Yesterday, Prof. Eloiza Jorge (at the behest of activist and friend Stephanie Rivera) asked me to speak at the 2nd annual Urban Teaching Matters Conference at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. Before the event, I told folks I would get kicked out of New Jersey for the things I would be saying. Thankfully, I left New Brunswick of my own volition. Here’s the speech, including Rivera’s introductory words.
Let me know what you think below.
Listening – it’s great!!! Can’t we clone you? The sound goes off at 32 mins. But luckily comes back. Thank you for speaking about unions. We need real leaders!! You for one.
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Appreciated, Joan. We need to have these real conversations. I’ll probably get in trouble, but oh well.
Thanks. The need to tear it down is immense in mathematics. Organizing and acting must begin–at the school and community level, to build the momentum to impact policy of the state and other overseers.
Wow. As a first year teacher, I feel this systemic monster in education so deeply already. You go to school for education and have all this knowledge about how students learn and respond to teaching, and all these ideas about how you are going to teach; then you get into a classroom. You still try to be what you know you should and want to be as a teacher, but at times it becomes difficult with the systems that are in place. For right now, I will do what you talked about in the end of the video: being mindful and careful about how I operate my classroom and teach/interact with my students. Thank you so much for starting the real conversations for so many!