Walk Out Walk On and Occupy Wall Street on Teachers Teaching Teachers - Wednesday 12.7.11
Here are some threads we will be weaving together on this week’s Teachers Teaching Teachers - Wednesday, 12.7.11 - 9:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Pacific / World Times http://goo.gl/Dqblo. Join us at edtechtalk.com/live-ttt . +monika hardy, +Chris Sloan, +Scott Shelhart, and +Paul Allison will be joined by +Mary Ann Reilly, +Ann Leaness, and+Liam O’Donnell to talk about Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze’s book, Walk Out Walk On [ walkoutwalkon.net ] After you read the details below, we hope you’ll want to join us! If you’ve been reading this book too or been involved in teaching about the Occupy movement in your classroom, please let us know so that we can include you in our Hangout as well! Here are some details: Monika Hardy wrote recently that she is “absolutely swimming in Walk Out Walk On.” She goes on to explain: We have been working on a quiet revolution the last four years in Colorado [ labconnections.blogspot.com ], both outside and in the public school system, in order to create the communities the authors, Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze share and describe so poignantly, so beautifully in their book. Mary Ann Reilly will be joining us this week. Mary seems to also be inspired by Walk Out Walk On, and has been trying to get a group of teachers together to talk about the book. Mary is a progressive educator, artist, photographer, and writer of Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 Classrooms [ infoagepub.com/index.php?id=9&p=p4b917a12e9f4a ] . We are delighted when she is able to join our conversations at Teachers Teaching Teachers. Ann Leaness will be joining is as well. Ann is a high school English teacher in Philadelphia, and she is am a member of the edcamp [edcampfoundation.org ] foundation board. Ann’s team began edcamp [edcampphilly.org ] in Philadelphia in May of 2010. Walk Out Walk On is on Ann’s bookshelf too, and recently she wrote about “The Dissenters” [lifewithl.com/2011/12/04/the-dissenters-part-1 ] in her blog: I wanted to spark some interest and also to make this unit relevant for my students. To get started, I showed the students these two videos:
UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed [ youtu.be/6AdDLhPwpp4 ] and UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to car amidst protesters [youtu.be/nmfIuKelOt4 ] These videos sparked some interesting discussion about non-violence and the violent reaction. Some students were shocked by the violence of the direct pepper spraying on the docile students, and the lack of reaction on the students’ part. Why did they just do nothing? Why didn’t they fight back? They also remarked about the silence on the second video. We talked about the impact of that silence and the effect of the sounds of the heels hitting the pavement. Again, someone questioned why they didn’t get up and get in the Chancellor’s face. Reading Walk Out Walk On, one can’t help but wonder if the Occupy Wall Street movement might a place to find “Communities Daring to Live the Future Now,” as it’s put in the subtitle of Walk Out Walk On. One of the authors, Deborah Frieze also wonders in a blog post last month, “Is Occupy Our Opportunity?” In Walk Out Walk On, we found ourselves often in the conversation about “building the world we want today.” The communities we wrote about were walking out of failing institutions and walking on to experiment with new ways of feeding and sheltering themselves, of creating health and safety, of learning together and rebuilding relationships. This has never been about creating utopia. It’s about confronting the reality of our situation with new eyes, being willing to abandon limiting beliefs about what’s possible and who’s qualified to make a contribution. Walking on is an invitation for a different kind of social order to emerge in community. So, too, is Occupy. Dewey Square [Boston] is in some ways a microcosm of our society—for better and for worse, it amplifies our gifts and diseases. It places our social impoverishment under a microscope and invites us to do something different. It challenges us to re-learn what it means to be citizens who take responsibility for one another.
[ http://www.deborahfrieze.com/2011/11/understanding-occupy-as-a-space-to-re-learn-citizenship/-559 ] Also joining us on Teachers Teaching Teachers will be Liam O’Donnell, an award-winning children’s author and educator [liamodonnell.com/graphic-novels-books ]. He will help us wonder about communities and to talk about his work as an educator in the Occupy movement. He writes: I’ve been bringing the Occupy movement into my work with Grade 5/6s studying government and protest (with videos, twinke fingers in the classroom, etc) As a member of the OccupyToronto Education work group, I can speak to the curriculum we’re developing for schools around issues of social justice, and poverty. Also, in a recent blog post, “How Twinkle Fingers turned my classroom into a General Assembly” Liam writes: Instead of shouting out agreement or disagreement, students showed their “Twinkle Fingers” of agreement or their down low twinkles of disagreement. Confusion or questions were shown by making a letter ‘C’ shape with their hand. This “General Assembly Guide” [http://www.nycga.net/resources/general-assembly-guide ] from the New York City General Assembly shows what each symbol looks like. And to ensure all voices were heard, not just the loudest, a “stack” or speakers list was put on the chalkboard. [liamodonnell.com/feedingchange/2011/11/how-twinkle-fingers-turned-my-classroom-into-a-general-assembly ] Wow! All we need now is for you to join us at edtechtalk.com/live-tttWednesday, 12.7.11 - 9:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Pacific / World Timeshttp://goo.gl/Dqblo.
UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed [ youtu.be/6AdDLhPwpp4 ] and UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to car amidst protesters [youtu.be/nmfIuKelOt4 ] These videos sparked some interesting discussion about non-violence and the violent reaction. Some students were shocked by the violence of the direct pepper spraying on the docile students, and the lack of reaction on the students’ part. Why did they just do nothing? Why didn’t they fight back? They also remarked about the silence on the second video. We talked about the impact of that silence and the effect of the sounds of the heels hitting the pavement. Again, someone questioned why they didn’t get up and get in the Chancellor’s face. Reading Walk Out Walk On, one can’t help but wonder if the Occupy Wall Street movement might a place to find “Communities Daring to Live the Future Now,” as it’s put in the subtitle of Walk Out Walk On. One of the authors, Deborah Frieze also wonders in a blog post last month, “Is Occupy Our Opportunity?” In Walk Out Walk On, we found ourselves often in the conversation about “building the world we want today.” The communities we wrote about were walking out of failing institutions and walking on to experiment with new ways of feeding and sheltering themselves, of creating health and safety, of learning together and rebuilding relationships. This has never been about creating utopia. It’s about confronting the reality of our situation with new eyes, being willing to abandon limiting beliefs about what’s possible and who’s qualified to make a contribution. Walking on is an invitation for a different kind of social order to emerge in community. So, too, is Occupy. Dewey Square [Boston] is in some ways a microcosm of our society—for better and for worse, it amplifies our gifts and diseases. It places our social impoverishment under a microscope and invites us to do something different. It challenges us to re-learn what it means to be citizens who take responsibility for one another.
[ http://www.deborahfrieze.com/2011/11/understanding-occupy-as-a-space-to-re-learn-citizenship/-559 ] Also joining us on Teachers Teaching Teachers will be Liam O’Donnell, an award-winning children’s author and educator [liamodonnell.com/graphic-novels-books ]. He will help us wonder about communities and to talk about his work as an educator in the Occupy movement. He writes: I’ve been bringing the Occupy movement into my work with Grade 5/6s studying government and protest (with videos, twinke fingers in the classroom, etc) As a member of the OccupyToronto Education work group, I can speak to the curriculum we’re developing for schools around issues of social justice, and poverty. Also, in a recent blog post, “How Twinkle Fingers turned my classroom into a General Assembly” Liam writes: Instead of shouting out agreement or disagreement, students showed their “Twinkle Fingers” of agreement or their down low twinkles of disagreement. Confusion or questions were shown by making a letter ‘C’ shape with their hand. This “General Assembly Guide” [http://www.nycga.net/resources/general-assembly-guide ] from the New York City General Assembly shows what each symbol looks like. And to ensure all voices were heard, not just the loudest, a “stack” or speakers list was put on the chalkboard. [liamodonnell.com/feedingchange/2011/11/how-twinkle-fingers-turned-my-classroom-into-a-general-assembly ] Wow! All we need now is for you to join us at edtechtalk.com/live-tttWednesday, 12.7.11 - 9:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Pacific / World Timeshttp://goo.gl/Dqblo.
