While moving to an online format, I struggled with how to maintain the integrity of using multiple-choice as a tool for student learning versus making it into an exam.  During the conversion, I realized that having a teaching style that focuses on "cheaters" and how to catch them is not conducive to closing equity gaps.  Towards the end, I talk in detail about what I did to make sure that I am using my multiple-choice questions the way I had originally intended.

It has taken me 4 episodes and COVID 19 to realize what is bothering me so much about the sarcastic and demeaning remarks that many of my colleagues made in a teaching group chat that I am part of.  I realize now, that some of my colleagues believe that their class is more important than the global pandemic that is happening right now. If this is the case, then this is a HUGE part of why we cannot close equity gaps.  Listen as I continue to talk with Susie and Melissa, two intelligent, motivated and engaged students, as they tell us their perspective about the faculty comments in my group chat.

Some things were easier than I thought, while other things were harder than I imagined when I started teaching again after a two-week break.  Switching to distance education has made me rethink everything that I do with my teaching, from how to do multiple choice questions to office hours.  Everything is different and yet the fundamentals of an equity approach are always the same: empower ourselves to create a better way, do everything with passion and purpose, focus on how to build and maintain relationships and create community with our students.

Many of us are being driven to find/create content for the distance education format and I want to encourage us to allow our passions to drive our content.  My passion for hip hop lead me to develop into a spoken word poet, but more importantly, it helped me construct a curriculum that empowers historically marginalized students by helping them center their beliefs, culture, and perspectives in an academic environment.
Quick points:
- Pursuing your passions as an instructor allows the content to be meaningful to you
- Use your classroom to help students pursue their own passions and this will close equity gaps
- I use spoken word poetry to help students connect with the emotions of a social issue
Poetry Resources
Ant Black - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZrQbv9RO3o
Rudy Francisco - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR1_2lFXJI4 Yes, that is                                               me obnoxiously laughing in the background! He was the                                                       featured poet at an open mic here at MiraCosta College.  This                                               was before he got famous.
                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3F0FfNiFss - This is his                                                performance on Jimmy Fallon
SocioPoetix - http://www.spitjournal.com/sociopoetix/
Def Jam Poetry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4cMD2lnHWU&list=PLnkh7-oYHNf-uU6Fz12dF3M5NTy8QgWmH
Button Poetry - https://www.youtube.com/user/ButtonPoetry
You can find my poems/music at https://brucehoskins.com/

Some quick tips on how to look better in a video:
1) Clean the area you will be recording in
2) Look through the camera to see what is behind you
3) Purposefully choose a camera angle: up, down or straightforward
4) Look at the camera by using a picture or posting your outline over the camera
5) Create a brief outline so it does not look like you are reading

Some quick pointers on how to sound better in a podcast format:
1) Short podcasts do not need an intro/outro, but longer ones should
2) Throw a blanket over your head if you cannot record in a sound booth
3) If you need a mic, Blue Yeti's are "plug and play", easy to use and have a TON of YouTube videos that will show you how to use them
4) Use a pop-guard and/or turn the mic sideways to avoid harsh "p" sounds
5) NEXT-LEVEL: use Auphonic to equalize your sound levels and eliminate background noise: https://auphonic.com/
6) Create a detailed outline

As COVID 19 is essentially forcing many professors to shift to a distance-learning modality, an age-old question arises, what format would be more useful to me as a professor: Podcasts or Videos?  However, the real question is not which format is better, but rather, which format will help me accomplish my teaching goals more successfully?  I speak about both options from personal experience and a LOT of trial and error.

Amidst the current COVID 19 pandemic, schools are switching to a distance learning modality across the entire world.  If your personal health and/or safety is not at risk, I believe that this is an opportunity for professors to seriously rethink our teaching strategies as they relate to student success and equity-related practices.  This will give us an opportunity to wrestle with the "minimum" level of instruction that students need to be successful in class, to rethink attendance/grading policies and remember what it is like to be a student again.

I was blessed to have Melissa and Susy, two student advocates, and we continue to talk about emailing professors and how traumatic that can be for students when professors do not respond kindly or with respect.  Both students share heartfelt stories about how they continue to struggle with email etiquette and how it has negatively affected their lives.  This one went way longer than I thought it would, so I am splitting this into two episodes.

This is part two of me talking about an email that a professor posted in a sociology group chat that I belong to.  The student asked, "Will I miss anything important?"  I reflect on why this question seems so offensive to professors, what my own response would be, and analyze how other professors responded.  I then demonstrate how the content and tone of our correspondence to students can negatively affect underrepresented minorities.