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This thought provoking infographic gives us pause to examine our own actions and how they land in the space. This can be applied to most every interaction we have in our daily lives. Great food for thought and a great practice to utilize when engaging with others.

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Hack A Community Engagement Solution...or Another Type of Solution

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Hack A Community Engagement Solution...or Another Type of Solution

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Here are simple steps you can utilize within your formal/informal groups in your school or other academic spaces. Where there is a problem, there is a solution - just hack one!

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This infographic represents work done by the team at Table 2, who wish to have experiential trips with parents. What a great way for parents to share their cultural experiences, but also for parents to experience things together - this creates culture as well!

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This infographic represents work done by the team at Table 1 who wanted to first invite parents of special ed students, as well as all parents to the school for coffee, as a start to engagement. Every Monday and Wednesday is such a nice start!

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It seems like it is a trend that Columbia University supports the engagement of the communities in the locations of the campuses. Specifically,  the Music and Music Education Department offers programs with affordable tuitions and scholarships for students who cannot afford.  More importantly, the music is taught through the suggestions of the students.   The students come home feeling proud to present the music of their communities back to their communities.

As a teacher involved with this program, I have learned so much more about the students and their parents through asking what are their music at home as compared to teaching them from a pre-set curriculum.  Also, the practice time increases when they play the music they like.

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Musical Communities @ Teachers College | Research | Music & Music Education | Arts & Humanities

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Teachers College, Columbia University, is the first and largest graduate school of education in the United States, and also perennially ranked among the nation's best.

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Design for Change-Re-defining the term "Community Engagement"

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Design for Change-Re-defining the term "Community Engagement"

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When we usually hear of the word community engagement, we think about school administrators, teachers, and principals collaborating and engaging with parents and community members to bring about a positive change in students' academic levels or behavior. However, Design for Change enables children to take up an issue in their community and work creatively and collaboratively to solve it. The two examples below show us what is possible if we give ownership to our students and blur the lines of learning between the school and the community. In many ways, the examples below exemplify what community engagement can look like if the primary stakeholders and beneficiaries of school are engaged in it. These projects, along with modifying the role of the teacher and the school, empowers children to solve a problem that will indirectly impact classroom outcomes.

Example 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oD59dIZpik

Example 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OVl-TbvKhw

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Communities In Schools is a program with a mission to "surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life."  When I think of community engagement, I think of stakeholders such as parents, partner agencies, faith partners, after school programs, etc.  This program is a partnership agency of sorts, but one that truly immerses itself in the school community and becomes another arm to wrap around students.   Communities in Schools works to support parents and families in navigating the complexities of school services and providing resources to students.  This program had a site coordinator at my previous school who did everything from taking students on STEM field trips to incentivizing school attendance to providing snacks or backpacks when students needed them.  When we think about community engagement, I think it is important to consider that there are many ways that this can look - sometimes, it is simply getting students the food and resources they need to make it through the day.

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In the U.S., approximately 1 in 5 children under the age of 18 live in poverty, shouldering more than they should have to. Communities In Schools works directly inside schools, building relationships that empower students to succeed inside and outside the classroom.

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This week's topic is so fitting and timely to something that has been on my heart over the last couple of weeks. Grammy-nominated rapper, Nipsey Hussle, was shot and killed just a couple weeks ago in front of his clothing store in his hometown neighborhood in Los Angeles. This story has swept headlines in the last couple weeks and many media outlets have highlighted Nipsey's dedication to community engagement and empowerment. Please check out this article and watch the video embedded in it to learn more.

One of the MANY great things he did was partner with the organization Vector 90 to provide STEM professional development to young people of color. He also invested in a local elementary school to renovate basketball courts, playgrounds, and provide shoes for children in need. Nipsey used his successful career to give back to the community he grew up in and to teach others how they too can achieve success. Though he is no longer with us, I know his legacy will live on.

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It was clear from the very beginning that rapper Nipsey Hussle was going to make it a priority to talk about investing in South Los Angeles.

In what is perhaps his first on-camera interview, at the Russell Simmons' Get Your Money Right summit in 2006, Hussle spoke plainly about leaving behind the material things synonymous with hip-hop lifestyle - the diamonds, the flashy cars - to secure the financial future of his family and people in his community.

"How come you not blingin' and having all kind of crazy diamonds and all that," hip-hop journalist Davey D asked Hussle, who if you squint and think back to 1993, might remind you of a young Snoop Dogg. "I guess you here to get your money, right?"

"I'd rather invest in some real estate," Hussle said.

"So you trying to get land?" Davey D asked.

"Exactly, homie, a real asset to take care of my people," Hussle said matter-of-factly.

The 33-year-old rapper, whose real name was Ermias Ashgedom, was shot and killed Sunday in Los Angeles in front of his apparel store, Marathon Clothing. Tributes and condolences from celebrities, politicians and fans poured in, with many people remembering him for his commitment to his community in South Central Los Angeles. Since the beginning of his rap career, he has always represented the Crenshaw District, specifically the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue; his 2005 debut mixtape was titled "Slauson Boy" and his eighth mixtape was titled "Crenshaw."

He was called Neighborhood Nip for a reason.

Marathon Clothing sits at that Crenshaw/Slauson intersection, one of the main hubs for businesses in South L.A. The apparel shop is a " smart store" that uses an app so customers can see exclusive content from the rapper. Hussle enlisted the help of software engineer Iddris Sandu to create the app and build the store, after a chance meeting at a Starbucks store a couple years ago.

"Nipsey is the reason many people know me today, and to hear that his life was taken in front of the very store we built together is truly a full-circle moment, which aches for me personally as well as for the culture," Sandu told NBCBLK in an email. "Grateful for the light he saw in me years ago, I vow to continue pushing forward the culture with the very platform he gave me."

In February, Hussle and his business partner, David Gross, bought the entire plaza at that intersection, with plans to knock it down and build it back up with a six-story residential building atop commercial stores, Forbes reported.

Gross is also founder and CEO of Vector 90, a coworking space and STEM incubator for young people to gain training, professional development and other tools to build their own businesses. Hussle, who invested in Vector 90, has long had an interest in technology and hoped to help bridge the gap between black and brown children in his community and technology entrepreneurs and CEOs in Silicon Valley.

Hussle owned several other businesses in the area, including a Fatburger restaurant, a barbershop and a seafood market. He had invested in the 59th Street Elementary School, giving shoes to all of the students and renovating its basketball courts and playground.

"I just want to give back in an effective way," he told The Los Angeles Times in 2018. "I remember being young and really having the best intentions and not being met on my efforts. You're, like, 'I'm going to really lock into my goals and my passion and my talents' but you see no industry support. You see no structures or infrastructure built and you get a little frustrated."

Imani Beal-Ampah, a longtime resident of the Crenshaw District in South Los Angeles, said she remembered when the rapper released one of his earliest singles, "Hussle in the House," in 2009. Since then, she has seen the effect that Hussle had on her community.

"He became a neighborhood hero; he was such a positive figure in our community," Beal-Ampah, 29, said. "You see the changes that he made. He worked with elementary schools and helped to bring STEM programs in the community. This is not just someone who just had a business. He wanted to change the community from the root up."

As an artist, Hussle found ways to disrupt the music industry through his tactics. He was signed to Epic Records, but the deal fell through in 2010. Three years later, he released his mixtape "Crenshaw" independently and unconventionally - by selling 1,000 physical copies for $100 each. (He sold out in less than 24 hours.) Last year, he released his debut studio album "Victory Lap" - in a strategic deal with Atlantic Records and his own record label All Money - which was nominated for best rap album at the 2019 Grammys.

On the mic, he often talked about his entrepreneurial ambitions. In "Blue Laces 2," he rapped: "Billion dollar project 'bout to crack the cement/So one of our investments had become strategic/Summer roll '18, man it's such a season/'Bout to make more partners look like f------ geniuses."

That "billon-dollar project" likely refers to Destination Crenshaw, a 1.3-mile outdoor space dedicated to the arts and culture of black Los Angeles. The project is a response to the city's decision to put a section of the Los Angeles County Metro rail line at ground level along Crenshaw Boulevard. Community members lamented that the construction of that Metro line would harm local businesses, according to Curbed LA. Council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson told NBCBLK that often, outsiders come into communities he represents to capitalize off their assets and value while the community often doesn't benefit.

But Hussle stepped in to make sure that didn't happen. He was one of the early supporters of the project.

"What Nipsey did is that he flipped that script," Harris-Dawson, who is leading the Destination Crenshaw effort, said in a phone interview. "He said we're going to create the content, own the platforms and be a part of the entire chain. So that no one is going to capture value of what we create without us participating. That makes a big difference."

On Twitter, Harris-Dawson said Hussle was "a critical part of Destination Crenshaw, even inspiring the name."

Though he'd been associated with the Rollin' 60s Neighborhood Crips in his youth, Hussle was slated to meet with Steve Soboroff, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore and entertainment company Roc Nation to discuss ways to stop gang violence. In the last few years, he participated in anti-gun violence rallies, like the one in 2013, where he met Harris-Dawson. He wanted change, and he wanted it now.

The impact of Hussle's death is reverberating across the hip-hop world. Many of his fans will stream his songs and spit his lyrics to appreciate his storytelling skills. But for residents of the Crenshaw neighborhood who felt his impact more directly, many will miss his presence and commitment to uplifting others in the community.

"I know in my heart that it's a higher power and a higher value to what we can do," the rapper told Complex magazine in February. "The times we do it right and it connects and it has that effect on people; that's really, really fulfilling."
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Nipsey Hussle's commitment was to his L.A. neighborhood, where he had big plans

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It was clear from the very beginning that rapper Nipsey Hussle was going to make it a priority to talk about investing in South Los Angeles.

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Impact of a teacher on both students and community

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Impact of a teacher on both students and community

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The Global Teacher Prize is an annual US $1 million award by the Varkey Foundation to a teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession.

Kenyan Mathematics and Physics teacher Peter Tabichi won the Global Teacher Prize 2019. Despite severe challenges, the teacher is credited with helping many of his students not only to continue schooling, but also take part in international science and engineering competitions and graduate to college. He has also dedicated his life to helping others giving 80% of his teaching salary to local community projects, including education, sustainable agriculture and peace-building.
I like the way the teacher has created a good relationship with the community and the students. it shows his love and caring but requires one to sacrifice a lot under such conditions.

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A science teacher from a remote village in Kenya has won a US$1 million global prize recognising and celebrating the impact and importance of the world's best educators.

Peter Tabichi, a maths and physics teacher from Kenya's famine-prone Rift Valley, was selected out of 10,000 teachers from almost 180 countries to win the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2019.

"I'm immensely proud of my students, we lack facilities that many schools take for granted," Tabichi says.

"So as a teacher, I just want to have a positive impact not only on my country but on the whole of Africa."

Tabichi, 36, teaches at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in a remote town called Pwani Village, where approximately 95 percent of students live in poverty, and about one-third are either orphans or have only one parent.

In this difficult educational environment, marked by delinquency and children dropping out of school, Tabichi introduced a Talent Nurturing Club, while expanding an existing Science Club: positive steps that helped enrolments to double inside three years.

But attendance isn't the only thing going up; so is Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School's reputation for scientific achievement.

Under Tabichi's mentorship, students from Pwani Village came first in the public schools category of Kenya's Science and Engineering Fair last year, with a device that enables blind and deaf people to measure objects.

Keriko students also won an award from the Royal Society of Chemistry, with a project that generates electricity from plants, and qualified for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2019, being held in Phoenix, Arizona in May.

These feats are even more impressive when you consider that the school only has one computer, with intermittent internet access.

For many of these children, who are sometimes unlikely to get enough food at home before attending their classes, and who grow up in a community wrestling with drugs, crime, teen pregnancies, and youth suicide, Tabichi's efforts have been literally life-changing, significantly boosting the school's numbers of pupils continuing on to university study.

In addition, Tabichi, who is also a Franciscan Brother, started a Peace Club at the school, to help integrate students from seven different tribes, all of which attend Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School, and introduced a common program for prayer and worship during school assembly, embracing the religions practised by different students.

Just what the teacher will do with his US$1 million prize money is unclear, but it will almost certainly involve education and charity. Tabichi already donates 80 percent of his teaching salary to local community projects, including his school, and the development of sustainable agriculture in Pwani Village.

For Tabichi, the rewards of his work are self-evident.

"Seeing my learners grow in knowledge, skills and confidence is my greatest joy in teaching," he says.

"When they become resilient, creative and productive in the society, I get a lot of satisfaction, for I act as their greatest destiny enabler and key that unlocks their potential in the most exciting manner."

Winning the award, which was presented during a ceremony hosted by Hugh Jackman in Dubai on Sunday, Tabichi said his experiences showed him that "Africa's young people will no longer be held back by low expectations".

"Africa will produce scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs whose names will be one day famous in every corner of the world," he said.

"And girls will be a huge part of this story," he added - a reference to the fact that female students are now outperforming boys in tests at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School; another turnaround on his watch.

It's a proud day for Peter Tabichi, and for all inspired by his teachings.

"You are a shining example of what the human spirit can achieve," Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said in a message of congratulations.

"Not just for Kenya. Not just for Africa. But for the world."

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Kenyan Science Teacher Who Gives 80% of His Salary Away Just Won a $1M Global Prize

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A science teacher from a remote village in Kenya has won a US$1 million global prize recognising and celebrating the impact and importance of the world's best educators. Peter Tabichi, a maths and physics teacher from Kenya's famine-prone Rift Valley, was selected out of 10,000 teachers from almost 180 countries to win the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2019.

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I found the Yosso article very powerful in how it uses a model of community cultural wealth (p. 78) to demonstrate in a realistic manner what different cultures bring to a school discourse on community. The article takes us further on what we can do to recognise and act on the ways that racism and discrimination takes place, in how everyday acts help racism maintain its hold on culture (hooks). Lastly I have attached a link to a talk by Dr Bettina Love (from another class), which covers some aspects of achieving educational freedom (not just reform). It is a long talk but very interesting.

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Book Talk: We Want To Do More Than Survive - from Book Talk: We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

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Book Talk: We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Schomburg Center on Livestream - Livestream.com

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Lebron James designed a school in his community. What do you think?

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Lebron James designed a school in his community. What do you think?

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A friend sent me this Sunday NYT article about LeBron James's school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio and demanded to know what I thought of his model for schools. This story really isn't about James, a famous NBA basketball player, starting a school, but about the educators who have designed a community

that prioritizes love, caring communities and relationships over “achievement”. They call it the secret sauce, and it is surprising everyone that this attention to student and parents' needs are actually improving achievement in test scores, attendance and overall motivation to learn.

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LeBron James Opened a School That Was Considered an Experiment. It’s Showing Promise. (Published 2019)

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The inaugural class of third and fourth graders at the school has posted extraordinary results on its first set of test scores.

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What Does Community Power and Diversity Look Like In A Democratic Society?

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What Does Community Power and Diversity Look Like In A Democratic Society?

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After reading Oakes' chapter 11, and working with my group to organize our plans for creating a lively scholarly discussion on the readings and how best to complicate the issues that came from them, I was struck by something that is missing: The voices, beliefs, and experiences of parents of children who are disabled and/or in special education classes. Also what is missing are the school views and beliefs about these parents and their role and rights within schools. I then went to look for articles to fill this void and to thereby include these parents' voices, beliefs, and actions in our discussion.

The article below is an historical analysis that examines the experiences that John and Alice Dewey underwent as parents as they tirelessly sought to work with, then against the educational systems that revealed their bias against and intolerances of the Deweys' adopted son - Sabino. Sabino suffered from a physical disability and tuberculosis. Sabino was barred from many K-12 schools, which resulted in the Deweys advocating for their son's right to be educated and to be treated normally - often to no avail.

The article is a quick read; however, here are pages to drill down into on the areas that reveal what may have informed Dewey's evolved advocacy for the rights of women, African Americans, and disabled persons: pp. 7-9; 13-14; 17-22.

Audre Lorde (1979) posits that "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." The article reveals that when education systems and the rules that govern it and the curriculum are created for the people by members of society who do not support the equal rights of all people, then the people may be rendered powerless to realizing full transformation of those systems and curricula.

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Disability in the Family_ John and Alice Dewey Raising Their Son, Sabino