Listening is what where we need to start.
1. Listen deeply to the hurt and the pain.
(If you don't personally know a person of color a first step could be Twitter. )
2. Be vulnerable and admit that you don't understand.
3. Do the work to understand better in a way that works for you.
As a historian I thought I knew a lot about history but the stories of African American history were buried. I'm still on a journey to understand but the eight years I've spent reading, studying, researching, listening and engaging in conversation has helped me to put into context the generational trauma that people of color live under every day.
4. Speak up. Once you are informed you have evidence on your side and that gives you the confidence to defend your position - structural racism exists, white privilege exists. These are facts that are easily twisted into opinions if you don't have confidence.
5. Listen with humility. You don't know. You haven't lived it. Your research and reading have opened a door for you but you don't own this so be a listener.
6. Find commonality through personal stories. Build connections with others around our humanity.
7. Speak up - even if it means you will lose friends. Were they worth your friendship anyway if they refuse to admit their own bias and role in supporting the racism that keeps others oppressed?

Do you see yourself in this image?
Of course you weren't literally in Marion, Indiana, in 1930 when two young black men were lynched and the life of a third, James Cameron, was spared. 
You could never imagine posing for a picture holding your date's hand just steps from two lynching victims, I hope.
You would never participate in a lynching or be drawn to the scene, as thousands were this night in a quiet midwestern town.

But aren't we in this picture? Every time we fail to stand up for others?
Every time we choose not to be anti-racist and defend racist policies and violence against people of color aren't we more than bystanders? We're part of the problem. We are supporting the structural racism that claims the lives of others but protects us.

I always tell James Cameron's story in my 8th grade social studies class but this year I could not. I firmly believe that every student should learn about America's disgraceful racist history and lynching is a misunderstood but incredibly important piece of understanding that history. This is a lesson that requires background knowledge, care and nuance and it was not appropriate for distance learning.
 But the story is so important!
It's impossible to put ourselves in the shoes of 16-year-old James Cameron, who was terrified, waiting in his jail cell. He saw his two friends dragged away by an angry mob and violently executed. He pleaded for his life. He looked into the faces of the crowd. Many were people he knew. None stood up for him or stopped the violence but some how Jim's life was spared. He remembered a voice saying something on his behalf. The noose was removed from his neck and he was returned to jail.

I ask my students to put themselves in Jim's shoes. After going on to serve time in jail, what would they do?

James Cameron continued to fight for civil rights and against hate and injustice. He stood up to the Ku Klux Klan. He founded the America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee and never gave up.

He was an upstander.

We can be upstanders.

You are in that photo above. It was in the hot summer of 1930- the very beginning of a great global depression that had everyone on edge and scared.

2020 is a different time but there is so much fear. So much anger.
But also so much possibility to get it right moving forward.
Do not ignore black lives. They matter. 
Black voices matter.
Black pain matters.
Black anger matters.
​Black lives matter.

Dread. Anxiety. Panic. 
The CDC has issues guidelines for schools to consider when reopening and many are not taking these guidelines well.

I think it's important to remember that these guidelines are meant to minimize spread and maximize public health. Their website reminds us of their vision: "saving lives; protecting people."
The CDC is not saying this is how schools must be now and forever. These are suggestions to reduce the spread of a deadly pandemic. (No one is saying desks 6-feet apart should be best practices forever.)

I'm choosing to keep re-imagining education and ask how to use this moment in history as an opportunity for change.
 
Here's my ask:
I want an orientation to 8th grade during which I get to conduct a 6-question interview with each student. The same way we signed families up to pick up their locker contents at the end of the school year, we can organize for them to have a conversation with me about who they are and what they want their education experience to be in my class.
Could this be held virtually? Possibly. There are many ways to make this happen.

The logistics are less important than the "why." Every year I give out end of the year awards that are based on characters from history. EVERY CHILD gets an award because they all have something to celebrate. It hurts my heart that I had to wait until the last week of school to celebrate these kids this way. It hurts for a very selfish reason. I thought many of them endured my class but many had positive things to say and I'd wish I'd known that sooner. Why? Because it feels great to be celebrated.
Why can't school make kids feel celebrated every day? 

Lots of people have talked about either getting back to normal or creating something new. I want to talk about what that could look like. For real.

Much of what I've seen about reopening schools in August or September 2020 is focused on logistics. That's how we measure progress these days. That's how we mark time.
There's the time when we had schedules packed with activities and we ate dinner on the go.
That was before.
Now life is about endless waiting. It's about 6 feet apart, less than 10 people gathering, no handshakes, face masks, PPE, etc.

Education is more than logistics but let's start with scheduling - it's complicated. We know.
I teach middle school and that means 7 50-minute classes a day for my students. 

That's 100 kids mingling for 4 hours and over 200 mixing for the other 3 hours in a building that holds over 600 students plus staff. Clearly that's a public health concern but I want to imagine what I could do if you cut my classes in half and I only saw about 15 kids at a time and maybe just for 25 minutes?

Focus will be the key. An activity can really only engage a student for 7-8 minutes. That allows for 3 activities in a class period. Something like:
1. Build community with a question or discussion.
2. Introduce or connect to our essential question.
3. Explain a tool we will use to investigate - assign homework to begin the investigation on their own.
4. Be sure to clarify before they leave how to ask for help before we meet again!

Why?
1.Relationships and opportunities to connect are what my students miss most. This is non-negotiable.
2. Keeping the instruction consistent and establishing continuity with an essential question that is relevant to students' lives will be essential to focusing on how to best use time inside and outside of class.
3. In my classroom we build understanding together and we learn skills through content
Class time will be precious and it will be hands on and focused on doing. Before digital learning we allowed 20-25 minutes of work time during each class period in almost every class but that model won't work any more and for some kids it wasn't working already.
In an ideal situation kids get to work investigating, practicing a skill, building understanding and learning. With 30 kids in a class, however, a portion of this time ends up being social time. Teacher time ends up being behavior management instead of checking in with students or helping kids build connections and grow.
4. Yes homework has to be part of this new reality. Effective distance learning over the past two months has shown that kids can be curious. Free from distraction some can thrive and stretch themselves to demonstrate true curiosity.

We've seen the memes. They are hilarious. They are poignant. Parents appreciate teachers because facilitating education at home is hard. However, what we truly want you to appreciate is that education is complicated.

Nothing can replace the relationships we build with students and the way we check for understanding and constantly adjust to bring out the best in every child.

Education is complicated. It's not watching a video or taking a quiz. We're making the best of this crisis temporarily but this is not what's best for each child. 

It's time for us to appreciate that teachers work hard to do what is best for every child. Every day.

Which brings me to my Google doodle. My title is "Teaching is a conversation about the future"
I started my doodle by thinking about the big 3 of education: I do, we do, you do. 
Because of education I can, You can, We can. If education is a conversation, then that conversation is about what children can do now and in the future. I chose to complete that sentence with my favorite ways of challenging children to take action:

Change! Transform! Fix! Reshape!

As educators we think big but we also think small.

We can change the world.
I can transform a child.
We can reshape a life.
You can fix the planet.

Does this sound complicated yet? The HOW we do this is where educators' professionalism comes in: 
with love
with joy
with truth
with hard work.

More how: 
by stretching
by loving
by encouraging.

The final part of the equation is not complicated but for me it's the most important, the why

for all
for humanity
for the planet
for the future.

So, it's complicated, right? But we LOVE it. We love all these big things about education and we love the little moments, working closely with kids, helping them to understand and guiding them to be their best.
​