Friday, June 25, 2021

I kept a journal this past school year

2017
One year ago, today, I started a journal.

Old school.

Paper and pen. 

Dates. 

Times. 

Reflections. 

Journal.

The last time I recall keeping a paper/pencil journal, I was a student-teacher.

On June 24, 2020 I received a series of emails confirming that I would, in fact, be the School-Based Teacher Leader (SBTL) for English at Martin Luther King High School. The next day, I started chronicling that journey because I wanted to capture what would never again be; my being a first-year SBTL in a global pandemic, amidst racial, social, and political unrest. 

My goal was to capture my feelings and reflections at particular moments in time, be they feelings about meetings, the class I taught, feel-goods or frustrations. Those moments in time were whenever I wanted. 

I won't dedicate this particular post to an exhaustive review of my pen-to-paper reflections, but there is one entry I'd like to focus on in particular.

Here's an excerpt from one of my lengthier musings in the wake of the murder of one of our students and of Walter Wallace.

10/28/20

On Monday I found out Hyneef Poles was killed. I cried. Then Monday(?) afternoon/evening Walter Wallace was shot and killed by police--here in Philly...

These two events were the backdrop of an email that I sent to the English department. It's also the backdrop of our "this week," including our CPT.

Today my colleagues and I just said whatever needed to be said. We were vulnerable. [Teacher] talked about how she teared up in class...[Teacher] talked about how her...class...allowed themselves to be vulnerable....

Today's CPT was needed...

I also emailed Dr. Hite this week and asked if any scheduled walk-throughs could be postponed. He actually replied--agreeing with me.

7:23pm

P.S. My handwriting is so sloppy--sheesh. I can definitely write better than this.



Thursday, June 17, 2021

My Twitter Spaces chat with 2 Black male educators

I tried something new today and on a whim.

I hosted a Twitter Spaces chit-chat. One, I wanted to see what it was like. Two, I wanted to speak with a few Black male educators about the positives of this past school year. For this "let's see what this app can do" convo, these two brothers, @MrFlemmingMEd & @pastorsalis, joined me.



Some of the takeaways about the positives of this past year?

  • The ability to still establish and maintain those crucial student:teacher relationships
    • nixing the "Do Now" in favor of "Temperature Checks"
    • Morning Meetings/Town Halls/Community Meetings
  • Being able to travel the world virtually with students
  • Trying new things like...launching a podcast with students😉
The moral? Try something new. Find the light in darkness. Relationships matter.

Sunday, June 13, 2021

CRT in Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry

UPDATED 6/24/21

I hear there's quite the brouhaha in this country over the "teaching" of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in our public schools. Who'd have thunk? 😐I should note that teaching is in quotes because I see CRT as more of a lens and a paradigm than a school subject. Update: I've since learned that "Classic Critical Race Theory" is a school subject in law school. I knew it was rooted in law, but thought that it was *just* a lens and not a course. I learned this from Kimberlé  Crenshaw.

Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, whose name we don't hear enough of as she's the OG of CRT + education, summarizes, "...CRT actually attempts to make plain the racialized context of public and private spheres in our society" (Ladson-Billings, 2003). In education, she has and continues to look through this lens to "explicate new epistemological perspectives on inequity and social injustice" (Ladson-Billings, 2003).

In short, the social construction of race is woven tightly into the fabric of this country and the CRT looking glass seeks to make race's threads visible, including in education.

While there's lots of discussing and debating, I'm sitting here like, "the censoring of Black teachers, in particular, isn't new." What better way to censor Black educators than to fire them in the era post-Brown v. The Board. In fact, the very book that is the main subject of this post faced some backlash as noted in this letter to the Seminole County School Board in 2004. Taylor, herself, broaches the subject in her 1998 acceptance speech of the 1997 Alan Award.

This isn't to suggest that because this tale's as old as time that we shouldn't resist it. The exact opposite. I've also been thinking that it really doesn't matter to me what laws or policies are enacted, the lens through which I've experienced the world as a Black man and the history behind those experiences is what it is. I continue to learn and teach through that lens and that cannot be legislated out of me. 

Big ups to those K-20+ educators of all colors and stripes, honest resisters in Black and majoritarian media and politics, and those in other sectors who are pushing back. Black resistance isn't new. Black teachers' resistance isn't new. Dr. Jarvis Givens describes these Black teachers' resistance pedagogies as subversive or fugitive.  I suppose because it's  2021 and loathsomely blatant that it makes it all the more..."Wooooooow, y'all racist ratchet bigots really still in y'all feelins about Black existence and truth-telling!" One only need Google "1619 Project" to see how their tightly wound briefs really are in a knot.

All of that said...

The real reason why I'm here is because I thought of a particular event in Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry published in 1976.

You may remember Mr. Granger, one of the primary racists and landowners, interrogating Mrs. Logan, in front of her class, about what she was teaching because he "don't see all them things you're teaching in here (the textbooks)." What things? She taught about how slavery was wicked and how whites and the country benefitted, and still do, off of free enslaved African labor. That's a critical look at white wealth accumulation via enslaved Black labor. 

Mama Logan simply replies, "That's because they're not in there."

"Well, if it ain't in here, then you got no right teaching it," since the books had been approved by the school board. Because, of course, school board approval is the standard, especially an all white southern one. 

Mama Logan tells him, "I can't do that."

"And why not?"

"Because all that's in that book isn't true."

Short story shorter, she was fired.

We will see that, if we haven't already. Teachers will be fired. I'm especially concerned for my colleagues who are non-unionized and in spaces where due process might be negligible at best. I suppose the question is, what will we do about it? I reckon the answer is, continue to fight, to teach, to tell the truth about the heinous genesis of this country. 

In the words of the late Ida B. Wells. "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."


Forgive my scribble. I cannot not read a book and not mess it up. I forget the year I did this scribbling.

"Mama's teaching got...her fired."


Did I really just APA this? lol
Yes.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2003). It's your world, I'm just trying to explain it: Understanding our epistemological and methodological challenges. Qualitative Inquiry, (9)1, 5-12 doi: 10.1177/1077800402239333

Taylor, M. D. (1976). Roll of  thunder hear my cry. New York, NY: Penguin Books USA, Inc.

Saturday, June 12, 2021

I said "grade me" and they did

Final grades for the class had long since been entered and posted when I sent this out to my Comm101 students.

Here's what they had to say.

Forms response chart. Question title: 1. What overall grade would you give the course, Comm101?. Number of responses: 11 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 2. What overall grade would you give me as the teacher of the class?. Number of responses: 11 responses.















3. Explain why you'd give me and the course the grade you gave. Tell me what went well and how I can improve.
9 responses


You let us express ourselves and you give us the confidence we need to speak in the real world. You’re not judgmental and your honest, however you still do your job but you make it enjoyable.
we talk about topics and gets the class included
I don’t know
i gave both the course and you an A because both were awesome
Good person and teacher hence the class isn’t tense and that makes it a good class on a bad or good day... Keep it up.
Doc you’ve made this class one to remember and made me truly enjoy your class. I gave you a double A because you are an authentic person who truly loves his job and want to see us as people grow. It was your honesty and your tenacity that got you this grade. My only advise would be to grow your hair back because the classic 2014 flem when you had me in 5th grade at Kelly should have stayed in the past. I will truly miss you doc until we meet again. -Shane 
This course helps with a lot that will happen in everyday life and you are just really great teacher
I gave this grade because I enjoyed the course as well as your teaching methods. It was fun, interactive and I also learn and explored news things along the way.

You are very kind and it seems like it's not just a job for you it seems like you love what are doing.