#SmallBites

I've always been one for a dramatic title, this week is no different. And yet, the drama adequately reflects what I see as the biggest challenge to learning in the coming years. Operating out of fear is always a bad idea and we have allowed the learning loss data to morph into an evil mythical creature of epic proportions. How will we slay the dragons, keep our funding and keep from going insane i...

What happens when 2 educators get news of a post describing 21 JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) terms as Critical Race Theory terms being used to indoctrinate students in K-12 classrooms? In part 2 of this podcast, Dr. Sheldon Eakins of the Leading Equity Center helps explain the tenuous, almost mythical connection between culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and critical race theor...

What happens when 2 educators get news of a post describing 21 JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) terms as Critical Race Theory terms being used to indoctrinate students in K-12 classrooms?  In this podcast, Dr. Sheldon Eakins of the Leading Equity Center helps explain the tenuous, almost mythical connection between culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and critical race theory (C...

Although I am a writer and a researcher, I also enjoy using pop culture references to bring home points about academic topics. This episode uses Grey's Anatomy's S11E4 to take an allegorical look at just how bad a problem can get when its ignored. In the episode, there is a happy ending, but not before a girl with a mass the size of a soccer ball almost dies. Her mother is undocumented and said, b...

This episode is less a resource and more an admonition. While I pride myself on not telling folks what to do, I am certain of this one thing: If we do not stand for liberty, justice and democracy, not only do we flaut the ideals of our founding fathers, we are heading in a direction that may lead to more devastation than we can imagine.  Read our constitution. Read the preamble . Decide wheth...

I didn't mean to talk about Critical Race Theory, but with Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday, people have been ranting about how we can't teach the truth about Juneteenth and enslavement because of all the bans. Well, like most trending social media rants, this one is not based in fact.  As I have stated, you aren't teaching critical race theory when you teach critical aspects about race...

This episode was sponsored by Bonnie Nieves author of the newly released Be Awesome On Purpose . If you want time to dedicate to creating more equitable spaces, start with student led, student centered and gradeless (yes gradeless!) practices to streamline your administrative task list and give your students more choice and voice. Get your copy today! Pride month usually focuses our attention on t...

As I did research for an upcoming book on Black wealthy communities , I found myself getting a different view of segregation. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy sitting where I sit in the theater, eating out wherever I choose and having my pick of seats on trains and planes. However, seeing the heyday of Black societies created by Black entrepreneurs showed me a few positives I have only heretofore consi...

We can have the big conversations about the big bans. Finally, if you are not a legal scholar, you probably are in the dark about what CRT really is. Check the last 2 episodes of the podcast and the vlog for help here. But the big takeaway is this:  Get very clear WRITTEN directions from legal on what is and is not allowed. Stay away from partisanship in the classroom.  Teaching is polit...

While out in Twitter Gen Pop (code for out of the protected learning spaces of Edutwitter) I found a new friend. Ms. McCall. She doesn’t know me, but I have claimed her. We think alike, at least when it comes to CRT. Critical Race Theory and the legislation being put forth against it is legislation that wants to ban talk of race, racism, identity politics and for sure anything that smacks of the l...

Building on last week's intro, this episode explores three of the basic tenets of Critical Race Theory, taken from Derrick Bell 's original work. Be sure to watch #SmallBites e47 to keep up with the series as we explore what Critical Race Theory is and isn't and how components of CRT can help us to be better educators and citizens. 

This past week, my students gave me the highest compliments any student can pay a teacher. They mentioned, over and over, that I care, that I create a safe space and that they feel seen and validated. Some even mentioned learning, which is also a good thing. But at the end of the day, if my students know that our classroom is a safe space for discussion; if they know they will not be judged and th...

I'm a big Shonda Rhimes fan, having watched and rewatched countless Grey's Anatomy episodes. This season, both Grey's Anatomy and Station 19 are using primetime TV to allow us to watch some of the horror of what has been American life play out on screen. This week, Station 19 S4E12 caught my attention. It showed the complexities of people reacting to the George Floyd murder: the shock, the rage, t...

America is a world leader, an economic force to be reckoned with. America is a world leader, in gun violence. We kill each other more than in many developed nations and even more than in most sub-Saharan nations, considered to be the poorest in the world. As we wind down this school year, how about asking your students why they think that is? Ask them why such a great nation should be so violent....

Enjoy the 5AM show a few hours early: Last week I was determined to hope fast to hope. Then Toledo got shot. And the people in Indianapolis. And the people in Austin Tx. Driving down the street, I asked my son who the flag was flying half mast for. His answer? This country. The weight of this world on top of the global pandemic is crushing and I could do a "how to talk to your students about..." m...

Another Black man is dead. His name is Daunte Wright. Daunte had the audacity to have an expired plate and a warrant. My guess is, a 20 year old father was juggling finances and didn't have it all together. I know I didn't at that age. We don't learn much about credit and finances in school. He probably didn't have rich parents or a support system who could help him navigate the real expense of au...

My momma used to say that there are only two motivations, love and fear. And when reduced to those two motivations, you find arguments and counter arguments for everything. Fear is, without a doubt, the more powerful motivating force of the two. Where hope burns like the warm, steady heat of a good smoker fire, fear rages out of control like toxic chemical fires that can scarcely be contained. Hop...

I am Black. I am a Black woman. I am a Black mother. I am a Black mother of a 17 year old. I am a Black mother of a Black man just shy of manhood. This. Trial. Is. Exhausting.  If you teach Black students or work with Black coworkers, realize, it's traumatizing for many of us, watching this latest in a long string of deaths that happen too quickly and often go unpunished. The sons and daughte...

How are Black Educators accepted? Are they accepted because they are assimilated, a kind of 'Black lite'? Are they given privilege and access when their speech mimics the comforting tone of a midwestern newscaster; or judged when their voices carry a 'southern twang' or an 'urban lilt'--whatever that is? Is it different when there is a John or Anna in the space than it is when there is a Daquan or...

If the religion and the whole Christian thing ain't yours, feel free to skip this episode, cause I'm 'bout to talk about Easter and the resurrection. If, however, you trust my voice, whether you espouse the Judeo-Christian traditions or not, there are nuggets of wisdom for all. Two things: "Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for a friend" and "Be a doer of the law and not a judge."&...

 How many roads must a man walk down...ok, those are Dylan's words, but let me borrow them and give an answer: as many as he needs to.  Sometimes our journeys go straight from A to B in a timely, orderly fashion; sometimes we don't even know there is a road and; well, sometimes we traverse in every imaginable way between. The fact is that learning about implicit bias, working on your own...

Often diverse people of color feel like our identities are being smushed into one big vat of BIPOC, or 'Blacks and Browns'. Sometimes, it's important to refer to us in as much specificity as possible. Sometimes, however, like when we are dealing with a system of racism that can affect us all, the terms help us to unite in solidarity. We experience the hyphen American syndrome, the ___American, the...

I wonder if we weren't reading "massage parlors" would the outcry be bigger? I wonder if 8 girls from Harvard had been gunned down, if the headlines would evoke more empathy? I wonder, if it was 8 senators, if the flags would be lowered? Since when do we rate the value of lives lost? Since forever, and that's the problem. Middle passage? Not worthy of remembering. Trail of tears? What's that? Half...

Boy, what a title, eh? What could "bunch of blondes" and "Black chick" have to do with education? Well, I bet if you look at your class or campus full of students, you see people who remind you of yourself--the parts you like, yourself--the parts you don't like, or people you either have an affinity for or dislike of. Some educators may not make the connections to how they feel, they may stuff the...

No, I do not have a litany of cool resources you need to check out. No, I am not presenting some revelation that will allow you to up your CRT game. Well, maybe I am: Chill. Lock your school computer away and take some needed time off. If you think you can use Spring Break to catch up on school tasks and household tasks and personal project chores AND be rejuvenated for the last 3 months or so of...