YAY! Excited to listen to @angiecthomas talk #TheHateUGive! @ncte .@angiecthomas encourages readers to see the film and the book as “fraternal twins” - as two different works of art that complement each other, as an opportunity to look at how each shows versus tells. #NCTELearns @ncte

My work right now is focused on curriculum, but not just on diverse text selection. For me, it’s about embedding anti-bias, anti-racist pedagogies into my daily practices in big and small ways, but relentlessly so. #ClearTheAir #DisruptTexts

https://twitter.com/valeriabrownedu/status/1046885717786415105

Another one of my goals is to become more active as a role model and mentor to the AAPI Ss in my school as the Ss organization faculty advisor. Because of the Model Minority myth, too often AAPI Ss needs as ignored or underserved. #CleartheAir

This week, Ss consider the voices & perspectives that may be missing from texts like The Things They Carried, starting w/some reflection that considers the voices & perspectives they center in their own lives and who O’Brien centers in the text... #DisruptTexts #aplangchat 1/ Students selected articles from the @nytimes Vietnam in ‘67 collection: nytimes.com/column/vietnam… #DisruptTexts #aplangchat 2/

Catching up on #TheEdCollabGathering sessions I missed yesterday day—and YES to EVERYTHING my #DisruptTexts co-Founder and friend @juliaerin80 says: We are living in a historic time, a true renaissance of multicultural #yalit. Like Julia, I didn’t have these texts as a teen. What a difference it would have in my life; what a difference it can make for our Ss now.

It’s an amazing time for #yalit. Will you be a T who engages in this moment or let it pass by? #TheEDCollabGathering #12 #DisruptTexts

So as many know, me and @Tolerance_org Social Justice Standards = 😍. Love how framework works as a foundation & guide for any unit of study, grades K-12.

Ex. Here are essential ?s based on the standards on a unit of study on the idea of HOME.

Thread.

#TheEdCollabGathering #7 In #AmericanLit, we can explore the idea of HOME throughout the entire year — and #DisruptTexts — starting w/Native and indigenous literatures. #TheEDCollabGathering #7

Thread.

Of the many things I learned co-presenting w/@teachkate was how we approach planning from different starting pts. Kate, master of rdg workshop, starts w/skills, then texts, then essential ?s. Meanwhile, I start w/essential ?s, texts, then skills. #TheEdCollabGathering #7 But no matter where we start—whether we start with the skills kids will need to apply to new texts independently or the essential questions they can wrestle and grapple with—what is NOT a starting or ending point is the text.

#TheEdCollabGathering #7

Thread. 👇🏽

This review right here is what #DisruptTexts is up against. The racism, classism, and intellectual elitism in the @WSJ review is symptomatic of the systems that keep the “canon” in tact.

https://twitter.com/ibizoboi/status/1043576411703906304

And the truth is, this reviewer’s bias is also the bias that many Ts have—educated (indoctrinated) in the “canon,” we will show a clear bias toward the texts that make up not only our reader identities but that validate our expertise as educators. #DisruptTexts

Discussion of “great literature” must include critique of systems that decided & still decide what qualifies as “great.” The “Canon” is a construction: it was constructed & is maintained by interests that aren’t necessarily inclusive of the full range of human exp. #DisruptTexts

https://twitter.com/HKorbey/status/1042808614791077888

Too often I see real critiques of the “canon” met with a brief acknowledgment of the importance of diverse texts but then a doubling down of the value of the “canon” / “great literature” / “classics” #DisruptTexts

For anyone reading Dr. D’Angelo’s White Fragility and #ClearTheAir: a thread that illustrates many of the principles outlined in the book. Here @MrKitMath rightly points out the ways in which the erasure of the contributions of POC gets perpetuated and the responses are textbook.

https://twitter.com/mrkitmath/status/1040943490992091136

Thank you, @MrKitMath, for pushing back on this nonsense. When we don’t critically examine SYSTEMS of racism and fail to intervene to disrupt those systems, then we are more than complicit—we are active participants.

I think the default thinking for some/many Ts is Us v. Them, Ts v. the system (admin, parents, etc).

But Ts are also part of the system. Our job isn’t to passively transmit or accept some “canon.”

Ts — along w/Ss — can & do have a role in actively shaping it. #DisruptTexts

https://twitter.com/mochamomma/status/1040569774756036611

It’s my belief that it’s Ts’ professional responsibility to actively pushback on texts and practices that are harmful to kids, to advocate for change. “We’ve always done it this way” and “I can’t” thinking is how the system—and all its inequities—gets perpetuated...

My brief thoughts on this case...

I do think that Harvard had been discriminating against AsAm applicants, scoring AsAm lower on “personality” in admissions. BUT this is not the same as affirmative action. It is extremely frustrating to see these two issues conflated.

https://twitter.com/ValeriaBrownEdu/status/1035498642667446273

This also feels to me like yet another way that affirmative action / Model minority myth is being used as a wedge issue to divide POC.

Day 4: Today Ss shared personal essays of introduction. I’ve been doing this for years, yet I am always touched, surprised, & humbled at the beautiful words Ss are willing to share aloud w/ their peers. Reminds me what a privilege it is to work w/young people. #aplangchat Among the many things they wrote about and shared... one Ss wrote about how he decided to take on beekeeping this past year! Another wrote of his collection of campaign buttons dating back to 1896. Another reflected on how her family has dinner together every single night.

Yesterday during an in-service meeting, I love that we were asked to reflect on the following questions:

1) Why do you teach?
2) How do you teach?
3) What do you teach?
4) Goal for this year

My responses: Why do I teach?

Short answer: My parents. All my life, I had a deep respect for education and it’s importance (note: not grades, but education). My parents taught me that education is power.

And I still believe that education is our most powerful tool for social change.

Back to school and feeling both exhausted and energized! So many good conversations yesterday and today around curriculum, diversity, and equity. Proud to be a part of such a great group of Ts as we #DisruptTexts together! Can’t wait to meet the kids Monday! To my Ts friends here, thank you all for your support of not only this work, but for your daily brilliance. My #HFellows #squad... don’t know where I’d be without you. ❤️ @TchKimPossible @arcticisleteach @tianasilvas @AnnaOz249

With #CrazyRichAsians opening this wknd, there’s been lots of conversations about #representation BUT it’s can’t just be about the big screen. It starts in our clsrms & the stories we share w/our Ss.

So fellow Ts, esp. MS/HS, a thread of titles to get in your clsrms yesterday. These are in no particular order, except maybe as I am remembering when I first encountered them. And here was the first book that I felt any sense of a mirror in my reading...

Great #mentortext using soundtrack from #CrazyRichAsians! Have Ss write an analysis of how a song works in a particular scene in film! #DisruptTexts #BeyondLiteraryAnalysis #MovingWriters ew.com/movies/2018/08… BTW, not only am I thoroughly appreciating this film on a personal level, I am out of this world happy reading all the think pieces and analyses of it—and there’s so much to unpack! The clothing, set design, language choices, everything. #CrazyRichAsians

This. Looking back to my early teaching life, my biggest concerns as a T were so *small* —

I spent too much time focusing on management when I should have focused on relationships with kids. On seeing, really *seeing* them. 1/

https://twitter.com/mrsjjee/status/1025916109436928000

Too much time focusing on content when I should have focused on character.

Too much time focusing on having answers rather than seeking the right questions.

Too much time focusing on “rules” versus the rights of my students to read, to write, and to speak authentically. 2/

Lots of Ts talk abt Ss "voice"—but what does that really mean? And how can we honor Ss who are often marginalized, esp. in class discussions that require complexity v. platitudes. TY @LadyOfSardines for sharing this. Will definitely be using! #DisruptTexts medium.com/@ursulawolfe/d… I did something similar when Ss read "Raising a Black Son in the US" by Jesmyn Ward. I asked Ss to 1) select a passage/excerpt that stood out to them from the text and 2) respond to any part of the essay. Collected these via Google Form.

Writing deadline Monday. 😬

I anticipate several stages in the writing process this weekend.

First, pep talk time! #amwriting But then I'll reread my earlier drafts...

How does bias get appear in ways we might not even notice?

Scrolled thru Twitter suggestions for “Education” (selected as interest when I set up my account?).

Of the 40 Tweets—
▫️14 were organizations (ex. EduTopia)
▫️26 White Ts
▫️23 men, 3 women
▫️0 POC Refreshed and tried again. Of the 40 Twitter-suggested Education Tweets this time:
▫️14 organizations
▫️25 White Ts, 1 POC
▫️16 men, 10 women

One of the things I commonly hear Ts say about our work as educators is that we need to prepare kids for college or the world (hopefully both).

I’ve said that myself, so I’d like to unpack that a little. A thread... 1/ #DisruptTexts Preparing kids for college and/or the world is a line of reasoning I’ve often heard used to justify practices that Ts believe will help kids succeed.

We need to give homework, tests, exams b/c that’s how they’ll be measured. 2/