Tag Archives: Beloved community

What “A Different World” taught me 30 years ago

Wow, that title makes me sound old. (Spoiler alert: I guess I am old.) When I was in college, one of the few things I watched religiously each week was A Different World. I loved Whitley and Dwayne Wayne and Jalisa and Walter and Kim and Freddie and all the rest. I watched the show inContinue reading “What “A Different World” taught me 30 years ago”

Daughters

A little over a year ago I wrote about teaching in the Integrated Learning Community, part of the general education core where I teach. Last year, I wrote about the synchronicity of learning from my co-teacher and being able to put it in use in the community the following day. This year we are teachingContinue reading “Daughters”

Mutual aid: How we care for each other

The term “mutual aid” is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a collaboration between community members, and a voluntary exchange of resources between them. We generally may think of mutual aid as existing most often in communities that have been economically (and in other ways) marginalized, but mutual aid also exists in faith communitiesContinue reading “Mutual aid: How we care for each other”

The one where my students asked what the heck is going on

I feel like if I title this like a Friends episode, it might seem less dystopian. Night before last, I was preparing for my HBSE class (Human Behavior in the Social Environment). We explore topics across the lifespan, and learn about bio-psycho-social-spiritual functioning at each stage of life, after a few weeks of introducing someContinue reading “The one where my students asked what the heck is going on”

Happy Birthday, Dr. King: I am sorry we haven’t bent the arc more yet.

Though we have an official day to recognize Dr. King’s birthday coming up next week, today (January 15) is his actual birthday. Going to college in Memphis and spending several years there after college, I visited the National Civil Rights Museum (at the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated) many times. I have hadContinue reading “Happy Birthday, Dr. King: I am sorry we haven’t bent the arc more yet.”

Getting out the vote: All kinds of resources related to voting

I haven’t written in awhile, first because of the start of the semester, and then because of general malaise, and then (and most importantly) because I have been doing the work in different ways that I am now writing about. In other words, I have used spare minutes and nights beyond work and family toContinue reading “Getting out the vote: All kinds of resources related to voting”

Speaking life

When I say this has been a semester….whew. I am not exaggerating. I have missed writing but in the great scheme of survival, writing has taken a back seat. (I have big wrting plans for the summer. We will see if they come to fruition.) Today I have my last final session of Spring 2024,Continue reading “Speaking life”

Synchronicity in classroom and community

This semester I am teaching in an interdisciplinary learning community (ILC), which is part of our university’s general education curriculum. The ILC is called “Introduction to Trauma Studies” and the two courses are the human behavior across the lifespan course that I teach and a literature/writing course which is taught by a colleague in the EnglishContinue reading “Synchronicity in classroom and community”

Preventative Maintenance: Tangible self-care

Last semester felt very long, as I discussed in my last post. I have friends who teach in various institutions across the country and so many of them expressed these same feelings about last semester. Whew. One day in a particular class, when I could tell that people were stressed, I shifted gears early on intoContinue reading “Preventative Maintenance: Tangible self-care”