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Editor’s note: The author of this essay prefers the pronoun they. In a poignant letter to their teenage self, Jey Ehrenhalt—a transgender educator and advocate—recalls jarring and painful experiences of their youth and describes how many schools urgently need to become more welcoming and supportive places for transgender students.

There are so many ways to mix up student seating at lunch that it can be paralyzing to consider them all. Don’t let this be a stumbling block. The outcome is the same, no matter the path that gets you there: You want to get students to sit with different people at lunch, and you want them to have a conversation so they get to know each other a bit.

If you dig deep, there is a WEALTH of curricular materials right outside the door of your school. Have you ever looked?

Students won’t succeed until they believe they can.

This excerpt accompanies the Teaching Tolerance lesson "Pauli Murray: Fighting Jane and Jim Crow."

In this first of a three-part series, this new-educator mentor explains how mentoring can help new teachers focus on students’ assets rather than their deficits.

Unpacking the word “sissy” helped this teacher build awareness of stereotypes while creating safety for all students.

Britta Ostermeyer says meeting the emotional and social needs of displaced students will be a long-term effort for schools and communities.

The question above was posed to me in the comments section of a blog post I wrote recently. The post was entitled "Imani and the Cabbage Seeds." In it, I wondered about “isms”—racism, sexism and other things that either separate people or give one group power over another.

I love teaching in a co-op with other homeschoolers and former public educators. We are an incredibly diverse group—racially, ability-wise and religiously. We also incorporate diversity in our guest speakers and field trips. The first day of school this year, we were chanting and doing art projects with Tibetan monks. So how do we make Mix It Up at Lunch Day unique with this gorgeous hodgepodge of people that is already used to joining together?