal: Well thank you. Thank you.
[00:31:12] Olivia: Yeah. And so, okay, okay. We have to wrap. But before I let you go, you know, where do we start? Where do we begin? What's our call to action to get this going outside of, of course, getting your book and signing up to work with you wherever we can? You have a gorgeous website. Um, but what's our first step to get this going?
[00:31:38] Nawal: Oh my goodness. I think, I think that arming families with the questions that they can ask you, um, so that conversations may happen. It would not be a bad step to, um, to access some really loving questions that are process-oriented and connected to the child and connected to the child's intrinsic motivation; how the child is outside the classroom; how the child is in all of their other kind of spaces so that not only classroom teachers better know the child, but that also families know what kinds of questions to ask feels like just a really accessible place to start. Um, you know, as a, as a mom, I really just want to know that the classroom teacher like loves and knows my child individually. Um, and just like wants my kid, you know, just like knows my kid. Um, and my kid is not just a number, but like, what is my child do really well? What makes my kids smile? I want the classroom teachers to know that. So I feel like a call to action is just like, know what makes all of your children tick positively reach out to families so that the first access and the ongoing access is usually couched in something amazingly positive so that there's like love there first. And start from there.
[00:33:01] Olivia: It's a good place to start and you offer those questions and so that's what I find invaluable. The book is such a great, it's, it's a really good toolkit to jump in and to start this work. It's not daunting. It's actually inspiring and refreshing. And, um, I am so excited that I'm seeing authors on social media recommending your book and I mean, this is a big deal. So it's a high honor for me to have you as a guest and to share your work. Thank you so much.
[00:31:32] Nawal: Thank you, Olivia. You're amazing. Take care.
[00:33:36] Olivia: Take care.Schoolutions is a podcast created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Special thanks to my guest, Nawal Qarooni. Also, a big thank you to my older son, Benjamin, who created the music that's playing in the background. I would love for you to share the podcast far and wide. Leave a review, subscribe on YouTube, and follow us on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook @schoolutionspodcast. If you'd like to become a Schoolutions sponsor or share episode ideas, leave me a SpeakPipe voice memo at my website, www.oliviawahl.com/podcast, or connect via email at @schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. Please keep listening. Let's continue finding inspiration together.