I think this is definitely more of the reality in high school at least. We don't usually have 5-6 people teaching the same class as us, but there might be 1 other teacher teaching a few sections of your class or who's teaching the honors/CP version of your class. I think this is why HS teachers often find co-planning difficult, but you can effectively co-plan with just one other person and still split your workload in half.

Yes!! My teacher and I had been doing this this year and it's such a relief. One week it was my job to do the copies and the next week it was hers. We never had to worry about having enough copies for all of our classes, because we knew they would all be done on Monday!

Plus, once the final copy is "done" each person can make their own personal copy and make whatever tweaks or adjustments they want to make it fit their particular style.

Funny how we ask our students to do this all the time but as teachers we sometimes don't listen to our own advice!!

I think this so true! Even if you all teach the same subject/level you aren't going to do it the same way. Another option would be to come up with a general sketch of what needs to be done that week from the curriculum (what main materials you want to use, what content/topics need to be covered, what assessment will be given at the end) and then each person tweaks it to their liking.

I've found this to be a very effective strategy during my student teacher. My CT and I teach the same classes, so I have an idea of how the lesson could go but when it's my turn to take the class I can put my own ideas in there without changing the core/integrity of what we need to be doing that day.

So true! Sometimes my CT will give me an idea even for just a singular activity that she's used for years and saves me hours of planning. The rest of the lesson unfold organically from that one activity and I get to add my own spin to it without reinventing the entire wheel.

This is a really good idea! Especially because it can presented to students at the beginning of the year and then the different "domains" of each teacher sort of run themselves.

Sometimes the ways that we teach students to interact with each other are lessons that we need to revisit ourselves!

I feel like this is sooo hard!!! You really have to have a good relationship and to have worked together for many years to make this arrangment seamless. Even in undergrad I've had "team taught" courses and the professors, more often than not, just split the weeks/classes based on what content was their specialty and they would teach those classes/topics while the other assisted. I would like to really see an example of this working really well and have the opportunity to learn about how to cultivate a partnership where this could really work.

I think that sometimes this balance can be difficult. I remember being in classrooms in elementary school where one teacher felt like the "lead teacher" and the others were just "helpers" rather than equal professionals. I know my teacher did a good job of making it clear that I was just as much a teacher as she was. She gave me my own desk and asked me to do important things that made me seem like an integral part of the classroom.

This strategy sounds interesting, but I wonder about interference? Especially in a high school classroom, just logistically and spatially how can you split the class in half and not have interference between the two groups?

This is the arrangement that we had been using for most of the year, especially in the classes that I didn't "take over." I think this is a really great setup and I think that most teachers could actually use an arrangement like this. Especially in some of our bigger classes (27 students), it can be really useful to have multiple people helping students out at a time. It also allows for a better and easier flow of classroom management.

This is definitely the arrangement that we had at the beginning of the year. We never thought of having me monitor a specific student and try to come up with new strategies for them, though. This is a really good idea and I can already think of a few students who this strategy might be really helpful for.

My student teaching relationship definitely mirrors this! We have always gotten along super well, but finding the rhythm of how we would manage the classroom together took some time and work.

A goal for all of education not just technology in higher ed!

I think we can see a similar thing happening at the K-12 level.

The elephant in the room this entire time.

Again, I don't mean to be pessimistic but never have a been part of an online discussion platform for a class where I felt like I was "actively learning". Is it just because of my own preferences? Not sure.

This sounds great in theory, but most of the flipped classes that I and my peers have taken have NOT worked out like this. I think the question is, who learns best in blended and flipped classrooms? Who has the resources to work through difficult concepts on their own and who just ends up more confused?

But is access enough?

I think what he means here then is that through this "digital blackface" we can participate in this culture, use these signifiers for our own benefit without going through the work of grappling with traumatic history.

Which is to say, that white people are often excused from truly examining and grappling with the traumas of our history because they feel so removed from it.

History repeats itself. We have the opportunity here to make a choice and not perpetuate these stereotypes.

While the songs that accompanied these stereotypes might be in the past, these stereotypes live on. I can think of so many characters that would fit this description.

Also learned about this in African American Music History. What is the most disturbing is that there are so many songs out there for elementary and middle school bands that are based on this. Look for lower grade music that is upbeat and you're bound to find a Cakewalk or two. I know I played quite a few in band growing up, but never learned the context until college.

While this seems ridiculous to me, it's an idea that has not left us. Recently Barnes & Noble released a new line of covers for their "classics", this time featuring the faces of POC. Simple portrayal or visibility doesn't do anything if it isn't backed by actual investment in the true lives of those it represents.

Jim Crow as a somewhat "mobile" figure, a transracial figure even who is, nonetheless, codified as black.

So few people know that "Jim Crow" originated in minstrelsy. I learned a lot about this in my African American Music History course and it was interesting, yet appalling. This article is backing up one of my major takeaways from that course, though: Most of American culture has been co-opted from black people and other minorities.

This is so true. More often than not the images associated with popular memes feature black people prominently. Scroll through Twitter and you'll see many a Real Housewives of Atlanta GIF as a reaction.

Definition of cachet: the state of being admired or respected; prestige. OR A distinguishing mark or seal

What a profound question. Feel like I'm going to have to print this question up and hang it somewhere that I can see it everyday! As an educator this is a particularly important question to ask ourselves as we know that the education system has, historically, been a huge actor in the "dehumanistion and debasement" of black, indigenous, and POC lives.

These two paragraphs were a little dense for me. Not 100% sure I understand what is being said here. Will come back to this after reading the rest of the article and see if I understand better!

Right. This is not only harmful for white people and non-black POC and their conscious/unconscious view of people. It can also contribute to the stereotype threat that we know black people, particularly black women, face at every turn.

Love this idea especially for students who might be shy, anxious, or simply not feel that analysis and/or close-reading is their strong suit. This tool can help students see that reading, analysis, and close-reading are not tasks that are to be done in a vacuum, but rather can facilitate engaging conversations about a text.

Through digital annotation the processes of reading and discussing almost merge into one which is perhaps what the author means when they say that digital annotation might be an "end within itself"

I would really love to see more online courses use this feature! The main thing I see missing from online courses is the true discussion of readings (even with video chats of readings, discussions never seem as spirited as they are in person). Perhaps this sort of digital annotation could replace this very much missing piece of online coursework.

Great point here! Definitely getting me thinking about more ways that I can have students share their work with each other and with peers outside of our classroom.

Woah. I think this has happened to all of us at one point or another. We are looking for students to simply spit back at us the answers that we're looking for rather than speak with their own minds/their own ideas.

What a powerful statement. I think we often think that we are powerless in these situations of injustice, but truly as teachers we are lucky that we get a space where we can make that noise and hopefully disrupt some systems.