CALM Conversations about Teaching & Learning

Thank you for leaning in and listening to this replay of episode 18 of CALM Conversations about Learning!  Season One's final episode will FINALLY  be here next week! 

The M in CALM is for Management and I will examine the meaning of the word within the context of teaching and learning. 

Classroom Management is an important part of teaching and learning. It is both practical in the sense that teachers have a responsibility to oversee the activities, behaviors, pacing, productivity and general flow of the environment. There are a lot of considerations to make when managing a classroom, ranging from ensuring students’ safety and well-being to determining student seating arrangement for optimal learning. 

But often, classroom management is approached from a point of control and consequences with no long-term goal for building healthy relationships with students and providing opportunities for students to practice self-management.

Which makes me wonder: What is the long game? 

Are we educating young people so that they will grow up to become adults who respond best to being managed because they have not had opportunities to practice managing themselves? 

Conversation Points: 

• Even though classroom management addresses concerns from student seating arrangement to student behavior, it requires teachers to try to “control the weather,” thus placing them in charge of managing all the energy in the classroom environment. 
• Classroom management does not inform college-readiness or LIFE-readiness if it doesn’t provide students with opportunities to practice self-management. 
• Classroom rules tend to be arbitrary, ambiguous and absolute.
• Classroom norms promote autonomy, accountability and audacity.
• Rules and norms must be distinguished; their meanings are the difference between punishment and consequences.
• Encouraging self-management represent the #relationshipgoals of the classroom.

• Visionary Homework: Explore these questions in a journal write: 
• What does “management” mean to you?
• Who are you managing currently? Who’s managing you? What does it feel like to manage or be managed? 
• What is the long game for managing your child or students’ learning?

The Proof:

1. The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers,Disciplinarians and Administrators by Bob Costello, Joshua Wachtel and Ted Wachtel

Please and Thank You: Follow! Subscribe! Rate! Review! 

Editing by Devonne Williams 

Music by Cipriana Bethea

Thank you for leaning in and listening to this REPLAY of CALM Conversations about Learning!

This episode is from me to you about the ULTIMATE in self-care: Checking in with yourself to assess your needs and getting those needs met, as well as locating your “nearest exit” no matter the situation...and speaking of which, I share about a  situation that I am not proud of. But checking in and locating my nearest exit made it all better!

**I appreciate your patience as I check in and locate my nearest exit in real time, during this time! But I will return next Thursday with part 2 of the Management Pillar. 

Conversation Points: 

• The power of performing a SELF Check-in
• Responding versus Reacting 
• What it means to locate your nearest exit 
• NOT “finding your happy place” 
• Why it’s called a “practice”

PLEASE and THANK YOU:

Follow! Subscribe! Rate! Review! 

Edited by Devonne Williams

Beats by Cipriana Bethea

The Proof:

1. The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers, Disciplinarians and Administrators by Bob Costello, Joshua Wachtel and Ted Wachtel

• Thank you for leaning in and  listening to this REPLAY of CALM Kid Convo w/Zeus Rivera, recent high school graduate and former student of mine! 
• Check out his videos at https://[email protected].
• I used to tell my students that learning was a two-way street; a day never passed in which I did not learn something from them: from a riddle that I couldn’t solve and so required an explanation, to interesting information they’d learned from another class; to exposure to an idea, movie, book or video game, to a challenging lesson on how to love and respect them more -and better. 
• This is why I want young people on this podcast: to show us Visionaries how to better love and respect them because let’s be honest: It is EASY to get caught up in our grown-upness, our degrees, and our do what I say, not as I do-ness!
• Sometimes, it can be instructive to stop giving directions and start asking questions. Here are three questions that we can ask ourselves after listening to this convo with Zeus:
  • In what ways am I leading my child or students, so that they are growing and learning?
  • In what ways am I supporting (as opposed to stifling) my students’ or child’s independence? 
  • In what ways do I show regard for my child’s or students’ dreams and aspirations? Have I even asked them about their dreams and aspirations? 
• Whether it’s in the classroom or in the kitchen, and whether they are eight or 18,  let our conversations with children remind us that our envisioning can only be as powerful as those for whom  we’re doing the envisioning!

Do the Podcast-Listener Thing: Follow. Subscribe. Rate. Review. 

Devonne Williams: Editing 

Cipriana Bethea: Beats

Thank you for leaning in and listening to episode 18 of CALM Conversations about Learning!

The M in CALM is for Management and I will examine the meaning of the word within the context of teaching and learning. 

Classroom Management is an important part of teaching and learning. It is both practical in the sense that teachers have a responsibility to oversee the activities, behaviors, pacing, productivity and general flow of the environment. There are a lot of considerations to make when managing a classroom, ranging from ensuring students’ safety and well-being to determining student seating arrangement for optimal learning. 

But often, classroom management is approached from a point of control and consequences with no long-term goal for building healthy relationships with students and providing opportunities for students to practice self-management.

Which makes me wonder: What is the long game? 

Are we educating young people so that they will grow up to become adults who respond best to being managed because they have not had opportunities to practice managing themselves? 

Conversation Points: 

• Even though classroom management addresses concerns from student seating arrangement to student behavior, it requires teachers to try to “control the weather,” thus placing them in charge of managing all the energy in the classroom environment. 
• Classroom management does not inform college-readiness or LIFE-readiness if it doesn’t provide students with opportunities to practice self-management. 
• Classroom rules tend to be arbitrary, ambiguous and absolute.
• Classroom norms promote autonomy, accountability and audacity.
• Rules and norms must be distinguished; their meanings are the difference between punishment and consequences.
• Encouraging self-management represent the #relationshipgoals of the classroom.

• Visionary Homework: Explore these questions in a journal write: 
• What does “management” mean to you?
• Who are you managing currently? Who’s managing you? What does it feel like to manage or be managed? 
• What is the long game for managing your child or students’ learning?

The Proof:

1. The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers,Disciplinarians and Administrators by Bob Costello, Joshua Wachtel and Ted Wachtel

Please and Thank You: Follow! Subscribe! Rate! Review! 

Editing by Devonne Williams 

Music by Cipriana Bethea

Thank you for bringing your ears right here for episode 17 of CALM Conversations about Learning where we lean in to re-envision our children’s education with and for the folks who matter most: teachers, parents and of course, our young people!

This episode is part 2 of a conversation series dedicated to teaching and learning while Black. 

This week, Dr. James Wright, Assistant Professor of Culturally Responsive Educational Leadership at San Diego State University, dad (who is in LOVE with his three sons), scholar and writer joins us. 

We met a couple of months ago at the cafe where I go to do my work and five minutes into the conversation, I invited him to be a guest on the podcast...and I didn’t even know then that he was a Culturally Responsive educator! 

What Ah-mazing luck!

In this conversation, we discuss teaching and learning while Black within the context of Culturally Responsive educating, the historical implications of segregated education, what makes for an effective educator and the opportunity gap.

I hope that you enjoy --and learn from --this conversation with Dr. James Wright!

Chunks & Nuggets Worth Summarizing: 

• Respect Epistemology. 
• We must remember and learn from the 100 years of segregated teaching and learning while Black.
• “There is something wrong with the platform” when determining what makes for a stellar or even effective educator.
• The Achievement Gap points the finger at the child; the Opportunity Gap places the responsibility where it belongs: on the institutions and individuals who are charged with educating the child.
• We need young Black people to attend college because we need doctors, lawyers, politicians and policymakers to effect change in our communities and in these United States.
• There is a difference between being an Ally and being an Interferer. A clear distinction must be made.   

Synthesizing and Internalizing:

• We cannot truly educate children whom we do not respect, love or seek to know. Our students arrive with their stories, their cultural norms...their WHOLE selves and it is not the place of teachers, administrators and institutions to “fix” them because they are not broken. 
• Tests, degrees and credentials are measurements of academic/pedagogical knowledge but they don’t make you an effective educator. “Learning” your students and your subject matter --and showing up to the classroom as a human being who is ever-evolving, and recognizing that good intentions are only as powerful as the impact of your actions, make for a decent start.  
• School reform is neither the cure nor the point when it comes to educating children of color. It comes down to the institutions and the individuals with the power and the policies that are harming our children and stunting their opportunities. 

References from the Conversation:

1. James Anderson, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; author of The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935.
2. Dr. Linda C Tillman, Professor Emerita of Educational Leadership, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
3. Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Educational Studies at Emory University
4. Dr. Martin Luther King
5. el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X) 
6. Quincy Troupe, Poet and former

Do the Podcast-Listener Thing: Follow. Subscribe. Rate. Review. 

Devonne Williams: Editing 

Cipriana Bethea: Beats

Thank you for bringing your ears right here for episode 16 of CALM Conversations about Learning where we lean in to re-envision our children’s education with and for the folks who matter most: teachers, parents and of course, our babies, big and small!

This episode kicks off a 2-part conversation series dedicated to teaching and learning while Black, wherein you’ll hear from two professors who have quite a bit to say on the subject. 

This week, Black Studies Professor Donna J. Watson (aka dj watson) joins us. I've known dj for over 20 years, first as  my professor then my mentor. I remember sitting in her classes then later working as her teaching assistant and just being in awe of how brilliant, funny and serious she was about her students becoming critical thinkers, which she referred to as “playing intellectual ball."  And for the first time ever in my school life, I thought, “I wanna be like that when I become a teacher.”    

Over the years, dj and I have written, performed, and published creative works together and we’ve even run a community writer’s workshop with other brilliant Black writers.

She is one of my most cherished friends and though we are now on opposite coasts, she continues to inspire me as an educator, intellectual and artist. 

In this conversation, we discuss teaching and learning while black within the context of nature, land, art, perfectionism and why Black Studies matters, which is timely as California just made Ethnic Studies mandatory for high school graduation. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a wild ride!

Anyway, I’ve learned so much from this wise woman and I trust that you’ll take away some nuggets to chew on from this conversation with Professor Donna J. Watson!

Chunks & Nuggets Worth Summarizing: 

• Trees, like humans, speak a language and possess the capacity for friendship and community.
• Making mistakes is a part of being human. Striving for perfection is a European construct.
• Growing and harvesting food for oneself= personal power and community power.
• Grownups need encouragement and positive feedback, too.
• Art is everywhere.
• Go to school but know what school is and know what it means to be educated.

Synthesizing and Internalizing:

• Nature helps teach us how to become better humans. Let's take the children outside as much as possible so that they learn to love-- not fear nature.
• Everyone, both children and adults must remember that to err is human. So, let’s begin with ourselves so that we can model self-compassion for the babies! 
• Pay attention to the constructs that are rooted in racism and fear. In school, children of color are often taught to go against their culture of collectivism to compete in unhealthy ways. The message becomes "be better than" instead of "be excellent." When we believe that there is enough for everybody, we believe that we are enough. And this is where the brilliance begins. 
• Let’s  grow some food then share some food. 
• Make art, find art and make space for our children to do the same so that they know that they are creators for life.
• Let’s decide to think critically and creatively about what it means to educate our children. 

Follow DJ Watson on Instagram @mudrunink and check out her exquisite paintings!

References from the Conversation:

1. Three- time Kentucky Derby winner: Isaac Burns Murphy (1861-1896)

Do the Podcast-Listener Thing: Follow. Subscribe. Rate. Review. 

Thank you, Visionaries, for leaning in and listening to Episode 15, a conversation with therapist Janel King.

This episode is a Replay to honor those who are struggling with mental illness and to remind all of us to do what we need to do to mind our minds in these stressful and unpredictable times. 

Janel is Co-Founder of Urban Restoration, located in San Diego and if you are ready to "get your healing started,"  you can seek out her services at https://urbanrestorationcounseling.org or follow her on the Instagram @janelkinglmft...and check out Urban Restoration's IG posts; they're like sunshine for the mind!

Do that Podcast-Listener Thing: Follow. Subscribe. Rate. Review.

Thank you for leaning in and listening to episode 14 of CALM Conversations about Learning!

This episode wraps up the Lesson pillar and discusses the magic that happens when we bridge intention and impact and shares some ways to approach effective lesson-planning. 

Conversation Points: 

• An effective lesson is driven by Intention and Impact. 
• Structure + Engagement = IMPACT
• Some basic journalistic questions for the Lesson include... 
  • WHO (Who is the Child--not just academically but personally and socially?)
  • WHAT (What skills or knowledge is being taught?)
  • WHY (Why does the Child need to learn the content of this lesson?)
  • HOW (How will the lesson be taught?)

• There are a few questions to ask when considering the WHY:
  • How will the learning goals or objectives in this lesson serve my child or students in their current and future educational endeavors?
  • In what ways will this lesson improve or challenge my child’s or student’s existing skills, knowledge and interests? 
  • How will my child or students use these skills or this knowledge in their personal, career or civic lives? 
• You won’t always get it right-- and that is okay. What matters is the child’s learning and your willingness to pivot and revise!

• If you practice being genuine, compassionate, respectful and interested in who children are, they’ll forgive you the occasional flat lesson. 

CALM-Keeper Ideas

• #1: Create a “Getting to Know You” Questionnaire and or have your child/ students write a Letter of Introduction. Then study what they’ve written, making note of what’s relevant for building healthy relationships and planning effective and even powerful lessons.
• #2: Use the WHY questions as a Checklist for the effectiveness of your lesson (even if you didn’t produce it yourself...especially if you didn’t produce it yourself!)
• #3: Use backward design when lesson-planning  and don’t just stop with the Learning Goals. Plan all the way back to the relationship and ask, “What do I know about the Child?”

Visionary Homework:
Create a questionnaire or letter of introduction prompt; try backward design with the child  in mind!  

If you’d like a sample of my “Getting to Know You” questionnaire or prompt for the letter of introduction, DM me on the INSTAGRAM @zenani116!

 Do the Podcast-Listener Thing: Follow. Subscribe. Rate. Review. 

The Proof:

1. Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students by Kathleen Cushman and the students of WHAT KIDS CAN DO, INC.

Editing by Devonne Williams 

Music by Cipriana Bethea

Thank you for bringing your beautiful ears right here for episode 13 of CALM Conversations about Learning where we lean in to re-envision our children’s education with and for the folks who matter most: teachers, parents and of course, our young folks!

This CALM Kid Convo is with 19-year old Tammy Williams, who is a college student and the budding business owner of Shay Melanin, a skincare product line for Black girls. Check her out at on the Instagram @Shay.melanin.

Tammy also happens to be the daughter of a mentally ill parent who spent much of her childhood displaced and because I share a similar history, this convo really touched my heart. I was also impressed by her academic accomplishments and determination to thrive, to do more than struggle and strive as she embarks upon adulthood. No doubt, her childhood experiences have helped to shape her aspirations. Children who live with trauma have had to build their own survival toolkits, for sure. But they shouldn't have to. They should get the opportunity to be children. And this doesn't occur nearly enough for Black children.

So, as I interviewed Tammy, I thought about the need to create a collective Visionary bandwidth for our children who are navigating life with untreated mentally ill (and addicted) parents. We shouldn’t be expected to help all the babies on our own. That leads to burnout. 

But to connect our individual bandwidths? This is doable and responsible.

So, here are some Nuggets for us Village Visionaries to chew on: 

• The trauma and confusion of being uprooted time and time again when a parent has a mental illness that goes untreated.
• The irrational expectation for a child to be “strong” as opposed to adults surrounding that child in love and light as she builds healthy resilience.
• The trauma that institutions like law enforcement compound black children’s lives with when they murder us in the street and our children are left to process it with little or questionable guidance.
• The importance of our black and brown children being exposed to the world so that they know that their interests do not belong to white folks; that there is no such thing as white folks’ activities. Our children belong wherever they want to be. 
• Tammy’s vision for educators: Pay attention and don't ignore signs of neglect.

It all comes back to Compassion- for ourselves and our babies; it’s the cure. 

• Let’s start thinking about how we can create a collective Visionary bandwidth so that the children of mentally ill parents don’t have to get to that "breaking point"-- and we don’t burn out. 

NOTE: Unfortunately, the audio is wonky-family life is happening in the background- but I hope that you’ll find that Tammy’s story is worth it.

DM me on the INSTAGRAM @zenani116 if you have any Visionary ideas that you’d like  me to share on the podcast. I would love to hear from you!

CTA: Do the Podcast-Listener Thing: Follow. Subscribe. Rate. Review. 

Thank you for leaning in and listening to episode 12 of CALM Conversations about Learning!

This episode continues this month’s Pillar Talk about lessons. Lesson-planning and delivery are important parts of teaching and learning but can only be effective if the lesson begins with intention and ends with impact.   

We begin with intention in this episode, where I share about a student who refused to learn from me and what I learned about teaching, as a result. 

Conversation Points: 

• Part of teaching lessons involves learning lessons.

• The standard definition of  the word “lesson" is the material that's taught and learned; the content or skill or the how-to of something. 

• Lesson is the action of the curriculum; it is meant to move the learning process.

• A learning standard is simply a structure and through structure comes freedom.

• We teach students not standards.

• The STANDARD QUESTION: What do I want my child/students to know, do or learn?

• The SALIENT QUESTION: What kind of learning experience do I want my child/students to have? ...*And what kind of teaching experience do I want to have?

• No lesson will be effective without considering engagement, environment and most importantly, the relationship. 

Visionary Homework:

Journal about the learning experience that you’d like your child or students to have --and the teaching experience that you’d like to have when engaging with the lessons that you deliver. Consider relationship, engagement and environment. Take note of any frustration you feel currently and how you’d like to feel instead.

DM me on the INSTAGRAM @zenani116 if you have any questions or would like to share your experience; I would love to hear from you!

CTA: Do the Podcast-Listener Thing: Follow. Subscribe. Rate. Review. 

The Proof:

1. The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers,Disciplinarians and Administrators by Bob Costello, Joshua Wachtel and Ted Wachtel