Month: April 2016

Blue Serials (4/17/16)

~ Blue Cereal

It’s Testing Season. Shut Up And Be The Same.

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OK, yeah – I don’t get the video either, but the sound quality is so much better than the remaining options and besides, THAT’S NOT THE POINT. 

Stuff You Shouldn’t Miss From This Past Week

You Are Not A Test – Rick Cobb, OKEducationTruths, with possibly this year’s best dose of perspective regarding state testing and real live children. What can I say about Cobb that hasn’t been said before – at least, that’s safe for publication? He’s such an institution in #OklaEd that I’m not sure we consciously stop and appreciate what he brings to the table anymore, we’re so used to it just… happening. Speaking of which…

Reason to Believe – Rick Cobb, OKEducationTruths – “Sometimes, in the face of despair and overwhelmingly contrary evidence, I still expect something good to happen.” Amen, brother.

Show @okeducation some love this week on the Twitters, or bring him candy and flowers or something. Perhaps a good, stiff drink. #oklaed 

Now Listen Here – Laura McGee, on Cimarron Middle School, does a particularly nice job of rainbow-toasted unicorns here, while never completely cutting the kite string or hitting ‘play’ on the schmaltzy music. There’s no such thing as ‘too many’ reminders this time of year just what it is we’re supposedly trying to accomplish, and so little of it has anything to do with these silly tests. I could read this one daily for the next few weeks and never get tired of it. 

On the other hand, I have no idea what to call this site. It doesn’t look like an official middle school page, but neither is it your typical blog. Leave it to Edmond folks to ignore orthodoxy in these things. I’m 77% certain, however, that at least some of the blame/credit goes to @CordellEhrich, so follow him on the Twittering and see what other rules he’s breaking. #OklaEd. 

Today I’m A Dad – Scott Haselwood, Teaching From Here, is traditionally one of our go-to positive-way-forward guys. But not this week. This week he’s a dad troubled by what 3rd Grade Malicious Child Standardization Procedure is doing to his pride and joy. 

“WHY ARE WE DOING THIS TO OUR CHILDREN?  WHAT IS THE POINT?  TO DRIVE THE LOVE OF LEARNING RIGHT OUT OF THERE SOULS?” Well… yeah, Scott. You think Educated, Inspired voters are going to keep re-electing the folks making these rules? People with souls don’t do such things. 

Haselwood is right to be troubled, but make sure you notice the picture of his daughter at the end of the post – particularly her expression and all it implies. If you’ve met Scott, or even a photo of him online, you’ll see it immediately. She’s definitely going to be just fine. 

In the meantime, follow @TeachFromHere on the Tweetbooks. I promise, he’s normally quite solution-oriented and leaves the frustration and bitterness to others. Like, for example… me.  #oklaed 

An Open Letter to Private School Parents: Stop Trashing Public Schools – Ali Collins, SF Public School Mom, happens to feel quite strongly about her local public school. She’s not anti-private, anti-charter, or anti-anyone else, but she WOULD appreciate it if you’d stop validating your educational choices by misleading others about hers.

Public Ed advocates from ANYWHERE will appreciate this one. I love her voice and passion, applied to clarity and good sense. I didn’t know they even ALLOWED rational people in San Francisco. 

Follow @AliMCollins on the Twittering and find out what other things she feels strongly about. There are several, I assure you.

Do Look At Me That Way – Rob Miller, A View From The Edge. Teachers remind each other a LOT not to let the gig become about the gradebook or the forms. That’s OK, though, because some of us require regular reminding. 

Notice the kids in your class, and your hallway, and otherwise crossing your path. If the spirits tell you something’s up, start that conversation and take that risk. Sometimes you’ll just end up feeling awkward or foolish (unless that’s just me), but there’s a flip side – sometimes they need you, whether they realize it or not. Sometimes they need to be heard, or asked, or otherwise engaged. Sometimes.

Consult the wisdom of @edgeblogger in the Hall of Tweets and see what else the spirits have to say. #oklaed

Finally – and I really didn’t want to include this one, because it kinda stings – there’s this…

Burning Down The House – T.C. Weber, Dad Gone Wild, has been reflecting a bit lately on education and politics, outrage and empathy. He’s been questioning his own approach to confronting bad policy and attacking real people who aren’t always real to him when he does. Sound at all… familiar, Blue?

While there are a few specifics related to Nashville edu-slation and shenanigans, this one is worth a read for any of us who are trying to speak truth to power, or satirize the evils brought down on our kids in hopes of robbing them of some of their power to destroy. It might hurt a bit to read, however, because many of these doubts and regrets about approach and effectiveness are… well…

Let’s just say I’ve heard that some people wrestle with these closer to home as well.

Wrestle with @norinrad10 on the Tweetness and find out what else Oklahoma and Tennessee have in common, for better or worse. Plus, he writes real good too. 

I’ll leave you with one of my new favorite, um… video things. Adam Ruins Everything?

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Be amazing, my darlings. Don’t let the system crush you just yet. Those same kids you want to flush… well, one of them will need you this week. Be ready.

Teenagers Are Weird

~ Blue Cereal ~ 1 Comment

Desks Tipped OverTeenagers are weird.

A few short weeks ago, on April 1st, I returned from lunch to discover that a couple of my girls had turned every student desk in the room onto its side or back. They were already in rather random formation for silent reading day, but this made it look like there’d been some sort of explosion.

Students entering the room were flummoxed. “What – why – WHY did you DO this?!” they demanded of me – even those who’d clearly just walked back from lunch with me and knew – at least in theory- that I hadn’t been in the room since they’d left it with me a half-hour prior.

I wasn’t upset. As April Fool’s gags go, it wasn’t a particularly funny one, but neither was it destructive. They were just desks, on their sides and backs. I stayed at the door as expected in my building and shortly before the bell was approached by a student from another hour with a pressing question. I walked in to begin class about a minute after the bell.

About a third of my kids had righted their desks and were murmur-mingling as they waited. Ideally they’d have started silent reading without my having to announce it – it’s every Friday, it’s not news – but it’s not unusual for me to have to get them started. 

Huh?!What threw me, though, was seeing the remaining two-thirds of my kids standing near their toppled desks, looking bewildered – a tad annoyed, maybe a bit hurt as well. Clearly, however, at a complete loss as to what to do. 

They’ve been with me for eight months working on mindset and grit and going around the leaf, but when confronted with a desk on its side, they had absolutely NO idea how they might possibly proceed. It would simply never occur to most of them to move past their horror over this unexpected wrinkle and begin considering options.

Like, for instance, righting their desk. Then sitting in it. 

I’d have also accepted sitting elsewhere – on the floor, or in one of the many empty extra chairs in the room. At that point even seeking outside assistance would have been an encouraging step in the right direction. 

But no. They were at an impasse. Had I not explained – with some irritation – how to proceed, they’d likely still be standing there today.

Teenagers are weird. 

Earlier that day, I was less certain of how to react with a very different group. It was silent reading day, and for once everyone had come prepared with a book of choice. I was modeling sustained silent reading as well (a departmental priority despite grading and planning and emails and forms all vying for our attention). 

Silent ReadingNo headphones were loud enough to produce bug-beats (the pinched, high-pitch drum noises you get from ear buds when the music is too loud), and most students seemed to be engaged. It was strangely quiet.

*sniff*

Just one sniffle. No biggie. Probably not even noticeable to anyone but me. I’m weird like that.

*sniff*

Another, elsewhere in the room.

*sniff* … *sniff* … … … *sniffsniff* *SNIFF* … *snifflesniff* … … … … … *sniff*

Annoyed SnapeI refused to look up and react, because – and this is what’s so ridiculous – I had no idea whether they were messing with me or not. 

It’s entirely possible. They’re freshmen. They’d need no plan, no malice, to simply do a surround-sound sniffle throughout the hour – keeping themselves entertained and their teacher distracted and crazy for an entire class period.

But maybe not. Kids are convincingly clueless when it comes to snorts and taps and innocuous noises. They eat Cheetos at deafening volumes without realization, and I may genuinely be the only one who notices, they’re so accustomed. You’ve been at the movies with them – you know the power of their complete lack of awareness.

Thus my dilemma – was I going to disrupt silent reading to accuse a dozen kids of… malicious sniffling?

How do you make THAT phone call? Is there a Board policy to go on the D-hall slip for that?

But if they were playing me, and I let it keep going, it would just get worse. I appreciate a little jibe here and there, but you can’t let freshmen get TOO much of a foothold, or they start to lose respect for the –

This circular thinking went on for what seemed like hours. In reality, it was probably more like 10 minutes or so. All the while, my eyes were on my book, my ears on maximum alert, waiting for that next…

*sniff*

I move several tissue boxes to empty desktops around the room – silent and non-confrontational, but hopefully not TOO subtle. I notice several taking advantage. Thank god.

Teenagers are weird. 

I think my favorite freshman talisman, though, is The Paper Wave. It works like this:

Paper Wave OneA student – sometimes with an ally or two, sometimes not – is off-topic and talking or otherwise creating sounds they should not be creating. (There are plenty of opportunities to be active and engaged and rowdy and such in my class, but at other times that the opposite is necessary.) In the most egregious examples, animated conversations are being propagated right up to the point I manage to get their attention by calling their name(s) or throwing small objects at them.

“But- but- but-” (I always know it’s coming) “I WASN’T EVEN TALKING!” 

The indignation is real. The outrage is subdued but genuine. Even when I’ve had to try several times just to get their attention because they’re so engaged in their off-topic conversation, my little darlings are both hurt and offended that I’d even suggest they were doing exactly what they were doing until I interrupted. 

And they’re not even in trouble – I’m just redirecting.

When their protests gain them little beyond soft mockery, they pull out what in THEIR worlds is THE ultimate trump card – the unshakeable proof of their righteousness. After a few frantic seconds digging around to find whatever it is they were supposed to be working on, they do it. 

They do the paper wave.

Paper Wave Two“See?! SEEEEEE?!?!?!!” it says – “I have a piece of paper in my hands and I am WAVING it! WAVING IT VIGOROUSLY! Clearly this would not be possible had I been engaging in the sorts of shenanigans you so cruelly and unfairly suggest! Ha! WAVE it I do! WAVE! WAVE!”

They need not say the words themselves, of course – it’s all in the wildly flapping paper and their set little faces.

It would be annoying if it weren’t so adorable. They’re not being defiant so much as delusional; at the moment they spin around and begin grabbing at half-finished scribbles, they BELIEVE every word they’re saying, spoken or no. 

Because teenagers are weird. 

I suppose they come by it honestly. My grades are divided into three equal categories – Show Up/Turn It In, Content Knowledge, and Skills. Full explanations are on the class website and in the syllabus, in case the titles aren’t clear enough. From a parent email just last week:

“What can ____ do to improve his grade in the ‘Show Up/Turn It In’ category?”

Apple. Falling. Tree.

Teenagers are weird. 

Apple. Falling. Tree.

RELATED POST: Can We Talk? (Weird Kids Edition)

RELATED POST: Teachers Are Weird

RELATED POST: Karmapologies

RELATED POST: What Misfits Wish Their Teachers Knew (Guest Blogger – Courtney’s Voice)

Blue Serials (4/10/16)

~ Blue Cereal

Ode to Standardized Testing:

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You can see it in students’ hollow little eyes, and read it in the angsty tone of recent edu-bloggery. The shaming season is upon us.

It’s time to label kids and their teachers based on unreliable tests given under the most bizarre and unnatural conditions. We call this unholy ritual “high standards.” It’s like the Hunger Games, but without provided supplies or anyone actually winning.

Nevertheless, there are wonderful things going on in the world of online edu-ligtenment and pedagogi-bonding – some inspiring, others sobering, and some just lotsa truth smacking you upside your weary head. 

Stuff You Shouldn’t Miss From The Past Week in Edu-Bloggery:

Dear Educator – Meghan Loyd, For The Love… “However today I was reminded that I change the world.”

Loyd has a new and improved blogsite, and has finally added that ‘About Me’ section Scott Haselwood wanted (he’s very particular about these things). The defining theme at For The Love has always been unrelenting passion for kids, for teaching, for ‘the calling’ – but something about this brief post, this week, put together this way… It kinda got to me. That’s good, right? 

Get to @meghanloyd on Twitter and find out more ‘About Her’ and her upgraded edu-licious bloggery. Watch out for the unicorns – they’re usually hanging out near the rainbows. #oklaed 

Intro to Genius Hour – Jennifer Williams, JennWillTeach, has been steering her online writing towards practical classroom strategies and reflection – as opposed to those of us who mostly lob antagonistic grenades from the sidelines. 

This week she began her foray into Genius Hour – intentionally setting aside one day a week, or about 20% of classroom time, to encourage students to explore and learn in any direction they choose. Williams goes in as neither a starry-eyed idealist following every new edu-trend nor a jaded cynic resistant to all change. She’s a realist, albeit a sassy one (it’s much of what I love about her), determined to explore anything of potential service to her kids and their growth as learners and people and stuff. I hope she keeps us in the loop for the rest of this part of the journey.

Keep @jennwillteach in your loop on Twitter and find out for yourself how things unfold. #oklaed 

In an Effort to Keep Our Kids Safe, We May be Silencing Their Voices – Jamila Carter, in this piece shared by EduShyster, offers one of the more balanced critiques of highly regimented, ‘no excuses’ type learning environments.

I’m generally hesitant to 100% condemn approaches which might work for some kids in some situations. I cringe anytime I read well-intentioned discursiveness claiming hugs and warmies as the universal keys to all academic advancement for all kids everywhere.

Carter has clearly wrestled with the complexities, however, and come through unconvinced that compliance = self-discipline or scores = progress. Her conviction is tempered by thoughtfulness, but it’s still pretty persuasive conviction. 

Follow @jubimom on Twitter and find out what else she’s thoughtfully passionate about, and @edushyster for a wide variety of investigative revelations about all sorts of edu-shenanigans.

Mentor, vb. trans. – Sherri Spelic, edified listener – Spelic has been getting all KINDS of deep and reflective lately. I’ve even considered staging an intervention.

The problem is, I really like some of the results – like this post, for instance. It’s a simple reflection on folks on the Twitters who’ve meant a great deal to her on her journey – not merely as entertainment, but as… you know… reflective thinky carey stuff types. Like, NOT what I do at all – but still totally legit and important. 

I almost issued this as an edu-blogger challenge, but as I said – not so much for the feelings over here. YOU can have feelings, however, perhaps even sharing them with @edifiedlistener on Twitter should you wish.

Happy Testing Season, Kids! – Rob Miller, A View From The Edge, MIGHT be using some of that infamous sarcasm of his again – despite Jay’s warnings about such dark methodology. Either way, this is a fun little vent on standardized testing and a good way to wrap up this week’s, um… weekly wrap-up.

I’ve GOT to work on my phrasing. 

Follow @edgeblogger on Twitter for more pith and vinegar about a wide variety of edu-topics. #oklaed 

**Filing For OK State Elections is almost here: April 13th – 15th, 2016!**

A record number of educators are running, and why not? It’s half the calendar for twice the pay and obvlously almost zero expectations – if there’s not already a promising edu-candidate in your district, you should run yourself!

Keep up with #OKElections16 here, or by joining Oklahoma Parents and Educators for Public Education on Facebook (and following @angmlittle on Twitter).

Oklahoma Education Journal has been keeping up with many of the candidates and current legislative silliness as well. You can follow them on Twitter as @OkEdJournal.

FortySixNews.com is new to me and I don’t actually know much about who they are or what they’re about yet, but they have an entire page devoted to state elections in general, which I’ve already found useful several times. They also seem to have a knack for breaking news whenever an interesting new candidate enters an Oklahoma race. Worth bookmarking this site. They’re also on Twitter at @FortySixNews.

Finally, giving credit where credit is due, The McCarville Report has come through repeatedly when I’m researching OK candidates for state office this cycle. Their mojo says they lean pretty far right (they even link to our good friends at Middle Ground News), but their stuff on edu-candidates has been spot on so far. If you’re trying to keep up, you should probably bookmark them as well. Like all the cool kids, @McCarvilleRept is on Twitter as well.

Breathe deep, my darlings – we’ve many miles to go. But if you wanted a job that was possible, you should have become an accountant or started selling shoes. This here’s one of them ‘idealist’ gigs.

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Blue Cereal Book Review – Bound: Blogging on Gender, Race, and Culture (Tressie McMillan Cottom)

~ Blue Cereal

Bound Cover

Disclaimers

I don’t really do book reviews. There are plenty out there already, and I’m not very good at it. But that’s not the biggest problem with my attempting this one.

The real issue – at least potentially – is that I’m an old straight white guy about to share my thoughts on a collection of essays, the subjects of which often involve the annoying tendency of old straight white guys to think they deserve final critique of everything. 

So the irony is a problem.

To make matters worse, just before my final edit of this particular review, I managed to annoy the book’s author on Twitter while trying to be, um… adorable. Funny. Like we’re all buds and stuff. 

The kind of buds where I follow her on Twitter and she has no idea who I am and no reason to care.

Annoyed Tressie

But I’m an old straight white guy with conservative roots who’s been trying to get my head around an entire universe of realities of which I couldn’t even conceive, let alone accept, a decade ago – realities involving gender, race, and culture, oddly enough. I read, and I listen, but I’ll never be as educated as some of the people trying to explain it all to me, nor will I ever have their experiences as people NOT part of the asserted ‘norm’. 

It’s simply not possible.  

Tressie McMillan Cottom needs absolutely nothing from me.  I, on the other hand, need her. And that’s where this gets even more complicated – before I even get to the review…

See, Cottom writes at a level that stretches me, but doesn’t lose me. She writes with conviction I can’t quite fathom, but which doesn’t alienate me. She uses language I can almost keep up with – sometimes I have to reread a few passages, but I get most of it eventually – without bewildering me. And she writes in a voice that continues to draw me in – without… offending? Scaring? Wounding me – at least in too unfair a way?

Yeah, that’s where it’s kinda maybe weird, because I’m not sure I’m her target audience. I AM confident she’s not lying awake at night wondering if she’s chosen her examples or modified her rhetoric just right for maximum appeal to, well… folks like me. 

But the fact that someone of my background, my modest intellect, my mixed emotions anytime terms like ‘cultural appropriation’ or ‘intersectionality’ are bandied about, can learn and gain so much from this collection of essays is exactly WHY I feel compelled to push it on my old straight white cohorts – especially those who’ve found my rants and babbling so bewildering over the past year or two when it comes to issues of equity or socio-political power structures. 

Cottom says it better. And she’s smarter. Knowledgeable. Legit, even – degrees and everything. She writes as an academic secure enough in her expertise not to take herself too seriously while never leaving you in doubt as to just how serious she is. 

And that’s how half of a book review ends up being disclaimers questioning my right to even comment. And yet… 

Happy TressieThe Essays

Many of the essays included in Bound can be found on Cottom’s website, but were chosen for this collection at the request of regular readers. Some of them assume a familiarity with recent events you may not actually share, but it’s easy enough to pick up the general scenarios from Cottom’s commentary.

As I struggled to express earlier, Cottom’s written “voice” has a way of holding you agape while inserting hard truths straight into your paradigm. Take this bit from “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”:

We hates us some poor people. First, they insist on being poor when it is so easy to not be poor. They do things like buy expensive designer belts and $2500 luxury handbags… If you are poor, why do you spend money on useless status symbols like handbags and belts and clothes and shoes and televisions and cars? 

I love effective use of tone. I try it often, and succeed at it occasionally. But not like this. The undercurrents are immediate and irresistible. 

One thing I’ve learned is that one person’s illogical belief is another person’s survival skill. And nothing is more logical than trying to survive…

I remember my mother taking a next-door neighbor down to the social service agency. The elderly woman had been denied benefits to care for the granddaughter she was raising. The woman had been denied in the genteel bureaucratic way – lots of waiting, forms, and deadlines she could not quite navigate. 

I watched my mother put on her best Diana Ross “Mahogany” outfit: a camel colored cape with matching slacks and knee-high boots… I must have said something about why we had to do this. Vivian fixed me with a stare as she was slipping on her pearl earrings and told me that people who can do, must do. 

It took half a day but something about my mother’s performance of a respectable black person – her Queen’s English, her Mahogany outfit, her straight bob and pearl earrings – got done what the elderly lady next door had not been able to get done in over a year. I learned, watching my mother, that there was a price we had to pay to signal to gatekeepers that we were worthy of engaging…

Ferrell KilledSometimes her world-weariness bleeds through, even as she’s analyzing events in primarily academic terms. “When You Forget to Whistle Vivaldi” addresses the death of Jonathan Ferrell, a young black man who was in a car wreck and stumbled to a nearby home for help. Frightened (white) homeowners called the police, who in typical fashion rolled up and shot the black guy without waiting to see what was going on. 

Of course, the oft-quoted idiom that respectability politics will not save you is true. Just as wearing long johns is not a preventative measure against rape for women, affecting middle class white behaviors is not a protective measure but a talisman. In exerting any measure of control over signaling that we are not dangerous or violent or criminal we are mostly assuaging the cognitive stress that constant management of social situations causes.

That stress has real consequences…. When the object of a stereotype is aware of the negative perception of her, that awareness constrains all manner of ability and performance. From testing scores of women who know the others in the room believe women cannot do math to missing a sport play when one is reminded that Asians don’t have hops. The effects of stereotype threat are real… 

It’s like running too many programs in the background of your computer as you try to play a YouTube video. Just as the extra processing, invisible to the naked eye, impacts the video experience, the cognitive version compromises the functioning of our most sophisticated machines: human bodies…

{For} all we social scientists like to talk about structural privilege it might be this social-psychological privilege that is the most valuable. Imagine the productivity of your laptop when all background programs are closed. Now imagine your life when those background processes are rarely, if ever, activated because of the social position your genetic characteristics afford you.

That’s a whole lotta reality in so few sentences and such academically pragmatic language. I didn’t even get defensive reading it, and that’s kinda my thing when tackling uncomfortable subjects. 

Cottom’s not pointing fingers. She’s observing and analyzing, calling things as she sees them for both academic’s sake and the inherent value of honest evaluation. That I’d have to love, even if I disagreed on a few details here and there . I’m not sure I do, but it seems like I should in order to maintain a little credibility – like we’d argue collegiately over drinks or something.

In the end, Cottom may be writing in the language of degreed analysis, but her… spirit is simply nudging us to ask better questions and make better decisions. As a public educator, nothing could make me happier than for such a mindset to take wide root. 

College MoneyFrom “MOOCs, Profit, and Prestige Cartels”:

If we accept my story of profit and higher education market we get to different kinds of questions that lead to different kinds of policies. Rather than disrupting higher education because it does not serve the needs of the market we can ask the market why it does not serve the interests of human beings. 

Why, as corporations increasingly use their moral authority and political will to limit their tax exposure and their contribution to social institutions like k-12 schools, why is public education being refashioned to provide them the “human capital” they require to continue their abdication of the greater social good?

Why, indeed.

Whatever Cottom’s intent, whether or not I’m accurately discerning her thinking, I’m thankful for her willingness to put it out there for the rest of us to do with as we will. Writing is inherently risky, and writing on topics so subject to inflammatory rhetoric and intentional misunderstanding is wonderfully bold.

But to do it so well – that… that’s a gift to the rest of us. Especially those of us who arguably have the least right to enjoy the fruits of such labors. 

Thank you. 

RELATED LINK: tressiemc.com / “Some Of Us Are Brave” {Tressie Cottom’s Website}

RELATED LINK: “To learn, we have to be social”: Talking Twitter and Teaching with Tressie McMillan Cottom {discover.wordpress.com}

RELATED LINK: Tressie McMillan Cottom  on theatlantic.com {links to her writing for The Atlantic}

RELATED LINK: Tressie McMillan Cottom on dissentmagazine.org {links to her writing for Dissent}

Blue Serials (4/3/16)

~ Blue Cereal

Go Not Softly Into That Dark Budget Cut

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It’s been several wild weeks for #OklaEd and #OKPE4PE (the definitive Facebook Group for Parents & Educators who support public education in Oklahoma). I’m sure more weirdness is coming. The beauty of it is that we never know what or when. 

OK CapitolWhere is fairly predictable. 

In the meantime, though, it’s possible you’ve missed some quality edu-bloggery from #OklaEd and beyond – some of which isn’t even about fighting legislative insanity.

Must-Reads From the Past Week 

What I Am For! – Scott Haselwood, Teaching From Here, reminds us that while we’re so often backed into battles over what we’re against, there are far more important things we’re actually, you know… FOR.

It’s far too easy to forget this simple reality. Fortunately, Haselwood not only reminds us, but does it so very well.

Be FOR @TeachFromHere on the Twittering, and I suspect he’ll remind you of many good realities along the way. It’s kinda his thing.  #oklaed 

On Advocacy and Activism – Cory Williams, An Early Modern Millennial, ponders the blur between educator and advocate, citizen and employee, and the unending empty lip service paid to public education. Along the way I think we saw a little bit of his soul showing through.

Follow @MrWilliamsRm110 on Twitter. He’s actually fairly sharp, despite the hair, and maybe he’ll show more of that soul of his.  #oklaed

I’m Done With 21st-Century Learning! – Rob Miller, A View From The Edge, has had his fill of the noncompulsory drafting of rhetorical scholastic gilding. It’s recrementitious! He has this weird idea that we should label good teaching less and practice it more. Huh.

Experience pedagogical and practical venery with @edgeblogger on the Twitters and see what other bedlam he propagates. You won’t end up chapfallen.   #oklaed 

Green Band Bandits – Sarah B, LadyWolf2016, is a relatively new voice in #OklaEd bloggery, but she’s already raised the bar for social justice in the classroom. Not that we’re into such things often in Oklahoma – we’re more of a ‘The 19th Century Will Rise Again’ kinda state. Still, there are oases of 14th Amendment-ness here and there…

I’m not a big nurture-y, feely-lovey guy myself – my kids respond better to Wheaton’s Law than to Cyril the Cyber-Bulling Awareness Cicada or whatever – but THIS is an impressive tale of young people learning to find energy in building one another up instead of feeding on the fragmented power of tearing others apart. 

Feed on @LadyWolf2014’s energy on Twitter and see for yourself how good it feels.  #oklaed 

Finding My Voice – Cassie Nash, Just Teaching It Real, is another fresh voice in blogging à la #OklaEd, and an immediate favorite of mine. We always say to be yourself and write what you know – apparently Nash takes this to heart:

I need to quit being fearful of teaching writing because I know they struggle – why give them another opportunity to fail at something they already find daunting? Perhaps a bit of this is my fear that I’m not teaching them as well as someone else could… 

Writing doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s hard. So what is it that propels me forward with this project? I think I have a few things to say. I’ll bet they do too.

She’s funny, too – but pointing that out on a Blue Serial summary simply puts too much pressure on an exciting new baby blogger, so you’ll simply have to stumble across that reality on your own. 

Be introspective with @cassieknash on the Place of Tweeting and find out what else she has to say. I know I will.  #oklaed 

Retro-Link

I don’t normally link to my own stuff on the weekly wrap-up (which, come to think of it, it rather odd – given my penchant for self-promotion), but reading this week about the hacking and slashing of so-called ‘extra-curricular programs’ already beginning across Oklahoma just kills me. Such a preventable problem, hurting the most those least able to do anything about it. We all know what sorts of programs go first, and it’s just wrong. 

Ethically, pedagogically, professionally, politically, emotionally, statistically, spiritually, fiscally, and historically wrong.

Extra-Curriculars – “Algebra is important, but so are athletics. If our goal is ‘college, career, and citizenship ready,’ Basketball is far more likely to help you with the latter two. Algebra wins for the first, but mostly that just means that doing math qualifies you to do harder math. Most of these kids are never going to be professional athletes. But neither are they likely to become professional mathematicians, or chemists, or historians, or novelists. The skills and knowledge gained in each of those realms nevertheless serve a larger good. They help to form a fuller, better, hopefully somewhat happier person.”

And they’re $#%&ing it up on purpose, and we’re going to Teacher Hell if we don’t make them stop.

That’s It This Week.

Take deep breaths, rejuvenate a bit this weekend, and then teach like you’re their only hope this coming week. Love them like no one else does. Push them like no one else has. Tap into all that experience and learnin’ you’ve got to try one more way to make those damn horses drink that water. 

Win or lose, short-term or long, at least we can say we left it all in the classroom. At least we can say we refused to let them be taken softly. 

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