Blue Serials (2/8/17)

February 8, 2017July 31, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

I haven’t been doing the weekly wrap-ups recently. I’m never quite sure whether anyone reads them, despite the consistently high quality of the goodies within!

But there’s simply been TOO MUCH quality edu-bloggery lately not to compile it and celebrate a bit. If you’ve been busy, or distracted by national shenanigans, or tuned out after the elections, this might be a good time to tune back in for a bit.

Because it’s February, and it’s starting.

Here’s what you simply SHOULD NOT HAVE MISSED recently from #OklaEd’s best thinkers, explainers, and ranters. God, I love these people and that… stuff they do with the words and point-making and such. It’s glorious.

Oklahoma Definitely Deserves Better – Rick Cobb, OKEducationTruths. #OklaEd

Cobb has never pulled punches, and there’s no indication he’ll be getting less grumpy anytime soon. After being accused of thuggery and non-existent bad behavior and banned from a school choice event a few weeks ago, he’s turned his sights to the new legislative session and the so-called “better plan” that was so trendy as a tool to crush SQ779 last November.

“You can peruse the list of donors who contributed this money (all between October 1 and December 31 of 2016). If you know any of these people (or work for any of the companies that contributed), maybe you can ask them about that better plan. I’d love to hear it.”

Yeah, wouldn’t we all. I’m pretty sure it’s a very concise plan, probably consisting of no more than two words directed towards teachers across the state. The first begins with ‘F’, the second with ‘Y’.

Peruse Cobb on the Twitters and see what else is on his mind. He’s the foundational source of all things #OklaEd and their implications.

Past, Future, and Present – Meghan Loyd, For The Love. #OklaEd

“The past two weeks have been the worst in my teaching career. I have worked crazy long hours, and then I come home and cry over it… I have allowed my emotional needs and hurt negatively impact my students. I want to build a positive culture, and I have done nothing of the sorts.

Then my college professor posted this on Facebook…”

Loyd waxes raw on the power of transparency, community, and encouragement. Loyd is our go-to unicorns and rainbows supplier on #oklaed, but she’s been wounded this year. Doubting. Angry. What she refuses to be is afraid, or silent. For the love, she keeps putting it out there.

Follow her on the Twitters and give a little of it back to her, but with donuts. She does still crave herself some donuts.

How The Chamber Killed Teacher Raises – Mindy Dennison, This Teacher Sings. #OklaEd

Dennison is done messing around. In this post, as with last week’s Better Find Someone To Blame, she’s calling out people and organizations by name and daring them to correct her.

“They solicited and spent almost a million dollars to deny my family a $5,000 raise, and simultaneously endangered the quality of education for 700,000 school children by contributing to the mass exodus of our teachers. If I had to guess how much money they throw into a campaign for their “better plan”, my guess is somewhere between $0 and $0.”

Hey, I’m on her side. Even if I weren’t though, I’d think twice before trying to play rhetorical games with her again.

Follow her on the Twitters and see what else she’s had enough of.

An Open Letter to Prospective Teachers – Rob Miller, A View From The Edge. #OklaEd

Seems like we should finish with some positives, doesn’t it? And that’s what this is, despite one of my favorite openings of the entire realm:

“If you are a young person just entering college, or perhaps a millennial or Gen X-er looking for a career change, you should definitely not consider a career as a public school teacher. Seriously, don’t do it.

Wasting your potential as a classroom teacher is a really bad idea. Do something else. Anything else.”

Not that Miller has been stuck on his own unicorn farm lately. He’s tackled some of the inane rhetoric of our own legislators and written numerous posts about the Trump Administration and the atrocity that is DeVos.

Fortunately, though, he’s still pretty good at finding those reasons to push on – or up, as the case may be. I hope whatever else happens, they don’t beat that out of him anytime soon.

Find Miller on the Twitters and see what else he’s pushing.

Books To Read As We Survive Trying Times – Claudia Swisher, Fourth Generation Teacher. #OklaEd

“I recently saw an observation that when Barack Obama was elected, sales of guns spiked… and now with the election of Donald Trump, we are seeing a resurgence in the sale of books. As a Reading for Pleasure teacher, I find that fascinating… and hopeful.”

Swisher presents the first of four lists of recommended reading for the days ahead. And belief that it can matter.

You gotta love that.

Find Swisher on the Twitters and let her know what YOU’RE reading to get through. Be careful, though – she’ll probably encourage you and stuff.

Alright my darlings, that’s it for this Special Edition of Blue Serials.

I’d tell you things are going to be OK, but I don’t know if that’s true. I’d tell you we can turn this around, but I don’t know if that’s true, either.

What I can tell you is that you are some of the best this fallen world has to offer. You are noble and funny and gracious and kind. Smarter than you think you are and mattering more than the ugly ones will admit.

Fight well, and in love and light. That’s the only kind of fight worth winning in the end.

Blue Serials (10/23/16)

October 22, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

I know, I know – so much. Too much. All busy. Things doing! Aaarghhghh!

Nonetheless, Here Are A Few Things You Simply SHOULD NOT MISS From Recent Edu-Bloggery…

The Long Game: Teaching As A Career, Not Just A Job – Christina Torres, on ChristinaTorres.org, talks about fighting weariness, staying alert, and maintaining that new teacher mojo even after you’ve developed veteran teacher chops.

I am still eager to give my students my best, and I still love my job. But after two years it’s much easier to become complacent with the routine of your classroom. You’re able to read the room better. You run into similar problems and pitfalls from the years before. Yes, the kids are different and wonderful and marvelous in their own way, but it’s easy to rest on your laurels and continue on your merry way down the path you forged for two years.
Just like any relationship, though, I am fighting stagnancy and complacency as much as I can. I don’t want to end up getting so burnt out and bored doing this work that I forget all the reasons I returned to the classroom in the first place…

Torres is one of the most genuine and reflective voices in the blogosphere today. I love everything about her at least twice. Follow @biblio_phile on Twitter and fall in love with her yourself.

2-Minute Zen: What’s Your Move? – Dan Tricarico, on The Zen Teacher. If you’re not yet familiar with TZT, you’re doing everything wrong. The ‘Zen’ thing is completely legit, but not nearly as weird as you’d hope.

Instead, Tricarico is ridiculously gifted and making your blood pressure go down and your awareness go up, just by telling you things you kinda already know in ways that sound so natural, but have such impact.

But the question, “What’s the one move I can make right now?” reminds me–in a mindful and present way–that even in a chaotic and overwhelming world, there is always ONE thing I can do. So now that’s my question to you: “What’s the one move you can make RIGHT NOW to create some focus, simplicity, and tranquility, either in your classroom or your life (or both!)?

He’s like Guinan’s counterpart in this time-space continuum.

If it sounds like I have a bit of a crush, you’re not far wrong. Follow @thezenteacher on Twitter and get your own Zen crush on. What’s the matter… chicken?! *makeschickennoises*

The Curse Of Our Online Lives – Bill Ferriter, on The Tempered Radical, has a confession to make. He’s been keeping up with the Presidential campaigns.

I find myself checking into both my news feeds and my social streams several times a day, waiting for another embarrassing revelation about the candidates. I chew through articles about illegal contributions to personal foundations, seedy relationships with high dollar donors or foreign leaders, appallingly misogynistic statements, and accusations of political manipulation…
The ever-present venom frightens me because it barely resembles the kind of open, honest discourse around controversial ideas that characterizes the strongest democracies. So how can we move forward together when we spend so much time spewing hate at one another?

This is both timely and thoughtful – not a surprise, given the source. Follow @plugusin on Twitter for more timely thoughtfulness and less cursing in your online life.

Stop the Blame Game: Teaching Students to Take Ownership – Chase Mielke, on Affective Living, talks real talk about our cultural swamp of blame and distancing ourselves from the least bit of agency in our own daily trudge. I should warn you, though, that while he’s certainly not blaming teachers, he won’t be letting you off the hook, either.

You can see the irony should you choose to get all defensive about it.

A second grader made me cringe the other day. I visited my wife’s class and a girl was showing the class her pictures from a recent soccer tournament. Someone asked how her team did. Her response?
“We got second place. BUT, we actually should have gotten first because the other team cheated and the refs were terrible.”
I cringed. Second grade and she is already building a habit of blaming. I got a dose of depression as I thought about how this blame habit could deepen as she ages…

Check out @chasemielke on Twitter. If you don’t, and end up missing something good as a result, that is SO TOTALLY ON YOU.

That’s all this weekend, my #11FF.

Stay focused, stay informed, and go in prepared for those down-ballot candidates and state questions and stuff. They in many ways matter more than whoever ends up winning the President thing that used to be a big deal.

Blue Serials (10/16/16)

October 15, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

I know a place, ain’t nobody cryin’. Ain’t nobody worried. No smilin’ faces, lyin’ to the races. I’ll take you there.

Mercy now – I’m callin’ callin’ callin’ mercy. Mercy mercy – let me. I’ll take you there.

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i know you’re tired, in more ways than a few. We’re all ready for the elections to just happen so we can get on with the inevitable Apocalypse and be done with it. But in the meantime, my darlings…

Here are a few things you simply must not miss from the past few weeks in Edu-Bloggery:

Is Your Classroom Academically Safe? – Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy. I almost overlooked this post. I’m not a fan of reminders to be warm and fuzzy, and as a teacher of high school freshmen I have limited patience for the “po’ bebbee” school of teacher-scolding.

But then this bit caught my eye:

Here’s where I start to get irritated. “So did you say something?” I ask. “Did you tell your teacher you didn’t understand?”
“No,” my kid says. Then she adds, “I didn’t want to get in trouble.”

THAT’s something I deal with every day. Kids so trained in the terror of being wrong that they either lock up and do nothing or stick with the safest possible non-answers and filler, perfectly formatted but accomplishing nothing. So I read the post.

Gonzalez wasn’t quite going the direction I anticipated, but she’s tricky like that. Here, she analyzes reasons kids don’t know what’s going on even when we’re positive we covered it eleventeen ways and gave every opportunity for them to ask. It’s not about teacher-blaming, and never about kid-shaming, but it is thought-provoking and… *sigh* OK, I’ll admit it. It was a bit warm’n’fuzzy as well – but in practical ways, dammit!

Get practical with @cultofpedagogy on the twittering and let her provoke you as well.

Stranger Things and the Upside Down World – Scott Haselwood, Teaching From Here. Haselwood has a passion for #edtech, mathematics, and kids. In his world, however, the first two are always about reaching, challenging, and uplifting the third.

It’s what keeps my eyes from crossing every time he’s all excited about another app. Instead, we’re practically mothers of a different brother. Or… something like that.

In this post, Haselwood starts with the Netflix Series “Stranger Things,” talks classroom realities a generation ago and today, and ends up on the importance of saving kids from the big darkness. I know it sounds odd, but I assure you – it comes together just fine. The video clip from the show is creepy as hell, but other than that – bring in the unicorns.

Follow @TeachFromHere on the twittering and get frightened-yet-enlightened on a regular basis. #oklaed

Because You Like Me… – Rob Miller, A View From The Edge. Is it important for your students to like you? Is it important for you to like your students?

While neither of these are goals in and of themselves, Miller thinks they matter. And he makes a pretty good case, with the grace and deftness we’ve come to expect from pretty much everything he writes.

Follow @edgeblogger on the twittering and get graced up and defted out on a regular basis. For realsies. #oklaed

Why Are Teachers So Stressed? – Peter Greene, Curmudgucation. Greene is perhaps edu-bloggery’s most prolific and pithy watchdog when it comes to ed-reformy nonsense, political b.s., and every other assault on actual learning, equity, and life-not-sucking for all the little children.

It’s easy to take for granted where he’s going with some of his favorite topics, but you risk missing the richness in so much of what he says. It’s like listening to music – sure, you can have it playing while you work on something else, but sometimes you’ve just gotta stop and close your eyes to hear it fully. THIS is a post you should stop and process fully.

Although, I mean – obviously you’ll have to have your eyes open to do that. Let’s not take the analogy too far.

Follow @palan57 on the twittering and keep processing.

5 Helpful Answers To Society’s Most Uncomfortable Questions – David Wong, Cracked.com. This one breaks several rules of the weekly roundup.

First, it’s over a year old. But I just discovered it this week, and I’d argue it has fresh relevance and will probably (and unfortunately) remain relevant for some time to come.

Second, it’s not really an edu-blog post. It’s not by an educator. It’s not even school-appropriate. Which leads me to…

Third. Oh the potty mouth! Tsk tsk. Unforgivable vulgarity. Must have been brought up in public schooling. You’ve been warned.

What Wong tackles here, though, are some of the more antagonistic questions of our day – generally posed by those holding top slots in society’s power structures, and annoyed at what they perceive to be stone-throwing from below.

So, even when personal choices finally come into play, you’re still choosing within that framework — you can choose between becoming a poet or a software engineer, but only because you were raised in a world in which other people had already invented both poetry and computers. That means every single little part of your life — every action, every choice, every thought, every emotion, every plan for the future, everything that you are and do and can potentially be — is the result of things other people did in the past.

Look, just go read the thing. Have I ever led you astray before? And follow @JohnDiesattheEn on the twittering for more thoughtfulness disguised as snarky humor flung your way like truth poo.

That’s it this week my beloved #11FF.

I’m trying not to talk #OKElections16 in the weekly wrap-ups, but please educate yourself and those around you and advocate for thoughtful voting – especially at the state level.

You’re doing more than you realize, and better than you think. I promise.

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Blue Serials (10/2/16)

September 30, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

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Here Are A Few Things You Absolutely Should Not Miss From The Past Week (Or So) in Edu-Bloggery!

Read them, dammit. It’s for your own good.

Walking in Circles – Rob Miller on A View From The Edge. Miller is the master of the simple analogy that sucks you in, then spins you around before you realize you’ve been profoundulated.

As humans, we have a tendency to travel in circles in quite a few areas, in particular education and education reform.
If you asked education reformers if the emphasis on test-based accountability in schools over the past 20 years has moved us forward, they would likely respond, “Of course, we have made significant progress,” followed by the caveat that “but, we still have work to do.”
The reality is we have spent the last 20 years in education walking in a circle. In fact, I could also make a strong argument that we have moved backwards.

Follow @edgeblogger on the Tweeting and spend less time going in circles. #oklaed

Black Eyes and Dark Ages – Amanda Wilson on Running Through Elementary. Wilson is always passionate about her kids and her profession, but she’s usually fairly… well, balanced compared to the rest of us.

That is, until the Tulsa World and the OCPA broke into her happy place and harshed on all her mellow.

Well, now that the cat is out of the bag, I guess we’ll just have to talk about all the cuts they’ve made and tax breaks they’ve given out, but are just stumped as to how to pay for education and other state necessities. Can someone please explain to them just how this works? That in order to pay for things, money has to be coming in?
What are they doing over there at the Capitol? Are they running around looking for a leprechaun and his pot of gold? I just don’t get it. Clearly, they don’t either. But how dare we point out how inadequate they are at balancing budgets!

In Wilson’s defense, the OCPA does have a gift for playing that sweet, innocent, we-were-just-trying-to-help-when-we-pillaged-your-village-and-took-your-virgins angle. Think Kyle Loveless, but with unlimited funding and better social media.

Follow @runningthruelem on the Tweeting and gelp Wilson get back to her happy place. That way it’s all the more fun when something sets her off again. #oklaed

How Do Our Own Biases Affect our Media Literacy? / My Bias is Better Than Your Bias – Julie Smith and Art La Flamme on HeyJulieSmith.com. Julie Smith is a media literacy guru who’s fairly new to me. Based on perusing her site, she’s more about the practical and the pondering than stirring up artificial panic or cheesy PSAs about stranger-danger cyber-style. La Flamme is a guest-blogger for Smith, although he has a blog of his own which seems to be about… other things?

Smith wrote the first piece featured this week and La Flamme the second. They flow together seemlessly, and their timing couldn’t be better. I’ve essentially been trying to write these posts or something very much like them as #OKElections16 nears, but I lack the expertise and comfort with the subject matter that they both clearly possess.

By and far, one of the biggest stumbling blocks that we all wrestle with – but lose sight of – is the great pitfall that we call the confirmation trap. We are always looking for information that supports or even just confirms what we think is true, and we specifically make no effort to try to find evidence that disproves what we think is true. Hard work is only hard if we do it; otherwise, it’s totally easy.

I’m certain YOU never do any of the things they detail, but you might want to send this to everyone you know who DOES. New evidence shows that’s just what the Koch Brothers and secret pal Hillary DON’T want you to do!

Follow @julnilsmith and @artlaflamme on the Tweeting before Trump shuts down the internet to gain sexual favors from ‘Val’ Putin – FBI documents PROVE IT’S TRUE!

Universal Pre-K, Open Enrollment, Millennial Parents, and City Living / The New Reformers: City-Loving Millennials Who Want Quality Schools Not Tied to Their ZIP Code – Conor P. Williams on NewAmerica.org and The74Million.org.

Williams is one of those guys who seems genuinely likeable, but still manages to piss off an interesting variety of folks on edu-twitter. You can see why I’m so drawn to him.

In these closely related pieces, he looks at school choice systems and well-intentioned millenials vs. the irresistable gravity of using privilege as, well… privilege.

The future of education reform will involve thinking hard about whether the reform-y policies that these new urban residents favor are still working in the service of equity. That is, while these new urban parents are open to these sorts of reforms, they’re also going to be interested in finding ways to massage these systems into protecting their privilege.
This is not abstract. As each lottery season passes, I hear frustrated white parents grumble on the playground that all this open enrollment of schools is unfair, and that there oughta be a law to force our area’s high-performing charter schools to enroll the (increasingly wealthy, privileged) neighborhood children.
In this sense, millennials are no different from any other generation of parents: They might like the idea of justice in theory, but when it comes to their own children, they quickly revert to thinly veiled justifications for protecting their own privileges.

Follow @conorpwilliams on the Tweeting and prepare to have any number of reactions to his comments. You’ll be surprised how many of them will be rather positive.

OK: Teach Like A Robot – Peter Greene, Curmudgucation. How DID I miss this in the news this past week? Damn you, #OKElections16 and #DebateNight!

I forget that just because something has been shown to be a horrible idea doesn’t mean it goes away – only that it costs more when we do it anyway. On a lighter note, I fell in edu-love with @1amyberard because she wasn’t Tom Brady, so there’s the “Dwarves can work with Erudites to defeat Voldemort” effect as a kind of silver lining, I guess…

See, in normal coaching, a principal watches a teacher and then it is hours, or even days, before the teacher gets the feedback. But in real time coaching, the coach directs the teacher through an earpiece, presumably because the technology to simply control her body from a distance does not yet exist…
The real time nature of the coaching is actually a bug, not a feature. If I’m coaching another teacher, after I’ve watched the lesson, I’ll need at least a few minutes to reflect. In the real time moment, I’m pretty much limited to the instant thought of What I Would Do, or, if I’ve been trained in a particular method, the One Correct Response to that situation. Either response devalues and dismisses that teacher’s own teaching voice.
It’s just silly to say that there is One Correct Way to teach a particular lesson, irregardless of the teacher or the class involved. It makes no more sense than saying there is One Correct Way to be a spouse, irregardless of who is your partner.

Follow @palan57 on the Tweeting or you risk seriously annoying at least some of the voices already in your head.

That’s it this week, my beloved #11FF…

You are now the most informed, thoughtful, brazen educators in the land. Might as well walk with a little extra strut this weekend and let it shine. Partin’ lips, shakin’ hips and flippin’ your hair…

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Blue Serials (9/25/16)

September 24, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

All the words are gonna bleed from me, and I will think no more…

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OK, that’s probably a tad melodramatic for my taste most days – but I do really like this particular cover. You know I’m a sucker for hopeless defiance – flinging our little flashlights towards the black holes screaming obscenities somehow rooted in love.

*sigh*

The thing is, if enough people bring flashlights…

With that in mind, here are a few things you simply MUST NOT MISS from the world of edu-bloggery this past week (or so). Bask in them, learn from them, argue with them if you must – but bring your flashlight to the party.

We’ll have a grand ol’ time for a few glorious moments before being crushed by the weight of the darkness.

Self-Grading / Formative Assessments – Anthony Purcell, Random Teacher Thoughts. Purcell resumes his random postery this school year with some relatively straightforward but crazy-important thoughts on grading and assessments. Is it just me, or is it getting all reflective up in here?

It’s so easy in edu-bloggery or in any pedagogi-ful competition (and let’s be honest – that’s what many “trainings” quickly become) to become consumed with the fanciest ideas or the most pretentious goals. Often what’s most needed and far better for kids is to remind ourselves of simple things we might already know, but which slip away in the craziness of the actual school year and the trappings of academia.

I’m glad he’s back. Follow @MrP_Tchr on the Twitterings and be glad with me. #oklaed

Today Was A Good Day – Speaking of people we’re glad to see back in the blogosphere, Kas Nelson of A Principal’s Pace is apparently alive and well.

As the title of her blog suggests, Nelson is one of them there “administrators” who we keep hearing make way too much money and there’s like 800,000 of them in every district and we’d all be better off if we did away with everyone other than classroom teachers because nothing needs to be done in school other than close the door and inspire the masses.

None of which she complains about or addresses here. That’s just me carrying on.

Today, I was present. Today, there were challenges. Today, I learned something about a student… Today, I shared my love of reading with kids. Today, I felt stress, at times… Today, I remained positive, and let my joy come through on my face and in my actions. Today was a good day.

As I said, it’s not about the biggest words or the loftiest classroom philosophy. Remember to turn on your flashlight.

Flash @kasnelson on the Twittering and bask in her light as well. That’s how edu-Twitter works, people. #oklaed

Compulsory Education is Evil – Crispin Sartwell on Splice Today. Oh, calm down. No, he’s not kidding. Yes, I really liked this piece. No, I don’t exactly agree with him.

But one of the best indicators of how comfortable we are with our own proclaimed values and beliefs is how quickly we spazz out when someone disagrees with them. If this brief argument makes you twitch and drool, perhaps it suggests that on some level you find it… persuasive? Difficult to consider? Almost kinda sexy, but with hairy legs?

As to the egalitarian justifications, elementary and some secondary education has been compulsory in all states of the union for 100 years. Has the effect actually been egalitarian? I think rather the reverse, and the “dysfunctions” of schools in poor areas have been criticized and reformed in every generation, persisting or expanding throughout… How many waves of reform will it take before we declare the strategy to be a failure?

You may not like his conclusions, but you gotta love anything that hurts that much to read. You don’t want to read the rest? Whatsa matter? Chiiiickennnn? *makeschickennoises*

Stalk @CrispinSartwell on the Twittering and see what else he says that horrifies you into brief flashes of clarity.

Fear of a Black Educator, Part 1 / Fear of a Black Educator, Part 2 – Jose Vilson, on TheJoseVilson.com. I’m not even sure how to introduce these.

I don’t always understand Vilson. I’m not sure I can – our worlds are simply too different and our experiences so far removed. I’m also pretty sure he’s smarter than me, which I like – but which means he sometimes loses me without even meaning to. But this pair hit me, rather hard.

You’re asked to control kids who look like you, but don’t get too good at it because you’ll look like you have more power than the person in charge does. You’re asked to tell kids they shouldn’t feel anger and hurt over racist incidents that happened to them in plain sight. Instead, you’re asked to put them in an auditorium and tell them they misremembered it all, and every agent of the state works in their best interest. You’re asked to stick to the script, sometimes figuratively because the test scores are low and your staff needs work, or literally because your district lead thought it best to buy a curriculum-in-a-box from a company that obviously didn’t consult many current teachers…
You looked into dozens of children’s eyes today and told them that they’re allowed to dream because one of your heroes said so. This hero met a similar fate to the victims in the videos you’ve been watching.

Damn.

Vilson doesn’t claim to represent every Teacher of Color or offer solutions to every challenge faced by every student. Part of what I most appreciate about him is his determination to stay honest, and tell only his stories and those of others he’s qualified to tell. Even as he became something of an #educolor celebrity, his voice remains genuine and a bit raw. In case there’s any doubt, I mean that in the best possible way.

Follow @TheJLV on the Twittering. I can’t promise it will always be fun, but I can guarantee that you’ll be stretched – maybe even inspired.

Hermione Granger: More Than a Sidekick – Sarah Gailey on TOR.com. TOR isn’t exactly an edu-blog and Gailey isn’t technically an educator. But…

OMG how in love am I with this post?

Does anyone in the Harry Potter universe stand in more direct opposition to Voldemort than Hermione Granger does? …
She’s a muggle-born witch who arrives at Hogwarts prepared to dominate magic. She’s enormously ambitious, but consistently seeks to elevate others when she could easily let them fail. She walks beside Harry even when doing so means putting up with relentless scorn from the people who waver between hating him and worshiping him…
She stands up against a centuries-long institution of interspecies slavery, even when doing so means that everyone she cares about will laugh at her… She chooses her causes over her ambitions every time, and she swallows the consequences because they’re worth it to her.

This piece made me glow and smile and tremble a bit and literally tear up and I want to have its babies.

If you think it doesn’t have anything to do with education, then you’re missing something pretty important in the mix. But even without that, if you’ve ever loved me, or yourself, or anyone, or pizza, read this and send it to anyone remotedly interested in – well, anything.

As of today, I’m following @gaileyfrey on the Twittering and hoping she doesn’t find my sudden adoration alarmingly creepy.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted much about #OKElections16 this week, or shared anything along those lines in this weekly recap. I’m not done with the election, however much I wish I were. There’s more coming soon. In the meantime, we’ll close this week with a video that I strongly suspect was made with Oklahoma politics in mind. I can’t prove this, of course, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

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I feel so extraordinary. Something’s got a hold on me. I get this feeling I’m in motion – A sudden sense of liberty…

Feel extraordinary, my darlings. You are in all kinds of motion. Fling those flashlights and curse that darkness – who cares what comes next? The rest is madness.