 When I first came to do public pedagogical work way back in 2012 working as the managing editor for hyper pedagogy It wasn't long before I came across Jose's work. I was struck by how teaching itself can build a movement Jose has said that hope is my passenger and he encourages us all to keep hope in our back pockets As we move around in the world doing work for students doing work for education doing work for justice That hope sustains and permeates Jose's actions writing and leadership and it can serve as an inspiration and a reminder for all of us Jose's credentials are noteworthy and prolific and you can read all about them on his website or at the bottom of the keynote posted in our auditorium But credentials are only as good as the continuous doing of educating advocating and amplifying Jose is not a list of accomplishments. He's a voice discovering inquiring inspecting and hoping Please let me welcome. Please help me welcome Jose Wilson I meet myself. That'd be great. Hi. I Usually don't have to unmute myself for a real keynote. So it's just always weird Usually it's just like oh you get to talk now Hi, so I'm noticing all the different places where people are coming from It is worth acknowledging that yes, I do stand on land of the Lenape people stolen by Any number of folks the Dutch the English at some points of Spanish as well I also want to acknowledge too that I come from an ancestry of folks who were also so stolen from any number of places across the African continent transferred over to Piscayia which everyone knows I see Spaniola or the converge countries of Indian and Dominican Republic almost literally my father's station my mother's Dominican and then they came over to this land here so Whatever we come from is Something for us to acknowledge and you know the land that we currently stand on is also worth acknowledging and thank you all so much for Joining me in a space that We're kind of digitally representing ourselves, isn't it? It's not so much that like we actually are on these lands on the web is that this web is Able to transfer any number of our images over different spaces, which is kind of like a weird transfer For somebody who has based his whole identity In the classroom where you have any number of interactions, right? And those interactions are face-to-face and often relational to all the other relationships happening within the classroom So when people say things like, you know, you're affecting the life of one child It's that that feels all relative to what happens in the other class and the other Set of classes the other classmates and whoever else is around And that's why this work is so so difficult Because being able to transfer that over now to a space that is more Concentrated on this digital transfer and trying to negotiate all the little rectangles on the screen is a thing So as part Of my keynote process, right? I have to Knowledge too that the key, you know Teaching was super duper difficult. I'll tell you that much It's one thing for you to say well, you know You're going to be an online teacher and you have the whole summer to plan out for that You have any number of folks who are already engaged with whatever the virtual classroom is going to be and you have kids and Homes that are already ready with enough internet to make sure that everybody feels like they can be engaged in this online way However, that's wasn't the case back in March and if anything in March A lot of the discussion in New York City, which happens to be the nation's largest public school system in the country We opted for something called Pointing at first where if there was a case of coronavirus within a school that school got shut down for a couple of days Then they were allowed to return after some deep cleaning after some deep clandestines within the school And some schools never really thought back to that point at some point We decided it to say okay Well passenger conferences are kind of dangerous to also have so we're just going to have teachers going to the school building or they can actually do it from home and they can call parents from wherever they need to and I decided in my own right to try to organize Teachers into specific teams to make sure that we weren't calling the same parents six or seven times And then what I started to recognize too was that you know This is the beginning of the end of school and it was a weird thing for me to feel knowing that in March Usually the time when we start ramping up the idea of you know academic rigor, especially as the state math Test start coming up those are things that were really important to understand in the context of what was happening So by the time we got shut down it wasn't that Governor Andrew Cuomo and there go the blast You know thought in their hearts that we should have schools shut down if anything the threats of a Rank in file not even from our own union president a rank in file School walkout from teachers and students Pretty much made that decision cemented in their minds with the catch So once that happened We said okay. Well schools are shut down but adults still need to go in they need to stay there for three days for those Two days we were not sure what it was I knew I had to teach people any number of things about what it meant to actually do things Virtually, but I didn't know what a classroom would look like virtually. I just said this is what Google me does This is the functionality and I'm happy to help you in whatever ways I can right When the actual process of schooling started again the very next week I tried to do the thing where I try to make all 30 kids go into One of these separate sessions and I would try to teach them in the best ways possible. Unfortunately Trying to transfer the same energy that I had about my classroom into a more virtual space was It was exhausting and then it did just it was exhausting to terrifying to Outright depressing because at some point I had to acknowledge that it was kind of futile Given that I wasn't able to personally interact with them that was interacting with a more digital version Of them and I was interacting with the home versions of them So they were at home doing their home behaviors and not doing their school behaviors while at home Which of course that's a natural thing for them to be doing because they're in the comfort of their own home And of course other teachers started freaking out too because they also said wait a minute They don't even have to follow our schedule either like we can plan our schedule Accordingly, but they don't have to show up for those things because there's no one who's going to be able to show Up to their house and say you have to do x y and z So they decided on their own schedules and at some point the adults started saying, okay Well, they really decided on schedule So we're gonna have to plan around that and give as much grace as possible So the the the ways that we gave grace Needed to be extended because it was an exercise in giving grace to students And if you were somebody who was already pleased at this post so giving grace then you were already in good shape But if you were not you got a really hard lesson in a matter of a week If you then found yourself not giving enough grace you have to give even more so Because at some point the students said well, uh, there was supposed to be a spring break Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio took away our religious holidays and our spring break that we were supposed to have on the calendar and the students took it anyway They said, okay. Well, we're gonna take our break regardless So y'all adults can do whatever y'all want. We're just gonna do what we need to do And these are stories that I think are really important to all this because in the context of all that digital pedagogy And this of course, that's the title of this conference, right? Digital pedagogy necessarily means that you necessarily have to think about the participants and all the representations that they come with and What I found was the students who tried to Even in their own minds think about school the way they would normally think about it Couldn't necessarily do it in the same environments that they were in so When once they were just sharing a very quiet space within the classroom They now have to go home where they didn't have that same set of Riggers and understandings, right? So you had any number of siblings sharing the same amount of wi-fi You had any number of parents who Still wanted to you know do whatever they needed to do or wanted to do depending on what the whole situation was Now you had any number of parents who also had suffered as a result of coronavirus because they were essential workers And I knew that in washington heights. There was hundreds of folks who had Not to suffer through coronavirus, but actually The tens and dozens of folks who actually passed away as a result Those are all elements that were coming into play. So, you know, it doesn't have like This disaster distance learning because I don't even want to call it remote learning, right? Disaster distance learning Doesn't happen without the relationships that I had built from september all the way through march, right? They don't show up to my uh, and as a matter of fact the surveys Who'll tell you guys some of the kids were like, well, I only locked into mr. Wilson's class Because I really only care about his class and I was like, oh, I didn't want I don't know I don't like sharing those things to other adults, but we're like with y'all. I'll do it. Um Um But that's not a thing that I'm particularly proud of either because all that tells me is that there's a systemic failure about The way that we think about learning the way you think about teaching the way we think about schooling for that matter And what kind of education they're contributing because believe you me like regardless of whether or not they're actually live with you Or they have the camera on they are getting that education, aren't they? Um, and the things that and I'm seeing the comments. Thank you, michelle The things that we call transgressions right in school. So being on your cell phone not paying full attention Not showing up to class That all kind of goes away when it's just you and a camera. You're hoping that there's somebody on the other side of that lens So, um, I also wanted to point out before I could take these questions Because I really want to hear from y'all as well is Oh, this is great. Um When it comes to this this idea of justice, I think what people Often miss is that this this is a nice trend for us to be in in a way It's a really quick side. I guess line I guess line of thinking where Yes, there's a global pandemic and yes, the people who are most vulnerable when it comes to this Growner virus are the very people who have to go out on the street and protest for their basic human rights And that it's which is a really weird way of just saying like america has really messed up right now But then when it comes to the classroom, it's also interesting how we're so many of us are talking about anti-racism and any other forms of protest as Um as a trend as if this is just going to be a thing that we need to kind of learn and so we need to Pull in as many we need to gather as many resources as possible We need to go follow all the people and all the things that have ever uttered the word anti-racism We have to go get that Baldwin. Go get that morrison Go get that like tanahasi quotes and all the other people who have any sort of word of racism and all it's uh It's I guess inspirations within the title of their book Regardless of whether or not it actually applies to us. Um, and this this it's wild Um as somebody who has been doing anti-racism Work for the last 15 years in the classroom and even before then when I grew up through with the black radical tradition Those of you who read the piece already already know where that's coming from You'll recognize that It's personal for me the political is personal It's not as lebron james recently said like the blacks matter movement is in a movement It's a way of life for so many of us like we wake up We don't have a choice but to like go get learned about what's happening on the street We have to recognize what police brutality may do to us on a very hyper local level as well as a national level Those of us who recognize back in 2016, right? Like people were Highly upset and so was I surely uh, but then I also recognized too that they're folks who are upset because Elections didn't go their way and there are those of us who are upset because we knew all along that this is what America was um, and so the manifestations of this Racism this systemic white supremacy in our country Is at the highest office in the land and so it gave permission for all the folks who had been subtly And implicitly biased and discriminatory against people of color, especially black people to now be overtly so um, and so Too often when I think about justice, I'm thinking like oh like it can't trend It has to be a thing that stays permanent. It has to be part of our structures. It has to be systemic It has to be an understanding that yes, we are going to create barriers for racism We have to in a paradoxical sort of way. We have to be intolerant of those who are intolerant We have to and so even in our classrooms, right? We have to recognize that Uh, that intolerance of intolerance shows up in so many different ways So we we think about for example our lgbtqa community who you know They had their own set of freedom struggles But that was often based on the civil rights movement and the progression that was able to be made in In that specific movement how it inspired any number of other movements to build up From a cultural as well as a political level Um in our classrooms what I would look like for example is all right You want to be able to teach? I don't know huckleberry thin It has Edward in it if I remember correctly because it's been a few decades that I've taught Or I've learned from that book A part of me wants to say Well, you shouldn't be teaching huckleberry thin if you're not like ready to stand, you know Take a complete and utter like discussed Towards the n word and all the ways that bias shows up within that text, right? But another part of me wants to say well, we should also teach the controversy And if we don't actually teach that controversy, then we're doomed to repeat it again So we need to be able to interrogate why mark twain and any number of folks that want with me even folks who You know, they were Racists in their own ways and then also had things to offer to so many american folks So when you interrogate that what does it look like to interrogate within the classroom? Do you have somebody who knows how to interrogate those things? And it isn't just going to be well We have to take a stand against anti racism and we need to make sure that that book is banned Yeah, it has to be like no like what allowed for this text to be so permissible for so many years and how can we You know do something better than what we're seeing If you are saying to yourself well, if I just put a bunch of people of color in my collection I don't want to call a school a class library. I would like to say it's a collection, right? If you say oh this collection of things It has people of color in it. I've already checked the box And I'm already anti-racist enough because I have these faces on here. Then what does that say about How you perceive anti-racism, right? It's not enough about like we have to be very conscientious of two things with that dynamic too one is which like we can have these texts and we can make them either mandatory or we can make them National mandatory voluntarily read yada yada, right? And then what does this discussion look like when you're actually having the conversation with students about that text? Does it mean that like you're actually going to interrogate the themes? You've got to try to understand the culture is you're still going to accept that they're different But they aren't necessarily Subhuman because that's what so many people actually discuss when it comes to the culture of books It's like it isn't so much that you're only meeting dead white guys because so many of them are boring But I do to myself you like that shot it's also that When you have these texts every other person who's writing that is not not my mail, right? Like whoever we decide whether to be Elizabeth Acevedo. It's on mahascoats. Whatever you want to say contemporarily They have something to offer that's going to be different and that may actually give a spin to what the controversy looks like, right? And so in that way, you're also inferring intolerance in a way because you're also saying hey like Yeah, I'm happy that you've done this Mark Twain thing, but I have this book that also tells a different side of that very same story. Yeah um I think another part when it comes to justice is the ability for the teacher This is where I get in trouble a lot is the teacher to be able to talk back So much of the narrative around schools is that Somebody up on high makes a decision around a policy that policy could transfer to a middle person to another middle person To somebody in the school who's a top person But it's really kind of like a middle person as well And then it gets to the teacher who wants to be able to translate that to kids And then that teacher doesn't often get opportunities to talk back even if they become Some noted notable teacher a teacher for the year or somebody goes to speak this out Whatever there's not a lot of us who get to do this sort of thing, right? And then that talk back doesn't go anywhere because the policymaker doesn't have the same set of tools to deconstruct What's happening in the classroom that you do? So instead of trying to have a conversation around it They just say well, you know, we could just make a broad set of generalizations that are uninformed about classroom practice And of course that manifests even more so when you have both a global pandemic happening and an uprising Amongst black people and any number of folks of color through multicultural multiracial multi-generational lens. Yeah um Levels levels and so when those of us who do aspire to both stay in the classroom, but then talk back about policy Get into these forums. We were often presented as dangerous. We're often presented as folks who um When we have already been thinking about anti-racism. I made it a way of life We are dangerous because we want to deconstruct the systems that allowed for this to be perishable So when we say things like oh, well, you know, I'm a black teacher who's been dealing with this nonsense for about 15 years And you're finally got a point where I have a space to be okay with this You're basically implicating the system and you're basically saying hey This system has not Been appropriate for so many of our children and we need more funnels of communication If if you have a systems leader that says well, the system works Pretty well for the number of kids. Why have here you're also saying well, you're okay with marginalizing any number of kids Which also often means marginalizing any number of adults who serve those kids um And so where I get what I get in trouble is I say, all right. Well, a lot of that is rubbish And we need to rethink that and of course they come back with well, okay So then I guess we'll have to find ways to uh, you know Take points off of your teacher valuation. You may be good for kids, but you're not good for us So you have to make sure that your crummy bullet board becomes part of a thing that we rate you on or You didn't follow this set of pedagogies that the other teacher next door Was actually doing even though you never really asked children What's not I'm actually good for them or that they feel the same way Or that you feel like you could just hop into a classroom and say hey, like how does this teacher do? Like you don't feel that comfortable But you feel comfortable to go with the charlotte danielson's framework and say hey Like hosea billson's not a good teacher because uh, he doesn't follow that box So back to the rectangles that are here I'm going to take a bunch of questions. Yeah, um, and I'm also going to ask people to interrogate And not just from an intellectual lens from but from a personal lens What does it look like to manifest justice in spaces where we have to Necessarily be rectangles for everybody else like there isn't a platform out there right now That's just has to be circles. We're all rectangles as far as I'm concerned right now so Was it going to mean when we do go back to this new version of normal and then how are we going to sustain This anti-racism this not just anti-racism, but just freaking being pro humanity pro weak humanity Being able to take a stand and say hey like we have to do better for so many of our kids And then implicitly all the adults as well and that's kind of my time To 1226 I want to take a bunch of questions and see how this goes Man kevin gannon, I want to take yours last. I'm sorry because you're a beast tanya moeller. Is that that's how I say your name tanya moeller Hosea, thank you so much for speaking to us today. There's a tendency of woke white folks. I'm gonna Go hard. Okay Who are your favorite bipoc authors? Who would you make your top five? I don't see I don't want to do the top five list. I will okay two things number one I'm going to type in for you this list that I I specifically curated From edu color just on edu color org slash resources Those of you who are familiar with the website already you'll recognize that we just redid that whole thing So feel free to look at that Um, I'm I'm gonna tell you some things number one I'm a big fan of what Beverly Daniel Tatum did A bunch of years ago where she basically Deconstructs and simplifies what this race talk has to look like in ways that allow people to access it So I'm a big fan of her for one I'm a big fan of tana has to coaches between the world that made because it lets you in on a conversation that a black man He says that how would his son? It's not to say that like you shouldn't expect that he is able to also have the conversation About black mothers and their daughters black men and their daughters, you know, and not to mention all our lgbt qia Plus folks who you know are generally not conforming And don't necessarily have the same relationship to one another and so I'm gonna go ahead and interrogate that too. And I think that's important for us to understand Jacqueline Woodson's recent Childbook was amazing in the way of discussing what it means to belong and what it doesn't. So Jacqueline Woodson Let me think I think her book is called The day you begin and I would highly recommend that book Um, especially if you're trying to teach elementary early childhood School-aged children of any sort, but I think adults would also get a nice bonus from having been part of that book I'd also I like rock sand gays bad feminist And yes, it doesn't necessarily talk about anti-racism in the same way But I'm gonna highly suggest it because I think because of the way that woke white folks dynamic often goes It's the sense of deconstructing what purity has to look like and of course what rocks and gays does in the way of efficiency Of of sentences and being able to you know I guess throw little needles at any number of ideas Has been a useful framework for how I discuss anti-racism these days because too much of it is about leaning on Perceptions of identity and not a not perceptions of power And who has what power and then what does systemic power look like versus what does personal power look like in any number of dynamics And that should complicate all of our relationships um Yeah, so all the other books I might recommend are all in uh in the chat in the edu color dot org slash resources Thank you shone for highlighting that as well. But thank you. That's a great question. Um, I'm gonna answer that well Sherry, I'll take yours. Thank you for your keynote. So that's a boy. Sweet. So My joy is you know, here's the thing I'm gonna ask everybody to think about What may what brings them the most joy and then what brings them the most rage and then When you find a way to loosely categorize those things you need to find a way to compartmentalize and then reprioritize These elements, whether they be people persons things proper known proper pronouns of any uh, sort I find that it's been helpful to be frame all my work around my wife and my son My wife being Bruce Maria Rojas are much better educated than I am. I tell people that all the time She is like fantastic educator. That's actually that's how we met But that's a whole other story Um, and then my son on a hundred eight years old a wonder kind somebody who like on a daily basis I feel like I'm learning from and he just comes out with the most insightful things I found that during the room, I guess the emergency distance learning the remote distance or whatever that happened, you know, Whatever we call that he was so well versed in what was going on in the news that you know, whenever issues came up He actually brought those to his morning meetings that they had in class So at the elementary level like they were able to have conversations In ways that I found much more profound than even on twitter or facebook or with other adults who Are too given to conspiracy theory versus what they can actually Actually determine from their faces and what they can actually tell from people's voices. So Um, and then from there, I just try to keep my circle as set as possible Those who I can actually have mutual love and cares with and be vulnerable with and then building outside of that My associates and people who I regularly converse with and then you know as somebody who does try to live in public I try to give a little something to everybody I think a space like this is so powerful because I do have I get to have a conversation about the thing that I Most passionate about and then give that to uh, 163 people at a time Like that's a powerful thing for me to be able to do see you like that math, right? I'm I'm I am paying attention to the screen All right. Thank you. Sherry. That's amazing. And you know finding joy for me It's just being able to say all right So what's the thing that's going to allow me to be a better human being? Even if at moments I find rage, but at the end I'd like to find joy, but I appreciate that share Very much. Um, I answer that live. How do I make learning very amusing to my students and make them learn? All right, so Layla, thank you so much for that question. Here's what I'd say I think we have to be very thoughtful about what it means to be engaging I think we have to make sure that uh, we pull so for me I found it really appropriate to just pull subsets of kids at a time so that it could feel seen and heard so at the middle school level Um, and you know as those of you who are in the middle school level, you know what that's like It almost feels like even if you have a set of 30 kids You actually have 60 So you have 60 kids in the classroom because every kid has about two different personalities at a time, right? Depending on what's going on and that's okay. Like that's the development to the appropriate They're trying to learn their independence and they see you as an authority figure They're going to show you unless you build that relationship and you try to understand what that looks like at the time digitally what that's going to look like is you have to be able to look at the 30 kids and say, okay Who are the kids who are already motivated? They don't really want to hear from me, but I still need to check with them. Anyway, pull them to the side They look into our most media who most need your attention You go talk to them build a schedule specifically for them Then you have the kids in the middle Well, you kind of have to you know ask individually about what their needs are for the moment What the unit is and try to develop plans for them So I ended up like actually getting really into videography just to build videos and try to get a At least some semblance of what I would do in the classroom And actually I went out and got a board like a white board and I was able to teach in that way And then I also did a series of instagram live videos not just for the Students but also for the adults so the parents were actually tuning in to my instagram live Just so they could see what digital You know, I guess pedagogy would look like from my perspective and I found that to be a powerful tool So you're going to have to find different ways to actually have conversations with different folks I can't do that specifically for you. Some folks aren't as comfortable with the camera as I am But I found that like if I make those students like smaller and I work with them in smaller groups Then I can be more engaging in that way and then even if I Like blast a little music like in the background or something like that Then they stay just to like at ease vibe with the classroom and then I'm able to talk through While like the music is playing. So those are things that I did I I'm hoping that's helpful, but you know, feel free to also talk back if you need to So let me get to Kevin since he has 13. Of course, he has 13 counts like he's coming at him Let me see. Jose you wrote Teachers keep having to bear the brunt of society's overall understanding about themselves and showing the brunt of the world Which was such a powerful way to put things. How are you and your colleagues working against these overall understandings and How might co-conspirators help with this work? I think Kevin your book is already doing some of that. I think Being able to tell our narrative is such a powerful way of approaching this. Um, there's so many people who want to constantly lean On quantitative data on the numbers and as a math guy I I like that But the stories are really the way for people to be pulled in to feel some sort of compassion and empathy from people's perspective Especially for folks who often feel unheard There's a thing out there that suggests that that you want to be a voice for the voiceless But if anything, I think everybody has a voice. It's just who gets ignored and who doesn't For all the folks who complain about any number of testing reforms, for example In the last couple of decades You had black parents who literally said I am frustrated with what's going on And you are not allowing me any sort of voice within this space What is going on and then they never got a response because uh, the higher ups always had this Eternalistic point of view. Well, they thought they were actually better than the parents. They were serving And those are things that we need to be in touch with um Working against the overall understandings. I think narratives like this being able to say, hey, like there's like power Discussions that need to be happening on a regular basis. So we can actually this, you know So a lot of people like to call me I'll put it this way a lot of people like to call me a radical But those of you who are math inclined you recognize that Trying to find the radical over numbers is actually trying to get to the root of whatever it is So whether you use a lot of complicated and intellectual words or whatever have you like I'm happy for you But being radical for me is an understanding that you're trying to get to the root of that which needs uprooting So being able to look at something and say, hey, like let's unearth what's happening. What's the real issue here? And as as a middle school math teacher I'm always inclined to like ask why it is that a student is behaving the way they're behaving Why what is it about my own pedagogy that allows students to feel like they're welcome in my classroom? What's not working? What are the things that I can actually take responsibility for even when I can't take full responsibility for everything? I still take responsibility for the things I can control and maybe even in some ways those of us who are more Children inclined We take responsibility for the things that aren't in our control completely at all And so those are things that are worth interrogating. I'm always going to suggest that everybody like take a good look at um Kevin's book at the book that the books that I've already shared in the resources being able to do those Navitive conversations is really important and then building a community of care squad is critical and then like In the converse of that is if you look at your squad and the people around you are all white for example And as you're a white person who has all white friends Then maybe you need to do an interrogation of what your social circles are actually right because those are the manifestations of segregation for example of redlining of any numb and and of course our current administration where People think well if I just serve the 30 percent of the people who are going to get me voted in Then I don't have to wait about the 70 percent who don't actually really care about me And those are the but but it starts from the social circles that you develop people who you have around you Kids picking up signals as as early as two years old that They can discriminate against people and not socialized with people who don't look like them And those are things that are happening, but it has to start with our behaviors It has to start with us those of us who are nc way since educators will consider ourselves as such We're always trying to look at our social circles and they're trying to figure out What's the best match that allows us to really transform the world for me? I have any number of people around me who I listen to I hear from and I appreciate their work And I have principles around the way that I have my social circle not in the way of usefulness usefulness because that's a that's a capitalist sort of thing but in the way of saying like What's going to allow me to hear the most perspectives so that I can More readily jump into something when I need to jump into something so I could feel at my best when I go into a Space where I have to advocate for something I hope that's helpful Kevin because I I can write a book on it because you did and I did All right Sarita Jose, I appreciate how you elaborate on the distinction between schooling and education in your book and basically seven You state that few adults ever think about changing schooling so kids can get an education Can you please elaborate on your vision revised or altered or radical version of schooling that can educate students? That's that's a thing it changes. I feel like every day, but those of you who haven't read my book yet You'll notice that there is a difference between schooling and education schooling being the the systematic ways that We approach any number of processes that are supposed to like get kids to learn And then like there's the education the actual learning the more amorphous things that whether explicit or implicit get taught in school so What I find is that regardless of how the schooling goes the kids end up getting an education anyway When you go to us And I see Stephanie nodding there because you know, she's a co-panelist. So I love it Notice that when I say an education, I'm literally saying like the implicit and explicit things that get taught So in my classroom, I could totally be doing Lessons about shea divana about about afraidy about Angela davis, I could do those things But then if I do it in a way that forces children to think the way I think or that Has draconian mandates about how students should be seated who they can interact with What are the ways that they can go to the bathroom? And all these other like regulations that look structured and look pretty for Middle people or whatever have you whether they'd be administrators or something Then the education that kids receive is the only way that I'm able to be radical is if I get draconian about my radicalism Which is not the lesson you want, but then you're like wait Yes draconian band-aids. Yes. So there are things that I feel like Have to go hand-in-hand one is that if you're gonna do a lesson And the math this is especially critical because in math there isn't really that much room for radicalism as it were Except when you're doing square square roots and cubic roots and whatnot But the way that I may teach scientific notation Is necessarily going to allow students access to the material or not So if I do it where I say, well What do you think about like this representation right here? This is a really really big number. Is there a way for us? You think that may make it smaller? how our science is able to Get these very quick calculations and estimates so quickly and then as we do like the discussion interrogation We start looking at fluctuation like when it comes to money because I think financial like literacy is So critical especially with the way things are going right now Um being able to say to the kids all right Well, we use this multiplication sign and this 10 to the whatever root because we just want to make sure That like we have a good estimation of what magnitudes look like and then being able to interrogate what a billy looks like inevitably means that when I tell kids a billionaire is a policy failure Because it is right like a billionaires are a policy failure as far as I'm concerned Right being able to say that like necessarily means that a kid understands what a billy looks like Right, that's a powerful way of saying the same thing um, and so as we go through these number sense sort of conversations I'm implicitly giving kids the tools for them to be able to interrogate the world on their own So when we do linear graphs, it isn't that I just want to know how fast the kid is running is that when fox news for example presents a graph that is Wild and disproportionate to what's happening in the scales then the kids are going to be able to say wow That graph doesn't make sense whatsoever. What are they trying to do with that? But then in my own classroom I don't necessarily need to say that the kid has enough tools for them to be able to interrogate What the graph actually says and I think that's where that's the point at which you start saying oh, wow This gets transformational. Thank you. Sophia. That's when you start getting like really thoughtful about how we engage the general public That's how we actually get to radicalism is having that how having the People having the citizens get that knowledge that set of tools even when the teacher themselves doesn't actually give you the I guess the actual lesson that you're supposed to be learning out of what you're being given. So I'm hoping that's helpful Sarita, thank you so much. I just asked that lie Rachel since remote teaching is all about those relationships We've built the students. How can we most effectively develop new relationships remotely, especially with our most marginalized students who may be experiencing Continual trauma So it's gonna have to be a mixed approach. I think for one I've advocated a New York City for us to take a full on Assessment of what our students need. So what are the things and people that were lost in this process? What things are kids actually going to need in order to be successful? Those are things that we can actually ask up front Um, I think because we were in spaces that were so normalized We allowed for the adult voice to be first and so the first welcome is always like Hey, welcome back and it's always them adult to well meaning or not, right? Um, they have the first voice when it comes to school and then they set out the priorities And then they are the ones who say, you know, I'm in charge here And so you're going to be doing this and then over time I'll give you enough space What the digital especially in a global pandemic with the digital spaces is specifically asking us Is to say, how can I get these rectangles to respond to me? Is such a way that I can make these digital representations do what I need them to do without for them to do better in this way So one way that I think you could do that is just by sitting out a straight up survey Try to get at least 99% to 100% of participation Then make sure that the adults, whoever they be whether they be the educators, power professionals, social workers, whoever have you Take a set of children who you're going to be in charge with Call their houses call the parent first and then say, hey, like my name is such a such a such a You know, I want to know more about, you know, how things are going with you everything. Okay Um, what are some things that would be helpful in terms of like your child and the academic progress like What are some times that we could possibly work with like that sort of conversation? I think that's even more powerful with the adults because I think Kids like that morning like to start off the morning, you know Having seen their friends having seen the teacher and then doing like little activities as far as I've seen with my own child But then with the older kids, it's always like, all right Just give me the work because I just I need to be done with this So then putting that relationship explicitly means like you're giving them A lot more power than you might even in a high school schedule Then the other part has to be like, all right So what did we learn from this assessment? And then we need to make sure that we as adults who are serving the children are equipped To actually have the conversations with the children themselves so that we can say, okay What are the things that you're going to need? Here's the things that I've laid out for the school year What are some things that you're going to be totally ready for and what are some things that maybe like Even need more assistance with and how could we build a schedule to make sure that and it's not going to be always individual If anything, I'm advocating for people to like take that class and break them up in groups and smaller groups So that you're able to work with maybe like seven or eight kids So they can all feel heard instead of trying to get all 30 into one Like zoom meeting like this and say hey like I heard you but you know, I'm only reading your comments and I can't hear your voice I can't feel you in this way. Um, so I'm hoping those suggestions are helpful But I think those are ways that you can make kids feel heard It's just by starting with the premise that the kids need to feel heard first and then you can start building off of What you heard from the students Yes and survive Yeah, we talked about this already. Thank you. Okay. Nice George. Oh George station Please say more about transgression Is it the equity we all say we support all students cannot do what we do from our own professors all the time? This isn't showing up. It's me Yeah, I mean when I mean transgression, I explicitly am talking about The framework that teachers have often gone with when it comes to their own understandings of pedagogy versus what Is happening now where they able to transgress as often as they want because there there isn't that set of barriers to Whatever that framework is so for example when you have a student in class who Is using their cell phone in the back of class and you have a conversation with them In however way you do it right because there's folks probably who aren't as progressive Or there are some folks who aren't as regressive or whatever have you right? But when you have the conversation with the child, it's always like, all right Can I see you outside? Let's have the conversation and then it's always like, all right So we have the conversation you didn't do this So now I have to do the next thing then it has to be the next thing and it's those are things that we norm when we see in the class When it comes to this digital space, you don't have those numbers do you it's always like Well, you have to use the cell phone because that's the only way I got to meet you And then if you don't use it then I can't meet you and I'm not going to go to your house Or I may call your parent and then your parent may or may not have as much control over you as We may or may not want but then all of this is going to be relational to a few things Number one is how interesting your class is even if it's like Boring in material, but then you deliver it in a really dope way Then I think the kids will still feel like some sort of relational relation to you and See cc all because they just talked about that a few minutes ago And then um, it's also about the dynamic that the child has to that computer too because There's kids who frankly don't want to learn on a box like they can't concentrate Over a zoom and that's a hard thing to reckon with is that even as much as we want kids to be able to Get in touch with us and stay in touch with those Some kids prefer the classroom because it allowed them to strictly focus on What's happening in that classroom and not what's happening in digital space with they get too many notifications They get too much social pressure to stay on and be on and you know be that person online, which I'm sure a lot of us who are adults can Can reckon with in many ways. So that's kind of what I mean by transgression. I hope that answered your question, george I'm gonna for the sake of time. I'm gonna move on just a second Clarissa, thank you so much for this keynote. How do you actively integrate teaching and modeling activism into your math classroom? I think I discussed that but Just to be sure I'll do one more so um Okay, great. So We may do something where all right I'd have a lesson by the way that Yes, I have a lesson on the front page of my website Theosdayrosin.com if you want to go look at it. There's a youtube video that shows how I might do a corona virus lesson of using comic core state standards that address graphs and non-linear graphs specifically and how you can use graphs to tell stories so When I ask people to look at what the pandemic the normal I guess epidemiologists Graph might look like you always have like that big curve that happens if We actually we don't follow rules on just that the pandemic play out as it's supposed to which Is terrifying but we're still not even on like the down slope But that's the whole other conversation, right? Then you have the other one where it, you know We can actually stave off a number of hospitalizations if we wear masks social distance. Yeah, yeah, right? This effect where we need to And then we have this line That is supposed to you know be the line of demarcation for how much the system can actually handle One of the ways that I would interrogate such a graph is I would say, all right What do you think this line means and then the kids would say well, this how many hospitals we have in the city This is uh, you know, how much health care we have yada yada, and then it's like how does this compare you think with Other countries that may have a higher line that have universal health care that have any number of paid parental leaves that are explicitly giving people universal based income Those are things that are real, right? I guess radical ideas, which by the way are normal ideas in other countries Those of you who are international can attest to this But in our country, it would be so radical for us to have to think where the line would be higher, right? So but our line is low because we haven't invested in those things in new york state We just explicitly say that Andrew Cuomo has done a terrible job of those things over the years Which is why we had so many coveted Cases and deaths, especially in nursing homes. We did not Do a good job when it came to parents parents elders Children whoever that may be but i'm not going to say that in the class I'm just going to say all right Let's interrogate this line and what this actually means and then I'd say things like wow Is there a way you think we can raise that line and lower that line? What does it look like for us to have this many cases in real life? And you know compare that to what the united states has done over time and say all right Compare this to this tell me what you notice. What do you observe? What do you already know that is helpful in terms of like Interpreting these graphs and you know, you even look at the the neighborhoods where our kids are coming from Will it be Harlem, Washington Heights South france and a lot of them will tell you that You know because they have parents who are essential workers They already know that they're more likely to be infected with the coronavirus Compared to Other neighborhoods where there aren't as many essential workers Yeah So those are things that I would probably do at this moment in time But you notice that I'm kind of flipping the power dynamic there from saying like You're going to learn this because it's anti-racist to you saying How can I interrogate the world better and then implicitly discuss anti-racism? And then by the time that they get to a point where they have all the tools they need Then they can be anti-racism in their interrogations of race and power and for that matter gender disability Another other like identity markers. I hope you that's helpful Clarissa All right diversity equity inclusion are addressed in universities was often missed now over is the dominant ideology of white supremacy Which legitimizes racism, how can we assure that white supremacy enters the discourse in educational institutions? thank you fay that is great and Here's the thing When we say white supremacy that again is a conversation around power right because I think Because of the way that curriculum hasn't been set up. We often equate white supremacists to KKK to Maybe even red hats with white texts at this point But um, it's it's fast. It's just what it is But we don't actually talk about the things we call microaggressions which for those of us who are black those are Suarez color or not, you know, those of us who are on any number of margins We recognize these microaggressions as straight-up aggressions So when you have neighbors who literally like are wondering whether or not you are You actually belong to the building even though you pay your full rent and like they actually call the cops on you Because they didn't recognize you even though you've been living there for years Like that's the form of white supremacy because you're implicitly saying that oh, this person doesn't actually belong here uh Being able to simplify the language too because you know a conversation around belonging is a powerful conversation pedagogically isn't it like being able to say all the reason why we're having these discussions around Diversity including and all but on other stuff is because we're actually trying to address Why it is that our country makes permissible? The idea that only white folks are supposed to get the full breath of citizenship in this country And then anybody who is not a white wealthy landowner as laid out by the original constitution Uh necessarily has to either fall back on amendments or understand the implicit amendments that are there which is to say that like Yeah, we still gonna have a dominant narrative around what it means to be american and everybody else that's hyphenated And downcast and all the other good stuff. So those are things that are worth addressing And I think that's the way you do it in being able to say all right So you don't want to talk about white supremacy. Let's talk about power Let's talk about the interactions that we have with one another Let's talk about why it is that we need to have a brown or black face leading the conversation around d and i but then um the person You make the commission for you make the department for doesn't actually have a central office in your own Administration and our operations still keep operating But then your checklist is like, oh, you've already, you know checked off the box where like you cleared the conversations Or you had that one department meeting about this instead of consistently having the conversation about like any number of uh identity markers and inclusion Right within any other operational things that you have because until then like until we normalize the conversation Awesome white supremacy. We're it's always going to be that add-on. So I'm hoping that you know, you continue that in your institution Thanks, fey. I'm really trying my best. How much time do I have sir? Can I keep going about two minutes left? Oh god? Okay, so quick Uh-huh Listen, uh kimberley really quickly. I think you know what black folk will tell you in this country and as somebody who's immigrated like I should tell you Hope is always going to be in the actions that we do like if I as a teacher did not have hope I would not be teaching because I know what our school system can do to so many of our kids So if I come into teaching without hope then I would not be able to do this job That's another way of reframing hope and I'm going to highly suggest everybody read a rebecca solnitz Hope in the dark go read that get that in your in your library. So kimberley. Thank you for that question And I'm an anonymous attendee. I'm very devised Who I think that's going to be difficult anonymous attendee Only because when it comes to technology We necessarily need it for right now in order for them to participate in our classrooms If there are ways that your own districts are able to facilitate Paper renditions of the same thing if they're able to have some sort of email chain where people can actually dialogue with you around that email That's fine But the digital divide is heavy and it's strong and until districts can make sure that every person has An ipad in a hotspot, which they could have been doing before the pandemic Then it's always going to be the way that it is But I appreciate that conversation because we need to interrogate that reach of our districts. How do we? So This summer is a really good opportunity for us to have the conversation But we are not ready like I think we're not going to be ready Because we're thinking about this week to week and not like what it's going to look like For the next few months everything is based off what happens when one child and then for the um the converse What should happen if one person dies? Like what is an acceptable number of people that need to die in order for this school system to be shut down? It's a grim question And it's one that we need to interrogate because if no deaths are acceptable to you then we shouldn't be opening schools But that's just what it is. Thanks Nora Uh Jim that is a great question talking about neoliberalism, you know, it's interesting how we're basically giving away Um this idea of public to any number of corporations whether they be zoom google Uh Any number of places that like we normally we we be very afraid to do so right like student privacy is a really big deal For me and I often feel like because of this emergency pandemic We had to throw ourselves into corporations that already had it together But then we haven't also given an opportunity to places that might find ways to get technology to be more people Oriented where they're not constantly taking our data and giving it away to facebook for millions and billions of dollars Right like those are elements that are all that play here And so I feel like this this new liberal ideology has to be pushed back And that's why this conference is important too since I only have like what of 30 seconds left is We need to find ways to interrogate What the digital platforms are going to look like so that we at once can actually have the 21st conversation 21st century conversation without giving away all of our students rights and privileges And for that matter our own right our own facial data and our own abilities to interact with in the web So I asked it as many as possible y'all Please if you have any more questions feel free to hit me up twitter at the The jlv. I'll type it in here. I'm also really good with email Actually, I'm trying to be better at email, but I appreciate your time. I appreciate your effort and please don't forget This is not a trend. This is not even a movement. Like this is a thing where we have to make it Fully part of our way of life And it's the only way we're going to be able to make this happen So every child can get the education that they deserve. Thank you so much for your time and effort I appreciate you. Thank you. Stephanie. Thank you for supporting us on as well. You're the greatest. Thanks y'all Thank you so much Jose. Um, this is this has been fantastic and you are a Beast I can't believe you went through all those questions. That's really intense. Um, so thank you very very much This is wonderful. So thank you everybody for coming and and we will see you soon