Edjacent: An Educator Design Collaborative

Here's another post from the archives, musings from a flight that seem relevant in today's times. Let me know what you think in the comments! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am working on a project that requires me to know a great deal about jobs I know nothing about, namely in the manufacturing, cybersecurity and agriculture fields. I am learning a lot from internet research, but one of my favorite methods of gathering unique and relevant ideas for projects comes from a new form of research I am exploring: bothering strangers on planes. Everyone hates to sit next to the person who talks on the plane. We put our headphones on or take a phone call during the boarding process to send a clear signal to one another: I plan to sleep and/or watch the Crown downloaded from Netflix during this flight. I may not even look up for the pretzels. Leave me alone. I am usually a headphone person. I fly a lot and often have multiple connecti

ICYMI: The original post, Part 1: Taekwondo as Lesson Study can be found here:  https://edjacentlyspeaking.edjacent.org/2020/05/part-1-taekwondo-as-lesson-study.html You know that joke we're all making about not knowing what day (or month or season) it is during Quarantine? In our family, one of the few things that has kept us on track is virtual Taekwondo. Schools closed in our town on March 13. On the morning of Saturday, March 14, our kids attended their last in-person Taekwondo class. The dojo was closed the week of March 16, but taekwondo was not cancelled: immediately, Master Park and his instructors posted video "challenges" on Facebook and reminded the students to check the form and kicking combination videos that are always available for their belts through an app for the school. We learned halfway through the week of March 23 that schools would be closed in our state for the remainder of the year. While the school system scrambled to figure out what onl

Systemic oppression is endemic in public education. It’s time we faced our fears and called it out. Don't Fool Yourself. Education is Politics. Jared Fritzinger  is a Civics and Economics teacher at Old Donation School in Virginia Beach, VA. He has been teaching for about 9 years. Before teaching he delivered sandwiches and worked in a mail room while he toured as a drummer in various punk rock bands.  He also got a Masters Degree in History with a minor in Political Science from Old Dominion University somewhere in there. He received the 2019 Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators for his work with the EcoBus project and developing a school-wide capstone course for 8th graders. After partying all night the night before at an Iron Maiden concert, he got to meet the head of the EPA.  Maiden was cooler. He is married to Becky, who is a way better teacher than he is, and they have a 2.5 year old daughter named Shirley who acts just like Jared.  He is st

Mark M. Diacopoulos – PhD. Curriculum and Instruction.  Assistant Professor, Dept. of Teaching and Leadership, Pittsburg State University Mark has been an educator for over 25 years. He has taught in middle and high schools both in the US and UK. An early adopter of educational technology, he has worked as a Technology Specialist and Curriculum Specialist in social studies for a large district in Southeast Virginia. He earned his PhD. in Curriculum and Instruction in 2018 and is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Leadership at Pittsburg State University in rural Kansas. As well as researching and writing about how to best teach future teachers, he also examines issues of professional identity, technology teaching and learning, critical friendship and communities of practice. Mark is also a devoted parent, a lifetime fan of Arsenal F.C., and a self-described “retired broken aikidoka”. For more from Mark on this topic, check out this related podca

You should know, I wrote this post almost two years ago, but I was too afraid to post it. I still am, but I am going to anyway. You Should Know I am white and from a privileged background. You should know, I almost typed "moderately" before privileged because I have been trained to call myself "lower middle class" and justify my lack of privilege by saying things like, "But I paid for my own college!" or "But we ate generic cereal!" as if this means I understand lack of privilege. I do not. I was privileged. I am a liberal feminist. I was raised to shatter glass ceilings and be whoever I want to be. You should know, I have often felt guilty about choosing to be a teacher, a traditionally female profession. I have rarely, if ever, felt my female-ness professionally. If anything, I have seen my male colleagues suffer from gender discrimination. Being female has not been a significant disadvantage in my life. I grew up in south-central Penn