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We Got This with Cornelius Minor
Episode 32

We Got This with Cornelius Minor

We hope you’re sitting down. With a notebook. And that you’re ready to hit the pause button a bunch of times, because you’re going to need some reflection time for this one! This episode has so much insight we had a hard time uploading the audio. Join us for an interview with Cornelius Minor, the author of We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be (https://www.heinemann.com/products/e09814.aspx). Enjoy, and please tweet or share your takeaways so we can keep this conversation going! #makesomevrainwaves

Vrain Waves: Teaching Conversations with Minds Shaping Education · Cornelius Minor, Ben Kalb, Becky Peters

March 4, 201954m 0s

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Original episode page

Show Notes

Connect with Cornelius Minor
Website: kassandcorn.com | Twitter: @MisterMinor | Book: We Got This

Connect with Vrain Waves
Twitter: @VrainWaves | Becky Twitter: @BeckyEPeters | Ben Twitter: @mrkalb

Links & Show Notes

  • Cornelius’ Introduction & Background (02:05)
    • Working through and reflecting on failure; teacher imagination (03:45)
  • We Got This, the book, and the Teacher-as-Hero Narrative (05:59)
  • Why is the Teacher-as-hero narrative problematic? (07:40)
  • We all want better (09:52)
    • Teaching in the contemporary political moment
    • We are pro-kid - to help them create opportunities for themselves
    • “Anything that abridges opportunity is my enemy.”
    • Challenge: How do we actualize ‘better’
  • How do we navigate the contemporary political moment? (12:05)
    • Everything is iterative
    • Story about Cornelius & his soccer team
    • Bringing it back to the classroom - what it means to be a member of a community - advocacy & activism (16:10)
    • The world hands you a curriculum - if you’re observant & you listen, you can do really powerful things
    • How can we all help surface and solve those stories? (17:55)
    • Racism, ableism, classism - Who should be working to solve it?
    • Empathy is a really powerful tool
    • Decolonize school by trying to understand each other
  • Get to know our students better by listening - “Where is the poetry in this person?” (21:04)
    • Spend our time observing (22:35)
    • Labels are necessary shorthand but we have to avoid getting trapped in those (23:08)
    • Disability spread - the spread effect (23:57)
  • Hip Hop Ed (24:31)
    • #hiphoped
    • Art vs. product (25:08)
    • At the heart of hip hop is innovation / engineering / iterative design
    • Fearless around the act of creation
    • Hip hop came out of the Bronx
    • Can’t teach without the crowd
  • How can we be more fearless in our creation? (28:36)
    • What is school?
    • True creation is messy & noisy - where are we leaving space for that during the school day?
    • Embrace approximation (instead of perfection) (30:12)
  • How do we create space for learning from each other? (31:45)
    • Be deliberate about it
    • Ms. Disbrow as Cornelius’ mentor
    • Watching specific teaching moves, going into each other’s classrooms at least once a week - specific, scheduled time to watch, then specific, scheduled time to practice the learning
  • Practices in literacy instruction (35:49)
    • Students and book selection - craft independence
    • “We’re here to create book culture.”
    • Independent reading time in class (37:51)
    • Agency for students (39:05)
  • Modeling in writing (39:52)
  • Letting go of power without letting go of control (44:27)
    • Physics of human relationships
    • Create multiple points of investment / sharing power
    • “How can I raise a kid’s status in front of their peers?”
  • How to teach with deep community engagement (48:18)
    • Parents & teachers need to see each other as experts
    • How can I labor to understand each student in order to give them the best possible experience?
  • To learn more from Cornelius Minor:
  • Wrap Ups & Take Aways (52:21)

Topics

we got thisequityeducation
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