Let Black words marinate | A note on student-teacher relationships

I'm typing this late on a Friday night (into Saturday now) in October after a long week here in Philly. Monday morning I found out one of my students--one of our students at MLK High School was killed; the fifth, I believe, in as many months at our school. Last weekend, while he was at a vigil for his cousin who was taken too soon, someone chose to end Hyneef's life. 

I cried.

Again. 

That was Monday morning.

Monday afternoon, Walter Wallace, a brotha from West Philly, was shot and killed by Philly police. Sadly, angrily, this put Philly into the national and international spotlight as another police department in America chose to serve as police, judge, jury, and executioner for a Black man; an extrajudicial process not afforded to others who aren't in crisis and make multiple attempts on officers' lives. Exhibit A.

Walter Wallace Jr.’s life mattered. He should still be here. Another way is possible. Imagine a world where mental health issues, disabilities, or your race do not make you a target for criminalization & state murder.#WalterWallaceJr#blacklivesmatter#blackdisabledlivesmatter pic.twitter.com/QQOuRC0DdV

— BLM Philly (@BLMPhilly) October 30, 2020

 

https://t.co/f9YwslwCvv

— Dann Cuellar (@DannCuellar) October 21, 2020

Oh and we're still neck-deep in a global pandemic that has disproportionately taken Black lives.

Oh and in Philly we're teaching 100% online, much like many others across the country.

Oh and it's election season, a true-to-form 2020-type election season.

Combine all of these experiences and it quadruple underscores the need for classrooms, virtual or otherwise, to be safe spaces, mentally, physically, and emotionally, for Black students to be. The relationship that we as educators have with our students in large part determines the degree to which our classrooms are those needed safe spaces.

This past week during our common planning time for the English department, my colleagues and I shared examples of how we strive to do just that, build and strengthen relationships and make our classrooms virtual sanctuaries.

During the conversation, the need for teachers to also have these safe spaces was reiterated. We allowed ourselves to become vulnerable; to share our successes and struggles with relationship-building in this virtual space when our students need us most. We allowed ourselves to feel, to empathize, to embrace, to be right, to be wrong, to just be as teachers who are also human and who are also impacted by the aforementioned traumatizing experiences, as most of us are Black educators. To a great extent, we also allowed our students to see us for the humans we are this past week, something we also talked through during our chat.

In church, sometimes the program/bulletin reads at the bottom, the service is subject to the move of the Holy Ghost. If you know, you know. 👀☺There comes a time when the lesson plan needs to be subject to the reality of Black students' lived experiences. Why Black, specifically? If you have to ask, you may be part of the problem in the classroom. Fix it. Fix it by listening to Black students. You have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen to Black educators. Listen to Black parents. When you listen, that doesn't mean you're thinking of what you're going to say next in either rebuttal or even a compliment. Sometimes just say nothing. Let Black words marinate.

In spite of the challenges that confront us, I am hopeful. I am also prayerful. I have to be! Running through our veins is the blood of royalty, of freedom fighters, of thinkers, inventors, change-makers and agents, and so much more!

Teacher-student relationships matter, especially now! Our students aren't looking for chumbuddies in their teachers, but they sure as the sun rises want someone who's human!

IAsked | How's remote learning going so far?

Bringing the voices of my classroom community to you is important. I define my classroom community as current and former students, parents, and "friends of Doc Flem", if you please; those who follow closely the happenings of my classroom. It is my opinion that the sea-level perspective matters as it relates to decisions made that affect teaching and learning; that affect the classroom.

After a couple of months in, I asked my classroom community how remote learning was going so far. Admittedly, I didn't anticipate such a lopsided final result.

The following are some of the comments:

A teacher who's also a parent

Parent

Student

Student

That's it. That's the post.

Oh and never forget:

#BlackLivesMatter

#RelationshipsMatter

That's how you know it's real; a note on student-teacher relationships

This week was long. Full stop. Educators have those types of weeks every now and then. Every day, however, brings new possibilities for that day. I clicked out of my Communications class last Thursday on such an intellectual and cultural high, but I'll have to detail that later. I do believe, however, that I--their teacher--was able to leave class like that in part because of the relationships I've built and continue to build with them. Hence, the topic for this post. Critical to students' success in the classroom are student:teacher relationships.

Kennedy-Lewis and Murphy (2016) in their research on "frequent flyers" write, 

"The students in this study repeatedly mentioned wanting educators to listen to them and to believe them—and complying and working for teachers who did show care—confirming findings in existing literature showing that students deem as “good” teachers those who care about them personally, hold them to high expectations, and show them respect (Alder, 2002; Corbett & Wilson, 1998; Cothran & Ennis, 2000; Wilson & Corbett, 1999)."

Additionally, "Student-teacher relationships characterized by these attributes correlate with students’ improved academic engagement (Goodenow, 1993; Noblit, Rogers, & McCadden, 1995; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 2003) and socialemotional development (Baker, 1999; Crosnoe et al., 2004)."

This week, I have received or seen texts and tweets that had me like...

These texts and tweets came from colleagues across the district who offered evidence of their burgeoning student:teacher relationships. They solidify that relationships, do indeed, matter! I must insert that the texts and tweets I reference here come from Black teachers who work with majority Black students. That matters!

Relationships matter! Relationships matter! Relationships matter!

When students say things or demonstrate that they value their rapport with you, sometimes the words escape you! One of our colleagues expressed this sentiment:

Another colleague texted in part:

"My students sometimes tell me they love me...it's so genuine and spontaneous and that's when I know they like me"

One colleague sent a summary of a conversation she had with one of her students. That student finally understood that annotating was simply one tool to help a reader engage with text, likely increasing their level of comprehension; that annotating isn't some extra thing to do. I'd guess that most conscientious teachers have seen the look or that moment when you see something click and a student "gets it." Those repetitious thuds you hear and feel are you patting yourself on the back! Help yourself!*

There are ways to tell if what you're experiencing in the classroom is real. Unsolicited and uncoerced expressions of love and gratitude are signs that it's real. When a teacher features current and former students on their class social media platforms for "Post Me Saturdays" and the students dm pics every week, that's how you know it's real! Random, "Ard, teach, luh u! Holla!" Yup, that's also a sign it's real! Text chats with teachers over culturally-relevant TV series is a sign that it's real. "This the only class I come to frfr (for real for real)" is another sign it's real. (Take that opportunity to drop some auntie/unk advice). Random emails from students you haven't seen in years is a sign that it's real. Students not running in the opposite direction when they see you in the hood is a sign it's real. Students ready to fight for you when walkthrough teams pull up is another sign. *shrugs*

If I didn't make it abundantly clear, relationships matter! They especially matter now when physical distancing has sometimes meant social distancing. When the chords that have held us tight are thinning. When our manz are being gunned down in the streets and we can't even say goodbye right. When that self-serving, racist, bigoted clown who holds the highest office in the land would have us believe Black lives don't matter. When we're not supposed to do what the gifs below demonstrate. Relationships matter!

If you want to build those relationships, start by not focusing on the academics and ask them a random question like, "Should parents have their children's social media passwords?" then "Would you want to have your children's social media passwords?" Watch.

*the title is a little misleading, but read that jawn I wrote back in 2012 

Dear White Colleagues, check yourself!

I'll make this short. Twice today and once late last week did I engage in conversations with Black colleagues from around the school district about how a few of our White colleagues, from around the school district, were showing their tails! Bigoted and racist tails, might I add. In two instances, Black educators were calling out their White counterparts or superiors on positions they held, decisions they made, or statements they uttered. In one instance a student was doing the calling out, going toe-to-toe with a teacher.

Listen here.

Check ya self before you wreck ya self!

It would behoove you to button your lips tight and listen to your Black colleagues and students, especially now! If you choose to say something, let it be supportive of Black lives, followed by actions supportive of Black lives! #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool Period.

Click here for source

IAsked | Informal Survey of Parents on School Board Meetings

Recently, the Philadelphia school board voted 7-1 to begin the upcoming school year with 100% remote teaching and learning amidst this current coronavirus pandemic. As we know, the initial vote on a plan to begin the year with the option of either hybrid instruction or completely remote instruction was scrapped because of the overwhelming pushback from some advocates, parents, teachers, students, and school administrators who preferred all remote instruction because of the risks involved in gathering physically. 

Underwhelming were any parents' voices who would've preferred some form of hybrid teaching and learning, with precautions, for any number of reasons including their full-time work schedule.

Either during or after a thoughtful twitter discussion with one of Philly's journo peeps, I decided to ask parents how many even know about school board meeting dates and location. I posed the same question on 3 social platforms. Two platform accounts had the same result. 100% of the respondents didn't know about meeting dates/locations.

On another personal platform I asked the same question.

22% answered "Yes"

78% responded with some variation of "No"

I have personally recommitted myself to keeping parents informed of upcoming school board meetings. My encouragement to the district is do a little more to reach more parents and families. "More" can be almost anything including posts/REposts on every social platform they have and encouraging schools do to the same on their socials.

Additionally, they may want to (re)consider the efficacy of:

Email

Billboards throughout the city with dates of the meetings for the year with the website and phone number

Opt-in text reminders

etc.

I don't always attend, but I do know about them and make a choice to engage or not depending on what's going on in my life at the time. If parents don't know, they're stopped at a door they didn't even know existed.

IAsked: "How should teachers do this online teaching thing?"

Now that we can see a little clearer regarding fall classes, here is some advice from a couple of my students who chose to respond to my open-ended question about teaching online. 

Another student left a voicemail acknowledging and suggesting the following:

• remote learning is "the better choice"
• remote learning can be a "hassle for hands-on kids"
• be considerate of the amount of work given
• "in school we get work but not as much"
• once we converted to online school it was a "ridiculous amount of work" considering that "we have other classes"
• "don't' think that just because we're at home that 'oh they have time'"
• "students go to work, help siblings, grandparents--we're their number one healthcare provider"
• furthermore, students, "make dinner, go to work [noted again"
• [noted again] "be aware of the amount of work"
• "we don't have a bunch of free time"
• "we do a bunch of other responsibilities"

The Spirituality of it All

This past weekend, Juneteenth weekend 2020, was a whole mood! Yes sir, yes ma'am! I was driving at some point this weekend and thought to myself, "There is such an air of celebration! Of freedom!"

The marches!

The determination!

The shift in the winds!

Black pride!

Black dollars!

Black businesses!

Freedom!

While there is still so much more work to do, I think my and others' sense of purpose has been renewed! It's like a revival of sorts! 

Hope revived!

Energy revived!

Purpose revived!

Allow me to take a moment to connect it with another space I occupy. I saw a tweet referencing an opinion piece that notes the movement for Black lives has always been spiritual. I thought about that sentiment and its truth. But I also thought about my own journey. There are experiences we have in church that bring high energy just like when we're out there in the streets, marching and demonstrating for that which is just!

I thought about the freedom I experienced and continue to experience in Christ! I thought about the day that I decided I wanted something different; the day that I decided to turn from my way to His. Such a reflection, almost always brings high energy, thankfulness, and rejoicing! Just as we bathe to wash ourselves of the sweat, dirt, and dead skin of the day gone by and wake up every morning and set our mind to embrace the day ahead,  I chose to obey the instructions given in the book of Acts (New Testament) chapter 2 and verse 38; doing something about the day gone by and embracing the power of God for the day ahead. Rehearse that verse. That was several years ago and I'm not sorry at all! I'm telling you what I know!

But this journey isn't about doing something once and that's it. Imagine only one march. One email. One tweet. One speech. One and done. What would ever get accomplished in this movement?

So, I choose to pray and get something out of the Bible daily. I choose to rejoice...and again I say rejoice! I choose to celebrate the freedom I have in God!

Just as with the Black Lives Matter Movement and that renewed energy and hope I experienced, I feel the same for my spiritual walk. There's more work to do. I pray God continues to give me the wisdom and words to go about that work! In Jesus name!

And the let church say...

Amen!

Today isn't lost on me! 

Happy Fathers Day to my dad Pop Flem, and to the dads and father figures all over the world! You matter! Black fathers matter!