Culture to the Max   Dr. Shontoria Walker is a graduate from the University of Houston in Houston, Texas with a degree in Professional Leadership with an emphasis in Literacy. Her research focuses on using culturally relevant pedagogy to influence literacy achievement for middle school Black Male Students based on her experiences as a former 8th grade English teacher at an all-boys preparatory academy. She has also served on the Texas Teacher Advisory Board, a Teach Plus Policy Fellow as well as a Senior Policy Fellow with Teach Plus Texas from 2014-2019. During her time and beyond she has advocated for educational policy laws that directly impacted the classroom as well as contributed to policy briefings for the revision of The Every Student Succeeds Act and national policy reports such as If You Listen, We Will Stay: Why Teachers of Color Leave and How To Disrupt Teacher Turnover and more recently To Be Who We are: Black Teachers on Creating Affirming School Cultures.     Show Highlights   8 minutes you must hear if you believe in tapping into cultural responsiveness in your schools. Do something different with your teacher prep to provide a voice to your new teachers with learning opportunities, not just survival techniques. Stop putting a bandaid on students falling through the cracks and give them authentic engagement opportunities. Tips to create culturally relevant content that transfers ownership of understanding to provide opportunity to make meaning from the complex process. 4 domains to form strong community partnerships and responsive teaching to achieve Culture to the Max. “Real Talk Friday” gives students the opportunity to elevate their voices and actually see each other. Not classroom management, but culture management. Gaps in preparing teachers for their students and building connections that transforms the learning process.    Get the episode transcript here!!     Shontoria Walker’s Resources & Contact Info: Education PowerEd Website  Twitter Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Read my latest book! Learn why the ABCs of powerful professional development™ work – Grow your skills by integrating more Authenticity, Belonging, and Challenge into your life and leadership.   Read Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader today! Apply to the Mastermind The mastermind is changing the landscape of professional development for school leaders.    100% of our members agree that the mastermind is the #1 way they grow their leadership skills.   Apply to the mastermind today!   SHOW SPONSORS: HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION Transform how you lead to become a resilient and empowered change agent with Harvard’s online Certificate in School Management and Leadership. Grow your professional network with a global cohort of fellow school leaders as you collaborate in case studies bridging the fields of education and business. Apply today at http://hgse.me/leader.   TEACHFX Imagine providing feedback for every teacher, as often as they'd like, without relying on classroom observations.   TeachFX is an app that supports both student learning and teacher learning. With instructional support at the push of a button, our app provides teachers with objective, personalized, non evaluative feedback about the teaching and learning happening in their classrooms.   From student talk and teacher talk to insights into research-supported teaching practices like questioning technique, wait time, and more, TeachFX provides teachers with new insights into student engagement, academic dialogue, and equity of student voice.   Learn more about TeachFX and find out how to get a free TeachFX account for one of your teachers. Visit TeachFX | BLBS     ORGANIZED BINDER Organized Binder is the missing piece in many classrooms. Many teachers are great with the main content of the lesson. Organized Binder helps with powerful introductions, savvy transitions, and memorable lesson closings. Your students will grow their executive functioning