Connections

Yesterday, I read Steve's blog about making connections to things we've done before, things we'll do in the future, just things in general.  It resonated with me that I am constantly doing that.  Not just in education, learning, school but in my everyday life too.  My brain is just always in motion...thinking, connecting thoughts, ideas, actions, etc. (So much so that sometimes I can't sleep because my brain isn't ready to "turn off")

Case in point....this morning for our Writing Into the Day, we watched a video of Chimamanda Adichie.  Her talk was about looking beyond the "one story" of individuals, cultures, groups as a whole, writers, etc.  Afterwards, we were to write into the day about our thoughts.  I found myself thinking about my classroom and how we are always trying to add diversity into the classroom.  We use books using people from different cultures, disabilities, etc.  We provide pictures throughout the room, works about other cultures, and stories of other cultures to promote this diversity.  Yes, Chimamanda, we are doing what we can to help distill that "one story" per culture, that stereotyping.

But then my thoughts kept moving and  kept connecting...We, as teachers, can do this in our classroom to get rid of those negative cultural biases; but what about when the children hear otherwise from outside of the school.  How do we offset some of the stereotypes that parents feed to their children?  Now, I keep thinking, keep connecting....Hey, this is exactly what my group talked about yesterday during Lacy's presentation.  We were exploring other people's inquiry and ours to explore was "I'm interested in the literacy underlives of young children an their teachers: the literacies they bring to the classroom that are expressing informal in formal spaces."

Connections, connections, connections....