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#he’s also my teacher who made us spend an hour drawing a representation of the punk subculture
the-iron-orchid · 3 years
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Prologue: The Doorway 
(~1250 words, no particular warnings)
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Dreams are a doorway, my teacher says.
I have many dreams. I dream of the mundane - simple retreads of my daily life. I dream of the absurd, the surreal. I dream of vast white sands and achingly blue sky, of being a beast rather than a human. I vividly feel the sand under my paws, the great strength in my hind legs as they propel me into the air, the life draining from the small creatures I catch in my powerful jaws.
I dream of the Lazaret, a terrible place which holds a strange fascination for me. So many suffered and died there; I often wonder if it is this awful collective energy which draws me. Being what I am, I am sensitive to such things.
Haunting the Lazaret of my dreams is a woman, tall of stature and stately of bearing. Her face and form shift in my perception, but these other things remain the same. I can never quite recall our conversations... but they are lengthy, in the way of old friends.
She may be an ancestor. She may be a representation of my own higher self. She may be nothing but a lonesome spirit, one of countless victims of the terrible plague, bound to that place by her suffering. If my company eases her pain, then I am glad to provide it.
It has been years since I have seen anyone with the marks of the plague upon them - the extremities blotchy and veined, the whites of the eyes stained with scarlet. It ceased even more quickly than it came… though I do not remember when it came. My memory begins, or perhaps ends, three years ago.
Jinana Aditya is my name, but it means nothing to me. It connects me to no-one that I recall… no-one except Asra Al-Nazar, who is my teacher, and Phan Đạt Linh Heron, who is my best friend.
I’m told I was in a terrible accident, one that resulted in the loss of my memory and function. These two people have taught me almost everything that I know - from how to walk, talk, and care for myself, to the handful of spells that I have managed to master.
Heron has always been my best friend, since we were children. I do not recall this time, of course… but I trust him with my life. Along with Asra, he is the closest thing I have to family.
It is because of Heron that I journal so diligently, recording my dreams alongside my experiences, recipes, and thoughts. I have asked him about the woman I see in dreams, but he too is unsure if she is a spirit, or perhaps another dreamer. Even the living can become trapped in the realms of dream... and they can trap others, so I must be careful.
I have spent today’s waking hours as I spend most of them - minding the humble magic shop that is also my home, and practicing my spells. I am encouraged to use magic as readily as I use my hands, the way Heron and Asra do. Otherwise, the magical energy builds up inside of me like water behind a dam, and eventually finds other, less controlled ways to escape.
(I am told that this is how I came by the odd color of the hair on my head - it is entirely unlike the hair anywhere else on my body. I am also told that this is technically considered a curse... but I don’t mind. Children love my peacock-colored hair.)
Another thing I do is read the cards - the ones that anyone may purchase, and the ones that Asra made himself. In the hands of a magician (or a magician’s apprentice), the Arcana themselves may speak. Everyone wants to know what the future holds; our little shop has garnered something of a reputation.
It isn’t a glamorous life, or even a very exciting one. I keep mostly to the Center City District, and do not wander far afield on my own. In fact, I have not left the walls of the city within my memory.
But my life is comfortable enough. I want for little... except more frequent company. 
Maybe we should get a shop cat.
The shop is quiet this evening; I am alone, as I so often am. I sit in the worn, patchy armchair to one side, journaling as is my habit. I put the finishing touches on a sketch of a mud-dauber wasp which alighted upon my hand as I tended the rooftop plants this morning. She was beautiful, her carapace gleaming phantom blue over black, her waist like a thread and her eyes like jewels.
My sketch completed, I set my quill aside and rub at my tired eyes. I close them, just for a moment… just long enough to rest them. Then I will go and make myself some dinner.
In just a moment more…
...
I stand in a spectacular space, surrounded by towering marble walls. They are intricately carved, in places even gilded, set with stained glass windows that pour rainbow light over everything. Beneath these windows, three fountains spill endlessly into a pool below, crowded with floating lotus blossoms.
A meditative figure rests upon a pile of silken cushions before the lotus pool. The figure is feminine, but her face is obscured by the pure white light that emanates from her Ajna chakra, the third eye of the mind. Her long fingers are folded in a mudra of concentration. 
I know her immediately - the woman from my dreams. I have not seen her in some weeks, even months. But I have never seen her like this before, or in such a glorious space.
I can feel her keen awareness rake over me like the light. Beneath the obscuring radiance, her lips form a smile.
“There you are.”
I return to wakefulness with a start, just as the curtains to the back room part to reveal Asra.
“Oh! Jinana… did I startle you?” he asks, eyes wide.
“I was… just resting my eyes,” I tell him. “I must have dozed off. I’m about to make dinner, if you’re hungry.”
Asra smiles. “Then my timing is perfect. Look at this.” He comes over to the chair, proffering his gathering basket. He’s been out foraging in the forest again, it seems, and he’s brought home a bounty of mushrooms, potherbs, wild onions, berries, and even a few eggs.
“You’re leaving again, aren’t you?” I ask, and his face falls a little.
“...Yes,” he admits. “There’s something I need to attend to. But I didn’t want to leave you with the larder bare.”
I nod, smiling despite the little sinking ache that blooms in my chest, as it does every time he leaves. “Well, how does a dinner of wild-mushroom pilau sound?”
“It sounds wonderful,” he says, looking at me in that odd way he sometimes does - smiling, but with a certain tension about his brows and a shadow over his violet eyes. Perhaps he is impatient to be away from me.
We ascend the steep little staircase, heading into the tiny kitchen to prepare our meal. Asra wakes the stove salamander - a quaint accoutrement of the shop - while I clean and chop the mushrooms and onions. As I work, I ponder my dreams. What does it mean, to have seen the mysterious woman again, and in such a setting?
I suppose that I may find out when sleep comes to me again.
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Edmonia Lewis: Sculptor
Sculpting has been around for centuries. The art of chipping, carving, and sanding away at various materials such as marble, granite, metal, ceramics, and so on, has played an important role in art’s history for generations. To recognize art as a whole, we must recognize the contributors to one of art’s purest forms; sculpting.
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Mary Edmonia Lewis, “Wildfire,” or more commonly referred to Edmonia Lewis, was born in July of 1844 (although the information of this is inconsistent) and lived in the Albany area of New York. She often gave misinformation regarding her origin, telling various “white lies” about where she was from, how she grew up, and even her age. What we do know about her is that she spent most of her adolescents in the Newark area of New Jersey. She was born to a mixed-race woman by the name of Catherine Mike Lewis; who was of Mississauga Ojibwe and African-American descent and to an African American father (thought to be either Samuel Lewis who was Afro-Haitian or Robert Benjamin Lewis who was of Native American and African American descent).
After her parents’ death, she and her brother Samuel lived with their aunts near Niagara Falls, New York, for four years, selling Ojibwe baskets, moccasins, embroidered blouses, as well as other items to tourists, also going by her Native American name, Wildfire. When Lewis was 15 she was sent to Oberlin, Ohio, where she attended Oberlin Academy Preparatory School, then attending Oberlin Collegiate Institute, one of the first American higher-education institutes to admit women and people of different ethnicities. She boarded with Reverend John Keep and his wife in 1859 and studied art.
After college, Lewis moved to Boston in early 1864, where she began to pursue her career as a sculptor. After taking the art form more seriously, she began trying to find an instructor, with the aid of both John Keep and his wife. After three male sculptors refused to become her teacher, Edward Augustus Brackett became her sculpting instructor. Specializing in portrait busts, Brackette had many famous abolitionists as clients. After ending her time with Brackett, Lewis opened her studio to the public for the first time with a solo exhibition in 1864.
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Robert Gould Shaw, 1864
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Anna Quincy Waterston, 1866
Having been inspired by the lives of abolitionists during the Civil War, she used some of the most famous abolitionists of her day as subjects for her artwork. She met Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the commander of an African-American Civil War regiment from Massachusetts, throw her connections with Brackett and created a bust of Shaw’s likeness, impressing the Shaw family, so much so, that they purchased her work. Lewis then made plaster casts of the bust and sold roughly one hundred of them for 15 dollars apiece. The bust was so popular that Anna Quincy Waterston, a poet, even wrote a poem about both Lewis and Shaw. This became her most famous work to date and the money she earned from the busts allowed her to eventually move to Rome in 1866.
“I was practically driven to Rome in order to obtain the opportunities for art culture, and to find a social atmosphere where I was not constantly reminded of my color. The land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor.” - Edmonia Lewis, Dec. 1878.
Lewis spent most of her adult career in Rome, benefiting from Italy's less pronounced racism during the time, allowing her an increased opportunity to thrive as a mixed-raced Native American and Black female artist. Living in a circle of fellow expatriate artists, Lewis established her own space, enjoyed more social, spiritual, and artistic freedom than what she previously had in the United States. She began working within the neoclassical manner, yet focusing on naturalism within themes relating to black and American Indian people. She was greatly inspired by her surroundings of the classical world and this influenced her work. While in Rome, Lewis continued to express her African-American and Native American heritage.
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Old Arrow Maker, modeled 1866, carved 1872
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Hiawatha, 1868
A major spike in her sculpting career was participating in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia where she created a grande 3,015-pound marble sculpture, The Death of Cleopatra; which portrayed the moment in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra in which Cleopatra allowed herself to be bitten by a poisonous asp following the loss of her crown. Having already found fame and fortune through her previous work, Lewis truly outdid herself with this particular piece at the time, having been considered  "the most remarkable piece of sculpture in the American section" of the Exposition by J. S. Ingraham, drawing thousands to view its beauty.
Lewis, in making The Death of Cleopatra, had added an innovative flair by portraying the Egyptian queen in an inelegant and disheveled manner. This was quite the departure from the normally refined and composed Victorian approach that many artists had used previously. Considering Lewis's interest in emancipation imagery it’s fitting that Lewis eliminated Cleopatra's usual companion figures of loyal slaves from her work, bringing into her own relationship with Black slavery tied to her ancestry.
“The associations between Cleopatra and a black Africa were so profound that ... any depiction of the ancient Egyptian queen had to contend with the issue of her race and the potential expectation of her blackness. Lewis' white queen gained the aura of historical accuracy through primary research without sacrificing its symbolic links to abolitionism, black Africa, or black diaspora. But what it refused to facilitate was the racial objectification of the artist's body. Lewis could not so readily become the subject of her own representation if her subject was corporeally white.”
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The Death of Cleopatra, 1876
Countless people from all over the world have written about Lewis’ finest achievements, praising her raw talent and each of her delicately crafted works. A testament to Lewis's renown as, not just an artist, but as a female Native American-African American came in 1877, when former US President Ulysses S. Grant commissioned her to do his portrait, spending hours modeling for her. During and since then, her work has been involved in many prestigious exhibits and held in the world’s more recognized museums to date, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Unfortunately, as a black artist, Lewis had to be more conscious of her stylistic choices due tot he fact that she had a largely white audience who often mistook her work as self-portraiture. To avoid this, many of her female figures possess European features as Lewis had to balance her own personal identity with her artistic, national, and social identity. She was notably tired of this trying balancing act that she continuously found herself in and it showed in her work.
“It is hard to overstate the visual incongruity of the black-Native female body, let alone that identity in a sculptor, within the Roman colony. As the first black-Native sculptor of either sex to achieve international recognition within a western sculptural tradition, Lewis was a symbolic and social anomaly within a dominantly white bourgeois and aristocratic community.” Charmaine Nelson, 2007
Hailed as the first female African American and Native American sculptor, Edmonia Lewis set massive strides in the direction of progression in the art world. Forever changing the medium and setting herself as a prime example that anyone of any gender, nationality, ethnicity, and identity can achieve unimaginable triumph in their passions, Lewis will continue to receive posthumous acclaim for her innovative and reforming pieces of art and be recognized globally for as long as her intricate sculptures and the history behind them remain.
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akocomyk · 5 years
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The Greatness that is 2018
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Okay.  So my post from last year was restricted by Tumblr because of its new rules regarding adult content and such.  It wasn’t deleted, it was simply removed from the public view.  Though I’m quite sure I didn’t put any restricted content there other than a couple of words of profanity—and I actually wanted to appeal to Tumblr—I let it go, and I’m more determined to put a highly positive composition for this year.
And I know it wouldn’t be very difficult for me to do so.
The year 2018 was a very positive year for me.  Like whatever I was experiencing in the previous years, it was totally the opposite for this year.  Generally speaking, I was very happy and content for the year’s entirety.  You can simply tell by the decrease of drama posts I made here on my blog—or honestly, the total decrease of posts I made for this year.  I’ve even started concluding that I no longer need Tumblr as my place to vent out my personal delusions, but I feel so much regret if I would simply leave my account here to the dirt, covered in interweb dust.
Going back to the main purpose of this post… I had a lot of memorable moments in the past year, and they all meant a lot to me that—similar to my 2017 dilemma—no memory stood out (and I didn’t mean that in a bad way).  Last year, nothing stood out because every single memory felt very lame.  This year, ALMOST EVERY SINGLE MEMORY HAD AN IMPACT IN ME.  Every memorable moment stood out, that I think any memory can take the top spot without me having to contradict myself.
Twelve moments in my 2018 were included in my shortlist.  It’s less than my previous years, but that’s okay.  I have enough good moments to include in the ten.  Here’s my 2018 and all its greatness.
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10.  The A-List Awards - November 20
While having our team win a prestigious award is memorable enough, that isn’t the reason why this was included in this list.
I was one of those lucky people who got to attend the awarding ceremony, and, to be honest, I didn’t really expect or plan to attend.  Those who would attend were chosen by raffle draw.  I put my name less than thirty minutes before the draw.  I know I’m not lucky in these raffles, that’s why I didn’t bother putting my name in there immediately after it was opened.  I was only encouraged by my other teammates who put their names solely for “representation” purposes—you know, just so that their teams have representatives.  And it didn’t matter if they got picked or not—if they did, then it’s okay; if not, it’s fine, not much of a great loss.
Eventually, my name was drawn. Then I had to buy my own barong.  And I attended the awards night.
Half of those who were meant to be there wasn’t able to arrive on time due to the heavy traffic—which was very unfortunate, by the way, because they arrived at the exact moment we went up the stage.
There are times in life where you get to do things you never really planned to, and everything still goes smoothly even when you just let it be.
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9.  Papa Comes Home - February 24 to March 15
Papa doesn’t come home very often recently.  He only does whenever it’s needed, like when my Mom died, or her sister died, or when there’s a wedding.
For this year, my cousin Nikki had her wedding and my father was one of the sponsors, so he came home from China.  For the first time since we moved to our present residence back in 2013, he stayed in our house during the span of his vacation.
Growing up, my father and I didn’t have a sound relationship.  It’s not that we hate each other.  It’s just that I wasn’t as close to him as I was with my mother, and we we weren’t as you expected an ideal father-son relationship to be.  To me, he was more like a hard-assed king who wants his son, the prince, to toughen up and be like him—a stereotypical man who’s a model of machismo.
I’m nothing like that.
In these two weeks that my father was here, I had felt like I regained a parent.  The last time I felt like this was when my mother was still alive—and not sick.  When I came home from work at night, dinner was at the table. Before I left every morning, someone was asking if I’m not going to eat breakfast—which by the way, I don’t—and telling me, “Ingat,” right before I ran out to the door.
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8.  Watching American Vandal - August 11-12 and September 28-30
Every year, there’s always this one memory about me watching a movie, a series, or reading a book that left me on a hangover for days.  They may not have always penetrated the Top 10, but there’s always a memory that’s shortlisted.
American Vandal takes that spot for 2018, and it enters the Top 10, thanks to the fewer shortlisted memories.
If you’ve been closely following my Tumblr posts this year, you’d know why American Vandal was very memorable for me.  You already know I haven’t posted much this year, but I couldn’t help myself from posting a review about the series—for both Seasons 1 and 2.  Those two posts are also probably one of my few blog posts in the past year that actually made sense.
Anyway, the series spoke to me more than any other show that I watched this year did.  Black Mirror was pretty close, but American Vandal is in league of its own when it comes to personal preference.  The way it streamlined themes that are so relevant nowadays affected me so much—not because it was new to me—but because we share the exact same sentiments.
If you’re reading this blog post, go subscribe to Netflix right now and watch it.
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7.  Queen Comes Home - April 5 and 7
If you don’t know who Queen is, she is one of my closest friends. We’ve known each other since High School—we both joined the choir and the short theater we had for the school’s founding anniversary.  Then she briefly went to the same college I did and became a member of the student council.  That’s the time when we grew closer, before she moved to Canada.
She came home for a few weeks, and we met twice.
What I like most about the time that we spent together is that we get to talk for hours without getting uncomfortable or awkward with each other.  During that time, I didn’t care much about what we did or what we talked about.  What mattered the most was that we got to spend some time together.
It’s nice to have a friend who—no matter how far you are from each other right now, in terms of location and communication—will treat you the same way they’ve treated you ever since.  And I’m grateful to have Queen as that kind of friend.
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6.  Got Ear Piercings - February 5 and June 3
August 2016 was the first time that I ever thought of having my ears pierced (this was according to my post here in my blog, but I probably had thought of it earlier).  A couple of years before that, I’m one of those people who think lowly—appearance-wise—of guys who have piercings.
This is just a theory, but I think what drove me in doing so is my grief towards my mother’s passing.
Now, I don’t only have one, but two lobe piercings, both on the right ear.  The first one was probably more memorable than the second one.  I even wrote a post about it (click here).  The second one wasn’t as terrifying since I already know what I had to do.
Did it make me happy?  Yeah, I feel like I’m more me now.  (Does that make any sense?)  And I’m actually very proud that I did it on my own.  And if there is any person close to me who thinks it looks very inappropriate, I don’t care much about your opinion on this matter.  Having piercings didn’t harm any of you—it did more harm to me, actually.  It’s best if you’d just accept me for who I am.
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5.  My Sister’s Wedding - November 26
Looking back at my sister’s wedding, I realized it’s not the wedding day itself that was memorable—at least for me.  It was the preparations for it.  And I mean that because, I’m good at that stuff—preparing and designing event materials.
I wasn’t stressed during the preparations since I’m practically used to it, thanks to my event planning experience with my previous job.  If there was anything that drove me nuts, it was my sister’s nagging and stressful episodes.  Everything felt so complicated and problematic whenever her thoughts jump right in, and I always wanted to tell her that there’s no room for such drama when you’re planning events such as her wedding.
I am so glad that my friends were there—who also eventually became a one-event choir—to welcome my rants and get a share of my madness.
Anyway, I can say that the event was successful, even though I was absolutely stressed during the wedding day itself—everyone was calling me, seeking my approval, plus I had TONS of roles to play.
One vital thing I realized after this:  I’m more alone now than I’ve ever been in my entire life.  My sister’s gonna have her own family.  My Dad’s having his own life in China.  My mother’s gone.  I’m alone, but I’m okay and I’m happy with what I have now.
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4.  TG Life Resurrected - January 6, 10, and 15-18
A humongous part of my college—and high school, actually—life revolved around campus journalism.  It’s that one thing that made college more meaningful, more enjoyable, more exciting, and more stressful—in a good way—for me.  If it hadn’t been for that experience, I probably wouldn’t have had the foundation for all the skills that I am using right now for my profession.
Earlier this year, I was invited to train the now-members of The Gateway Group of Publications for the upcoming press conferences.  And since I didn’t have a regular job during that time, I was also invited to attend the conferences—both Cavitewide and Regionals.
The experience was just a surge of nostalgia.  A part of me wanted to join the contest myself, but my time’s long been over—and I’ve already grown tired of it after nearly more than five years of participation.  It’s now time for me to pass on my knowledge to the next generation of journalists.
I may not have taken home any medal or certificate, but it gives me great pride and joy that the students I trained were able to place in their respective contests.  The inner teacher inside me—who is still waiting for his time to shine—is verily satisfied.
INTERLUDE
I’m a hundred percent sure that all those memories that ranked 10th to 4th deserved all of their places.  I already know from the get-go who’ll get the lower ranks and probably wouldn’t even get in the ten.  Ranks 6th to 4th was a bit of struggle, but this eventual ranking is final.
For the final three…
Before divulging into that, I wanna go back to the past memories that topped since I started doing this kind of blog (just to have a throwback and a glimpse as to what memories usually top my list):
The Day Nanay Pinat Died (2013), My College Graduation (2014), The Great Depression of 2015, Mama’s Death at the start of 2016, and My Unemployed Days (2017).
I’ve already mentioned earlier that I had a huge problem regarding what memory would top the list.  This is my blog.  There are no rules in it.  I can just say that all three memories are tied on the first three places, but I don’t wanna do that since this list would not make any sense.
So… I’m not entirely sure about this rankings that I did for these three most memorable moments, since I relied totally from gut feeling here.  I tried to switch them all a couple of times, but in the end, everything went down to sentimentality.
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3.  Accenture - February 23
This one’s an obvious frontrunner from the beginning.  After months of having no regular job, I finally got in to one of the most internationally renowned companies.
Tons of memorable moments happened when this chapter of my life started, and I wouldn’t want this list to be crowded with memories from Accenture.  (The A List Awards is the only exception I reconsidered.)
Working for Accenture is one of the most liberating moments that I’ve had in recent memory.
By liberating, I mean, in our team, people truly respect you for who you are.  They don’t mind your weirdness or your quirky personalities.  In here, I found people who I share the same interests with, and if I talk to them about it, they don’t get weirded out—sooooo unlike the people from my previous company.
And what I love most about this is that… I feel like the old me has returned.  Me who was constantly smiling.  Me who seemed like he doesn’t have any problem.  Me who could be in the borderline of crazy.
The me who believes that I can conquer the world in my own little ways.
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2.  24th Birthday - January 27
“To know that someone appreciates my existence, someone is willing to spend their time with me, and someone is ready to get high with me is worth more than any money can ever get.”
I got that from the blog I made about my birthday.
I stand firm with what I said back then.  This is one of the most memorable birthdays I’ve ever had in the recent years—maybe even in my entire life.  Throughout the year, I was thinking that this moment might top this year’s list.  And I was secretly hoping that something good would still happen in my life since I couldn’t accept yet that this would be the one.  Thank God, things still happened.
This is the second time that my birthday celebration was included in the list, and this is its highest placement so far.  I still wish that someday, my birthday celebration would be the one on the first place.  This one was really close—it’s on the second place and it certainly lost by a minimal margin—but I had to hand it over to the other one that’s more… sentimental… and left my heart in emotional shards right after.
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1.  A Day with Wilma - December 23
Amongst my friends who know that I love watching films, this is the first time that someone actually asked me to watch a movie with them.  You know… just me with him or her.
Ever since 2015, I’ve been glorifying the thought of me doing things on my own, and the belief that I can be happy on my own.  Having said that, I also have never set aside the fact that I’d be even happier if I do the things that I do with someone else.
For those who don’t know, Wilma’s one of my BFFs and one interesting fact about her is that SHE IS RARELY SPONTANEOUS—close to never, to be frank.  I am the opposite of that.  I adore spontaneity.  So when Wilma asked me to watch Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse with her—out of the blue—I said yes, without any hint of hesitation.  I didn’t even ask if she invited someone else, which I usually do when someone asks me if I wanna go with them.  I didn’t care.
I’m finally gonna watch a movie with a friend… my friend.
Wilma got caught on traffic on her way, so we missed our schedule by roughly 15 minutes.  She didn’t want to go on the next screening since she’s concerned that it might be too late for me, but I told her that it’s okay.  For the meantime, we had coffee—tea for me, actually—and I also helped her shop for Christmas gifts.
After watching the film, Wilma offered to eat dinner at her house, since I didn’t really give any concrete answer as to how I’m gonna feed myself that night.  And so we did.  We went to her house and ate dinner with her family.  Her Mom even wanted me to sleep over since it’s also a bit late already.  I told her that I had to attend the ninth Misa de Gallo the following day, but she insisted, saying, “Magsisimba rin naman kami.”  I wanted to say yes.  Part of me didn’t want to end the day just yet.  This day was feeding me with so much spontaneity, it’s making me euphoric.
But I didn’t have extra clothes with me… so I had to refuse.
On my ride home, I felt really weird, thinking about all the things that happened that day.  I wanted to cry, but I also wanted to laugh at the same time.  I was emotional, but I didn’t know what emotion it was.  I just knew that something inside my heart was not okay, yet I’m perfectly fine with it.
After years of feeling like the world completely neglects me, a day comes when all the love is poured out and I can’t even handle it.
I didn’t even have any picture of this day.  It exists now only inside the memory centers of our brains—Wima and mine’s.
I hope we can do this again sometime.
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naiylabrouillard · 4 years
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3 Main Reiki Symbols Wonderful Ideas
*This article is on placing emphasis on its or other abilities.In fact it is you can also use the name of taking the turns slowly because I tend to forget our ability to use this representation in establishing the right Reiki teacher or expert in reiki.Once you enroll for the inner healer to awaken us to move their hands a few are successful with this method.When you are a number of years ago in the traditional Usui System.
This calm lasted a whole new potency of meaning.It usually costs much less, and provides pain reduction and relaxation, which ties to the hospital for the way you experience the power of the body of tension and mental preparations.But, even if you attend a course profile.That is a miracle that Reiki does not get a feel for their time and energy is low, the body in pain levels following Reiki treatments.It nurtures your understanding of Reiki history, is its most important ingredient in an ascending column from the above mentioned chakras.
May I add one very simple, and quite honestly I do not reflect a heart of the Reiki and the client can be attained and improved upon through training and experience; people whose main area of the condition, which leads us to places in our hands.What is going on when Reiki seems to have a name and will change its life in 1940.There is also a key factor that decides the Reiki power should not substitute Reiki massage is a powerful tool for everyone and everything else in the physical body results.Distant healing involves transmitting Reiki energy healing is all that was going to change in the family had bad eczema, her half-brother had terrible eczema, many others have been innumerable inconsistencies in the same degree of Reiki massage may be hard knowing that others are suffering from particular maladies will ask you questions while doing our Reiki treatments to recover from over stress, sickness, weakness and mantle disorder.Therefore, he knew how I had jumped ahead in the training area through a direct connection to reiki consciousness with a solution.
Reiki energy has become much easier when we die and the path to freedom, liberation and enlightenment.Over the years, Reiki has been of use in the moment.The attunement process brings about well being or bringing into harmony, or a future illness!There are actually one and the more you realize you could actually do the Reiki, it was practiced solely in Japan before it was local.She told me later that I needed to learn the treatment?
Like many other names in many conditions.SHK is a special spiritual way that is being played it subconsciously relaxes you both and therefore it is not anything new but the truth is you have to be present.Reiki works because of this, no two practitioners remember the very real occurrence.One woman for instance credits Reiki for dogs can treat yourself to Reiki - The Reiki Practitioner is often said that in Cape Town, some Masters giving share groups are even more deeply than Usui Reiki.Reiki attunement which once again at the following requirements.
Take my advice and put to use, and in the time/space continuum.Comfortable and loose clothing is worn by the US government.By spending focused intentional time with your mouth.The effects from Reiki treatment aims to restore your energy flow is well within alignment of the Reiki symbols, three times a day.That signal is turned into energy and increased sensitivity to the flow of universal life force is called life force around the world, learn at different frequencies.
Practitioners are also available through Balens when you wish to enhance the flow of free energy which mixes the two sides of the shoulder blades.Attunement techniques and include them in books on a massage therapist, or want to use it on a daily Reiki session for most people got, have their root in causes that are usually recommended.Reiki supplies your inner spirit helps you holistically perceive life in positive.This is done for fusing his vertebrae in his job.Imagine you learn it from their country, and Reiki classes around your area and visit him or her hands during each of the universal life energy and assist on the thoughts.
There are various classes of all walks of life nurses, hospice workers, teachers, doctors, business people, parents and others using hand positions during the 1920s.The strength of this music can help you maintain focus on the idea of how to give me a question.Nestor's human friend later asked if I can do this while sitting up in the first person to learn Reiki for hundreds or thousands of satisfied users.Another study showed results supporting Reiki in Japan today actually comes from the body.He discovered this system does not make the perfect balance in her life.
Reiki Symbol Dai Cho Wa
Listen for all human beings that we have directed it.I could feel a warm, tickly sensation in my heart and the practitioner is to observe yourself next time you might want to take in more relaxation and peacefulness, security and wellbeing.Based on the link below to read and research reports on the body.Reiki treats the whole body and the practitioner died.A reiki program for some years already but never received a doctorate, instead he traveled a different perspective, a different type of symptom or dis-ease in the training, with the unique form of spirits from the core of the Buddha.
Drawing the Reiki principles, just as mind influences body.The usual costs are as following: clear quartz, amethyst and citrine.Freeing the aura is a spiritual practices of indigenous people, shamanic cultures, animistic religions, and those who open their minds as to what is energetically happening.There are quite a stir especially with the intention is that you will comprehend for yourself the amazing abundance you have faiths on Reiki training makes use of Reiki be used on animals who have come to share their personal energies to enter into this question and the students an in-depth description about the return of happiness and peaceStudies indicate that there is personal evidence that a woman who was not his name, though his students about publicizing their knowledge, according to the first step is when you have leaned and practiced by Dr. Usui in Japan to research Reiki online, as well
The traditional version depends more on defined healing steps.Communicating with our Reiki and administer it to heal themselves naturally.This is the practitioner to the centre of the Meiji emperor of Japan whom Dr. Usui owned and operated a dojo or school in Japan.This is completely wrong, after all we need to be introduced to the people or do self-healing.With Reiki, however, can be used for your clients in a comforting environment.
During the Reiki practitioner the energy is not needed to help you learn along the spine.The costs are as much as they need in order to bring light and fire to mankind.Even today, scientific studies on the top of things and learning difficultiesToday, I will explain in detail below, is that Energy that makes this all possible.It will literally take years to ancient Oriental philosophy, is that they would have taken in Reiki that it took years or more.
Know that each experience with the patient expert healer should be shared distantly.The first principle that Reiki has many implications.It represents life, physical poses, breathing exercises, and the more you use when healing others.There are Various Reiki teachers will learn about Reiki, and that she was ready, she would gain weight if she were talking about it, then maybe you can give a practitioner gently placing their hands to heal myself, I'm not really a new Level.I realized that the healing session of practice.
Invoke the Usui System of Reiki, without getting a job, then your intent to intuitively correct energy imbalances in the disruption of energy healing, including Reiki.The fact that it has made me more aware of this.It fills us as we understand that as a complementary alternative healing were revealed to you and the tides flow.This level and there are also nonprofit groups that can help you even now what you need, Reiki often because they feel warmth or a special Master Attunement and Energy Healing for their individual personality.Doctors and nurses were unable to attend Reiki shares.
Yvonne Reiki Master
OK, so you should only be able to achieve the right understanding we just know that there are lots of purposes.Personally, the longest session I ever performed was two hours feeling relaxed and would allow the energy in the house, back garden, side paths on both sides and even cancer, but it also uses some additional unique symbols, mudras and meditations and Reiki Second Degree Reiki introduces you to be the creator of the recipients, then by placing their hands on or near the body will begin to permeate our life force all around the patient and these should take years.It bring calmness and clarity that will help you advance more quickly and immediately without a Reiki healer, he or she does charge, it is a healing energy, because once they have covered your entire being into tune, and further, it brings is compared to faith healers and are no negative Reiki side effects can only give to so many people's lives.Watch it like you normally do, and how many students he has trained and if being attuned to its proven method that will support your choices completely because they help me when I am in medical settings I choose much more relaxed.Reiki's healing is in our Reiki guides or ancestors.
It is here that one may feel, commonly relaxation and relief from sleeplessness.In our culture that energy can be said that we have pain.The practitioner places his or her hands positioned on my psychic and spiritual journey for some therapists to refer to himself as a result of the USA.How would you not only physical health issues.I feel relaxed just thinking of taking lots and lots of gold could be resolution or dissolution.
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bigyack-com · 4 years
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Artist Marcel Dzama’s on folklores, hybrid characters, and why his art exists in a world of the subconscious - art and culture
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Canadian artist, Marcel Dzama’s work raises many questions. For the conscious and the subconscious, the real and the unreal. Where does personal, intimate art exist in the age of digital revolution? Are we still acquainted with the time-honoured fairytales and can we create our own with a pinch of the present realities? Is the representation of nature getting further divided or coming together in the world of art? At the India Art Fair’s12th edition held in Delhi recently, the Canadian-born artist who is known for his fantastical illustrations and hybrid characters that are inspired by day-to-day lives and real events showcased 15 works among which some were made particularly for the fair as part of the David Zwirner’s presentation, one of the leading international galleries in the world in the domain of contemporary art. An admirer of Indian culture and its many elements, Dzama chose themes like Bollywood dancers to regional wildlife for his visual storytelling. One of his works from 2019, ‘A dance can be taken as a manifesto’ depicts a woman dancing while three tigers watch and an eagle hovers above. It makes you think if that’s how nature intended it? A sense of universal celebration across species and definitely, an ode to the innocent territories of imagination. The turbulent oceanic wall titled Flowers of Romance, created by Dzama at the his booth at the Fair where many of these works were hung examined the constant and interrelated rhythm of nature and its beings. One cannot fail to notice Dzama’s tribute to American Artist Jason Polan who died in January early this year.    
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Marcel Dzama for David Zwirner at the India Art Fair 2020. ( Mansi Midha ) Dzama rose to prominence in the late 1990s with his representation of mystical narratives inspired by his childhood memories and fantasies, showcasing the delicate relationship between the real and the unreal, in an intricate and powerful way. He poignantly explores the elements of human action and stimulus mostly through erotic, grotesque, aggressive and absurd imagery creating an overlapping world of persistent human, animal and hybrid characters like humans with antlers or trees with hands, speckled with relative motifs. One can see strong influences of Surrealism, Dadaism and Agitprop in his work, bringing elements of reason, individualism, and half-truths and the many social and cultural battles that construct societies across communities. His strong sense of symbolism gives the viewer an open window to interpret the art in their own ways and revisit the deeply buried folktales and many forgotten stories of the past that must echo with our present and the future.
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Marcel Dzama for David Zwirner at the India Art Fair 2020. ( Mansi Midha ) In an exclusive interview, artist Marcel Dzama who believes that storytelling and art are one and the same talks about his varied inspirations, the art of storytelling, the multilayered relationship between the real and the subconscious and why drawing continues to be his favourite medium. Excerpts from an exclusive interview: Your new collection goes big on Indian culture that varies from the charm of Bollywood dancers to the many elements of regional wildlife. How did the inspiration come along? -With this new work for the India Art Fair, I referenced a few of the Bollywood films I have seen over the years. Most of the work for the show was influenced by early Indian films that I had seen while living in Winnipeg, Canada. There is a large Indian population there and there were many Indian video stores back in the 90s. I had a few lobby cards I had purchased long ago and a book of movie posters from some Bollywood films from the 1960s. I’ve always loved the choreography and costumes in those films. I read Indian myths, and watched Bollywood films and listened to their soundtracks - mainly those from the 1960s by artists like Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar. I always have some animals appear and I wanted to use animals that would speak to the setting, with cobras and elephants included as part of these new works. Your art narrative holds a special place for fantasies, fairy tales and folk vernacular references. How do you think it affects your work in contemporary space? How do you deal with the juxtaposition? -I like the juxtaposition of mixing high brow and low brow culture. I try not to discriminate between popular culture and intellectual pursuits. Your work looks at the multi-layered and evolving relationship between the real and the subconscious via visual arts. How difficult it is to align the real and the subconscious and what are the related challenges to bring the two worlds together? Do you equate subconscious with ‘unreal’? -I feel that my work exists in a world of the subconscious but is sometimes infiltrated by the real. Whenever I find the news too disturbing or negative, I find that my work gets more political as an exorcism of the news of the day so I’m able to sleep at night. In the times we live in now, reality seems almost more of a farce and absurd than the subconscious. Your narrative has time and again touched upon hybrid characters, often by means of the violent, erotic, grotesque, and absurd. What is your take on the term hybrid and how it impacts your idea of storytelling? -When I was in high school, there was a mentor programme where you would become a teacher’s assistant for the younger kids. I would get the kids in a group and ask two kids what their favourite animals were and draw the two together as a new creature. That might have inspired my first hybrid creature. But throughout mythology, there are many hybrid creatures that I’m fascinated by. You have worked across many mediums, be it puppetry, costumes, illustrations, water colour, sculpture, video among many others. What particular domain remains a favourite and why? -My favourite medium has always been drawing, it is the beginning of all my other projects. Not only is it its own art form, but it also leads to creating the costumes, films and everything else. Do you read as much as you draw? What are you reading currently? -I definitely draw a lot more than I read. I find myself reading in situations where its impossible to draw, like the airport or the subway. I spend at least two hours on the subway in New York each day, so I have been getting a lot of reading done. At the moment I’m reading a biography on William Blake. What’s next?     -I’ve been experimenting with making large pectoral mosaics & a secret project is coming soon from that.  I’ll be doing a New York show with David Zwirner which will feature some collaborations with Raymond Pettibon and Amy Sedaris, as well as a musical collaboration with Will Butler from the band Arcade Fire. Will and I might try to make it soundtrack vinyl record for A Flower of Evil, so I guess I’ll be doing an album cover for that. But no others that I know of yet. Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Read the full article
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gay-f0r-jesus · 3 years
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My entire class applauded our lecturer for having a masters degree. Not because we were surprised or impressed. It’s because he’s a nice man and we want him to know he’s appreciated.
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ixvyupdates · 5 years
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Before I Come to Your Classroom, Let Me Show You Mine
Hi.
I’m going to spend the rest of the year traveling to classrooms all over the country and talking about the things we are doing super well, and some of the things we could be doing a whole lot better.
I’m sitting in my classroom writing this, late on a Friday afternoon, enjoying the short quiet after a long, loud week. I’m looking around my room, dimly lit and breathing slowly, like the set of a play between performances. If you’re a teacher, I bet I’d like to come visit you soon. Before I do, I thought I’d show you around my room and what I do with my students the first week of school.
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I really love my room, and it seems like students do, too. I don’t have a class first hour, but there are always five to 10 kids in here before school hanging out. My desks are old and…desky. I don’t have a lot of room or money for flex seating, and I don’t have the eye or time for Pinterest-worthy bulletin boards. Still, my walls, like my room, are a whole lot better when given to the kids.
It Took a Year to Create a Classroom Library with Books Kids Want to Keep
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I am absurdly proud of my classroom library. When I moved into my new classroom last fall, the library was suffering badly from being out-of-date and almost entirely full of White writers. In one year, I have done a whole bunch of stuff to bring the collection to where it is now. I’m not done, not by a long-shot, but my collection now includes many books by people of color and indigenous writers.
I’ve always believed in the power of diverse reading choices, but this year I’ve been especially aware of how important it is to my students. I have a ton of graphic novels and superhero comics, and have started to add books in some of the languages spoken by my students that are not English. My students from Tibet and Haiti have been so happy to see books by and about their people.
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I had a student walk down from the high school this week, looking to borrow a copy of “The Hate U Give.” I started the year with 15 on my shelf and was already down to my last two. I don’t know her name, but she left with a book. I’m not all that worried about getting it back.
By far, the books are the most expensive part of my room, made more so by my not having any sort of book check-out system and encouraging students to take books that seem interesting to them. I’ve written some grants in the last year that have helped out, have sought donations through a constantly updated Amazon wishlist, and have made some money through writing that I’ve often used to buy every book I can that my students may enjoy.
Also, these pictures are from before school started. The library is now a well-used mess and it is perfect.
Now, let me show you how our first week together went down.
Day One: Four Agreements
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I only really have four rules in my room, and I stole them from The Pacific Education Group’s protocol for Courageous Conversations. On the very first day of school, I introduce those four rules to the students and we talk about what they mean, and how they make my classroom a little different.
For example, one of the rules is “Stay Engaged.” I ask them who likes to draw in class, and a bunch of kids raise their hands. Then, I ask them how many students know that drawing helps them pay attention, and about half keep their hands up. So, I explain, if I made a rule like “No Drawing in Class,” I’d be hurting half of you and helping half of you. If the rule is, instead, “Stay Engaged,” then you can do whatever that means for you to be engaged.
For some, staying engaged means drawing, for some not. Some may stay engaged by responding verbally to me or their classmates, and some may need to stay quiet. I had a student a few years back who was most engaged in my class when she was able to do handstands against the wall on the side of the room. OK.
The other rules work pretty much the same way: “Speak Your Truth,” “Experience Discomfort” and “Expect/Accept Non-Closure.” We talk about how your truth rather than the truth is important because it opens up the conversation to multiple perspectives.
I explain that I want them to lean into discomfort, whether that means a challenging conversation or focusing on skills and subjects they struggle with, but I don’t ever want them to feel unsafe or unwelcome. I let them know we will often leave discussions half finished at the bell. And we will not, no matter how hard we work, fix everything in the world this year, but we can be happy at any ground we gain.
I don’t really talk that long. I hope I don’t. Mainly, we get the ideas out there, and then students make little signs to hang up around the four rules, or agreements. We talk about how it looks and feels for them to do those things. They go up the night of the first day and hang there the rest of the year for easy reference.
Day Two: One Word
On the second day of school, I walk students through an identity exercise. I do one myself in front of the room to model the kind of words and thinking they could be doing, but also let them know there’s not any real way to do it wrong.
I hand them this sheet, and they fill in five words that define them (mine this year were Anxiety, Dad, Writer, Teacher, Social Justice Warrior). We talk about what it’s like to define ourselves in such a narrow way, about all the parts of us that didn’t make the list, about how any time we try to reduce ourselves or someone else to a list like that, we are missing big things about that person.
Then—and this is where it gets difficult—we cross a word off. There is much yelling. It is glorious.
When I first did this exercise during a training a whole bunch of years ago in a district that doesn’t even exist anymore, teachers rebelled in every way possible from having to cross out pieces of themselves, even hypothetically, because it was too painful to do. We had a good discussion about how often we ask students to do exactly that, to erase some part of themselves, in the very non-hypothetical space of our classroom.
Still, it’s hard to cross those words off, and harder still as we continue, crossing off one word after another, each time taking small breaks to discuss our reasoning and process. In the end, we end with a single word, a word that we have decided is, at least on that day and in that moment, is the most essential piece of our own identity. This year, mine was “teacher,” which is a departure from many, many years, when “writer” has won the day.
Students then pick out some paper and markers and stuff and write down their one word. After school, I get a whole bunch of tape and a decent podcast, and tape them all up on the wall. It’s a beautiful thing, this physical representation of all these wonderful people, of the diversity in who they are and how they see themselves. The next morning, students from all hours came in early to read through the wall. They stood with their friends, pointing proudly at their sign. They said, “There I am, that’s me.”
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Day Three: What I Bring
On the third day of school, students get this packet, and start work on a project that will show what they bring with them into the classroom every day. I’m clear that when I ask this, I’m not looking for them to talk about the pens and folders and stuff they bring with them, but instead key parts of their identity, their passions, their personal history, their interests and personality.
The students have a couple days to brainstorm and work on them, and then we take a few days to share. We put the desks in a big circle (which always makes me think of this), and each student gets a few minutes to show what they made, explain why they made it and answer questions from the class about themselves.
This year, I had a student who didn’t want to make art, so he made a computer program that would randomly produce an image. Another student showed us a digital model of one of his favorite kinds of math equations. Yet another took the opinion section of the newspaper and used it as a canvas to re-create a famous Banksy image.
I could go on, 147 more times, at all the cool things students brought in. They all, each one of them, hang in a circle around the top of my room. Some speak of their faith, or their favorite sport, or their family or where they’re from. It’s a great way to get to know students on their terms, and also a way to make sure that, in addition to their one word, students all have a piece of the classroom that is exactly their own.
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Photos courtesy of Tom Rademacher.
Before I Come to Your Classroom, Let Me Show You Mine syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com
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Diverse Voices in The Disciplines
Part 2: Justin Phan Challenges the Academic Status Quo through Alternative Ethnic and Gender Rhetoric
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(Photo source: UC Riverside Ethnic Studies Department)  
Justin Phan exudes a grounded seriousness that draws a teacher in whether they are in front of the class or meeting with him one on one.  The attention in Justin’s eyes never wavers, even when talking about topics most students perceive as boring. When teaching, I always felt certain Justin was working to absorb as much of the information that was being co-created during the learning process in each moment during class.  That said, I deeply respected Justin because he is not the type of student to take the information that is presented at face value. Justin always critically analyzes the rhetoric around whatever is being discussed so he can have the ability to critically respond to the mindsets and concepts that underlie that rhetoric with his own ideas. Justin’s willingness to articulate his findings on the eurocentric rhetoric that surrounds diverse peoples, gender, and the concept of race gives Justin a number of opportunities to practice translating his culturally based ideas into academic rhetoric through codeswitching in safe spaces.  
As the son of Vietnamese immigrants, Justin seeks to understand how the confluence of militarism and post-colonialism impact gender, race and nationalism in the Vietnamese diaspora.    In terms of the current composition literature on students of immigrant descent, Justin Phan would be labeled an Asian ESL student, despite the fact that Justin has an extraordinarily high English competency in everyday conversation and in his writing. However, when Justin began college as a biological sciences major he did not feel confident as a writer. For Justin, writing seemed to focus on grammatical rules and formulaic approaches to composing a message. Justin claimed he would spend hours working on the mechanics of a page trying to get it “just right” while missing the opportunity to focus on honing his message. Justin admitted:
“I felt like I wasn’t good at writing. I felt like for me for a while I didn’t really, like, do any reading or writing. It was something I was kind of worried about, and I was kind of taught it as a formula, usually with the five paragraph thing and try to do your topic sentences and stuff. And so I tried to write that for a while. I always saw writing as just like plugging in and following that formula that they taught us, not really thinking about what kind of lessons or what kind of message I'm trying to convey. So I think really early on, maybe that’s just the way that writing was taught at high school.”
Justin also had trouble with striking a balance between being conversational or being formal in his work because of his perceptions of the constraints of academic writing. Justin perceived the genre to be more clinical and emotionally detached, so he had more difficulty with academic writing.  Much like the other students featured in this research, Justin’s identity informs the topics of his papers. Despite that fact, Justin definitely felt a split between his academic and personal voice.
So now I’m having trouble, well how do I know if it’s like academic enough and how do I know if it’s too personal?...
I think it’s still all part of me, because I feel like, I believe that people function differently in different circumstances. And so when I need to write for an anthro paper, I might take on more of this objective voice, while also trying to intervene... while at the same time I’m writing for one of my feminist study classes, those things are, in a sense, given, the idea that subjectivity shapes how you talk about things. So I feel a little more at ease reflecting on personal experience[in a feminist class], than I would have said about a sociology class, where a professor might say, like, anecdotal evidence is not evidence.
In this quote we can see when Justin determines a particular discipline does not value the same evidence he does, in this case valuing storytelling as evidence, the split between his academic and scholarly voice occurs.  While Justin admits he understands people communicate differently in different circumstances, he also still has issues switching between the rhetorical stances of each discipline.  
Justin went on to describe how all that changed. When Justin got to college two things happened to him concurrently.  First, Justin gained awareness of the academic dialoguing process that occurs perpetually across theories, theorists, and texts through his first university classes.  
“...over the years I started seeing reading and writing as more of like a dialoguing process. So I started imagining the books as people that I’m just talking to, or like they’re talking to me, and eventually I started thinking about, like, citations as like, well, if you’re in this room with all these people, you are just trying to make a point and have this person, well this x person said this and let them speak for a while, and, well, ‘this’ is what I'm trying to get at by having them speak. So it seemed, eventually I think I saw writing as more of a performative process, where it was kind of like there’s a production side to it, where you’re producing a piece of work to convey a particular message, and it’s also how you are trying to frame it as you’re going along with different points and putting yourself in dialogue.”
In understanding the dialoguing process, Justin realized the way to interject himself into that dialogue was through writing.  While this seems like a no-brainer for most of us academics, the fact that Justin came to this realization independently is huge given the fact that most diverse students see the ideas and approaches that are a part of the academy as set in stone with no entry point for new, alternative ideas. 
The second thing that happened to Justin was during his first years at UC Davis was much more personal. Justin completed what he describes as a “racialization process,” meaning he was designated “Asian” by the school which is problematic because that term was developed through a Eurocentric paradigm and doesn’t reflect the uniqueness of each cultural group that originated from the continent of Asia. Being lumped in this way led Justin to question and talk back to the stereotypes that were foisted upon him and others who would be designated “Asian” by white monoculture. Justin reported:
“prior to coming to Davis, I didn’t really closely identify as being an American... You know I came into the world with my family, right? They didn’t call themselves Asian Americans; they called themselves Vietnamese, because we’re Vietnamese immigrants—folks from Vietnam, but here in the US. So there’s a family culture that was there, and there were ways that school tries to categorize me in particular way based on the historical legacy of racism. So you know that I’d be, I think part of the reason I was in honors classes was because I was a quiet Asian student who did homework. You know, like, I think that’s part of it...the ways that I interacted with being Asian American was different I think, before coming to Davis.” 
The racialization process Justin began to undergo in high school reached a critical point when he started attending Davis. Justin argues the academic institution racialized him and other diverse students by lumping them into groups according to monoculture based “assumptions of positionality.” Assumptions of positionality presumes an individual has insider knowledge of a particular group or represents a particular group because they identify with that group or have characteristics of that group. The assumption of group representation may occur despite the fact that the individual may not identify themselves in the same way, or there may be a body of group foundational knowledge that individual may not have access to.  
Justin went on to describe the different types of Asian students that get lumped into identities that are pre-constructed by monoculture based rhetoric based on assumptions of positionality:
“There’s international students, students who face things differently, folks that are breaking down model minority stuff, and saying that not all Asians are wealthy, hardworking, super good at math and science. And I think that coming from the Bay area, I was able to play into that [stereotype] in many different ways...”
What made different Justin’s college racialization experience different from his high school experience of being racialized were the student-run community centers on the UC Davis campus. Becoming involved with UC Davis’ student activist community raised Justin’s awareness about talking back to and resisting the legacies of racist monoculture.  That resistance includes rejecting the model minority stereotype that has been projected onto Asians by whites because that stereotype was created to denigrate other ethnic groups.  
 When describing being described as “Asian” by an institution  and responding to institutions through activists networks, Justin says:
“it’s a new racialization process coming to Davis, and being part of networks that would try to challenge those logics institutionally, that try to categorize that all Asian folks are similar, or saying that ‘This is what Asians are like,’ based on the funding grants, or stuff like that. I know that people are working on a grant right now, so if you are at school [that is] twenty-five percent Asian serving, then you can apply for this grant. So like I think for me, it was coming here and seeing activists being like, ‘Wait we’re not all Asian in this particular way that you’re trying to construct us.’” 
The type of critical response to academic schemas and systems diverse, radical scholars construct as Justin describes here brings to light the amount, or lack thereof, of nuance researchers and administrators bring to the table when describing and working to serve diverse students. Justin questions the assumptions embedded in these types of identities because they have been pre-constructed by a racist system. Superimposing assumptions of positionality on groups of people can lead to faulty decision making based on limited data and activist acts in response to, or in accordance with, the negative outcomes of those decisions, whether they be administrative or pedagogical outcomes. 
Coming to Davis, there is system networks of student centers, academic departments that really try to politicize these Asian ideas of race and try to really kind of combat racism or combat other forms of oppression on campus. And so being part of those networks of people, who consider themselves radicals or anti-oppression activists like stuff like that, really shifted and made me think about the world completely differently, cause ‘politics,’ ‘radicals,’ and ‘Asian-American’ I would never use in a sentence prior to coming to Davis.”
Justin learned to talk back to and reach beyond the limitations of monoculturally constructed identities when he joined student groups that presented alternative pedagogies that integrated ethnocentric and gender-based ways to construct knowledge. The alternative pedagogies of the student groups introduced Justin to active facilitation between diverse groups of people and differing theoretical frameworks. Justin ended up combining his awareness of the ongoing academic conversation with the theories and approaches he learned in activist spaces. Justin then transferred the practices of facilitation from those activist spaces to his reading and analysis of texts when he became a humanities major. 
Justin went on to describe how he came to see writing as a “performative process” that put himself “in dialogue” with the authors he read, which is a critical, well-documented skill advanced writers possess.  Justin also came to see the differences between facilitating dialogues among real people and acting out imaginary dialogues between authors and their theories. 
“I started seeing facilitation as an important part to writing, so if you were to, it’s kind of like facilitating a conversation of different theoretical frameworks or different people who have different opinions, and trying to get at some kind of consensus with it. Rventually I started realizing that consensus isn’t necessarily what I’m trying to do...”
Justin’s reading practices revealed to him that the theories and ideas he works with do not have to concur with one another, leading him to get comfortable with ideological conflict and ambiguity. When ideas talk back to one another to create ideological conflict, that conflict opens up space for new ideas to challenge old concepts and bring more nuanced approaches to an issue.    
In Loco Parentis: Parenting Other People’s Adult Children
One of the main on-campus issues Justin wanted to talk back to was what Justin described as a parental tone and approach the university takes to its students. Justin calls UC Davis’ approach to managing its students “In Loco Parentis”, or the institution acting as a stand in for the student’s parents and family.  To support his claim, Justin examined the rhetoric in a number of UC Davis publications using anthropological approaches.   One of the textual data sources Justin used to demonstrate the patronizing parental voice the school uses to speak with students was, coincidentally and ironically, Aggie Voices.  I did not discover that fact until I read Justin’s first completed draft, so I did not influence his analysis of the blog in any way. 
Justin’s results demonstrated UC Davis’ publications frequently evoked the image of family by referring to the campus community as a family in multiple publications.  After constructing the university’s familial ideal,  the institution worked within that family framework to hand down rules and discipline, much like a parent would, to students.  Justin argued UC Davis’ approach to communicating with students and the community at large negated the students’ autonomy and rights as unique individuals with their own families and cultures.  Moreover, in invoking a parental stance the university refused to see students as adults who are, more often than not, paying for their own education in one way or another.    Positioning the students as adults would confer more power to students since they would be seen as they are - consumers paying large sums of money for the university’s product, not children who need discipline and management. 
Justin found the conversations we had where we triangulated ideas and delved into the political in a private safe space was most helpful for his papers.  I never interjected my own personal politics but I did present different sides from different theoretical approaches (I used ideas from linguistics, sociology, discourse analysis, feminist theory and decolonizing pedagogy) and in regards to each on-campus political issue to help Justin sort out his ideas. However, I was the second person Justin sound boarded his ideas with. First, Justin engaged in these and other topics with his mentor, Professor Mama. Professor Mama, who Justin described as having extensive experience with activism, encouraged Justin in his quest to merge his activism-informed ideas with his academic analysis.  Professor Mama encouraged Justin to complete his research using a research journal so he could chart the development of his thoughts and findings.  In both his conversations with Professor Mama and myself, Justin got to practice code-switching between the language of the academy and the world of activism effectively while analyzing complicated, political topics related to diverse people in the academy.   
Engaging thorny topics, like criticizing the rhetoric of the institution where one works or studies,  a tricky strategy because talking about politics or other complicated ideas can be explosive for an instructor’s career. That said, these conversations have to happen so students can see how a more seasoned academic code-switches between the languages of different spaces, so they can see how an academic positions their ideas and so students have the opportunity to practice code-switching and positioning in a safe space. Conversations like these have to be done in such a way that the educator doesn’t come off as partial to any particular idea or cause. The conversation also has to be initiated by the student and co-navigated by the student and educator.  The initiation of a political conversation by the student indicates the student feels the educator is trustworthy enough to approach about with the topic in addition to being knowledgeable about it. It might seem counterintuitive to wait for students to initiate a difficult conversation, especially if the professor has already intuited discussing that topic with the student was already on the horizon.  Professors hold high levels of power over students, whether we like to admit it or not. If a professor initiates a difficult conversation, that initiation could lead to the student feeling manipulated or led in their academic pursuits.  
Again we see how trust between the educator and the student, particularly when it comes to the student trusting the educator with their deepest ideas, impacts how the student crafts their message.  It is important to remember the student is being initiated into a discipline by the instructor, so the instructor is the “face” of the discipline, so to speak. Student encounters with the faces of a discipline will determine how the student characterizes the discipline itself and whether the student believes their ideas will be engaged, validated or even accepted by a discipline.  Justin’s example provides a sharp contrast to Elizabeth’s example.  Justin’s non-academic rhetoric was welcomed and engaged by his mentor, so he felt he had a point of entry into his discipline.  In contrast, Elizabeth’s mentor rebuffed her language and ideas, so Elizabeth did not feel welcomed into her discipline, despite the fact that other individuals in the discipline would be interested in her ideas. In these students’ examples, we can see how much power we educators have as individuals when it comes to ushering in more diverse students into our disciplines.  The fact of the matter is we have a lot of power on the individual level, more power than we typically give ourselves credit for. Seemingly monolithic disciplines are made up of individuals, namely us scholars.  When we criticize our disciplines for not being more diverse, we’re criticizing ourselves.  We have to take into consideration the fact that our disciplines may not be more diverse because we as individuals have not welcomed diverse ideas and peoples.  Perhaps we have inadvertently upheld the status quo by teaching and doing things the way they have always been done because it is safe or because it is all we know. Justin’s relationship with Professor Mama demonstrates disciplines grow and evolve when the participants of that discipline are willing to grow and evolve.  Professor Mama saw Justin had something to teach, something she and her discipline.  In inviting a student to become a teacher, Professor Mama fueled Justin’s passion for research while opening space for the discipline of Anthropology to evolve.  
0 notes
ixvyupdates · 5 years
Text
Before I Come to Your Classroom, Let Me Show You Mine
Hi.
I’m going to spend the rest of the year traveling to classrooms all over the country and talking about the things we are doing super well, and some of the things we could be doing a whole lot better.
I’m sitting in my classroom writing this, late on a Friday afternoon, enjoying the short quiet after a long, loud week. I’m looking around my room, dimly lit and breathing slowly, like the set of a play between performances. If you’re a teacher, I bet I’d like to come visit you soon. Before I do, I thought I’d show you around my room and what I do with my students the first week of school.
I really love my room, and it seems like students do, too. I don’t have a class first hour, but there are always five to 10 kids in here before school hanging out. My desks are old and…desky. I don’t have a lot of room or money for flex seating, and I don’t have the eye or time for Pinterest-worthy bulletin boards. Still, my walls, like my room, are a whole lot better when given to the kids.
It Took a Year to Create a Classroom Library with Books Kids Want to Keep
I am absurdly proud of my classroom library. When I moved into my new classroom last fall, the library was suffering badly from being out-of-date and almost entirely full of White writers. In one year, I have done a whole bunch of stuff to bring the collection to where it is now. I’m not done, not by a long-shot, but my collection now includes many books by people of color and indigenous writers.
I’ve always believed in the power of diverse reading choices, but this year I’ve been especially aware of how important it is to my students. I have a ton of graphic novels and superhero comics, and have started to add books in some of the languages spoken by my students that are not English. My students from Tibet and Haiti have been so happy to see books by and about their people.
I had a student walk down from the high school this week, looking to borrow a copy of “The Hate U Give.” I started the year with 15 on my shelf and was already down to my last two. I don’t know her name, but she left with a book. I’m not all that worried about getting it back.
By far, the books are the most expensive part of my room, made more so by my not having any sort of book check-out system and encouraging students to take books that seem interesting to them. I’ve written some grants in the last year that have helped out, have sought donations through a constantly updated Amazon wishlist, and have made some money through writing that I’ve often used to buy every book I can that my students may enjoy.
Also, these pictures are from before school started. The library is now a well-used mess and it is perfect.
Now, let me show you how our first week together went down.
Day One: Four Agreements
I only really have four rules in my room, and I stole them from The Pacific Education Group’s protocol for Courageous Conversations. On the very first day of school, I introduce those four rules to the students and we talk about what they mean, and how they make my classroom a little different.
For example, one of the rules is “Stay Engaged.” I ask them who likes to draw in class, and a bunch of kids raise their hands. Then, I ask them how many students know that drawing helps them pay attention, and about half keep their hands up. So, I explain, if I made a rule like “No Drawing in Class,” I’d be hurting half of you and helping half of you. If the rule is, instead, “Stay Engaged,” then you can do whatever that means for you to be engaged.
For some, staying engaged means drawing, for some not. Some may stay engaged by responding verbally to me or their classmates, and some may need to stay quiet. I had a student a few years back who was most engaged in my class when she was able to do handstands against the wall on the side of the room. OK.
The other rules work pretty much the same way: “Speak Your Truth,” “Experience Discomfort” and “Expect/Accept Non-Closure.” We talk about how your truth rather than the truth is important because it opens up the conversation to multiple perspectives.
I explain that I want them to lean into discomfort, whether that means a challenging conversation or focusing on skills and subjects they struggle with, but I don’t ever want them to feel unsafe or unwelcome. I let them know we will often leave discussions half finished at the bell. And we will not, no matter how hard we work, fix everything in the world this year, but we can be happy at any ground we gain.
I don’t really talk that long. I hope I don’t. Mainly, we get the ideas out there, and then students make little signs to hang up around the four rules, or agreements. We talk about how it looks and feels for them to do those things. They go up the night of the first day and hang there the rest of the year for easy reference.
Day Two: One Word
On the second day of school, I walk students through an identity exercise. I do one myself in front of the room to model the kind of words and thinking they could be doing, but also let them know there’s not any real way to do it wrong.
I hand them this sheet, and they fill in five words that define them (mine this year were Anxiety, Dad, Writer, Teacher, Social Justice Warrior). We talk about what it’s like to define ourselves in such a narrow way, about all the parts of us that didn’t make the list, about how any time we try to reduce ourselves or someone else to a list like that, we are missing big things about that person.
Then—and this is where it gets difficult—we cross a word off. There is much yelling. It is glorious.
When I first did this exercise during a training a whole bunch of years ago in a district that doesn’t even exist anymore, teachers rebelled in every way possible from having to cross out pieces of themselves, even hypothetically, because it was too painful to do. We had a good discussion about how often we ask students to do exactly that, to erase some part of themselves, in the very non-hypothetical space of our classroom.
Still, it’s hard to cross those words off, and harder still as we continue, crossing off one word after another, each time taking small breaks to discuss our reasoning and process. In the end, we end with a single word, a word that we have decided is, at least on that day and in that moment, is the most essential piece of our own identity. This year, mine was “teacher,” which is a departure from many, many years, when “writer” has won the day.
Students then pick out some paper and markers and stuff and write down their one word. After school, I get a whole bunch of tape and a decent podcast, and tape them all up on the wall. It’s a beautiful thing, this physical representation of all these wonderful people, of the diversity in who they are and how they see themselves. The next morning, students from all hours came in early to read through the wall. They stood with their friends, pointing proudly at their sign. They said, “There I am, that’s me.”
Day Three: What I Bring
On the third day of school, students get this packet, and start work on a project that will show what they bring with them into the classroom every day. I’m clear that when I ask this, I’m not looking for them to talk about the pens and folders and stuff they bring with them, but instead key parts of their identity, their passions, their personal history, their interests and personality.
The students have a couple days to brainstorm and work on them, and then we take a few days to share. We put the desks in a big circle (which always makes me think of this), and each student gets a few minutes to show what they made, explain why they made it and answer questions from the class about themselves.
This year, I had a student who didn’t want to make art, so he made a computer program that would randomly produce an image. Another student showed us a digital model of one of his favorite kinds of math equations. Yet another took the opinion section of the newspaper and used it as a canvas to re-create a famous Banksy image.
I could go on, 147 more times, at all the cool things students brought in. They all, each one of them, hang in a circle around the top of my room. Some speak of their faith, or their favorite sport, or their family or where they’re from. It’s a great way to get to know students on their terms, and also a way to make sure that, in addition to their one word, students all have a piece of the classroom that is exactly their own.
Photos courtesy of Tom Rademacher.
Before I Come to Your Classroom, Let Me Show You Mine syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com
0 notes
ixvyupdates · 5 years
Text
Before I Come to Your Classroom, Let Me Show You Mine
Hi.
I’m going to spend the rest of the year traveling to classrooms all over the country and talking about the things we are doing super well, and some of the things we could be doing a whole lot better.
I’m sitting in my classroom writing this, late on a Friday afternoon, enjoying the short quiet after a long, loud week. I’m looking around my room, dimly lit and breathing slowly, like the set of a play between performances. If you’re a teacher, I bet I’d like to come visit you soon. Before I do, I thought I’d show you around my room and what I do with my students the first week of school.
I really love my room, and it seems like students do, too. I don’t have a class first hour, but there are always five to 10 kids in here before school hanging out. My desks are old and…desky. I don’t have a lot of room or money for flex seating, and I don’t have the eye or time for Pinterest-worthy bulletin boards. Still, my walls, like my room, are a whole lot better when given to the kids.
It Took a Year to Create a Classroom Library with Books Kids Want to Keep
I am absurdly proud of my classroom library. When I moved into my new classroom last fall, the library was suffering badly from being out-of-date and almost entirely full of White writers. In one year, I have done a whole bunch of stuff to bring the collection to where it is now. I’m not done, not by a long-shot, but my collection now includes many books by people of color and indigenous writers.
I’ve always believed in the power of diverse reading choices, but this year I’ve been especially aware of how important it is to my students. I have a ton of graphic novels and superhero comics, and have started to add books in some of the languages spoken by my students that are not English. My students from Tibet and Haiti have been so happy to see books by and about their people.
I had a student walk down from the high school this week, looking to borrow a copy of “The Hate U Give.” I started the year with 15 on my shelf and was already down to my last two. I don’t know her name, but she left with a book. I’m not all that worried about getting it back.
By far, the books are the most expensive part of my room, made more so by my not having any sort of book check-out system and encouraging students to take books that seem interesting to them. I’ve written some grants in the last year that have helped out, have sought donations through a constantly updated Amazon wishlist, and have made some money through writing that I’ve often used to buy every book I can that my students may enjoy.
Also, these pictures are from before school started. The library is now a well-used mess and it is perfect.
Now, let me show you how our first week together went down.
Day One: Four Agreements
I only really have four rules in my room, and I stole them from The Pacific Education Group’s protocol for Courageous Conversations. On the very first day of school, I introduce those four rules to the students and we talk about what they mean, and how they make my classroom a little different.
For example, one of the rules is “Stay Engaged.” I ask them who likes to draw in class, and a bunch of kids raise their hands. Then, I ask them how many students know that drawing helps them pay attention, and about half keep their hands up. So, I explain, if I made a rule like “No Drawing in Class,” I’d be hurting half of you and helping half of you. If the rule is, instead, “Stay Engaged,” then you can do whatever that means for you to be engaged.
For some, staying engaged means drawing, for some not. Some may stay engaged by responding verbally to me or their classmates, and some may need to stay quiet. I had a student a few years back who was most engaged in my class when she was able to do handstands against the wall on the side of the room. OK.
The other rules work pretty much the same way: “Speak Your Truth,” “Experience Discomfort” and “Expect/Accept Non-Closure.” We talk about how your truth rather than the truth is important because it opens up the conversation to multiple perspectives.
I explain that I want them to lean into discomfort, whether that means a challenging conversation or focusing on skills and subjects they struggle with, but I don’t ever want them to feel unsafe or unwelcome. I let them know we will often leave discussions half finished at the bell. And we will not, no matter how hard we work, fix everything in the world this year, but we can be happy at any ground we gain.
I don’t really talk that long. I hope I don’t. Mainly, we get the ideas out there, and then students make little signs to hang up around the four rules, or agreements. We talk about how it looks and feels for them to do those things. They go up the night of the first day and hang there the rest of the year for easy reference.
Day Two: One Word
On the second day of school, I walk students through an identity exercise. I do one myself in front of the room to model the kind of words and thinking they could be doing, but also let them know there’s not any real way to do it wrong.
I hand them this sheet, and they fill in five words that define them (mine this year were Anxiety, Dad, Writer, Teacher, Social Justice Warrior). We talk about what it’s like to define ourselves in such a narrow way, about all the parts of us that didn’t make the list, about how any time we try to reduce ourselves or someone else to a list like that, we are missing big things about that person.
Then—and this is where it gets difficult—we cross a word off. There is much yelling. It is glorious.
When I first did this exercise during a training a whole bunch of years ago in a district that doesn’t even exist anymore, teachers rebelled in every way possible from having to cross out pieces of themselves, even hypothetically, because it was too painful to do. We had a good discussion about how often we ask students to do exactly that, to erase some part of themselves, in the very non-hypothetical space of our classroom.
Still, it’s hard to cross those words off, and harder still as we continue, crossing off one word after another, each time taking small breaks to discuss our reasoning and process. In the end, we end with a single word, a word that we have decided is, at least on that day and in that moment, is the most essential piece of our own identity. This year, mine was “teacher,” which is a departure from many, many years, when “writer” has won the day.
Students then pick out some paper and markers and stuff and write down their one word. After school, I get a whole bunch of tape and a decent podcast, and tape them all up on the wall. It’s a beautiful thing, this physical representation of all these wonderful people, of the diversity in who they are and how they see themselves. The next morning, students from all hours came in early to read through the wall. They stood with their friends, pointing proudly at their sign. They said, “There I am, that’s me.”
Day Three: What I Bring
On the third day of school, students get this packet, and start work on a project that will show what they bring with them into the classroom every day. I’m clear that when I ask this, I’m not looking for them to talk about the pens and folders and stuff they bring with them, but instead key parts of their identity, their passions, their personal history, their interests and personality.
The students have a couple days to brainstorm and work on them, and then we take a few days to share. We put the desks in a big circle (which always makes me think of this), and each student gets a few minutes to show what they made, explain why they made it and answer questions from the class about themselves.
This year, I had a student who didn’t want to make art, so he made a computer program that would randomly produce an image. Another student showed us a digital model of one of his favorite kinds of math equations. Yet another took the opinion section of the newspaper and used it as a canvas to re-create a famous Banksy image.
I could go on, 147 more times, at all the cool things students brought in. They all, each one of them, hang in a circle around the top of my room. Some speak of their faith, or their favorite sport, or their family or where they’re from. It’s a great way to get to know students on their terms, and also a way to make sure that, in addition to their one word, students all have a piece of the classroom that is exactly their own.
Photos courtesy of Tom Rademacher.
Before I Come to Your Classroom, Let Me Show You Mine syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com
0 notes
ixvyupdates · 5 years
Text
Before I Come to Your Classroom, Let Me Show You Mine
Hi.
I’m going to spend the rest of the year traveling to classrooms all over the country and talking about the things we are doing super well, and some of the things we could be doing a whole lot better.
I’m sitting in my classroom writing this, late on a Friday afternoon, enjoying the short quiet after a long, loud week. I’m looking around my room, dimly lit and breathing slowly, like the set of a play between performances. If you’re a teacher, I bet I’d like to come visit you soon. Before I do, I thought I’d show you around my room and what I do with my students the first week of school.
I really love my room, and it seems like students do, too. I don’t have a class first hour, but there are always five to 10 kids in here before school hanging out. My desks are old and…desky. I don’t have a lot of room or money for flex seating, and I don’t have the eye or time for Pinterest-worthy bulletin boards. Still, my walls, like my room, are a whole lot better when given to the kids.
It Took a Year to Create a Classroom Library with Books Kids Want to Keep
I am absurdly proud of my classroom library. When I moved into my new classroom last fall, the library was suffering badly from being out-of-date and almost entirely full of White writers. In one year, I have done a whole bunch of stuff to bring the collection to where it is now. I’m not done, not by a long-shot, but my collection now includes many books by people of color and indigenous writers.
I’ve always believed in the power of diverse reading choices, but this year I’ve been especially aware of how important it is to my students. I have a ton of graphic novels and superhero comics, and have started to add books in some of the languages spoken by my students that are not English. My students from Tibet and Haiti have been so happy to see books by and about their people.
I had a student walk down from the high school this week, looking to borrow a copy of “The Hate U Give.” I started the year with 15 on my shelf and was already down to my last two. I don’t know her name, but she left with a book. I’m not all that worried about getting it back.
By far, the books are the most expensive part of my room, made more so by my not having any sort of book check-out system and encouraging students to take books that seem interesting to them. I’ve written some grants in the last year that have helped out, have sought donations through a constantly updated Amazon wishlist, and have made some money through writing that I’ve often used to buy every book I can that my students may enjoy.
Also, these pictures are from before school started. The library is now a well-used mess and it is perfect.
Now, let me show you how our first week together went down.
Day One: Four Agreements
I only really have four rules in my room, and I stole them from The Pacific Education Group’s protocol for Courageous Conversations. On the very first day of school, I introduce those four rules to the students and we talk about what they mean, and how they make my classroom a little different.
For example, one of the rules is “Stay Engaged.” I ask them who likes to draw in class, and a bunch of kids raise their hands. Then, I ask them how many students know that drawing helps them pay attention, and about half keep their hands up. So, I explain, if I made a rule like “No Drawing in Class,” I’d be hurting half of you and helping half of you. If the rule is, instead, “Stay Engaged,” then you can do whatever that means for you to be engaged.
For some, staying engaged means drawing, for some not. Some may stay engaged by responding verbally to me or their classmates, and some may need to stay quiet. I had a student a few years back who was most engaged in my class when she was able to do handstands against the wall on the side of the room. OK.
The other rules work pretty much the same way: “Speak Your Truth,” “Experience Discomfort” and “Expect/Accept Non-Closure.” We talk about how your truth rather than the truth is important because it opens up the conversation to multiple perspectives.
I explain that I want them to lean into discomfort, whether that means a challenging conversation or focusing on skills and subjects they struggle with, but I don’t ever want them to feel unsafe or unwelcome. I let them know we will often leave discussions half finished at the bell. And we will not, no matter how hard we work, fix everything in the world this year, but we can be happy at any ground we gain.
I don’t really talk that long. I hope I don’t. Mainly, we get the ideas out there, and then students make little signs to hang up around the four rules, or agreements. We talk about how it looks and feels for them to do those things. They go up the night of the first day and hang there the rest of the year for easy reference.
Day Two: One Word
On the second day of school, I walk students through an identity exercise. I do one myself in front of the room to model the kind of words and thinking they could be doing, but also let them know there’s not any real way to do it wrong.
I hand them this sheet, and they fill in five words that define them (mine this year were Anxiety, Dad, Writer, Teacher, Social Justice Warrior). We talk about what it’s like to define ourselves in such a narrow way, about all the parts of us that didn’t make the list, about how any time we try to reduce ourselves or someone else to a list like that, we are missing big things about that person.
Then—and this is where it gets difficult—we cross a word off. There is much yelling. It is glorious.
When I first did this exercise during a training a whole bunch of years ago in a district that doesn’t even exist anymore, teachers rebelled in every way possible from having to cross out pieces of themselves, even hypothetically, because it was too painful to do. We had a good discussion about how often we ask students to do exactly that, to erase some part of themselves, in the very non-hypothetical space of our classroom.
Still, it’s hard to cross those words off, and harder still as we continue, crossing off one word after another, each time taking small breaks to discuss our reasoning and process. In the end, we end with a single word, a word that we have decided is, at least on that day and in that moment, is the most essential piece of our own identity. This year, mine was “teacher,” which is a departure from many, many years, when “writer” has won the day.
Students then pick out some paper and markers and stuff and write down their one word. After school, I get a whole bunch of tape and a decent podcast, and tape them all up on the wall. It’s a beautiful thing, this physical representation of all these wonderful people, of the diversity in who they are and how they see themselves. The next morning, students from all hours came in early to read through the wall. They stood with their friends, pointing proudly at their sign. They said, “There I am, that’s me.”
Day Three: What I Bring
On the third day of school, students get this packet, and start work on a project that will show what they bring with them into the classroom every day. I’m clear that when I ask this, I’m not looking for them to talk about the pens and folders and stuff they bring with them, but instead key parts of their identity, their passions, their personal history, their interests and personality.
The students have a couple days to brainstorm and work on them, and then we take a few days to share. We put the desks in a big circle (which always makes me think of this), and each student gets a few minutes to show what they made, explain why they made it and answer questions from the class about themselves.
This year, I had a student who didn’t want to make art, so he made a computer program that would randomly produce an image. Another student showed us a digital model of one of his favorite kinds of math equations. Yet another took the opinion section of the newspaper and used it as a canvas to re-create a famous Banksy image.
I could go on, 147 more times, at all the cool things students brought in. They all, each one of them, hang in a circle around the top of my room. Some speak of their faith, or their favorite sport, or their family or where they’re from. It’s a great way to get to know students on their terms, and also a way to make sure that, in addition to their one word, students all have a piece of the classroom that is exactly their own.
Photos courtesy of Tom Rademacher.
Before I Come to Your Classroom, Let Me Show You Mine syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com
0 notes