37 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2022
    1. students possess innate humanity

      This is the KEY here.

    2. options for students to record videos as well as write papers, and final project guidelines that allow students to create anything that will demonstrate to me what they’ve learned over the term.

      Evidence of learning in the students' control rather than from a pre-determined exam or project that seeks to standardize learning.

    3. and life experiences that should be respected in the classroom.

      There's a whole world within the solitary student sitting in our course! https://twitter.com/dbuckedu/status/1480583295570255873

    4. but they have stepped forward to direct their own education in meaningful and exciting ways

      It seems a pedagogy of care creates a setting of self-confidence where students begin to see themselves as active learners who can navigate their own learning goals and can develop the habits of mind found in deep learning.

    5. But the kindness offered by honesty challenges both myself and my students to grow.

      Kindness as a vehicle of learning growth — really like this sentiment!

    6. Kindness can be a band aid we’re urged to plaster over deep fissures in our institutions, wielded as a weapon instead of as a balm. And too often people confuse kindness with simply “being nice.”

      "Care can be offered in ways that are patronizing/patriarchal, or it can be offered in ways that are more agentic, empowering, or participatory. Some forms of care can reproduce inequality" -- https://twitter.com/Bali_Maha/status/1516414942668365833

    7. They knew (I realize now) that I approached them with suspicion, and so returned that sentiment in kind.

      De-humanizing teaching practices affect everyone involved.

    8. students wouldn’t do the reading,

      What may be worse here is when there are official PD offerings that use this as the basis for the session! "Why won't they do the reading? Come find out ways to get your students to read"

  2. Nov 2021
    1. The Growth Academy

      Maybe too cheesy of a name?

    2. really cool conversations about their classes

      Another place to add some dialogue.

    3. this was a hostile takeover

      Not sure if the phrasing in this draft is entirely appropriate for elementary readers. Maybe "hostile takeover" would be a confusing phrase?

    4. hold regular board meetings at the school

      This would be a nice place to add some dialogue -- to hear directly from each letter grade.

    5. Mr. A,

      Would love to have each letter illustrated as a person. Like Mr. A could have a slick black suit on, looking like a chairman. Mr. F would wear an intimidating uniform. Etc.

    6. the kids who attended

      We can add specific characters for the students -- maybe 3 or 4 students. Perhaps add the background of their school/home experiences.

  3. Jun 2021
    1. How To Make the World a Better Place by 2030

      I realize that this TED Talk was given in 2015, a bit of time ago, but I like using it since it serves as a nice intro to the UN's SDGs.

      If you want to view a short update on these goals, check out a more recent TED Talk from Green here: https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_green_the_global_goals_we_ve_made_progress_on_and_the_ones_we_haven_t?language=en

    1. When We Talk about Grades, We Are Talking about People

      Would love to annotate this text with others interested in #ungrading, perhaps for a social #annotation session for the upcoming #Ungrading Edcamp in the fall!

    1. Grades are Dehumanizing; Ungrading is No Simple Solution

      Would love to annotate this text with others interested in #ungrading, perhaps for a social #annotation session for the upcoming #Ungrading Edcamp in the fall!

    1. ranking systems

      "The Case for Abolishing Class Rank" (Alfie Kohn) -- https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/class-rank/

    2. organizes the way a teacher makes sense of students’ learning in classrooms.

      And creates an air of efficiency around doing so -- like the neat, organized, standardized grade book in the LMS.

    3. If we really believe that in schools and society the best way to understand and teach people is to honor and value their cultural, social, intellectual, and linguistic diversity, then why are we using grading systems that do the opposite?

      Great question for designing our courses and for developing a pedagogy of care!!

    4. On top of this, the standards that all teachers use as well as the habits of language those teachers operate from to make judgements are closely associated historically with elite White racial groups of people. Those groups made our standards in writing classrooms.

      Perhaps a reason to interrogate the premise of Standards-based Grading or Mastery-based Grading.

      From what perspective do these standards emerge? Are students invited to determine the basis of mastery by which they will be graded? What do these standards (or levels of mastery) say about what's valuable to learn? Do these standards merely continue the oppression that the students are already under?

    5. Assumptions of Mediocrity

    1. meant for students

      Perhaps a wonderful activity would be to ask students to annotate Asao's blog posting, to explore the role grades have assumed in their academic experiences.

  4. Feb 2021
    1. Encourage compliments and be nice to others

      This is an excellent reminder about positive reinforcement!

      About a year ago, I read the book Nine Lies about Work. In it, the authors argue that positive attention is 30X more powerful than negative feedback. Since most of us seem to conflate "good" feedback with error/weakness identification, I wonder if we can change this dynamic by focusing only on the strong efforts of others in this course, their strengths & when experiencing a "flow" in their writing. "What were you thinking as you wrote this?" "Can you duplicate the rhetorical approach you took here?" Much like a highlight reel of awesome!

      Positive attention also creates a condition where the brain is more receptive to ideas and information. When we get "destroyed" by others' comments, our nervous system engages in a defensive posture, thus closing us off from cognitive openness. In other words, we shut down our chances of learning. Instead, positive, compassionate attention promotes deep learning!

    2. Mindfully respond

      Did you notice the mindful part of this? To me, mindfulness relates to being aware, being in the present moment. Before we respond to one another and each other's writing, we must practice mindfulness. To ensure that we are compassionately helping and seeking to educate one another. No one in this course knows everything about writing -- we must remain mindful that every member of the course has something to share and to teach!

    3. our colleagues in this class

      Perhaps we can look at labor here not as a centralized thing but as something we do together, as in we labor in a collective community. This means that our personhood is not reduced, but it is restored or affirmed.

      When I labor in the course, I am laboring for my peers and for the community that we establish. This is the interdependence that determines our success -- we work together knowing that our efforts are going to benefit not only ourselves, but those around us. So as I labor, I affirm my membership in the group, and each member (each colleague) assumes an important role in our writing community.

    4. adopt a compassionate stance

      Adopting a stance of compassion is essential; however, it can be difficult at times. The journey to compassion is the key. One of the statements from the Growth Mindset Self-Talk graphic posted on the ENGL-121 Labor Timeline is: "Mistakes help me improve."

      When we face our failures -- instead of running from them or trying to hide them -- we open ourselves to growth! Love your use of the verb provoke here; to provoke is to stimulate or incite. Our failures are necessary to awaken us to compassion!

    5. We will strive to see our interdependence and interconnectedness, and labor for one another.

      This is an important point -- we are compassionate because we all are members of one global community. We connected and interdependent on to every human being on the globe.

      One of the content goals for this course is to explore the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Why study the SDGs? By participating in these global issues/problems, students can develop the characteristics of a global citizen, an individual who is active in their local and global communities while exhibiting empathy and compassion for those around them.

    6. Compassion

      Compassion is something that everyone deserves! If we see compassion as a human right, we may be more apt to explore its use mindfully. Everyone we meet or with whom we interact has a right to our compassion!

  5. Oct 2020
    1. A chef came to talk to me, I finished my bowl, and halfway through the conversation, he stopped talking and he started frowning into my bowl.

      This narrative reminds me of another factor in the global food waste issue -- portion sizes. It seems that research proves the connection between portion sizes and obesity; however, there might be a connection between oversized portions and food waste.

      I remember being a young child sitting at the kitchen table and hearing a lecture from my parents if I did not eat everything on my plate (and, yes, this lecture always contained a reminder that there were other children in the world who may not have had the luxury of a dinner that day). But as an adult, I consider the many times I take too much food and then leave it to be discarded in the trash. If I make it a habit to take smaller portions -- or even use smaller plates! -- I can contribute to solving this issue.

    2. Feeding the 5,000 is an event

      The name of this event is a nod to the New Testament (the second half of the Bible) story about Jesus feeding 5,000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. This miraculous event is interesting since it established the approach that to help people fully, their basic needs (e.g., hunger) must be met first.

      Sometimes, we can consider whether the UN's SDGs should be listed in order of importance. One can make the argument that hunger (and thus the issue of food waste) is a goal that should have priority before the global community tackles the other goals.

    3. All being discarded, perfectly edible, because they’re the wrong shape or size.

      Perhaps this one of the most frustrating parts of this TED Talk -- that perfectly edible fruits and vegetables are discarded because they don't meet an cosmetic "industry standard" that determines whether the food makes it into a grocery store.

      What is interesting here is that this has led to a market for this "imperfect" food. You can Google the multiple companies that have been created to meet this consumer demand. Here is one example: Imperfect Foods. This is so cool -- a person can fight the global food waste scandal by spending their dollars on these rejected fruits/vegetables!

  6. Sep 2020
    1. And what that lets us do is understand the relationship between economic growth and social progress.

      Yes! Without economic opportunity for EVERY global citizen, there is a barrier to social progress. How can a person establish a home, savings, and safety without first securing economic well-being. This is why we are here in college--to obtain the skills to build a successful life!

      When the rich continue to grow in their riches (e.g., look up the about of BILLIONS obtained by the richest 1% since the COVID-19 pandemic) and the poor continue to wallow in their inability to secure economic growth, it is difficult to gauge any social progress.

      The other day, I read this article in The Washington Post about families forced to live in Florida hotels/motels just miles away from Disney World. This is happening right here in the US, the richest country on earth!

    2. Also, while some of the goals are pretty specific — end hunger — others are a lot vaguer — promote peaceful and tolerant societies.

      Maybe it's up to us--global citizens--to define what we mean by peace and tolerance. We kind of did this with our previous annotation of our Charter for Compassion. We collectively discussed what we mean when we use terms like "compassion," "tolerance," "kindness," or "empathy." I don't think global citizens need to wait for the UN to clarify or define these terms.

    3. But not with business as usual.

      To me, this is the crux of the matter--whether the countries of the world can abandon what they've done in the past in order to adopt a "new" way of thinking. So much in typical government is related to corruption, old norms, and entrenched individuals who are more concerned with their position than the welfare of their country's citizens. It will take an upheaval of these accepted norms in order to produce tangible, viable results!

  7. Aug 2020
    1. Mindfully respond

      Did you notice the mindful part of this? To me, mindfulness relates to being aware, being in the present moment. Before we respond to one another and each other's writing, we must practice mindfulness. To ensure that we are compassionately helping and seeking to educate one another. No one in this course knows everything about writing -- we must remain mindful that every member of the course has something to share and to teach!

      quotation about minfulness

    2. Charter for Compassion

      Labor Expectations: Aim for at least 3 substantive annotations. This could be in the form of highlights, of questions, of added information, or of links to other texts/websites/videos. In short, express your thoughts on this Charter. Thanks!