When i decided to host a Women's Sparring Event at my boxing gym, I was hopeful that a handful of women would show up. I have a dream of building up women's boxing in North Carolina. My desire for the event was to share my experience and support women to get some sparring in the ring with other women, or at least come watch and see what it is all about. I was surprised (and a little overwhelmed) at the number of women who came. It was so heartwarming to see and talk to all of the amazing women warriors who were brave enough to show up and share the experience of being in the sport. There were boxers as young as 13 and as old as 65+. There were all experience levels from one brave boxer who had only had two months experience to nationally ranked amateurs and professional fighters. My goal was to give everyone a safe, positive experience and as much time in the ring as they desired. I think it was overall a really positive, but I also learned a lot about making it better for the next time. It is a lot to juggle all of the different personalities and experience levels in boxing. First of all, I learned about different fighters and coaches and what to expect from them and what they need. Of course, the makeup of the fighters who come will always be different, but we had a good turn out from a variety of gyms in the area and I know many will return. I felt a little overwhelmed at which boxers to match up and who should go in with who, but I was glad I was more cautious than not even if some were in the ring more than others. I was grateful to hear from most of the women that said they had a wonderful time connecting with other women and can't wait to do it again. Ashley, one of our boxers said, "It was fun to see all the women encouraging each other...shows how powerful we are as a group even if it's an individual sport." I hope the women and coaches know that I am grateful for each of them for showing up and supporting each other at my event. I will definitely host another event soon as well as work to give the mighty group of women from our gym who show up every week more opportunities to spar and work on their technique. A special shout out to Remy, our gym owner and our coaches Ty, Jon and Allam for supporting the event and helping out to make it such a success.
This winter I had the opportunity to read two powerful works of nonfiction by Dashka Slater, The 57 Bus and Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed. I first heard about the two books when I read Slater's New York Times articles about both events. Reading the articles left me wanting to know more about what had happened with each incident. They both take place in parts of the Bay Area that I know well having spent 7 years there as an educator and college student. Part of the power of these two books is how they are written. Each section of the books is small and looks at the issues from a different lens or person's point of view laying forth a nuanced and thorough telling of events that might otherwise seem cut and dry. The 57 Bus refers to the public bus that two students in Oakland take to school who live very different lives. There is Sasha, a genderqueer teen who attends a small private school called Maybeck High and lives in a middle class neighborhood in the foothills. Then there Richard, an African American teen who attends a large public high school, Oakland High and lives in a rough part of Oakland. They only spend 8 minutes together on the bus, but then in a thoughtless act where Richard lights Sasha's skirt on fire while they sleep on the bus, their lives become intimately intertwined as their families and communities wrangle with what it means to bring justice to the situation. The book is divided into 4 parts: Sasha, Richard, Fire, and Justice. We get to know each teen well and then there is an in depth exploration of the crime and how justice is sought. It is a heartbreaking series of events that ultimately leads to redemption and changed lives for both teens. It is a powerful tale for our time and is a valuable read for teens and their parents.
Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives it Changed is a story that is equally heartbreaking but seems far less resolved in the end. There was no sense that justice was served or that many of the perpetrators ever really were made to fully understand the harm caused. My husband attended Albany High School and I knew of the privileged space it occupied as a teacher who taught at Richmond High School that was 10. miles north and worlds apart. Albany is a town of educated liberals many of whom work for UC Berkeley. The people of Albany pride themselves on being informed and sophisticated in their understanding of race and racism. Albany High has many classes where race is addressed and students have conversations about racism making it all the more shocking that this happened in their community. The posts on the Instagram account were simply awful, but Slater is again able to cut through all the noise and sensationalism of the media and help us understand the complexity of the events and the people who were impacted. Like the 57 Bus, it is told in a series of short pieces focused on peeling back the layers and understanding the context and perspectives of those involved. One of the most thought-provoking pieces in the book is a section titled, Questions of Harm: Were you harmed if your picture wasn't on the account, but your name was? Were you harmed if your picture wasn't on the account, but your race was? Were you harmed if your picture was on the account but you were Asian or white? Were you harmed if you were male? Were you harmed if people said you were on the account but you never saw the post? Were you harmed if your best friends couldn't stop crying? Were you harmed if you once shrugged off the jokes? Were you harmed if everything looks different now? Were you harmed if you decided to forgive? Would you have been harmed if the account had never been hidden? Would you have been harmed if it had never been found? Slater does extensive research to listen and tell the stories of those involved. For each of the teens willing to talk with her, she shares their struggles, hopes and humanity. As she states in the author's notes at the beginning of the book: "True justice requires listening with curiosity and compassion to the human stories behind the headlines. Only then can we begin to repair what's gone wrong and reach for what's right." These two works of fiction are special and offer a place for authentic dialogue around issues of equity and diversity and racism. Slate also has some wonderful resources to help work with these texts: The 57 Bus Discussion Guide Accountable Resource Page Image Source: https://cs.illinois.edu/broadening-participation-computing/programs/ai4all AI4ALL is a nonprofit based out of Stanford University whose vision for AI focuses on building a pipeline for a diverse and inclusive workforce in AI, utilizing people with diverse backgrounds, voices and perspective to make better AI and making more tools for social good by redefining who can be a leader in AI. They have 3 programs: Changemakers in AI, AI4All Ignite, and their Open Learning curriculum. The AI4All Ignite internship program and Changemakers in AI are geared towards preparing undergraduate students from diverse communities for careers in AI. They provide mentors, support in technical interviews and internships as well as community support for students selected for the program. The Open Learning curriculum is foundational curriculum for high school students to help them learn about AI and how it works in various disciplines. They are focusing most of their energy on the college and career readiness programs, but their open learning curriculum is a solid starting place for any high school educator interested in getting their students started in AI regardless of subject area that is taught. The curriculum aligns to the following National Standards:
image source: https://AI-4-ALL.org There are lessons focused on explaining the more technical aspects of AI: "How Neural Networks Work", "How GANS Work", "How CNNs Work" and "How RNNs and Transformers Work". There are also lessons tied to specific topics and disciplines: "AI and Drawing", "AI and Facial Recognition" "AI and Deep Fakes: "AI and the Environment", "AI and Dance" and "AI Ethics". The lessons range from 1-10 hours long. Each lesson contains a detailed Teacher's Guide, Google Slide Deck, as well as a a study guide and google form for students to complete as they go through the lessons. The lessons are filled with experiential activities, explainer videos and discussion questions to allow students to grapple with the implications of how AI is changing our society. Each lesson also contains a spotlight on professionals from diverse communities who are involved in AI work related to the lesson. Most lessons have a project for students to complete once they have gone through the lesson. There is flexibility in how the lessons are taught and a thoughtful Online Strategy Guide and Discussion Strategy Guide provided in each lesson. They also recommend which subject areas each lesson can be taught in and provide relevant standards that are met with each lesson. It is a very thoughtfully crafted set of lessons on AI that intentionally provide detailed guidance so that those who might not otherwise feel comfortable teaching AI can quickly get a handle on AI topics to bring to their students.
Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik
I recently read Stephanie Foo's What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. Foo is a producer for This American Life. She is a woman who was extremely successful and functional despite her childhood abuse and neglect, but then she hit a wall and found she needed to take time off in her thirties to really deal with it and heal herself. This memoir follows her journey to first learn she has complex PTSD and then find a unique path to heal herself from past trauma that haunts her and impacts her behaviors daily.
Foo's parents are first generation Malaysian immigrants who demanded perfection and high performance from their only child. But there was a much darker side underneath this-- two mentally unstable parents who emotionally and physically abused their daughter to the extreme and eventually abandoned her while she was still in high school. It is hard to believe that Foo came out of all that she experienced as a wildly successful media producer. As she put it, "Achievement was my constant...my comfort." She graduated early from college with honors. and landed her first job with the well-regarded NPR radio show, Snap Judgement, But during that time her relationships and personal life were a train wreck and she knew something had to give. She receives the diagnoses of Complex PTSD from her therapist in her thirties. Complex PTSD refers to PTSD when trauma is not just a one time event, but occurs over time. There isn't much research about this condition, but Foo uses her journalistic skills to find out as much as she can about the condition and explores modalities of healing. She first explores her origin story and looks closely at intergenerational trauma in immigrant communities. She goes back to Malaysia to speak to relatives about trauma experienced in the family and to learn more about her mother and father's experience growing up. She visits the immigrant community of her childhood and speaks with classmates and teachers to better understand the pressures of model minority status and to uncover why everyone looked the other way. She tries different types of therapy such as EMDR to get at the emotions behind her trauma. She tries different medications and drugs to explore their impact. She tries yoga and other therapeutic modalities to help her body heal. She analyzes and explores her relationships. Her journey is frustrating, humorous at times and heartbreaking. Ultimately, it is the people she finds that offer the biggest source of healing. .She eventually finds her way to Dr. Jacob Ham who is the director of Childhood Trauma and Resilience at Mt. Sinai. He helps her not just find ways to soothe herself when she feel triggered, but to connect with the deeper wounds of her trauma to understand the why beneath her triggers. Then there is the family of her husband who welcome her into their family and provide her with the loving environment her birth family wasn't able to during her childhood. Foo brings to life the complexity of her unique story of trauma and healing and it is definitely a story of hope, but also a reminder that each journey is so unique and nuanced and demands a high level of attention and years of recovery. Many people who suffer from this kind of trauma don't have access to and never get the help they need. It is my hope that this book will help bring light to mental health struggles that many people have and the need and possibility to heal those who have it.
Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik
I recently read the book, Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein. It offers an insightful look at the many ways that data science mirrors and replicates social hierarchies and injustices. The book starts with the story of Christine Darden, one of the women known as the “human computers” and her story of fighting against a racist, sexist workplace at NASA’s Langley Research center in the 1970s. Throughout the book, it is important to the authors to ground data science in lived experience. D’Ignazio and Klein offers this definition of data feminism:
“A way of thinking about data, both their uses and their limits, that is informed by direct experience, a commitment to action, and by intersectional feminist thought. The starting point for data feminism is something that goes mostly unacknowledged in data science: power is not equally distributed in the world. Those who wield power are disproportionately elite, straight, white, able-bodied, cisgender men from the Global North. The work of data feminism is first to tune into how standard practices of data science serve to reinforce those existing inequalities and second to use data science to challenge and change the distribution of power. Underlying data feminism is a belief in co-liberation: The idea that oppressive systems of power harm all of us, that they undermine the quality and validity of our work, and that they hinder us from creating true and lasting social impact with data science.”(p. 8) D'Agnazio and Klein do a wonderful job analyzing power (who has it and who doesn’t) in data science with thoughtful, varied examples that start with stories of real lives then move into an analysis of all the ways data is used for or against groups of people. They also highlight inspiring stories of data activists who are reclaiming how data is used, collected, represented and contextualized to give power back to marginalized groups. One particular story that stood out to me was the work of Maria Salguero who has individually documented all of the instances of femicides in Mexico over the past 5 years and provides personal data along with links to news reports about each victim. Prior to her diligent work, the Mexican government did not have a database of femicides making it easy to blame the victims instead of understanding that it reflected a larger societal problem. Another powerful story is a project of technology researcher Kate Crawford and design scholar Vladian Joler called the Anatomy of an AI System (https://anatomyof.ai/). This project involves the creation of a data map representing the complicated production, usage, and recycling process of the Amazon Echo Dot. Along with the map, there is a 9,000 word essay explaining the data map. Not only does the map make visible the elusive workings of an AI system, it includes a contextualized explanation to help viewers really understand its process. It is a powerful way to tell the story of data in AI. Each chapter focuses on one of the seven principles of data feminism: examine power, challenge power, elevate emotion and embodiment, rethink binaries and hierarchies, embrace pluralism, consider context and make labor visible. The book provides an important framework and analysis of bias and injustice in data science. There is much work to be done and it is my hope that more people will begin thinking about data and demand more transparency and equity in the field. The book is available online from MIT Press for free: /data-feminism.mitpress.mit.edu/
Last week I had an amazing opportunity to go to the Elite Athletic Training Center in Chula Vista, California to help coach the USA Boxing Elite Junior Women's Team. The team consisted of women ranked in the top 4 of their weight class. Juniors are athletes that are 15-16 years old with a few younger than that.
Chad Wigle is the national development coach for USA Boxing. He is very passionate about building a high-performance boxing program that is based on science and what works. He uses high energy, precise instruction and humor to support the athletes that come through this program and it is inspiring to see. In the last youth international competition in Germany, they brought home 9 medals including 6 gold medals which is an impressive feat. He is interested in bringing up athletes and coaches in his methodology and I was fortunate to get to be a part of learning the basics in this training camp and supporting an amazing group of teen girls who are coming up in the sport. The athletes had a morning and afternoon boxing session as well as a strength and conditioning session. I loved the progression of the program and the way the girls got constant review to really build muscle memory. The sessions were structured to really maximize their work on fundamentals while teaching them a few new tricks to help keep them at the top. The last day was a high-level sparring session and the girls showed so much poise, confidence and fierceness.
There were 12 coaches and 26 athletes, so the girls got a lot of support. We worked on a variety of skills and drills that supported the athletes in using fundamental skills at a high level. I had such a good time with the coaches who were part of the program. They were a group of wonderfully knowledgeable and skilled coaches that showed so much support and respect to one another. It was so heartwarming and fun to work with the girls. So many of them already have the drive, desire and skill to make it in the sport if they choose to and if not they will walk away with a bravery, confidence and resilience that is hard earned in this sport. I cannot wait to see what some of them do in the sport. They truly are the future of this sport. I loved working with this age group of girls and hope to have continued opportunity to work in the high-performance program that is being developed by USA Boxing. I am grateful for the memories and all that I learned and experienced during this camp.
Lately, I ‘ve realized that my biggest passion in education is curriculum development. It was always my favorite part of being a teacher- designing the lessons that I would teach to my students. After my first few years of teaching, I landed in a number of roles that truly gave me freedom in designing curriculum that was innovative, impactful and culturally relevant from designing an ELL curriculum and program for high school students to working on a design team to support teachers to build more engaging online courses, to creating a computer science course for girls. I recently applied for a position as a curriculum developer for Facing History & Ourselves. They are a phenomenal organization whose website is a treasure trove for educators interested in helping students become active, reflective citizens in the world.
Facing History & Ourselves has created the following framework, Pedagogical Triangle for Historical and Civic Understanding.
Source: https://www.facinghistory.org/
According to their website:
“We engage the mind, heart, and conscience of adolescents who are in the midst of determining who they are and how they interact with the world. We challenge our students to reflect on and analyze moral questions and dilemmas that arise during the study of history and literature. Our curriculum guides students as they explore human behavior, asking them to consider connections between their own actions and the actions of others. By examining the complexities of being human, we nurture caring and curious adolescents who grow into brave and engaged adults.” The Facing History & Ourselves scope and sequence known as the Facing History Journey starts by having students examine human behaviors, beliefs and attitudes in their own lives. Students are then presented with a historical case study or piece of literature to further explore the complexity of humanity that was dealt with in the beginning. Finally, students do creative or reflective work to explore the implications in our current society studied in the works they explored. I reviewed in depth two powerful curricular units that I found on the website: Power, Agency, and Voice and Facing Ferguson: News Literacy in a Digital Age. Power, Agency, and Voice is an ELA lesson that focuses on helping students explore what it means to have power and agency and then using your voice to exert that agency. It uses two powerful pieces of literature, a short story by Bethany Morrow called “As You Were” and a spoken word poem by Clint Smith titled, "The Danger of Silence" to contrast ways people use and don’t use their voice to exert power and agency. Facing Ferguson: News Literacy in a Digital Age explores the historical case study of the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager and the impact it had on the community in Ferguson, Missouri and the nation. Students begin by deciding on a contract for holding sensitive conversations then move into a discussion about identity and bias followed by an exploration of news reports, journalism and social media. For this unit Facing History recorded interviews with a number of journalists and media experts to help students understand their process and perspective. There are several things that are truly impressive about the units. They are broken down into smaller lessons that can be remixed to create additional lessons for other topics. They are student-centered and provide wonderful discussion questions, handouts and teaching strategies to help frame student discussions and keep students engaged. You can create an account on the website and then save lessons, texts, units and teaching strategies into collections for yourself. You can also download the units into Google Classroom and many of the texts are available in Spanish as well as English. Finally, there is a collection of professional development to support teachers in their journey to use this curriculum. I viewed a wonderful professional development webinar with Clint Smith, the poet, teacher and scholar of one of the lessons I reviewed. It was called, "Working for Justice, Equity and Civic Agency in Our Schools." He discussed the work needed to portray a complete history to young people and what that work looks like. I am excited to refer back to Facing History & Ourselves as a gold standard for how to develop rigorous, timely, engaging curriculum that helps students be conscientious and civic-minded as I look for opportunities to go back to work in this field. My hope is to develop relevant curriculum units that explore the intersection of computer science, digital civics and wellness, social justice and stories. I tried out LinkedIn premium for a month this summer and one of the most valuable benefits is having access to LinkedIn Learning. The first course I took was called, “Creating Inclusive Learning Experiences” by learning and development expert Naphtali Bryant. Bryant argues that making learning experiences inclusive is a powerful way to invite all members of an organization to the table and make it possible to create ownership and authenticity while building skills for those involved. He uses a framework called INCLUDE that provides a practical approach to identifying key features of inclusive learning. He starts by explaining how best to investigate the needs of learners by focusing on what he calls the 4Ps (patterns, problems, priorities, and pain points). This provides a terrific means for doing a needs analysis and truly reflect on the real reasons your learners need the training. He next focuses on what will nourish learners which involves finding the right mix of activities to keep learners engaged. Then, he reminds us of the power of collaboration and the value of working with multiple stakeholders whose expertise can provide the best possible experience for all learners. He then goes on to underline the value of listening to learners and getting to know them and centering learning around who they are. Uniting learners is at the heart of an inclusive design as Bryant reflects that it is about creating an environment where people can be their full self and feel a sense of belonging. The final two steps in the INCLUDE framework are discovery that emphasizes a learner-centered model and empowerment which refers to providing support to individuals along the way and providing participants with practical takeaways and resources to continue their learning after the training.
Bryant provides lots of practical activities for each part of the framework and it was truly an enlightening model to help make sure the learning experiences you design are inclusive.
Image Credit: https://yestem.org/tools/the-equity-compass/
One of the best professional development experiences I had this summer was taking part in an online course called, Equity in Informal STEM Learning: Using the Equity Compass created by University College London. The Equity Compass is powerful framework for assessing informal STEM learning such as after school clubs, summer camps and programs at museums.
I really appreciated the distinction they made between Equality described as “treating people in the same way, making sure people get the same opportunity” versus Equity described as “factoring in people’s different needs and assets, understanding that people might need different opportunities and support.” The Equity Compass focuses on four main parts: challenging the status quo, working with and valuing minoritized communities, embedding equity and extending equity. As participants of the course, we were introduced to each part of the framework and then presented with case studies to analyze that represented STEM Experiences that were lacking in terms of equity and diversity. We were also challenged to come up with solutions for each of the case studies to make them more equitable by applying our knowledge of each part of the framework. It was a well-designed course that really helped participants understand and apply practices to bringing more equity and diversity into informal STEM experiences. After taking the course, I reflected on the Equity Compass and the work Girls Who Code is doing with their Summer Immersion Program. I can proudly say that it is a powerful example of what informal STEM learning with a focus on equity and diversity looks like. It is truly an honor to be part of this work in getting more girls and students from marginalized communities involved in Computer Science in a way that values their experience. Since November, I have been volunteering as a learning experience designer for Rumie Learn. They specialize in creating Bytes which are microlearning courses that take 6-9 minutes to take and are aimed at social media users aged 14-29. The idea is to get people to scroll with purpose. Rumie has an excellent onboarding program where you go through a series of Bytes that are located together on Rumie Build, which is the content creation system used to create Bytes. Since each Byte is built in the format of the Bytes learning experience designers will be creating, you get a good sense of how to format a Byte while you getting the information and training you need to create Bytes. Brilliant! The learning director, Steve Birek, takes a very active role in supporting new learning experience designers and also giving support throughout the process with a weekly volunteer support Google Meet as well as quality feedback during the Byte creation process. Slack is used effectively to build teams or squads of designers and as a place to get support and get to know the Rumie Build Community. Rumie also uses Discord to connect the entire Rumie community connecting the learners who use Rumie with the designers and staff of Rumie. Microlearning course creation at Rumie involves a two-week Sprint structure. First, you choose a learning objective in Clickup, the project management software utilized throughout the Byte creation process. This learning objective will be the focus of your Byte. Then you have a week to design the first draft of your Byte. During the second week it goes through Peer Review where LXDs review each others' Bytes. Then the Byte is reviewed by a Byte Editor and finally published on Rumie Learn. I found it challenging and fun to work within the constraints of microlearning and also the Rumie Build system. The emphasis is on using clear, concise language and pictures, gifs, and memes to keep learners engaged. I chose to create Bytes on a wide range of topics. I have learned so much through this process and plan to continue to stay on as a learning experience designer to create more Bytes in the future.
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AuthorYvonne Caples is a Learning Experience Designer who is passionate about making learning meaningful and engaging for all. Posts
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