Devin Evins

My story

My name is Devin Evans. I am entering into my 6th year: in education (7th if you include student-teaching). I was born in Detroit, Michigan and moved to Chicago in 2013 to complete my year-long student teaching. My experience moving to Chicago and being a resident and professional educator have shaped me and my belief in student agency. All students can build agency, especially in a community learning space like school, but having a transformative teacher like myself choose texts, create hooks, and masterfully connect content and skill, helps lead to students wanting to explore topics on their own and continue their journey through their own agency.

My equity challenge and how I work on it

Creating and selecting strong content and crafting strong hooks and the build up of content that keep students engaged is the most challenging. Without getting all students in the collective community space consistency engaged, student agency won't reach is full capacity.

Quote/motto or one piece of advice for a teacher who is thinking about doing this work

I would advise that the typical definition of student agency is where students do their own work in the classroom space, but you, the teacher, still play a vital role at building students up to get to the place where they take "agency" in their learning. Never take yourself out of that important role.

Resources used to drive equity work

I have read a plethora of books and articles. My network has a clear definition of how equity is defined according to their framework and I try to ensure my teaching practice is aligned to that definition as I plan my classes and teach students.