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Never Too Late

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Watch on YouTube or listen on Anchor or wherever podcasts are heard.

Small Bites Friday Five 2-5-20

20-30m – Explore 3 Steps to Civil Discourse in this 8-page socialstudies.org document containing strategies for grades 4-12. It’s intended for older students but many of the strategies can be adapted for younger classes. Begin with the first strategy, start with yourself.

15-20m – Read this Kristy Louden guest blog from Cult of Pedagogy on teaching argument, early, often, across content.

10-15m – Prepare lessons 2 and 3 from Naomi Drew and Christa Tinari’s Create a Culture of Kindness in Middle School document. Again, the lessons can be adapted for older and younger students.

5-10m – Prepare lesson 8 from the above document.

0-5m – Make a list of the 3 worst case scenarios and outcomes in case a discussion gets off track. Consider the actual probability of them happening and how you can prepare for each.

If you teach littles, it’s fairly easy to navigate the daily strife and disagreements of primary school life. Be kind, say you’re sorry, hug it out, or these days, air high five.

If you teach middles or above, the waters are murkier. Hormones and hatred seem to bloom, with “kindness matters” giving way to toxic online–and even f2f–behaviors. Getting students to buy into the whole “cool to be kind” thing is not an easy task, especially if you didn’t build strong class culture early on.

Still, as the Pinterest poster says, “we do hard things”. Difficult is not the same as impossible. Whether you require a talking stick, arguing only the argument you are personally against or writing in silence when topics are fraught with conflict, it’s never too late to remind students that citizenship, respect, civil disagreement are what keep groups strong. I tell my middles, “school is hard enough without making each other’s life more difficult. Only small people want to be responsible for someone else’s pain” It’s a start.

The impeachment trial is starting and it is imperative that you use the opportunity to teach students to respect each other’s right to have a different opinion. That starts with setting ground rules and being an active, but neutral facilitator.

We all know the adage about opinions; we all have them and they don’t always need to be heard. Students can learn to voice their own opinions without offering commentary on the opinions of others. Then, you can build from there. Students need to learn how to talk about sensitive issues and since we are educators, we teach. If we want to prepare our students for a world full of conflict beyond the classroom walls, we have to be ready to teach them how to respectfully navigate the waters of conflict within them.

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Words Get in the Way

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Watch on YouTube or listen on Anchor, or wherever podcasts are heard.

Small Bites Friday Five 1-29-21

20-30m – Go to Project Implicit and pick a test or two. Use the insights to guide you in mitigating behaviors grounded in bias.

15-20m – Explore this PBS site on American Eugenics. The ‘biological improvement of the German people’ was not as rare as we would like to think.

10-15m – Continue exploring the hyperlinks from the above site.  

5-10m – Read this American Bar Association article on bias in healthcare in the Black community. This is a good example of how systems are often biased (‘systemic racism’; ‘systemic inequity’).

0-5m – Just sit. The late poet laureate Maya Angelou advocated for a national day to just be. You might not be able to take the day but surely you can give yourself just 5 minutes to do absolutely nothing

Sometimes, we get so caught up in labels that we fail to tackle the actual issues. Words like White fragility or White supremacy are inflammatory and maybe even hurtful. I can understand that. Feeling accused never feels good, and it takes a big person to to take critique and look inward to see if there is some validity, and even more, some opportunity for growth.

If we can, let’s remove, for a moment, the tendency to bristle at words and phrases like racist, institutionalized racism, collusion, microaggression, white privilege, multiperspectivity or other terms that seek to address the deep and abiding problems in our country. What if we, instead, consider that institutions in America are designed to favor Whites.

There is compelling evidence that this is truth. The fact that only White males could vote for hundreds of years after our inception is one fact that supports the assertion that the country was not designed with equity for all in mind. Slavery and Jim Crow laws additionally point to the fact that only certain populations were included in the “all men are created equal” phrase. There is also the Manifest Destiny, the widely held cultural belief from the mid 1800s that White settlers were destined by God to take over all of North America. Never mind that there were many nations already inhabiting the land.

Colonization was big then, not only in America. But was it right? Was it just for the humans it has adversely impacted? Anti-racist “buzzwords” like those mentioned above can be painful to hear. But is that pain greater than the pain of those disenfranchised for centuries by the systems our country is built on?

Consider this: The US GDP is 21.43 trillion dollars, almost 10 trillion more than China, the country coming in second. How did we get to be that rich? Was it because we took land from others? Was it because Americans enslaved and trafficked humans to build wealth? In order to cause that kind of trauma to other humans, did we convince ourselves that they were less human than us, less capable of feeling pain? Less intelligent? Could it be possible, in the same way that we esteem our families over others, that we have allowed that devaluation of people who are not in ‘our group’ to continue?

I don’t have any answers. But I am asking you to stop and consider whether or not any of the above assertions might be grounded in truth. And if they are, how might that affect your classroom, campus or community?

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Easier Said Than Done

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Watch on YouTube or listen on Anchor or wherever podcasts are heard.

Small Bites Friday Five 1-22-21

20-30m – Watch this Anand Giridharadas Ted talk in which he calls us, “An America whose two halves learn again to strive, to plow, to forge, to dare together.”

15-20m – Listen to this podcast about the psychology behind belief in conspiracy theories and one man’s struggle with his own beliefs since 9/11.

10-15m – Listen to this NPR podcast about a boy whose family is being destroyed because of their divergent beliefs in conspiracy theories, and then reflect on how you, as an educator, could help him and others like him. Jot down or even post any good ideas you come up with.

5-10m – Read this End Slavery Now post about conspiracy theories and how they harm efforts to really save the children. Then read this Wired article from 17-year-old Sofia Barnett about her own experience.

0-5m – Read these 13 tips from the MIT Technology Review to help you meet your students—or even other adults—where they are. If you yourself have a strange feeling about something you believe, these strategies are also good to help you confront your own beliefs and biases.

Scroll through teacher Pinterests or walk through Back to School Classroom deco aisles and you will find them all: Kindness matters; In this classroom we laugh often, love hard; Choose kindness; Respect others; and on and on. As educators and as human beings we say we want kindness and respect above all else, but do our Pinterest feeds align with our social media feeds? Are you drawn to the posts bashing the idiocy of those who don’t believe what you believe?

If not, I hope January 6th was a wake up call. Wanting kindness is not enough. Posting pithy sayings and attending SEL PDs is not going to make for better classroom culture unless you decide to (here’s another pithy saying) be the change.

Your words build or your words destroy.

What did the words you said or wrote do today? Yes, it’s easier said, but it has to be done. Unless we are willing to change our thoughts and words, we have no hope of changing our class culture, and certainly no hope of leaving the world in better shape than we found it.

As you wonder how to broach sensitive subjects in your classroom, think about the basics. Have you made it a priority in your classroom to create a culture of belonging? Do your students know that intolerance and belittling one another will not be tolerated? Those conversations should be had during the first weeks of school, then spiraled back to often. What if every teacher made SEL not something to check off a list, but a real, daily priority? Would suicide rates go down? Would there be less bullying? Less truancy? My guess is yes to all of the above.

Yes, it is easier said than done. But if we explicitly teach kindness and respect, discussing what that looks like in diverse situations, we will begin to see a citizenry that knows how to disagree civilly.

One last pithy saying; The future of our world is in your classroom today. What an honor, what a responsibility. Now, what will you do with that power?

Easier Said Than Done Read More »

Who Are You?

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Or, to listen to SmallBites as a podcast during drivetime, click here.

Small Bites Friday Five 1-15-20:

20-30m – Listen to NYT The Daily’s reporter talk about the resurgence of white nationalist violence—violence that really never went away.

15-20m – Watch Grey’s anatomy and Station 19, both Shonda Rhimes shows, explore issues of race, bias and survival in the face of them. Both shows are on ABC, ABC Go and Hulu. Here’s an article on their relevance.

10-15m – Read Marcus Lu’s article on 50 categorized cognitive biases. Pay special attention to the one called “moral luck”. Reflect to see if you’ve been guilty of that, or any others.

5-10m – Read this Common Sense Media article about talking to students of all ages about recent current events. If you’re a fast reader, explore the comments and practice not getting angry. There is practice for both “sides”.

0-5m – Use this form to let me know what you are struggling with in trying to become a more inclusive educator and let’s start a dialogue. The cohort starts this month and there are a few spots left.

This week was supposed to be all about how to talk to children in times of civil unrest. Those of you who watch SmallBites know that I firmly believe we should strive to be one nation under God. However, I forgot that there are some folks, as much as I hate to admit it, who want that one nation to be a nation of Whites only. Many, who won’t quite go that far, believe that the nation should be at least whites only in power. That is, I’m sure, as difficult to read as it is for me to write.

In addition to my own son’s run-ins with White men who want him to go back to where he came from, I have seen people in power aid and abet insurrection and move us toward civil war. I have seen this country go from something I wanted to believe in to something I am almost afraid of. I know that as a Black person there is a certain lack of safety for me just by the virtue of my skin color. Did you know, for instance that Black and indigenous females are more likely to be targeted by human traffickers?

Still, I have been indoctrinated enough to believe that I’ll be ok. This is a democracy, and I will be OK. But is it? We’re no longer considered a full democracy, and there is evil in high places. Online spaces like Gab, Signal, Telegram and others are now quiet hubs for people who hate me to congregate and plan my demise. Sound dramatic? It might be. But– it may not be. I drove to Arkansas 2 years ago past a field where they were burning crosses. School districts have beefed up security because their students have been threatened on social media with kidnappings and lynchings. This is not a movie, this is America.

What does any of this have to do with teaching and learning? Everything.

If you believe that all your students have equitable opportunities for learning–and even for safety– you are misguided. Learn, read, research to find out whether your students really are safe. And if they feel unsafe, please, don’t try to convince them otherwise. You can, however, remind them that safety is a luxury but not a condition of success or even wellbeing. Read them the words of Maya Angelou. Let them know that there is a resilience in our spirit and that we will continue to rise. Tell that to your Black students, your Brown and indigenous students, students from sexual minorities and any other students who don’t fit the mold of insurrectionists. Mostly, tell them that you stand by them and that, although you may not know what it’s like to be in their shoes, you will walk beside them.

Who Are You? Read More »

Things’ll All Blow Over

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AP Photo of Capitol Siege on January 6th, 2021.

SmallBites Friday Five 1-08-21

Remember the Oklahoma Bombing.

Read about the escalating domestic terrorism problem.

Don’t forget to compare your news media and monitor bias with a site like All Sides Media.

Compare police response in summer Civil Rights protests to police response on January 6th. (Note: police response is the only comparison. Treasonous insurrection CANNOT be compared to civil rights protest.)

Did you know that, by all international standards, democracy is on the decline in the US?

I am supposed to be off this week, preparing to launch SmallBites into the Podcast sphere. But this week needs my presence:

The outrage over the recent insurrection on Capitol Hill has taken over every news cycle, every conversation. For now.

Monday, you will go back to school and concentrate on content, because, well, STAAR.

Soon, you will visit friends on relatives on Zoom, or maybe even in person.

You’ll grocery shop, clean your home, brush your teeth and plan your lessons. You’ll drink your favorite cuppa as this red hot memory cools.

The memories of what you’ve seen will fade; this will all blow over UNLESS you decide finally that enough is enough. If something in the news cycle outrages you, do something about it. Start a Twitter/Email campaign, donate, volunteer. But mostly, stop living from newscycle to newscycle. The issues do not go away just because nobody just died.

Whatever your role is in making the world a better place, step up and stay stepped up. You don’t have to do everything but you need to do something.

One way you can step up and be accountable is to come and learn with us. Join the SmallBites Interactive cohort to learn more about how this moment has been in the making for a while now, and how you can make small changes with big impact.

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Good Riddance

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https://youtu.be/aHi-SdAaiAw?t=217
Replay the NYD live broadcast featuring original music from @SwissChrisOnBass and me!

Small Bites Friday Five NYE20:

To close out the year, here’s a look back at 5 of my favorite guest appearances;


Are Your Diversity Strategies Missing the Mark? Nine Ways to Get it Right with Cult of Pedagogy’s Jennifer Gonzalez (60m listen/5m read)

Where are you on your journey in understanding systemic racism? with Barbara Bray (25m listen).

Journeys to Belonging with Ilene Winokur (34 minutes).

Lesson Impossible with Aviva Levin (29 minute listen)

Make Learning Addictive with Brian Romero Smith Jr. (45 minute listen)

And some #SmallBites lagniappe: A Guide to Equity and Antiracism for Educators for Edutopia (4 minute read)

On New Year’s Eve, just after I turned 29, I married the love of my life and moved to Switzerland to begin a beautiful new adventure. Ten months later, I was choosing his tombstone as I tried to grasp the fact that there would be no 1st anniversary, no trip to the South Pacific, no growing old together.

I still remember the first NYE without him, the day that should have been our first anniversary. I knew then that the clock wasn’t counting down on my pain to provide me with a midnight balloon drop of shiny new feelings. “Joy comes in the morning” was not going to magically be my reality, not yet.

The dawn of 2021 is not going to be a magic panacea either.

Depressed yet? Don’t be. While that first New Year’s Day after an incredible loss did not kiss away all my boo boos, it kicked off a year that turned out to be one of the most incredible years of my life.

  • I learned that support comes from people and places I hadn’t even known were there.
  • I discovered that I really was stronger and more capable than I knew.
  • I found out that surviving loss is an incredible confidence builder.
  • I realized that there is joy to be found in even the most devastating times.

I also learned that tears are a renewable resource; I cried a lot that year. But in spring I planted fresh flowers on a grave in an Alpine village and as those flowers grew, so did I. I learned to be flexible, to ride the waves, sometimes crashing to shore. I learned to get up and try again. And again. I learned preparedness in a country where stores were only open a human 8 hours a day. I learned how to back up 250 feet down a mountain and how to survive in an avalanche. I learned that you have to use clothespins when you hang clothes on a line. I learned how to write lesson plans and design courses in German. I learned so many valuable things. In time, I learned how to use all those things to help others.

Tonight when the ball drops, not a lot will change. We take ourselves with us wherever we go. Education will still be inequitable, and politics will still be deeply flawed; people will still live with food and housing insecurity; COVID won’t disappear, the 2 million graves that the Coronavirus filled will still need flowers in the spring.

What can change is how we all approach this new year. Instead of celebrating the coming return to “normalcy”, let’s celebrate the opportunities we have to help others, learn new things, develop new skills; to survive hard times and help others to do the same.

This year won’t be easy, but we can one day look back on it–even the bad parts–and celebrate how much we grew. En guete Rutsch und Happy New Year.

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Tidings of Comfort and Joy

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Even though this year has been filled with trauma, loss and uncertainty for many, I want to take today just to stop and be grateful, to spend time with my family and do some drive-by and wave check-ins. I hope you will unplug and do the same.

If you have a hankering to learn, catch up on a few older episodes of Small Bites until January. Next week, episode 30, I will be live and on location for a special 2021 kickoff. Meanwhile, I wish you comfort in times of strife and the quiet confidence that comes in knowing that ‘trouble don’t last always’.

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Just Breathe

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If you have ever spoken to me, you will know that I discovered Grey’s Anatomy way late, but I fell HARD! Just Breathe, one of the episode themes, comes to mind this year. I will not give you much to think about, reflect on or learn, other than this:

How can you be better? Not what can you do, not who can you serve with increasing data based efficacy, but how can you be better? Do you need to do less? Ask for more help? Be more self aware and intentional? What will bring you more joy? Being better should bring you more joy and hopefully you’ll have one of those end of year epiphanies about what brings you more joy.

Here are a couple of fun things I’ve discovered that bring me joy–I play Among Us. My students and personal kid love it, and playing with them is a great way to bond. If you like plain old silliness, this is my new fave, https://findtheinvisiblecow.com/. Of course, if you need a bit of philanthropy, Free Rice is a great go to. It’s great for those SDG fans!

If, however, your mind is too clogged because you worry about your kids, here are some answers and resources, reposted from March:

Finally for some, no matter how great your virtual teaching is, this time will be a nightmare. Consider using your resources to help those who may need more than just an internet connection. Here are some national links that connect you to resources in local communities, I’m sure there are many others.

https://www.foodpantries.org/

https://nationalhomeless.org/references/directory/

https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/provide-shelter/

https://www.redcrossblood.org/

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

https://www.thehotline.org/

https://sites.ed.gov/idea/idea-files/q-and-a-providing-services-to-children-with-disabilities-during-the-coronavirus-disease-2019-outbreak/

You may be the first person to sense that something is wrong and that’s a big responsibility. But I think most of us signed up because we genuinely care so let’s move from empathy to action when we see students in need.

Now, once you’ve done all you can do, just breathe. Take care of you so you can pour from a full cup. Stay safe and I will see you in the new year.

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Say My Name

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Small Bites Friday Five 12-11-20:

20-30m – Visit the website Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade to get a deeper feel for the faces and places of the slave trade.

15-20m – Read this HuffPost article on the “depressing truth about names and racial bias” then head down the rabbit hole with the hyperlinks.

10-15m – Read the story of enslaved rape victim Celia who was hanged for killing her master and rapist because according to the courts “a slave woman had no virtue that the law would protect against a master’s lust” .

5-10m – Keep challenging your thinking and biases. Here are a few more examples of biases from Practical Psychology to guard against.

0-5m – Use this form to let me know what issues of racism and bias you are struggling with as you work to become a more inclusive educator and let’s start a dialogue. I will be opening up a cohort in January so that we can talk more in depth about HOW to make small changes with big impact.

Sometimes, the smallest, most insignificant thing can be filled with such great humanity. Mr. C., this is for you:

As with many employee groups, my grade level team has a group chat. We trade important information throughout the day, send each other reminders and engage in witticism that only an educator would find funny. Two weeks ago, one text came through, unremarkable, yet significant. A teacher, White, male, needed to communicate about a student. He wrote her first name only, also not remarkable. What was remarkable, for me anyway, was that her name was spelled perfectly. I will call her Sha’ Niqua. As I write this, my computer underlines it in red, denoting an error. But there is no error. The apostrophe, spacing and capitalization all meant something to parents who were excited about the birth of their child. They mean something to the creative, smart 7th grader whose name I see displayed on my screen each class because her camera doesn’t work.

This teacher didn’t write “Shaniqua” or “ShaNiqua”. He didn’t write “S.P.”, convincing himself that it was better for FERPA, but really writing it because he couldn’t be bothered to remember where all the spaces and apostrophes go.

Her name is Sha’Niqua and this teacher, in the midst of all the 2020 craziness, took time to write it correctly. He doesn’t know that it moved me to tears. He just did his job. But I have been in rooms in which teachers roll their eyes or say some not-even-close moniker because they forget that addressing a student correctly by name is basic to connection, which influences learning outcomes.

I have been in rooms in which the refusal to learn a name sprang from glaring biases that associate “Black sounding” names with low socio-economic status and other negative stereotypes. Did you know that students with Black sounding names are more likely to be labeled troublemakers? Did you know that Black jobseekers and Asians who “whiten” their resumes get more interviews? Names play a big part in who we are and who we become. It’s time to examine some of the unconscious biases we carry when encountering names that are unfamiliar, “non-traditional” or “foreign-sounding”. This article on name bias might be a good starting point.

Bias often plays a part in our reluctance to embrace the unfamiliar. But sometimes, we may be unsure of how to be less than the all-knowing authority. If that’s the case, here are some words you can use, especially when encountering a name unfamiliar to you for the first (or second or third) time:

  • “I have never come across that name. Can you help me pronounce it please?”
  • “I am not very good with languages, you may need to help me say your name correctly more than once.
  • “Hey class, if I mispronounce your name, make sure you correct me. Your name is an important part of who you are and I want to get it right.”

A name is an important part of someone’s identity and children deserve to feel seen and valued. Mr. C. will probably read this, and I hope he knows how a little thing he doesn’t know he did made a big difference. And I hope you’ll make that same difference in your classrooms, on your school boards, when hiring babysitters or employees for your side businesses or when running into someone new in your community.

True, a rose by any other name may be just as sweet, but roll over and call your partner by any other name, see how far it’ll get ya.

Say My Name Read More »

Who Are You

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Small Bites Friday Five 12-04-20:

20-30m – Watch the election episode of ABC’s Blackish, it’s chock full of context for this year’s election. Did you know that Black people were not officially given the right to vote until 1965?

15-20m – Spend some time reflecting on what has changed since the death of George Floyd and Brionna Taylor, and what still needs to change. Think about who in your community has the power to make that change and join me for #TeacherTurnout Tuesday. Use your Twitter, IG, fb, email or phone to let them know what you, your students and your district need, especially now.

10-15m – Move. Like…stop the video and move. Check out this TikTok video from Dr. Burt (and the one on Small Bites) for inspiration!

5-10m – Look at the graphic in this article on confirmation bias and other types of bias. See if you can find yourself. Reflect on how you form your opinions on the world around you and whether or not you need to make some changes.

0-5m – Use this form to let me know what you are struggling with as you work to become a more inclusive educator and let’s start a dialogue. I will be opening up a cohort in 2021 so that we can talk more in depth about HOW to make small changes with big impact.

Much of what I talk and write about is deeply intertwined with identity. Our thoughts and preferences are often a part of our armor, the thought walls we put up between us and them. Think you’re ‘woke’? Mebbe…but even if you are, your us, them and everything in between is held together by some kind of bias. Bias for things that validate us, bias against things that make us feel insecure or threatened.

When we begin to reflect on how we can create more equitable classrooms and campuses, we often begin with divorcing ourselves from some train of thought and espousing another.

What is your process? How do you know what to leave in and what to leave out? My humble advice is to have you begin by examining your own preferences, and as author Barbara Bray says, define your why. Why do you want to help these students? Do they remind you of your younger self, untarnished by life’s rough spots? Do they remind you of the bits about yourself that you still struggle with? Does helping to level the playing field in education make you feel noble or help you atone for some middle school gym class evils?

Are you doing right because it’s right to do? The answer probably is, partially. Even when we have the purest motives, there is always something self-serving in our ways (Terry Heick has about 180 ways our thinking can go wrong in his article on bias). That’s no indictment, it’s just humanity. But realizing that as fact can help us to make sure that there is nothing odoriferous in our well intended deeds.

Is there a likert scale to help you figure this out? A weighted scale? A chart with four color coded quadrants? Nope. There is only you, a pen, some paper, maybe some sun and fresh air, or perhaps a cuppa in your favorite spot.

As you make changes, look not only outward for new stories to provide context for your students, but look inside yourself as well. The best answers are always there. Find your blind spots, your biases, maybe even turn on a new light or heal a few old wounds with Traci Nicole Smith.

I am excited for you and your willingness to learn how to be a more culturally responsive teacher, but I am even more excited about the opportunity this gives you to be an even better human being. 

Who are you? What are your biases? It's one of the things we will explore as we talk about how to implement change in our classrooms and on our campuses. Join us for the #SmallBites cohort next year. Fill out this form  and let's start a conversation!

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