Zach Diamond  0:03  
welcome to the modern classrooms project podcast. Each week we bring you discussions with educators on how they use blended, self paced and mastery based learning to better serve their students. We believe teachers learn best from each other, so this is our way of lifting up the voices of leaders and innovators in our community. This is the modern classrooms project podcast. Hello and welcome to episode 218, of the modern classrooms project podcast. My name is Zach Diamond, and I'm a high school media production teacher in Washington, DC, and, of course, a modern classrooms implementer. And today I'm joined by a culturally responsive educator and high school World Language teacher and a close personal friend who I've known for a very long time. Xian Lu, welcome. Xian,

Xian Lu  0:52  
hi everyone. Hi the listeners of modern classroom podcast. It's great to be here today. 

Zach Diamond  0:59  
It is so great to have you, we have, we have to catch up. We haven't spoken in such a long time. We were talking before we started recording like our kids have had playdates together, 

Xian Lu  1:07  
right? 

Zach Diamond  1:08  
Um, I've had the best hot pot that I've ever had at your house. So, um, we, yeah, we go way back. Um, but anyway, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast to talk about culturally responsive teaching and also language teaching. Your husband, Xiaomin, I want to mention this has been on this podcast as well, and I'll link that episode in the show notes, in case listeners haven't heard it. Our talk today, I think, is going to focus a little bit more on the sort of social justice and culturally responsive aspect of things, and that's definitely what I know you bring to education, so I'm really excited for this. But before we get into that, see and why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, tell us who you are and how you started your education journey.

Xian Lu  1:52  
Yes, that's a very interesting question. I see that as a very interesting question, although it seems easy like who I am, because I feel like my identity just developed over the years. You know, the person who I am today is different from the person who I am, say, three years ago, even five years ago, 10 years ago. So I think right now, I see myself more like a culturally responsive educator and a language educator. I'm also a mother and because, you know what I do in my school, in my kids school, you know, in my community, I also do a lot of advocacy, you know, for on the behalf of children like my kids, you know, kids of colors, you know. So, yeah, I do a lot of things, and I didn't do those things, say 10 years ago, even five years ago, yeah. So that's about who I am and how I started. Yet also have a husband who graduated from modern classroom a few years ago, and he was on your show, yeah. So how I started my education journey, I traced that back to when I was 17 18, when I was applying for college, my father, you know, advised me to be a teacher. Because, bear in mind, I'm from China. I grew up in China, so like in my region, it's very important, you know, for like girls, like young age girls, to listen to their father. And you know, basically he chose my career for me. And, yeah, something I always regret for is, why didn't I become a doctor in China or or why I didn't become a lawyer in China? That's something I actually really want to do, you know, but at a young age, I didn't know what is advocacy, so I never learned to advocate for myself, and actually learned that in in this country, you know. And you'll be amazed by like, how people develop like in different environments, anyway. So that's how I started education journey. I signed up for Teachers College in China, and that lead me actually studied journalism when I first started in the Teachers College, but I found a passion in learning how to teach the language, specifically Chinese as a second language, when I was in college. So actually, quit journalism and sign up for learning how to teach Mandarin Chinese to speakers of other language. And you know, it just lead me little by little to a different country, say, America. You know, when I was in my early 20s, you know, I was looking for adventure, so I signed up for this amazing opportunity, which was to teach Chinese to the state of Arkansas students. So I just, you know, that's how I came here, and I met my husband, then I decided to like it here. So two years working plan turns into, like, right now I'm in here for 13 14, years, you know? So, 

Zach Diamond  4:49  
wow, 

Xian Lu  4:49  
yeah, so, you know, nutshell, that's how it happened. 

Zach Diamond  4:53  
Life has lifed you, 

Xian Lu  4:54  
yes, 

Zach Diamond  4:56  
yeah. It's funny how that happens, right? You look back and. And it's been 10 15, years, and it's, it's just like, wow, okay, I'm here now. That's so interesting. I feel like I've never heard somebody put their sort of their, like, childhood influence so explicitly, right? Like, not knowing how to advocate for yourself. I feel that's, that's a really interesting thing to say, because I can see how that influences you now, right? Why it's so important for you to teach advocacy to high schoolers? You know that's that's really interesting.

Xian Lu  5:29  
Yeah, I think that early experience, like looking back, really shaped who I am today, because I constantly think back like when I was a child, like the teacher who I am today, was totally shaped by how I was treated as a student at my early age. I remember I gave this like kind of workshop thing to my previous schools staff development conference. So I think one thing I reflected on was when I was young, because I went to school super early. I was younger than everyone else in my class, like, one to two years even three years younger. So because, you know, my brain was not fully developed at that time. So a lot of things teacher taught me didn't make any sense to me, but my teacher didn't know, like, term, like scaffolding, you know, like the Chinese cultural things, like, teacher just say something and you're supposed to, you know, just know it. But you know, how could you know? How could you, like a younger child, know it, without, you know, being given scaffolding, right? So I was actually constantly called by my teacher saying, like, as a dumb child, wow, and, you know, so that's how I grew up. So I became a teacher who I didn't. I became the teacher. Opted to all of my teachers in my early childhood, like when I become teacher, I decided to be like, you know, I will never say something to make students feel horrible. I will always give my students the best support, because I know what it feels like, like being left without support, or being made, you know, feeling horrible, you know, in your classroom. So I on the day I send out to be teacher, that's something I told myself, I will never become the teacher that I had when I was a child, like you said, Jack, like, advocacy, right? Like, I was not born with the skills of advocacy. Like, I don't know what is advocacy, but just because of that experience, you know, just because I didn't have that and I know what the suffering looks like, feels like, so when I become like an older adult, especially mother, I know that's something I should have, because that's that's very important for a mother, for a teacher, to model to the students and to her own child. So I totally become the opposite person to the young, young youth who I was to be, you know. So it's a very interesting life journey,

Zach Diamond  8:01  
yeah, so I want to tell you a story, because I have a very similar experience. I was a music teacher for a very long time. I remember, I have this, like, vivid core memory of when I was in, I don't know, third or fourth grade. I was very young, and my music teacher told me that the music that I liked was too short, because it wasn't the length of like a symphony, right? And I remember that today, and the more that I think, the more like as I've grown up, I've carried that with me, and I went into music teaching saying, I will never do that. I won't be the opposite of that, because music is so important to kids, to everyone, not just kids. I mean, it's important to everyone. And so like, how could a teacher say that to someone, especially someone who is their music teacher, right? The idea is to get them to like music, and they already do. So like, yeah, you've got your foot in the door, right? And I just, I always remember that, and I have a very similar you telling that story just sort of, like, made me remember that,

Xian Lu  9:05  
yeah, so it's funny, like, what we were not later on became what we are today, you know, 

Zach Diamond  9:11  
yeah. Can you talk then a little bit more, like you mentioned that, you know, five or 10 years ago, advocacy wasn't so much your focus. Can you talk about how it kind of became your focus, and, like, how that transition happened, and what it was like for you? 

Xian Lu  9:25  
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. I'm sure, like, all the listeners, like, will understand, like, United States is not easy place to live, especially, you know, when you're a person of color, and sometimes, like, when you're a woman of color, right? So I've been learning reflecting on my living experience here, and you know, not like in my early 20s, I just came here and I was like a blank piece of paper, like I didn't know anything, you know, but I learned things over the years. I learned things from my personal living. Experience, I learned things, you know, from my friends, from my colleagues, from interaction with my community, you know. So I don't remember exactly what is the turning point, but, you know, sometimes I have moments like, Hmm, this is happening to me. Like, would I be treated this way if you know I were someone different, you know, so things like that, I will say, let's say, let's trace back to the year 2020 like we all know what happened in 2020 right? And pandemic, and George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, so and we were wardrobe that day as educators, and because I taught in the school that was very diverse, and the students in my classroom, the classrooms, they were a very super diverse body, you know. And as their teacher, you know, who never met them in person, who, but who see their faces, you know, some don't turn on the camera, and I'm a very observant teacher, because, you know, I can feel the student energy when I listen to them or talk to them. So I felt there was a tension there. I felt there was a discomfort vibe there. And I felt kids were not comfortable, kids were nervous, kids were scared. So I did something I've never done before, which is we actually talk about social justice. On the first week of the school. Actually found the lesson from near pop because, you know, it was my first time. I was super nervous. I was like, Oh, I don't have social study teaching, teaching background. I'm not a history teacher, you know, I know little things about, you know, the past, the history, but you know how I can, you know, talk about this topic with, like, a lot of confidence. But I did it anyway, because that's something I love about teaching. It's almost always like, you can be creative. Create something. You go with it. It may work, it may not. If it doesn't work, you just fix it. You know, the creative part of teaching, yeah. So anyway, I went and went with the near part lesson. So it had some prompts in that lesson. It was a well written lesson. I remember one question is, share experience. You know, when, when you have being a victim of racism, or you have observed, you know wisdom happening around you. And I was amazed by like, how willing my students, how, how, yeah, their willingness of share. You know, they were just very vulnerable, and they chose to become vulnerable and share what they experienced personally, what they saw in their you know, community, you know, and and I shared my story too. And I feel like, like, after that lesson, although we are only have, like, this virtual relationship, but the community, you know, the energy in the community is different. I feel like my kids, you know, they view me as someone they trust. And although it's online, you know, we're a very, very close community, you know, talking about say things like, building report, building relationship, right? That's, you know, all the training like teachers have to go through when they first become teachers. And I think, Oh, I was like, wow, that is so powerful. And why I didn't do that earlier. So after that, I just decided to, every year, you know, I should start the first second week of the school year by talking about those hard topics. And one thing I learned is, if we don't talk about those difficult topics. Things will become difficult as the year goes. But if we talk about it early, your ear actually gets easier, because we talk about this sack like as an Asian woman, you know, I still feel like in the country, you know, because Asian culture is very diverse itself, Northeast Asian, Southeast Asian, you know, is very diverse. So in the within the Asian community, like, you know, like, we don't even know a whole lot about other Asian communities, you know, background, or we don't even have much knowledge about other Asians, you know, culture and everything. But we're being labeled as one umbrella called Asian, you know. So within Asian communities like this, like not to mention like between, say, Asian black community, Asian Latinx community, black Latinx community, you know. But the one thing I found in common, we have a common ground, is we're all, you know, minority race and we are all human beings, you know. So I actually really struggled at the first few years at the school. We used to work together because I found it was very difficult to build a relationship with my black students and the Latinx students i. And I tried to try it, but, you know, I feel like they don't trust me. For some reason they just don't trust me compared with, like, the degree of trustees they give to the teachers of the same color with them, you know, but like on that day, I figured, wow, that is the power of being vulnerable and talking about those difficult things adults pretend never happen, like we never know. Actually, sixth graders, they have seen a lot, they have heard a lot, and they have a lot of sayings about it. So I really think that was one of the turning point for me as a Asian woman, female teacher who found a way to connect with students, especially students of colors. 

Zach Diamond  15:50  
Wow. I mean, that's I think that that's an amazing story. I wonder like those kids, I wonder like, how many teachers that they've had that have just never asked,

Xian Lu  16:03  
yes, yes. It is not easy to ask, you know, like, like we said, like, teaching is about experiment, and you never know where it will lead. You never know it will be a good lesson or bad lesson. And we're all human beings, we tend to avoid, you know, the things we don't feel comfortable to do. We tend to only do the things we feel familiar with. So I was totally in a dis comfortable zone. I was like, you know, let's let me just give a try, because we're already learning workly, Nothing can be worse than this, you know. And I'm so glad I tried. So after that time, I think the second time I did it was 2021 when there was Atlanta spa shooting, you know, a few Asian women who work at the spa was shot by a white, young male, you know. And that was a very scary, you know, very scary experience for me, you know, because when COVID happened, you know, there was a lot of hatred towards Asian community, you know, yeah, and on top of that, Asian women were killed, you know. So we as Asians, especially women, were very scared. So we actually, I also led a discussion with my students about anti Asian hatred. And you know, because earlier you talk about social justice, I'm a big fan of learning for social justice, a nonprofit organization, so in my spare time, I read their periodical and learn a lot of new ideas thoughts from educators, you know, in the States. So actually, like for listeners who are trying to, you know, experience something new and try to teach, teach social justice in your classroom. No matter what subject we're teaching. It can be music, can be art, it can be English, can be anything. So they actually have four anchors called identity, diversity, justice and action. So if you want to talk about a social justice topic, they have like strengths under those four anchors. And they like, there's like, like, their framework is very comprehensive, you know. So you as educator can easily find strengths, criterions that suit your need and those strands, criterions will serve as your learning objective, you know. And that's how it help you to plan backward from where you want to go to what activities you want to design. So I actually use the resource from learning for social justice to design the objectives I want to discuss with my students after the Atlanta shooting, you know, the hatred towards the Asian community, and I remember vividly, because the action part is I asked them to Check check in with some friends who could be affected by this hatred, by this you know this thing. And I remember from two students, they sent me to chat. They say, Oh, you know this lesson, you know, make me feel empowered. And this lesson, it's so great, because it reminds me to care for the friends who could be affected for this and at such a difficult time. And thank you Miss Lu, you know, for giving us the hope or the power to empower others.

Zach Diamond  19:35  
That's amazing. I mean, that's that's really amazing. And I think what it's making me think about is how you said like it puts you outside of your comfort zone. It's difficult for teachers to do things like that, and I think it's also difficult for kids, right? It's the world that we live in. It's just they're difficult topics, and they felt empowered because you modeled for them. It takes vulnerability, it is difficult, right? You. You're not gonna wake up one day and just be ready to have these difficult conversations about race, about, you know, anti Asian violence, that's not easy to do, and you showed them like and not even the lesson, right? But like, the fact that you were vulnerable, modeled for them what it was like to be vulnerable. I think that's so incredible. And I think that that, like, I'm gonna link learning for social justice in the show notes as well. Like, there's obviously something for everybody. I've looked through it myself a lot. There's lots of stuff to connect to any content. But even, like, beyond the content itself, it's just like, the act of showing them vulnerability as an adult, right? Like an adult that they look up to, I think that that's, that's a big part of the empowerment, right? 

Xian Lu  20:48  
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, like, for, like, those difficult, difficult topic, and, you know, sometimes there are things we as adults do not have solutions either. But I really like learning for justice. They always end with an action, you know. So what are something we can do to make this better? You know? Although it takes time, obviously it takes time, but still, there are things that we can do, you know, to educate people, to lift up the community, you know. So I always like to end the lesson like this with action, you know. So it's kind of like exit ticket, like, what are some thoughts you think you can give to this community? You know? So although the discussion part could be difficult, but the kids leave with something positive,

Zach Diamond  21:31  
yeah, well, that's incredible. 

Xian Lu  21:33  
Thank you. Zach, 

Zach Diamond  21:35  
no, thank you. And I have to say also, like, I remember, because we did, used to work at the same school, I remember you getting up in staff meetings too, and like advocating for different groups of people, right, that maybe weren't being advocated for. And I think that you're, you know, like I I didn't know that you didn't used to be like that. And I just thought I sort of always looked up to you for being very brave and vulnerable and willing to do that, because somebody has to do that, and I think that that's incredible. So thank you. I want to ask you, because we're talking about a world language class, right? This is Chinese class. How does it play in like, does it connect to the content of language, or in another, in another, maybe take on that question like as you move on from those specific lessons and start talking about language learning, does it come up in that context as well the culturally responsive teaching, or just this whole sort of approach to teaching? 

Xian Lu  22:34  
Well, it's actually both, you know, culturally responsive teaching, something I've been practicing and crafting for years, but I didn't know there was a turn for the things I've been doing, until one day I come across this book called culturally responsive teaching and the brain by Zaretta Hammond, you know? And I was like, wow, this is the book. What? This is the book that I need. And because this book explains why culturally responsive teaching works, because it explains the science part, scientific part of it, like when teacher do certain teaching moves, it actually affect how students brain works, you know. And when the brain feels safe, they respond differently. When the brain don't feel safe, of course, they don't respond well to the teacher, you know. So that book is my go to book, you know, because it is so great. So if the listeners, you know, looking for a great, culturally responsive teaching, and I just, you know, highly recommend this book, the OG,

Zach Diamond  23:36  
I will link it in the show notes, 

Xian Lu  23:37  
yeah. So back to our question. Zach, so I think there are two sides of it. One is the content, like, what kind of content I teach that belongs to culturally responsive teaching. I think the content part is more like what we discussed earlier, like social justice. You know, sometimes we do talk about social justice, you know, like, um, like, say, when there's, like, social event happening, and it just bothers a lot of students, and we need to talk about it. And, yeah, let's Yeah. Forget about the Chinese like, let's talk about talk in whatever language you feel confident, comfortable talking, you know, we we discuss it as human being, you know, between the teacher and the students,

Zach Diamond  24:20  
yeah, okay, that's that's really important. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt so, like, abruptly, but I used to teach English as a second language when I was living in Peru. I think that that's really, really important to let kids express themselves in their in their first language if they need to. It's so important. And it's such it's such a bad look to get up and be like, sorry, this is Chinese class, 

Xian Lu  24:41  
and we can only use Chinese, right? Yeah,

Zach Diamond  24:43  
right. You can't speak Spanish. No, that's like such a quick way to turn off the relationship piece, right? Like to spoil those relationships. So, yes, I completely agree. Sorry, continue. 

Xian Lu  24:55  
Yeah, I think, yeah, what you said is a great point, like, kids need to feel the. Freedom to freely express themselves. And usually, you know, in the second, third language, they they're constrained by their vocabulary, so they're not able to talk freely in that, not, you know, topic of complex yet. So that shouldn't become the barrier from prevent students from thinking in a deeper, higher level, right? And the second thing I just want to mention, because, you know, although I'm a world language teacher, but a lot of practice I do in my classroom just applies to every subject teacher. It's more like the culturally responsive teaching method approach, like, what as a teacher believe in. And that is the funny part, because, because early we talked about, like, how I become the teacher that is opposite to all the teachers I had as a little child in China, right? I think, like, that is one thing that make me a culturally responsive teacher, because I know kids are smart. There is no so called dumb kids like, you know, when I was young, actually, I'm very smart, because later on in my life, I got straight A's, you know, I was the first in my department. I graduated as a first place in my department. And when I went to master school in China, I was also the first who graduated from that grad school. Wow, the top 10 in China, you know. So I know I'm smart, but why? Thinking back as a child, I was labeled as a dumb child by my teacher, so something was not right. Did my teacher teach the way I learned? They didn't. Did my teacher know about me who went to school at an early, much earlier age than my peers? They don't care, right? Did my teacher know I actually loved art, I love drawing, I love music. They didn't. They didn't care. And did my teacher know at my home actually have grandparents who speak dialect, and when I go to school, I speak Mandarin Chinese, so I grew up with my grandparents who spoke dialect to me. So my vocabulary, you know, is different compared with my peers, because a lot of my vocabulary are Chinese. Dialects are not Mandarin Chinese. So without understanding those like background, my teacher just assumed me as a smarty who can absorb everything they say, you know, and that is not fair to me. So with that lens, I often examine my lens when I teach, like, the same question, ask my teacher, am I doing that to my students? If I'm doing that, then I'm a really terrible teacher, like, as Asian Teacher, do I know black students? Like, do I know black culture? Do I know the historic trauma black people carry every day on their shoulder? Well, I used not to know, and that was bad, because I make a lot of assumptions about my black kids, because I just think they shouldn't do certain things in certain way with my using my standard. And I used to think my standards is the only standard, and that was, you know, that that was wrong, you know. So I think my personal experience really helped me become a culturally responsive teacher, and also just, you know, the experience of working with kids of colors. And also, you know, self education. Another book I highly recommend is called, Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the cafeteria by Dr Beverly Tatum, yeah, this book actually really transformed my my life as a teacher, you know, because I had, you know, a couple of years teaching experience, you know that working with black kids, I thought I knew them well. Well, that's not true. You know, after I read this book, I just gained a new, totally new, higher level perspective about my black students, my Latinx students, my Muslim students, and even my Asian students. So there are a lot of things people don't talk about, but as a teacher who are facing a diverse group on daily basis. I really recommend, like educators, read this book, because it's going to just give you so much insight about what your students, what kind of burdens they're carrying, like what challenge they're facing every day with their peers, with their community, with our school. So I really think like having the understanding of the students background help the teacher understand student as learner, as human beings. And on top of that, I'm not saying students and teachers should become friends, no. So I remember there's a term. Called Warm demander, on the culturally responsive teaching book, the warm demander, yeah. So over the years, I have seen, you know, some say, very strict teacher, you know, who are pretty good at classroom management, you know, but kids are so scared of them. Like, you know, some teachers to go in like they're good at like, you know, speaking loudly to the students. You know, when the student feels scared, so they listen. But you know, sometimes the work being given to students were very basic. They're not challenging enough. So although kids were, they were behaving well, but did they learn much in the classroom? They didn't, you know, so I think warm demander is the type of teacher, pretty much. You know, if we care about education, we aim to become, we aim to become a warm demander. And becoming a warm demander is a piece of art. It also takes a lot of time to to practice. Yeah, but, but I will say this. I will say this. Um, like, from my personal experience working with students of colors, like I learned that not only kids need to know you know them. You connect with them, like you suffer from same kind of pain, or you understand the pain they're suffering, the challenge, the trauma they experience, that's very important to in your their ally. You know not only that, but also telling them, letting them know that you are giving them a strong support, and also you demand a lot of things from them, so they go hand in hand strong support and strong demand, and telling them, you know, you're brilliant, and telling them you deserve more than this, and telling them, I want to see you do more. Because when they go to, you know, some classrooms, they they they may feel like, you know, something are not something they can do. They feel like they cannot handle it, but you have to tell them they are able to do it. And you are there to support them and communicating with them that you have a high bar for them, and you are there to help them get there. It's so important. 

Zach Diamond  32:22  
Yeah, that's, that's, that's really big. I think it always comes back to the relationship piece, right? Like, right? Kids, kids, I feel like, when I first started teaching, I was afraid that like giving kids bad grades, or like asking them to do their work would ruin our relationship, because it's like, not cool. They don't want to do the work, you know, they want to get good grades, but that's so not right, like, that's so not what it's about. They actually do want to get good grades. Most kids want to succeed in school. I say most. I think all kids want to be successful in school. Some of them. There's lots of reasons why kids aren't, and I think that it's very easy to make assumptions about them. 

Xian Lu  33:00  
Yeah, yes, you mentioned that, and I think that's correct. I agree with you. And you know, another piece we didn't talk about is, of course, like you said, it's very important to have the relationship building. That is the that's the foundation for everything. That's the foundation, right? Like, you cannot go anywhere if you don't have, like, deeper level connection with your students, right? And after you have that, it's a matter of how you leverage that report with this, how you leverage that relationship building with our students, and how to like, how to gear to the destination you want to go. Like you don't just become connected with them for the sake of being friends with them. You actually want be connect with them so they can work hard for themselves, and you can raise your bar high for them. And But how, I think that's like another topic of, you know, saying lesson planning right, and how to make your lesson, meaningful, fun and connected with the real world. And that's a totally like, that's like, a humongous topic, you know, because, like, teaching, like we said, is so much art, you know, yeah, but I do feel like, you know, after you have this relationship building, and you always want to tell your students, you know, and you deserve more than this. And this is where I want to see you to be, you know. And sometimes I like to give my kids some inspirational speech, you know, like some days they're so tired, they're a little goofy, they don't feel like doing work. And I like to pause and give them an inspirational speech. And I found that, you know, very helpful, especially to the middle schoolers, you know. 

Zach Diamond  34:50  
And, I mean, I think that that's, that's something that we've talked about a lot on this podcast, and it comes up in the world of modern classrooms a lot is like, sometimes a kid's just not going to be there that day. I mean, they're they'll be there. Physically, right? They're in the classroom, but like, they're not going to be able to learn that day. And, you know, you talked before about the sort of, like, strict, loud teacher who scares their students into doing their work, right? I feel like that's not the way, right, scaring students into doing their work, maybe they'll do it, but like, it's not a they're not going to remember. They're going to remember being scared. Basically, yeah, and, and I'm thinking, like, if a kid shows up and you can tell like, they're not feeling it that day, the ability to go to them and either say nothing if they don't want to talk to you, or, like, tell them it's okay. You can take a minute. You can take a day if you need like, and they won't be they won't be scared. That's like, there's just so much humanity, like, in that kind of teaching, it's just, it's so important. And I everything that you're saying, it's interesting. Like, I, I wasn't trying to ask you, like, how do you teach Chinese vocabulary or whatever? Because I'm not sure how applicable that is to other teachers who want to become more culturally responsive. But this stuff is applicable to everyone, right? It's not so, like you said, like the lesson planning and the actual teaching, it's a whole other topic, but it's like the the place that we're coming from, as as the kids teacher, right? Where are we coming from, and what do we actually care about? Do we care about them learning and enjoying learning, or do we just care about them? Like going through the motions and turning in the paper on time and not talking when we're talking, or whatever you know, like it has to be where you're coming from. It's a fundamental thing. I completely agree. 

Xian Lu  36:36  
And I have to say, like, speaking of like, say, how to make your lesson attractive to students, how to make your lesson plan more like meaningful to students. It's like another topic, but I remember, like last year, I had a lot of conversation with like, teachers of different colors in my previous school, and they were middle school teachers and high school teachers of different subjects. So one thing I found that a lot of successful teachers have in common is, like when they do lesson planning, they do not assume students know. One thing you know, like when you do lesson planning, you just don't assume students know this already. If this is important concept like on which you have to build another concept on, then do not assume they know it. Maybe you want to spend some time do reviewing with your class, you know. Otherwise, it can be a disaster, you know. And another thing I remember talking to this math teacher, Mr. Mensah, and because we think very much alike. And one thing he said was, you know, when I do my lesson plan in math, I was just thinking about when I was a 15 year old, when I was learning this, say, like a formula or whatever thing, what was my struggle? And with that in mind, you know, you just, you're just thinking about the scaffolding you want to give to students, because you're not assuming they know this. Because you know, as a young teenager, you had struggled with it, so that's how you just give your students so much more support, rather than, you know, just the thinking affirming, like they know everything already. That's pretty much how I was treated as a little girl by my teacher in China. Because they assume I know this. They assume if they say this sentence, I remember that sentence, and I can apply that sentence to a new skill, which I couldn't, you know. 

Zach Diamond  38:40  
Well, I think that that's sort of the that's sort of the way that, like, the world looks at at education, right? People who aren't in school buildings all day kind of think like, oh, well, there's the standards. At least in this country, we have the standards, and they have to get to this standard by this date. And we go the standard by standard, and at the end of the year, they learned all the standards. And it's not like that, like every maybe some kids learn like that, 

Xian Lu  39:02  
and we have to look at this in a historic lens too, you know, like kids come from all kinds of, you know, family backgrounds and economic backgrounds, right? And some families, like kids get tutors, or like they get supports from their parents, right? But some families, you know, they don't get those support. So it really leads to the teachers in class, you know, who can think inclusively, think for those students, and, you know, deliver the best lessons. You know, that just caters to everybody's needs, not only certain group of kids, needs, you know. And early on you talk about social justice, right? So I think, like for culturally responsive teachers, you know, like choosing to work with students of a diverse body, choosing to work with students who may not get as much support as their peers. I think this like one way, like those teachers are fighting for social justice, like, you know, staying. And fighting for them. You know, just being there, 

Zach Diamond  40:03  
yeah, wow. Huh. What an incredible conversation. I feel enlightened. I feel so inspired. 

Xian Lu  40:10  
Oh, wow. Thank you. 

Zach Diamond  40:12  
I can see why your students, why the inspirational speeches work for your students too.

Xian Lu  40:17  
I put my poker face on, yeah, I look very dead serious,

Zach Diamond  40:22  
no, but everything you're saying just resonates with me so much. Like, and you say it in such a in such a way that it makes perfect sense. Like, how could you ever think anything else? You know, I feel like I kind of wish that you were my teacher. I would have learned Spanish a lot better if you were my Spanish teacher.

Xian Lu  40:40  
Yeah, yeah, music was my favorite subject when I was in elementary school. I just never pursued that career. Yeah, so you could be my teacher too. 

Zach Diamond  40:48  
See that that's this is the thing, because music was like my least favorite subject until I got to high school. I think maybe that's how we all wind up teaching what we teach, I don't know. See and what, what goals do you have and what do you hope to see in the future? Could be broad, could be personal. 

Xian Lu  41:03  
What goals I want to see in the future? Like, personal goal. I want to try different professions, to be honest. Video, I never, I never. Like, I want to relive my life, you know, like, like, let's go back to our early conversation, like, what if I chose to went to a medical school? Like, where I would be today? Would I be? Like, would I be doing as much advocacy as I'm doing right now? Like, what kind of what kind of person I would be? You know, that's interesting. Yeah, I because I feel like life takes so many things away from you, but later on, and you have the craving for those things, and you just, you know, intentionally retrieving those things back to your life. Yeah, so I don't know. I just feel like when I was a young teenager, I hate the things, the dreams I had for myself when I was earlier, but when I get older, like, I want to go back to my childhood and do all the things I wished as a child, you know, like I don't know. So that's my personal goal. I want to I'm not saying I love teaching, you know, I love being creative. I love, you know, making compact with individual students with school. You know, that's all my passion about. But just as you know, regular human being, I want to see myself doing a different thing. So that's my personal goal.

Zach Diamond  42:36  
That's so interesting. What an interesting answer. I feel like Hindsight is interesting, right? Because you can see the things that either life took away from you or you just didn't you denied yourself, right, right? And you can look back and say, I wonder if I should have tried that, you know, or why did I resist that so much 

Xian Lu  42:55  
like why I didn't advocate myself saying, Dad, I don't want to be a teacher. No, 

Zach Diamond  43:00  
yeah, yeah, right, right. Okay, well, I feel like we could have this conversation for the next like three hours. I have so much. I just like, I love hearing this, but it's time for us to go before we do. CN, how can our listeners connect with you if they'd like to chat with you more or hear more about culturally responsive teaching. And also, I guess some of these books, I'm going to link the books that you mentioned listeners. You have homework books to read. Have fun. How can our listeners connect with you? If they'd like to.

Xian Lu  43:31  
Yeah, and you're welcome to shoot me an email. And you can feel free to link my personal email address at this at the show. And I also just recently reactivated my LinkedIn, but because my previous LinkedIn email address is different now, so I really haven't spent the time to edit on my LinkedIn yet. So what they're going to see is something very basic, just my name and where I live, yeah, but either way, you know, yeah, you can send me a message on LinkedIn, or you can email me personally, awesome.

Zach Diamond  44:06  
I will link both of those in the show notes. Wow. What an incredible discussion. Thank you so much for joining me tonight. This has been absolutely amazing. I hope that the listeners enjoyed it as much as I did, because I enjoyed it a lot, and so I like, I like. I said, I'm excited to get to listen to it again when I edit it. Thank you so much.

Xian Lu  44:24  
Thank you, Zach, thank you for the opportunity. Thank you modern classroom podcast

Zach Diamond  44:29  
listeners. Remember you can always email us at podcast, at modern classrooms.org and you can find the show notes for this episode at podcast dot modern classrooms.org/ 218, we'll have this episode's recap and transcript uploaded to the blog on Friday, so be sure to check there or check back in the show notes for this episode if you'd like to access them. Also, we're asking our listeners to leave a review if this podcast has been helpful in supporting you to create a blended, self paced, mastery based and maybe culturally responsive learning environment. It does help other folks find the podcast. Thank you all so much for listening. Thank you. Xian, have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday.

Xian Lu  45:08  
Thank you, Zach, bye.

Zach Diamond  45:15  
Thank you so much for listening. You can find links to topics and tools we discussed in our show notes for this episode, and remember, you can learn more about our work at www.modernclassrooms.org and you can learn the essentials of our model through our free course at learn.modernclassrooms.org you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at modernclassproj, that's P, R, O, J, we are so appreciative of all you do for students in schools. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the modern classrooms project podcast. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai