tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31547176644296685732024-02-18T21:08:53.082-08:00After the ReturnAnalysis from the Heart to Defend and Transform. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-48758428416370675252017-12-17T15:31:00.000-08:002017-12-17T15:31:34.332-08:00Teaching Theater / Building Empathy
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal">
This past week ended the Monologue Unit in my Theater Intro
classes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the past month, students have been working on understanding
how to interpret their monologues and embody their characters. They’ve been
using mini-lessons that I present to find the thought/emotion shifts that exist
within their scripts, establish a clear “moment before” the words even come out
of their mouths so as to develop urgency and purpose for their characters,
figure out what characters are trying to <b>do </b>through the words they’re speaking. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Basically, I’ve been trying to move them from being a teenager reading some
words on a page to an actual character living, thinking, feeling, and
expressing some moment of their world to us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it’s been
awesome! Lots of laughter, tears, applause,
snaps of encouragement to help them when they freeze up onstage, and a feedback
session of supportive comments for each actor after they perform. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I love being a
theater teacher. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This year, 2
students decided to write their own original pieces, instead of using one of
the hundreds that I make available.
Since it’s not a creative writing class and I don’t have the class time
to go in-depth about quality playwriting, I normally try to get them to just
find one written by someone else. That way, they are focusing more on the
acting and interpretation skills that I’m teaching. But these girls were insistent, so I allowed
them the space to perform their original work. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first girl, Sierra*,
performed a monologue from the perspective of a Black mother whose son had been
murdered by the police. She demonstrated
deep emotions, and spoke into the room the pain, anger, and steely recognition
of the ubiquity of police killings of young Black people. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second girl,
Aaliyah, performed a piece she had been working on since last year, about the
murder of her younger brother. She
quietly shared her story, body shaking and fighting back tears, spelling out
her journey of hatred, a want for revenge, and a desire to move toward
acceptance and forgiveness. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the room
changed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We were silent. We were crying. We wanted to share with one another. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One guy, who had
lost 2 of his friends this year to shootings, said that it really hit
him hard. He had been coping with his
loss this year by actively not facing his emotions, but that Aaliyah’s story
was bringing up everything he knew he felt.
He recognized that she must have put herself deeply into her feelings,
and he, being scared of doing just that same thing, was incredibly proud of her
her for doing it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Several other boys in the class agreed with him, faces tensed
up, tears brewing just beneath the surface.
A few shared that they also had lost people who were shot on the streets
of our city, and that they never got enough space or time to process their
feelings. They were expressing a reluctant gratitude for getting time with
their emotions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We passed them the Kleenex box. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another girl, tears
streaming down her face, shared that Aaliyah’s monologue made her think about
her own brother. “He’s getting into dumb stuff,” she shared with us. “Reacting
without thinking. Getting into fights. I’m
so scared for him. I want him to think. I don’t want him to get killed.” We hugged her, and she agreed to go home and talk
to him about these feelings that had just been made clear to her. Instead of “nagging,”
she wanted to be honest with him about her love and fear for him. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The guy who played the role of the white cop during Sierra’s
scene said that he was moved by having to stand there, silent and uncaring, while
she expressed her feelings of rage and loss.
He said that he realized that that’s actually how some white police officers
act, and that he had a visceral reaction of anger that they could care so
little. He said, “I don’t ever want
another Black mother to have to go through that experience.” It was powerful that he was pushed in his own
perspective as a white person by Sierra’s words. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I thanked these 2
young women. I told them that their
words and performances offered us a gift of their vulnerability, and it had
moved us, as a community, through an opening into our own vulnerability. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we perform for
one another, I always make my students put away their phones, saying, “For the
next __ minutes, we will be participating in our shared humanity.” It had become, in some ways, a little joke in
the class. But this week’s performances
showed us that is exactly what we’re doing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is the point of
theater, of getting in front of a group of people and showing a slice of life,
of expressing our shared humanity. At a
time when our young people are seeing a deep lack of humanity playing out in
the public discourse of our country, when many economic and socio-political decisions
are being made that, in fact, undercut the prioritizing of a shared humanity, I
feel even more committed to holding these spaces for them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This week, many students said that they felt more connected
to one another, that they had more empathy for what others are going
through. One said, “This is exactly why
I love coming to this class.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I couldn’t agree more. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
* Names have been changed.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-70398163697496454202016-06-30T14:51:00.000-07:002016-08-26T07:10:09.368-07:00When our Hearts Fall upon Deaf Ears; A Call to Switch Up our Strategy<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVIs3WMSDvGpKxWzBB23tZ9FV4-hISAIQxPwqp5nXYdE1x5zannDKbL5JjdHVOagvB-stvTDkjQ6UCuuxBsDdj0gwx4wqhcq1npSxjUb2O0kpRMX94sVHY3dDDaeS-E96DUbRT3ynPEd4/s1600/PA_AROS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVIs3WMSDvGpKxWzBB23tZ9FV4-hISAIQxPwqp5nXYdE1x5zannDKbL5JjdHVOagvB-stvTDkjQ6UCuuxBsDdj0gwx4wqhcq1npSxjUb2O0kpRMX94sVHY3dDDaeS-E96DUbRT3ynPEd4/s320/PA_AROS.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo: PAROS</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Went to Harrisburg again yesterday. Again meaning, I again put on my same red T-shirt and again went on the bus full of chatty kids and sleepy elders and eloquent preachers, to again pack the steps of the grand rotunda full with our cries for Full Funding for Public Education because, again, the State Assembly is voting on a budget. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am not a policy wonk, much to the dismay of my ever-so-wishful father. I am more of a feeler, breather, decipherer of a fuller humanistic/political context. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-54bc0366-c3a0-f74c-c3ff-3ece8ad38c49" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<b id="docs-internal-guid-54bc0366-c3a0-f74c-c3ff-3ece8ad38c49" style="font-weight: normal;"></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, while I can’t rattle off the numbers for pension holding givebacks, I can tell you that the purpose of the Pennsylvania State House is to hold onto the power of having power. And the purpose of our ritual visits is to try to evoke pity from those men in suits who are comfortable enough to never have to look our kids in the eye.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s what I felt stuffed onto that marble stairway, shouting “400 million! 400 million!” as student after student of color got on the mic to detail the deplorable conditions of their schools and the sub-standard quality of their hands-off educations. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As our voices echoed up into the ornate dome, in the halls of state power, white men in suits bustled about about with self-importance, tanned smiles and unnatural comb-overs, all shaking hands and congratulating each other on a swifter budget process than last year. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But not listening.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And no amount of a collared preacher pointing down at the babies, detailing these kids’ survival through the traumas of poverty, with incarcerated parents and food scarcity and crumbling schools, will change those men’s fiscal maneuvers. Those appeals, meant to somehow soften the hardened heart of some Alleghany County Republican off wheeling deals to cut corporate taxes and take home a little pork for his home district, those appeals won’t be listened to or cared about. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4U8jQ3y2qzHNKFeQXQPMCMUM23n7fHtaLe6yU0Ee4ojYsJtVopYK5j6a4PZh-aj1jS4ABDtPcUoPPOSvrxn1tHdBXJwHAyScJoN6WEk5bvNXOK1ooYgB5W7Pnki4qkB-A6y0XZDlUrw/s1600/18919364-mmmain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4U8jQ3y2qzHNKFeQXQPMCMUM23n7fHtaLe6yU0Ee4ojYsJtVopYK5j6a4PZh-aj1jS4ABDtPcUoPPOSvrxn1tHdBXJwHAyScJoN6WEk5bvNXOK1ooYgB5W7Pnki4qkB-A6y0XZDlUrw/s320/18919364-mmmain.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo: Carolyn Kaster</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Returning back to Philly, I don’t question the intent, commitment or love of our gathering. I question our strategy:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the place of going to Harrisburg to tell these stories of neglect and disrepair? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Should our target really be in the hearts of those who have been the cause of our neglect? Or should the target be, not their hearts, but their soft, insulated, safe lifestyles? Disruption of their business as usual. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do we force those who would prefer, instead, to relax on their sectional sofas to pay attention to the suffering taking place down the interstate from their own decisions. How do we force their hand, their vote, their giving up of something? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yesterday, each and every young person who got on the mic on that marble stairway said, “At my school, there is not clean drinking water.” </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And that is it. That is everything. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have failed. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When children say to us that they don’t have water to drink, then, bottom line, we have failed as a society. And I refer to something bigger than just the failure of our so-called leaders to pass a budget. We have actually failed as humans. And we need to, each one of us, myself included, recognize this failure sooner rather than later, so that we can be led by something greater than electoral strategy or partisan pettiness, and actually do something about it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We need to listen. Really listen to these young people’s testimony of their lived realities. And then zero in on how our stomachs feel. The pounding of the blood in our ears. The dryness in our throats and the uneasy itch over our palms. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the feeling that we have a responsibility to one another that we, as a collective body, have neglected to fulfill. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> That feeling tells us that we have a deeper embodied knowledge of how neighbors treat neighbors. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And we need to act from that knowledge instead of allowing for the political charade we call the State Assembly of Pennsylvania, where white men are paid to scurry by, not listening to 8 year-old boys deliver the clear, searing words that spell out these politicians’ criminal neglect.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To quote cultural critic Hoyt Fuller, back in 1971: “The facts of Negro life accuse white people. In order to look at Negro life unflinchingly, the white viewer [legislator] either must relegate it to the realm of the subhuman, thereby justifying an attitude of indifference, or else the white viewer [legislator] must confront the imputation of guilt against him. And no man who considers himself humane wishes to admit complicity in crimes against the human spirit.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I suppose that is why most of those white men in suits don’t come into the rotunda while we’re there. Are, in fact, nowhere to be found. Refuse to take in the words that spell their own moral void, deep complicity, and profound guilt. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The facts of these young people’s lives and schooling </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">should</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> accuse white people. And from that accusation, each and every one of us/them needs to decide, in the words of the </span><a href="http://www.dreamdefenders.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dream Defenders</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the </span><a href="https://policy.m4bl.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Movement for Black Lives</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Which side of history are you on? Either move toward the responsibility of meeting our collective needs, of repairing historical harm of decades of disinvestment and structural racism, or get the f**k out the way and sink yourself and your lineage further into spiritual depravity. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are </span><a href="https://policy.m4bl.org/about/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">actual leaders </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">prepared to do the work that needs to be done. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">State Congressman, enough is enough. It’s time to cough up the keys to the castle – on this, specifically, vis-à-vis the appropriations committee – and deliver what is rightly owed to these Black and Brown children living in Philadelphia.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And for the rest of us, we need to be moved by our deeper understanding that a more humane, people-oriented society is possible, is on its way, and we need to put our individual and collective energies into the hard work, along whatever front we are oriented, toward that transformation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That is what this moment asks of us. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is urgent and necessary to step into a shifted strategy. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Anything less is a continued failure of our shared humanity. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">++++++</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fuller, Hoyt. “Towards a Black Aesthetic.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">S.O.S. – Calling All Black People: A Black</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arts Movement Reader. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ed. John Bracey, Sonia Sanchez, James Smethurst. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">University of Massachusetts Press. 2014. 179-84. Print. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-50012564513167609952016-04-19T14:10:00.000-07:002016-08-19T14:11:35.223-07:00Talking During Class: Student-Centered Discussions <div class="MsoNormal">
Today some of my colleagues and I were discussing how to
cultivate students who can engage in classroom discussions that are
interesting, purposeful and function to actually unearth something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to offer up some of the practices I
use in my classroom that facilitate that type of student discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the beginning of the year, I first set the expectation around discussion in our classroom: it is a vehicle to generate,
build upon, and push their own and their classmates’ ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not just a time to skate on by while a
couple precocious students give their thoughts to the teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>It’s one of the methods of discovery in our
classroom.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Before beginning a discussion, I always direct them to the
Discussion Sentence Starters posted on the classroom wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I encourage them to use these to help them share
their own thoughts, as well as to continue off of someone else’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This forces them to <i>listen</i> as much as speak,
since the expectation is that they will connect their ideas to something someone
else has already contributed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the beginning of some school years, I’ve even given
participation credit for using a “discussion sentence starter” in class, thus incentivizing
their use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Shout out to the amazing <a href="http://www.masterenglishteachers.com/home/" target="_blank">Melissa Koh</a>, a San Francisco-based ELA educator and teacher coach, who got me
excited about scaffolding these social/soft skills for students.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sometimes, though, even while my intention around classroom
discussion is to open up the space for more student voice and exchange, I still
retain the (false) sense that I have to “run things,” because, as the teacher,
I am the ultimate curator of all learning within the classroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, even if my intentions are to facilitate an open class discussion, having me as the hub to their
conversational spokes actually limits what they say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, perhaps, limits <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> they communicate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
more importantly, limits their ability to direct a conversation down the paths
of inquiry and discovery that most meet their needs in that moment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So, last week, I attempted a Socratic Seminar-style
discussion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had finally finished our
novel, <i>Kindred</i> by Octavia Butler, and there was a lot to talk about. We
got into one huge circle (of 33, no less!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I went through the overview of the protocols:<o:p></o:p></div>
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As much as possible, I was not going to speak at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They needed to figure out how to keep the
discussion going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got 2 grades for
the discussion: 1 based on their individual contributions, and 1 based on how
well they, as a whole, functioned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three
people talking to each other while the rest of us kick back and passively watch
does NOT make for a high quality discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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I asked them how to get more people involved (“We could ask someone a
question.”), and how to make it flow well (“We
could say, ‘Adding on to what so-and-so said,’ to keep things going.”)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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And we were off!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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We went around the circle first with a general “go around”
question about the book that everyone could/must answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That way, the initial friction of moving from
silence into voice had already been overcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then, I posted a series of different questions they could use to prompt
themselves on the discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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At first they raised their hands and waited for me to call
on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just sat silently, with my
pen and clipboard ready to trace their discussion on my diagram, and
waited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They sort of looked around at
each other, their eyes questioning what should happen, until someone took
leadership and began talking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would
later have to keep reminding each other, “She’s not going to call on you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can just talk.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And eventually they stopped looking at me for
my reaction and started communicating with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Sure, there were a couple undoubtedly dumb moments (and I say
this with lots of love in my heart) where they wandered down discussion threads that
felt like a rabbit hole of wasted time, but then someone would inevitably come
in to redirect the class toward something new – one redirection even caused classroom-wide laughter,
a release valve as everyone was thankful that they could move on from the
subject at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The method forced them
to take on leadership for the good of the community, forced them to take risks and
say something that mattered, that questioned, that analyzed, that theorized. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One moment that stood out the most was when a girl read us
something from the readers guide in the back of the novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It wasn’t assigned, but she just needed to
continue to read more words in the book even after the story was completed, she
loved it so much.) She said, “I’m sorry if I wasn’t supposed to, but here’s
what I found out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was about the
trauma of the story and how it all connects at the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wrote it down. Octavia Butler said that she
‘didn’t let Dana come back all the way whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dana couldn’t keep her arm because the Antebellum South doesn’t leave us
fully whole.'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t come back from
that experience fully whole.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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And the entire room shifted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was palpable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'll admit that I got chills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Classmates looked at each
other – not to me – and said, “Whoa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That gives me a whole new interpretation of this entire story.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>The format had given permission for the
conversation to deviate and meander, to scavenge and offer up, to question and
nourish one another. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they were in
control. </b><o:p></o:p></div>
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It was beautiful at times and awkward at other times, but as
a whole, it felt like one of the most authentically “student-centered”
discussions in my class this year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I absolutely recommend others use this strategy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can see the thread of discussion plotted
out below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All 3 classes had about a 50%
participation rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re going to aim
for 75% next time!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shout out to my <a href="http://tagphilly.org/" target="_blank">Teacher Action Group</a> colleague, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/yaimiebell/" target="_blank">Jaimie Stevenson</a>, who showed me how she used the Socratic Seminar discussion method in
her middle school classroom! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here is another great resource for doing student-led
discussions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.detroitfutureschools.org/the-guide-to-humanizing-schooling/#post-1014" target="_blank">Detroit Future Schools<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Guide to Humanizing School </span></a> A few of us in TAG-Philly are going to do some peer-led Professional Development on it. Comment below with your email (or get in touch directly, if you know me) if you're interested. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-18025453998340891652015-04-13T19:17:00.003-07:002015-04-13T19:17:58.487-07:00In Joyful Solidarity with the Fight For 15 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXSWJhqfZ8NvhRtslg3cYtdFYImbCFwXYRLFZA0AbtOTZ9dT4CfzZVDV4I-y7bT3nKf5AKzU5g8LBoxyOIBdM73MNKdBiMmXEdUf27645HA99hgDZ8J1mJ1Lco1AIQtv__PHF6_F2FgUA/s1600/Fight-for-15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXSWJhqfZ8NvhRtslg3cYtdFYImbCFwXYRLFZA0AbtOTZ9dT4CfzZVDV4I-y7bT3nKf5AKzU5g8LBoxyOIBdM73MNKdBiMmXEdUf27645HA99hgDZ8J1mJ1Lco1AIQtv__PHF6_F2FgUA/s1600/Fight-for-15.png" height="118" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have you heard about the <a href="http://april15.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Fight For 15</a>? </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is a <a href="http://philly15now.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">campaign</a> of low-wage workers who are fighting for $15/hour and the right to form a union. In their own words, they are "<span style="color: black; line-height: 24px;">fast food cashiers and cooks, retail employees, child care workers, adjunct professors, home care providers, and airport workers who work for corporations that generate </span><span style="color: black; line-height: 24px;">tremendous profits, but don’t pay employees enough to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent, and transportation."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What started as a small spark of a couple hundred workers in NYC in 2012 has grown into a massive movement of people throughout the country and around the world claiming their right to earn a decent living, instead of settling for poverty wages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From my vantage as a teacher in the Philadelphia public schools, the Fight for 15 campaigners are not just fierce workers organizing for a better employment situation; rather, they are whole people -- the families of my students, the residents of my school community, the former graduates of my classroom. And I am going to show up this <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/585895441546593/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Wednesday, April 15</a>, to join with thousands of Philadelphians and march in support of the Fight For 15. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You should be there too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've ever taught a student who didn't have secure housing, enough food to eat, or regular health care because their family didn't have the money -- you should be there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've ever had to wake up a groggy student in class who was up late working a low paying service job to help out with the bills in their family -- you should be there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've ever had a student tell you they didn't do their homework or couldn't participate in an afterschool club because they have to take care of their younger siblings while their parents are out at their 2nd or 3rd jobs just to scrape by -- you should be there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And more broadly:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've ever benefitted by having union protection and/or a collectively bargained contract -- you should be there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've ever done the math and realize that a family just cannot survive on $7.25/hour -- you should be there. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've joined in the recent protests and movement work directed toward racial justice, demanding that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/business/movement-to-increase-mcdonalds-minimum-wage-broadens-its-tactics.html?_r=0" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Black Lives Matter</a> -- you should be there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am humbled and inspired by the courageousness of this action -- not simply to strike on Wednesday -- but to insist that we, as workers, as a city, as a whole society, can join in collective action to push back against a deeply inequitable economic system and instead build toward a changed future that prioritizes people over profit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Things will kick off at the McDonald's on Broad and Arch at 3pm, and will then march through the city toward 30th Street Station. The Caucus of Working Educators will have an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/760284690752273/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">educator solidarity meet-up spot</a> at 4pm at the SE corner of 30th and Market. </span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-72005646881348121092015-03-02T08:35:00.001-08:002015-03-10T18:09:18.311-07:00Students Blogging -- Work from our 9th grade Poetry Unit Over the past decade of teaching, I've recognized that the best work my students create happens when there is an "authentic audience" to showcase what they've learned: Speech contests. PenPal exchanges. Staged performances. Guest judges.<br />
<br />
And thanks to the internet, we can now add: Online Publishing. <br />
<br />
Last week, the students in my 9th grade class culminated our month-long poetry unit by creating blogs -- wholly written, designed, and revised by each one of them. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibqosYViKhl3WHdMI18z0_hXQAkroJ73WkugmfT6gaMPu74ExUhJX8Ig67m8_oNTU5FxFXM9qMZK_8cs-roWBykxF1XXAhog1wVZxSa_3k3eoWRkUZ-E7krVYxWybLEqCYdtl-8_BJ87M/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-02+at+1.11.17+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibqosYViKhl3WHdMI18z0_hXQAkroJ73WkugmfT6gaMPu74ExUhJX8Ig67m8_oNTU5FxFXM9qMZK_8cs-roWBykxF1XXAhog1wVZxSa_3k3eoWRkUZ-E7krVYxWybLEqCYdtl-8_BJ87M/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-02+at+1.11.17+PM.png" height="161" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
I used to use glogster webpages, but they became slightly clunky, and, dare I say, a little corny. I figured that 21st century literacy ABSOLUTELY has a place in this generation's English classroom, so we used the blogger platform. <br />
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As is often the case when students get to tackle something that feels "real" to them, where they have autonomy in the design choices and get to "scale up" according to their own skills and aspirations, they rise to the challenge with excitement.<br />
<br />
One girl, who has been slumping along this year, exclaimed, "This is the best project we've done all year!" Another, whose first language is not English and has been having a challenging time in my class, ran up to me, smiling, saying, "I didn't realize I loved <a href="http://megeputri.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">writing poetry</a>!" <br />
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For a week, students were buzzing with activity - helping each other revise their words, design their layouts, and help each other widen their social networks to get more pageviews.<br />
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I, too, had fun this past week, helping facilitate their work, focus, and growth.<br />
<br />
And I urge any teachers out there to use blogger (or another blogging host) to ramp up your projects. <br />
Getting students to push their work onto the world stage definitely ups the stakes and calls for a heightened level of attention, care and pride. <br />
<br />
Here are a few examples:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://unrealisticstanzards.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Unrealistic [Stanza]rds</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://annaryllis.blogspot.com/2015/02/blue-faith.html" target="_blank">Annarylis Belladona </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://genuinesyns.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Genuine Synopsis of Life</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://writinginimagination.blogspot.com/2015/02/blue_26.html" target="_blank">Blue </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://writinginimagination.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Writing in Imagination</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://orionpoems.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">OrionPoems </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://jcephilly.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Love, War, and Poetry</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://thepoeticeffect.blogspot.com/2015/02/brighter-than-white.html" target="_blank">Poetic Effect</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://wintryskies.blogspot.com/2015/02/memoryfantastical-poem-disconnected.html" target="_blank">Wintry Skies</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://enthriperatblog.blogspot.com/?view=flipcard" target="_blank">Poems by Some Guy</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://azizareidpoems.blogspot.com/?m=1" target="_blank">3rd World</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://jkcpoetry.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">JKC</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://ondeeperground.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Deeper Ground</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://amearaspoetry.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">a.d</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://poetrybyhoaiho.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Poetry by Hoai</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://sophiatry.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Sophiatry</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://theloveofthepoet.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Love of the Poet</a><br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-78469459043673477132015-01-18T15:03:00.002-08:002015-01-18T15:34:58.344-08:00Why Educators Must March on MLK Day / Why We Must Continue the Work on Tuesday<div class="MsoNormal">
On the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday this year, I am going
to be out in the streets of Philadelphia with thousands of other folks, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/777231535645656/" target="_blank">raising the issues of economics, education, and police oversight</a> – indeed, continuing
the work of the Civil Rights movement.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzXa616MPZTT2xgmR3cqZzDQuBuvmPomzGsHBDz9skx7o_iNH4-cLh4WcAVVIlSFqYeTIAFH-91p4YOkXwKM7_Arcsa4RnBZtzZVE-Tz9dovvsRD1QZcX984qKAxC4djW1B_hbY3jm4m8/s1600/10923597_917109771656944_5704509249278447507_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzXa616MPZTT2xgmR3cqZzDQuBuvmPomzGsHBDz9skx7o_iNH4-cLh4WcAVVIlSFqYeTIAFH-91p4YOkXwKM7_Arcsa4RnBZtzZVE-Tz9dovvsRD1QZcX984qKAxC4djW1B_hbY3jm4m8/s1600/10923597_917109771656944_5704509249278447507_n.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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I will march as white woman who is working to dismantle
racism and white supremacy in my life, my community, and my work. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I will march as a friend, community member, and comrade to
many people of color who are at the frontlines of the current moment, leading
the struggle for human dignity, survival and community-determination that has
lately been manifest in the #BlackLivesMatter movement. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And I will march as an educator, who works with students of
color in the public schools of our city, and sees the “<a href="http://www.jillstein.org/mlk_speech" target="_blank">fierce urgency of now</a>”
alive in my students’ demands to receive the type of quality education that
they deserve.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Tomorrow I will be out in solidarity with my students --
many of whom are unjustly profiled and mistreated by the police in our city; have
parents who work 2 or 3 jobs, but barely make enough to cover all of their
family’s expense; and are robbed of realizing their fullest potential or
actualizing their life dreams, because our so-called leaders have criminally left
their schools underfunded and deprioritized. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I want to urge all of my fellow Philadelphia educators to be
out tomorrow at the MLK Day of Action Resistance and Empowerment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To join in what is
expected to be the largest demonstration for MLK Day in Philly’s history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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And then, on Tuesday, I want to urge all of us to dig in and
do the collective work it’s going to take to make the march’s vision, unity and
demands real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s start in our classrooms.</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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We need to fill the gaps in our own knowledge (about race,
the prison industrial complex, unions, community organizing, the work of
‘average people’ in the Civil Rights movement, etc.), so that we can be the
teachers our students deserve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that
they can learn their community’s histories and have their own stories at the
center of their curriculum. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that we
can provide actual responses to the questions burning in their hearts about why
the world is so unjust, why they are feeling so afraid, what we can actually do
to change these oppressive systems that feel so crushing all around them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We need to not be afraid of breaking down injustice in our
classrooms, of confronting the realities of white supremacy and
institutionalized racism that yet pervades our society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is our responsibility to provide that
language and lens to our students so that they can speak and theorize about their
own lived experiences in a way that is connected to larger concepts and
history. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And, speaking to my majority white colleagues, I want to
urge all of us to do some important internal work to confront racism: to investigate our
own lives, to look at the blindspots we have because of our white privilege, to
push our own thinking about race and racism, to interrogate our unquestioned
takes on the world, and to acknowledge those moments where we let our
stereotypes propel us instead of working to truly understand our students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then, let’s talk about this more
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s push each other to
deeper levels in our practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s
become the educators our students truly deserve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>And, then, let’s move beyond our classrooms.</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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We all know that our responsibilities as educators don’t end
when the 3:04pm bell sounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly,
our work for justice has to extend beyond the school doors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s time for us to join in the movement work that is taking
shape in our city. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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To see true racial, economic and educational justice, we’re
going to have to fight against corporate dollars, entrenched politics, and closed
minds. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means that we’re going to
need to join each other more than ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We need to recognize that our power comes from the strength of the web
of relations we are building across this city, and put in the work to build
those connections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Workers, parents,
students, people of faith, community members, and educators must continue to
build toward the unity felt at tomorrow’s MLK Day of Action, Resistance and
Empowerment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Another world is possible and necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am inspired by the movement that is growing
throughout this city, this country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Fellow educators, I am excited to do this work with
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Here are some links:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.workingeducators.org/" target="_blank">Caucus of Working Educators</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.tagphilly.org/" target="_blank">Teacher Action Group</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.trainingforchange.org/workshop/whites-confronting-racism" target="_blank">Whites Confronting Racism Workshop</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://twitter.com/REALjusticePHL" target="_blank">@REALJusticePhilly</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.powerphiladelphia.org/" target="_blank">POWER</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-46590502466848754362014-09-16T19:11:00.002-07:002014-09-16T19:11:57.740-07:00Putting Race at the Center: Opening up a Classroom to be a Community It's the 2nd week of school, and I wanted to quickly give an update of an early-in-the-year culture building activity I did yesterday in my 9th grade English classes. <br />
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Like so many 9th grade classrooms across the world, the theme for this year of study is identity. <br />
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Our summer reading books are <u>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian</u> by Sherman Alexie and <u>American Born Chinese</u> by Gene Luen Yang. Our study will primarily push us to unpack the levels of oppression (i.e. how the characters and ourselves face oppression at the structural, interpersonal, and personal levels) as we explore how characters operate as youth of color in a white supremacist society. <br />
<br />
Given all that is happening in our world -- like an ebola epidemic spreading throughout many African countries, a US war being unleashed (again?) against "radical Islam," the trauma and aftermath of the murder of Michael Brown and the subsequent uprising in Ferguson, the mass deportations and forced separations of millions of immigrant families, the continuing starvation of the public school system in Philadelphia, etc. -- I realized that we wouldn't be able to move forward in our study without putting race and racism at the center. And we wouldn't be able to do that in a deep or meaningful way unless we established some groundrules.<br />
<br />
Thanks to a colleague, I checked out <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/itc/barnard/education/stp/stp_curriculum.pdf" target="_blank">this curriculum</a> about teaching about critical race theory through sharing stories, created by the good folks at Columbia University. <br />
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I decided to do something wild: I unabashedly took an <i>entire</i> class period just to <i>establish classroom culture. </i> (Was that the sound of shrieks coming from the Accountability Data and Common Core Objective Creation Machine, as I made decisions as an educator to do something in my classroom that wasn't quantifiable?! Gasp!) <br />
<br />
And tonight, after talking to parents about it at Back to School Night, I feel really good about it.<br />
<br />
Here's what we did.<br />
<br />
1) We discussed the big topics that <u>Part Time Indian</u> brought up. <br />
2) Then, I used that to launch into our overview of Essential Questions.<br />
3) And said, "In this class we will talk about race and racism."<br />
4) I got out of the way and just showed images from this summer -- Ferguson, Immigrant Justice organizing, people working against Islamaphobia.<br />
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5) Then I talked to them about the idea of a "comfort zone" and a "learning edge." A lot of times students are asked to talk about "race" in their classrooms, but really, they are just regurgitating something superficial about Rosa Parks (not even all the bad-ass-ness about Rosa Parks!), and so they end up turning off, or getting bored, or saying "this again?!" That's the "comfort zone." And that's no good. Conversely, sometimes we allow things to go to a place where people aren't being respectful, don't actually know what they're saying, or are attacking each other. This is just a place of "panic" where we shut down or fall into a coping mechanism. Instead, the sweet spot is our Learning Edge, where we are pushing ourselves to examine something new or from a new angle. That's what I aim to have us do.<br />
6) Then, I gave each of them an index card. <br />
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7) They all wrote anonymously. Then, I picked them up and exchanged them with someone else's. <br />
8) We went around, one at a time, and read off our class community's primary concerns and primary goals for discussing race and racism in a way that is the most meaningful to us. <br />
9) They listened for themes and overlaps, as well as surprises, and we made a list together.<br />
10) Then, I had them all respond to a blogpost thread with their reflections on the day and one community agreement they wanted to suggest to our class to make it an environment where we could openly and honestly communicate with each other about race and racism.<br />
<br />
My thoughts:<br />
This was the 6th day my classes met. And the way they spoke to each other, shared openly, and really listened to one another was beyond what I've ever seen happen in the first week in my other 9 years of teaching. They were mature. They were serious. They were deeply concerned with offending each other, and motivated to let each other know that racist comments or thinking were not going to be ok in their classroom. <br />
<br />
They also were requesting to learn about origins of racism, about how we can work together to change systems, and how we can push past the "black/white" construction where most of the conversation in our country resides in order to make room for our multi-racial, -ethnic, and -lingual classroom community.<br />
<br />
In their online responses, I was moved by how much they wanted to connect with each other, and how much they wanted to use that connecting to push them all forward. I was impressed with the amount of investment they already showed in creating "their community" with each other. And I was happy to see that the summary of their suggestions for class agreements was pretty close to what I would have wanted them to say.<br />
<br />
For anyone teaching in a highly diverse classroom environment, I would encourage you to try this out. For anyone who has had conversations on race go badly in your class, I would do some preventative work now to build a culture of learners committed to pushing past ignorance and biases. For anyone who wants to put time into culture building and restorative practices, I would suggest this as one of the themes for your circles. <br />
<br />
We'll see how the rest of the year goes. <br />
I'll let you know. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-29037763520113471322014-08-27T17:38:00.001-07:002015-02-22T09:06:31.497-08:00Portals to the Future / Portals to the Past -- Site Specific Dance Project @ Bodine High School This past spring, the 70+ students in my drama classes at Bodine High School dove deep into ideas of labyrinths / portals / past-present-future in order to create totally original site-specific dance pieces in our school's amazing courtyard.<br />
<br />
Then, we led about 200+ other classmates through the labyrinthine field of 12+ performance pieces, truly creating the give-and-take of audience/site/performer that makes live dance so incredible.<br />
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Joining me in my classroom were the AMAZING dancers from <a href="http://bareteethcrew.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Bare Teeth Performance Crew</a>, to help craft the students' exploration of themes, bodywork, and the ensemble process of creating original work. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><!------></span></div>
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If you don't have all day, I would definitely advise you to check out the work from minutes 10:32-15:20, as these groups worked in a truly committed way and it shows! <br />
<br />
Also, the students in Ms. Fitzpatrick's Art Classes created all of the painted labyrinth ground murals, as well as all the costumes.<br />
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All of this was made possible by the INCREDIBLE FOLKS at the <a href="https://www.pccy.org/?page=ThePicassoProject__38" target="_blank">Picasso Arts Grant!</a> <br />
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I apologize on posting this so far after the fact. I got lost in a portal called summer.<br />
Hope you enjoy it!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-48139844742584958852014-08-10T18:00:00.000-07:002014-08-10T18:09:43.798-07:00Is this The Hunger Games? – a response to Neoliberal Wind-Up-Toy Reform in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">This month, the School District greeted us with its latest
glossy initiative for school transformation – The <a href="http://www.schoolredesignphiladelphia.org/" target="_blank">School Redesign Initiative</a>. On the surface, it sounds well-enough-intentioned: have teams
of educators and community partners apply to take over and redesign a
school. Oh yeah, and do it under the same budget restrictions that are
devastating teaching and learning in our District.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know, that <a href="http://thenotebook.org/blog/147531/key-questions-and-answers-budget-crisis">Doomsday/Empty Shell</a> budget
that’s turning far too many of our schools into unstable, dysfunctional places
where kids by and large are not having their social, emotional or academic
needs fully met.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">I haven’t read all of the very fine print, but I’ve understood
enough to see this for what it is:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">A distraction, at best.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">And, at worst, a shift-the-blame game that gives the hatchet
over to its employees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Now, if you’ve ever met me, worked with me, or had a
conversation with me about my teaching practice, you know that I am constantly
trying to innovate and redesign my curriculum, my classroom community
cultivation, and my personal energy/spirit/approach to the massive job that is
teaching young people and helping them develop into their most actualized
selves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">And you would know that in every single school I’ve worked in
(and I’ve worked in quite a few, I promise you), I’ve never been shy about
providing suggestions and working with colleagues around internal school
improvement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">So, why would I not see this as an opportunity to get in on some
school transformation action?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Well, to give a little context, let’s just look at 2 examples
from recent Philly history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">1)</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Rise and Fall of Community-Student-Educator-led School
Transformation at West Philadelphia HS. It’s been written about <a href="http://thenotebook.org/blog/114021/let%E2%80%99s-remember-struggle-made-new-west-philadelphia-hs-reality" target="_blank">here</a> and
<a href="http://afterthereturn.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=2" target="_blank">here</a>, among other places. If you’re not familiar, you just need to know
that a serious, principled, community-centered process for transforming the
curriculum and culture at a neighborhood high school was essentially destroyed
by the School District and its reform policies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">2)</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 9.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Teacher leaders in Philadelphia put together a proposal to
incubate teacher-led school transformation in Philly public schools, in order
to support groups of educators and community members in identifying and putting
in action school-centered innovations (sound familiar?). They presented
it to officials from the School District, City Council, and, gasp, even
Philadelphia School Partnership, but were not given support on the idea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">I could write about school teams who were under attack for
closure and quickly put together school redesign plans, just to be closed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could remind us of schools on closure lists
where school staff put together redesign plans and were spared from the
chopping block, only to endure massive staff cuts and find themselves unable to
put their plans into place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">So, even with only a cursory look back at the last decade in the
SDP, it is not an overstatement to say that the District bringing this
initiative to the table now, when the majority of public education stakeholders
is focused on finding a taxation solution to our unsustainable annual budget
crisis, is something to be highly skeptical, if not suspicious of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Caucus of Working Educators does a great
job spelling out some of the specific questions that arise from the skeleton of
this plan <a href="http://www.workingeducators.org/statement_on_the_school_redesign_initiative" target="_blank">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">What I’m stuck on is the neoliberal feel of this initiative, and
other plans like it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It smacks of the
very kind of individualistic, everyone-for-themselves,
get-at-the-spoils-before-someone-else-does mindset that plagues so much of what
the corporate reform project offers up to those of us who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i> to innovate how we do teaching and learning in our
schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because it is framed around
scarcity (only a few winners!) at a time of great crisis (thousands more
staffing layoffs? shortened school year? not opening schools on time?), I think
that it preys upon people’s anxiety about the future of our schools, city and
public education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In doing so, it heightens
an attitude of cut-throatedness that runs completely counter to the actual
collaborative spirit that educators need in order to teach well, let alone to
work with parents and community members as partners in redirecting our focus
back toward equity and democracy in our schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">In many ways, the logic of this type of reform is not dissimilar
from other wings of schools-as-business reform strategies -- like evaluating
teachers primarily through test scores (why help Ms. Stewart next door when our
kids’ test outcomes are now in competition with each other?), shuttering and/or
turning “failing” schools over to outside charters (we have to show our school
is better than XYZ Elementary down the block, so they take <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i> school, not ours), and eliminating tenure (if I throw Mr.
Matthews under the bus to please my principal, then <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he’ll</i> get removed instead of me!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">It feels like the Hunger Games of education. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">May the odds be ever in my favor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not yours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">But that doesn’t work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Not in a classroom, where we require the input and insight from
all of our colleagues to make sure we’re meeting our students’ full needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Not in a District, where we must stand together to show that we
can’t withstand any more cuts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">And not in a city, where we are going to have to put our
collective energy into wrestling back control over our schools and forcing our
so-called leaders to deliver the resources our schools and our children need
and deserve. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or vote them out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">So, if this is the Hunger Games, then I am heartened by one of
the final moments in the second book/film, Catching Fire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Katniss, the protagonist, is in the middle of the battlefield,
feeling massively under attack, scared, and confused about her allegiances,
strategy, and vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">She sees another contender, Finnick, and is about to shoot
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looks at her and says, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwxcNayRTI0" target="_blank">“Katniss! Remember who the real enemy is.</a>” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">And she looks at him, startled back into seeing the big picture,
and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4mR-MIVgVY" target="_blank">fires her arrow up into the dome</a>, into the Capitol’s wiring, blowing up the
Power Structure itself. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s well time that we, in Philadelphia, remember who the real enemy is, so we don’t allow ourselves to succumb to accepting this unconscionable funding picture, and then fight like dogs over the crumbs. We need to see the bigger picture for what it is – a political house of cards being built over deals and extortion, sabotaging the city of Philadelphia, our School District, and me, as a working educator, from meeting our shared responsibility for teaching our young in safe, stable, supportive, and, if I may go so far as to say, joyful schools.</span><br />
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</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If we want to move forward on real transformation of our schools, that's the real target we need to aim our collective arrow at. </span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-62433678384334338352014-01-22T18:09:00.003-08:002014-01-22T18:11:10.757-08:00When we give our students "real things" to do.Our students are impressive.<br />
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Yes, that's right. Our Philadelphia Public School students are incredibly impressive. And talented. And engaged. And inspiring.<br />
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When we allow them the space to show what they really are capable of doing.<br />
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This month, my drama students at the Bodine High School for International Affairs were pushed to prove their maturity, talent, and artistic commitment, by working with professional NYC-based filmmaker, <a href="http://maslidukan.com/">M. Asli Dukan</a> to capture their monologue performances on camera.<br />
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From the minute they entered the auditorium, these sophomore, junior, and senior students experienced an actual shoot -- going through the process of blocking their pieces for the camera, supporting each other to fully embody their characters, quieting-on-the-set, and rising to the challenge of pushing through their nerves and performing to the best of their abilities.<br />
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These are the types of experiences our students need more of -- as they serve as moments for young people to find their voice, feel proud of what they are able to accomplish, and develop the substantive self-esteem that keeps all teenagers on a path toward making healthy decisions to advance themselves. <br />
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These are the very reasons that the arts should never be cut from our schools. <br />
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I hope you enjoy my students' work.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Sydney - Dramatic piece about a formerly-enslaved woman whose babies were stolen from her.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsPbBxI2Jyw&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=MsPbBxI2Jyw&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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Thalia - Dramatic piece about a woman who lost family members in the September 11th plane crashes. </div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anDxmIvyKQk&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=anDxmIvyKQk&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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Ameerah -- Comedic piece about a young woman breaking up with her basketball playing boyfriend. </div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNV9bbZGkNE&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=nNV9bbZGkNE&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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Shakirah -- Dramatic piece spoken by the Joker from Batman: The Dark Knight. </div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OVt1khWjxY&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=4OVt1khWjxY&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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Santi -- Dramatic piece from the mother's perspective in the movie Precious. </div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43sKiI8BPEE&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=43sKiI8BPEE&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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Freddy -- Dramatic piece from Of Mice and Men. </div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFknHBvgbUY&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=FFknHBvgbUY&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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Brianne -- Comedic piece about inter-galactic space travel and imperialism. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYgorJdL3yc&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=aYgorJdL3yc&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Ana -- Comedic piece about a woman considering giving up chocolate. </div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZGGKZP5zq8&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=7ZGGKZP5zq8&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Nadirah -- Comedic/dramatic piece about a young woman breaking up with her partner. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfiQ0reCpvY&feature=youtu.be" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=LfiQ0reCpvY&feature=youtu.be</a></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-68805002194180097902014-01-05T12:25:00.001-08:002014-01-07T17:13:57.994-08:00Keynote Address for the Philadelphia Writing Project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Last month, I was given the incredible opportunity to give the Keynote Address and Lunchtime Seminar at the Philadelphia Writing Project's Annual Celebration of Writing and Literacy. I was able to speak to over a hundred of my peers and colleagues about reframing our role as teachers and committing ourselves to the types of collective action that our students, schools and sprits demand. <br />
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Below is the visual presentation from my talk on how teachers must work to defend and transform public education. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="333" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1J0l_zgIbUtdImu7LKde-xHvmrw16ohJHrxf_7Gz8dno/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="400"></iframe><br />
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The thesis of my talk was that in this current moment in public education, where our schools & profession AND our students & communities are under attack by a corporate, neoliberal privatization agenda, we as teachers must rethink how we construct our classroom practices, model participatory citizenship in our jobs and in our lives, and engage in building up the network for teacher collective action to defend and transform public education.<br />
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I argued that we need to get very clear about the kind of world we want to live in, and therefore, become focused on the kind of world we are teaching toward. And then we need to all play to our strengths, push forward the areas of work that most suit our talents, and make sure we are constantly networked alongside other teachers with a shared transformational vision.<br />
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Nothing short of this type of strategic and emergent collective action will be able to build the focused power we need to stop the assault on our students, schools and city. <br />
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Further, we undoubtedly must move beyond the "No!" of oppositional politics, and reclaim, reinvigorate and reorient our schools toward becoming sites where students practice the skills and strategies they'll need to solve the problems of the world they're inheriting. To do this, teachers will have to engage in a deliberate personal and professional transformation of our own self-concept of what it means to be a teacher.<br />
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This work is already happening, and, in Philadelphia, the <a href="http://www.tagphilly.org/" target="_blank">Teacher Action Group (TAG)</a> is a major hub.<br />
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In this moment plagued by structural collapse, I am inspired, strengthened, and motivated to continue improving as a teacher and as an agent of change because of the collective action we're carving out as networked teachers within TAG. <br />
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I hope that others will join up and collectively move our city forward.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-90064109508546124962013-10-25T10:51:00.000-07:002013-10-25T10:51:32.811-07:00This is what leveling feels like. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today is my last day as a teacher at my current school. Strange, because my first day was less than 2 months ago...<br />
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In the latest moment of instability and money-saving by the School District of Philadelphia, schools went through the leveling process. On paper, I guess it makes some sort of numbers-sense. You have a teacher in a school where there are fewer students than the maximum class size specified under the contract. You have another school where there are not enough teachers to make class size fall under the maximum level. So, why not just swap them? <br />
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There are a lot of reasons why this isn't just an easy fix type of procedure. In my life, I can name 80 of them: my students. <br />
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The truth is: Schools don't just work because of a computer program, or another mandated reading program, or a changeover in how teachers write objectives. Schools work because of the strength of the relationships built up among staff, between staff and students and their parents. And when you destabilize and throw schools into the "churn" (as the <a href="http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/">Broad Foundation </a>sketches out), is it really any wonder why students are not reaching their potential in the classroom? <br />
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When a principal has to make tough choices to break up classes, consolidate groups of students, and move teachers out of the building, it is incredibly disruptive. But when she has to do it because a Governor is playing politics to break a union and not meet his constitutional duty to provide for a properly funded school system, it is the fallout from something criminal.<br />
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This week, I witnessed the fallout (again) of the Budget Crisis as it spread across my students' consciousness. <br />
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They were bewildered: "Why would they take away a teacher who helps me?"<br />
They were confused: "How am I going to get ready for high school without my reading teacher?"<br />
They were angry: "Why do we have to sit in a class with double the students? It'll be so distracting, and I won't be able to learn."<br />
They were critical: "Isn't there anything we can do to keep you? We'll write a petition. We'll write to the governor. We'll fundraise to keep you."<br />
They were heartbroken: "Please don't leave us. Please!!!!!!"<br />
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And they got to work, writing the petition, making signs all over the school, trying to make their case to the principal -- not knowing that it really isn't her fault. Parents called me and sent notes up to school. My 7th grade students threw me a surprise going-away party, including buying pizza out of their own 12-year old finances. I've been pummeled with more hugs than I know what to do with. (I am literally hiding out right now during my prep period so that I don't run into any more sad children. I don't know what to do with all of their emotional outpouring.)<br />
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My colleagues are amazing, and they'll figure out how to attempt to meet students' needs in a now-even-more-difficult scenario: fewer teachers, larger classsize, still no counselor, not enough special education teachers to fully support students. But it's not going to be easy -- and, trust me, it wasn't easy before, when I was still teaching here. <br />
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But what stands out to me is that yet again, the students in Philadelphia are not getting what they need. Class size matters, and we should be trying to figure out how to make class size as low as possible, not trying to shave off dollars by cramming as many students together as is contractually allowable. <br />
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Further, the emotional fallout is real. On my students, who lose teachers every year, and, in truth, are beginning to lose schools every year too. On parents, who can't build deep relationships to help them feel anchored to a school community. And to me, and all other teachers being bounced around year-to-year, who have to face sad children who are endlessly getting public goods that they deserve taken away from them at every turn. <br />
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<br />In the end, my students will be fine, just like every other batch of students I've had to leave in all the other schools I've been transferred out of. And I'll be fine, as I've learned how to always land on my feet. It is just another moment, on top of all the other moments this school system offer us, of grief for all of us to withstand, survive, and learn from about resilience. <br />
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It's a shame that I have to be the one teaching that lesson. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-35856430824377849372013-10-02T19:38:00.003-07:002013-10-03T08:02:34.355-07:00Who says 13 year olds can't think critically? <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we’ve spoken in the last month, then you know that I have
suddenly been jettisoned into the belly of every high school teacher’s supreme
nightmare: Middle School. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, that’s right, after 7 years teaching in a variety of
High Schools across the city, I was brought back off the layoffs list with
approximately 6 hours of lead time to teach 7<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup>
grade English. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Are the horror stories true?
Are 7<sup>th</sup> grade girls really the most vicious creatures on
Earth? Or is it just some sort of mythology to cover for the shortcomings of
our science around what some call their adolescent Hormonal Toxic Shock
Syndrome?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While I have countless stories of little girls and boys
trying to show their affection through pulling hair and slapping each
other. And while I could tell you
hilarious nonsequitur interruptions that seem to come out of the left field of
their little developing brains. Or about
the oversized babies towering nearly 6 feet tall, but still falling into tantrums
and tears when I so much as insinuate that they’re distracting the class… I
actually want to share an amazing moment of spontaneous popular education that
occurred today.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was my post-lunch 8<sup>th</sup> grade English
class. We were supposed to be reading
Toni Cade Bambara, but before I could tell them a page number, one girl, with
pure earnestness, raised her hand and said, “Ms. Wawa, Could you explain to us
about the economy?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I looked around. “You
want to know about the shutdown?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The whole class lit up, “Yes!” “We don’t get it.” “Could you break it down?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, in my happiest moment of pure teaching this year, I
started to explain to them the process of developing a budget, how the US has
been spending beyond our means – on things like the war and military and,
locally, prisons. We talked about the
standoff between the Senate and the House Republicans. We got into issues of racism and greed, of
wrong priorities and what we want to see our tax dollars go to. We discussed our own families’ health care
needs, our foodstamps, our Headstart. We
shared stories of how much people already pay in taxes. We zeroed in on an essential question: How could the Republicans, with their fancy
suits and six figures, be throwing a childish tantrum that affects all of us
poor people in Philly?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then, in a brilliant way to bring up the subject of wealth
inequality, one boy asks, “But if all those rich people own Bugattis (a type of
expensive car), and they pay, like a million dollars of taxes on it, then why
doesn’t the US have enough money?”
Classic 8<sup>th</sup> grade misconception, but he was trying to get at
something very deep.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I asked if they’d ever heard of the 1% and the 99%. They hadn’t.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I took a breath, wondering if we were ready to go
there. Their faces and
you-could-hear-a-pin-drop attention showed me that we were.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I told 10 of them to grab their chairs and sit in the front
of the classroom. I told them that they
all represented equal wealth distribution.
One person, one chair.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then, I grabbed 2 of them, and made them squeeze down to sit
on laps, and I gave their chairs to the person at the end, so that person could
spread out. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They looked at me, thinking, “Wait. What is going on?” The person at the end said that she, “felt
very comfortable,” and put her feet up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then, I grabbed 2 more of them, and made them go find a
place to squeeze in. I gave their chairs
to the original person. Now that person
had half the chairs, and the rest of the 9 people had to find a place on the other half. I asked what was going on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They said, “Hey. That’s not fair. The wealthy person doesn’t deserve all that.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I asked what they were going to do about it. Some kids jumped up and tried to steal back
the chair that they used to sit on. I
hired another student to be the police, and had those kids locked up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then I took 2 more chairs. Now the wealthy person had 70% of the
wealth. The bottom 9 people were
squeezing onto 3 chairs, or 30% of the wealth.
Well, minus the 2 people who were now incarcerated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We concluded the exercise, and I had them all sit down. I asked them what thoughts or feelings came
up. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some said that they were angry, and wanted to act out. I asked them, when there isn’t much wealth or
many jobs to go around to you, what do you do?
A lot of them said that’s when they would start robbing or trapping (selling
drugs.) I said, “Yeah. Have you noticed that a lot more people have
been put in prison in the last 20 years than before? There’s a connection between not having jobs
and money and doing things that get you locked up.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some were baffled, “What did the rich person do to get so
rich?” “They had way more than they
needed, and we didn’t have enough. Who
would live like that?” “Is this why
those Republicans are trying to shut down the government? To keep more of the money than they actually
need?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We discussed investing, corporate greed, and political
kickbacks. They all speculated that
Mayor Nutter gets free Comcast cable at his house, so that’s why there’s a tax
abatement on their building downtown.
This made me laugh. And then they
wondered why the Mayor would prioritize building a new skating rink downtown
when we don’t even have a counselor at our school. This made me tell them that they should set
the priorities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then, the million dollar question: “Ms. Weinraub. How do we undo this? How can we spread the chairs back out so that
we all get our share, not just the wealthy?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I looked at him, and then at the whole class and said the
only truth I could offer: “That’s what
your generation is going to have to answer.
That’s the world you’re going to have to make right.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So even if tomorrow I have to untangle gum from a girl’s
hair or put away the hand sanitizer so boys won’t pour it in each others’ eyes,
today I was reminded of the possibilities of helping build critical thought in
people just starting to put the pieces together. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And that’s why we as teachers can’t let the Testing Regime
standardize our young people into bubbles to fill in. This is an unjust, broken, polluted world,
and we absolutely need these young people to be developing the skills and
strategies they’re going to need to solve the problems of the world they’re
inheriting. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For more info on the chair activity, check out: <a href="http://www.faireconomy.org/files/GD_10_Chairs_and_Charts.pdf">http://www.faireconomy.org/files/GD_10_Chairs_and_Charts.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-26426949357825034582013-09-02T20:14:00.005-07:002013-09-02T20:16:58.261-07:00Solidarity isn't just a word; it's hard work. <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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My speech from tonight's meeting. (If I had been allowed to give it in full.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a historic battle in front of us. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a battle against a well funded machine. A machine that is taking aim at public education, workers' rights, black and brown people, poor people, our students.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are facing an urgent and immediate crisis, yes. I believe
that our bargaining team will continue to work to get a contract we deserve –
but that is not the end. That is just
the beginning</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are at a tipping point.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More than ever we can see the damage done to our public
education system through our politicians’ utter abandonment, the rampant expansion of charters and privatization,
a coordinated attack on working people and our rights and wages, and a complete
disinvestment in our students. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we push through what we’re facing today, there will still
be countless more battles to fight in this war to save and transform public
education. And we, as teachers, as counselors, as educators, as school staff,
as rank and file members of the PFT– we must see ourselves as real leaders in this fight. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We MUST learn to grow our power and wield our power.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I say to you, WE ARE THE
PFT. WE need to take responsibility for
what that means. It starts by going in
tomorrow, talking to every colleague we see, making a coordinated plan at our
school level about how we are going to breathe life back into our chapters,
empower ourselves as educators, and be engaged in ways we haven’t had to over
the last decade. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are going to have to take on the work of building up our
relationships within our schools, between our schools, across the city, with
our fellow PFT members and with the parents and students at our schools. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No one is going to do it for us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Solidarity is not just a word to throw around. Solidarity is a lot of hard work in order to bring back the spirit, the unity, and
the courage we’re going to need to make our schools stronger for the next week,
the next month, the next year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I ask you, rank and file members of the PFT, I ask you
President Jordan and the executive committee, I ask you – What are we willing to
do? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We must make a plan to strategically leverage the power of our numbers so that we disrupt business as usual and force the hand of decision-makers. In order to get there, we need to trust that we have leaders at the school-based level and build towards
the kind of democracy that invests in developing that type of leadership from below. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We must GROW and WIELD OUR POWER to: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->Force back the egregious anti-student,
anti-teacher concessions the SRC is trying to push on us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->Force the Mayor to act like a leader and go to Harrisburg to get the funding our kids
deserve.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->Force Corbett out of office, and find a real
leader to stop playing politics with our kids’ lives and put together a full
and fair funding formula.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> - </span><!--[endif]-->To get in front of the next round of school
closures that are coming for us, to stop the rampant expansion of charters and
privatization, and to ultimately get rid of the SRC.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is the war in front of us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It starts tonight. It
starts with us building that plan toward broad, unified, and militant action
that involves every one of our 15,000 members.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What are we willing to do to take the steps to build that plan? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-27835867030296832372013-02-12T17:10:00.000-08:002013-02-12T17:10:01.492-08:00Aligning our ACTIONS with our WORDS.
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Here is my testimony from today's <a href="http://t-hold-philadelphia-school-closing-hearings/">City Council Hearing</a> on School Closings in Philadelphia. Teacher Action Group organized a panel of 4 classroom teachers from across the city to speak on the impact of the proposed closings and our suggestions for solutions to the current education disaster the we find ourselves in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioWNPKTnPVqbY_A3m3ngoXifX2XWzrOqnSrp14iIig9H5V2Rq9aCaAQV55kHegtjc7X59lsDkPoc2-NR-2a1kAeynmYYjJhKc6qDdCu9Ak6Mo3gGrCuCdeLlT4T1D-djZrjTIVjkl_Jvs/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioWNPKTnPVqbY_A3m3ngoXifX2XWzrOqnSrp14iIig9H5V2Rq9aCaAQV55kHegtjc7X59lsDkPoc2-NR-2a1kAeynmYYjJhKc6qDdCu9Ak6Mo3gGrCuCdeLlT4T1D-djZrjTIVjkl_Jvs/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">My name is Anissa Weinraub, and I am in my 7<sup>th</sup>
year teaching in the School District of Philadelphia. I am a proud member of the Teacher Action
Group and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and am also an active part
of the PCAPS coalition to save our public schools. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Please, allow me to first say THANK YOU for
hearing the true feelings of so many of your constituents across the city, and
voting on a Resolution for a Moratorium on School Closings. It is absolutely a crucial first step, and
reveals to all of us the council’s commitment to our neighborhood schools as
important hubs for community health and security. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">My question to us all today – you as elected representatives, and all of us
an as engaged civil society – is: <b>what will be our next step?</b> I am hoping that it is a collective effort to
go after the resources we need. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Allow me to offer a reflection I have gained
from my years of teaching: As a teacher, my students learn infinitely more from
my ACTIONS than my WORDS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Young people can see when those words and
actions don’t line up, and they will not be shy about telling you. For example, if I say that reading is
important, but then my school has no books in the library or I only teach short
excerpts from test-prep curricula, then my words end up falling short because
I’m not actually SHOWING them with my actions that reading is something of
value. So I work hard to make sure my
words and actions are aligned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The same thing, I think, can be applied to
our words and actions as school leaders and elected officials. We can tell our young people to “stay in
school” and “stop the violence” and that “education is the key to their
futures,” but we also must take concrete action to SHOW that we value their education,
our city’s safety and their futures, and so should they.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Right now, the actions of many adults in
decision-making seats are not teaching our young people that we care about
them. In fact, we’re showing them quite
the opposite. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Over the past 2 years, we have had our public
school budgets slashed by $1Billion from the state level. Those who have been elected to “lead” are
vigorously disinvesting in our communities by underfunding our schools, and
forcing our local District to </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Gill Sans"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">shut down our schools or hand them over to the highest
bidder, taking away the vital relationships that have been built between adults
and young people, expecting us to teach and learn in overcrowded classrooms, to
do more with less, and forcing us into shallow, scripted curriculum in order to
chase test scores, instead of encouraging real student-centered, engaging and
participatory learning.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But this doesn’t have to be the lesson we
teach the young people of Philadelphia about what they’re worth. We can make different choices that show them
they are our priority and we won’t settle for less than what they deserve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In Philly, it feels hard to stomach the chorus
that “there is no money” when the glow of Comcast’s glorious LED screen lights
up 17<sup>th</sup> street or the University of Penn continues to acquire
property in my neighborhood, when the Department of Corrections’ budget
increases and Natural Gas keeps being drawn out of the earth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So, I have come here today to ask you,
members of the City Council, to take the next step. Show us your <i>continued</i> moral leadership, and help us to get the resources our
city’s schools so desperately need, so that we don’t have to throw our
communities into chaos through massive school closures, and so that we can
actually redesign our schools to meet our students’ true needs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Help us raise hundreds of millions here in
Philadelphia:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">1. by
taxing major center city commercial real estate holders and corporations that
don’t pay their fair share. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">2. by
taxing the Mega non-profits on their real estate holdings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><b>And then join with us, your constituents, and
let’s go after the money in Harrisburg together. Let’s use your political muscle and our
strength in numbers of teachers, parents, students, and community members, and
let’s go get the money that our young people deserve. If you lead, I promise you that thousands of
Philadelphia residents will follow.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And then we will truly be aligning our
actions with our words, as we put down our collective foot and fight for fully
and equitably </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Gill Sans"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">funded public schools, so that our young people can be prepared
to build a future which prioritizes human dignity over corporate greed, a
future where the suggestion of selling out our communities to balance a budget
will never again be on the table. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Gill Sans"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">That
will be the most profound lesson we could ever teach. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-14290459743489672062012-09-03T20:03:00.003-07:002012-09-05T18:41:32.866-07:00Notes From A Teacher Fully Committed To Public Education Who Just Left The District. <style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
What it means to be leaving / Why I have to.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not a stranger to heartbreak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being someone who loves with the intensity befitting my
astrology, I’ve had my (overwhelmingly) fair share of break-ups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve stayed in relationships for
months, even years, longer than I probably should have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve jumped wholebody into grief, cried
with balled fists punching the ground as my friends watched in compassionate
horror, documented the process and made art and journaled and participated in
extended amounts of healing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like I said, no stranger to heartbreak.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this is different. Nothing in my archives feels exactly
like this one. Cuz this one isn’t about a torrid love affair gone wrong. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
about My Work In The World.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
About a dream that I made up about the world I want to help
build, the teacher I want to be, the level of community-based transformation I
get to participate in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A dream I
believed in so fully that having to pry my fingers off of it to let it go has
been excruciating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And more
heartbreaking than any relationship gone sour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How do we say goodbye to a dream?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This specific manifestation was working at my dysfunctional
neighborhood public high school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not too many people’s
dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it was my dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the past almost decade, an extensive coalition of students,
parents, community members, educators, and alumni worked to build up a plan for
comprehensive transformation at West Philadelphia High School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can find out more about it here: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://thenotebook.org/blog/114021/let%E2%80%99s-remember-struggle-made-new-west-philadelphia-hs-reality">http://thenotebook.org/blog/114021/let%E2%80%99s-remember-struggle-made-new-west-philadelphia-hs-reality</a><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a teacher in the city, a supporter of youth organizing,
an activist, and a committed neighbor, I became engaged with their work for school change
back in 2007.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the closest
thing I’d seen to democratic, community control of school reform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they were doing awesome things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They went from being a school where young people were in
rebellion, literally communicating their outrage at the education they were
receiving by trying to set the school on fire, to a place where Restorative
Practices were being used to handle conflict, where they got to work on real
neighborhood issues of land use and urban transformation, where the academies
functioned like small schools, where the principal believed in her staff and
students and allowed for distributive leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I went to volunteer there on my year out of the
classroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to work there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I got to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two-and-a-half years, and a position cut, hiring freeze, lay off, and
last-minute hiring process later, I was officially a teacher at West Philly HS.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Except, it wasn’t West Philly HS anymore.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The District had targeted the school as a ‘failure’ and under
its Race To The Top era version of manifest destiny, the school was
“Renaissanced.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This meant it was put
through a highly controversial and political process of nearly being handed
over to a charter, and then, a year later, being restructured under a cookie
cutter reform approach called a Promise Academy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this process, nearly 90% of the staff was lost, a wholly
new administration was brought in, and an overbearing central office rolled out
its litany of new mandates and boxed programs and scripted curriculum and test
prep and extended day and checklists and observers and reporting and and and…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You get the picture.<br />
<br />
It was their approach to school reform. But it wasn't focused on the real things our students, my colleagues, and the school really needed. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The school culture that had been taking shape was totally
gutted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In its place, we got blank walls to cover with standardized
materials, white and khaki and navy blue uniforms, and an extreme Discipline
and Punish new order.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As you can imagine, my original enthusiasm and idealism
about the kind of change we were going to make in our community through this
school quickly hit the wall of bureaucracy, bad ideas, and such rampant
demoralization as I’d never experienced before.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What does it mean if
you FINALLY get to the EXACT place where you WANT TO BE, but it NO LONGER
EXISTS?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It, in fact, had been undermined, gutted, and replaced with
a model of teaching and learning that was uninspiring, to say the least, and, I
would argue, actually harmful to students and teachers and the future of our
city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The whole year I tried my hardest to make the best of a bad
situation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nod and smile, give lip service, and then try to go under
the radar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like so many teachers have had to do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it got to me, seeing students treated like criminals,
watching administration care more about the color of a student’s uniform pants
than what they were learning in my class, being told to follow a script with
fidelity, being threatened by the looming danger of the central office if I
stepped out of line, trying to build up a wall to not notice how horrible
student behavior had become as they met adults’ expectations for how bad they
would act.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It got to me, not having leadership who wanted to talk about
our mission for why we were there or our vision for what we wanted our students
to be like in 4 years, not having the deeper types of conversations with my
colleagues about the purpose of education or reflecting on our practice and
giving professional feedback, not feeling like my energy was being met and
expanded upon but that it was being shut down on most fronts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t get me wrong, my classroom was, for the most part fun,
creative, and critical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
students grew, became more reflective and analytical, developed more empathy,
tried things they’d never tried before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My students’ parents for the most part knew me, were excited about what
their children were learning, and were surprised with how many times I called
just to say that their child did something amazing in class. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, in all truth, even though I took more sick days this
past year than I ever had, and even though I felt like the administration could
turn on me at any point, and even though I couldn’t stomach how badly students
were being treated or the things the school seemed to prioritize, and even though there was no assurance that our school would stay a public school for very many years more, I wanted to stay.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But then, like clockwork, last spring the central office sent me a form
letter that told me I had been force transferred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My principal told me I was a little ‘outside the box.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My union couldn’t help me. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the principal from this amazing alternative school, El
Centro de Estudiantes, a Big Picture School, had contacted me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had a spot open for this next
schoolyear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why didn’t I come in
to check it out, find out more, apply?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
whole model of the school is to place the learning back into students’
hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teachers facilitate
students unlocking their passions and interests, and then students get
internships to do real world learning for two days a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they’re back in school, they’re
working on inquiry-driven, multi-disciplinary projects that somehow intersect
with their internships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teachers, who are called Advisors,
are more like project managers, helping students structure their learning and their projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The school has a small-community culture, where advisors truly support
their students, conflict is handled in restorative ways, and students are
trying to build themselves in preparation for their actual lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, because of several reasons:<br />
- Being jerked around endlessly by the District for the past 7 years<br />
- Seeing the limits of innovation/vision that the current administration has
for our district's direction<br />
- Remembering my frustration with the climate/culture of my school last year<br />
- Feeling genuinely excited about a student-centered, project-based environment<br />
- Being ready to keep growing as an educator</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve decided to leave the District and work at this small
alternative school.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am heartbroken.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it is bittersweet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because I am also excited.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hopefully I can grieve the loss of something that, while
intensely frustrating and absolutely dysfunctional, was what I wanted to do, so
I can gear up for a new way of approaching teaching and learning. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not a stranger to heartbreak. None of us in public
education are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know I can mend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’ve had to countless times before. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-68614825987726740242012-01-10T12:18:00.000-08:002012-08-09T20:40:20.744-07:00My Breaking Heart, or Stories of School Reform.<style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
My heart is breaking today.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The person who tells me what to do, told me what to do: another endless pile of paperwork with an endless stream of check-off boxes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No, she didn’t just tell me to do them, she said, “If you don’t, the person above all of us will come in and insult you in front of your students and then fire you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, this is what we’ve been reduced to?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Threats.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Insults.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Endless Administrivia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As far as I can see in my neighborhood high school in Philadelphia, everyone has been running around like mad for the past week about a minor type of writing program they want us to institute, as if this one thing is the new silver bullet for our schools.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As if it will somehow solve the educational inequity and entrenched poverty and generational illiteracy that truly plagues our students.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, I ask, is this what we’ve been reduced to?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Believing that if we just tweak a rubric, enforce more paperwork, hunt for some ever-elusive ‘accountability protocol,’ that we will somehow Fix Our Schools.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know if anyone else notices, but our country is facing some of the most severe problems we’ve seen in several lifetimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People’s debt has soared, jobs are nowhere to be found, elected officials slash one social service after another, mass incarceration rates are skyrocketing, and the already extreme gap between rich and poor people continues to increase by the day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the same time, any teacher will tell you that students are coming to them with fewer hard academic skills, a decreased ability to deal with their emotions, and an incredible lack of critical thinking or analytical ability.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the best thing anyone running the School District can think of is to force all of its teachers to fill out more paperwork?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course my heart is breaking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This isn’t education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is busywork.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And very consuming, depleting busywork at that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Where is the space for real conversations about the purpose of education in our students’ lives, for the future of our city?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Where is the encouragement to move our curriculum and pedagogy to be more engaging, relevant, student-centered?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Where is the mentoring for educators to improve the ways we make learning whole, the ways we ask powerful questions, the ways we craft a day?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Where is the fierce belief that we can all move ourselves toward a new world in which we are liberated and free, equipped with the skills and strategies needed to solve the problems that life presents us?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nowhere, as far as I can tell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just broken hearts and broken promises and broken-down schools that get turned over to private managers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is not too much to demand that our schools fundamentally change to meet the needs of our changing society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is possible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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But, what I’m realizing today, what I’ve been working for years to not say out loud, is that it may not be possible inside of a top-heavy District with endless mandates and no true direction.</div>
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So, today my heart is breaking, because I want to believe so fully in the potential of the neighborhood school where I work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But not under these conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not under this lack of vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not inside these threats.</div>
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I want to be an educator in a school that is fully funded, has a liberatory mission, distributes decision-making through true local governance, and ensures curricular autonomy.</div>
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Don’t you?</div>
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Then, how can we get there?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m ready.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-85913832764967348622011-06-13T12:53:00.000-07:002012-08-09T20:44:57.242-07:00SRC Testimony -- Asking the hard Questions<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">This week I was one of the 2300 or so teachers and staff members laid off from the School District of Philadelphia. I’ve taught for 5 years in this district, at Science Leadership Academy and Kensington Urban Education high school. I’ve given countless hours and dollars to do my best to teach hundreds and hundreds of students to be creative and critical thinkers, able to solve the problems of the world they’re inheriting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">But I still got laid off.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Indeed, I am just one casualty in the increased attack on teachers, and the state’s prioritization of prisons and fracking over public education.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">2300 staff members gone. That’s hard to wrap your brain around. But let’s just say that each of those 2300 people affected 30 students each. That’s 69,000 students who will be forced to learn in even more over-crowded classes, who will no longer have their favorite teacher, NTA, or counselor. That’s 69,000 families who have lost connection with another adult who played a crucial role in their child’s life. That’s 69,000 future citizens of our city who have just been stripped of a relationship that could have been the difference between graduation and getting pushed out of school.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">I know what you’re going to say. “It’s a budget crisis. It’s out of our hands. Don’t blame us. Blame the governor and his State Budget.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">But we do blame you. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">The truth is, this is a time when there are choices to be made and you are making choices. You are making the choice to lay-off teachers, to give over schools to private companies, to create a tiered system of schools in our city, and dismantle instead of fix public education. You are making those choices rather than taking a real and committed stand for the children and families of our city. Rather than listening to the students, parents, and teachers, who have been eager to share another vision for positive school transformation not based in test scores and scripted curriculum, but in real student-centered, engaging and participatory learning. Rather than joining the growing collaboration of community members who are demanding money be put not into prisons and policing, but into our education system. In fact, there are places to get money. And your choices show priorities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">So then, Commissioners and Superintendent Ackerman, if your priority actually is with creating the best possible public education system, I want to ask you directly: what are you willing to do about it? </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">Indeed, these are people’s very lives we’re talking about. 2300 staff members today. 69,000 students next year. The ripple effect of your decisions will have a massive impact on our city for decades to come. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">So, let me ask you all sitting here before me again, with the urgency that this question demands: What are you willing to do about it? </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">In fact, I want to ask everyone in this room: What are WE willing to do about this? What risks are we willing to take to get our city back on track without selling out our students, teachers, and communities to the highest bidder? </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">For anyone who still has a job in this District</span></u><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">, how are you going to overcome the absolute Culture of Fear that pervades our schools and forces so many of us into silence? How are you going to speak out for what’s right for your students?</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">For anyone who still is a student in a District school</span></u><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">, what are you going to do to organize with your fellow students to change the way the schools are being run to criminalize you and give you a sub-standard education? </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">For anyone who still has a child in the District,</span></u><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;"> who are you going to pressure so that your child isn’t treated like a prisoner, isn’t stripped of their right to a free, quality public education?</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">From the middle east to Wisconsin, we’ve seen communities come together to move mountains, change the structure of society, end unfair legislation, and try to deliver justice to their communities. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">We are facing a crisis, Philadelphia, a crisis caused by the priorities which have thus far dominated our way of living, and it is up to all of us, parents, students, teachers and citizens, to work together with a common vision to change our schools so that they serve and prepare all of our young people for their lives today and tomorrow, and prepare them to build a future which prioritizes human dignity over corporate greed. A future where the suggestion of selling out our communities to balance our budget will never again be on the table. </span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">So I ask us all again: what are we going to do?<br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 14pt;">This piece was written with the help of Dana Barnett and Hanako Franz, TAG members</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-32562752401514627042011-06-06T20:03:00.000-07:002011-08-03T07:51:54.093-07:00Doing the job of an educator: life in the midst of lay-offs.<style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <p class="MsoNormal">Today I was laid off from the School District of Philadelphia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal">Upon hearing the news, I made a quick, distracting joke: “And they didn’t even have the consideration to print the pink slip out on pink paper.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">8:52am and I needed to map out a gameplan for my life, make some decisions for my next career steps, start strategizing for the media campaign our organization needs to roll out in response to the dissolution of public education, and schedule an appointment at the optometrist before my health insurance runs out next month.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">However, I still had copies to make for my classes, and the second hand of the clock was continuing its persistent swoop.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the copy room, my colleagues gave me hugs, told me they “love my spirit,” and lamented the short amount of time we had together.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I carried my books and copies and computer up the three flights of stairs; as I ascended, the heat rose by 20 degrees and my morale drooped to an unaccustomed low.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is the reality of working for a highly-centralized bureaucratic institution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Someone who has never met me, never sat in on one of my classes, never asked Daysha Gregory her opinion about mainstream media’s portrayal of teenagers, never asked Delilah Vazquez to read them her poetry about the complexities of life, just hacked away at a list and circled my name as one of the goners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And it feels bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It just feels bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The countless hours and dollars I’ve spent in this District trying to do my best to teach hundreds and hundreds of students to be creative and critical thinkers, able to solve the problems of the world they’re inheriting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">They don’t really care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Pink Slipped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The School District of Philadelphia doesn’t really care.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">But that isn’t even the worst part.<span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Today, I lost my job in the School District of Philadelphia, and the worst part had nothing to do with my paycheck, my 403(b), my health insurance, or the imminent scramble to figure out what to do next. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The worst part was the tears streaming down my students’ faces when they said: “But we fought!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We organized!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We went to Harrisburg and DC and the District.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We marched and protested and doorknocked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And we lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The state is still not giving us the money, and we’re still losing our teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I can’t believe we fought so hard, but lost anyway.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And just before the dreaded “what’s the point?” could even fall from their mouths, I interrupted:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“We’re going against a huge machine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s got money, and politicians, and slick PR.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But we’ve got people power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And, for real, we’re going to win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We just have to organize more broadly and effectively.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“But we lost.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“And you’ll probably lose again. You’re going to win and lose countless times.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“We were going to build a better school – one where the city could see that a neighborhood school CAN be great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But we’re losing all of our teachers, they’re severing our relationships, the class size is going up, and all they’re giving us is more security cameras.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’ll never build a great school now.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Listen: Life is long and the universe is expansive. If you wake up in the morning and believe that the world can be a better place, then you’re an organizer. And you’re going to figure out an improved strategy to win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Otherwise, you’re just going to have to lay down and watch everything crumble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is that what you want?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“No.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then be sad today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That’s fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But tomorrow, you better wake up believing that the world can be transformed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I will be here to help you think through how.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And with that, they cried some more; I gave them all hugs and told them that we’d make a video on Tuesday that we could send out about the impact of teacher layoffs on students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hopefully they haven’t already lost all hope in movement-building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Today I may have lost my job in the School District of Philadelphia, but I did my job as an educator.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-3472257165265781502010-12-15T15:07:00.000-08:002010-12-15T15:08:21.303-08:00Stop Waiting. Start Acting. Just like Thousands of Teacher Activists are doing.If you’ve been keeping up on the debate around the direction of public education, you know by now that the “failing of America’s public schools” is because of me.<br /><br />I’m a 5th year public high school teacher in Philadelphia. And I’m the face of the downfall of the public education system.<br /><br />This is all according to the slick stylings of Davis Guggenheim’s documentary, Waiting for Superman, the crown jewel in the multi-million dollar marketing plan being orchestrated by a range of policy makers, urban school district administrators, charter school management groups, philanthro-preneurs like Bill Gates and the Walton Family, and a host of others.<br /><br />Even with its contrived drama and obvious agenda to blame teachers unions for the state of schools, the hype of Waiting for Superman has swept public education into the spotlight. Sadly, the “debate” that the movie has elicited hasn’t centered on the real issues that my students, their families, and my colleagues are dealing with everyday.<br /><br />I’ve gone to the movie. I’ve read the blogs. Now I’m ready for a real debate about the future of public education – one that focuses on the meaning of public and the purpose of education.<br /><br />In Districts across the country, publicly elected School Boards are being dissolved and replaced by Mayor- and Governor-appointed Commissions. Here in Philadelphia, we see backroom deals and state-level politics play out in our local schools -- through hires, contracts, and land handovers. Isn’t school supposed to be the site of preparing young people for civic engagement? Then let’s act like it. We must create structures for meaningful, informed and inclusive participation in the decisions made about our schools. Ensuring local parent, educator and student leadership at all levels will strengthen the direction of education, as those who are most affected must be those helping to steer the ship. <br /><br />This is especially true in this moment in President Obama’s reform agenda. Instead of bringing in outside managers to “turn around” schools that don’t perform well on standardized tests, we should look to local communities, students, and educators to shed our wisdom and knowledge on what our schools need to be transformed into institutions that truly meet our needs. Again, this process must be bottom-up, participatory and highly democratic. Let’s put the public back in public education. <br /><br />And, while we’re at it, let’s bring meaning back into schooling. While my colleagues and I are not Supermen, we are trying our best to facilitate the process of human development – learning and growing, unlocking curiosity and following lines of inquiry into new understandings. Unfortunately, that train gets derailed far too often by today’s standardized testing regime. Instead of scripted test preparation, my students deserve opportunities to develop their critical thinking, with curriculum anchored in their lived experiences and cultural histories. And they deserve high quality, comprehensive assessments to demonstrate both their growth and the places where they still need to be pushed. Bubbled-in answer sheets are not going to help this generation be equipped to solve the problems of the world they are inheriting.<br /><br />The truth that Superman fails to portray is that there are thousands of other teachers like me working in districts around the country to build partnerships with student, parent and community groups in our quest to improve a meaningful, public education system. <br /><br />To anyone who truly wants to see a change in schools in this country, I encourage you to stop Waiting and start Acting. Join an organization fighting for equitable funding, relevant curriculum, an end of the criminalization of youth. There is never going to be a hero that sweeps us away into the clouds. There will just be the collective power of millions of us moving toward the transformation we want to see. <br /><br />I’m ready. How about you?<br /><br /><br />Anissa Weinraub<br />Philadelphia High School Teacher<br />Member, Teacher Action Group Philadelphia<br />Member, Teacher Activist Groups National NetworkUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-89457795991311597602010-09-22T20:02:00.001-07:002010-09-22T20:06:20.957-07:00Going against the schedule: How sitting in a circle transformed my studentsLet me take this moment to say a huge THANK YOU to the folks at the International Institute of Restorative Practices. They helped me harness the energy of my amazing, although highly misunderstood, students today, by having taught me the power of the circle. In 47 minutes, I was able to turn a class of angry and frustrated 9th graders into excited, self-motivated learners/doers. If it hadn’t actually happened to me, I would think this were just another storybook case study. <br /><br />7th period rolled around and through my door trudged a reluctant bunch of angry faces. They were yelling at each other, telling each other to shut up, get outta my way, don’t make me come over there and hit you, I hate you, I hate being in this stupid class with that stupid kid. After a few minutes of unproductive shushing and attempted redirecting, I looked at the board, with my perfectly labeled ‘objective’ and ‘do now’ and thought: this class doesn’t need to explore imagery in a piece of fiction. We need a community circle.<br /><br />I asked them to get into a circle, which they did, moaning and groaning and slapping the tops of their desks. I picked up my squeezy apple stressball and said, “We’re going to pass this around. When it comes to you, just say one word or phrase that describes your feelings.” <br /><br />I started with mine: Thrown off.<br />Then theirs: Agitated. Frustrated. Angry. Annoyed. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. <br /><br />“Ok,” I said. “How would you prefer to feel?”<br />Productive. Happy. Excited. At home. At home. At home.<br /><br />“Ok. You all said that right now you’re in a crappy mood. And that you’d prefer to feel better. Given that we’re at school for 7 ½ hours a day and we can’t just go home, what do you think you could do to feel the way you’d like to feel?”<br /><br />And then I just let them take control.<br /><br />“I don’t want to be with the same people the whole day.”<br />“I want these teachers to not be so boring. They’re not teaching us anything.”<br />“I want to learn something interesting.”<br /><br />They then wanted to know why the Support Aid was with them. Were they the ‘slow class?’<br /><br />I told them to ask her. She was a person. Just ask her.<br />And someone did.<br />And she told them that it was her job to give teachers more support, and this was just her assignment. She wanted to help them.<br />They suddenly realized that she was an actual human doing her job, and not just some random policing force, or, worse in their eyes, a symbol that they were ‘slow.’<br /><br />The conversation turned to why another school got to have brand new facilities and we had such an old, falling apart building.<br />And then why we didn’t have any performing arts opportunities, because, as one of my students said, “I’m sure we all want to perform.”<br /><br />I told her that she should ask everyone what their talents are. <br />So she did. She passed around the apple, and everyone said that they were artists, dancers, and athletes.<br /><br />And that’s where everything changed.<br /><br />One student asked for the apple, and said “Why doesn’t our school get dancers together and perform for the Puerto Rican Day Parade?”<br /><br />At that point, the class erupted in enthusiasm. <br /><br />“Yeah! We should represent our school!”<br />“And wear our shirts.”<br />“And do bachata.”<br /><br />I asked them what they thought they needed to do to make that happen.<br /><br />One girl decided to be the facilitator. They listed all the steps it would take to reach their goal. Two others made flyers to get students interested. They made a plan for a rehearsal schedule and asked me to be their sponsor. Who could say no to student initiative? <br /><br />During all of this, the students who had been feuding were working together. The class spoke directly to the guy who was constantly being disruptive, asking him to be quiet. But this time, they weren’t mean. They were just not interested in being distracted from their goal. And he listened. <br /><br />It turned out that we were too late to register for the parade, but they didn’t care. They decided to self-organize a dance club, to do bachata, salsa, hip hop, and break dance. And they convinced another teacher to organize a talent show for October, so they could show off their soon-to-be-amazing moves.<br /><br />As the class period ended, I asked them to sit in the circle again. “Give one word to describe how you feel.”<br /><br />Excited. Happy. Motivated. Excited. Excited. Excited.<br /><br />It felt like a sitcom. Unruly high school students sit in a circle and talk about their feelings. They transform instantly. <br /><br />But that’s what happened. <br /><br />That’s the power of allowing students to voice their concerns, ideas, emotions, and humanity. They normally know exactly how to solve their problems, and, if given the space and the structure, will come up with something that is more motivating than what anyone else could force onto them.<br /><br />And I wondered, if an administrator from the District had been in my classroom, would they have approved? Or would they have rated me unsatisfactory for not meeting the scheduled standards and the scripted outcomes? Would they have told me that I wasn’t helping raise test scores or meet AYP? <br /><br />But they weren’t. So I did what needed to be done. <br /><br />I’m glad I was able to have the autonomy to use my classtime in a way that could build a sense of community in my classroom and personal power in my students. What if I’d just been following a script, like hundreds of my public school colleagues are forced to do everyday? <br /><br />To the reformers in their office chairs and their clipboard monitoring walk-throughs, I was diverting from the ‘schedule.’ To my students, I was helping them unlock their passion, energy, and motivation for being in school. You tell me, Mr. Reformer, isn’t that the point of education?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-1394106028085098772009-12-08T20:44:00.000-08:002009-12-09T09:13:25.156-08:00Restorative Justice Practices will help us get at the roots.This is my testimony for the School Reform Commission meeting:<br /><br /><br />In my time in the District, I've seen clashes between students who come from very different backgrounds. I've also been a part of facilitating cross-cultural dialogues that were incredibly transformative for students and the school community, helping students break stereotypes they held about people of other races and ethnicities, and preventing inter-racial conflict and violence.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.thenotebook.org/blog/092002/racial-assaults-south-philly-what-went-wrong">recent attacks on Asian American students</a> at South Philadelphia High School stand as a clear message that a tension exists between students of different backgrounds.<br /><br /><br />And our response as a District will show what our values are. <br /><br /><br />We, as educators who are committed to care for all of our students, with you, as adults who are responsible for the development the young people of our city's schools, need to do our jobs. We need to actively intervene, to teach about managing conflict, to guide them in a better way.<br /><br /><br />If we want these Asian-American students and their peers to be able to attend a school that is safe for them, then we must get to the heart of what true school safety looks like.<br /><br />A part of school safety is found in holding people accountable for their violent actions, and we can see that the District is taking steps toward this.<br /><br /><br />However, we at TAG believe that relying solely on punitive interventions -- like enhanced policing, suspensions, and arrests -- only serves to further criminalize students and lock violent behavior into place. This doesn't resolve the fundamental issues at the heart of conflict. <br /><br />Instead, we believe that we need to show students that because we care about them and their development, we will provide them a path down which to move forward, to find individual transformation and community healing through the basics of talking and listening, learning about each other, validating one another's experiences.<br /><br /><br /><br />We would like to see the School District establish Restorative Justice Practices to move toward healing in this specific situation of violence, and to get students and faculty at South Philadelphia HS dialoging about race and ethnicity, to explore differences and find points of convergence. <br /><br /><br />We would like to see resources committed by the District to have professional conflict mediation and prevention programs instituted at South Philadelphia HS, like the programs offered by the International Institute for Restorative Practices that are being used at West Philadelphia HS. <br /><br /><br />We would like to see the infrastructure provided for the faculty, administration, and student body of South Philadelphia HS to commit themselves to this type of school community transformation, including school-wide training, flexibility in the schedule for community circles, and curriculum for meaningful multicultural understanding. <br /><br /><br />And, ultimately, we would like to see these practices instituted in every school in the District.<br /><br /><br />Do not let this be just another story about the failings of some of Philadelphia's toughest schools, let this be an opportunity for the District to meet the needs of these students and provide resources for the principal, teachers, staff and students to move toward a school climate that is safe for everyone. Let us turn from here and say this is when we began to make meaningful change in how our District prevents violence in every school in this city.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-91055922311074412762009-09-30T12:51:00.000-07:002009-09-30T13:06:48.469-07:00From Behind the Fence<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKG7HmygpVfvEpwu7wUCJUIdAr8RTKB2taANLFel-ySNrMjq7Y_qZ3AVsyRz_UCLWpS7p68espbfhtFn0m4TyYV_IojmSup70sgLR_QI-Wc2bSLBSOrh-vx8sa8QjpLff8TULybyBrB7M/s1600-h/IMG_1103.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKG7HmygpVfvEpwu7wUCJUIdAr8RTKB2taANLFel-ySNrMjq7Y_qZ3AVsyRz_UCLWpS7p68espbfhtFn0m4TyYV_IojmSup70sgLR_QI-Wc2bSLBSOrh-vx8sa8QjpLff8TULybyBrB7M/s320/IMG_1103.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387352443322402514" border="0" /></a>
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<br /><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The tour Listened and Learned at Mastery Charter School yesterday morning, had an invite-only roundtable with city councilors and limited members of the District, and concluded at McDaniel Elementary eerily inside a classroom without any students or teachers.<span style=""> </span>Strange to not go to a neighborhood high school, maybe one that is slated for “turnaround” as a Renaissance School under the Imagine 2014 plan.<span style=""> </span>Strange to not check out a “consistently underperforming school” that would qualify for Duncan’s Race to the Top funds, which, it should be said, require that at least some of the schools that are “turned around” must have an outside provider come in and take over the running of the school.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Who are you listening to?” several people asked from behind a heavy wrought-iron fence where we, the uninvited students, teachers, parents, community members, were forced to stand.<span style=""> </span>In this question sits the crux of the issue: If they’re not listening and learning from those most affected by their policy decisions, then how will they ever know what needs to be done?</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Inside, videotape shows, the rhetoric was what you would expect. Newt Gingrich gave his interpretation of the Constitution, which showed how god would want us to improve our schools.<span style=""> </span>Al Sharpton talked about how the kids really deserve something good.<span style=""> </span>And Arne Duncan talked about how we’re moving into the future, yadda yadda yadda, we have to transform things, blah blah blah, we have to take what works and replicate it all over.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Vague.<span style=""> </span>Drifting.<span style=""> </span>Something we could all find our own take on, but without any sense of how they really want to shape the next decades of public schooling in the U.S.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Consequently, where did these ideas – that they’re not telling us – get developed?<span style=""> </span>Through a close partnership with business interests, owners of Education and/or Charter Management Organizations (EMOs and CMOs), stockholders in the testing industry who would make huge profits off of standardize testing our nation’s kids to death?<span style=""> </span>Or through talking with students who know what they need to feel like full human beings and engaged learners in their schools; parents who have lived in the neighborhood for decades, who may have even gone to the very school where their child now doesn’t get the education she deserves, who recognize the school as the invaluable community institution it is; or teachers who are daily forced by the system of U.S. schooling to compromise their own professional competence and to lose the personal fire that brought them into education to begin with?</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">We know what’s happening in our schools.<span style=""> </span>We live it everyday.<span style=""> </span>And we hold the wisdom and the ideas to best determine the reform that needs to happen.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">From behind the wrought-iron fence, it is clear who they are not listening to.<span style=""> </span>So, it’s all of our responsibilities to force them to listen.<span style=""> </span>The next months are critical, and all eyes will be on Philly.<span style=""> </span>We’re going to have to keep building a movement from our side of this fence, and hopefully it will be enough to knock it down, cross this gaping divide, and have our power speak back to theirs.<span style=""> </span>So, to students, teachers, parents, community members, and anyone else concerned about the dismantling of public education: Make them listen.<span style=""> </span></p> <!--EndFragment--> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-63419866725936976022009-05-13T17:49:00.000-07:002009-05-13T18:19:52.593-07:00Thoughts on countering the Renaissance Schools plan.This is adapted from something I wrote for a group of teachers who are organizing in Philly around School Reform. No one has signed onto it, but I wanted to put it out there to see if anyone has any comments on my broad, sweeping gestures about School Autonomy and Student-centered change:<br /><br /><br />With the passing of the School District’s Imagine 2014 plan, the future direction of Philadelphia’s schools is uncertain. Is the change that’s being imagined one that involves teachers, students, parents, and the wider community taking part in directing their individual schools along a stronger course? Or is the change one that removes the voices of those people who are most affected by their underperforming school buildings, replacing them with outside contractors who don’t have a pre-existing stake in that school’s improvement? <br /><br />As teachers who are committed to our students’ public education within the School District of Philadelphia, we believe that change is absolutely necessary. Our students and our buildings most assuredly need to see a turn-around. However, the District’s plan to take those schools who are consistently underperforming, shut them down, and turn them over to outside providers as Renaissance Schools holds serious ramifications that we are concerned about.<br /><br />We believe that total school transformation can be achieved without turning our District-run schools over to outside providers. And we want to be a part of it.<br /><br />Those targeted schools should have:<br />• An opportunity to lay-out their specific issues, design a Strategic Action Plan for improvement, and be given District resources to meet their needs.<br />• More autonomy at the local level to bring together Teachers, Administrators, students, and parents to decide on budgeting, hiring, school culture, curriculum, academic vision, etc.<br />• The opportunity to demonstrate educational progress through their student body’s meaningful and authentic performance of learning, not merely standardized testing<br />• A commitment from the District to be given those additional resources necessary for 21st Century teaching and learningUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154717664429668573.post-16201572247389938682009-03-12T20:12:00.000-07:002009-03-12T20:20:16.193-07:00Imagine Real Community-Centered Planning for SchoolsI just made it home from a sometimes-rousing, sometimes-placating Community Meeting about the School District of Philadelphia’s new <a href="http://www.philasd.org/announcements/public_draft.pdf">Strategic Plan, Imagine 2014</a>. Of the hundreds of parents, teachers, students, administrators, and other community members in attendance, I’m sure that most, like myself, walked out feeling like our comments were not necessarily going to be factored into the next draft of the Plan, nor were many of our questions answered.<br /><br />I, of course, ended up in the building – the gorgeous, new <a href="http://www.designshare.com/index.php/projects/high-school-of-the-future/narratives">High School of the Future</a>, a multi-million dollar Microsoft/SDP project that stands within miles of several dilapidated, soon-to-be-closed schools, but I, as per usual, digress – until the lights were shut down. As I walked my break-out session facilitator, a well-meaning Higher Up in the SDP bureaucracy, to his car, he told me that Philly just needs to get over our usual down-on-our-selves attitudes, put faith in a plan like this, and attempt to dream. To dream? I explained that it is entirely healthy to have skepticism about a plan that is looking to advance “school choice” through shutting down under-performing schools and turning them over to charters and/or other outside, private providers who are seeking to make a profit from once-public schools. Our skepticism doesn’t mean we don’t know how to dream. <br /><br />A more exciting and substantive dream is the one held by communities throughout Philadelphia who are having Community Planning Processes right now about how to improve their schools. The problem is that the District is not viewing those processes as valuable and therefore not honoring them with the chance to bolster school performance through being accountable to the wishes of the very communities those schools are trying to serve.<br /><br />See, under this new plan, the District wants to make a “system of great schools where success is supported, replicated, and rewarded and failure is not tolerated.” Their proposal for how to deal with supporting the high-performing schools and not tolerating the low-performing schools is to create three types of new models for those schools.<br /><br />1. Vanguard Schools. <br />Certain high-performing schools, who probably are high-performing due to a history of having resources (human, economic, and ideological), would be able to enter into “autonomy agreements” in order to define their performance targets and future work. <br /><br />As someone who currently works in a high-performing school where autonomy is one of the most necessary components of furthering our school success and student achievement, I see this as a piece of the School Improvement Puzzle that WAY MORE schools need and deserve in order to be successful.<br /><br />2. Empowerment Schools<br />These are “struggling schools” that can get additional supports from the District to help intervene. <br /><br />As someone who has gone through SDP Professional Development and has received Teacher Supports from the District, I can say that more actual benefit comes out of having time to plan, organize, and coordinate the interworkings of a school than comes out of District top-down interventions. See the thoughts on autonomy above.<br /><br />3. Renaissance Schools. <br />This is where it gets shady. Basically, the District wants to shut down failing schools and “embrace bold new educational approaches with proven track records.” What they mean by this is shutting down public schools and opening charters (either in-district or outside providers) or other contracted-out schools (like Educational Management Organizations). The schools that are targeted for this plan will then be given a few options of providers and the “community” will “choose” who will take over their schools.<br /><br />The language in the Plan and the rhetoric flying off the mic tonight makes it sound like this will be a very community-centered process. However, for clarity’s sake, here are some main issues:<br /><br />“Anyone” can enter their plan for how a new school will operate in the RFP process. However, the criteria for “proven track record” and the lack of supports for plan development makes it seem pretty unlikely that a group of committed community members, students and educators could create something with the same scope and polish as that of a Franchise Charter with paid staff and pre-made templates.<br /><br />The District won’t release the names of the 10 Renaissance Schools until very close to the due date for plan submissions. So, even if a community did want to mobilize and create a blueprint for their school, they wouldn’t even have the appropriate time to do so.<br /><br />And, wasn’t the whole point of the Charter School movement initially to reclaim education by communities who were feeling their children’s educational needs weren’t being met? This process, with its lack of transparency and intentionality, completely undermines the original philosophy and co-opts the model as yet another means toward privatizing public education.<br /><br /> The thing is, community groups all over the city – from <a href="http://yuc.home.mindspring.com/">Kensington</a> to <a href="http://www.phillystudentunion.org">West Philly</a> – already have community planning processes and blueprints for over-hauling their public schools in their hands. They are READY for the change that the District is hinting at, and they can spell out what they want their public schools to look like. They don’t need to have their schools shut down and charterized in order to pretend to have their best interests in mind. They already do. <br /><br /><br />My response to the District, to the Imagine 2014 crew who feels like Philadelphians aren’t dreaming well enough, is to envision public education that was responsive to the actual communities where each school was functioning. You could have a dozen plans on your desks by Monday. And you don’t have to hand over your public duties or privatize anything in order to do so. <br /><br />You don’t have to dream it; you just have to listen.<br /><br />Imagine that.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2