Educating the masses

The Remainder of 2020  As I sit here this morning completing my gradebook for the final time I reminisce about the past year. The class of 2020 has had to go through many obstacles to get to this point. The remainder of 2020  will have a great impact on all students and families in the United States. This summer the United States Supreme Court will decide on DACA ( Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). Also this summer the Democratic and Republican parties will have their conventions where they will select their nominees for president.  In August and September, schools and colleges will start back in some blended fashion. Finally the presidential election will be held in November, where Americans will decide between incumbent president Donald Trump, or the democratic challenger Joseph Biden. Americans will still be living with COVID-19 in some fashion. When I was younger, I only saw things in black and white, right and wrong. but after all of my...

Virtual classrooms? In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic it's safe to say that the classrooms of the future will be blended, that is a mixture of residential and online lessons. whether through Schoology, Canvas, Edmodo, BrainPOP, Google classroom. there will be a strong mixture. My question is how will it affect the educator?. If there is a mixture of online and residential learning happening daily how will time management be affected? I made some observations over these  recent nine weeks. Many of my counterparts do not have technology at home. Many of my colleagues and coworkers had to rely on district resources (Chromebooks)  to get their work done.  I cannot judge anyone for how they spend their time or money. But if you do not have technology at home how can you as an educator do your job effectively? And how were you doing it before the pandemic?

The Elephant in the room? It wasn't until I entered my freshman year at Booker T Washington High School in Tulsa Oklahoma, that I discovered what inequity meant.  Even though it was a magnet school many of my friends and classmates were recruited into the school for other reasons including myself (track and field). Many of my friends and classmates were members of the elite and legacies.  I am unable to count how many times I was unable to go out with my friends because my primary mission after school and  practice was to get home,assist in preparing dinner for my younger brothers and sisters and do my homework. Inequity as always existed when it comes to academics, that's why schools were created to accommodate African Americans such as Tuskegee, Howard, Prairie View, and Southern Universities(shoutouts to Dr. A. Smothers, Ms. V. Williams). Inequity has now reared its head in another form, technology and internet access.  The coronavirus pan...