The Blog
Young people are leaders of the future. They will be running this country, our institutions, and our lives, and yet, here they are fighting for their lives and ours. I’m speaking about both the earth/climate change issues, but also gun control, racism, and other matters. Young people have...
I recently read Kiese Laymon’s book Heavy. I can’t stop talking about it. It was powerful, raw, beautiful, impactful, and heavy. (Pun intended!) One of the moments he narrates is about an incident that happened to him as a college professor. He was the only Black male professor...
Too often teachers aren’t readers. Too often we want our students to read and to be intrinsically motivated to learn… but we aren’t doing it ourselves. If that’s you, then I invite you to consider changing that this summer. Deciding on what to read can be quite...
I work toward welcoming marginalized voices into my classroom while moving my students toward a stance grounded in love and freedom. As a student, I never encountered a curriculum that did that. When I first became an educator, I struggled to find examples of curricula or lessons that effectively...
Lorena German and fellow educator, Jazmen Moore, presented at the International Literacy Association’s (ILA) conference in Austin, TX this past weekend (July 2018). They were there on behalf of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Their session:...
Dear parents,
Who better to teach your children about race than you? Yet, to best educate your children means you have to be committed to educating yourself. The resources are plentiful and we would be wise to utilize them because our children are learning about race whether we teach them or not....
The Intersection of Rhetorics and Justice: An IB unit of study
When teaching about historically marginalized and oppressed communities, that’s usually what students understand: we are in pain, in sorrow, and are oppressed. While there is accuracy to that due to systemic oppression, we often...
Children love books and storytelling. As parents, it’s a go-to activity. In my home, my almost-3-year-old reads on her own even though she doesn’t know how to read. She loves looking at the pictures and will read for 30 minutes all by herself! I love watching her eyes scan the page,...
You can’t teach the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and not discuss the n-word. Ignoring it is irresponsible. So, how does a teacher engage her class in a discussion around this very controversial and complicated word?
NOTE: My current teaching context is a small...
