The Making of My Map

I can honestly say that this has been my most challenging masters class thus far. I am constantly wondering if I ‘Get It’ in terms of the concepts and my interpretations of them. Its also because I am not used to learning this way. Yes, I have done online classes before. However, they stuck to the Blackboard model, even when it was clear it wasn't working well. Learning this way; where we read what Christina puts up, then we are free to go off on our own is difficult. I have a VERY hard time staying focused, and an even harder time not clicking every site I see...

In thinking about what I am learning and where I am going just the concept of using the Internet as a way to fuel true student driven education was not something I even knew existed. So now I am wrapping my head around this concept along with how I can use it to challenge inspire and educate my students to be productive citizens in society.

So not to long ago I painted an entire wall in my office/spare bedroom with chalk paint. This wall was perfect for me to do this weeks assignment. While thinking about this course the word LEARNING was the first word that came to my head. The surrounding words all encapsulate where I am now and what I am thinking for the future. I am taking this class alongside a diversity & inclusive curricula class, so many of the conversations we have here overlap with the other class. Ideas around education, brown people, equity and inclusion are what’s in the forefront of many of my educational discussion. How can I use what I am learning here to be more effective in ‘growing’ my students?  I use the term growth because I realize that what I am trying to do with my students goes beyond ‘open a text book and copy’. I am trying to prepare my students for life, specifically their life. For many of my students their reality isn’t easy. They dodge many problems just making it to school, just to be short changed for one reason or another. How do I do this knowing the lack of resources many of the students I serve deal with? Many of the schools and students I serve have a hard time getting basic resources, let alone the stuff that fuels imagination. We don’t have money for toilet paper, let alone a STEM coach working with our Tech. teacher. How can what I envision help combat the hatred many of students face in society, while encouraging love for both themselves and their communities. How can it be a ‘change agent for them and their neighborhoods? Is there a way to marry both my education and ‘maker’ side? The last question, which for me is a little big is how can I bring what I do to the elementary side. For the past couple of years I have been managing programs for both elementary and middle, but realized that the little guys are way ore fun, and I can make impacts earlier, so how can this work?

With all of the questions listed above, where do I start?!? For my final project I am working on a website, and am wondering how much the type of platform I choose will influence the site. While thinking about this I am wondering if this question could help me begin to answer some of my other questions. And I haven’t even mentioned anything regarding my maker side. I am in the process of writing a business plan, and taking a much more serious look at what I do. I think its time, and this is a dream for me. So how can I continue doing it because I enjoy it and because everyone should be able to afford handmade quality items, while being able to sustain my family, specifically my beautiful baby?

This map was good for me to do. Like a true Virgo (not that I believe in that stuff much, lol) I am a planner. If not I go insane, and life as I know it ends. This exercise was really good for me to do, as it helped me continue to think and plan about where I want to be, where my time would be nest spent, and the impact I want to make in this world….

ITAG Meeting

For the last couple of months I have found myself becoming more pessimistic regarding the state of our nation, african-americans, and education. As a masters student I am constantly ingratiated in the woes and perils facing the educational system; particularly urban schools. I also spend time discussing strategies on what we as educators can do in our little corners of the world to make it right. However, no matter how enthusiastic the conversation I am often left feeling discouraged and pessimistic. Needless to say I  needed to find somewhere to 'vent' my aggravation after I read the numbers of blacks in prison and continual police shootings. Not to mention the constant attack I see happening on Philadelphia schools, its' students and teachers.

A few nights ago I attended the African-American Curriculum ITAG group meeting. If you are unfamiliar with ITAG/TAG Philly you can check out their site here. This group is taking a serious look at the  African-American History course with the goal of making it more accessible, providing certain standards of study, and empowering for students. Once complete, the group would like to submit their final curricula to the school district for approval to implemented city-wide. 

This ITAG meeting was just that place for me to be. It was attended by mostly teachers, but there were others in attendance who are in the education world as well.  A few of the educators in attendance teach the African-American Studies course. One of these teachers mentioned that 65%(I think I might be low on this number) of Philadelphia teachers are white, and it's student population is majority black. Given the numbers, a majority of the teachers of the African-American Studies course will be white. What are the implications? What will the experience be for black students receiving this information from White teachers? Will students of color feel safe exploring the historical context of racism and their relationship to Mayor Kenny's continuation of 'Stop and Frisk' with white teachers? What about white students, how can they explore issues around whiteness and privilege, while understanding connections between this history, neighborhood empowerment and themselves? How would the white teacher talk about the brutal history of this country with their black students while acknowledging their role, passive or otherwise, in this system?What happens when they are called 'cracker' by a black student? Is it a teachable moment, or another disciplinary action? Can they move through history to current events helping to motivate action from these same students?

What about the power dynamics? During our discussions a black male teacher shared his story of being told his white students feel threatened by him. This teacher explained that he was doing the same things he had been doing with his black students, but for some reason with his white students he was threatening. Is it possible for this class to address these issues? If so, how, and can they be addressed the same if the teacher was white? In this case how can the teacher 'teach' when he first has to address the idea of him being the boogyman. How does a black educator effectively teach this course without being labeled a trouble maker, extreme, or inciting their students to hate all whites? How do they encourage unity and collective activism if they worry about job safety?

Even with a B.A. in African/African-American Studies I am constantly reminded that there is always more for me to learn. I am excited to be a part of this group. The idea of being able to use my field of study to work towards effective change in education helps my pessimism.  It helps as I continue to read about neoliberal policies, watch videos of schools being taken over, and how wonderful(not) TFA has been for African-American teachers. What this group proposes to do follows the districts  idea to, "create a culture that not only reinforces a desire to learn, achieve and grow, but reaffirms their existence in the world."

Source:

http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/uploads/_-/36/_-36L31yh7HfKzRA6WdfwA/LessonsInAfricanaStudies.pdf

Friday 5-Making week

1. The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture will collaborate with the Tuskegee University Archives to preserve and share significant parts of the nation's Civil Rights Era with the world. For those of you who dont know; Tuskegge University  is where the Tuskegee Airmen studied, was founded by Booker T. Washington, and is the ONLY  University in the nation registered with the National Park Service. There will be an effort to preserve much of the history of the civil rights era, with plans for other projects... Pretty cool!

2. This week while thinking about connectivity I challenged myself to make a quick D.I.Y. People often ask how I make things, so why not pass on this skill. While mapping this week I made a pair of copper and clay earrings, and took pictures for each step. The video is posted here, as well as below let me know what you guys think!

3. I have been watching this youtube video all week on how to make a name chain. My name and my daughters name are both uncommon, so if I want anything it has to be made. I have been wanting to make us both necklaces so this video is helping to map out the process. I will let you know if i ever get to them!

4. Pinterest!! If you have not at least checked it out for fear of sensory overload don't worry. As an afterschool educator I find so many easy, and quick ideas for short activities, or things that I can weave into larger projects. Here are just two activities I have used from Pinterest.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/408209153701505160/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/408209153698380890/

5.Lastly, I have this Old document I found in a thrift store years ago that dates back to 1829. The document itself is not much, its an old land agreement, but the look of it, and what the world was like when it was written is what inspires me. It makes me think about what we will leave behind as 'antiques' when are children are in charge of the world, but more importantly what that world will look like!

Make It Week

Sunday 6 on Monday....

1. In keeping with my bringing more African/African-American history and themes to the discussion I just saw this video yesterday about the country's first and only Slavery Museum, called The Whitney Plantation. I had no idea that this place existed, and was surprised and happy to see it was started by a white guy. I am even more happy at his reasoning for it, 'Slavery is not an african-american history, but a national history'. Here is the link to video about this place, which he has spent over $8 million on... a paltry amount compared to the total money spent during the institution of slavery itself....

2. I read this article yesterday about a k-8 afrocentric school in Chicago that is facing closure due to low test scores. What I pulled from this article was that sent me down a rabbit hole is that there are no national numbers on the number of Afrocentric charter schools in this country. I am thinking of all of the ideas that could be shared if the schools were to start a community or network, especially since many Afrocentric schools share the same problems.

3. Thank you to Robert at sharbotini for posting the short essay written by Gail Farmer, Director of Education at the Schuylkill Center, I learned more bout the Nordic idea of
friluftsliv, which translates to 'free air life'. The idea of nature as home and a place that should be returned to on a daily basis. Students in Finland are given 15 minutes of this 'nature play' after each lesson to help recharge! Once again I see how contradictory things are.

4. Did anyone post this article from Slate Magazine two weeks ago? I hope not, because its talking about some of what we are all trying to figure out now, how to incorporate more technology into the classroom (yes I know we are always talking about equity, but this was a magazine guys...) and the lack of true support from districts in terms of training.

5. While on twitter I saw this link to a program that trains youth workers and counselors to lead independent outdoors trips with inner city students. I can remember being a part of different programs that took us on nature hikes, rafting, and skiing and remembering how cool it was getting out of the city. I also remember taking students on a hiking trip 2 summers ago and for all their complaining at first, how into the walk they were.

6. Right as I was about to post something else for my 6th and last point I came across this article that talks about the just published Facebook report on connectivity. It says that there are 4 problems as to why more than half the world is not connected, "availability, affordability, relevance and readiness." This report just highlights all we have been reading and saying about connectivity. Check it out!

Questions??

10 questions I have about Education

1. What is the connection between connectivity and the struggle for racial freedom?

2. How can connectivity link past and current movements in an engaging and meaningful way for my students.

3. Can connectivity be equitable with web restrictions for students? Specifically, with web restrictions how can connectivity truly be equitable?

4. How can connectivity better shape the African-American educational experience, for both teachers and students?

5. How can we use connectivity  for parent voice?

6. How can connectivity affect students growing up in isolated environments, and how can we provide equitable connectivity for them that is affordable?

7. Could connectivity lead us to a star-trek like existence...(serious but joking, lol)

8. How will connectivity shape higher education and access to it?

9. How can connectivity improve/shape curricula for American history and other non-dominant courses.

10.  How can I combine connectivity to my lessons to help differentiate them between grades and student learning styles?

10 questions I have about myself

1. How can I combine my crafts, my degrees and fight from freedom to sustain my family?

2. Where do I see myself living in 5 years since I hate winter?

3. How can I use connectivity to grow my business as a designer, and curriculum developer?

4. Given my personality quirks, how can connectivity help me better work with colleges, while still connecting with students?

5. Should I listen to my husband and pursue a PhD? (It would be cool to be Dr.'s Amenra, lol....)

6. How do my students honestly see me in the classroom?

7. How can I meet the demands of being a teacher while maintaining my own mental health?

8. After taking the blue pill, as a mother how can I support public schools and provide the best education possible for my daughter?

9. Will I die with student loan debt?

10. Could I ever be the teacher in my dreams? The one who gets to take her kids out of the class everyday and go out into the world with her students learning, or was that only the magic schoolbus?

From what I am reading and learning  equitable connectivity could really change the education game. I would consider myself a huge SCIFI geek, so I am constantly thinking/dreaming about the future and see so may doors that can open. Heck the worlds I have found by simply joining twitter....However having access simply isn't enough. Lana commented on her blog, "It doesn't seem wrong to encourage the rich districts, the rich students and their parents to donate some money to buy the poor districts some computers, help to improve their library, or  buy new equipment in the gym, ...etc." While the idea of this is nice, without the proper questions and guidance the new computers, equipment, etc. would only go so far. Neither side would be completely changed. The poor students would have new computers for a while...the rich kids would feel good for a while. But how does this help the longterm goals of equity? This is the question I am pondering...

Sunday 6-Communities

1. Shout out to Danielle over at dlevis.tumblr.com for introducing me to Nings. I am still lost about the definition. Why is it named Ning?1 Anyway, because of her blog I signed up to be a part of two new teacher support communities; Classroom 2.0 and Curriculum 21.

2. Because I love science and making a mess I often use ScienceBob, as well as this site.  I even had a young lady and her family take a picture after every experiment they did on the other site. I can say I saw at least 10 pictures from her during the course of the school year. Are you all a part of any science communities I should know about? I love a good project, and want to create the same love of science and mess making for my daughter that I have.

3. Through Twitter I am constantly reminded that this country has a huge problem with supporting urban schools. I follow @detriotteach and am constantly seeing pictures showing buildings 100 times worse than the ones we house our enemies in. How can we expect teachers to produce quality results when they are battling for basic human rights? How can we as an enlightened society accept children being taught in moldy schools? Oh yeah, they are OTHER peoples kids, many who don't look like those in schools where this would never happen....

                       

4. So I have been the owner of a crockpot for 10 years but have only used it twice. My girlfriend  Jasmine, who is vegan, makes the best soups, dinners and deserts, restaurant quality. Meanwhile I make horrible science experiments. Determined I joined this board on Pinterest to get my life together. I'll let you know how my first soup, which will be butternut squash, goes.

5. I am always on the lookout for the telling of black history form our own perspective. So with that said, and it still being Black History Month I figured I would let you all know that John Legend has produced a tv series called Underground, which looks like it will follow a group of slaves as they flee on freedom. The preview looks interesting, as it seems fast paced and is showing it from the perspective of the slaves, the slave masters, abolitionist, and those in between. We shall see, the opening in the preview in which each slave was described was very forward, and I am appreciating more stories of resistance being told from the perspective of blacks...

6. Lastly as we talk about communities what do you guys think about paid communities such as ABCMouse and such? I see their commercials ALL the times because of my daughter, and they are seriously rubbing me the wrong way. In most of the commercials that feature parents they say things like, 'this has helped me lay the foundation for his success'. What?! The parents take much of the learning from themselves and place it on this paid learning subscription. I have tried looking things up about the company, but stopped when I saw articles with people trying to link it to scientology...I have other yellow brick roads to travel down.....

Lastly...can you tell I am learning how to use more buttons on this blogger, don't laugh at me, but i hate just looking at words ALL the time and could use the introduction of pictures more in life. We all could...