We Can Do It Differently

“Some of us come into teaching because we always loved school. Some of us come into teaching because we didn't love school, and we want to change something about it.” 

That’s a glimpse into Dr. Rachael Mahmood’s journey. With a Russian Jewish mother and an Indian Hindu dad, Rachael never felt like she fit in when she was a child attending school. That experience fueled her desire to become an educator, and now, Dr. Mahmood is wrapping up her term as our 2024 Illinois State Teacher of the Year. In this episode, you’ll hear how she came to view her heritage as a way to be a “connector,” and how educators can make all students feel like they fit.
 
“We can do it differently,” Dr. Mahmood says. “We can do it better than the experience that we've had.”

Our theme music is by José Rivera. Incidental music is “Rain On Lake Erie” from Purple Planet Music.

Transcript

2024 Illinois Teacher of the Year, Dr. Rachael Mahmood 

RHODES  0:02  

Hello, we are the Illinois State Board of Education, and we love Illinois schools. I'm Dusty Rhodes in the Public Relations Department. Very soon we will announce our 2025 Illinois Teacher of the Year (TOY). But before that happens, we wanted to sit down with our 2024 Teacher of the Year, Dr. Rachel Mahmood. Today's podcast has two conversations with Rachel, one at the beginning of her TOY term, and another, more recent chat as she looked back over her year. 

Why don't we start by you telling me your identity because it's really complex and interesting.

MAHMOOD  0:45  

Well, my mom is Russian and Jewish, and my dad is Indian and Hindu. Growing up I identified as both cultures and both religions. My parents got divorced when I was in high school, and they both remarried, German-Italian Catholics. So, in my house, we really celebrated all the holidays and all the cultural things, and we ate all the food and really were just immersed in a very culturally enriched environment that was incredibly diverse.

RHODES  1:17  

I was actually going to ask you; what your holiday meals are like?

MAHMOOD  1:23  

Well, we always had chicken curry with our Thanksgiving turkey.

RHODES  1:29  

All right. But you also mentioned in your interview, how do your students perceive you?

MAHMOOD  1:36  

Yes, so I work in a school that's predominantly Hispanic, so a lot of parents do assume that I'm Hispanic as well because of my skin tone, and then some of my students also think I'm Black because I have an obsession with social justice topics and learning about the Civil Rights time periods. I have a lot of Black heroes and people in my classroom, posters of them hanging up, and so some of my students are excited. They go home and tell their parents that they have a Black teacher. So it's really a quite interesting identity to be from multiple religions and multiple cultures and multiple backgrounds, and then also to not only participate in the cultures that I'm actually from, but also to be racially ambiguous and culturally ambiguous to people, because I have the unique opportunity to be able to kind of navigate through different environments with different groups of people and have that level of empathy and understanding. 

RHODES  2:39  

I think we left out your husband. 

MAHMOOD  2:42  

Yes. Only more ironic that being half Russian, Jewish, half Indian, Hindu, I ended up marrying a Pakistani Muslim man, and so another religion is welcomed into our home.

RHODES  2:58  

So, your identity is just a little bit of everything. 

MAHMOOD  3:02  

It really is. It's something that I was quite embarrassed of when I was younger, because there weren't any kids who were like me in my school. There were barely any students from marginalized backgrounds, or there's very little religious or racial diversity. And so really, it was something that I was a little bit embarrassed about and didn't really feel like I belonged anywhere. Then being multi religious and multiracial and multicultural made it even harder, because I didn't necessarily also fit into each of the individual cultural groups or religious groups. And so that really became a challenge for me as a child in school, because it's like, what groups do you fit with, and where do you fit in? 

Now, as an adult doing this work, I realize I fit in spaces that bring groups of people together, bring different cultures together, bring different religions together. I call myself a connector, because when I learn about other people, their cultures, their languages, their religions, their identities, right away, I try to connect something to myself or something I've learned. And I actually love the look on people's faces when you first make the connection for them to something else or to yourself, they're like, oh, like, you know about that, and usually it's a smile, which is really affirming. 

RHODES  4:26  

You also mentioned that being an Asian teacher, which is one of your identities, is kind of unusual, and I never realized that until I heard you say it.

MAHMOOD  4:37  

Yeah. So, you know, not feeling a sense of belonging as a student, and then coming back to education now in the teacher role, sometimes you assume that everything's going to fall into place and, all of a sudden, school is going to be a different experience from you, because you moved from the desk to the front of the room. But I, actually, realized that my search for belonging as a student really became my search for belonging as an educator. Coming back to school, I still face similar challenges that I faced as a student, and one of those challenges was when I was first hired in my first school, 20 years ago, I was the first certified educator of color hired in my building. The first non-Christian teacher hired in my building. And then being in that space, you know, felt very similar to being back in elementary school and middle school, being one of the few from your culture in that space.

RHODES  4:46  

Wow. What school was that?

MAHMOOD  5:03  

I've been at Indian Prairie School District 204, the entire 20 years that I've been a teacher. Very proud of that. 

RHODES  5:51  

So, tell me what your classroom looks like. If I walked in, what would I see?

MAHMOOD  5:55  

When people walk into my classroom for the first time? I think they might get a little bit overwhelmed because I am obsessed with doing projects. The first thing you're going to see is a ton of projects proudly displayed, hung up in every corner that is left to have something displayed in. I love making clothespin dolls. I love making posters and 3D kind of arts and crafts activities. My students do soap carvings. They do, they make Native American museum exhibits and cultural artifacts. There are comic book creations, and, you know, a lot of technology type activities that are designed and even printed off. 

In addition to all the projects that you're going to see, you're also going to see a lot of cultural artifacts, because I'm a collector and a connector. So, I love to collect things from different cultures, from vacations. When students go on vacations, they bring me things from their culture. So, there's a lot of little cultural artifacts everywhere representing a lot of different cultural identities, like little Korean dolls and like little Korean drums and Indian figurines, alebrijes from like Mexico. There's just a lot of different African artwork and posters of different historical and contemporary figures that have contributed to American history from all different backgrounds and identities. 

There's also a lot of little nooks and spaces for kids to sit down and relax and explore different types of seating, comfortable and flexible, so that if they're feeling a little wiggly and they want to get out of their desk, they can expand into other parts of the room. And just try to make learning in my classroom, a place where they can see a piece of themselves, learn about people who are not like them, and learn in an environment that's incredibly comfortable and relaxing. I think my classroom feels a little bit like home.

RHODES  8:16  

Do you have a social justice word wall and an alumni word wall?

MAHMOOD  8:22  

Yeah, so I do have a social justice word wall. As we cover different topics throughout American history and in the books that we read, I realized that there was a lot of words that students needed to describe what was happening in the books, or what was happening in our textbooks in American history. One of the things I started building into my social emotional learning lessons was different vocabulary words to describe identity, understanding what race is, what is ethnicity, what is nationality, what is religion. Those types of words are important if we want to describe what a social injustice is, then we need identity words to speak more specifically about what we're experiencing.  Then helping students to see the difference between different words for injustice. I think students are good at pointing out what's fair and unfair. So, they'll be like, that's unfair, and I be like, why is it unfair? Is it unfair because of your gender? Is it unfair because of your race? Is it unfair because of your ethnicity? 

And so giving them specific words to understand and unpack help them to speak more intelligibly about what was going on in American history or in the books that we were reading, the novels, and it really led for deeper conversations at a time when in fifth grade, before moving to middle school, it was like a great preparation for them to understand different types of justice and injustice. I believe, gave them a strong sense of purpose in our classroom, as to what we were learning about it, why we were learning about it, and they almost felt like they held themselves up a little taller and a little bit more mature, because they felt like they were doing something important. They were understanding something a little bit deeper and really rose to the occasion in the maturity level and having these conversations.

RHODES  10:26  

Do you still have the alumni wall? 

MAHMOOD  10:30  

Oh, yes, I forgot about the alumni wall. Yes, there is an alumni wall. It's on the back of my door. The alumni wall started because my students from past years were reaching out to me and saying, oh my gosh, Dr. Mahmood, I can't wait to tell you, like, I got this job over here. I'm doing this or I'm doing that. They kept reaching back out and telling me these stories and then I would go to school the next day, and I would tell my students: “Oh my gosh, one of my students is actually a shoe designer at Adidas. She's an engineer.” One of my students, he just found out he got into the medical school of his choice, and oh my gosh, one of my students is an electrical engineer, I remember like telling him, he used to fix everything in our class. I would tell the stories of my past students to my current students to help inspire them, like they were sitting in your same desk, and these are the things they're doing today, and how proud I am of them. 

Then one day, I thought, what if I can just put all those stories together? So, I put together a wall and has a little picture of them when they were in my class, and a bigger picture of them doing their job that they do now. And then, what was their favorite memory from being in my class, as well as, what are their dreams now? What are they achieving? And then in the middle, I put a little mirror, and it says, where they are now, like, you will be soon, or something like that. And then the kids will look in the mirror when they're standing in line to get into the room, and then they can see their face where, like, the same template would be for the alumni photos, so I kind of printed out a blank one and put a mirror where the picture would go. It's pretty cool seeing them, like, look into it when they're standing in line, and then, like, they, like, point to all the different kids and what they're doing. And the great part is my classes have been so diverse over the years that everyone can see a little piece of themselves in those pictures.

RHODES  12:28  

Tell me what's great about fifth graders and what makes them so good for these eye-opening topics that you like.

MAHMOOD  12:39  

They're coming into their personalities, and so when the kids come in on the first day and they're like, oh, we're going to learn about the rules today and all the expectations, and then I start rattling off my rules: Laugh at all my jokes. Rule number two don't grow taller than me, and if you do, you have to help me out with teaching assistant responsibilities around the classroom. 

I think right away kids are like, what kind of classroom did I step into? And who is this crazy lady who claims to be the teacher? But really my goal on that first day is that they should just fall in love with being in our class. They should fall in love with the ideas of what they could accomplish, and whatever I tell them, whatever you thought about yourself as a student in the past, whatever you thought, you know, you were like, how you were as a student -- you were good at school, bad at school, good at math, bad at math -- all of those things, those don't exist anymore. 

This is a fresh year, and you have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. I don't know anything about you, and you can create all of it right here in this classroom, and we can do it together, and it's going to be fun. It's going to be a different year, and I'm going to be looking for different things from you than maybe some of your other teachers have looked for, and you can embrace that. 

And I think coming back to your question as to what makes this grade level different or special to me is that opportunity of, they're at the end of elementary school, and we often know that the oldest grade in the class tends to be the most challenging in this school, right? So, at that moment, I feel like the strategy is to turn it right and say, all the way up until now, whatever you've been, don't worry about that. Let's talk about what you're gonna be. 

Then being in that transition year that they're going to middle school next year, and I'm giving them this opportunity to reinvent themselves, and as that mature student who can handle, like, a little bit more mature conversations, that can learn about how to advocate for themselves and for justice and can read a little bit deeper books and have these mature conversations about the books. I feel like students rise to that expectation and they're excited to reinvent themselves as that middle schooler, who's prepared and knowledgeable and articulate and slightly witty and fun and making that space for them to show up as their authentic selves, I think, builds the confidence that they need to be successful in that transition. And that's why I love it. I love the transition year.

RHODES  15:17  

You have three, I think, it's three elements in your lessons, exploring your own identity, the last one's advocating. What’s the one in between?

MAHMOOD  15:30  

I think about when I'm designing my lessons: how can we make these lessons really relevant to students? First, I think every student needs to see a piece of themselves. There needs to be some type of self-exploration, whether I'm looking at my own thoughts and identity, whether I'm looking for connections between what I'm learning in my identity. There has to be some type of exploration that involves a little bit of yourself. That is how information gets sticky to you and becomes interesting and relevant. So, we have to make that connection right up front and right away.

RHODES  16:04  

If I have been a student in your class, I would have said, I'm just playing vanilla. I don't have a culture. Do you ever have students who are just plain vanilla? What do you do with them?

MAHMOOD  16:17  

Well, first of all, the very first day when I teach about culture, I want to make sure everyone knows that every single person in this classroom has a culture. So, if you're identifying as plain vanilla by saying that your family's had a long history of being in America, American culture is a beautiful culture. We have so many wonderful things that we celebrate in America. We have beautiful holidays that we, you know, have lots of family memories wrapped up in like Fourth of July and Halloween and Valentine's Day. We also have, you know, things that we're passionate about, like sports. And we have food that's very American, that other people travel to this country to try. My family, whenever they come from Pakistan or India, they're always like, we need to try this deep-dish pizza. 

So, you think that sometimes we get stuck in this idea of culture is about everybody who's not American, and that's not true at all. There's, there's some really strong values we have in our American culture about democracy and justice. When you teach about justice, you're teaching about a very American value. Liberty -- a very American value. And I think that that is part of the lesson, right? A beautiful part of the lesson and something also to bridge on that some of us have these other cultural identities because of our parents or the countries we've come from, but we also have these American cultural identities as well. 

I have not experienced that any student felt like they couldn't participate, because, maybe, I'm just really intentional in the beginning of my lesson to make sure that every student's identity is valued important, and that they all have a culture, and they all have special things from their culture, they can share. And I just give lots of examples that are connected to everyone. 

The second part is, I think there needs to be some kind of active learning. And so, what is it? I love projects. So, a lot of my stuff has projects in it, whether it be a green screen or solving a crime scene or doing a mock trial, there's always some type of active learning that has to be going on. If it's not a project, maybe there's a game show or maybe there's some type of collaborative experience. But there's something where active learning can take place, and then in the end, how do we wrap it up with some level of advocacy? Whether it be students actually designing something and advocating for something, or at least a conversation of, how could this learning lead you to advocacy in some way, shape or form. 

And so I think when you pull these three things together, you get a great lesson, because you get the connection to yourself, you get the engagement piece, and then you also get the why piece, and like, why will I use this or what will come next, which then gives more relevancy to that lesson, and I think all of it makes the information sticky and easy to learn.

RHODES  19:27  

It was kind of heartbreaking when you mentioned that your Mexican students have asked, when they learned, I assume about Rosa Parks, where would they have sat on the bus? How do you handle that? 

MAHMOOD  19:39  

Whenever a student asks like, “Where am I in the story?” I think that that's an incredibly intelligent question to ask and also a good hallmark moment that my teaching is landing in some way, shape or form, because I think there's a natural curiosity to wonder where and how this story or the story of American history fits into your lives because you're looking for ways to sort and organize the information; you want to understand the relevancy it has to yourself and to your family. 

At the same time, I've been teaching my students to ask those types of questions, to look for the history that's not told, to look for the whole story. When they actually say, like, where did I sit on the bus? Was I in the back of the bus? Was I in the front of the bus? You know, we know that there were Mexicans living in America during that time, or people of Mexican descent, but the history books don't talk about where they were. We don't know if they lived in the segregated cities. We don't know if they went to the segregated schools. We don't know if they were white-passing and the same thing with Asian people. And so, I always find it fascinating when kids ask that question, and then together we go on this inquiry to figure that out, because my education also didn't tell me where the other people that were not in the frame of the textbook, where they were, even though we knew they were in America. 

I always think it's fascinating that as a kid, I read all this American history, and I never once wondered where I was. I never said, like, hey, where's the Asians in this story? And how long have Asians been in America? And I didn't even think it was weird that I didn't know, or I didn't ask until I was much older. And then I realized, wait a minute, how come we were never learning about Asians? It was well into my 30s before I even realized or learned that Asian Americans had been in America since the 1600s and I never questioned it as a child. And so, I think when my students question it and they ask those questions, it's a great hallmark that my teaching is landing.

RHODES  21:58  

I also wanted to ask you about the refugee bags that you had your students pack, that was more recent, right?

MAHMOOD  22:07  

Yeah, so one of the books that we read is called Inside Out and Back Again, and it's about a girl who comes to America as a Vietnamese refugee. When we started reading this book, I realized how many connections it has to not only American history, but also to the students in my class, and how many different groups and cultures of people have been displaced because of wars, because of natural disasters and other things that have caused them to become refugees. One of the things I wanted to do was open up this story by making some side connections to other cultures that have also been impacted, and sharing some picture books that enhance those stories, but also to help my students empathize with what that might feel like. 

One of the activities that I had them do was they had to bring a backpack from home, and they had to pack it like they were leaving that night, and they brought it to school the next day, and everyone shared in small groups what they put in their backpack, and it was just fascinating to see some of the similarities. Like, everyone brought a picture of their family, you know, but not everyone brought a toothbrush. Like when we talked about similarities between people, what we consider to be sentimental, what we consider to be special. How many of us remember to bring like basic needs, things like toothbrushes or soap or things like that? Also, the level of privilege we have that we wouldn't think to bring those things because, of course, they would be available wherever we go. It really opened up some great conversations to connect with students over what was special to them, to show some things from their culture or their past, like their baby blankies and their pictures of their families, to connect with each other, and then also to talk about, like, what were some differences in what we chose to bring, and why do you think those differences were there? And what kind of privilege do we have when we don't even think about the things we should have probably brought but we assumed they would always be there for us. And does everyone have that same privilege?

RHODES  24:32  

I want to ask you about World Cafes, which you just mentioned, because I know that that's one of the things that you're offering as Teacher of the Year. What exactly is that, and does it involve coffee?

MAHMOOD  24:49  

It's a great question, and it really should involve coffee, for sure. Yes, I do recommend that people bring coffee for the World Cafe. 

So, the World Cafe is a dialog model where you can have a small group discussion in a large group of people. So, imagine a room there's 300 people in it, and everybody's organized in tables of like five to eight people. In these tables, they are having a small group discussion around a topic. The topic that I'm exploring during this sabbatical year as Teacher of the Year is: How do we increase belonging for every person who steps through the doors of our school? So, they're talking about this question in small groups, and every 15 minutes they get up and switch groups. 

The first round of conversation they're talking about, what's our vision for a school that makes you truly feel like you belong? They talk, talk, talk. They write down notes. 15 minutes goes by. Everybody stands up, they switch tables, they sit down again. What are the greatest strengths of your school district? They talk, talk, talk. They stand up, they switch tables, they sit down. What are the greatest barriers of your school district, they talk, talk, talk. 15 minutes go by, they switch tables, sit down. What's the action steps we should take to increase feelings of belonging? Talk, talk, talk, switch tables, sit down. 

The idea is, after four rounds of conversations, that they've had this opportunity to talk in a small, intimate group, but they've had the opportunity to touch an exponential number of people, because every time they switch, they connect with other people, and those people have connected with other people, and those people have connected with other people. 

It creates a synergy across the room. It’s about the conversations and what they're writing on the papers in front of them is like the raw data, the best data, in my opinion, the voices of the stakeholders in education, about, what do we dream for our schools? What are we reaching for? What's landing? What's challenging us and like, what should we do? And then that data can be used to drive change in your school district, it can be used to identify what to celebrate. It can be used, as you know, to put together what is the list of challenges. 

And I think every step of the world cafe increases a sense of belonging. The whole step from invitation to follow-through is a process that makes people feel that they belong, and they get lots of opportunities to talk about their stories, and those stories can become the most powerful data in our schools.

RHODES  27:35  

Months later, we checked in with Rachel again to see what it was like being Teacher of the Year and what advice she has with an educator at that to be selected for 2025. So, how does it compare to what you expected it to be?

MAHMOOD  27:50  

So much better. 

You know when you're first getting started, and you know, you're putting your ideas out there, and people are used to the Teacher of the Year serving a certain role? I think that it was intimidating at first. You know, they want you to come out. They want you to do speeches. You know, there's a certain function the Teacher of the Year serves as it's inspirational. It's sometimes a welcome message, you know, it's directed towards the audience. It's a story, and that is all great, and I'm happy to do that. And I felt that that message has landed with a lot of people. It's, my message is about belonging. 

But then to say, and I have this other idea for you, these World Cafes, let's center the stories of your educators, of your community, let's hear their stories. Let's give them opportunities to connect with one another around a table. And you know, have this deeper experience, this more interactive experience. And every time I finish one of these World Cafes. I mean, there's just so many people who come up afterwards and say, wow, just wow. I feel heard, I feel seen, I feel valued. A lot of messaging around this is one of the best institute days we've done. 

Then I remind school districts, you don't need me to keep doing this, to keep providing opportunities for educator voices to be centered. You can do this over and over again. The World Cafe is free. Go to worldcafe.com and download your own how-to guide, right. Hold your World Cafes. Hold any dialog sessions that center the voices of the people in your schools, hear their voices, give them opportunities to share. That's real agency, right? That builds belonging. 

RHODES  29:52  

Have you been missing just working with students?

MAHMOOD  29:55  

Absolutely, have 100% missed the students. In fact, one of the things that I started doing, which I don't think any previous Teachers of the Year that I know, have done it, is these school visits, where I just come to your school. I just surprise teachers, and I bring them some swag -- a little plaque that says “Be proud of the person you are, the work you do and the difference you make.” And I've been surprising them. 

And I'll be in these classrooms, and oftentimes I'm bouncing around from school to school with like, a superintendent or, their comms team or whatnot. I'll go into the school, and I'll start with like, let's say I'm in a first-grade classroom. I'm like, “I'm looking all over this state for teachers that make you feel special. Do you know anyone like that in this room?” 

And then the first graders are like, “Pick my teacher, pick my teacher, pick my teacher!”

And then I'm like, “Oh, what makes your teacher special?” 

And they're like, “I love her.” 

Do you have any questions for me? “I love you!” 

And I have been like, they have to drag me from every single classroom. I am like, talking to the kids. I am loving up all my time with them. So we have to go to the next classroom ... And they're like, come on, Rachel, we gotta go. We gotta go. I just want to spend a few more minutes with these children in this classroom, and I've been offering and volunteering in people's classrooms. 

I've also been spending a lot of time in my own children's classrooms, volunteering with their teachers, and I've been visiting high schools and volunteering to teach their educator rising classes and their future teacher courses and doing World Cafes with high school students as part of their classroom, um, activities, and that's been amazing. I have never taught high school before. I take that back, I taught one day subbing in high school, my very first subbing job, my very first day as a substitute teacher, and I was so scared, I never went back to high school again. But in this role, I've been teaching a lot of high school students, and I've been enjoying being in their classrooms as well. I went and visited an AP US History classroom at Stillman Valley High School, and an English course at Byron, a high school and, yeah, being around the kids has been amazing as well. So, I miss my students, but I've been trying to get my fill in all my school visits as well.

RHODES  32:35  

You also said that you're a connector and a collector, and you collect cultural artifacts. Did you collect any cultural artifacts from around Illinois?

MAHMOOD  32:46  

I've collected a lot of school spirit branded items, but I wish I would have collected something a little bit more personal, as far as like, something unique. I was down in that Bridgeport community I was telling you about, right next door in only which is their biggest city in that area, they have they're famous for white squirrels. So, I feel like I should have gotten something white squirrel themed. I did go and look for white squirrels before my keynote. I apparently didn't bring enough food to attract them to me, but I wish I would have grabbed something white squirrel themed while I was down there, but, yeah, that would have been a good idea. 

I'm, definitely, a collector of cultural artifacts, and I'm definitely a connector of people, and networking and introducing people together, and those have both been the connecting part has been incredibly amazing through this entire experience, the connections you make, but also the ability to connect the communities to the connections that you make, has been amazing. And now that I have this big data set of all these voices and all these ideas and everything, being able to share that with people, and they want to see it. They want to know what it says. But I am also hoping to possibly publish something out of this experience at a level that can help continue the connections long after my year of service is over.

RHODES  34:26  

I don't know that any previous TOY has done the meetings with students who are aspiring to be teachers, is that just you?

MAHMOOD  34:39  

No, most of the Teachers of the Year do usually meet at with universities. There's a lot of universities that get the Teacher of the Year to come out every year to do like their new teacher send off, things like that. So that's been great too, because, you know, every year they're like, we had the last Teacher of the Year out and the one before that, and kind of having that continuity between the Teachers of the Year, and to go back and, like, tell the previous Teachers of the Year, like, hey, I also went into that event, and to talk about it is fun. 

But one way I think I've branched it a little bit further is I've also been purposely looking for opportunities to connect with even high school classes. I want to inspire them young. High school was a time that was really tough for me. It was a time where I felt very lost. I've shared my identity story and I didn't feel belonging, and I think that I believed that school, you know, was not a great place for me and like to be able to tell students, high school students, that that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be a teacher. Like some of us come into teaching because we've always loved school; some of us come into teaching because we didn't love school and we want to change something about it. We can do it differently. We can do it better than the experience that we've had. Like there's all different ways to fall in love with being a teacher. And there's no one right way, and so I don't want people to not consider teaching as a career because they didn't have a great high school experience, and so that's one of the ways I've been trying to reach out a little further, not just at the university level, but let's get them a little bit younger.

RHODES  36:33  

What advice you have for the next Teacher of the Year?

MAHMOOD  36:38  

That is something that I've been thinking about. I'm not 100% sure what that advice is just yet, but I do know it's going to be something around the lines of you absolutely are enough, that you do belong in this field, that you're contributing something meaningful, and that this position is going to provide you with a lot of opportunities to network. It's going to provide you with a lot of agency. How can you pick something that you're passionate about to carry with you on this year? Because I think that that's going to be really important as well, to exercise that agency, right? Because when this year is over, it's like that opportunity is over, but it doesn't have to be, right? And so, how can you exercise your agency in a way that you can continue your service, even after your year of service as the Teacher of the Year.

RHODES  37:45  

Okay, so what is next for you? 

MAHMOOD  37:50  

Wow, I think that I'm really interested in doing something with all the data that I've collected and all the stories. I'd love to publish a book, and so I have been thinking a lot about writing a book about belonging in teaching, and what I've learned from my year, that's one idea. I've really enjoyed affirming the great work educators do, and so trying to think around what we can do to continue that momentum of affirming educators and getting more people into teaching and retaining the great teachers that we have. Yeah, I'm not 100% sure, but I have some ideas in the works as to how I'm going to continue to lend my voice to continue to uplift educators after this year. 

RHODES  38:55  

How do you continue with your equity work and your inclusiveness in all this upheaval that's going on right now? Does that make it more difficult, or does it make it just more important, or both?

MAHMOOD  39:13  

It makes it more difficult and more important. I think that there's one big misconception around equity. It's that it's for “some people.” I mean, equity is really for everybody. I know that some words have been politicized, and we've seen that happen in history over, and over again. I think that politicizing of certain words makes people fear certain avenues. But at the end of the day, everyone wants to feel belonging. Everybody wants to feel that they belong in our schools. And everybody has to go to school, right? That's required. We can all agree that school is important and that you have to be there and at the end of the day you want to feel like you belong there. 

I honestly believe that if we honor the oppression that different groups have faced, there's so many different ways that you can be advantaged and disadvantaged in our schools. There are ways that we talk about more like race, there's ways that we talk about less like body size, like, do the desks fit every kid who comes into our classrooms? That's equity, right? Making sure that every kid has a desk and a chair that fits them is absolute equity. Talking about rural America and the bias around students from rural schools or teachers from rural schools is absolutely wrong. 

You know, there's a lot of inequity that people are facing, and the work to ensure that everyone feels a sense of belonging, and the work to ensure that everyone feels seen, valued, heard, appreciated, can get through our educational system, is important work. While it's been difficult, it's also important work, and I have not been deterred to do the work. 

I feel incredibly lucky to live in a state that is led by a state superintendent and a school board that values the work, that supports the work, and it refuels my energy to keep on giving, because feeling that support is so important. And my heart goes out to the teachers who are doing the work that don't live in states like that. Illinois will take you! We need educators. We will absolutely take you. You have a home in Illinois to come be an educator, and you have the protection of our governor, our state superintendent, our school board. 

There are so many districts, as I travel around the state, who've been so open to my message of belonging, and who have welcomed me with open arms. In return, I hope that they felt that I've welcomed them, their stories and represented them well throughout this year of service, because we all are in it for the kids. And you know, and we love children, we love our schools, and we all need that support to continue to do the work.

RHODES  42:48  

That was Dr. Rachel Mahmood, our 2024 State Teacher of the Year. If you want to hear more from Rachel, tune into her podcast, Equity Teacher Leader, available on Spotify and YouTube. And if you've missed past episodes of this podcast, you can find them on Apple, Spotify or online at isbe.net/welove ilschools. Thanks for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai