Pod's a Pedagogue

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps

[podagogue]

Don't judge age based on education status...

Actually don't judge based on education status.

Just don't

Kthxbye

[podagogue]

I just unpacked teaching materials I haven't seen in over 18 months and it felt really nice.

[podagogue]

Why I teach...

I was just on the phone with a friend and until we started talking I didn't realize how proud I was off my service (there should be a better word we use here, but that's the PC term and what immediately comes to mind) and my students from Sierra Leone.

I often spoke with my cohort and talked about how we don't teach for the immediate benefits, but for things that happen in the long term. And it's been a year and a half since I was suddenly pulled out of the peace corps and dumped at JFK.

Recently an old student reached out and asked for help in writing a grant for the students he sees greatly affected by the pandemic. He wants to help them buy school supplies for this year. He asked if I would write the grant and I told him to reach out to the teachers in the school and then I would certainly edit the English and help identify places to send our proposal.

And he's doing the work. He wrote a summary of life in the town. He's given me the population he's trying to help. He found all the prices and made me a beautiful table of the costs. Right now he's making a list of criteria for students to qualify for receiving the supplies.

This is something I dreamed of happening. The next generation working to help each other.

It's something I hope I can also do with my teaching here in America. Inspire people to be good. To want better.

[podagogue]

V

Ahahahahahahahahahaha! I'm working remotely from my school building! LOL

What is life?

*cries*

[podagogue]

If fucking outdoor botanical gardens can only open at 33% capacity, why the fuck is it okay to send teachers back to school with their entire class?

Teachers' are people, not tools.

I'm not your good damn babysitter. I did not pay for undergraduate, all my certification fees, and two grad school programs to be a /place/ your kids can stay so you can go to work and get coronavirus and give it to your kid who will pass it to me.

[podagogue]

https://www.gofundme.com/f/ra3wt9-remembering-marcel?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

Please signal boost or donate if you can.

Remembering Marcel organized by Eileen Whelan

St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf in Brooklyn has lost a precious student.  Marcel passed away… Eileen Whelan needs your support for

[love-the-aftertaste]

So here’s another thing that I love about Leverage. 

Gina Bellman was 42 in 2008 when the show premiered and yet from the very first episode she is portrayed as beautiful and sexy and desirable. But not in a “she’s 42 but she’s sexy bc she looks 21″ kinda way and not in a “oh she’s a hot cougar I like older woman bc I a 20 year old manchild with an oedipal complex” kinda way. She’s portrayed as desirable bc Sophie is one badass bitch who can do anything and con anyone in any role she wants to. Also 42, despite what society tells us, is not actually old. But it feels like it is, for women at least. We are constantly bombarded with all this crap about how getting wrinkles in the worst thing ever and how looking over 30 is a horror story that should be avoided for as long as possible. 

But no. Sophie is over 30. She is over 40. And she looks it. And she looks great. Not she looks great for her age. Just she looks great. Period. She is proof that women who are over 30 are not old or pathetic or “passed their prime” or whatever else society would have us believe. Women who are over 30 can be whatever the fuck they want. Sophie can be the “mom” for the team but she can also be the geeky museum curator or the fucking english mob boss or the seductress with the tight short skirts. And she fucking kills it. 

[bisophiedevereaux]

OP, i might be in love with you.

[covington-shenanigans]

I think I might have actually said, “Oh, *shit*” out loud when Sophie first appears on screen. My wife laughed at me, but she understood it.

[aqueerkettleofish]

This dovetails nicely with the fact that Parker could very easily have been “Born Sexy Yesterday”… except the writers (and the other characters) just didn’t go that way. Any other show, Nate would have been the kindly mentor and love interest for Parker, and all the grouchy taskmaster traits… the innate Nate… would have been on Sophie.

[podagogue]

What a four-year-old should actually know

Hint: It has nothing to do with counting or writing their name.

[podagogue]

So I heard you're a really good teacher and I should come observe your class.

My school's orientation and mobility specialist

[podagogue]

At the end of the 11th day if school, 9th with students, I finally have a classroom key

[podagogue]

So I sent a kid to the nurse by themself today.

The power went out.

Mine came back on.

It's been like 10+ minutes.

Where's my student?

I go looking for them but can't find them and see my director and a bunch of other people on the first floor.

I'm freaking out that I'm going to have to tell my director I lost a kid.

She starts the conversation while my heart races.

She tells me they're stuck in the elevator with the nurse.

I'm relieved until I realize that my student is stuck in the elevator.

Eventually we were told to leave the building immediately "for your own safety".

What a day....

[podagogue]

My classroom welcomes students and unicorns no matter their disABILITY.

[podagogue]

I just figured it out....

I can't do planners or notebooks and even phone reminders sometimes don't work...

But I have a giant chalkboard in my room and that's the only way I remember appointments. I wondered why.

Then it dawned on me.

It's like my classroom schedule. Which is one of the things I cannot afford to screw up. I've trained myself too well....

[podagogue]

Best Assistant Ever

Today I didn't bring coffee to work. Instead I just finished the dregs of yesterday's coffee that I didn't get to drink yesterday.

Today my assistant came in with a coffee for me saying, 'I know you're going to need another one around 11AM so I brought you a coffee this morning.'

Bless this woman's soul

[podagogue]

"I don't have to listen to you."

So I'm overlistening to this conversation a teacher is having about a defiant student. I'm going to preface this with the obvious fact that I have zero background with the kid or even the situation that brought up the comment. But this teacher's response of "Well actually you do. That's not how this works," really doesn't sit well with me.

But actually why does the student have to listen to you? What did you ask them to do? Why did you ask it? Did it need to be completely immediately or just that moment? Was it a complex ask? Have you given the student a reason to trust that your ask is not only going to be safe but that it would benefit the child in some way?

WHAT DID YOU DO TO EARN THE TRUST OF THE STUDENT TO LISTEN TO YOU?

We want to teach students to think critically... question authority. Except yours? You're exempt? You're infallible?

And even if they do need to listen to you--provide some reason as to why. Even if you're repeating yourself. Or maybe you need to remind the student to think of why. And try to start to design a plan to get there before the defiant behavior surfaces.

So yeah. I'm in a bad mood right now. And being anti social at a gathering of white women in suburbia who think that kids are terrible these days. They're wondering why they can't be like we were, perfect in every way.

</rant>

[podagogue]

How a Young Sierra Leonean Is Fighting Poverty with Bicycles

Two wheels can make all the difference, as philanthropist and bike enthusiast Abdul Karim Kamara knows.

This is a good friend of mine from Sierra Leone. Stylish is an amazing guy and if you can support any of his projects (links in the article) you totally should!

[smbc-comics]