Science Teacher @NYCSchools. @MathforAmerica. @RiSCNYC. #Educolor. Context IS Content. Abolish high-stakes testing. Integrate+fund our public schools. she/her.
Sep 14, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Today, one of my adorable 3rd graders locked eyes with me. With an obviously big smile under her mask, she asked, “Are you Chinese?” 1/
I pulled out my beach ball globe and showed her South Korea. “My parents immigrated from here. See? It’s between China and Japan.”
Mar 30, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The elephant in the room is that the perpetrator is a POC.
White supremacy is not white vs. POC. White supremacy is a system that can use all of us to oppress POC.
1/
My childhood bullies were mostly POC.
It’s been a long journey of learning, listening, and sharing, to stand in solidarity with the ppl who have harmed me, & the ppl I have harmed.
You can’t begin to dismantle white supremacy without doing that work.
2/
Mar 28, 2021 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
THREAD:
I still struggle with the shame of knowing the harm and violence #AAPI communities have caused on Black communities, even as I recognize my shame as a product of white supremacy.
1/
Even as I resist being used as a wedge, a forever foreigner, a "kung flu", I'm still fighting the racism I've internalized about myself, about Asian Americans, esp. East Asian Americans who settle into Black communities and open small businesses. 2/
Mar 25, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
People choose to overlook the learning happening in schools during this pandemic, but for many of us doing the teaching, we've been VERY BUSY finding new opportunities to make learning more inclusive and empowering for all of our students. 1/
When our entire school was fully remote, we realized that we could finally organize school-wide events. Pre-pandemic, we had +1600, making events such as our Juneteenth, BLM at School, & Lunar New Year events near impossible. Now? We have zoom + almost all Ss w/devices! 2/
May 21, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Beware when "resilience" is used to replace "grit".
I believe resilience is a powerful trait that a school community can embody.
But asking individual Ss to "be resilient" can be just as harmful & racist as "have grit". 1/
Resilience is one of my school's core values, and I've been thinking about how this value has been used to celebrate, and to motivate, individual students.
Although this is all being done in good faith, it is unfair, misleading, and harmful. 2/
Mar 6, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
We have a responsibility to teach our students about the #coronavirus and #xenophobia as a means of protecting our public health and humanity. @AndyBobZimm and I whipped up some readily usable slides: tinyurl.com/science-rumors 1/
I had a really challenging conversation with my students on Monday after a few students argued that the origin of the virus was "those people who eat bats" with a tone of disgust. 2/
