DEIA: Better Together - Loudoun County: Where the World Learns

In this episode of DEIA: Better Together, Co-Host Everette Callaway is joined by Dr. Michael Grubbs, Director of Career & Technical and Adult Education, Ms. Danyael Graham, Social Sciences & Global Studies Supervisor, and Mr. Grant Schafer, Academic Programs Supervisor to explore how Loudoun County Public Schools brings the vision of “Where the World Learns” to life. Together, they discuss how LCPS provides the tools and support to deliver on its promise—expanding access, elevating student voice, and ensuring every learner feels seen, supported, and prepared through equity-centered practices. Tune in as we highlight the work and commitments that help us move forward—better together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

It's your co-hosts, Anthony, and Everett.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome and thank you for joining us for another episode of DEIA Better Together.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Thank you for joining us for DEIA Better Together. It's another beautiful day at LCPS, and today we're going to discuss the ways that Loudon County Public Schools supports students and delivers on our profile of an LCPS graduate by talking with some of our amazing administrators supporting various areas of instruction. Before we dive into our main topic, we're going to have an appetizer.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Alpha Batsu. Today's letter is L. So each of our guests is going to offer a word starting with the letter L and talk about how it resonates with them and connects to equity work. I will start off. Lifelong learner. Huge fan of alliteration.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

And the concept of a lifelong learner makes me think of that cultural humility that's necessary when you engage in this work. You're going to always want to accept that you don't know everything. You're not the holder of all information. Not only is that a huge burden on oneself to know and hold everything, and it's so freeing to accept that you're constantly learning and evolving. So lifelong learning.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

All right, I'll go next. Um, language is my word today. Uh, working in social studies, the language we use is really important to affirm people's identities, look them up. So I really like feel like language is key. And I think in social studies, we kind of have been on a journey with that with teachers. So I think, and having just been going through textbook review, I think that's one of the things that is really top of mind for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:45

Um, language was one of mine as well, but I'm gonna pivot. Um, I'm gonna go with leadership when I think of equity work. I think a lot about the need for leaders and leadership and walk and the walk and modeling the way and inspiring um where we want to take folks. And so my letter today is leadership.

SPEAKER_06 2:04

Uh and for me, uh love comes to mind. I mean, we want our students to love themselves, um, themselves to love each other, um, and also to cultivate a love of learning, right? Um, and in subjects and interests and passions.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Thank you so very much.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Our main topic for today's podcast is Loud Encounter, where the world learns. This conversation will center on the ways that our diverse student population is able to access our comprehensive curriculum and how equity work shows up in a variety of spaces. To offer insight into this topic, our guests today are Grant Schaefer, supervisor of the academic program, Danielle Graham, SSGS supervisor, and Dr. Michael Grubbs, Director of CTE. They will introduce themselves and share a bit more about themselves as we prepare to dive deeper into this conversation. Thank you all for joining us today. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey in education and your current role within LCPS?

SPEAKER_06 3:12

Um, all right, I'll go first. I'm Grant Schaeffer, and uh this is actually um, I had to do a little math here on this one. This is actually my 17th year working in LCPS, um, which has been great. I've had the opportunity to work both in student services and in teaching and learning. Um in a variety of capacities. So I've worked one-on-one with students, I've done program initiation development. Um, I've worked in the community and business partnership sector of the schools as well. And then currently, academic programs involves specialty high school academic programs and pathways that students can choose, and then also college credit coursework. Um, so that involves the International Baccalaureate Program, advanced placement courses, and dual enrollment courses. Um, a theme really from all the work that I've done, I feel like is that I've always been part of the team and all the success that the team has collectively had is has involved people from multiple disciplines working um together. So including these um two great professionals I have with me here.

SPEAKER_05 4:24

Uh thank you, Grant. I'll go next. Uh I am Michael Grubbs. I am the director of career technical and adult education. Uh, my my journey into education, I never wanted to become an educator, uh, but my senior year of high school, I um I refereed and I coached elementary kids in basketball. And I just loved the idea of coaching and teaching and uh really sparked my interest in education. And then I also grew up on a construction site, and so I have this love for the trades. So I braided those two things together and I became a career in technical education teacher. I started my career in Metro Atlanta, and so uh I've been here 21 months, uh, not years. Uh, I spent the last decade in Baltimore County Public Schools. Uh, what do I do in LCPS? I oversee K-12 career connected learning. I oversee career in technical education, which is largely our middle schools and our high schools, I oversee adult education, uh, which is uh 18 and above, all the way up to 65 and 70. And I oversee uh computer science. Um, when I think about what is the phrase loud in where the world learns, I think about um, I think about the world of work that I deal with, which is everything after high school, and and bringing the world of work into our communities and into our schools, and uh really finding those skills, beliefs, and values that students have and bringing bringing learning to life uh for in a way that's authentic and meaningful for them.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

All right, well, thank you all. I'm glad to be here. I'm Danielle Graham. I'm the supervisor of social science and global studies. That's what the SSGS stands for. Um so we are a mighty office of three. I describe us. Um we serve K-12 Social Studies Curriculum. So we build that curriculum and support teachers in that implementation, uh, plan professional development for our teachers, um, work closely with our teacher leaders, K-12. Um, additionally, I connect with like local history in the area. I also serve on the Lab and 250 Commission. Um, and most recently, we are building a new program, um, the Academy of Global and Linguistic Studies. So I'm very feel very connected to Where the World Learns as this academy is seeking to take the humanities and show students how that can be transformed into career sort opportunities in international organizations, government, um, as well as international business. So we're really excited because we will have our freshmen starting in that program starting next year. Um, for me, where the world learns really does speak to the diversity of Loudoun. Um, being originally from New Orleans, my husband and I chose this area because we love the diversity of Loudoun and the opportunities for our students, our own children, even to celebrate holidays like Diwali and things they wouldn't have normally encountered growing up where I grew up. But also, I think um it's the degree of opportunities for our students. We're really uniquely situated uh by Washington, DC, and by all of these really amazing businesses. There's really just so many opportunities for our students beyond the classroom. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Thank you each so much for sharing uh your breadth of experiences. And I hope the audience is excited for what is to come as we dive into this topic. So I'm gonna throw a question out there. Start us, start a starter, and then uh whoever feels connected can uh in as well. In what ways are our curricula and programs helping students see both themselves and the broader world reflected in their learning experiences?

SPEAKER_06 8:06

Um I'll go ahead and start. Um this connects with, you know, again, the theme here Loudon, where the world learns. I feel like a big part is when you look in our our comprehensive program of studies, um, there's this the number of choices that students have to take so many different classes, really. And what it what it does is it's just not on the academic side, but it's also elective courses as well. And then specialty programs that that I deal with and that we all deal with. But also, you know, another part of it is the clubs and activities and student support organizations that really foster students' academic growth and development and pursuing what they're interested in. Um and then kind of another thing that that makes me think of this is um the broader world, is that we have plenty of opportunities for students to look outside themselves, whether it's service opportunities or finding a way to connect what they're learning to the broader world. And an example that I work with in some capacity is the senior capstone project for high school students. Um, not every school offers it, but um we have basically an opportunity for those students to take the last three weeks of their senior year and they can really pursue something that they want to do more on a career basis. They can do something a little bit more um pursuing certain interests or passions. Or many of students focus on volunteering and giving back. So again, these are all kind of ways that students can really see themselves and put themselves in in the broader world through what we have to offer here.

SPEAKER_05 9:51

Um, I'll go next. Um so when I think about ways that our curricula and programs are helping students see both themselves in the broader world, I immediately think of career-connected learning and work-based learning. Um, I think some of the work we're doing around getting more students uh on the job site, connected to mentors, connected to individuals in the workforce. Uh, I think identification role model is one of the number one predictors of why you choose the field that you're going into. And I think that the work we're doing with work-based learning and career connected learning is really helping bring to life what's happening in math and science and the social sciences. It's one thing to learn Pythagorean theorem in your algebra course. It's a whole nother to have a connection to someone that you look like or you can connect with uh in the workforce. And so I think the work that our team is doing to just increase those connections to our 14,000 plus business partners uh is, in my opinion, just uh echoing the work that's happening uh in some of our content areas and bringing some of it to life. Um I think the work we're doing around RySAC, which is a personality-based assessment, uh, really helps students think about their skills, their values, and their interests. It doesn't matter what you're learning, there's also there's always some way to bring it back to, you know, this, your your sense of self, right? And to build upon what you're learning in the classroom. And I think that that's a big thing that we're focused on in our content area right now.

unknown 11:22

All right.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Well, social studies, I feel like this is what we do. So um, from the way we sequence courses starting in elementary, um, developmentally, students start with community and kind of build out from there. So it's our community, our state, um, our country, our world is kind of what the progression is, K through three, um, to kind of help students broaden their perspectives, but also even in how we work through curriculum. Um, students have units on holidays. So everything is is kind of determined by our standards of learning, but we look for opportunities to expand here. So our inner units on holidays and culture, we not only work with the holidays and the standards, but give students opportunities to bring in uh their own holidays and ways they celebrate things in their own culture and look for opportunities to connect with other students and share their ideas. It's a really um incredible opportunity for students to bring pieces of themselves and see themselves in curriculum. Beyond elementary, um, we also continue kind of with that progression. So we have Virginia Studies in fourth grade, which again is focused on the state. They move to US history and civics and economics and then start world history in high school before really getting to expand into those electives in their junior and senior year. Um, and I do think that that's one of the things we really believe in inquiry-based learning and students being able to ask questions and follow those lines of questioning. Um, so I think it's opportunities for students to see themselves, explore things that to help broaden their own perspectives, um, and just kind of learn something along the way that they're passionate about. I always say we want to create the next generation of history lovers. So that's one of the things that uh we really seek to do in social science and global studies.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Love that. And in our hive sales, uh, we really want to excite our students about the various opportunities that lie ahead of them. A lot of our encouragement responses, there's choice, there's intention and understanding that the goal is really to connect what you're learning in all these other places as to the person you get a chance to, right? Um while bringing yourself into that space. So as we think about that, my next question is where are there opportunities to broaden access to some of our most impactful learning experiences and how might we continue refining our systems to ensure that each and every student feels invited and prepared to participate?

SPEAKER_06 13:46

Yeah, I'll I'll start on that with our specialty academic programs. We're constantly looking at um, we always have um a greater number of interests than we do have seats, right? So we're looking at either kind of how do we expand programs that might just be at one at one school, that we can offer them at multiple schools. Um, how do we bring in new programs that people are interested in and that students and families want to participate? Um, the other thing is really making sure in some of our college credit coursework that our students are ready, they're prepared to write, um, to research, to analyze, to have those, have those skills that they do feel, you know, an important part of this question was that students feel invited or prepared, right? So if we want students to be academic risk takers, we have to set them up for that success. So I think constantly looking at what you know, what is the course progression that Danielle was talking about, referenced earlier, are they are they ready to jump into those harder courses? Um and then lastly, just really continue to help our families understand that there's multiple paths to what students want to achieve, right? So whether it's right into the workforce, two-year, four-year path, um even taking a gap year and and then getting back into education. Also, this new world of of students that are going to be working and going to college at the same time. That's a new new reality that's a little more um commonplace. So really just helping them understand and continue in that outreach effort too. There's always more you know, boots that can be on the ground to really let parents know.

SPEAKER_05 15:30

I'll jump in next. I think that's a great segue to the division of career technical on adult education. Um, I I think about the uh I think it's never too early to start conversations around what students are passionate about. I think the sooner that we start those conversations, what are you interested in? What careers are you starting to explore? Um, you know, really, really pushing on it's not the career ladder anymore, it's the career jungle gym. We need students to explore more and more. Um, even if your child's in elementary school, you know, just start picking at their interests. That's gonna help long term with what they're learning in the classroom to make those connections. Um I think, you know, not everyone's gonna go to college, but everybody's gonna go to work. And the sooner to Grant's point that we start those conversations with parents and students, um the more that we can, you know, we can iterate, we can, we can explore, we can go down a path and turn around or pivot paths. Uh it's it's really about intersections and and not not a call-de-sac. Um, as we broaden our work, we're really trying to make sure that we have equality and equity in career career connected learning. One of the examples we're hoping to expand is all fifth graders go to the AWS Think Big Space. This year we had 35 of our elementary schools. That means that all of the schools have participated, got to learn about computer science and career pathways, something that's never happened before. Um, I think, you know, is as part of broadening the access, is we need all fifth graders to have that same experience moving forward.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

That's actually a great segue. I think one of the challenges for LATN is our size. Um, and I've viewed our office as a connector for some of those opportunities for teachers, whether that's our local historians looking for things. Um we've had students help develop historic marker language. We've had students uh working with historic sites on updating databases to include names of the enslaved that live there. So there's a lot of opportunities, and sometimes it's about serving as that connector uh for teachers, so that it's not just somebody happens to run into someone and hear about this. We can actually put these opportunities out there so that all students have an opportunity to participate. I think another thing that we're looking to do is really we're at history education looks very different, I think, than it did. And that's a consequence of technology. It's a consequence of many things. Um, and really it looks a lot more today in a classroom, uh, like what historians actually do as opposed to content retention. Um, and so I think one of the other pieces there is really focusing on elevating student voice in that process. Um, I discussed in the last point at inquiry-based instruction. So, really giving the students an opportunity to be curious and explore and make claims and provide evidence and learn to think critically about things. Um, the more opportunities we provide them, the more confident they'll become. And so we're continuing, that's an area of growth, I think, still for us that we're continuing to develop the capacity of our teachers, our students. Those things don't happen overnight. Um, and so that's really something that I feel like is important as we continue to ensure every student feels invited to and prepared to participate.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

A couple of things I want to hold on to from this amazing conversation, and I'm just so glad that I get to share space with you all as you're sharing all the cool things that happen in your various auspices within the district. Um, the concept of a career jungle gym, thinking of the way that that would have impacted us as we were coming up, uh, being from specific places, you think success looks like a lawyer, success looks like a doctor. And you don't necessarily take the time to be, is that what success looks like? Or other options exist out there where I can achieve success and joy. So the idea that that is being thought about at this level and creating this concept and this comfort with a career challenging really stuck out to me. Um talking about the expansion of new programs and all of that, as you were you gave the really out of the heart that there are not enough seats for every student to have every single one of these opportunities. But knowing that there's intention and thought going into the ways in which we expand and create those opportunities for students was amazing. And then the idea that we're really working on teaching students to be critical thinkers. I think that we have got, we do have lots of technology, we've been learning ways to utilize the technology, and now we've really got to ensure that we're fortifying that ability to uh think critically about all the information that we do have, maybe information rich or data-rich information. And uh I love that you all handle all of that. And then I was also struck just by the concept of as we think about seeing ourselves in the space, as we think about how we see ourselves, we think about um is it a mirror, is it windows, and then could it be a flight door? Like, could we provide that access and invite people in? So lots of stuff. This is amazing. I feel so uh earned to have these people in this room having this conversation. Uh next question Can you also uh why is DEIA, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility so important for student success today? From a DEIA perspective, how is your content area or program working to expand voice, representation, and meaningful participation for all students, particularly those who may not have always experienced full access or visibility? Lots of words to say. How are we creating a space where that student who may not feel empowered knows that they are welcome?

SPEAKER_06 21:05

Yeah, for academic programs, I I feel like the the world we're working in with this is interconnectedness. Um and and how we do that is that I feel like with whether it's special programs or college credit coursework, is all about being cross-disciplinary, interconnected curriculum, with really the goal of encouraging students to think across traditional subject areas to analyze and apply knowledge. And again, we're moving away from learning subjects in isolation. Um, so where this kind of works, and I I know I haven't given too many specific examples, but I have a couple here. So, one thing could be in a college composition course, give students the ability to really write and expand and express themselves on a deeper level and maybe in some other courses. Um, a student being able to analyze a piece of music in an IB international baccalaureate. Music course. Um a couple science examples just because science has been on my mind. We just had science a science fair. Um a student in the geospatial science dual enrollment course, being able to make an earthquake prediction map in Pakistan could be for a variety of reasons, right? Interest, family there, that's where they used to live. So again, these are all ways that that students are able to really um see and find themselves and enrich themselves in the in the course work. So um I I really think it's all about interconnectedness.

SPEAKER_05 22:37

Uh I'll go next. Um, why do I think DEIA is so important for student success today? Um, I I think I think from the world of work, that's that's what it looks like. It is uh it's it's not a melting pot, it's a salad bowl. If you go into the world of work, it's it's it's very diverse, it's very quickly changing. Um, if you're not collaborating, if you're not uh working critically with colleagues, if you're not um looking for that shared voice, meeting people where they are, you're not gonna be successful in the future workplace. Um, I think uh from a current technical education perspective, it's all about that individualized um support. And I think it starts with our RiSAC tool that we've been using. Uh Riosec is, as I mentioned, a personality-based uh uh tool, protocol for students to map themselves to the world. What are my skills? What are my values? What are my interests? It doesn't matter what you engage with, whether it's Shakespeare or Pythagorean theorem, uh you can find some sort of connection uh to that content based on your skills, your values, and your interests. Um, I also think about the work that we're doing with just workplace readiness, which is around, you know, showing up on time, collaborating, critical thinking, those five C's. Um, those are things that are not, they're never gonna change. They're never gonna go outdated. And the more that we can prepare students um to think about how they're bringing those skills uh into the workplace is only gonna make them more prepared um to participate in in society.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

So from my lens, I think DEIA is so important for student success today in so many ways. But speaking specifically from social science, um I think one thing I like to emphasize just at the base level is representation matters. Um, I fell in love with social studies when I was a 12-year-old girl getting to do a project on a 12-year-old girl who changed the course of history in Europe, Joan Park. Um, and so that is just one small example of how seeing myself in a curriculum completely shifted how I viewed it. Um, but beyond that, like in social studies, we're dealing with a lot more inclusive standards, um, which is great. So that is something that we're already from the state level able to work with. Um, but how are we ensuring that this is done in a way that is done? Um, like lifts up human agency, um, ensures that the topics that are a little heavier we're handling with sensitivity. Um and so I think DEIA lives so much in social studies and what we do, um, but uh in across the division not altogether.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

So many gems overtractions.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Um the concept of not using the term melting pot and transitioning into the salad bowl. I am not going to pretend like you are the first person to say it. It's the first time I've heard it. And I just I identified with immediately. Okay. I think that if we can think of it as opposed to everyone becoming this one uh amorphous thing and appreciating what every single ingredient brings to that space. And the earlier we can do that for our students or for our colleagues, the better they can understand what the world is going to uh look like and what that experience is gonna feel like. Uh talking about the more inclusive standards and understanding the standards do change, they do update the transition in those ways is a good thing and just looking for the ways in which we can do that. And I think prior to now, there was a conversation about student voice and the way in which uh all of this uh uh can be further supported and hands upon the opportunity for student voice.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

In my second to last question, I would like to start with Danielle this time.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Um that was another topic question because we don't have a lot of words, so you'll have the opportunity to get ready there. Um but what is one practice or program or mindset shift that you believe has the greatest potential to strengthen belonging and opportunity for students across Lauda County? And how might we scale or support that work more broadly? As you all know, uh one of the big pushes this year, one of the largest conversations taking place, is really building on that belonging for each and every one of our students in their space. So uh as we have this conversation, I want to make sure that we are also centering that concept and thinking about from our students, what is one thing that we could do that could increase that belong.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

So I think I'm gonna start with a mindset shift is really like one of the pieces that I think is is the former instructional coach. So that's literally the first piece of being able to do that. Um I I didn't say this in the beginning. This is my 14th year in Loudoun. Um, and Loudoun has changed significantly even in those 14 years. Um, and I think one thing we need to keep in mind as educators is these students have been through a lot, even in the past five to 10 years. Um, I have my own children, our students in Loudoun currently. Um, and so keeping that in mind and keeping in mind that this is such a rapidly changing world that we're needing to prepare students for the future. And that does mean that we're going to have to change and adapt and continue to evaluate the lay of the land and adjust accordingly. Um, these students are entering a workforce that looks drastically different than what we entered. Um, and so how do we do that and continue to support them? The world is a scary place. And so we want to make sure that we are creating a space that does feel comfortable to take risks. I don't want to say safe because I don't know that we can ever fully create a quote unquote safe space, but as comfortable as possible for students to take academic risks and develop their own ideas and think critically about the space around them and explore their passions. So I think really it's that shift of kind of keeping agile. Um, and I our teachers are fantastic at that. If anything, in the past six years has proven that they are agile, but continuing that and keeping that in mind is um what we've done previously may not work even in a couple months. So just keeping that in mind.

SPEAKER_05 28:54

That's a hard one to top, but um I'll try to tie some things together. I I think I think when I think a sense of belonging, I think know our kids better. I'm not talking about know your kids' names. I'm not talking about know their grades, their IEPs. I'm talking about know them, right? Like I want my teacher to know that my my child um plays flag football on the weekends. I want them to know that he goes home and he he tinkers with things in the garage. Um, I have a really quick story, but it's really impacted my whole career. Probably about 15 years ago, I had a student who was in their senior year of high school and they were doing a shark tank event with a room of 60 engineers, and he just rocked it. He just crushed it. He had four years of engineering, four courses, four years. And um, this group of engineers said, uh, what engineering school are you gonna go to? What school are you gonna go to? He said, I'm not gonna meet an engineer, I'm gonna be a lawyer. And I wasn't even really surprised by the engineer's jaw dropping. It was more of the teacher. This teacher spent four years with this individual, knew he was doing amazing work in engineering, but had no clue that he wanted to be a lawyer or why he even took these courses. And when prompted, he said, I took these courses uh because I want to be a lawyer, and they're gonna help me be a better critical thinker, collaborator, communicator, problem solver. And I think about how many classes around LCPS you have no clue why these students are sending their class, who they are, how this connects to their larger goals. And I think you can't do sense of belonging, you can't build community unless you first start there. Um, you gotta put the big rocks in first in your jar uh before the sand. Um, and I just think for a mindset shift, we gotta help kids better find their skills, their values, their interests. Um, if I teach kids AI today, it's gonna change in three weeks. One thing that's never gonna change is if I can teach them how to how to navigate the world uh based on their skills, their values, their interests.

SPEAKER_06 30:54

Uh one practice that I've thought of that I think in academic programs and teaching and learning can can learn from some other parts of the school system is peer education. Um it's a it's a passion, a passion of mine, and I've seen it um done really well in student services and with equity leads, for example, too. They have the peer program in the high school and equity leads there in multiple levels, but like how how can we move to getting peers to educate um or older students to educate younger students on these opportunities, right? So that they're the ones um doing the publicity, doing the outreach, and not adults, because I know we've we've learned from um eighth graders don't really want to hear necessarily from me. Uh, they want to hear from some older students that they already look up to in a variety of ways. Um, and also it's about again the representation matters that you know that Dan Danielle was saying earlier, too, that students if they see an older student talking about a pathway or classes that they can take, that maybe the hope is that they would some students would say, and maybe they didn't think this way beforehand, but after listening to a peer, they'd say, you know, I want to be, I want to be them one day. I want to be in their shoes. Um, so I think again, we have some good models we can draw from already in the school system, which is great. But I'd love to continue to see peer education play a big part in in academics. Super.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

I know that you all have jobs to go to, but I would love to sit here and continue to just really have this conversation uh about all of the amazing uh things you're doing and the ways in which you impact students each and every day. Uh the idea of that peer education, I think it's so important to remind our students. You know things, you bring things to the space, you make it better because you're here. And so when you endow someone with that, and then they can share that with someone, you have that possibility model. Here's a student who's like me who ran for student council at a school, and I could imagine that being an option. So uh that piece really stuck out the concept of knowing that you're kids, it sounds so terrible, and so many people are so bad at it. And as an adult, when you step into a space where you are now, the way that you feel about being in that space. And I think that when we talk about belonging, we really want kids to feel bad to feel like you want to feel exactly like that. And so I thank you all for your time, all of this amazing stuff that you have shared. I have one more request that you have the opportunity to share one idea, one idea with our audience, and you can think about them being whoever, whatever you would like to share.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

And Dr. Grooves.

SPEAKER_05 33:45

Man, I'm on the spot. Um, you know, the first thing that comes to mind, I just trust my gut, is a saying someone told me years ago, which is extrinsic motivators always end up giving way to intrinsic motivators. And so what I mean by that is um, you know, if you're if you're working with your child at home um or you're you're you're coaching a student in your classroom and you're advertising the future workforce and you're saying welders make this much money, or or we hear it a lot, teachers don't make this amount of money, that's not gonna last long term. What is gonna last long term is do you like what you're doing? Are you passionate about it? And we need to do a better job of helping students find their intrinsic motivators because I I I could tell you about 45 engineers that they they love the money they were making, but after about five or 10 years, they hated doing what they were doing and they shift over and they're tech ed teachers right now in LCPS. And that goes for any field and it goes vice versa. But I think just, you know, let's just focus a little bit more on the intrinsic motivators for our kiddos uh and not the extrinsic motivators like grades and GPA and salary.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

For me, it's the importance of elevating student voice. I think that we as educators get to work with these incredible human beings that come into classrooms every day. Um, they bring so much of their own experiences, ideas. Um, our students never cease to amaze me with some of the stuff they come in with or want to pursue. Um, and they can do hard things, giving them those challenges are what's really going to promote that lifelong learning. That's always been my goal is whether or not they know this date or that date is not really what matters to me. It's if they love to learn, and I always say, and are good people. Um and I think that's really what creating that sense of belonging is is creating that space where they want to learn, but also will go out into the world and do good as well.

SPEAKER_06 35:44

I'd go with academic risk taking for parents that are out there just to encourage their students to try something that they they like or they're interested in. It could be a semester elective class, you know, it could be a program pathway. Um, Dr. Grubbs' story of the engineer who wanted to, you know, go into pre-law, right? There's ways that you can learn and and get skills from many different classes that you take. And learning what you don't want to do is just as important as what you do want to do. So um, and that can be academically as well. So, yeah, that would be my parting words here.

SPEAKER_03 36:21

Thank you all so much for uh for playing that game with your uh parting words.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Uh and it's so funny when you mention academic risk taking. I feel like that is our continued conversation for the last two years about how we get to uh work on academic risk taking. Uh now that you have now that we've discussed the ways that various departments within teaching and learning are supporting our students through access to a diverse and rigorous curriculum, how can we utilize what we've learned? This month, we will challenge you to turn these words into action. What connection does student access have to the role you play in the LCPS community? Try to find new ways to understand the impact of access and rigor on student experience. Thank you so much for tuning in to DEIA Better Together. And thank you again, Grant, Danielle, and Dr. Groves for sharing your expertise and offering your valuable time and insight into our topic, Loudoun County, where the world lies.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Special thanks to our superintendent, Dr. Aaron Spence, and Assistant Superintendent of DEIA, Dr. Letitia Ellis Williams, for facilitating the development and distribution of this podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow us on Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts to tune in to more courageous conversations in and around DEIA.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

For our next episode, we will be joined by equity leads from all over the county to discuss the ways that their work is impacting experiences within our students. Please join us as we learn exactly how equity leads are empowered to support site-based staff members and students. And remember, take what applies, leave the rest, use what you can to be your best.