Who? Me?

 We've all faced that dreaded moment: your week has just sucked, you've worked way more than usual, you have 2 tests and a paper due, and it's 11 pm. You're opening up canvas to send your professor a plea for an extension, and you have to decide just how much detail you want to include, do you simply ask for the extra time, or do you tell them about just how overwhelmed you are? We all live busy, complicated lives in which school is only a part. While many of our students won't be dealing with the 'adult problems' we do, we have to remember that they live entire lives outside of our classrooms.  The truth is we will never know the full picture of what's going on in our students' lives, and that's ok. Students could be experiencing mental illness, abuse, divorce, or food insecurity. The student who's falling asleep in your class could be trying to get through the day after helping their parents with their siblings so the parents can work, or t...

 How do we talk about the issues that matter?  I used to work for an organization that placed a very high level of importance on diversity, equity, and inclusion. One of the most helpful things I learned while employed there was the importance of vocabulary and having a common understanding when discussing topics such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, etc.  Here's a quiz: what's the difference between nationality, race, and ethnicity?  You might use some of these words interchangeably or not at all.  Here's the answer:  Race: the definition of race is tricky, and not truly agreed upon. We can say that it's based on where your ancestors originated or based on the color of your skin.   Nationality: nationality is what is on your theoretical passport, think about where you were born or where you have citizenship.  Ethnicity: more so than anything else ethnicity is a cultural identity, your ethnicity can overlap with your race, language, r...