Potential Tomorrows

Posts about navigating ~The Teacher Life~ in Chicago: the struggles, the mundane everyday, and the joys. Ohhhh, the joys. Also... I'm an #eighthyearteacher

[aseaofquotes]

Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods

[npr]

NPR/Ipsos conducted a national poll recently and found that more than 8 in 10 teachers — and a similar majority of parents — support teaching kids about climate change.

But in reality, it’s not always happening: Fewer than half of K-12 teachers told us that they talk about climate change with their children or students. Again, parents were about the same.

The top reason that teachers gave in our poll for not covering climate change? “It’s not related to the subjects I teach,” 65% said.

Yet at the same time, we also heard from teachers and education organizations who are introducing the topic in subjects from social studies to math to English language arts, and at every grade level, from preschool on up.

We heard from teachers who say they are searching for more ideas and resources to take on the topic of climate change. Here are some thoughts about how to broach the subject with students, no matter what subject you teach.

8 Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom

Illustration: Angela Hsieh/NPR

[sometimestuesday-deactivated202]

It’s so weird how sometimes when I read a poem it just feels like a bunch of words and sometimes when I read a poem it feels like someone ripping my heart out of my body and throwing it at my face at 90 mph

[biprep-deactivated20190915]

i guess what ppl dont tell u about college is that is a very lonesome period of ur life. and that doesnt mean like u wont have lots of friends or u wont party or whatever but ur going to spend so much time alone. like cooking by yourself and studying n homework and driving and going to classes like……… its just you sometimes. and the trick is to use that time by yourself to relax and understand YOU better and iron out your own wants n wishes instead of wallowing

[potentialtomorrows]

Omg I’m totally going to use this with my seniors this Spring. 

[pdlcomics]

Too Much

[discourse-of-reason]

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald (via perrfectly)

[kny111]

“Indeed, this bipartisan education-and-poverty consensus has guided research and political efforts for decades. Broadly speaking, the idea is that if more kids graduate from high school, and achieve higher scores on standardized tests, then more young people are likely to go to college, and, in turn, land jobs that can secure them spots in the middle class. Rothstein’s new work complicates this narrative. Using data from several national surveys, Rothstein sought to scrutinize Chetty’s team’s work—looking to further test their hypothesis that the quality of a child’s education has a significant impact on her ability to advance out of the social class into which she was born. Rothstein, however, found little evidence to support that premise. Instead, he found that differences in local labor markets—for example, how similar industries can vary across different communities—and marriage patterns, such as higher concentrations of single-parent households, seemed to make much more of a difference than school quality. He concludes that factors like higher minimum wages, the presence and strength of labor unions, and clear career pathways within local industries are likely to play more important roles in facilitating a poor child’s ability to rise up the economic ladder when they reach adulthood. For Rothstein, there’s no reason to assume that improving schools will be necessary or sufficient for improving someone’s economic prospects. “We can’t educate people out of this problem,” he says. His work, like Chetty’s, is not causal—meaning Rothstein is not able to identify exactly what explains the underlying variation in his economic model. Nevertheless, his work helps to provide researchers and policymakers with a new set of background facts to investigate, and signals that perhaps they should be reconsidering some of their existing ideas.”

— Education Isn’t the Key to a Good Income

[christinamused]

Water is wet.

[windycityteacher-deactivated202]

Kind of infuriating how the Chicago Teacher’s Union wants to trade on “Chicago’s violence” when it suits them to slam Rahm Emanuel.

All they’re doing is feeding into a narrative Chicago teachers, especially those who teach black and brown students, fight like hell to disprove and/or give context for. So yes, he’s dancing and probably pandering for a vote, but just putting weekend shooting numbers over the video does nothing but play right into the racist’s and elitist’s hands!

This has nothing to do with his education policies, many of which are misinformed at best and inequitable at worst. Like how he hand-selects CPS’ school board.

CTU wants to support the BLM movement? Phenomenal, but incorporate how communities are working to improve its neighborhood’s conditions and intra-community violence. This same ol’ song of Rahm’s the Devil is worn out, and it shows in the latest news stories about the next mayoral election; the writing’s on the wall. The CTU needs a better, less petty tune moving forward.

[mcmansionhell]

Betsy DeVos’s summer home deserves a special place in McMansion Hell

Kate Wagner dissects the shingle-style Michigan summer home of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

In order to earn money to pay off my $42,000 student loan debt, I tore into Betsy DeVos’ ridiculously bad house for Vox. 

[gameswithfisch]

Target gets it.

[niggazinmoscow]

it’s a big win

[black-to-the-bones-deactivated2]

Black girls deserve to learn free from bias and stereotypes.

Most black girls experience this hatred at schools. And classmates are not the only problem, there is no support from teachers, too. That’s why they get so affected by their school experiences. Black kids deserve to be treated just like everybody else, they want to study, they want to learn something ,too. However due to prejudice they are 5 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers and it can ruin their lives forever.  National Women’s Law Center created this video to change the situation. Join the movement to help black girls feel normal and get the same opportunities everybody else has.

Source

[for-marginalized-bw-only-deacti]

Finally something focusing on black girls!

[teded]

[teded]

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The idea of human rights is that each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are born, is entitled to the same basic rights and freedoms. They are not privileges and they cannot be granted or revoked. They are inalienable and universal.

This year, Human Rights Day calls on everyone to stand up for someone’s rights! Many of us are fearful about the way the world is heading. Disrespect for basic human rights continues to be wide-spread in all parts of the globe. Extremist movements subject people to horrific violence. Messages of intolerance and hatred prey on our fears. Humane values are under attack.

We must reaffirm our common humanity. Wherever we are, we can make a real difference. In the street, in school, at work, in public transport; in the voting booth, on social media.

The time for this is now. “We the peoples” can take a stand for rights. And together, we can take a stand for more humanity.

It starts with each of us. Step forward and defend the rights of a refugee or migrant, a person with disabilities, an LGBTQ person, a woman, a child, indigenous peoples, a minority group, or anyone else at risk of discrimination or violence.

Benedetta Berti explores the subtleties of human rights in What are the universal human rights?

Animation by Sarah Saidan

[repmarktakano]

When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell writes a deeply dishonest op-ed about the Senate GOP tax plan, there’s only one appropriate response: The red pen.

[mrawesomepants]

Mark Takano as honorary educhum?

[dudeinthestacks]

Once a teacher, always a teacher. 

[hisnamewasbeanni]

Mark Takano can be a for-real-educhum any time he wants, no need to mess around with this honorary stuff.

[girlwithalessonplan]

Dear @repmarktakano, you’re one of us, dude. #educhums 

[theshyreader]

DON’T SCROLL PASS! FOUND THIS ON GOOGLE+ AND I FEEL LIKE IT IS IMPORTANT!

Edit: This post almost has 500 notes! The more people who sees this, the more help the Internet receives!

[ithelpstodream]

[calendarofimperialism]

4th December 1969: Fred Hampton killed by Chicago police working with COINTELPRO

Fred Hampton was chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and deputy chairman of the national BPP. His talent as a political organiser was described as remarkable, and in 1968 he was on the verge of creating a merger between the BPP and a southside street gang with thousands of members, which would have doubled the size of the national BPP adn increased the BPP’s influence in white and latino communities. The US government viewed this as a huge threat and ordered an intense FBI crackdown to destroy the BPP “by any means neccessary.”

The FBI organised a raid on Hampton’s apartment in Chicago. FBI informant William O'Neal provided Chicago Police with documents showing the layout of the apartment, as well as slipping a sleeping agent into Hampton’s drink that night so that he wouldn’t awaken during the raid. Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence at 1:45 a.m. while talking to his mother.

At 4:00 a.m, heavily armed Chicago Police arrived at Hampton’s apartment and split into two teams, 8 for the front door and 6 for the back. At 4:45 a.m. they stormed the apartment, shooting Mark Clark (on security duty) in the chest and killing him instantly. The officers moved through the apartments, firing automatic weapons into the bedroom where Fred Hampton and his 9 months pregnant fiancee Deborah Johnson were sleeping. The officers then entered the room, shot Hampton twice in the head at point-blank range, dragged his body into the doorway and shot the remaining panthers.

The seven panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and various other weapons charges, however these charges were later dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots; however, a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between ninety and ninety-nine shots while the Panthers had only shot once (a reflexive reaction after Mark Clark had been shot in the chest).

Chicago Police consistently refused any wrongdoing on their part and lied, saying they were attacked by the panthers and that the raid was, in fact, an act of self-defense. Hampton’s funeral was attended by 5,000 people, and he was eulogized by black leaders, such as Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy.