Guess. What. Day. It. Is.

Hey Mike!

Greetings! Are you happier than a camel on Hump Day? Are you grateful that you can bare your legs without developing frostbite? Are you thrilled that you have a WHOLE WEEK to relax, explore, or binge watch some fabulous tv show? I hope so. On another note, sorry this is a bit late. Here's actual footage of me at work the last couple of days...

Hilarious. Also, there are clubs for
this activity. Anybody up for a YESS
team building activity?

So, here's the scoop. I sent a rad list of resources to you all last week. Did anyone get to peruse them? If not, please do! This is not a job requirement. It will not show up on your evaluation, but it will likely address some concerns you've had at some point in the year. And here are a few more to add:

This article, from Teaching Tolerance, discusses how to support students as they watch this whole college admissions rigging thing unfold. What a hot mess. Within this article, you will find a list of strategies you can use to assist scholars in dealing with the emotions that have come up.

Here's another article from Teaching Tolerance. This one is about how to implement a "call-in" culture, as opposed to a "call-out" culture. I'm thinking specifically of some of you who have white scholars who struggle to identify their privilege and/or say things that are completely out of line. There are some really neat sentence starters that mentors could be trained to utilize. It's important to note that this article does *not* condone people of color being required to expend emotional labor to teach white students about systemic racism. I'm sharing it with you all so you can reflect on whether or not these strategies might work for you and your students.

The last resource for this post is an article from TED about the stories of our lives. Story-telling is a stupendous way to teach concepts. While this article isn't necessarily related to pedagogy, it is related to the way we reflect on our lives, which (naturally) affects the way we show up for our students. This is cool food for thought, if you're into personal growth.

I know you're all dying to learn about my activities last week, so I'll conclude with this quick bit:
Monday - MEETINGS! And a lunch 'n learn about retirement planning, which was a near-total waste of time because it was designed for people aged 55+. It does get me thinking about how to support you all in this manner, though. Stay tuned.

I'm so done with winter.

Tuesday - MS and HS team meetings and a webinar about quality program improvement.
Wednesday - See image of Holly Blvd, near my house ➜
Thursday - Catching up on everything I didn't do M-W
Friday - TGYS funder visit at Ranum (thanks, Joe!)

That's it from my neck of the woods. Hold on for the ride and enjoy your break!