We're alive now. Come here. By empowering our students to lead and serve lead for change is changing lives, transforming communities and improving our world. Learn more, check out the research and access free leadership curriculum now at leadforchange.org. Hi everyone, on behalf of the American Federation of Teachers, I'd like to welcome you to tonight's keynote. Teachers unified to end gun violence. My name is Kelly Booze and I'm the proud director of our American Federation of Teachers. Share my lesson and I am your moderator today. Before we begin, I'd like to say thank you to today's virtual conference sponsor, lead for Change, which is celebrating its 10th year lead for changes. A free leadership curriculum for grades 6 to 12 with the Community Service framework. It is easily integrated it into any class club or setting lead for changes. The nation's fastest growing, privately funded student leadership program with more than 15,000 educators and nearly two million students. Give your class, club or school a chance to win up to $10,000 and leave for change challenge. You can learn more about leap for change by clicking on their logo on the right side of your screen and we truly appreciate your support. Now let's watch a quick housekeeping video and then we'll turn over to our main event. Thank you. Hello everyone, welcome to our 2022 share my lesson virtual conference. My name is Kelly Booze, director of the American Federation of Teachers. Share my lesson before we begin. We'll go over a few housekeeping items. For those of you who have joined us many times before, you know that we make our webinars as engaging as we possibly can. So to get us started, please open up that group chat box and tell us where you are from and why you are joining us today and what interests you about this particular topic. In addition to the group chat, if you're joining us live, you will be able to provide some different reactions throughout the webinar today, so let us know what you're thinking and throughout the webinar, whatever reaction you want to give, share it with us and share it with your fellow participants. At the end of this webinar, we will be facilitating a question and answer session. Use that Q&A widget to submit any questions that you want us to ask the presenter. If you have any technical issues, please also use a Q&A widget and one of our share. My lesson team members is there and ready to respond to you. If you would like a copy of the slide deck or any of the related materials, you can find those in the resource widget. For those of you who want professional development credit, you will be able to download a PDF certificate at the conclusion of this webinar verifying your participation today, you do need to answer the poll questions that you will see throughout the webinar. To access that certificate now, let's turn it back over to your moderator who will put up a sample poll question for you to try. The poll question is located directly in the slides. You can answer your question. And then hit submit. From all of us at share my lesson. Thank you for joining us today. Enjoy your webinar. OK. And that poll question is up for you right now. How many share my lesson webinars? Have you attended this is my first a few, a lot too many to count and I tell you what. Go ahead and submit your response and then in that chat box. If you've attended a webinar this week as part of our virtual conference. Share with us. Which one has been your favorite so far and I I won't tell if I won't tell other participants but let us know what what one you really enjoyed this week. I'll tell you. I mean this is so hard. There's so many that I'm gonna go back to watch that I couldn't watch 'cause I was assigned to the other webinars or helping out behind the scenes on some other things. But last night's demco yes, that one was so fun and FT President ***** Weingarten did a little rap which was great. That was a really fun keynote and I didn't get to be on it last night, but I know they llama Llama webinar last night was just super fun, and then of course one of our speakers today. Sorry Beth is already already did a webinar for us this earlier today to talk about. Media and news. And you know, using news for US? Teaching U.S. history. So yes, all these are great. I love that all everything that you're sharing. Fantastic thank you. OK so a lot a few this is that's great 'cause I had a lot of people in our first webinar of the conference. It said this was my first and I'm excited, so I'm glad you are enjoying these these sessions. Alright, So what I'd like to do before I turn this over to our our speakers is just say a few words. You know, one of the reasons why the FT then share my lesson. We wanted to bring this webinar to you as one of our keynotes is because you know we're facing such a crisis within our Community communities. And it's not just COVID, it's not mental. It's not just mental health. It's not climate change. It's not just politics, but gun violence, the public health crisis that has already killed nearly 10,000 in the first few months of 2022. For far too many Americans, gun violence is a major factor in their everyday lives. It's effective for them. A family member, a student or a colleague. Gun violence is an epidemic, and while we grapple with ongoing impact of a pandemic, the reality remains that our nation's struggle with gun violence has not magically gone away. In fact, it's gotten worse and the need for common sense solution is is as dire as ever, according to a Washington Post database, an estimated 27,000 students on K12 campuses across 22 states were exposed to gun violence in 2021, which shows you that there were more school shootings last year than any other year, at least since at least 1999. Too many kids walk to school through areas that feel like warzones go to bed at night to the sound of gunfire. And watch our society growing more divided, angry and quick to resort to violence. Even as a pandemic rage our friends at the gun safety organization Everytown reminded us the United States has seen the collision of these two major public health crisis over the past year. COVID-19 and gun violence both homicides and unintentional shootings increased to record levels in 2020 and 2021. The numbers are staggering. Record increases in gun sales children homebound like never before. Social isolation, economic struggles due to COVID-19 put many people at increased risk for gun violence. The 2019 back to school period previously held the highest number of occurrences with 16 incidents taking place in those six weeks of fall. The 2021 back to school period saw a dramatic increase in gunfire incidents at school grounds, nearly doubling the previous high previous year. In America today, people are afraid students, teachers, parents, they're afraid and no child, no educator, no parent, no caretaker should have to live in a world where they fear gun violence, especially not at a school. Our schools should be safe, welcoming sanctuaries for all. Tonight I'm proud to introduce three of our courageous AF team members. All educators who are on the front lines on this daily and who are tackling this very issue and uniting teachers from across the country to say enough. Together Addie Clements, a survivor from Sandy Hook School tragedy in 2012, and gun violence prevention activists Sarah Lerner, survivor from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2014 and award-winning journalism teacher Sorry Beth Rosenberg and award-winning U.S. history teacher and author from my Home from new from New York City have formed teachers unified to end gun violence. Their mission is to elevate the stories we don't hear about the ripple effects. In aftermath to support school communities impacted by gun violence and to raise our collective voices as those in the front lines of this public health crisis for cultural and legislative change. Please join me and welcoming Abby, Sarah and sorry and thank you so much for what you three are doing on behalf of students and teachers nationwide. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us it. It means a lot for us to be here. Uhm? I am going to start. With. Abby, I believe. No sorry buddy Kelly. OK, go ahead, I'm sorry. OK, so. Kelly introduced us briefly, and just a little background, teachers unified to end gun violence is a grassroots, grassroots movement of educators across America. Our mission is to elevate stories of gun violence in schools and communities in order to influence policies and Americans at large to make us safer. We came together and we'll talk about this a little bit more, but we came together after the shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, MI on November 30th of 2021. So teachers unify, which is shorthand for teachers, unified to end gun violence was founded by Abby Sari and me, and we are three very proud AF team members. So our goal is to help organize teachers and school staff to help change hearts and minds to save lives and end gun violence. And we knew that we had to do something to fill this gap in the national conversation around gun violence that has excluded teachers for far too long. I again everyone thank you so much for for for coming to this webinar to to this keynote. It means so much to us to to have people already filling out the survey because you're interested in this. It just shows how important this this is, how important it is that teachers come together that we unify together that we raise our voices against what's happening in our communities, in our schools. So thank you again to Afti to share my lesson for having us and for Kelly for that beautiful introduction. So I've been working in gun violence prevention for over 9 years. I'm an elementary school teacher. This is my 30th year teaching and. I am honored and just so grateful to be in this fight. This specific fight of for raising voices among teachers to stand up for our students and our families with these two amazing women, Sarah and Sari. And after almost a decade of of being in gun violence prevention, I'm I'm so grateful for all the training that I've received and all the survivors of so many heinous. Shootings across the country and and it's brought me here now with these women because. I know that our voices are important. They're not being heard, and we're going to come together and change that. Thank you Abby. So I am Sarah learner. I am still a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. I was on campus in 2018 when a shooter opened fire killing 17 and injuring 17 others. This is my 20th year of teaching, which is absurd and the past eight have been at Stoneman Douglas. I have always been an activist and outspoken. As a New Yorker should be, and I came to this space through. Wanting to to make a change, I met Abby. A few months after the shooting at the. Student Gun Violence summit, which was sponsored and put on by AFP, and. I met Siri through PBS News Hour. Zoom that we did and it just means so much to be working with these two women to bring an end to gun violence. And it's not just gun violence in schools, it's neighborhood gun violence suicide by gun violence or you know. Churches and synagogue gun violence. Like it just it needs to stop and I'm I'm proud of the work that we've done so far and I look forward to everything that we are going to do. And I also want to say before I introduce myself, I'm so thankful to FT and share my lesson for just supporting us, supporting us, and giving us this space tonight to give the keynote in this webinar about what we're doing. And I also want to thank everyone who's joining us tonight and everyone who's filling out the survey who who wants to join us in this very important fight to end gun violence. So as. We've already, as you've heard, I'm. I'm also a teacher. As you can guess and a proud AF team member. And I've been teaching for 20 years as well. U.S. history and AP U.S. history at the high school for Environmental Studies the same school this whole time and. I. I'm so grateful to be working with these two incredibly inspiring women. I knew about them before I met them, and the way I knew about them was unfortunately, through what they survived. And I also. My connection to them is actually through my students. My students were activated. Immediately. After Sandy Hook. And then Parkland. And I saw a change in them, and that in turn further inspired my activism. I've always been an activist speaking out for for what's right. And my students just inspired me to push further. And it's just an honor to stand with these two women. And and continue this fight because it's about time that teachers, whether they're in the FT or not, whether they're actively teaching or retired, get together on this. I think we can make a difference. You can't stop teachers from getting what we want, right? So. OK, so a little bit about why we formed. So since the pandemic began, we know that gun violence is still on the rise in schools and in communities, and there. Was it a drop in school shootings when everyone was at home on quarantine and then of course once people came back to school there it went again, so no gun violence prevention organization exists for or by teachers specifically, and we know as teachers that we are on the front lines and our students are on the front lines of this public health crisis. We are the ones who endure the active shooter drills, care for the students who've been acting. Who've been impacted by gun violence both. You know, in a school situation and a neighborhood community situation, and we knew that we needed to to do something. Our mission is to connect. Our mission is to connect with you all the teachers across the country and to hear your stories and to find ways that you're comfortable in. In sharing these stories by you know. Of course, teachers are are very unique, right? We? We worry about confidentiality. We are ingrained in that from the moment we we begin student teaching. So we're because we're teachers, we, we kind of. We know. Ways that we can elevate the voices of our students who are suffering over our educators and families. Sarah, Sarah, and I were texting with one another after hearing about the horrendous school high school shooting in Oxford on November 30th. And. I just said. You know, these shootings happen over and over. And although? There are Americans who refuse right to normalize these. You just feel like you're on this hamster wheel like you just can't believe that the news is happening over and over that there is yet another school shooting yet another school shooting. And I don't know about you all, but I can almost feel it. It's so sad, like a few days will go by and I'll feel like this something in my bones thinking like something is going to happen soon because it's just been a few days. And of course we don't know about the ones that happen. Happen every day, but we were texting. We were horrified. We were angry. We were so sad about, you know what happened in Oxford and I just said do you want to start a national organization for teachers by teachers and they said yes immediately and so teachers unify began. Sari So what do we do? We welcome narratives from everyone who works or who has worked in schools and universities, and this is not just teachers we call we consider everyone and anyone who works in a school space in a learning environment. We consider you all teachers. Whether you are a paraeducator counselor, principal school, nurse. Bus driver. Even retired school professionals personnel, there's so many people who work in a school school staff. We want you to share narratives with narratives with us. We've dropped, will continue to drop the form in the chat box, and our goal is to amplify. We have many goals, but our first goal is getting our voices out there. We'd love to use your names if you're not comfortable using your names. We can post them anonymously, but I think that it's important that we use this platform that we're building to amplify and elevate what we are all experiencing. Working in school environments, so please don't hesitate to mention in the survey if you'd like to be anonymous. We would love to amplify you nonetheless. So through these testimonials that Siri just mentioned, sharing your thoughts with us and we you know are able to amplify those. So through those testimonials through our podcast that I'll get into a little bit later, forums, videos and and other avenues, we at teachers unify feel that we are empowering the missing and vital population of our country. Who knows the great impact of gun violence first hand. The teachers we share experiences among survivors of school and community shootings and educators whose students are impacted by gun violence. And or the threat of gun violence in their schools, homes and communities. So being. The front lines we we get it and we are working to make that change. Abby. I just want to give a little example of what we do. As well, like kind of offline or just kind of privately, is connecting with educators across country who are experiencing gun violence and also like the steps of the aftermath. Whether it's you know, uh, a kid on a basketball team where you know it was a tragic incident recently. And of course it affects the entire team. Or, you know, we're in touch with the. The Oxford Teacher is and and have periodic zooms with them, and what's so unbelievable is hearing the commonality's what they've experienced with their experience a month later, what they're experiencing, you know, in their private lives if they want to share, but also with their students with how the students are going through the the different you know stages of of the aftermath, and it's just quite shocking that we accept this as reality. In this country, because the commonalities are so stark and they're so impactful, so those are are extremely meaningful for us as well. So. I have a question for everyone because we we want to interact with you as best as we can in this virtual space and hopefully one day meet many of you in person. For teachers unify against gun violence conference, that's that's one dream. What are your lockdowns? Active shooter drills like? We'd love for you to populate the chat and we'll pull some out. To discuss so. What are they like at your schools? Do you have active shooter drills? Do you have lockdowns and what's that experience like for you? Well, pause for a minute to give you time to share. Or 30 seconds. Meg from. I'm not sure what school you're from shared that she. Had a school shooting. Crazy run for your life drills, says Grace. Joseph says. You know this this chat alone just shows you why we started this. This alone it's going so fast so I can't even keep up. Deborah says terrifying. I have to help caregivers hide babies in closets. Dan says the drills are useless, only have drills. The jails are, yeah, there's so many comments that can't even keep up **** Sheila says lockdowns are done at the start of the school year. But new teachers are not always aware of the procedures we have had issues with, lack of speakers and areas. Yeah, we have that at my school, lack of speakers, so you can't hear. Lisa says they're organized well, outline steps. Kids just accept it as a fact of life. Hide and hope for the best says I don't see 'cause it's so the fact that I can't keep up. Speaks volumes. Volumes. Rebecca School practices lockdowns monthly. Joseph raises the issue that substitutes don't know what to do. Great point. Lashonda says locked doors, all windows and doors are closed. Head to the corners or state requires lockdown drills. Barber shares at some of her doors don't lock their doors. Don't lock. Marissa says they lock and close everything. Senator corner yeah. Wow. Thank you for sharing. We could. This says a lot that we could go on for an hour just reading these so please keep sharing and please fill out the survey. So here's our first poll. Do you worry about gun violence? Yes or no and we'll wait like 40 or seconds or so just because there's a bit of a delay. And we'll keep reading our chats and your answers in the chats. Oh God. 6 to 8th grade. Get the students in a classroom, locked the door, barricade the door. Block Windows paper. Basically there's 94 people right now watching, and they'll be more later and the fact that it seems like it feels like all 94 of you are sharing. So I think to what what Judith said. They worry daily that just like goes. Right through you. Yeah. And I and I have to say that. Me reading this versus Seren, Abby I have to. I wanna just like put a pin in the fact that I have been fortunate enough. Suggest experience the lockdown in active shooter drills and not experience. With the two of you had to endure, so I I'm sure it's very triggering. For you to read this. Because you had to. Actually live it. OK. The poll on the screen is not working for some people. Well, we'll figure it. We'll work on that later, so 94% worry about gun violence and 5% saying no. So 94% of our 94 attendees. Worry about. Right? And then our second poll question is, do you think the public should hear from teachers more on the subject of gun violence? We're very curious to hear your thoughts on that. Do you think the public should hear from teachers more on this subject? If you have some questions. About the pole and he will jump in and troubleshoot for you and he says if you miss a pill you can come back into the presentation when it's on demand to complete them. So don't fret, we'll be able to complete them later, but thank you to everyone who's completing them for us. Yeah, so if you can't see it now, you can go back into it on demand and answer the poll. Kelly says they'll re push the polls at the end. Thanks, Kelly. So we're just gonna wait for the results and then move on to the next. I just want to say something about drills. The other thing is like you endure these drills and then you're just expected to go back right where you left off. OK, like turn back to page 14 in your math book. And the kids are rattled. The teachers are rattled. And it's like as if you know moving right along, nothing to see here. Yeah, I just yeah we and I'll. I'll say that we had one in the beginning of the year, right? Coming out of the pandemic and the school being closed and my students and I were discussing how we jump. You know we were on the third floor. How we jump out the window? Just casually discussing that, and then we went back to learning about. I don't know the the colonies. So. Terrible. So just to highlight some of the things that we've done, as all three of us have said, we have connected with school and community survivors. Specifically, and most recently, those from Oxford High School, and we've done a series of zoom calls with them and you know, check in on them regularly and we also hosted a panel. On January 20th with ***** Weingarten Serena, who is a student at Sandyhook, Amy Stevens from Oxford, Fred Guttenberg, Frederick Joseph and Doctor Joseph Sakran. Along with the three of us and really. Kind of dove into. You know issues surrounding gun violence in schools. So actually we we wanted to hear from you from from educators. How how do you think we can help spread the word about teachers unified end gun violence? And how to? How do you think we can elevate stories? We're also thinking we've been thinking about because actually, we've been asked which I'm. Just so thrilled and honored. And also shocked. Although I shouldn't be because this is just a part of the American experience in schools. Now is how to bring gun violence prevention. Actually to teaching, which I know share. My lesson has actually some wonderful resources. So please go visit those. But if anybody wanted to. Put in the chat some ideas for us. That would be great. We'd love to hear from you. I think in general we're seeing an uptick in violence in our schools. Whether anybody can pinpoint exactly why it's just been after two years of a pandemic. Racial inequality just all you know impacts of climate change and and everything that is sort of laying on everybody, shoulders, struggles with families. Health problems everything, but I think we can probably say that we've seen not only gun violence, but an uptick in violence. And people are talking about it in the chat. And that you know a lot if you. If you pare down what gun violence prevention is and you think you don't want any of our students right to grow up in either, you know reach for a gun because they're angry and upset. Or maybe hold a gun for someone like who would do you think who would do that? So what can we? How can we teach kids to? You know I have have enough self-respect and care about themselves enough to say no way I would never hold a gun for you. So these are the some things that we're thinking about moving forward with the organization. So looking at the things that we have done, we have teacher testimonials which we've referenced and I'll pull up on the next slide we also have. Our podcast that I host with Dave Price who is a retired teacher from. Bridgerton New Jersey. Although I'm probably getting the city wrong, but in South Jersey. And I put in the chat a link to the podcast and a link to our teachers unify website and we share these stories on Instagram and Twitter. And these are just two examples of graphics that we share. But if you visit our Instagram, we have plenty more, but. All of them kind of echo the same thoughts about wanting kids to be safe at school about. What it's like to be a gun violence or school shooting survivor? And there's a common thread that runs through all of them and clearly we can see that there is a void that needs to be filled. And that's the work that we do. So sorry, I'm going to put up the last slide for you. Thank you. So we just want to tell you what's comes next, and a lot is going to come next, and it's going to come next because of your support. Your involvement in joining us in this mission. This is a call to action. You can start small, you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram where teachers unify. Is our Instagram and Twitter and then the podcast is teachers unify PC for podcasts and please check out our website. We'll be continuing to build it as we grow. We just started a couple months ago and we're so proud of the work that we've done so far, and. Having ***** Weingarten and Kelly Booth and everyone at AMT and share my lesson give us their support has really inspired us to to keep you know, keep at it and grow and build and everyone in the chat tonight is also inspiring us. So please fill out. The survey will put it in the chat again if you. If you didn't catch it. And join us, this is not we're Co founders but we see this as a collective mission and that's why we call it. Teachers unify and like we said, everyone of you as a teacher. So thank you so much. I think it's time for Q&A. Yes, and I'm back. Hopefully OK great yeah no. Well first of all, thank you so much and and I'm glad that you pointed out some of the resources I'm share. My lesson, you know when when I talk about share my lesson I we get to talk about the 400,000 great resources. A lot of the content that we have, but you know honestly? The hardest time and the time we know where needed the most is when there are tragedies like gun violence or shootings in school, and you know having those resources that teachers can say OK, I don't even know how I'm gonna go into school tomorrow and be able to talk about, you know the shooting that may have just happened or the the Oxford shooting in Michigan. My neighbor reached out to me because her sister taught in that school district and they were just devastated and she's like, I know you have something like UN trauma and what. What can I? What can I do to help? And I just have to thank these three women for really bringing this to light and bringing, you know, more teachers together because you know this. This will take that content on, share my lesson and just elevate it even more. And you know Sarah Sarah, I know you know you did a keynote for us at one of our virtual conferences. If it was a year after the shooting, and I remember just even kind of, you know, doing some prep calls with you and just. It was, it was. Amazing to see you then and now, but just how shocking shaking you were still and dealing with that. You know, and Abby. I'm just kind of getting to know you now, but you know, you know one of the questions in the QA box was how do you help manage your anxiety or anxious thoughts around gun violence at school? And Courtney says I often worry about it and feel I'm on alert as a teacher. Night time in I yeah. I think every teacher is on alert. I I had when Parkland was unfolding. I had the most wonderful student teacher in my room and I I could just see her face now the time when we're we're finding out what was. Happening that day and my heart just broke for her because. It's it's just not the same school is is just not how you know. As the eldest here. We we we started, you know, I think that fear of gun violence is just whether you've been through it or you know it could happen and we really saw that outpouring of love from educators all over the country after our tragedy. And everyone said, like I, I just remember getting messages like every time I walk in my classroom. I think I don't know what I would actually do if that happened. And. They they would say I turn on my light when I go in and I already am looking around and on alert so I I think that's sadly what the American experience is both for the educator and for the student. And if I can jump in for a minute, I don't think it's just how it impacts us in our classrooms. I think it's how it impacts us in our daily lives like I am mindful of where I sit when I go to a restaurant who is in a room when I walk in. Like you know where to position myself so that I'm not vulnerable. It's like little things like that that you don't. Necessarily think about before something like this happens, and then when it happens you are on this heightened state of alert. Because, you know? You know you've experienced it so. I think being aware and and mindful and all of the anxiety that goes along with that at school also spills into your private and personal life. Even when you're at the supermarket, you know, looking at who's in the island, who's behind you, and it's. It's disconcerting. For sure. You mentioned the. You know the conversation about the drills, the active shooter drills and in stuff in the class. You know what is from your perspective. If you could say hey administrators, pay attention. Listen to me, the teachers, we you know, what would you say if you could say that this is what we need to be doing differently. I'll chime in and just. I'll just say quickly. And I always defer to Abby and Sarah, but just one thing I will say is it's starting to feel just like. A fire drill like something you check off the list for the school year. And I don't think we're doing enough. To deal with how triggering it is and the emotional trauma that it brings to. US but the kids. And I think that we're normalizing. It's become normalized just like there might be a fire. There might be a shooting and that teraph izmi that it's just become kind of just part of school, right? And we and this is a pandemic. Yes, we have the public health pandemic of COVID, which is still an issue. But the gun violence pandemic is becoming so embedded in normalized. And just like the everyday life of teachers and students, and I really want us to highlight that it can't, we can't normalize it. Yeah. That's true and I. I know for a time at least in my school, in my district. During COVID we were doing virtual shooter drills and now we're back to like actual moving to your safe place in the classroom drills and there are sometimes where I am OK and I move through it and then there are other times where I just completely bug out and have to keep it together because I have kids in the room with me. And there's no rhyme or reason why. One time I'm fine and one time I'm not. But I tell all of my students on the first day of school that I was on campus that day. And you know, living in the community. And you know, having connections at the school. Of course they they get it and they understand. But you know, when I go over my first day procedures and I talk about fire drills and code red drills. I am very direct with them that I will not tolerate anything other than like complete participation, and they're going to listen and do what I asked them to do without question, and they're good about that. But you know, I still it still makes me uncomfortable. And then when the drills are over, I have kids, you know, I. Kind of take the pulse of the room like everybody OK and then without fail I always have a couple of kids. You know Mrs. Lerner, you OK and like it's sweet that they check in with me. But it's so sad that this is where we are that I'm clearly not OK, and even if I am that they check in to make sure that I'm OK. And that's why you know the your work and all three of you coming together. It's just it's it's powerful because they can imagine that you know it can be really triggering as well as you're doing. Some of this work, but you know one one question related to that is how? How does connecting with educators around this activism give you hope? After fighting for change for so long? I think for me it's. It it to me it empowers us, you know, and I think that power is one thing that I would say probably most teachers, especially now they're taking it away one minute at a time, and it just whether everything is going on, you know. That feeling that you don't have control over over what's going on in your community? What's going on in? You know, in your space, in your sacred space, with kids, and so. This is in power, like my phone chiming every time somebody fills out the survey. It's just because I think. When we come together strong on this, we are going to make a difference. There is not a doubt in my mind and also we are going to elevate the stories that aren't being told because you know. Tragedies the the mass shootings. We get resources and mental health support teacher support. And you know there are kids in classrooms all over America were not getting the support that they need families who are not getting support. Maybe there there wasn't even one article written about the tragedy of a family member from gun violence so. I'm inspired by all of you coming to this in the 1st place and and and. You know, stepping in and saying I'm in, and I think. Once we. Our with our people and we're stronger together we we are really going to make an impact and people are going to listen to us. And I just want to jump in and say one sentence. This just flashed in my mind because a lot of people in the chat are saying it's become normalized. You're right, and we're here to say that. The days of normalizing this are over because we are coming together. Really strong and we are going to be really loud about this because we we need to stop normalizing this and if no one else can do it teachers cat. So let's work together on this. You gave me some chills. Sorry. I like that the day we may have, they might have to be some T shirts. Yes. You know, so along those lines, Abby, you were talking about, you know the support that we need to give and somebody asked is your organization offer trauma training for staff and students? And I don't know if teachers unify has necessarily offering trauma training, but I'm guessing this may be something that you're going to be advocating for. Absolutely, and we call it experience training right now because we are certainly. I mean I'm laughing about it. It's not funny, but. I. So the answer to that is not yet, and we hope to yes, and but we also offer camaraderie and support and understanding what, whether you've been personally impacted by gun violence or not, what the gun violence epidemic in America does to you does to the educator. So we, you know, we offer it sort of more like that. Peer to peer support. At the moment. It's great. It looks like we've got time for probably one more question. And I love the how active the the group chat is and I know Andy who is on and doing kind of behind the scenes tech work has been putting a number of links into some of the different share my lesson resources, including some blogs that we've had from these women that we've posted on share my lesson that they've written for us. But you know, for some schools where there just isn't a lot. Of support, you know how one of the question is like? How can I be more prepared? I feel some schools just don't have the best security and wish they did. Or you know the best training or just you know how do what? Where do I start? One thing is that we're we're proud to partner with other organizations who might be able to help with that. I was really happy to see some folks from Sandy Hook promise on here doing incredible work in schools, districts across the country. So one way would be, you know, to to reach out to us and and. And also, we're we would help connect you to some other organizations that do have resources. And also we're keeping a running. List of different organizations who have some resources for teachers and schools on our website that will keep growing. That's great. Uhm? I just wanted them putting. I'm putting all four of us back on the main screen to to show that we intentionally, you know, wore some orange tonight. We almost didn't get Sarah Sarah on here, but we're glad we did. 'cause we were having some technical issues. So yes, thank you. Showcasing it, doing some plan stuff. But yeah, I'll I'm gonna let you guys kind of close out and say some final words before I end our our keynote tonight, but I just again want to say on behalf of the AF T we're just so thrilled to have such incredible AFP members. You guys, really? You know, walk the walk and talk the talk and you know you're constantly whether it's this issue or other issues. I just, you know, it's it's amazing to see how much your. Supportive of educators, teachers in the the different topics that you teach in the classroom on a daily basis, but then also you know, trying to unify teachers to come together and make sure that they're that the teacher voices centered when we're talking about ending gun violence in schools and communities. So thank you, ladies. I'll let you all the three of you guys say some final words before we end. I'll go first. Kelly, I want to thank you and AF T and share my lesson for having us on tonight. I want to thank everybody who is in attendance and those who will watch it later. You know the work that we're doing is not in a vacuum like this exists for everyone, and we hope that you'll fill out our survey and listen to the podcast and check out the resources that I put in the chat. And and find a way to get involved, even if it's something small. You know we're all teachers. We're all busy, but this is. An epidemic that is, it's a public health crisis and it's affecting all of us. So however large or small, you are able to get involved. We would appreciate it. And the more we can spread the word about what we're doing, the sooner this will stop. And I just want to quickly say thank you to like just piggybacking off of what Sarah said. Thank you to share my lesson. Thank you to FT. Thank you for all of your support and you know just inspiring us to keep moving forward with this when it was just an idea and a text chat with Abby, Sarah and myself. And thank you to everyone who's attended. It's so inspiring to see that there's close to 100 people watching now and hopefully hundreds later. We we can't do this without your support, so let's work together on this and I just wanna thank say I don't want to get too emotional. I'm having an emotional week like always, but I do want to thank Sarah and Abby for inviting me in because like I always say I'm fortunate. Knock on wood to have not been touched by gun violence first hand, but I was shaken to the core. When I heard about Sandy Hook when I heard about Parkland and all the other incidents and I'm so grateful that they're allowing me the invite, not allowing inviting me in to help with this. I think one of the most important movements we can be apart of right now. 100% agree Sarri Sarah. You guys are amazing and. Yeah, I I never would have imagined 100 people would be on on tonight and it just goes to show that teachers are fed up. We're angry, we're sad, we're afraid and we're not going to take it anymore. And we're going to get together and we're going to stand up for policy for good policy and and stand up for our students and our family. So again, thank you all so much thank you AF T for uplifting this important issue and for taking a stance, Randy. Us from for years. Taking this on as an important issue in so many ways and we we are so grateful. So thank you all. I hope you'll share our survey and follow us online and be in touch because we we are stronger together for sure. Wonderful. Ladies, thank you so much and I know you know, as we're continuing to to build up those resources, we will be getting those up on. Share my lesson and continue to do our part to help get the word out nationally with our 1.9 million share my lesson number users because we can help amplify that voice and Randy, as you know, is incredible supporter of your work and efforts and the FT is has your back and we are we are with you. 100% all right? So I am on a say thank you again. I'm gonna close out tonight's web and R and I hear a kid running up the stairs so I may need to close this out pretty soon. Be banging on the door in a second, but thank you for joining us. We have one more day. For those of you who are alive, we got one more day of a virtual conference tomorrow. We've got a keynote. We are tackling another important topic about teaching honest history and I know sorry, I know we've had conversations with that with you about that as a as a history teacher, and I know you are very active about. Meaning to teach honest truthful history for our students. I do hope that you will join us tomorrow night for that keynote and all of these keynotes from yesterday from Monday with our keynote with ***** Weingarten and all of the webinars that we've done are also on demand and you are eligible to get professional development credit for participating in those, which I'll remind you on how to access that document in just a second and just a nice little flag if you're in New York teacher, you can get seat TLE credit for attending our webinars. Which is a huge plus and if you are in Illinois, Federation of Teachers member you can get I SBE credits so that information should be in the confirmation email that you received alright, so with that I'm going to close out tonight. Thank you everybody. We still have more webinars yet this evening, so hopefully you'll join us for some of our evening ones and then we'll see you also tonight and then tomorrow. Thank you. Hi everyone, Kelly booze rejoining you again. I hope you enjoyed today's webinar as much as I did. I want to go over a couple reminders and I have one big favor to ask of you. First, you should now be able to download that PDF certificate for your participation. Today you can access that PDF certificate using one of the widgets, the one with the checkbox. From here you should be able to open up that PDF certificate and download it. The certificate will be saved to your name for up to a year. Now you are required to have answered at least 2 poll questions and met the criteria for watching the minimum amount of time when you open up that PDF certificate, it will be populated with your name, the date, and the title of the web, and our second. 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Gun violence affects educators, students, families, classrooms, districts and communities all across the country, every single day. After the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan on Nov. 30, 2021, three AFT membersAbbey Clements, Sarah Lerner and Sari Beth Rosenbergwere trying to process the horror of yet another horrendous tragedy in a group text. Outraged with the frequency and acceptance of gun violence in all its forms, they decided to launch a national organization, Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence, whose mission is to elevate the stories we don’t hear aboutthe ripple effects and aftermath; to support school communities impacted by gun violence; and to raise our collective voices as those on the front lines of this public health crisis for cultural and legislative change. Hear about their journey and how you can get involved.

Available for one-hour of PD credit.*

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