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I'm Jasmine Hobson. I teach English at Hesperia High School. It's so great to like watch a kid struggle with stuff and then figure it out and then look at you and be like I'm so glad that you helped me. Or they say I heard from my friend that your class is so fun, like I want to be in your class. All that stuff like warms my heart. I love it. But I question why I would keep teaching because I feel like it's not sustainable. If you're in it for the long haul, it's exhausting. It wears on you. I'm hoping to get some guidance about just how to continue to make teaching fun and fresh and not this heavy burden because I think it's so easy to get weighed down by the harder parts of teaching when it's this really great career to be in. I'm interviewing a woman named Vera who is the Tutu Teacher, which is very cute and she is an elementary school teacher. And she is focused on like the diverse reading texts for children from various cultures like a lot of times kids open a book, they don't see themselves in the things that they're given in school. I want to know how other people have managed to balance helping your students and still looking out for your own well being because I feel like it's a very emotionally heavy career path. You spend a lot of time getting really invested in your students. &gt;&gt; Hi, I'm Vera Ahiyya, I'm kindergarten teacher in Brooklyn, New York. I've been teaching for 15 years now. I started teaching in Texas. It's where i'm from originally. I didn't start Instagram or any kind of major like social media until I left Austin. It was only going to be a way that I connected with my family and friends back home as I did this whole new like, I'm on the East Coast and what the teaching life was like over there. And then it just kind of spiraled into what it is now. &gt;&gt; The idea of for tutu teacher and the diverse reads, was that do you think partially influenced by like your own experience as a student not seeing your own representation within text? Or was it more once you were in the classroom and you were wanting to give things to your own students? &gt;&gt; As I started getting into the classroom and then as you know the surgence of books featuring kids of color, kids of different religion started becoming more available. That's when I was like, my gosh. Imagine if I was 5 in a classroom, specifically a classroom with another black teacher, and being able to have a teacher pull up book, and the girl had my hair. Or the girl had even my same skin color and was just doing her thing. That would have been hugely impactful in the way that I saw what was available for me. Especially because we have kids from different socioeconomic status, we have kids from the different family structures. And so when they're constantly, their only assurance of who they are is what's around them and never in a classroom or never in conversations or never on TV. They only think that that's what they can do. And it doesn't matter how often somebody says like, no, that's not true. You can be this. I don't. Why would that, how? &gt;&gt; Where have I seen it? &gt;&gt; Yeah, exactly. So you can say it as much as you want to say it, but that's the impact comes from the exposure. I didn't see it when I was growing up. I didn't know I needed it. Until I was an adult, I was like, by God, I will do everything I can to find whatever I can to make sure every kid sees, yeah, me too. At some point in their time with me. &gt;&gt; I read everything I could possibly get my hands on when I was a kid. And I never had this book where it's like I identify with that character is like me and I do think that is super important. To me every child who is in my classroom is deserving of love and respect. And they deserve to be seen and heard and understood during their time with me and so to not be inclusive of that child or that child's family or that child's identity is doing them a disservice. And it's disrespectful. &gt;&gt; Yeah, I totally agree. The area we're in is kind of rough. And I love them to death here the sweetest children they are. But one of my reasons for wanting to talk to other teachers is because I just started to feel so like worn down emotionally. Feeling for all of these kids all the time is taking a toll. And so I just, you know, do you have experience with that? Do you, has that ever, because for me, I feel like if I felt like that still five years from now, I might consider leaving teaching. If I felt like that still 20 years from now, I might consider you know, so what makes you stay if you've ever felt like that? Or maybe little kids are the solution, but, you know [LAUGH], &gt;&gt; I mean, I definitely felt I think the range of what we feel after teaching for a period of time. You know after the first couple years I was like, am I doing this the right way, is this like am I is this it? And then move into like, okay, I'm doing this right, I'm pretty good at this, but like, is this forever? And then I guess after that maybe the next one would have been, I'm good at this, but what else am I good at? So what other things can I explore and then right now I think my feelings are, is it always going to be like this? And so I think there's a lot of things that run through my mind about do I stay? Am I ready to move on? And whenever I feel that way, I really think of like, why am I doing it to start from that mindset of like, why did I get into education? What is it about teaching that I love? What is it about teaching that keeps me excited? And then holding onto those things as I start to think about the negatives. When you come to the point where you're exhausted, it's about what can you lose without losing yourself? Can you leave right at the end of the school day, like leave with your class? And if you can't, why can't you? Are there things where I can cut out and leave at 3:30 and leave my teacher bag and leave work at work. We take everything that happened at school and bring it home to our kids, our family, but you have to give it up because you're just going to keep giving too much of yourself and we're natural people pleasers. We like control, and we got to let it go. Because when you do and kids are still okay, well then, maybe it wasn't necessary after all. So, let it go, do as much as you can to be as best as you can, but you're a human being. And parents forget that sometimes, which makes it even harder, but we are human. &gt;&gt; That's totally it. It's what I've heard from a lot of teachers that I've talked to through this whole process is just like we need boundaries. And I read recently about like toxic positivity. So teaching is like one of the only professions where if you're not a martyr, if you're not working yourself to death, you're a bad teacher. And no one should feel that way. Like, just because I leave when school is over and I don't check my email on weekends doesn't mean I don't care about your kids. I do. I think it's in our nature to just like give too much of ourselves because we're so invested in being good teachers, &gt;&gt; And I think too, it's the school culture. When your school values who you are and your time and your family, then that changes how you see yourself too. So start like, and if your school doesn't have that yet you start it, like you start leaving right when school ends, you start not bringing your bags home. You start and then other people are going to be like, I can, I don't have to? There are ways around us feeling like you said like martyrs and feeling more like humans. &gt;&gt; She is just like this beaming light of positivity. Vera made really good points about there are steps to consider before we just leave our entire profession. There are like smaller changes that we can make before we just say, you know, that's it, I quit. I would say before this entire process, I was feeling, I was thinking the grass is greener and there are so many great things about teaching that I feel like I was kind of forgetting about. I feel like I can see my job the way I used to see it when I first decided to be a teacher. Having her light shine on me and brighten me up a little bit. I feel like I could take that joy and I can feed it back to my students. 

High school teacher Jasmine Hobson looks to Vera Ahiyya, a veteran kindergarten teacher and social media phenomenon @thetututeacher, for inspiration on how to keep her class feeling fun and fresh without burning out. Both of them have plenty to share about increasing representation for kids from diverse backgrounds, ensuring equitable classrooms, and keeping things inclusive and engaging in equal measure.

The Tutu Teacher Vera Ahiyya on representation in the classroom

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