A thread of gratitude to some important people from my life this week... Shouts to @TheJLV for matching energies and always being there to help me laugh at myself. Open invite to folks to come see us and match energies with us at the #TOCA summit at CU Boulder next month.

Trying not to get sucked in, working for 5 schools means no lunch or bathroom breaks unless you take them. But, some of the good from today... Kids (Seniors) stayed after class to watch #THUG trailer and were riveted. "Where do I sign up for book club again?"

So I'm going to post some links.... All purchases go to supporting initiatives I am a part of/helping to lead. Recently had somebody reach out asking for my Venmo to compensate me for all they learn from me on Twitter. I appreciate that. Here are additional ways...[THREAD] #Educolor is my heart home. It is where familia, intense dreaming, and powerful activism centered around educational equity starts and ends for me.

https://twitter.com/TheJLV/status/1020869577671102464?s=19

My first #librarian PD day was like this... [a thread] So, we're meeting at the School of the Arts, but they don't have a library anymore, so instead of meeting in the library, we're meeting in the cafeteria. It was beautiful, but I am directionally challenged, so I got lost...as always...and was like...

Soooo one of the first pieces of news I heard this morning was about white nationalist rallies in DC, Charlottesville, and perhaps across the country. It is shameful and beyond embarrassing (I have International friends all over the world) to think about how these are the same people who say the pledge of allegiance to, "One nation, under God, indivisible..."

Good morning to all educators committed to reconsidering "behavior issues" and rebranding them as opportunities to invite someone in to conversation and connection. These are the moments for us to line up actions with all the things we say we believe. As folks are designing behavior policies, codes of conduct, and expectations this time of year, it is especially important to remember the end goal and desired tone or flavor you want a classroom or school to have.

Today DPS came through and invested in all these teacher leaders in the form of providing time, stipends (gasp), instructional and research support, technology (Swivl cams are a little scary to me) and a Skype call from @Ready4rigor herself. We are part of a cohort of Culturally Responsive Teaching Fellows tasked with conducting research and spreading best practices for CRT throughout the district.

Amazing. And terrible. Yet amazing. #thedisrespect #mystruggle Um...this is concerning.

The Path of the Yoga Sutras-- Day 1 "May all beings embody this potent combination: sharp sword, open heart." "Many teachers want nothing more than for one of their students to surpass them and, thus, carry on their teachings."

A little thread before bed... Today my yoga instructor talked about the part where it gets challenging...

Camocim, estado do Ceará, Brasil...My bestie Mariana lives there and this is her every day life...Jealous? Me too. Minha sobrinha Brasileira--Beatríz (Bea)

The similarity between historical lynching and modern-day police brutality is something Black people have always seen, hence the necessity of #BlackLivesMatter The similarities between the colonial school system that trained colonized people to believe in, internalize, and perpetuate systems of oppression--and our own school system today has been evident to POCs since forever.

I'd like to take this opportunity to extend all the 🎉HAPPY BIRTHDAY🎉 wishes to the fabulous, the one and only, the realest and most loving-- @getnicced

A thread of reasons why you need her and her books in your life! Dear Martin was a #ProjectLITBookClub 2017-18 selection and I have yet to meet a student who doesn't wild out over this book. My copies are continually checked out/on the "extended borrow" aka "missing".

In so many places labeled "urban" or serving "low-income" communities (I hate labels but will use the language I have for the time being) teachers have neither the content, nor pedagogical knowledge to experiment with the canon.

https://twitter.com/juliaerin80/status/1015966217138421761

Schools can and will be shut down and principals fired, forced to retire, or reassigned if literacy scores look a certain way for too long.

Citationality Is a Thing: Your handy guide to giving credit for original thinking to the proper individual in the age where all information belongs to everyone and no one. Who is going to write it? It could have a chapter on how to trace ideas to their originator...similar to how you can see the origin and date of creation for images on Google.

Montbello Library (and the only one in far northeast Denver) manifested!🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 So much love for all the kids, community, school board members, and teachers who made this happen. It's gonna be amazing😁 I promise... We talked about color and being gender neutral and fabrics a lot today...

Home again home again....
On the shuttle watching a car merge into the lane beside mine and thinking... We have no choice but to trust as we speed along that other drivers will remain within the confines of their lanes, even when we are going in the same direction.

Fam, if you don't know @EllinKeene you need to fix that immediately. She can't be described in a tweet, but knowing of her, then being taught and nurtured by her today in my budding practice as an educational researcher has been one of the most memorable experiences of my life. My #hfellows journey is just beginning, but it is no exaggeration or stretch of the imagination when I say that I feel so empowered and ready to engage in all that is ahead because I know she's in my corner.

Monolith -- for #worldpoetryday Down he came, the Southern monolith

A dramatic end to old fashioned values.

For centuries he stood for folks to worship

Reminding me of a past I could only condemn.

Murderous, ruthless, hate-filled actions

Long over, yet clouding my vision, as smoke.

What school closure really does (if you're curious), a thread. A few years ago, our comprehensive high school was closed. Parents protested, kids cried. The district closed it anyway.
thedenverchannel.com/news/montbello…