Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Where I've been connecting with others

Spend time learning
Over the past eight years I've worked largely from my home and have had fewer and fewer one-on-one meetings, or events to fill my schedule.  That's changed with the Covid19 lockdown. I can attend one, or two, ZOOM meetings daily where I'm learning new information, meeting new people and/or reconnecting with people who I've not been able to meet in traditional meetings.

Below are a few Tweets that show the range of events I've been following.  You're invited to join any of these.

I started meeting a few weeks ago with a few educators who use the #learning2pivot hashtag. Members have been writing blog articles to show their thinking about school re-opening. I added them to my Inoreader library where I've been pointing to educators who I've met over the past 10 years via the #clmooc, #etmooc and similar educator communities.

Here are links to three of the blog articles that were shared this week:

- from Geoffrey Winship, educator in Toronto - "Getting Back to Normal"
- Dr. Bryan P. Sanders, educator from Los Angeles, "Take away the campus, but put back the computer"
- from Ihor Charischak, A career mathematics educator, "My Trip to Number Town" (watch the video)
- from Gary Stager, education consultant - "Big ideas" and "Time for Optimism"
- from Susan Spellman, school counselor - Re -Entry from a School Counsellor Lens

Last week I visited the #PovertyNarrative conference hosted by the University of Michigan. I looked at the archive of an event held on June 11, watched one live on June 16, then watched a second. I posted Tweets as I did. There will be another session on Thursday, June 18, then more the following week.  Below is one of my Tweets.


The list of recommendations for solutions journalists is similar to the goals I've had since 1993 when I began creating my list of Chicago tutor and/or mentor programs. My goal was that programs would share information on their web sites showing what they do, why they do it, where, how, and what's working, or not working, and why. Such information would be valuable to anyone trying to understand them, or trying to do similar work in different places. Sadly, few programs provide this range of information.

One of the #clmooc educator blogs I follow is written by Kevin Hodgson, a middle grade teacher in Massachusetts. He posted blog article sharing cartoons he's created since schools closed in March. I encourage you to take a look.



I also watched this ZOOM presentation



On Sunday evening I watched the segment on 60 minutes where they told the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre that took place 100 years ago. This is a huge reminder of why the history of slavery and racism in America should be taught in every school.



I went to Instagram to listen to this presentation. I love the graphic.



From June 10-12 I followed the National Points of Light Conference, which was a virtual event this year. I've attended twice in the past, but not recently. You can follow that event using #pointsoflight20




I find some Twitter threads to be worth reading. Here's one that shows how the Confederacy survived the Civil War. As I said about the Tulsa Massacre, this history has not been taught.



I also took a look at the #HowWeRise blog launched by the Brookings Institute. I added a link to that in my monthly eNews, which I'm sending today.



Since last October I've been encouraging Mayor Lightfoot's MyChiMyFuture youth programs team to share info on Twitter and to try to build community there. Last week they began to do that.


I keep checking my TMPrograms list on Twitter every day, looking for posts from Chicago area tutor and/or mentor programs.  Too few are using Twitter.  Many are posting on Facebook and/or LinkedIN or Instagram.  However, I find it more difficult to see a list of programs on these platforms. I'm just seeing single programs as they show up in my feed, which is an inefficient use of my time.

The Tweets I've shared are just a few examples of my past couple of weeks on Twitter. You can follow me at @tutormentorteam and see the same things I'm looking at. You can even post a Tweet sharing a link to your own website and blog.
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Posted by Tutor Mentor Connections at 1:01 PM
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