supporting teachers in implementing the literacy curriculum and having a high impact among their learners is my main priority in this role. ensuring everyone feels safe enough to share their ideas/feelings and leave empowered enough to seek additional support beyond the training sessions is a personal passion because I’ve been where they are and know the power of putting passion in the right place vs. getting fired for “passionately advocating” for my learners in the form of verbally demeaning the knowledge and educational contributions of literacy coaches while they presented profesional development. i thought i had to fight in those spaces. my learners could barely read (from my deficit-based perspective) and we kept getting handed boring books and lessons from curriculum companies i did not believe were best for the learners we were serving. went about that all wrong and none of it mattered for the community because after i was fired, there were no changes made at the school. now that i am in the consultant role, i realize i was taking my anger out on consultants who were just doing their job. this was not advocacy or activism, it was a projection and deflection of misdirected pain. i used to feel so alone in those spaces but becoming a consultant, this summer, showed me many teachers experience emotions i used to feel in PD. i have not witnessed any as “explosive” as i was described as back in my days but i can hear the similarities between their sentiments and my former frustrations. being able to support them instead of adding toxicness to the table shows me how much i have grown from who i used to be and nothing makes me more grateful than to be able to support literacy teachers, who are going through what i went through, as they grow in their role. if you are a teacher who finds it difficult to fulfill your main role, don’t just share it vocally with peers, do a little research, put it in writing (respectfully) and send it to the folks in positions who contribute to policies and practices. 3/3