Thoughts from 2021 Bootcamp

A few main points and takeaways for me:

• The last year and a half has been really tough in many ways - worldwide pandemic, political unease, racial unrest. All of these have affected our teachers and students.
• Land acknowledgments make some people uncomfortable. I found that very interesting.
• Culturally and Linguistically Responsive and Sustaining Pedagogies - this is important for ALL students.
• Dr. Gholdy Muhammad's framework, called "Historically Responsive Literacy", fits well with social studies teaching and learning. The framework outlines five "pursuits" based off of research she did on Black Literary Societies of the 19th and early 20th centuries. These pursuits are identity development, skill development, intellectual development, criticality, and joy. Using these five lenses leads to a learning experience that is powerful and engaging for all students.
• Who has cultivated your own genius? This was a great experience for me. I sat in on a webinar with Dr. Muhammad and she made a collage of who supported her, who helped build her own genius as a person and as an educator. I did the same thing, and it really was a joyous experience. I encourage you to think about it, or even make a collage. Who cultivated your genius? Who supported/supports your important work as an educator? Who encourages you to keep learning? Who have you learned from that truly speaks in your soul as you are making decisions as an educator?
• And most of all - this is difficult work we are looking at, but it is vitally important work.

Things coming out of Bootcamp for the 2021-22 school year:

• Webinar/one-hour workshop on choosing resources with the Muhammad framework
• And times to come chat/brainstorm with me. This actually worked out very well over the summer, and it was GREAT to be able to touch base with those who signed up! I need to work out some kinks, but there will be times scheduled where we can have a 30-60 minute conversation about whatever you need.
• Book club – haven’t decided the books yet, but there are some people who really like these and find them valuable!
• “Alike” groups -whatever these are called. Statewide or possibly small regional access to open discussions between districts. This could be teacher level (content or grade), and admin/leadership level (K-12 social studies curriculum/assessment).
• Identifying/explaining/drawing out historical themes and eras a little better as an appendix to the standards. The point was brought up that if a district requires standards-based grading, but there are no content guidelines for historical eras and themes, teachers are often told not to teach content! This was a “whoa” moment to me. So this is on the to-do list now.
• Lesson plan template using the pursuits from the Muhammad framework