Leah Edmond is a Lexington, Kentucky native with a highly accoladed volleyball career. Staying close to home, Leah made quite the name for herself during her time at the University of Kentucky. Earning recognition for 2x AVCA First Team All-American, 2x SEC Player of the Year, holding the school record for all-time career kills, and multiple others, an accoladed Edmond graduated from Kentucky in May 2020 with her degree in Elementary Education. See a full list of Edmond’s accolades and achievements here.

Since graduation, Leah took on a 5th-grade teaching job. While it has taken time transitioning to the “new normal” of remote teaching, Leah finds fulfillment in her new position. Edmond is passionate about teaching, especially when implementing her curriculum with black history.

“Every day of Black History Month in my classroom, I’ve been giving my kids a new person to learn about. Some they haven’t yet discovered and even some of the people they have heard about, giving them their full, complete stories, and not just the basic ones that I’d heard when I was in elementary school.”

Although teaching is a new role for Edmond, it wasn’t long until she noticed the lack of knowledge and conversation pertaining to black history.  She took her teaching skills a step further and brought her “daily lessons” to her popular social media channels.

“What I post on social media and what I teach in my classroom lessons are different. My class gets the ‘kid-friendly’ version because some topics are just too mature for their age.”

Edmond aims to tailor her social media posts towards a general audience rather than her 5th-grade curriculum.

It's Day 3 of my Black History Month lessons and today I am focusing on two incredible men who have high schools named after them right here in Lexington.

Frederick Douglass and Paul Laurence Dunbar pic.twitter.com/0jAmTYI2sH

— Leah Edmond (@leahedmond13) February 3, 2021

“What I’ll do is take my lesson plans that I’ve taught that day, take them to social media, and then I’ll add more of ‘me’ and sometimes, additional information. My social media is where I can add my personality.”

Originally, Edmond did not plan to bring these lessons to her social media. She had previously posted some information over the summer during the social justice movement and had received positive responses to them. Seeing that inspired her to bring her classroom education to social media.

“I was fortunate to grow up in a household where my parents exposed me to some of these people and their stories at a young age. Since the summer, I’ve taken it upon myself to do even more research and learn more about these people for myself.

Edmond has a few goals for these social media posts. Her first is to educate individuals who don’t know who the black historical figures are that she teaches her students. Secondly, she wants people to both realize and question, ‘Why didn’t I learn this in school?’ and create a drive to change the education system.

“As a teacher, I’ve come to realize how our current education system is failing minorities because they’re not learning their full history in a way that they should.”

Finally, she wants people to realize that history is a lot more complex than it has been made out to be. She noted that her kids have started to ask complex questions – far more than adults have, and she’s proud of their enthusiasm to not only learn but understand.

Looking at Edmond’s Twitter account, it is full of both her interests and her personality.

“I hope through my social media, I can show others not only my personality and my humor but also more serious things, such as black history. I want to educate people on what they possibly missed in their high school history class.”

In the upcoming months, Leah is putting her teaching career on a temporary pause to play in the Athletes Unlimited Volleyball league in Dallas. However, Edmond has pre-recorded an abundance of lessons for her class to watch to make sure that they continue learning about black history in the way that Edmond had been teaching. Athletes Unlimited is the first and only professional indoor volleyball league in the United States. The official start date for the league is February 27th.

Follow along with Leah’s social media post on Twitter and Instagram at @leahedmond13.

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