I’m excited to announce that I will be presenting at NCTE’s upcoming annual convention on November 19-22 in Philadelphia. I will share details about when and where you can find my presentations once I have them. Session 1: GSEA’s Roundtable: Innovate & Illuminate: Expanding Queer and Trans Possibilities in English Education My part of the…
I have to admit to a love/hate relationship with Robert Frost’s poetry stemming from the fact that I wrote a research paper on symbolism in his poetry as a senior in high school. That kind of thing will put anyone off, and it didn’t help that I had what I’d consider now to be an…
About a month ago, I shared my conviction that it’s important to teach contemporary authors in the classroom and wrote a series of blog posts about the resources I use to teach Yaa Gyasi’s novel Homegoing. My next series will focus on how I approach teaching Tommy Orange’s novel There There. Stay tuned for these upcoming…
It seems strange to me that we’re talking about returning to school, but some of my friends in far-flung places are already back. 😳 I’ve seen a few tweets about ideas for starting the school year, and I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing the last couple of years to kick off the school…
I’m not sure how many folks know this, but I’m currently entering the dissertation phase in my doctoral program at Northeastern. in fact, I’m hoping to defend my dissertation proposal before the month’s end. One reason this blog has been quiet for so long (until recently) is that I just haven’t made time to write…
When my colleagues and I started our 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge ©, we watched this poem by Norma Johnson”””A Poem for my White Friends: I Didn’t Tell You.” I wanted to return to it to see how it struck me after three weeks of reflection and learning. The thing I hear most in…
Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop coined the term “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors” as a metaphor for what media representation means. In case you haven’t encountered the metaphor, watch this quick video in which Dr. Sims Bishop explains the metaphor. The reason why representation is important is captured so well in this infographic created by…
On this 4th of July, Independence Day in the United States, I wanted to share a few thoughts. First, Langston Hughes’s response to Walt Whitman. I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow,…
I want to elevate a really good thread by Dr. Chanequa on Twitter today. You will want to click through and read it all. It’s good. https://twitter.com/drchanequa/status/1278775116059598848 I have seen a lot of pushback against White Fragility on Twitter quite a bit recently. I read the book some time back and found it helpful. At…
One really interesting activity I did in my Curriculum Theory course last year was to analyze a curriculum artifact. My department doesn’t use textbooks, but I really wanted to analyze a textbook after reading Michael Apple’s 1985 article “The Culture and Commerce of the Textbook.” I highly recommend this article, by the way. I found…
