I had a difficult time lesson planning for today. I felt so much pressure partially because it’s the last day we’ll have to cover Department of Public Health required curriculum for the year before we begin entering the social action research phase.
I also felt stressed because I wanted to address Trump being elected into office and didn’t know how to do that while going through the curriculum. As an Ne, I had come up with three different possible lesson plan flows for the period and each one could easily spawn spin-offs. I was overwhelmed by the possibility of content that could be covered.
In the end, after talking to Nathan, I realized how important it is to create a space for people to express their thoughts and feelings in response to the election and not just focus on putting out a hopeful note. (My kid’s teacher texted me that they had been confused and unsure of what would happen now).
In the end, we had a good flow aside from side conversations and me having to quiet down the class periodically:
-reflection: what is one thing that has been on your mind after seeing the election results?
-room for sharing.
-talked about Trump and oppression as objectively as possible. Talked about the roots of oppression using the symbol of a tree. Tied this to symptom and cause of symptom using example of coughing and cold. What is being put into the roots affects what fruit is produced. Introduced -isms: racism, sexism, classism, etc.
-Explored the root causes of violence against women, sexual assault on college campus, mass incarceration of black men, deportation of undocumented immigrants, muslims targeted as terrorists.
-What if we changed what we put in the roots? Equality, respect, love?
-Ended on talking about difference between bystanders and upstanders. Watched two videos exemplifying both, one courtesy of my fb newsfeed from this past week.
-Passed out three resources for us to be a resource as another way of being an upstander for the undoc, LGBT, and muslim communities.
-Ended with let’s be “bystanders, I mean upstanders!” some giggled. “Let’s be upstanders!”
I’m done, like Obama, my inspiration who embodies the word cool and Kobe and all the tight people before him, mic drop, I’m out.
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memorable things that happened today:
A, one of the most respectful kids raised his hand and asked me if I cut my hair in the middle of class. “yes…before”. then he asked me if I dyed it. “yes…can we talk about this later?”
I caught D taking a selfie on snap chat during class.
I look over and E (football player) is rubbing D’s scented lotion over his arms. “what is going on here?”
“my arms are ashy”
Out of Darkness 