Boo!

Welcome to the spooky season. Even here in Austria, the commercial appeal of Halloween imported from North America has established itself in numerous retail offerings. Pumpkins abound but few are carved. Cheap costumes are easy to come by during a four week window of opportunity. I have my standard skeleton onesie reserved for our school celebration, but otherwise tend to whistle past this seasonal consumerist graveyard.

Rather than scary, I have experienced the last several weeks as a period of uplifting learning. As facilitator for an 8-session online course for international educators entitled “Identity and Leadership” offered through the Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color (AIELOC) I have had the pleasure of engaging in rich explorations of the many ways in which identity informs and shapes our understanding and practice of leadership. One of the main assignments asked participants to draw up a list of 5-8 educator resources they would recommend to others. Over the course of 3 sessions, individual participants took 3-4 minutes to introduce one or two favorites to the group. The complete lists were then shared on a course padlet for ongoing reference.

The end result is that participants create a wealth of learning options for and with each other. Everyone has so much valuable knowledge and experience and this was one way to tap into those reservoirs. The sharing offered a powerful reminder of how much we as educators and colleagues benefit when we pool our resources. If we intend to keep up with our students, learning to lean on each other to build expertise and confidence will continue to be important.

With the consent of group members, I am pleased to share a sample of their excellent resources.

• A Danish broadcasting ad offers a powerful message about how we see ourselves and how that can change:

Great books to discover or revisit:

• Teaching To Transgress by bell hooks (1994)
• Happy Teachers Change the World by Thich Naht Hanh (2017)
• My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits, Illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska (2014)

Organizations, Individuals, and Resource Collections:

• Check out the work of Dr. Victoria Verlezza whose examinations of workplace inclusion should give us all pause. A recent post breaking down the difference between perceptions, assumptions and passing made me raise my eyebrows in recognition.

• A shout out for Adaptive Schools resource bank of facilitation protocols was heard and followed!
• Sam Drazin and Changing Perspectives offer resources for social emotional learning in schools with a strong disability lens.
• International School Services (ISS) provide numerous professional development offerings for educators across a spectrum of institutions.

Facilitating this course has been a highlight of my Fall. The opportunity to compose a series of sessions that allowed our group to build community and trust proved to be an especially nourishing task for which I continue to feel extremely grateful. My deep thanks to Kimiko, Annie, Ron, Maggie, Cristina, Nicole and Maja for their thoughtful contributions!

In other news…

I had a tab open on my computer for weeks with the express intention of sharing it here and … I lost it. And then, I found it!! Narrative Initiative has a stellar breakdown of the relationships between story, frame and narrative which I find so helpful in making sense of our current political moment and information ecosystems. As advocates for narrative work in organizing circles they emphasize: “Social change moves in proportion to narrative power.“

I was featured in a recently released podcast episode that is part of the peer reviewed Community of Praxis series hosted by Brenna Clark Gray. We recorded it a while back but our topics – education, systems and care – are evergreens.

Finally, I hope you’ll excuse my abundance of links this month. There’s just a lot worth considering. And some of it is just too good not to share like the following:

• Vibe Check is the only podcast that I regularly listen to and the most recent episode in which Zach and Saeed interview Spencer Ackerman about the Gaza ceasefire and potential for peace is excellent. Also, Saeed has some choice words about gen AI!
• Consider this essay by author Naomi Alderman: “My strong contention is that if you are constantly scrolling that is because your brain is crying out to learn something new, something that is hard enough for you…” I think there’s something here for all of us.
• Shout outs and Kudos to the thousands of people who turned out, helped organize and otherwise supported #NoKings protests across the US and in many cities worldwide. Indivisble.org has coverage and info about next steps.

I hope life is unfolding in positive ways for you.

Take exquisite care of yourself because there’s only one of you.

Warmly,

Sherri