📚Author & passionate Black Educator in Secondary Schools. Standing up for #equality⚖ #justice & #accountability Book at: https://teapawt.net/t.co/s0YiHmLs3S
London, England
Joined December 2022
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This time of year comes with the obligatory change of profile picture. I thought I would use this opportunity also to re-introduce myself.
My name is Shola Adewale Sandy, and I am a passionate Educator and Maths teacher working in inner London schools.
Being an advocate for Equality, especially for Black staff members, it made sense to put my raw words down in the form of a 3-part memoir chanting my time in Education.
If you haven’t already got your copy of ‘ICE’, please follow the link below and keep your eyes and ears peeled for Book 2 coming out later this year!
Thanking you all for your support in advance!👊🏿
👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
amzn.eu/d/4GnXVis
ALT Shola sitting on a couch, wearing her white tea shirt with the words ICE written on the front. She is holding a copy of her book.
Shola 🧊 retweeted
Great! to celebrate BHM with @unitetheunion & @UniteLondonEast.
Thanks to Steve O’Donnel, Diane Roberts and members for a wonderful welcome. Chatting to old comrades @KingsleyA32624 and @only1colenzojt.
@JOwusuNepaul spoke excellently, thanks to @ANMalikSmith for organising!
Shola 🧊 retweeted
You know that slight nervous flutter in your chest right before you tell someone how you genuinely feel about them?
Overcomplicating it never helps. The best things in life are always honest, direct, and straight to the point.
To say “to like” in Mandarin, we say 喜欢 (xǐhuan).
Example:
我喜欢你
(Wǒ xǐhuan nǐ!)
I like you!
Who is someone in your life that you need to tell 我喜欢你 to today?
Shola 🧊 retweeted
I will be speaking tonight at @NITDANigeria space.
Join us for an insightful session.
Well, as you asked @goodreads
In the spirit of Halloween🎃 & did I mention it's Black History Month too??
Why not pick up a copy of ICE📚
But be warned!⚠️
Proceed with caution as REAL names & REAL locations are mentioned!
This was a way to discuss how Systematic racism & Discrimination come about for Black staff working in UK schools 🇬🇧 despite the Equality laws we have in place
Not using Statistics, but a REAL person...ME & my raw words!
A human not just ANOTHER random number...
So, if you are brave & can handle it, grab your copy👇🏾
amzn.eu/d/09AplCh8
Shola 🧊 retweeted
Countdown time, folks!
Join me at Croydon Central Library tomorrow at 2.30pm. I will be marking Black History Month/celebrating my new book, The Stone-Breakers.
Note: for me, Black History is 365 days; hence I will be speaking in public ‘all year’ round!
Shola 🧊 retweeted
A calm mind and a gentle tongue are useful tools to avoid stife and establish peace.
What value do you add to your society? Are you responsible for the chaos? Are you responsible for maintaining the peace? Or are you just folding your hands indifferently and having a laugh?
Shola 🧊 retweeted
Dear Amazing Parents,
You often ask and want your children to develop a love for learning; at the same time you create an environment that makes learning feel unmotivating and unnecessary.
A flower cannot bloom in an environment that denies it sunlight.
Shola 🧊 retweeted
TINUBU, COME BACK HOME!
Nigerians elected you to deliver GOOD GOVERNANCE, not PRAYERS!
Enough of the endless foreign trips with little to show but mounting liabilities.
Nigeria needs leadership, security, economic stability and ACTION!
Mr. President, COME BACK HOME AND GOVERN!
Shola 🧊 retweeted
Have you ever scrolled past something so hilarious on your phone that holding in the laugh physically hurts?
You can’t explain it over text, you just need the person in the next room to come look at the screen right now.
In Mandarin, “come” is 来 (lái).
Example:
你过来。
(Nǐ guòlái!)
Come over here!
Who’s the first person you call over when you see something crazy online?
Shola 🧊 retweeted
This generation will make you feel like kindness is a weakness.
You help someone, they call you a fool.
You forgive someone, they say you don’t have sense.
You give people another chance, they tell you you’re too soft.
You genuinely care about people, and somehow you’re the one being mocked.
Please don’t let people’s inability to appreciate kindness turn you into a wicked person.
Have boundaries.
Protect yourself.
Learn to say no.
But don’t lose your heart because somebody abused it.
Kindness is still kindness, even when the world doesn’t clap for it.
Shola 🧊 retweeted
Sometimes the blessing is not getting what you wanted. Sometimes it is discovering that what God gave you was better.
Shola 🧊 retweeted
Active
Shola 🧊 retweeted
8 culture shocks that hit me when I first arrived in China.
I thought I was prepared. I wasn’t.
1. The staring and photo requests
People would stop, stare, or ask to take pictures with me. Sometimes they asked. Sometimes they just did it. It took me a while to get used to the attention.
2. Squat toilets
Almost everywhere I went at first had squat toilets. My legs were not ready.
3. The food
Much of the everyday food felt completely unfamiliar. In my first week I mostly survived on the few things I recognized.
4. How safe it felt to leave things
I could leave my bag and come back to find it still there. My Nigerian brain kept fighting me on this one.
5. How direct people were
Conversations felt more straightforward than I was used to. Sometimes it came across as blunt.
6. Real-life Mandarin
Even with the Chinese language I had learned, the speed, slang, and everyday conversations still felt overwhelming at first.
7. Paying for almost everything digitally
Cash was rarely useful. WeChat Pay or Alipay for nearly everything. The first few times I froze at the counter.
8. School was different
There was nothing like “sorting” a lecturer to pass an exam. What you wrote was what you got. No shortcuts, and I loved it.
Which of these would have shocked you the most if you were in my shoes?
Shola 🧊 retweeted
You must have heard about the soccer star kid who was unceremoniously walked out of a youth league in Winter Park, Florida by the police because he held the ball for too long.
If you’ve never heard or known that excellence can be a threat, this 3-year-old boy’s experience will teach you that. Being too good can be a threat to others.
But that’s not why I’m making this post.
I’m here to show you how pushing the right narrative (the one that favours you) and documenting your process when nobody is watching might be all you need to succeed in life and in business.
At 8 months, Nevada started walking and by the time he was 10 months old, he could fully dribble with football.
And at the age of 3, he made it into the global news. From the United States to Canada, from Canada to Europe and from Europe to Africa, everyone had something to say about him.
When he started trending, we all went back to watch his old videos.
His old content pointed to the fact that he didn’t start today. He had a track record.
But beyond that, when they tried to bully him, his parents pushed the “right” narrative that ended in his favour.
Imagine for a moment his mom didn’t record what happened.
Imagine for a moment he didn’t have any social media presence.
Jay-Z, Ye and 50cent wouldn’t have noticed and supported him.
ROC Nation Sports, owned by Jay-Z, wouldn’t have thrown their full support behind his football career.
Eddie Johnson wouldn’t have offered to be his personal coach.
He wouldn’t have raised $55,706 to support his career when his target was to raise $30,000.
Almost all top American content creators, especially the ones from the black community are fully in support of him.
All these things wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t:
* Have an online presence
* Push the narrative that favours his brand
* Show his track record by documenting his training
Don’t just sit around waiting for spotlight.
When nobody is clapping yet, focus on building your capacity.
Create content about what you do.
Blow your own trumpet 🎺
And respond to any form of bully with a narrative that will favour you.
Indeed, God can use anything to bring the diligent into spotlight.
I hope this helps you.
Shola 🧊 retweeted
NEW: Sir Patrick Vernon @ppvernon has been appointed as the new chair of the NHS Race and Health Observatory (RHO). 🙏🏾🎉🏥
The veteran campaigner has been appointed chair as he pledges to tackle longstanding racial inequalities in healthcare.
voice-online.co.uk/news/uk-n…
💙 My, oh my! How lucky am I?? 💙
To be surrounded & supported by 2,000 organic connections, I am truly humble as pie!
From Doctors to Professors, from Artists to other Educators, ALL of you with such impeccable taste!
Believe me, it has not gone to waste!
From Dream Chasers to fellow Authors, from Editors to Dream Makers, from AI Tekkies to all the In-betweeners!
I continue to shrive, so other Black staff members in their schools, can thrive…
Thank you, oh thank you! Appreciations ALL around!
For gifting me the pleasure, you have amplified the sound!
Sprinkling your individual magic in my comments & posts, reaching thousands, giving my cause a real boost!
May Justice, Equality and Accountability follow through, as if fashionably on cue…
Give yourselves overflowing kudus, as you ALL totally rule!
Gosh! My, oh my! How lucky am I??
-Shola Adewale Sandy
🙏🏿
#allyship