Last night, while contemplating the end of life as I know it (karaoke), I realized something. I have never really taken a risk. As I flipped through the karaoke song book that literally scared me to death, I truly felt the definition of risk deep within the pit of my stomach. Prior to last night, I’ve never been afraid to do something and I know this because I’ve never truly feared anything more than getting on a stage to sing. Risk is something born from fear…of the unknown and of the outcome. There is a rhyme and reason to my beginning this post with this experience. Bear with me. Yesterday’s Educon sessions began with a conversation about the boundless classroom led by David Jakes and Scott Glass. It was a thought provoking discussion about exploring the learning shift with students where learning takes place anytime and anywhere. One of the questions posed to our group was, "What constitutes a meaningful learning experience" in which I immediately thought about the walls that we have ceremoniously established as a society in terms of learning. So many educators, especially secondary, still believe that their classroom space is the hub of learning yet students are learning constantly through the barrage of life experiences through which they are immersed. Traditional classrooms with constraints are still the norm and the idea of doing anything beyond that remains unvisited for many. I don’t believe that it has anything to do with a lack of wanting to change but more a fear of changing. The risk is far to great. My next session was a conversation about Standards and Standardization led by the amazingly brilliant Diana Laufenberg. I have to say that I left this session with only one complaint. It was entirely too short! As a group, we explored beyond the definitions of the words "standard" and "standardized"  and dug deeper into how teachers could teach standards authentically less standardization. This is an idea that many teachers and administrators struggle with in light of extensive testing requirements. I’ve heard time and again that authenticity takes time and resources that most teachers lack. As real as it is, it’s still an excuse born from fear. What if students fail? What if I fail? What if I leave something out? What if my evaluation is bad because students are failing? Certainly, authentic learning experiences for students are worth the risk, right? Both of these sessions reminded me greatly about the risks that we take and the ones in which fear takes over. What if students are learning more outside of the physical school container than inside? What if students spend more time developing questions about their learning and exploring those questions in lieu of the standard pre-written sets. What if you go on stage to sing Bell Biv Devoe’s "Poison"… badly out of tune in front of a small crowd of people that you admire? How does one proceed with getting beyond the fear to take the risk? Simple…you suck it up, take the leap and accept that for a short length of time, you’ll be extremely uncomfortable.  

Before Educon started, I believe that it was Jen Wagner who reminded me that SLA was not a place in which processes could be lifted from their school and automatically duplicated in another. She reminded me via tweets to choose some small piece that I liked and find a way to make it work in my own practice. Although I knew this, I was glad for this reminder from someone who had experienced Educon along with the community of individuals who have attempted to "take it all in", place it in their schools and fail miserably. That will not be me and it doesn’t have to be you either. Drinking the Koolaid We all attend events where we are so engulfed in the ideas presented that we get so pumped that we want to do EVERYTHING when we get home. That’s what "drinking the koolaid" is about which is why many that attend events like Educon experience the "downward spiral" upon returning home. You can’t do that. SLA is a unique experience that is specific to SLA. However, there are pieces of what SLA does that can certainly be done in any school that is open to it. (Student choice and PBL are great starts.) I have to believe that sharing "how students learn" at SLA is one of the reasons that its doors are open to the world for this event. That does not mean that every idea needs to be duplicated. I’ve had a blast soaking up the awesomeness that is SLA while at the same time thinking about some small change that I can borrow and reconfigure in my own environment.  One small shift in thinking can spark big change. It’s important that we understand that…one small change. Post-Conversational Change on Privilege My final conversation at SLA was the conversation about privilege as led by Audrey Watters and Jose Vilson. In hindsight, it seems only fitting that this was the conversation that ended my Educon experience. I sat there in that session quietly listening and thinking. It occurred to me how much I had not really dealt with in terms of race in privilege in my own life. We never talk about it and frankly, who can I talk about it with? In that room, it was refreshing and fulfilling to hear how others are affected whether that be race, gender, class or even from the standpoint of self-reflection. We all will experience both sides of privilege at some point in time in our lives. It’s what we do with or without our privilege that matters. There has to be some understanding on both sides. We needed to have this discussion and I’m glad that we did. It’s odd that as much as I tweet, I could not bring myself to leave the moments in that room to post. I wanted to listen without distraction. I found that interesting. I will say that finally getting out one of my experiences on the topic felt like lifting a weight from my shoulders. I also felt empowered to discuss it beyond the room but with several parties…specifically within the very white male dominated edtech world. We are represented by women and people of color as well. It’s time that we see more of that. It’s time that we feature more of that. What Now? After a few days of Educon, what I learned more than anything was that every voice matters and that includes students and parents. To be fair, I knew this but now I get it with a vengeance! After all, it was an SLA student who said, "we want to be viewed as intelligent opinionated human beings." In other words, if your intent is to fix things within your schools, include your students in the process. Their voices deserve a platform to be heard. When those voices are speaking, whether it be students, parents or the quiet teacher down the hall…consider their thoughts as viable ideas. I felt that I left Educon with a charge to speak louder, support more and help teachers give students more choice & voice. The koolaid is not quite gone yet but even when it is…big changes are yet to come.

Last week I received a call from one of my son’s teachers about his inability to sit and copy verbatim power point notes for 45 minutes straight. To add insult to injury, this teacher went on to describe how he gives his students a "notes quiz" to prove that they wrote down every word which also gives kids a free 100 as a grade. I listened to him, a friend of mine no less, with these thoughts racing in my head… Who on earth gives kids, especially HS freshman, 45 minutes of verbatim notes via ppt? My son has to come out of this class! Wait, I have to teach my son to conform even when he does not agree. Oh my gosh, I am your friend but your teaching practices suck!!! To be clear, this is a geography class and the class is comprised of half a period of notes and half a period of proving that you took notes. Kids sit in their assigned seats in rows the entire period and are not allowed to have any discussion or debate. The information comes from the teacher and textbook. Kids do not have access to any hand held technology other than their own devices which they are not allowed to use. Based on the rest of the conversation, pretty much every kid is completely disengaged. The curriculum is standard across the board and every class is completely standardized. (Yeah, that educon conversation about standard vs standardization came at the right moment!) This teacher did not get it and believed that what he was doing was great. He’s teaching the way that he was taught, which is traditionally what takes place in schools. Sometimes in the "edu-twitter" world, we forget that there are entire schools built upon this very model. Before I share where the conversation went, I need to share that this is also a coach with no planning period. Unlike other teachers, there is no time to plan lessons during the school day. He is either coaching or teaching all day and as much as there is a discrepancy in schools, especially Texas where football rules all, teachers need time to plan and collaborate…coaches too. The Edu-Parent/Friend of Teacher Response After letting this teacher get his complaint about my kid out, I told him three things… You cannot expect anyone to sit in an uncomfortable desk for 45-50 minutes to write paragraphs of information from ppt. With that said, I cannot be your friend if your teaching continues to suck the way that it does. Let me help you…please. After his shock passed, we had a nice conversation about how geography should be a fully interactive class. This is the class where kids get to explore the world. They cannot explore it through ppt notes of information that they can actually discover for themselves. They needed to be engaged in way that encouraged thoughtful discussion, debate, collaboration, research and critical thinking. Kids could care less about what you tell them but will care deeply about what matters to them. He heard me. He wants to change things and we are working, outside of school hours, on changing the face of his class. His only question…. What if this new way fails? My response… Count on it failing in some way but count on the successes that you stand to gain. Like sports, there is a risk of failure but that doesn’t keep you from trying. Your classroom is no different. Your students are more than worth the effort. (FYI…I did deal with my son because whether we like it or not, we don’t always get to choose the cards that we are dealt. You have to learn to deal and do what is needed to get what you want and need in life. He needed to learn that too. What he did in purposefully ignoring antiquated directives, was still disrespectful. As much as I agree that the teaching in this class was bad, I will ALWAYS hold my children responsible for their actions.) Also, we did not discuss technology because before you put tech into the equation, you have to fix the bad practices because I think that we all can agree that technology in the hands of a teacher with bad practices does nothing but enhance the bad practices. We’ll get there…eventually. Edited to add: This story was shared with the full consent of the teacher involved as this is more about his openness to change and less about my decision to speak up about what needed to change.

Last night, I spent time in yet another conversation on privilege and race. This time, it was with math teachers in a session of the Global Math Dept. At some point in time during this conversation, I saw that teachers were inquiring more about reaching their students of color which we didn’t really get to discuss. I make no assumption that being a teacher of color makes me some automatic expert on the topic, but coming from an environment where "being the only one like me" in the room is the norm, I felt compelled to share from the experiences of a few of my students. It was interesting how much their views of race and privilege differed yet were aligned in so many ways. Some Background Where we live, our town is predominantly white yet the school is predominantly hispanic. (I don’t think that most teachers realize this yet even though it is blatantly apparent in classroom student ratios.) Black students make up a very small percentage and that is also consistent in town. Every year, thousands from every race come together to celebrate (white) "Czech" heritage for our National Polka festival yet less than a hundred show up for any other cultural celebrations. At the high school level, I was the only teacher of color in a core class. The others taught spanish or coached. Unless these students were athletes or took spanish, they would not see another teacher like them. The Black Student Athlete Perspective "Teachers only talked to me about football & the fame. They didn’t seem to care about the school work. I felt passed." Black male students who are athletic had an advantage over those that were not. To this student, he added value to the school by being a "star athlete" and he got away with a great deal more. He learned the formula quick in that giving minimal effort was all that he needed to stay on the field. (no pass no play) Where white athletes were somewhat expected to excel in the classroom, teachers were surprised when black athletes did the same. There were zero expectations when it came to academic growth. His "privilege" in earning a free pass from athletics was also his disadvantage in terms of learning. He expressed that he did not believe that academic success was within his reach. He felt that his worth was wrapped in football as that was all that he really knew how to do. Football was all that he was expected to do. From his perspective, that was not the case for white athletes as they were expected to excel in class and were treated as such. He went on to add that teachers talked to other students about who they were off the field but conversations with him always centered around football and the fame. I found that interesting. The Headstrong Latina and White Cheerleader Privilege "My teachers were amazing but principals seemed to target me for dress code as if I was the only one out. I wasn’t." I will admit to struggling with this subtopic because saying it sounds divisive but the reality is that in our school and even now…white cheerleaders had privilege. My student immediately thought of standardized dress. While she did own up to wearing her pants slightly tighter, it bothered her that she could walk into school alongside a heavily out of dress code white cheerleader and she would be the one pulled aside to change. It never failed. Her being "out of dress code" caused problems in that she became known for it and teachers watched for it. Yet, the white cheerleaders walked around in yoga pants and t-shirts and were ignored. The more that we talked, the more that we pin pointed moments of this same behavior with white students in general and hispanic students. There were moments when students walked the halls, white students out of dress code were bypassed while it seemed that hispanic students were targeted. For her, she distinctly remembered "the white cheerleader" as it became her frame of reference throughout school. Responding to Privilege & Perspective Neither of these students ever had a platform to talk about these issues nor did they feel that they could outside of their own circles. They were uncomfortable, even as adults now…uncomfortable. I connected with that as prior to my weekend at Educon, I felt the same. Students carry unique perspectives about their experiences and until these issues, along with the countless others unaddressed in this posting, are met head on through discussion and action, these tensions and perspectives will never change. It’s amazing how much students pick up on and carry with them through life because of the adults that got it wrong along the way.

Small changes can definitely make the difference in terms of supporting learners in any classroom. If you’re looking for a way to spice up that traditional classroom setting, here are some tidbits from my classroom to yours! These are my "5 Be’s"… 1. Be Creative Just because the district provides a guide doesn’t mean that the "recipe" can’t be modified or changed. Being creative is about seeing beyond the black and white of your content and making it adaptable for diverse learners. What can you do differently to get class started? How can you take a worksheet of problems and turn it into an experience? How can you encourage students to dig deeper, communicate, collaborate, think critically and create? How do you translate your love of your students and content into their love of learning? 2. Be Flexible It annoys me to no end to hear teachers talk about laying the gauntlet on due dates and call it "real world". My response to that is, have you ever negotiated with the electric company to pay a bill late? Maybe you haven’t but people do it often. I’m not saying to give kids until the end of time to turn in an assignment but my gosh, leave room for discussion for when things happen or when the kids gets entirely too stressed out to get everything done! Life is like that sometimes! Your flexibility can be the difference for a kid at a moment when they desperately need it. Also, please stop "designating" applications for everything…especially middle to high school kids. If you focus on the outcome, you get to allow multiple pathways for kids to present what they have learned. That, my friends, is called CHOICE! 3. Be Passionate Everything that I do is with a sense of focus so passionately intent on the goal that it’s contagious. I LOVED every lesson…even when I really didn’t. In math, it was easy to convey this because math, to me, is like a puzzle waiting to be solved. The thought of this gives me shivers of excitement! In my tech job, I get to share cool stuff that sparks wonder in kids!! The thought of that makes my eyes light up with excitement! Let’s be real, it’s rare for a kid to beat down the algebra door to get it, but my room seemed to always full of kids that had to be forced out. The trick…be passionate about your KIDS first. Adore them until they feel it deep within. Care enough about them to demand the best from them even when they don’t want to. Care enough to refer back to "flexibility" and take the time needed..WHEN NEEDED…to address them in a way in which they hear and feel you. I’ve been known to say this… "I will fight for you even if that means fighting YOU for YOU. Passion is not something that you can fake. However, when kids feel it, your classroom will be the one where kids WANT to be…regardless of what you teach. 4. Be Resourceful This one is huge. Please know your content enough to understand how and where to redirect questioning when needed. It’s not about you understanding every single aspect but you must know more than enough to properly support your students. NEVER tell a kid…"go figure it out!" Guess what, if they knew how to do it, they would NOT have asked you. What you must be able to do is help students redirect their path. Be able to help them secure a learning plan and effectively use great questioning skills to get them there. Remember, it’s not about YOU being the single force of information. It’s about empowering students to research, process and problem solve. 5. Be Reflective I know that I’ve said this many times but reflection has truly changed my practice. I always consider the good as well as the not so good and make purposeful plans to improve. That is how I learn. Reflection is also important for students. If one of our goals is to empower them to take ownership of their learning, we must encourage reflection. Let me be clear, I’m not talking about "reflecting as a grade". This is really about individual development and growth…teacher AND student. Focus on the growth…not the grade.  

From a Student…"I hated when I had ideas that needed to be validated by someone else before they were valued" When I heard this statement, all that I could say was…Oh My Gosh!!! I knew exactly what this young lady felt because I have experienced this very feeling so much in my own practice. For the most part, I know how to deal in situations where my ideas have no value. Years of "dealing" have taught me that…but this was not about me. This was her…her experience as a student. She went on to explain further how it happens. A question is posed. She waits and responds. Her teacher, barely acknowledging her, asks for more responses. Another student responds with pretty much the exact same thing that she said. The teacher then praises the other student…never acknowledging that the idea was given 5 minutes prior. To be clear, when a teacher either purposefully or inadvertently devalues a student in this way, it completely diminishes any resemblances of a relationship. You’re lost that student…that quick.  Situations such as this are ones that kids should not have to deal with in school yet they do. In this student’s mind…"it’s because I’m black" ran through her head immediately. It was never addressed. No one cared. To this day, she has no idea why this practice seemed to occur day after day. What she remembers is dreading that class and limiting the ideas that she shared. (Hello micro-agression!) Devaluing this student resulted in her shutting down and shutting out the happenings of this classroom…and her opportunity to learn. I cannot even begin to express how much this situation spoke to so many of my own. Listening to her made me check my own responses and I needed to do that. There is no "cookie cutter" simple  answer in this situation other than refusing to remain silent. Had we talked about this back then, we could have addressed it and in the process she would have surely been empowered to react accordingly. She also would not have carried the weight of these moments on her shoulders for the years that she did. Perception is Everything The teacher in this situation could have been acting completely innocently but considering the number of times that it happened, it doesn’t appear that way. How then does a student proceed in an environment where they KNOW that there is a perception that their thoughts are meaningless? How do they continue to add their ideas to the conversation? Who "checks" the teacher when a pattern of devaluing becomes obvious? What would you do? How would you handle it? Think of your own classrooms. Do all of your students feel that what they say matters? Do they feel valued? Reflection is encouraged.

I cringe every time that I see small children sitting in their straight "school approved" rows sitting silently. When they speak, they are told "shhh" or some even get accustomed to placing their finger over their mouth which serves to remind them to remain silent. At the slightest of noise, the parent is informed… "Your child is great but they are being far too social." Kids raise their hands for approval to ask questions. Sometimes, when the question isn’t warranted, they’re even reprimanded for asking. My favorite one…"When will we ever use this?" (Truthfully, they SHOULD ask this question) Born to Comply Sometimes I feel that "learning" is more about compliance than process. "Sit in your seat in your row. Get out your black/blue pen and write on uniformed paper with wide lines. You may go to the restroom when I say that you can. You may not speak to your neighbor. You may not get up from your desk. You have two rights…to remain silent and do as I say." Are we teaching stalks of corn or children? Dear Teachers AND Administrators, classroom management is not about having the most uniformed and silent class. It is about creating a structure in which learning is embraced, encouraged and empowered. It is about having processes in place that allow kids to be explorers and architects of their knowledge. Sometimes, that is chaotic but a great classroom manager understands how to "manage" this process…NOT control it like a prison guard. (End of PSA) Question Everything! We have to encourage kids to speak more. Why can’t they ask questions? Why do they have to be completely silent? Why can’t they engage in more conversation…even if it goes off topic? This is called REAL LIFE. This is not something that you start at the middle to high school level. This needs to start as early as pre-k because by the time those kids get to the secondary part of their education, we (the highly informed progressive teachers) are spending a great deal of time trying to undo what has been programmed and get kids to think, speak and reflect. (We should anyway…)   If you teach HS math, you understand the above statement. I kid you not…kids literally WAIT on each step of the process and are highly upset when they see that you are not "THAT" teacher because somewhere their "programming" has convinced them that regurgitating steps is the ONLY way to "learn" math. The reality is that kids are accustomed to what transpires and when we train them like robots, what else can they possibly be but more robots. It was absolutely refreshing to hear students speak up at SLA last week during Educon. At some point during the lives of these students, someone gave them permission to speak up and they do it oh so well. If we want our students to be able to convey their ideas as well as emotions…we have GOT to empower them to think freely…to talk freely…to question freely. Better yet…question EVERYTHING. When they question…empower them to seek out answers and share…even publish. Imagine that.

Preface: I’ve gone back and forth with myself on whether or not to publish this piece. I’ve never been a person who focuses on race. As a matter of fact, I was raised to be oblivious to it in a community where the color of your skin was blatantly obvious. I’ve always excelled in whatever I tried to do because my mother truly empowered me to own who I was and own the room in the process. However, this is my blog and my place of growth. Since Educon, I’ve had these emotions brewing inside that represent a culmination of all the things that "we" never talk about. It’s 3am. I can’t sleep because all that I can think about is this piece.  Growing up, I was accustomed to being the only black face in the room. I was in band, not athletics, after all. I was in "honors" classes, not regular. I grew up on a mixed middle class street, not across the tracks. I was "articulate", as my first grade teacher said. (My mother handled that.) I could make friends with any one…any race…at any time. It was almost as if it were a gift (privilege) that I could travel between the self-segregation of lunch tables and not miss a beat. Not everyone could do that and it came at a price. I was called "oreo". It was even commented to me that my white friends were somehow "blacker" than I was. When they spoke about other black students, they would immediately come back and say…"Oh, well you’re not really black." Yes, this happened. That was high school and as hurtful as that was it was even more hurtful to hear my black students speak the same sentiments. To them, my education made me "less black" as that is what they said. To add insult to injury, the intonation of my voice somehow sounded "less black" too. Wait…what? I didn’t choose my voice. I didn’t sit in a room and practice how to "blend" with the rest of the room. I am who I am. I sound as I sound. As I write this, I think that the bigger issue is that my students somehow felt that being educated meant being "white". (I will be revisiting this in a later post.) Anyone that says that they "don’t see color" is lying. If you say that…stop saying it. You do. Try placing one color of skittles in a bowl. Now place one skittle of a different color in the same bowl. Shake them up and I dare you NOT to see the difference first. That doesn’t make you racist. It makes you aware and that is okay. On the other hand, put yourself in the position of "the different skittle". You are also fully aware that when people see you, they see that you are different first before really "seeing you". That is what it is like as the only person of color in the room. As confident as I am in my own skin, for me…it’s still an alienating feeling. Don’t get me wrong. I KNOW that I am brilliantly creative and can command a room when needed but I am also human and that part of me is sometimes uncomfortable as the only person of color in a room. Yet, I also feel empowered to not fall silent because I understand that I have ideas that are of value and need to be heard. A long time ago, a piece was written by a friend, questioning if social media had done anything to erase the racism that we are so accustomed to. If it has done anything, it has made people a bit more open to the ideas of others in a small way. Before twitter, I would sit as the only person of color in a room and wait on the right moment to speak if at all. With twitter, my voice has a reach that exceeds that room, therefore, giving me a pass into many conversations as @rafranzdavis that my "non-twittter" former self did not have. I understand that my connected voice has opened doors within the edtech community that would not have been quite so "easy" to open without my connectedness. However, even after typing the word, "easy", I know that this road…the one so dominated by white men…has been anything but easy. In most cases, I’m still the only person of color in the room and depending on the event, there may be 2-3 others…which really speaks to a greater problem at the school level in terms of racial diversity than that of the event itself. Sitting at the table with Xian Barrett, Sabrina Stevens, Melinda Anderson and José Vilson at Educon was eye-opening for me in many ways. Talking to them was like lifting a ton of bricks from my shoulders that had been packed with layers of cement for years. I refuse to be silent on this topic anymore. I am tired of being the only person of color in the room.  As I’ve sat at an event, I’ve often scoped the room for more diverse faces and wondered… Where are we? Why are we not here? Why are schools still struggling with employing diverse voices? Why are schools not sending these teachers to these events like TCEA and even ISTE. Why are we not submitting proposals to speak? Why are we not engaged within the "circle" that forms the edtech community? Why are we not seen as viable voices when it comes to selecting featured speakers? Why is it still exciting to see a person of color featured? (It is still rare.) Why is this community so oblivious yet comfortable with the lack of color in the room? There has to be a way to change this… I welcome your thoughts.             .  

Today, I taught a session at our state technology conference, TCEA, during Math Academy. My session, Tools and Apps to Invigorate Algebra, was all about web tools and applications to help teachers build more learner centered activities for students. I approached this session from a standards based perspective instead of an app-based perspective. Yes, there are tons of apps in the app store that could have surely filled the 50 minute session but knowing what I do about sessions, teachers and classrooms…I knew that focusing on how to utilize a few great tools really well would serve most teachers better. In Texas, we are not common core and what often happens is that when teachers find great ideas or lessons online, they are a bit hesitant to embrace them because of the CCSS label. The thing is that if we apply what we should know about about our own standards, we will see that many of the CCSS ideas most certainly do apply in Texas. I started the session by sharing the Lead4Ward App which comes with tools like the color coded STAAR snapshot which places standards side by side according to category and college readiness. I may not be such a huge fan of STAAR testing but in terms of readability, this form is an excellent resource for teachers. I found it especially useful when helping teachers learn how to "unpack" the verbs within our standards. In addition, teachers can access the "Cognitive Complexity: Verbs of the TEKS" page which list out the most commonly used verbs by subject. Once I looked at the list of verbs, I had another bright idea. I went through the TEKS and highlighted all of the verbs, which speak to the actions that kids should "minimally" be able to do in Algebra.  I then took all of those verbs and created a wordle. The visual that it created lent itself to quite a bit of spark in the room…which seemed to be "aha moments" for some. It should be noted that "determined" was almost always followed by "the reasonableness" within the TEKS and that was important to consider as we discussed what the boldness of the verbs meant. The point that I wanted to make was that Algebra should be a course where kids are "DOING". They should be investigating, analyzing data, interpreting, predicting, describing and yes…determining the reasonableness. Technology can most certainly support students in doing so. With that in mind, I chose to spend time sharing Desmos and how this, highly underused tool in Texas, can support algebraic understanding. (We tend to stick with our "test approved" calculators) In addition, I shared Des-man, the penny project, 3-Act Math Task, Visual Patterns and several blogs along with Dan Meyer, Fawn Nguyen, Chris Danielson, and pretty much the twitter math community. We spent time looking at these tools both from the teacher and student perspective. I believe that doing that made the difference. What I found was that by focusing on how these tools could be used in depth in relation to the standards that we have to teach, the teachers who were participating walked away feeling like they had some tangible tools that they could use and maybe a different way of thinking. Click here to go straight to the google slide of my presentation.  

Last night, I became engulfed in PBS’ telecast of American Promise, the 13 year journey of two black middle class families raising sons. I saw my own son in both young men depicted in the documentary. I also saw myself as a parent and as an educator and I’m not yet decided on how that feels. The telecast was timely as this is Black Male Achievement Week, or #BMAweek.   As a parent, it has been tough raising my own son in a community with very little choice. We have one high school, one junior high and very few paths to opportunities above what we can personally provide. Black males are more than likely to fill the chairs of DAEP or ISS than an AP course. My son’s school is traditional in every sense of the word and we have had our share of academic ups and downs. For him, the lowest year was 5th grade when one of his teachers told him that he would end up in prison by 16 and treated him as such. That was the year that he begged not to go to school. As a parent, the lowest moments happened in the years that followed. It seemed that an overwhelming majority of my son’s teachers did not "get" my son and nor did they care. For me, the lowest moment happened in 7th grade when my son was pegged as "the kid that did not belong in pre-ap" because of his lack of being able to fit the mold as established. I listened on the other end of the phone as his pre-ap english teacher told me that I only wanted my son in a "high performance" class because he was black and not because he was capable. He had a C at the time in her class and I’m convinced that she was more worried about him making her "numbers drop" than about teaching him. I fought like crazy for him that year and eventually gave in to changing his schedule because leaving him in those classes would have surely qualified as abuse. This was also the year that I knew that I would leave my school district because I could not fully advocate for my son and work in the same place.  Last night, while watching American Promise, I found myself zoning in and out of my own life. I watched as both sets of parents prepared their sons in their own ways and I wonder if I am doing enough with my own. I know in my heart that his current school situation is not enough. There is no challenge for him other than to turn his worksheets in on time, which he struggles with. There is no opportunity for him beyond athletics or auto-mechanics, which I’m sure he won’t be doing. He doesn’t get to think aloud, formulate ideas or share beyond the pieces of paper that are typically found folded in his pocket. There are no opportunities for him to develop as a leader. It hurt to type that sentence. I train teachers daily to transform their lessons in ways that my own son won’t experience. I struggle with this often. Like any of the parents of children that I have taught, I want my son to have a chance in life beyond the factories of our town and the city limits that seem to keep everyone home. I know that he wants more for himself and his reality is that he can’t achieve his best without the full support of the adults in his life. By support, I mean we have to help him set the bar high for himself and encourage him at all cost to exceed it. Step one…Set the bar What can a student achieve if he sees nothing worth achieving?