beyond the curriculum

"We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color."

- Maya Angelou

Jan Wilson is a Wellspring Associate Professor of Gender Studies and History at the University of Tulsa. She is the author of the book Becoming Disabled:  Forging a Disability View of the World and the articles “‘Who Has a Better Story Than Bran the Broken?’ Game of Thrones and the Power of Disability Narratives” and “Reimagining Disability and Inclusive Education Through Universal Design for Learning.” She is the recipient of The University of Tulsa Outstanding Teaching Award, 2013

In this episode, Jan will share how schools are innately ableist and how UDL can break down those barriers to create more inclusive spaces in education.

This is the final episode in our series on inclusion. Throughout this season, we have learned about how creating more inclusive environments provides spaces where all learners can thrive.

We have learned from teachers and advocates who have helped us gain a perspective on what inclusion means and how educators can be intentional as they create more inclusive environments.

We have discussed common barriers that prevent inclusion, some ways inclusion is done well, and how general education teachers can partner with both special education teachers and community members to take our learners… beyond the curriculum.

“When everyone is included, everyone wins.” 

— Jesse Jackson 

Karen Krejcha is the founder of Autism Empowerment--a nonprofit organization that advocates for the autistic community, host of the Autism Empowerment Podcast, and the editor and columnist of Spectrum Life Magazine. Besides this, she is the mother of two boys on the autism spectrum and an autist herself.

Karen’s vision of inclusion goes beyond the four walls of the school building. She sees inclusion through the lens of community and uses her position to create more inclusive environments in the neighborhoods surrounding the school.

In this season we are looking at inclusion and how creating more inclusive environments provides spaces where all learners can thrive.

We will be learning from teachers and advocates who will help us gain perspective on what inclusion means and how educators can be intentional as they create more inclusive environments.

We’ll find out about common barriers that prevent inclusion, some ways inclusion is done well, and how general education teachers can partner with both special education teachers and community members to take our learners… beyond the curriculum.

Amy Campbell is the 2020 Washington State Teacher of the Year and a special ed teacher at Helen Baller Elementary in Camas, WA.

As Washington State Teacher of the Year, Amy uses her title to promote more inclusion. She believes that schools are microcosms of our world and by promoting more inclusion in schools we build a more inclusive community. Each one of us has a gift to offer and creating spaces where all members of the community are embraced and included helps our community grow.

In this season we are looking at inclusion and how creating more inclusive environments provides spaces where all learners can thrive.

We will be learning from teachers and advocates who will help us gain perspective on what inclusion means and how educators can be intentional as they create more inclusive environments.

We’ll find out about common barriers that prevent inclusion, some ways inclusion is done well, and how general education teachers can partner with both special education teachers and community members to take our learners… beyond the curriculum.

In November 2018, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg posted a tweet in which she questions the traditional use of the word “inclusion” by explaining how she views it as a minimum and challenges us to go further.

She says:

It’s not about inclusion or even celebration. It’s about expansion.

Our culture is better when disabled folks expand its ideas about embodiment.

"Our culture is better when centering POC shifts its paradigms.

Our culture is better when nonbinary & trans ppl uproot its gendered BS.

Inclusion = you’re allowed to be here.

Celebration = your being here is great!!

Expansion = we will grow and change because of what you offer.

She goes on to say she is “grateful for all the visionaries pushing for a more expansive and radical way of being in the world today.”

Welcome to Season 3 of Beyond the Curriculum.

During this series, we will hear from visionaries who will share their ideas about “inclusion” and the way they push for a more expansive and radical way of being in the world today. We will be looking at inclusion and how creating more inclusive environments provides spaces where all learners can thrive.

We will hear from teachers and advocates who will help us gain perspective on what inclusion means and how educators can be intentional as they create more inclusive environments.

We’ll find out about common barriers that prevent inclusion, some ways inclusion is done well, and how general education teachers can partner with both special education teachers and community members to take our students, schools, and communities… 

beyond the curriculum.

Gary Chu is a high school mathematics teacher in a racially and culturally diverse suburb outside of Chicago. He is passionate about disrupting inequities. You can follow him on Twitter at @mrgarychu. Gary contributed a chapter to the book Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learn (and What to Do Instead) titled “The Pointless Classroom: A Math Teacher’s Ironic Choice Not in Not Calculating Grades”.

Throughout this series, I will be interviewing the contributors to this book to help gain a better understanding of what Ungrading is and how it can be applied.

In this episode, Gary will discuss how he engages his students in deeper learning, promotes relationships, and provides students feedback that helps students gain a better understanding of the ways mathematics can be used beyond the four walls of the school.

This the sixth episode and final episode of this series where you will hear from the chapter authors themselves who will help us dive deeper into their ideas about assessment and its impact on teaching and learning allowing us to go beyond the curriculum.

Clarissa Sorenesn-Unruh teaches chemistry and statistics full-time at Central New Mexico Community College. She is a Ph.D. student in learning sciences, a Councilor for the Division of Chemical Education in the American Chemical Society, and a panelist for a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine symposium. Clarissa contributed a chapter to the book Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learn (and What to Do Instead) titled “A STEM Ungrading Case Study: A Reflection on First-Time implementation in Organic Chemistry II.”

In this episode, Clarissa will discuss her first experience with ungrading and pushing her students’ metacognition not only made an impact on her students but also herself as a teacher.

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

— Bill Gates

Christopher Riesbeck is an associate professor of computer science at Northwestern University and co-director of the Center for Computer Science and Learning Sciences. He has been doing critique-driven learning since 1997. Dr. Riesbeck is now working on computer-assisted coaching to help struggling students create artifacts worth critiquing. Christopher contributed a chapter to the book Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learn (and What to Do Instead) titled “Critique Driven Learning and Assessment” which centers around learning as doing.

In this episode, Dr. Riesbeck will discuss how grades seemed to get in the way of what he was trying to do with his programming students and why ongoing critiques help move his students in a direction towards mastering the concepts needed to be a skilled programmer.

“Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.”

— Edmund Burke

Dr. Katopodis is the Executive Director of Transformative Learning in the Humanities, a three-year initiative at City University of New York supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and recently received her doctorate in English at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and an adjunct instructor at New Jersey City University. She is a scholar of environmental studies, sound studies, and American literature. She has written articles published or forthcoming in ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, and Profession.

Cathy Davison is the founder of The Futures Initiative, a Distinguished Professor of English and MA in Digital Humanities, and MS in Data Analysis and Visualization. DeVarney Prof Emerita of Interdisciplinary Studies, Duke University, CoFounder and CoDirector, HASTAC.org and CoDirector of Transformative Learning in the Humanities

In this episode, Christina and Cathy will discuss contract grading and how peer editing both honors and challenges students in their own learning.

This the third episode of a six-part series where you will hear from the chapter authors themselves who will help us dive deeper into their ideas about assessment and its impact on teaching and learning allowing us to go beyond the curriculum.