MCIE Carolyn Teigland & Tim Villegas
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Diana Pastora Carson: [00:00:00] This episode is proudly sponsored by Ability Magazine, the leading magazine for health, disability, and human potential that strives to shatter myths and stereotypes that surround disabilities.
Welcome to the Beyond Awareness Disability Awareness That Matters Podcast. I'm your host, Diana Pastora Carson. Here you'll find a safe space to learn and grow with leaders in education, disability studies, disability advocacy, and diversity, equity, and inclusion conversation. Specifically, we look at how disability fits into diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging, and how to frame disability awareness in the context of educating K [00:01:00] through 12 communities.
This show serves educators, parents, and community members who strive to learn and, or teach about disability in a research based and respectful way, moving beyond simple awareness and diving into inclusive and socially responsive conversations. Now let's go beyond awareness.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Beyond Awareness: Disability Awareness That Matters. I'm so excited to have two very cool guests here with me today. Longtime friend and fellow podcaster and mentor, Tim Villegas, of the Think Inclusive podcast. What'd you say, Tim?
Tim Villegas: I said, that's nice.
Well, it's so true. And Carolyn Tiegland also from the Maryland Coalition on Inclusive Education. Did I say that correctly? It's for, it's for [00:02:00] inclusive education. For inclusive education. Yeah. Yeah. That's why we just say M-C-I-E-M-C-I-E. I love that. I love everything that you guys do at over at MCIE. So welcome to you both.
Thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedules right now. I'm gonna go ahead and let each of you introduce yourselves. Although Tim, you've been on this show before. Excited to have you back and Carolyn. Why don't you go ahead and get started and then Tim can, okay,
Carolyn Teigland: All right, hey, Carolyn Tiegland, I'm the current chief executive officer for the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education.
I took on this role, almost two years ago in March actually it's been two years now after joining the MCIE team in 2022. So I'm really excited to be here today excited about the work and excited to share our perspective on things. Great. Thank you so much. And Tim.
Tim Villegas: And I'm Tim Villegas, Director of [00:03:00] Communications for MCIE, and I've been with MCIE since August of 2020. And before that, I was a special educator. I taught 16 years across California and Georgia, and most recently was a district support specialist for students with extensive support needs. Wonderful.
Were we supposed to share all that detail? Carolyn, do you spend, you were an assistant superintendent.
Do you want, you can talk about that.
Carolyn Teigland: I was an associate superintendent in a school district in Maryland, about 16, 000 kids 29 schools, where MCIE partnered with us to do the work of moving our service delivery model from a highly segregated system to a system where learners were included in general education with their age appropriate peers the majority of their day, and it's The school system has maintained that for more than two decades, so I'm very proud of that work.
Diana Pastora Carson: And that is "the work" [00:04:00] that you're referring to. So, so well said. Thank you so much. Thank you again to both of you for being here. So, let's just jump into that, the, the topic of the day or topics of the day. Things are changing rapidly here in the United States with our new administration and the actions that are threatening disability rights.
Including rights for students with disabilities by virtue of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as well as threats to Medicaid funding and the Department of Education. Let alone the philosophical and foundational concepts of inclusion and belonging, which is what we are so passionate about, right?
And MCIE has been a leader. in supporting schools toward inclusive practices. Can you tell us about the work up to this point? What has been the [00:05:00] work of MCIE?
Tim Villegas: So MCIE has been around since 1988. Our work originally was bringing students who had been historically in segregated schools back to back to their neighborhood schools, and it was a collaboration between families and educators, and then later on We were funded by the Maryland State Department of Education to continue this work over the course of well, the last few decades.
And what's really interesting about our work is that since the very beginning, it's always been about supporting learners with extensive support needs students with autism, students with intellectual disabilities and, and those who are experiencing [00:06:00] behavior difficulties and challenges in general education.
So, a lot of the work, in 1975 was just about getting kids in the door of regular neighborhood schools that any student would go to. But what I think is really interesting about our nonprofit is that it's, it's been about authentic, inclusive education from day one.
So that's, that's just something that is really exciting to me when I tell our story.
Diana Pastora Carson: I so get that. That is the excitement that we do. That's at the core of everything that we do. So, Carolyn, what are you seeing and hearing now that is concerning, perhaps, and how has it shifted your work, if it has? What is your focus now? What is the work of MCIE currently?
Carolyn Teigland: So, the work of MCIE currently [00:07:00] is around technical assistance to school districts and schools. Helping educators understand how to include learners with more complex support needs in general education. So our work is in the general education classroom.
We're very we're very boots on the ground organization, meaning that our, our professional learning coordinators and myself are all in the field almost five days a week. When we're not in the field physically in schools, we're, we are doing the work of preparing or responding to the work that we've done.
We've been on site. So we're on site intensive. We're in classroom with teachers, with learners. Modeling what those strategies look like observing learners and getting feedback through learner planning on how to better support learners, and making that transition from a segregated setting back into general education.
So, we have a really robust technical assistance process that has been tried and true for the past 30 years. [00:08:00] It's the same process that we used in my county, my district years ago. It's been tweaked a little bit along the way, but it really has been proven to work. It takes us about three years in a school to move them from a segregated service delivery model into inclusion.
And our work is very much around building educator capacity and also planning to support learner needs. So, it's flow systematic and strategic because we want the experience of the educators and the experience of the children to be positive. We don't want to rush too quickly and have someone not be prepared for the work, but we are very aggressive about who are the learners that should be in this neighborhood school, that should be in this 4th grade classroom, 5th grade classroom, 9th grade classroom, whatever it is, and why aren't they there, and what can we do to move towards inclusion of that learner.
So that's, that's the lion's share of our work because it's so on- site intensive because in order to do that kind of work, you have [00:09:00] to build relationships with educators. They have to trust us. We have to see, I know the learners that are involved so that we can make good decisions and help the district make good decisions about the students.
And really put on strategically for their needs. So that's what the work on a day to day basis looks like. In terms of the current climate, everyone is in a state of anxiety and unknown. I was in a building today and the building leader said to me. Who knows what funding is going to look like next year?
Not meaning us specific, but in general. Like, in general meaning there, there are federal funds that support class size reduction. There are general funds that support support learners with disabilities. There, there, there are funding that supports learners who live in poverty. So it's, it's, it's the anxiety around we have our funding for this year, but what's happening because at this point in the school year schools are planning for next year, right?
Tim Villegas: Wow. So, a lot of my listeners are families, [00:10:00] parents, general and special educators. And I think that there's a lot of confusion and misinformation out there, and I would just like for us to give people an opportunity to understand why there is so much concern. Like you said, people have anxiety about this. I know I have had a lot, been experiencing a lot of anxiety about it lately regarding the intended dismantling of the Department of Education. Why can you help unpack why this is seen as such a threat to our students with disabilities? And especially for those who might say that students with disabilities will still have their needs met at the state level. And that maybe we're overreacting about this. How could you address that?
I think I definitely have had conversations with people who don't think this is a big deal. Or [00:11:00] they think that, It's like, well, the Department of Education wasn't really helping with my students and they weren't helping with my students anyway.
Tim Villegas: So, maybe this is, maybe this is a good thing. And so I, I think I want to focus in on leadership first. So who is running the Department of Education right now? Secretary. Their, the stated priority is to completely dismantle the, the Department of Education. And so you see right now big cuts and firings in the department.
And when people say, well, what does the department do anyway? The, probably the biggest part of the department of ed, it handles student loans. And that is not something I'm an expert in. But I know enough that, [00:12:00] if you have students in, like my daughters in college if you have children or if, people in that are, that are going to college and have gotten student loans, that that is a, there's a lot of moving parts to that.
And so I just want you to think like if half of that staff is gone, how much more efficient do you think that that department is going to run that aspect of the department? Most likely not. Aside from that, right. You have. You have educational research that the Department of Ed funds you have oversight of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and you also have the Office of Civil Rights and all of those protections people focused on protecting the most marginalized students.
And so, When you remove half of the people [00:13:00] working in those departments, everything is going to be moving a lot slower. And then McMahon's stated idea of bringing the department bringing IDEA underneath the, the purview of health and human services which, which I don't think is a good idea partially because the assumption that students with disabilities and the oversight of of supporting those learners should now be under a department that primarily, that primarily is focused on public health means that you're not actually concerned about the education of those students.
Like if you actually, if you listen to her. What she talked about in her Senate confirmation hearing, she spoke like, well, we need to be focused on teaching students math and reading [00:14:00] and focus on academics. So you are further separating and siloing students with disabilities as if, well, their needs are, really should be handled by public health, not a department focused on education. So that is problematic to me, and I don't think that the, I don't think that the secretary, I don't know, I don't know her, but I don't think that she's primarily concerned about students with disabilities. The, her number one concern is to do what the administration wants, and it's to dismantle the The Department of Ed.
Diana Pastora Carson: Yeah. Well, she didn't even know what IDEA stood for. No. No, she didn't. Not familiar with the law, how it protects our, our students. Right. Need that protection.
Carolyn Teigland: Well, coming from a, a 30 year career at the district level into this role, I'm very familiar with the [00:15:00] relationship between the state and the federal.
Government as it, as it pertains to oversight, and there are some, the federal oversight includes assuring that school districts throughout the country are paying attention to their disaggregated data. So there's a requirement of school systems and states to track not just how the general population of students is doing academically, but also how each type of learner is doing in terms of the disaggregated data.
So ethnicity, disability, free and reduced meals. No, it's not just about, in the school system where I was from the majority of children, actually, if you look at our whole demographics, were middle class, largely white and not, and we did have, obviously, populations of disability and those sorts of things, but if you were just to look at our aggregated data, [00:16:00] That would tell you a very different story than if you looked at what does it really look like for students who live in poverty, what does it really look like for students with disabilities, so on and so forth, and so we were compelled as districts, because the states were compelled to report that information and to pay attention to it, and while some people may not think that that's important, that is a different kind of story than if we just have to report our aggregated data, and so it's about the importance of all learners, It's about the importance of all learners and their social emotional health, and it's about that.
So, so, while the federal government's oversight is up here, it does, does trigger reporting requirements at the state level. That hold us all accountable to a certain level of, of priority and achievement regardless of where the children in your district live and regardless of how they come into your school building, how they [00:17:00] show up in school, it matters.
So I think that that's also an important function that a lot of folks don't understand that even though the states do have the majority of the power when it comes to making decisions about what happens in schools across the nation. That federal oversight is an important thing. And it's important because states have to report it and parents can access it.
So they know, how their system is doing in terms of those markers for achievement. And the other concern, as Tim noted, is protections for kids. If at the state level, my rights are not being protected, if the district level, my rights are not being protected, and then the state isn't doing what they need to do about that, there needs to be a recourse for that.
The children fundamentally get what they deserve to receive from public school educators and their leadership. And that concerns me [00:18:00] deeply if that oversight is like Tim is saying, I have a student, I actually have two students, one that just finished college and one that's in college.
The FASFA situation doesn't happen very quickly in the current situation. If you think about that, like a lot of us have experience with that whole process, right? It's slow to begin with. Now you take away half the staff. Well think about that on the level of a child with a disability whose civil rights are being violated.
Or a child with a 504, like, that is concerning. I mean, that can get all kinds of mired and people, honestly, in our experience, and I, Tim, I don't want to speak for you. Parents are tired. Parents who are fighting this fight for their kids are tired already, and it becomes that much more difficult.
I fear for, whether people will just give up the fight.
Tim Villegas: And I also want to, I, sorry Diana, but I also want to address this idea that we're all overreacting because [00:19:00] I think that in the current political climate, it is it is easy to overreact. But what I, what I want to say is that if you look at how things have gone since inauguration day.
And you think about the ripple effects that have happened with the decisions that have been made through executive orders. And then also the layoffs or firings, however you want to say it. It has caused a considerable impact in every sector imaginable. So to sit back and say, this won't affect me.
This won't affect my student with disabilities. I think when you look at what has happened over the last seven to eight weeks, if somebody from this administration is saying IDEA [00:20:00] funding is safe, everything's going to be fine. I would not be so trust trusting, I would not, I wouldn't, I would say, I don't know about that.
I think that maybe we shouldn't put our guard down. I think that people getting up in arms about Section 504 the, the lawsuit against Section 504. And I think that that's an important thing. I think people should be, concerned and upset and talking with their legislators about that.
I think people should be concerned about the risk of IDEA funding, either being reduced or moved. I think all of those things are not overreactions. I think those are part of our civic duty as, as Americans. So I don't buy this argument that we're overreacting.
Diana Pastora Carson: Thank you. I was gonna also mention that I [00:21:00] think so many of us who grew up. I've actually I was part of that era in the 70s when, you know, 60s, late 60s, early 70s, mid 70s, when we started to have disability rights, we didn't have them before. Nobody had them. You were lucky if you got into school. And so these rights, are something that were hard fought for. And I think that so many people just don't realize what we are going back to things weren't available for students. People didn't have the right to a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive, or the most inclusive, is what we've been talking about for so many years environment. Right. And so what is the impact of going back to that?
What were the employ? What was the employment data for people with disabilities back then? It's [00:22:00] still not great, but at least it's a possibility for people. What about, independent living and supported living for people with disabilities back then? It was, it didn't exist. It was institutions which is what my family fought against to get my brother out of 15 years of institutionalization. It is a reality. It is a possibility. And it is so much more of a possibility when you don't have these protective pieces of legislation in place, and strongly in place, and enforced. by the federal government.
And so that's what I react to, overreacting. I am trying to keep people out of those, human warehouses and off the streets and out of prisons. And, Carolyn, you mentioned, all the different groups when you take Did you say disaggregated [00:23:00] data? Yeah. That's important to know who is, who's being served and who is not, who's at the table and who is not.
And what do we want to do to support everybody so that we have equitable systems in place. Right. And right now, so many different groups are being treated unfairly, but the people that we work with all the time are people who experience disability and experience discrimination and who we're supporting to be included in their educational environments and sometimes outside of education into that those transition years and into employment.
Yeah, so let me, let me add one more thing and I don't I don't necessarily want to fear monger here, but I do want to provide a a vision of a possible future here because something that Carolyn and I were just at the CEC, the Council for Exceptional Children's Conference and I [00:24:00] attended a policy a session about, about policy, which was fantastic. And one of the things that is a stated priority for this administration is school choice, which means private school vouchers. And so if you're an advocate for public education you probably know that even if a student with a disability has a voucher in one of these voucher states, they are not able to just go to any private school and attend. That school can reject that application or that, the enrollment of that student. And what I also found really interesting during this policy session was that there was an amendment, there was a bill that was that was on the table. About providing protections for students who use these vouchers to, to use them out of private school so that those, [00:25:00] those children could be protected at that private school, having, having the rights and having be, be supported in, in that school and that amendment, that bill was, was rejected by Congress.
So there's, I don't think there's the will right now for that to happen. There certainly will to further school choice and private school vouchers. But what I also want to highlight as a possible unfortunately, dystopian future for students with disabilities is the creation of special schools as a, as a.
As a possible way for these vouchers to be used, and I think that that is I don't think we've ever been at a greater risk for states to increase the number of private special schools, because in my view, and this is just my opinion. I think that if vouchers become a more acceptable [00:26:00] way to, for, for families they will end up using them.
And, it's the whole, if you build it, they will come special schools being a way for states to use these vouchers or private entities to use these vouchers and create schools and further segregate and silo learners. So, and I honestly don't think that that's far fetched, maybe, even like a year ago, I would say, Oh, I don't know.
I don't know if that would ever happen. But I think that that is a I think that's more likely than not to happen if, if we end up moving more towards a voucher system.
Carolyn Teigland: And Tim, I want to piggyback on that a little bit. We already sell segregation in public school education as this fabulous thing that you want your child in this segregated program because they're going to get smaller class size and they're going to have all this specialized support, which, in my work, I sit in a lot of [00:27:00] segregated settings and I can tell you that is not what is happening in those settings.
It's just not true. But if you build a whole school and you're promising that this school is going to do this specialized thing for your child that they can't possibly get over in the public school, with all the other competing interests and issues and things going on and your child be, be safer and there won't be any bullying or whatever it is that we use to fear monger people into the idea that the public school isn't a safe place or that your child's not going to get what they need, I think it's a very real possibility. And it's very concerning because it's just a roundabout way to further segregate children from their neighborhood schools, from their peers, from their community, and also will decrease their outcomes, their life outcomes are at risk. And parents really trust, like, they, they really [00:28:00] trust what the educator's saying to be the truth
about the situation. Yeah, it's a shiny private school over here where it's the IEP meeting where we're promising you all these things that are going to happen in the segregated setting or whatever it might be.
Diana Pastora Carson: Yeah, and to be fair, I think that some families have, like you said, have been fighting and fighting for their child and they finally,
they give up and like, put, put my child somewhere where they're wanted. Right. But if that's the only option that we have, if we're being stripped of the possibility of creating inclusive communities and schools, that's taking us decades back. So, I know that you all at MCIE have been holding forums and educating the community about changes in policy and how we should proceed.
I know [00:29:00] many of our listeners are passionate advocates for disability rights and access and inclusion and belonging, but some of us don't know exactly what we should be doing at local and state levels at this time to save our community. Inclusive education to save public education.
So I guess my question is, do you have any tips for us?
About what we should be doing.
Tim Villegas: I, I got it out, to be honest, I, I think, I think we're all trying to figure that out. Some of the things that I've, I've heard that, that I think are really good ideas is. Is to stay fact oriented. And not that you have to constantly be fact checking everything.
Cause I think that that is exhausting. But at least for your own understanding, I think, for me, I I'm really focused [00:30:00] on, the facts about what's going on in the Department of Education and the facts about education policy and the, that to me is important. And that is the thing that I want to communicate to our, the, our partners, and then also our audience with our podcast think inclusive.
But personally knowing what's going on in your local school district and then also at your state level regarding education policy, I mean, and, and, and other legislative priorities too I think, I, I have very little control about what happens at the federal level. But I, by proximity, am able to go down to the Georgia State Capitol, where I live and talk to representatives.
I am able to connect with other local advocates and activists and know what's going on. And I'm also able to speak to my neighbors and the people in my [00:31:00] community about what's going on locally. And so, I really think the focus is to turn as local as possible to see how much you can you can influence and, and support people at that level.
Cause it's just too difficult to try to influence people at a national or federal level when you just, we don't have that platform.
Carolyn Teigland: And I, I would agree with that. I think that this is a long needed wake up call for I'm just going to say educators, but also families who don't really do their homework around their local and state elections, and I don't think that a lot of folks understand the impact that a local election can have on the local school system in terms of policy priorities, in terms of funding priorities and a lot of educators in classrooms every day don't understand that.
And so we [00:32:00] really need to be paying attention to the decisions that we're making at the ballot box in terms of what that long term impact is going to have on our community, whether it's at the level of your local or the level of the state. We can no longer be okay with just being in our classrooms and closing our doors and trying to do the right thing for our children.
Well, that is fabulous and important work and the hardest work on the earth, honestly. There is no harder, harder, I don't, well, there probably are hard callings. But in my view, being an educator is one of the hardest callings. There are others that are hard. It's a very difficult, it's a very difficult career.
And so I think we're just exhausted so we don't pay as close attention to all the things that are happening around us that impact what is going on inside of our classroom and our school buildings. And we have to start paying attention. We can't just phone a friend on the day of the elections and hope they're giving you the right advice on who to, check off on the ballot box or not showing up to vote at all.
[00:33:00] It's really important to be educated about the impact those decisions make on your community. And I know we're tired as educators, but now more than ever, we need to be keyed in to. What is happening in our communities in our state? And like Tim said, yeah, we need to know what's going on at the federal level.
But that's a harder thing for us to impact on data on on a daily basis. But I know when I was an educator in the classroom, I wasn't paying any attention to those things and I will admit that even at the administrator of a school as a principal of an elementary school. I was not necessarily paying attention to those things.
It honestly wasn't until I became a district level leader that I realized the impact of decisions that were made in my community and in my state, what that did to our local school system, resources, budgets, policies, all those kinds of things. I think people have to be more aware and more involved.
Diana Pastora Carson: Thank you. That's so [00:34:00] important. Thank you, Carolyn. I can totally relate. I never wanted to be involved in po I still can't stand politics, but the stakes are so high now. The stakes are just so high. Thank you for sharing that. Are there any resources that you would recommend to families and educators at this time to ensure that they stay connected and actively engaged in policy and legal advocacy and doing so without sacrificing their sanity?
Tim Villegas: I don't know, I don't know when this is going to air, but CEC is providing free memberships through the month of March. So if you, you don't actually even have to be an educator to be a member of CEC. And that stands for? The Council for Exceptional Children. Mm hmm. And the reason why I would suggest doing that is because, because of the policy information, which is, which I've been [00:35:00] really impressed with.
So that's, that's one thing. And then also the council for, I'm sorry. The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates who are friends Denise Marshall and Celine Almazan they are, we're colleagues and friends with COPAA and they have been doing Amazing work advocating at the, at the federal level, specifically around the Department of Education.
And they're a part of a lawsuit against the administration about upholding and protecting the rights of students with disabilities. So I think that they are someone, they're an organization to follow and to, to know what's going on.
Diana Pastora Carson: Okay. So the council of parents, parent attorneys, and advocates.
And the Council for Exceptional Children. Yes. Okay. Great. Anything else? I agree with that, too. Okay. Great. All right. You [00:36:00] guys ready for something a little lighter? Yeah. Rapid fire. Some questions here. All right. You walk into your favorite coffee shop. What do you order? Oh, I know. A nonfat, a nonfat latte, extra hot. One pump of vanilla.
Tim Villegas: I've been really enjoying cortados lately.
Diana Pastora Carson: What is that?
Tim Villegas: It's a, it's a, it's like a short cup with two pulls of espresso and a very short foam. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. I've been enjoying that lately.
Diana Pastora Carson: Okay. If you go into your local restaurant, your favorite local restaurant, what is the first thing that comes to mind that you want to order there?
Tim Villegas: Oh, favorite restaurant. That's, that's hard. Something local.
Carolyn Teigland: Oh, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to say it [00:37:00] because I'm a Marylander crab cakes.
Diana Pastora Carson: Yeah, I'm with you. I'm, I'm headed, I'm boarding a flight.
Tim Villegas: There's a, there's a local chain around here called cheeseburger Bobby's and I really liked their black and blue burger. It's like blue cheese and yeah, it's great. So that's probably what I'm getting. Cool.
Diana Pastora Carson: Okay. Favorite sports team.
Tim Villegas: Oh, you're looking at it right here.
Diana Pastora Carson: I know, you got your L. A. Dodgers cap on, Carolyn.
Carolyn Teigland: Oh, gosh, I could care less.
Diana Pastora Carson: That's honest, that's great. How about your favorite pet? Could be an actual pet or it could be your dream pet.
Carolyn Teigland: No, I have three. Do I have to choose among my children?
Diana Pastora Carson: You can, you can tell, you can tell us all of them.
Carolyn Teigland: We have two black cats, Rex and Max, and a little teacup chihuahua named Pixie, and they're all [00:38:00] sweet.
Diana Pastora Carson: You have a chihuahua named Pixie? Pixie? That's my cat's name. My cat is 23 years old. Her name's Pixie.
Tim Villegas: Oh my gosh, 23? Wow.
Diana Pastora Carson: How about you, Tim?
Tim Villegas: We have two pets. We have we have a bearded dragon named Voldemort. And my we have a black lab named Jupiter. Jupiter is actually behind this screen right here.
I can hear him.
Diana Pastora Carson: My, my Molly's back here too. If you could sit down with any historical figure, who would it be?
Tim Villegas: Man, this is so hard.
Diana Pastora Carson: Who Carolyn?
Carolyn Teigland: RBG. Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Diana Pastora Carson: Nice.
Tim Villegas: Oh, I don't know. This is hard. Supposed to be rapid fire, [00:39:00] Tim. Oh, gosh. I know. I just don't want to say something cliche like, Abraham Lincoln.
Yeah. But I would, I would, I really would.
Diana Pastora Carson: Cool. Cool. If you could get away to anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?
Tim Villegas: Tokyo. Yeah. But the only reason, so I have a couple of reasons. My, my son and I really enjoy Miyazaki's animate he's a director and animation and he, he's made a number of films and it's he's from Japan and heavily influenced by, in Japan, but also my favorite baseball player Shohei Otani is from Japan.
Diana Pastora Carson: So, Tokyo. Alright. That's great. Carolyn?
Carolyn Teigland: Greece. Nice. My college age daughter just called me asking permission to sign up for a college trip. Next. [00:40:00] In 2026 to Greece, and I said to her, that's no fair.
Diana Pastora Carson: Well, you just have to get there first, Carolyn. That's all that matters.
Carolyn Teigland: I don't think that's going to happen, but.
Diana Pastora Carson: Okay, last thing is your favorite form of self care.
I
Carolyn Teigland: I think mine is just finding a place by the water to just relax and read a good book.
Diana Pastora Carson: Nice. That's me too. I love the water. Yeah. Tim?
Tim Villegas: I've, so I've been I've been learning about meditation. Hmm. And that has by far been the best, the best.
Diana Pastora Carson: That is so great. Hold on one second. Hold on. Don't leave. I'm not gonna, I'm not going anywhere.
Perfect way to end this. Oh, I know what this is. Yeah. Let's see if I need, I need something under my [00:41:00] palm.
Tim Villegas: I don't think I can hear it, but. Oh.
Carolyn Teigland: No, it's probably because the, it's the filters, filter out the, a little bit, tiny little bit. I heard a little bit. That was supposed to help us relax and apparently it did the opposite.
Tim Villegas: Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's awesome though. That's really cool. Yeah.
Diana Pastora Carson: Same. Mindfulness meditation is so needed right now. It's really nice. You just take the deep breath in and it helps you. You, the, the sound just lingers for a little while and then dissipates.
Tim Villegas: Yeah, that's great.
Diana Pastora Carson: Carolyn Tiegland and Tim Villegas. It's such an honor to have you both on here today. Thank you very much for your time, your energy, your thoughts, and keep up the great work.
[00:42:00]
Thank you for tuning into this episode of Beyond Awareness, disability Awareness That Matters. I love providing this podcast to support you in your passionate disability awareness and inclusionary practices work in our schools and communities. And I hope you'll help me to help others by promoting this episode far and wide.
You can also proactively support this podcast in the following ways, subscribe, rate and review this show on Apple podcast, Google podcast. Spotify, or wherever you listen to this episode, it really means the world to me to have your support in this way, because it increases the chances of others getting to hear the messages [00:43:00] presented in each episode.
For more valuable resources that align with the values of this podcast, you can visit my website, DianaPastoraCarson.com, where you'll find links to my priceless free resource, how to talk about disability with kids. As well as my blog, where I share my thoughts as an educator and sibling advocate, my flexible online Beyond Awareness Basics course, my books, including the beautifully illustrated children's book, Ed Roberts Champion of disability Rights, as well as my comprehensive guide for anyone wanting to do disability awareness work.
That is the book entitled Beyond Awareness, Bringing disability into Diversity Work in K 12 Schools and Communities. Now while I love this book so much, and I believe you should have it in your library as a resource, I do understand that [00:44:00] time is of the essence. So, if you are super busy like me and you just need something quick, easy, and convenient that will get to the point, I have just what you need.
You should definitely get your hands on my handy, tri- fold, laminated, beyond disability awareness educator's guide. Published by NPR Inc. Again, all of these resources can be found at DianaPastoraCarson.com. You can also follow me, Diana on Instagram at dianapastoracarson and at facebook. com slash go beyond awareness.
Podcast transcription and podcast guest information can be found in the show notes. Intro and outro music has been provided courtesy of my [00:45:00] son, Emmanuel Castro. Thank you again. Be well, be a lifelong learner, and let's be inclusive. See you next time.
Latin Theme Music: Cuando empieza el ritmo Todo el mundo se junta Bailamos, gritamos, amamos
Subamos las manos Nada nos puede parar Hasta el final vamos a cantar Estamos aquí para disfrutar Moviéndonos al ritmo Manos arriba, arriba, todas las manos para arriba. Que viva la vida, no hay alternativa. Arriba, arriba, todas las manos para arriba. [00:46:00] Que viva la vida, que viva, que viva, que viva. Whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Todo el mundo together, bailaremos forever, sudando, gozando, brillando hasta la mañana. Whoa, whoa. Nada nos puede parar. Hasta el final vamos a cantar. Estamos aqui para disfrutar. Moviéndonos de ritmo. Manos arriba, arriba. Todas las manos pa arriba. Que viva la vida. No hay alternativa.
Arriba, arriba. Todas [00:47:00] las manos pa arriba. Que viva la vida. Que viva, que viva, que viva.
