Slowly but surely

My fall semester flew by. Once again my students in Literacy Learning as Social Practice knocked my socks off. I get so inspired by working with them. I always learn something new.

My main work has been to get the Virtual Children's Zone project going. Slowly but surely...it's taking shape. We (Nancy, Kevin, and I) are working with amazing faculty at RIT on putting this together. I never could have imagined how great this idea could become. Immersive virtual environments where we are inside the computer, surrounded by interactive digital space!!! And it's portable! And we can replicate the Children's Zone in virtual space, work with community residents in design charrette's and redesign the zone!! Shared construction of plausible futures!! I can't believe it myself. Finding the money is a different story, but we're working away on a bunch of grants. I'm going to do this no matter what.

The Quiet Storm

We buried James Slater today. Pastor Washington called him the quiet storm, which is a perfect description. He was a man who worked without fanfare everyday of his life as a community builder. He was one of the mainstays of the Rochester Children's Zone initiative my colleagues and I have been a part of for the past one and a half years. He was completely dedicated to transforming Northeast Rochester. It was hard to count the number of committees and activist organizations with whom he volunteered his time. A tragic irony was that he was a member of the Community Safety work team and was shot and killed walking home from a neighborhood meeting. He was steps away from his house when confronted.

I've been writing, shouting even, a lot lately about how intolerable the situation is in urban contexts like Rochester to what feels like deaf ears. People just don't seem to understand how dire things are. How can we stand by and watch communities terrorized like this?

Today folks talked about revolution, about lacing up our shoes and hitting the streets. God I hope we follow through!

Life takes a turn

Trying to get connected again after dealing with a family crisis. This one took (is taking) a toll on my spirit. It's been hard to get back out.

It makes me feel more strongly about working for change though so I feel even more resolved to think about literacy practices from a more activist perspective. I know I sound like a broken record but the inequities we seem to tolerate are just no longer acceptable. Like people say, it's not enough to talk about resistance, you actually have to resist. I take inspiration from a young local slam poet I have gotten to know. He writes and performs beautifully about what we need to do to change what he and his peers are forced to live with.

There is a lot of good work going on but it seems disconnected. The Rochester Children's Zone is one good thing for sure. I've gotten to know a bit about youth work that has potential. The politics of food group in Rochester does amazing work. Most of this is outside of education though. How can we link these together and get at issues of literacy and schooling in productive and transformative ways?

Traveling Thoughts

I'm in Toronto for a critical literacy workshop my friend and colleague Vivian Vasquez invited me to participate in. I'm looking forward to showing the documentary David and I did on Lynn Gatto, A Life Outside, and to see what they say about Elliott's performance clips.

I'm stretching myself a bit to include "youth" literacies, but he's such a great example of what youth are doing with language and literacy in spite of school. My students really engaged with him and are genuinely committed to finding ways to teach that can engage the "Elliotts" in their classrooms. He's such a smart kid, one that school has simply failed. Literacy, performance poetry in particular, and his commitment to it has inspired him to recommit to school success even though he sees it as something he just has to do. That we still have to tell kids they just have to get through school seems unethical to the extreme. What can we do to change this stance? I can't buy into the US government and private corporations' attempts at dismantling public education, so I guess I have to believe schools are worth the trouble.

Having way too much fun

I forgot say how much fun I was having exploring the various places I suggested to my students! I set up a Facebook page and even got some friends. I'm not sure why that surprised me so much, but it did. I asked my daughter to join and, at first, she said no. Having your mother on a friends list wasn't cool. But, in the end, she did and it made me feel great. Folks who complain that we are losing value in interaction and social relations with all this technology "stuff" must not be spending too much time in cyberspace. Seems like the more time I spend, the more connected I feel to the people in my life and to people in general. Sure feels good whatever it is.

I started using Google docs and can't believe how well it works. Nancy, Kevin, and I were sitting together writing on the same document and watching the changes pop us as we sat there. It was way too fun. Since Google docs isn't supported by Safari I started using Firefox and like it much better. I even figured out how to embed hyperlinks in the blog on this browser and I couldn't get it done on Safari.

Gotta love this Web 2 stuff!

Changing mindsets

I'm so impressed with how my students have taken up the virtual assignment I tried in my summer literacy class, and now I'm learning a ton from them. It's like what Colin was saying about Ranciere's book 'The Ignorant Schoolmaster"; I don't have to know everything to teach it. We are all learning together about the nature and implications of a web 2 mindset and having a blast doing it. I am at least. I know it's an assignment for them, but it sure feels like they are enjoying unpacking the literacies involved.

Amazed

My friends Colin and Michele amaze me. We had a video conference on Skype with them in my class tonight and they made our heads spin. They are always one step ahead in their thinking and I leave conversations with them rethinking everything. At AERA Colin caught me off guard with a comment about critical literacy as a played out modernist discourse. I thought about it for weeks afterward. Tonight I got more insight into what he meant when he talked about the difference between "languages of power" and "practices of power". I got this.

But I still left wanting to rethink everything and feeling self-doubt. It feels like Colin and Michele breezed past talking about critical literacy as a kind of instructable idea to doing critical practices in everyday life while I was taking a nap or something.

I'm desperate to see things change and am tired of people talking about injustice and social reproduction as they drive their SUVs around "those" areas of town. It is simply no longer tolerable that urban schools, neighborhoods, communities, and families are ignored or pathologized as some problem to be solved. So I have to do something and critical literacy seemed like a way to get there. Yet it is still rooted in autonomous literacy and an outsider mindset. Maybe I've been closer to what they are talking about than I think and just need my mind blown more often so I can see better.

Still got lots of thinking to do but I remain amazed by my brilliant friends.

Starting a new conversation

I've started by summer class, Literacy Learning as Social Practice, and am inspired again about possibilities. I've been teaching some version of this class, improved over time, for 12 years. Each time I get excited to move people from autonomous definitions of literacy to critical social practice views. As the students get younger (read I get older!) and even though they are millenials, I am struck by how hegemonic the autonomous definition is. They are active users, in both producer and consumers roles, of "new" literacies, yet it doesn't feel like "real" literacy to them. It reminds me of Harry in Barton and Hamilton's "Local Literacies". He had rich and varied literacy practices in his everyday life, but didn't feel like they were real or important because they weren't like school. (My apologies to Barton and Hamilton for oversimplifying their points). I love watching as they start to see things differently and that light goes off in their eyes.

Feeling dazed

Just got back from a trip to Johns Hopkins to see a specialiist about my son Marcus. Learned a ton and feel hope for the first time in what feels like ever. A few surprises but we have a plan!

I was getting worried about him being able to construct a positive future outside of institutions. The feeling carries over into my work on the Children's Zone ethnography as I see more and more intolerable marginalization. A couple of young men one of my colleagues works with as student-researchers were attacked and beaten while analyzing data for their research project on violence in Rochester. It went so far beyond irony. It feels more and more that folks just don't care what happens to kids in urban schools. They'll wag their fingers, roll their eyes, or donate their old books, but don't actually care.

The folks in the ethnography keep asking what "it" can do for them. Ethnography can't do anything, but I can. I'm determined to see something changed here. My friend Colin Lankshear gave me a great idea using new technologies that I'll share later. Still working on finding funding. It has real potential to make a difference. But I don't want to just get funding so that my university gets indirects. I have to find a way to set something up that will have lasting effects. Good thing I have awesome research colleagues in Nancy and Kevin.

Short on laughter

Not so much laughing these days.

Work is good but very hectic. We had the distinct privilege of hosting Gloria Ladson-Billings this past week and she was outstanding. Her many meetings and the public talk woke people up. So this is a good thing...

I was humbled by an event honoring my installation as the Michael W. Scandling Professor of Education. My brother came from LA which was particularly meaningful to me. I decided to "go for it" in the address I gave. I purposefully opened up a more personal voice and a firmer acitivist voice that I think surprised some folks. It wasn't a surprise that I put forward such a challenge I guess, but I realized that most of my colleagues had never heard me speak before. They've certainly heard me "talk back" at meetings, but never on my own work. The man for whom my chair is named was there and that made it particularly special to me. I've known him a long time and we share the same commitments. So this is a good thing...

The children's zone ethnography is going very well. "The Plan" (http://www.rcsdk12.org/rcz/DOCS/RCZ%20Community%20Plan.pdf) is finished and public and fundraising is in full swing. Lots of complex identity work going on and I am still a kid in a candy store doing the research. Nancy, Kevin, Jana, and I are working on a paper for AERA that we are really excited about. This is definitely a good thing...

My son is in crisis and this is not a good thing. It's too long a story to write here, but it demoralizes me as a mother and as a researcher. Sometimes the mountain just seems much too high.

Time Flies

Seems like I blinked and months flew by. The ethnography project is in full throttle and we are breathless. Data collection has ramped up significantly as the community approaches the deadline they set for presenting the plan. I'm in constant awe of the work they are doing. I wrote in my field notes the other day that "this is the revolution". 130 people have collaborated on a total community reform that gets at racism, class inequity, education, health, safety, youth development, parenting, employment, housing...it's incredible. I can't believe the gift we have as ethnographers. Methods books just don't get at this part.

On a personal note, I was given an endowed chair in the name of someone I know really well. It's pretty exciting. And we've started another documentary on SLAM poetry. The Rochester kids got accepted in an international SLAM and they stand a good chance of going far in the competition. Who knows, they may even win.

Flying along and having tons of fun.