This kid warms by heart. He teaches clearly, accessibly, about transgender identity, while also sharing a resource, the book When Kayla Was Kyle.
Watch, and learn:
Hi friends and strangers, please interact with me, not your mobile device
Phone addiction has spread far and wide. I see it amongst my friends, my family, my colleagues, my students, strangers. Really, everywhere. Not everyone, yet, but I'm getting worried. I am an educational technologist. I love technology. I am writing on my laptop while listening to Spotify remote streaming to my TV. But, things go awry when it interrupts our ability to love and interact with each other.
I feel like maybe we're on a pendulum ride that has swung way over to one side, and we'll swing back a bit. I hope so, because I'm not loving blind compulsion to "interact" with our devices. We should control devices, and not the other way around.
This video spoke to me so clearly in exhibiting this phenomenon. I hope you take 2 minutes and 11 seconds of dedicated (no multitasking) to watch it. It's sad in some ways, but so spot on.
Straight students standing up for their gay peers
An inspiring video from students at the Trinity School in New York City. Straight students speak our in support of their gay peers. More on their program at the Love is Louder website.
Sometimes the best teaching is when we get out of the way
The video of a small child grappling with the ethical questions around eating meat is a powerful example of a teacher (his mother) getting out of the way while her child goes through an entire philosophical investigation from start to finish. I often say that, as teachers, sometimes our job is just to get out of the way. Here's why:
Easily analyze a film's portrayal of women
A colleague shared this amazingly simple test with me. It demonstrates how to quickly analyze a film to see how women are portrayed. It is actually quite upsetting and frightening the more that I think about it.
Is this part of your media literacy program? If not, why not?