2025: Because We Had To Do Something About It
How did a bad encounter with two wayward teenagers after Trump’s inauguration transformed my outlook for the rest of the year? Read more here and let me know what you…
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Teacher Leadership As A Flawed Endeavor [Medium]
Teacher leadership almost always looks good on paper. Truly, I would love this model to win from an individual and collective perspective. It’s tiring watching the same
Thank You For Your Service, Still
I recently wrote two pieces that I’d love for you all to read. The most prominent among them is an emotional piece from the Huffington
I Keep Fallin’, But Never Fallin’ Six Feet Deep (The World Is Ours)
On Friday, the cafe con leche needed to be just right. The room needed to feel warm, but not blazing hot. The papers needed to work
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Of Mutual Cares [An EduCon 2018 Reflection]
Most teachers don’t just teach at one school. They teach at multiple schools at once. There’s the school we work in, the school that happens
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Six Years Gifted [One King for Three Kings]
Alejandro is six years old today. Teaching up to that point felt like an exercise in organizing students who were mine, but not mine. I had
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Labors and Dangers [2017 At Last]
You knew I had to zoom in on one section of the super-musical and my personal soundtrack of the year Hamilton: An American Musical. For those
On ELA, Math, and School, Because We Gotta Talk School
Where did people get the idea that schooling was neutral anyways? On my newsletter, I succinctly suggest that schooling was never neutral. In recent times,
Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Peculiar, Particular, Educational Intellectual
In the last six years, few have pushed America to reconsider history the way that Ta-Nehisi Coates has. Yes, the thrust of his visions come
Skipping The Classes I Don’t Need
Whenever folks hear code words like ” … regardless of zip code …” they act upon it in multiple ways. Some want to create educational
Two Days Down, Forever To Go
I burst out laughing. I never thought I’d say that within the first two days of school. But I did. Not only did I laugh,
Some Of Us Gotta Fight For Ours
For weeks, I’ve been getting ready for the first day of school. Staplers, looseleaf, folders, erasers, rulers, Lysol wipes, and the eight pegs I used
Rebecca Solnit and How Pockets of Hope Have Saved America
In my recent post on Medium, I decided to take a crack at the largesse we call “curriculum” and why textbooks have never been sufficient:
And That’s When I Got A Phone Call From Secretary DeVos
I kid you not. I was in the middle of a meeting with some other folks when a random D.C. number called my cell. I
The Relationship Between Humility and Teacher Leadership [Medium]
July is the perfect month for teacher conferences, and I’ve had the fortune of going to a couple. Every year, I get curious about the
A Note About Identity and The Light That Guides Us
Recently, I wrote on Medium about my racial identity and how my blackness shapes the way I view the world. Observe: The idea of joy
On Global Teacher Prize Winner Maggie MacDonnell and What Humility Looks Like
We met at a fancy hotel on Central Park South, a place that most native New Yorkers scurry past before they get priced out of
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What Philando Castile Taught Me About Fatherhood [Medium]
Recently, I put a post on Medium about Philando Castile and Father’s Day, which I think will be useful for any day: “Castile’s name comes
Meet Me Inside, Meet Me Inside
The students already dispersed. They left desks misaligned, books out-of-place, looseleaf discarded, and the only adult in the room weary. Last period is almost always
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I Only Do This Because You’re Doing Well [Stop Asking Me About Your Grades]
Not a day goes by when a student asks me how they’re doing in class. My teaching days have about three guarantees: a student will
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Superpower [A Tough Love]
I’m not here to convince you I’m perfect. I’m here to convince you I’m not. There’s a school in my old neighborhood that took the
A Mathematical Five-Minute Tribute to Hamilton the Musical
Can you imagine having only five minutes to get a point across, inspire hundreds of people, and keep your message grounded in the work? Yeah,
Vivid Dreams and Hard Work
“My dreams is vivid, work hard to live it …” – Christopher “Biggie” Wallace on Shaq’s “You Can’t Stop The Reign” My kids call Biggie
The Trump In All Of Us
At EduCon, a group of EduColor folks sat around a table at a Chinese restaurant. This idea comforted me. Generations of activists, from veterans of
Why Are You Looking For The Living Among The Dead?
“While they were puzzling over this, suddenly two men in radiant apparel stood beside them. As the women bowed their faces to the ground in
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A Story About The High Expectations Conversation [The Art of the Professional Insult]
“Mr. Vilson, how do you feel about us opting out because I’m thinking about it.” “Let me tell y’all something, and this is real talk:
In Defense Of Our Dreams
Testing season always feels like a surreal time-out from normal proceedings. Covered bulletin boards and gridded desk alignments make every classroom feel still, like an
Kalief Browder and the School-To-Prison Pipeline
A few weeks ago, I was supposed to attend the premiere of Time: The Kalief Browder Story, the documentary about a young man wrongly arrested and
If You Teach And No One Learns, Did You Really Teach?
This past week, my school had parent-teacher conferences. It’s like Christmas four times a year… Sidenote: When I said this aloud to one of my
Text From My Speech at #March4EducationNY
On Saturday, March 4th, 2017, The Alliance for Quality Education asked me to say a few words on behalf of educators across the state. Here
Why I Will March (Stand For Something)
On March 4th, 2017 from 9:30 to 12:30, I’m marching with the Alliance for Quality Education and their broad coalition. There’s a billion reasons for
W.E.B. DuBois and Dual Consciousness For Teachers of Color
In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois posits: It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes
With An Upright Zeal (On Teaching With This Fire)
Last week, I took a five-day social media break for the express purpose of re-centering myself, my family, and my work in ways that the Internet
Don’t Blame The Kids (On The Women’s March and Getting “Woke”)
I wore black on the day the Thief-In-Chief was inaugurated, swearing up and down my apartment as he swore up and down to protect his constituents. The image
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The Work Ahead [An Annenberg Institute Interview]
Here’s a little something. “As far as the election is concerned, I’ve always felt that we were having to do the work regardless. There was
![Featured image for “What Educators Can Do Now To Honor MLK Besides Post Quotes [On #MLKNow]”](https://i0.wp.com/thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/riversidechurch.jpg?fit=2203%2C1652&quality=100&ssl=1)
What Educators Can Do Now To Honor MLK Besides Post Quotes [On #MLKNow]
Yesterday, I had the fortune – the privilege – of attending MLK Now 2017, sponsored by Blackout for Human Rights / United Blackout and the
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