Mrs.C's Podcast for Parents, Teachers and Administrators

Welcome to Mrs.C's Podcast for Parents, Teachers and Administrators.  

Guest - Latoya Scott  

Latoya shares her experience as a mother who transitioned from dependence on county resources to starting her career and  becoming self-sufficient. She and Mrs.C talk about the challenges she faced as a mother, main provider and how she developed herself to push forward.

For more information and episodes, visit us here!

Welcome to Mrs.C's Podcast for Parents, Teachers and Administrators. 

Guest - Dali Rivera  

Dali Rivera, Anti-Bullying Educator and also parent, talks about causes and factors that build unconscious bias and stereotypes that lead to bullying. She and Mrs.C also share tips to prevent behaviors that lack empathy and bullying.   

Resources:  

www.dalitalks.com

Instagram: @dalitalks

 To ask questions, be featured on an episode or for more information visit here!

Guest - Tom Jones

Mrs. C and actor and adventurer Tom Jones discuss his transformation into a climate activist.  His story illustrates the ways that regular children and adults can enjoy the environment and takes steps toward better stewardship of Earth and the animals on it.

Resources

Climate Action

Global Goals

Youtube 

For more information and episodes visit us here!

Guest - Myra Garnes

Myra Garnes, a seasoned leader in the Episcopal Church, shares perspectives on helping children learn tools such as compassion, empathy, listening and inclusion.  Myra and Mrs. C have a conversation about religion and raising children with a religious perspective, but they explain that non-religious and secular parents can imbue children with the same attributes regardless of beliefs or background.

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Guest - Randii Smith, author, mother and educator.

Mrs.C and author Randii Smith have a conversation about the challenges of managing children's emotions. Randii's book, “Logan Loses Her Cool,” uses an adorable dog to model healthy reactions to people and situations that can be frustrating.

Resources:

Instagram: @loganandlucky

www.loganandlucky.com

For more episodes and information visit Mrs.C's Podcast for Parents, Teachers and Administrators.

Guest - Tina Gauthier

Julia's Learning Foundation's Director, Tina Gauthier shares tips about how to apply for financial aid, scholarships and resources that will give students success with college. With a focus on first generation students, Tina and Mrs.C talked about challenges that all college students face and solutions to help them achieve a college degree.

Resources

Julia's Learning Foundation 

Phone: (909)277-0691

Instagram: @juliaslearning 

Twitter: @juliaslearning

Facebook: Julia's Learning

Scholarships.com

Fastweb.com

Beamentor.org/Julias

For more information and more episodes visit our page here!

Keisha Montfleury, Confident Coach for girls and also parent, shares tips on how to make time to raise confident kids and how to practice these skills in everyday life. With over 16 years of experience in child and human development she also shares her knowledge and voice to make sure kids have the opportunity for a healthy social and emotional growth.

Resources:

Instagram and Facebook: @confidentkeisha

www.keishamontfleury.com

To ask questions, be featured on an episode or for more information visit our page here!

Guest - Nina Sohn, elementary, middle and high school parent

Nina shares her experience as a White mom who has biracial children who identify as Asian.  She and Mrs. C talk through the challenges and joys of helping children step into who they are, even if it’s different from who their parents are.

To ask questions, be featured on an episode or for more information visit our page here!

Hi I'm Jennifer Carter and thank you for joining me on a podcast for parents, teachers and administrators. Today's conversation should be a good one and i'm sure it's something on your mind so let's get to it. So thank you so much for joining me here today Nina, can you just tell us a little bit about how you're connected to the world of parenting and education.

Of course it would be my pleasure. Probably first and foremost I am a mom so I have three children. I have a son who is 16, he is a sophomore in high school and I have two daughters who are 13 and 11 so they're in eighth grade and sixth grade respectively and um quasi in school these days sort of half time, um but I'd say being a mom is inherently weaves you in with the education community because that's a such a huge part of their journey um, and then I've also taught a lot of art over the past decade at my children's school just on a volunteer basis.

Usually concurrent with the curriculum, and I've really really really loved that I have a passion for art and I love working with younger kids in particular because they're totally unjaded and confident and their perceptions around art so it's really awesome to throw up something contemporary and weird and hear their like announcement of what it is in fact boldly and uninhibited and so really. Not alacrity. Enjoy that. It's been some  just remarkable experiences doing that. I'm really grateful for it so those are the people I'd say my two primary connections to the education world.

Excellent and so what are we going to talk about today? Oh I get to pick is that right! Dealers choice. Anything is fair game, okay. Gosh I would love to talk about well, I would love to talk about race in schools. In part because I think it's super current I feel like I have a toe in the water. In it a little bit in a I don't know how to describe it, because it's not full throttle, but my husband's korean so my kids are half asian and they identify as asian which is interesting. It's been an interesting experience for me as a parent to realize that my children's identity and also their experience is different than mine as a very white person. So that topic really really interests me a ton all the all the levels of it.

So do you find this here's a question for you that may be a little unusual but do you find because your children are korean american and white, do you have to feel like there's almost like a hierarchy of needs when you talk about racism and ostracism? Um I have some we used to live with students who are korean and chinese and they would sometimes feel like they were passengers on the race bus and not necessarily active participants or drivers in getting people to see them and to steer away from stereotypes. Have you had that experience with your kids?

I would say yes. Although I would with the qualifier, because of the school they go to it's a private school it's a wonderful school but it's, I would say poor in the diversity department. So they actually in that setting they are actually quite diverse, um but I think if you were an african-american child you would feel much more um I think they would feel much more engaged with race issues in that particular setting.

Owner, Gail Hawkins shares the foundation of her interests in artifacts from around the world.  Visitors to Ms. Hawkins’ store will find artifacts from Asia, Africa and beyond.  During the day, Ms. Hawkins works in the medical field, but uses this local store to share the world with residents in View Park/Windsor Hills

Resources:

4421 W Slauson Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90043

Cultural Interiors Website

To ask questions, be featured on an episode or for more information visit our page here!

Hi, I’m Jennifer Carter and thank you for joining me on a podcast for parents, teachers, and administrators. Today's conversation should be a good one and I’m sure it's something on your mind. So let's get to it. I just want to thank you, Miss Gail Hawkins, for joining us and or joining me. It won't be us until we play it on the actual podcast. Okay okay. Can you tell me a little bit about how the store came to be a store?

The store came to be a store because years ago I had developed an interest in design, and I was taking some, my husband was had started taking some classes over at Otis school of fine art and design. He wanted to be you know he's in medicine but he wanted another thing, that he wanted to explore his passion. His passion was photography. So he found out there were photography classes in the evening time over at Otis. So he started taking classes and then he knew that I was always interested in design, and he says you know they have a design class why don't you take some classes over there? And I was like oh that sounds interesting and then just happened at the same time. Um I had gotten offered to start a store. Okay. And with a friend um getting uh getting me and another person together to see about opening a small gift store right there and you know in Baldwin Hills. So we decided to go, we sat down we talked, we discussed everything, we decided to do it and then my husband said well this is the perfect thing if you want to take those classes at Otis then I will you know I’ll put the bill and you go take those classes. And I was like whoa hey yeah I’m gonna do it then. You know and it was unbelievable the classes were amazing, I had such a great time, I met such interesting people. And then so once I finished it um I was able to get into the whole thing with the store, because then I felt more comfortable and that I could go into somebody's house and help them design you know a room or a bathroom or something like that or you know bring art into their house and so it just kind of came into being that way so that was the start. Wow how long have you, has the store been there? It's we have had, it first start off it's called was called “Arrivals” and it was started around 1999, 2000. Wow. And then um things kind of went crazy after we had the um after 9 11. Okay. And then we couldn't you know travel as much. And people were really nervous about going back and forth and, so we kind of kept it going and then everything my partner decided that it was not working out between the two of us so we ended up you know splitting. So I decided you know what I’m not going to give up. I am not going to give up. And so I said I can do this I, can handle this by myself. So I renamed the store. Okay. “Cultural Interiors” and we were there for we're probably there about a good four or five years late, more and then what happened is the economy just tanked in 2008, years after in 2008. So we decided hey, you know um this isn't gonna go so we decided to just bag it.

Guest - Malik Books

Mrs. C learns how Malik Mohammad uses his bookstore, Malik Books, to help African American/Black readers.  This episode offers great reads for children and adults who are able to understand their identities as a pathway to loving others by first loving themselves.

Resources:

Malik Books

Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall

3650 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Ste #245

Los Angeles, Ca 90008

(323)389-8040

Email: [email protected]

Malik Books

Westfield Culver City Mall

6000 Sepulveda Blvd Ste #2470

Culver City, Ca 90230

(858)800-1162

Email: [email protected]

Website:  www.malikbooks.com

To ask questions, be featured on an episode or for more information visit our page here!

I'm here with Malik of Malik BookS. Hello, I’m executive director of Oak Tree View Park Windsor Hills Preschool at Slauson in Angela's Vista and here we're I mean I'm a former english teacher full disclosure. So this is like being in heaven. You know just sitting around and talking about books, and so for black history month um I didn't necessarily want to just talk about history books but I just wanted to go through some selections that you recommended. This is a great time the great moment. This month although we need it for 365. I mean if you black you, you black for 365. So your history is 365. Yeah you can't be black just like today. No, no, not at all not at all but, Malik Books this is our growth of me wanting to share what I discovered in books with our community because if it changed me i just felt that it changed others it would change other people for the better you know and so if you love yourself you love your neighbor. Yes. And so I think that collectively um if we love each other by first start loving ourselves you know I think books gotta contribute to that and I think image and how we view ourselves have a lot has a lot to do with the books that we read. Yeah, like it's interesting you talk about it in terms of self love but I look at in the preschool and and elementary school space not so much once we get to middle and high school because the assumption is that kids will have a solid sense of self-esteem but in those younger years we do this thing called Maslow's hierarchy and one of the the lowest things is like psychological security and knowing that you're okay is that knowing that and I think that's something that. People don't understand when we talk about trauma and repeated trauma is when you see people who look like you are traumatized, then you start like as a small person you internalize that so imbuing a sense of worth kind of balancing some of the scarier things that kids may hear or see because you know I try to buffer kids from some of the realities of the world not shield, not sugar coat, but make sure that we had like a little bit of a buffer so that they can get into that that psychological security without worrying, and I think books are a great way to do that. Absolutely, that remind me of this one book that just came out called Black Magic and the the the subtitle is what black leaders learned from trauma and triumph and so we all have experienced that being black. We experienced both trauma as well as triumph because uh we've overcome a lot of things and our blackness has overcome whatever adversities they were put in front of us and so we have all of us have shared experiences, um and the thing is you can overcome whatever cards you're dealing with it and that's what resilience is, and that's one thing I know about black people I know one thing for certain is that we are resilient.