Thread by @teachbk

Yesterday during a PD they asked what’s causing you stress & I put in the chat “they keep making us go back to normal and normal wasn’t working”

Today in a meeting my principal asked me what I meant by that. She gave me the chance to say more. So I did.

Everyone might hate me soon bc I plan to spend the next 4 months talking about how we should stop doing bad stuff to kids.

Doing bad stuff to kids is universally recognized as NOT what our work is. Yet we do bad stuff to kids every day. Let me explain:

Bad stuff we need to stop doing to kids:
-Cram them in a chair for hours at a time
-Refuse to let them talk to each other
-Stress & test them because we need the “data”
-Shame them for noncompliance
-Withhold water/food
-Blame them for not meeting the standards

More bad stuff we do to kids:

-Make playtime contingent upon their ability to comply
-Withhold bathroom rights
-Demean their language
-Critique their beliefs
-Weaponize our voice/ physical size/ presence
-Behavior “systems”
-Stifle any display of emotions
-Bore them in class

Basically, anything that denies their right to be a child, make mistakes, learn freely, and have fun is my enemy.

So if that bad stuff on the list is still happening in our schools after the whole pandemic year when we all learned that these are big no-no’s, well, it’s kind of all our jobs to fight, too, no?

at some point I might talk about literacy or math or PBL or G&T or anything I actually teach but for now this is so heavy on my mind you're going to have to bear with me. the kids are not ok and they have not been ok for a long time, so let's address this here and now.

About to sleep but I don't want to go without saying: I love my school, I respect my leaders & colleagues, and I am by no means complaining about my specific place of work.
What I'm describing is a systemic failure of educators to interrogate their own practices + make changes.

Come September we have the choice to walk into our collective buildings and do the same old regular ed stuff, or we can make plans now for how we are going to disrupt all the ways we weren't serving students & replace that with positive & loving behavior.

If you're looking to get started, this post by @cultofpedagogy provides a really nice overview on specific ways we can do better by our students. #teachertwitter #edchat #equity #postpandemic
cultofpedagogy.com/easy-button/

Ending PBIS is a top item on my to-do list.

Seeking advice & resources for counseling teachers away from a “management” mindset and replace with equitable, student-centered classrooms.

https://twitter.com/teachbk/status/1395552454977150977

And I didn’t explicitly name:
racism homophobia Antisemitism Islamophobia xenophobia ableism body shaming fatphobia colorism gender discrimination classism sexism prejudice bias bigotry white supremacy and hate

(assumed we already know these things are bad but just in case...)

@ATN_1863 doing the deep dive 💛

https://twitter.com/atn_1863/status/1396157615831408640