Each year, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) offers the Governor’s Educator of the Year program to honor the hardworking teachers and educational services professionals for their dedication to students, and to the profession. In turn, NJACTE welcomes the distinguished teacher chosen to speak at a monthly membership meeting and invites them to share their thoughts about education. What follows is a post authored by 2026 NJ Teacher of the Year, Gillian Ober.
Over the past few years, my immigrant students have faced some of the hardest moments of their lives. They are experiencing anti-immigrant rhetoric on a large and alarmingly normalized scale, witnessing friends, family members, and community members taken off the streets, and yet endure all of these experiences with the expectation that they should still go to school and learn. And as educators watching these traumas unfold and negatively impact all of our students, we are expected to show up and provide high quality teaching despite these negativities permeating our learning communities.
With these realities in mind, I find myself coming back to one urgent question: how do we prepare teachers to lead with dignity when the world feels unsafe for students? The answer lies in practices we know to be effective and trauma-informed that protect students’ humanity, particularly multilingual and immigrant learners, while also allowing learning to transpire. This moment calls on educator preparation programs, school-university partnerships, and current school administrations to strengthen how we train teachers in trauma-informed and culturally sustaining practices because on day one in the classroom, our teacher candidates will face these issues. We must ask ourselves: are our programs preparing them for this reality?
Routines in the classroom might be more important now than ever. Our immigrant and multilingual learners are navigating uncertainty and threats outside of our classrooms, so routines in our learning spaces can be a calming and stable force students can lean on. Predictable environments build trust, and trust is what makes learning possible when students are carrying fear or instability. Consistency right now is not just helpful; it is a lifeline that teacher preparation programs must intentionally embed into training.
Dignity is built sentence by sentence. As students are surrounded by anti-immigrant rhetoric and deficit narratives, using asset-based language in our classrooms and learning communities is absolutely critical. Teaching future and current educators the power of their word choice ensures students feel seen and heard, and reminds them that multilingualism is a strength rather than a burden. When students know their identities are valued, relationships strengthen and trust grows, forming the foundation upon which meaningful instruction can occur.
As teachers, we steer the climate and culture of our classrooms, so prioritizing relationship building with students is crucial. The world may not always be kind, but our classrooms can be places where students know they belong and that their presence matters. Culturally responsive teaching practices allow educators to connect with students and understand the depth of their identities. When we build relationships and acknowledge what students are experiencing instead of staying silent, we signal that it is okay to ask questions and seek support. Often, the trust built with a student has a longer-lasting impact than any test score or report card.
At the same time, we must recognize that this is uncharted territory for novice and veteran educators alike. Many situations teachers now face were once unimaginable. Teacher preparation programs must create opportunities for candidates to think through real-world scenarios, learn from experienced educators, and practice responding to student trauma within supportive academic environments. We cannot send new teachers into classrooms to navigate these realities alone while they are already managing the challenges of their first years. If educators serving multilingual learners are not prepared for this work, we risk burnout and turnover in the very communities where stability matters most.
We may not have control over the political climate surrounding our students, but we can control the climate of our own classrooms. By building consistency over chaos, choosing asset-based language over deficit thinking, and prioritizing relationships over rigid measures of performance, we affirm our students’ identities and uphold their dignity even when the world does not. Preparing teachers for this work is not optional; it is a moral responsibility. If we want our schools to be places of safety and belonging, we must be intentional about how we train, support, and sustain educators building these communities.