This has been hard. Gerardo is at his breaking point. Hard week, and Kevin noticed that it's starting to boil over a little. He's a lil snippy in department meets, scowls in front of his camera during staff meetings and is running his mouth without thinking first. Kevin is concerned. We have a little therapy session, the fellas blow off some steam, discuss all kinds of stress-inducing events from an attempted takeover of Congress to return to school which is just days away for us.

We close out by commemorating Dr. King and his lessons for us today.

Mind the volume on this episode, it's a loud one.

We hope 2021 welcomes you with optimism, resolve and human connection!

By the time you're hearing this, you might have tasks to assess and grade. Don't grade anything until you've listened to this!

Gerardo sat down with Natalie Vardabasso of the #Educrush podcast a while back to discuss an important challenge faced by all teachers: feedback, grading, and antiracism. In it, we explore the intersections of those important aspects of effective classroom practice as we prepare for a new semester. Natalie's work and this episode are essential for teachers who hope to remix their grading and feedback practices for student success and empowerment. Natalie shares her insights on feedback, grading, and growth rooted in relationships.

This episode is a crucial listen if you are a teacher who is weary of the grading rat-race. Enjoy!

What better way to kick off the most uncertain semester in the history of public education than with educator, author, revolutionary, superhero and trickster Cornelius Minor? He sits with us for a fun, energetic, optimistic and wide-spanning conversation that covers such eclectic topics as race in education, a pedagogy centered in Black and African spirituality, community and intellectualism, basketball, comic books, movies, and the Dr. Xavier of BIPOC educator-superhero-tricksters. We laugh, we become serious, and he has a special offer for the first 5 TooDope Patrons to join us this month!

Also, fun fact: this is our 80th regular episode but our 100th overall episode (including mixtapes and emergency episodes)! Thank you for helping make this possible!

We've really tried to avoid thinking about work these last couple of weeks. However, we agree that in these few days before we see students, some planning is in order.

Lauren Piraro is a brilliant early-service teacher in the Bay Area. She teaches high school history, and like so many of us, is dedicated to doing the best she can for ALL students, especially her students from communities of color and LGBTQ communities.

We found her on instagram under the handle @TeachtoBlossom, where she shares a wide range of professional experiences. From her exemplary planning and leveraging of digital platforms to her own work as a graduate student in History, her field of passion, Lauren works hard to connect to others and build community.

Planning is at the center of equitable praxis. The more energy we dedicate to planning and responsiveness, the more we reach all students, especially students from traditionally oppressed and marginalized communities. Her Instagram account reflects these realities in a powerful way.

In addition to, and more importantly, Lauren makes her content relevant and accessible to students. Her students complete a local history project, even in her Advanced Placement History class. We mention the AP class because she has taught us and so many others that there is ALWAYS a call to make content and skills applicable to students' lived experiences, and curricular demands, especially high-stakes assessments must NEVER throw us off that focus.

Gerardo has a fun conversation with Lauren. Follow her at @TeachtoBlossom on Instagram where, in the interest of community and collective learning, she unselfishly shares her wisdom and resources.

This past summer, Kevin and I had the privilege, the blessing, the amazing opportunity to be a part of the National Education Association’s Justice Summer Camp. Our partnership with NEA on the issue of educational justice has been a thrilling two-year experience, and we must thank the amazing Shilpa and Stephanie for coordinating for us and connecting us to dope educators, thinkers, and artists who are out here doing this work.

When we learned that we had been selected to interview Dr. Bettina Love, author of We Want to do More than Just Survive and Hip Hop’s Lil Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities, we about lost our minds. Her revolutionary work around Abolitionist Pedagogy has represented a tipping point for us in the last year, especially with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her work has guided us in this turbulent school year.

When Dr. Love addressed the topic of schools’ role in the spirit murder of Black children, Kevin responded with a call for us as teachers to be spirit HEALERS, eliciting a cheer from Dr. Love. That has remained our call as we have navigated this year, and we are so grateful to Dr. Love for her work and spiritual guidance. ALSO we are so grateful for her top five!

We have arrived at the most anticipated winter break in the history of public education! We have a lot on our minds, and a lot to decompress; thankfully, we have our nation of toodope therapists to listen and not judge us! In this episode, the final episode of 2020, we discuss lessons we have learned, both school-related and otherwise, during this year, we discuss the importance of healing, and make some resolutions for the new school year. In fact, this year has taken such a toll that Kevin even tries to convince Gerardo to freestyle and, well, you're just gonna have to listen to the show to hear what happened.

We love you all, and are so appreciative of your support this year. We have made major strides in this of all years because of you!

Gerardo flies solo this week, as Kevin attends to family business, as Emily Santiago of the Center for Cognitive Diversity breaks down the urgency of trauma informed practice and antiracism in schools. After beginning her career as a Montessori teacher, Emily discovered that providing true social/emotional support was her true calling. As the executive director of the Center, she and her team have provided important programming for whole school communities, including adult staff, who also deserve the lens of trauma informed praxis. This episode is a must-listen in these anxious and stress-inducing times.

December is nearing the halfway point, and we get together to talk about our continuing (unending?) COVID-19 experience. Despite all that has changed in school and system accountability practice, teachers in many states will still be evaluated this semester, and this year.

Evaluations are a loaded and emotional experience for all teachers, but the biases and assumptions that BIPOC teachers, especially Black teachers, have even more dire consequences. We sit down and discuss a number of studies regarding the evaluations and teachers of color, and call upon administrators, coaches, and other teacher evaluators to recognize the fraught situation that is the yearly appraisal.

It comes down to the lyrics of DMX's "Who We Be," because for many teachers of color, their leaders don't know...who we be. Take heed: this disruptive episode will ask you to re-think how you coach your teachers in general, but especially your teachers of color.

A special thank you to our Hella Dope Patrons, Jackie Parkins, Bram Hubbell, Ryan Sullivan, Matt Busch, Asia Lyons, Natalie Shaffer, and Jill Boyd Meyers, as well as Kelsey Gray, whose donations alone make each episode possible. Thank you.

This week we revisit our memorable session with the incredible and real Boots Riley, who breaks down artistic expression, social justice, community organizing, hip hop, and education from the 2019 Revolutionary Summer Mixtape!

The most anticipated break in the history of public education is finally upon us. In the most chaotic moment that either of can remember, with a future that is hazy at best, Kevin and Gerardo take some needed "us" time for their relationship. No guest this week means that we chop it up like we used to. We discuss what teaching, learning, and evaluation should look like in this moment, share an less toxic approach to our work as teachers, and conversate about the news of the day, especially the sudden resignation of Superintendent Susana Cordova days ago. We close off by expressing what great and terrible building leadership has looked like during our long and storied careers before demanding that our BIPOC people bum-rush the NCTE call for proposals.

Please follow us @TooDopeTeachers on IG and Twitter, like us on Facebook, and email us [email protected]. See our Twitter and Facebook profiles to support this important work.