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Navigation short-cut: Session jump by number

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  • Reading
  • Assignments
    • Start your WTL thread (and update your profile with a current pic)
    • Bring in an artifact for your personal sharing. (For example, I’m posting a URL to my flickr feed)
    • Start working on Self-in-Context assignment
    • Please let me know if you have any contacts with traditionally underserved families that might agree to participate in the Family & School Interview project. Just fill out this form. (If you have more than one contact in mind, you can fill it out multiple times.) Thanks!

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  • Reading
  • Assignments 
    • I'll ask again: Please suggest a family for the Family & School Interview assignment, if you know someone who might like to participate. 
    • Complete class-wide WTL. Remember to make TWO (or more) posts.
    • Complete personal/private WTL.

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  • Loose ends
    • Great resource for introducing diversity  / social justice / community issues in a relevant, contextualized way: Classrooms from around the world – Amazon page; smattering of photos available via Slate article.
    • Lehigh library now has (or will have, once I turn it back in) a copy of "One teacher in 10" (2nd edition) (Amazon page). Definitely worth browsing, whether by geography (Louisville, anyone?), grade level (elementary school? MIDDLE SCHOOL??), or socio-cultural environment (e.g., Benjamin Franklin HS in Philly). (It's also fun to read by content area – I'm imagining that the issues presented in the book occur a little differently for E/LA teachers or social studies teachers than math / sci / foreign language teachers.) I'll be reading some short excerpts just to help demonstrate the importance of not just gay teachers being advocates, but straight teachers being allies as well. 
    • And this segues to an introduction of this week's discussion thread: soliciting suggestions for a TLT 404 independent reading (and/or watching) assignment.
  • Discussion of next session
    • Teacher resource assignment (and example)
    • Any questions about the self-in-context, revisited? 
    • Let's eat! Everyone bring in a dish that says something about you, whether it's your family culture, personal identity, or simply something you like. I'll provide the beverages, plates, utensils, etc. 
    • Do we need to save any time for portfolio work? 
  • Conceptual work: Significance of school and community collaboration: A closing example, focusing upon Thomas Jefferson Elementary
  • Closure: This is an interesting time of year to be in this class. The winter holiday season --> gift-giving --> students may be at a fever pitch over giving and getting (but espec getting...); are there any diversity issues or community connections that can be made? 
    • Everyone's favorite Swedish toy catalog. Do you like happy, Nordic children? Check out pp. 62-63, 66-67, 70-71, etc. 
    • Press coverage and popular reaction via the comment thread
      • Foreign press: UK, via the Daily Mail
      • From the US press: NY Daily News. Fantastic bookend to Lois Gold's "The Story of X"
    • And is Sweden weird or are we weird? Well, judge for yourself: Here's the same company's catalog for the Danish market. Contrast their layout of pp. 60-61, for example, with the equivalent from the Swedish catalog (pp. 70-71). 
    • Regardless, hopefully this class helps you see / experience this season with some fresh eyes. If nothing else, you can revel in the sheer cultural insanity of the American understanding of Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanzaa / etc. (And if you enjoy listening to historians talk, try http://backstoryradio.org/happy-holidays-a-history-of-the-season/ You will NOT regret it. Where else can you hear a Jewish professor tell a black Santa Claus enactor how important his work is?)
  • (Do we need to do portfolio work? If so, stick around!)

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