#SmallBites

Happy fall break!! Head over to @Hedreich on Instagram for this week's live episode. And for context: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/13/hiking-african-american-racism-nature  https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/why-people-color-often-feel-unsafe-outdoors by @amandaemachado0 www.voxmagazine.com/tncms/asset/editorial/11e7709e-74cd-11eb-83b2-8f13b43d6648 And by Emma veidt https://outd...

Listening to a wonderful teacher read the legend of La Llorona to her class on Mexican Independence Day eve, I began to ponder the intersection of Columbus Day and Latinx Heritage Month. There is irony in the fact that we celebrate an explorer who opened the floodgates of Spanish colonization, which essentially meant the downfall of the original inhabitants of the Americas and the Caribbean, the d...

Sometimes, it's the little things. And as you know, SmallBites is always about the high impact little things. Below are 5 ways you can elevate your practice this year. Know your state and district laws. "ban crt" and "don't say gay" type legislations are in over 500 jurisdictions in the country. UCLA's interactive map and corresponding resources will help you keep abreast of the latest laws that m...

As you know, if you've listened often, I am not a big fan of relegating cultural literacy to certain months of the year. However, since most campuses are highlighting Latinx communities this month, I do hope you'll represent the diversity of the cultures on your campuses. This week, please refer to my most recent Edutopia article for great information on how to respectfully give voice to diverse H...

As I thought about the pomp and circumstance surrounding the death of the Queen, the national remembrance of 9/11 and how we, as a country, grieve, it occurred to me that our losses are ranked. And those rankings reinforce our caste system, our gatekeeping. Why, for example, are flags lowered for government officials and foreign dignitaries? Are those losses more profound than the losses suffered...

In this final installation of the conversation on responding to mass atrocity harm with Sarah Federman , we talk about practical ways we can acknowledge and help diverse stakeholders, both those who suffer fallout and those who are perhaps unwittingly complicit. We also talk about how those who research and work with difficult topics like mass atrocities, social justice issues, genocide, etc., can...

Yes, it's summer. But I'm back anyway! This is part 2 of a conversation with Sarah Federman on enslavement within the context of mass atrocity 'reckoning'. ( Listen to part 1 here. ) Highlights in this conversations include suggestions and recommendations for impactful apologies and ways to acknowledge ties to harms that still impact communities in the present. The Baltimore Sun provides an exempl...

When we celebrate Juneteenth, we celebrate the freedoms given by the 13th amendment that only came to Texas 2 and a half years after the original proclamation. Upon closer inspection, this freedom was not only late in coming, but it also marked the beginning of mass illness and death , Jim Crow laws, segregation and gaps in wealth and education that still prevail even in the face of ever evolving...

This summer comes after the most trying time in education since the era of bussing and integration. I don't have any stats on that, but having lived between most of those two Big Educational Events, I can't remember anything harder than the last two years. Educators are exhausted and leaving the profession in droves. If you are leaving, go, be brilliant, you'll be fine. If you are staying, rest, t...

Restorative practice is a big undertaking and is best done school or district wide. So if you are a classroom teacher, where can you start? At the beginning of the year, build a strong, inclusive foundation. Building an inclusive classroom is not about what's in the books or on the walls, it's about building community. Establishing and imparting a vision for an inclusive, supportive learning commu...

No matter what you think about the most recent mass shootings, two things are true:  1. The shooter felt like an outsider.  2. In his despair, he began to blame others for his misery and took action against them.  This goes deeper than hate or racism.  How do people walk among us and feel such misery, the kind that inspires acts of rage against random, unsuspecting people? I do...

It's easy to say "we are not suspending our kids", knowing that the number of suspensions directly correlates to the number of incarcerations . But without a plan for transformative discipline, the ensuing chaos disrupts learning. We can impact whole communities by ensuring that our discipline protocols keep our kids on campus, and empower students to own and manage their own behavior with strateg...

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Across the country teachers are being squeezed between data deep dives on one side and recurrent student behavioral issues on the other. The caught- in-the-middle pressure is putting a squeeze on teachers that is sending them out of the educational sector in droves. While the academic disparities are real, doubling down on looking at data and more testing will not m...

Did you ever stop to think that Christopher is an anglified name? An Italian explorer would have been named Cristoforo Colombo, in Spanish he would have been called Cristóbal Colón. That’s the funny thing about the truth. Depending on your perspective, it might be different. Not more or less true, just different. Europeans called this side of the Atlantic the “New World”. But in fact, when looking...

SmallBites is taking a short break this week and will return next week. Meanwhile, as you celebrate your faith, if you do, reflect over whether or not you may be judging others for being different in their expression of faith or identity. Let's make faith count!

If you have not yet found your way to Jennifer Gonzales' Cult of Pedagogy, please use this as your gateway. In this small bite of our interview, you'll hear one of the 8 questions below that you can use to challenge yourself on your way to becoming a more empathetic, inclusive educator. For the entire podcast and show notes, please visit https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/blindspots/ . While you're th...

This week’s SmallBites is a round table with Jonathan Reidenouer, Hal Roberts and Emily Witt, three people shaped by the fundamentalist Christian community who have come to embrace the need for representation and cultural literacy. Why is it so hard for people from the Evangelical movement to embrace what some in the community call “woke” ideologies? Why do some church organizations draw a line wh...

Seeing the highlight clips of the Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmation Hearings morph into full blown defamation and attacks from pundits on the right made me wonder if indeed, Judge Jackson was singled out. This was, of course, due to the popular assertion that “we” think everything revolves around race. The “we” happens to be any Black or Brown person that made a statement about the fact that much...

I don’t know about you, but I don’t understand war. 'Let’s just all point guns at each others heads so you won’t get more than I have' seems frightfully ineffective. Oh, and actually, 'let’s send my kids to fight your kids to solve the disputes of wealthy, power hungry regimes' makes even more sense. If this doesn’t make sense to you, it may be hard to answer questions about a war in a far off lan...

Many who think of gender equality think of Women's Suffrage and perhaps yesteryear's fight for equal pay. One little known fact is that gender equality in the workplace is still an issue, with women earning, in some cases just over half of what White males earn.  As we highlight diverse stories for Women's History Month, it's important to discuss with your students why we have the need for a...

This week, I got to speak with educators in my second home and was reminded that people are interested to know what I do now. So I'm interrupting the regularly scheduled programming to have a conversation with 3 friends and educators about my work as a writer and consultant. The podcast is in two languages and describes my work as a consultant and author seeking to give every student a voice and c...

Black History Month is over, but the need to elevate the stories and achievements of Black Americans to their rightful place in American history books and curricula is still in its infancy. In actuality, history has been dominated by the achievements of White Males to the exclusion of many other important voices, stories and heroes. Remember the old adage, know better, do better? When I found out...

If I babysat a math PhD who married a Math PhD, one of 4 Black Math PhD graduates from University of Mississippi, I will do well on the GRE when it's time to get my own PhD, right? Probably not. But am I honored to know young math movers and shakers who can be role models for my students? AB SO LUTELY. A lot of the Black History resources I have shared this month point us not so much to a sepia pa...

I actually planned to talk about entertainer extraordinaire, Cab Calloway, but a little thing like my low-key childhood shero got in the way.  I remembered the name of the first Black female writer, Ida B. Wells from my childhood. I decidedly did not remember that she was so much more than just a journalist! She was a teacher, an advocate, a fierce leader who refused to be content with the st...

This week is part two of the SmallBites Black History series. It could aptly called "Beyond the Struggle". When I think of June and Pride celebrations, there is so much joy. Yes, there is talk of Stonewall and the fight for human rights, but there is a joy that we are missing in February. I believe that comes from the focus on our civil struggle and a lack of knowledge about the many achievements...