The Other Elephant In The Class Room

Purposeful, intentional racial bias poses an obvious threat to the possibility of real equity in schools. In this volume, antiracist educators explore an equally troubling, but insufficiently explored threat: the racism upheld by schools and districts that claim an antiracist commitment. These institutions perpetuate disparities by enacting that commitment through surface-level and soft diversity and inclusion goals and popular initiatives that are more equity optics than antiracism. This book asks: How is racism perpetuated through actions, programs, practices, and initiatives that might appear to be inclusion-oriented or “progressive,” but never quite get around to eliminating racism? How do these efforts pose as racial equity while protecting systems of advantage and disadvantage—creating a sort of equity inertia? The book then asks: What would antiracism look like if we enacted a deeper antiracist approach? What is a truer vision for racial equity? A diverse collection of authors apply these questions to an equally diverse assortment of programs and practices, such as trauma-informed care, social-emotional learning, restorative practices, anti-bias work in early childhood education, Montessori schooling, “inclusive” social studies curricula, and toxic positivity and “niceness” as stand-ins for racial equity. Book Features: Illustrates how K–12 educators can adopt more authentically justice-oriented approaches to antiracism.Draws on existing theoretical frameworks such as critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and equity literacy.Examines concepts such as white fragility, racial battle fatigue, white privilege, and interest convergence.Includes a range of authors, from racial justice scholars to classroom teachers. Offers an engaging and accessible format that combines narrative with theoretical grounding, bridging critical analysis to visions for moving forward. Contributors: Tracey Benson, Alina Campana, Elisabeth Chan, Lavette Coney, Jeanne Connelly, Jennifer C. Dauphinais, Addison Duane , Heidi Faust, Betty Forrester, JPB Gerald, Simona Goldin , Paul C. Gorski, Daisy Han, Debi Khasnabis, Katie Kitchens, Amelia M. Kraehe, Anna Kushner, Lindsay Lyons, Cheryl Matias, Andréa C. Minkoff, Theresa Montaño, Jenna Kamrass Morvay, Crystena Parker-Shandal, Cherie Bridges Patrick, Maria Gabriela Paz, Brianne Pitts, Chris Seeger, Greg Simmons, Daniel Tulino, Katherine Wood

Elephant in the Classroom is an exploration of the vast complexity of teaching as it is described by research and experienced by teachers. The reality of a job so vital to the proper functioning of a society should not be as mysterious as teaching continues to be. This book takes readers on a guided tour of 13 competencies and practices that are a critical part of teaching.

15 million adults in England alone struggle with maths, why is this and how can teachers and parents change that with the next generation? This is a pratical explanation of what has gone wrong and a positive approach to improving how students of all abilities can learn mathematics.

So, the other day, I was talking with Ashley toward the end of class and mentioned she’d been absent a lot, so I asked if she had been ill. She said, “No. We’ve been getting the place ready for my parents. They’re coming home.” “Really?” I was a bit puzzled. “Yeah,” she said, “I pick dad up from prison on Monday and mom on Wednesday.” When a kid walks into class, he or she is carrying baggage. This is the reality: The most important thing for teachers to teach kids is that learning is fun and that they can do it. If they don’t learn this, it doesn’t matter what else is taught. Someone Else’s Problem just walked in your classroom (With apologies to Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). They don’t cover this kind of thing in education classes in college, and they also don’t tell you about students coming to school hungry for food or love. To assume that your job as a teacher is just to teach subject matter is like a blind man describing an elephant. The Elephant in the Classroom was walking the halls of Columbine.

All too often, race discourse in the United States devolves into shouting matches, silence, or violence, all of which are mirrored in today’s classrooms. This book will help individuals develop the skills needed to facilitate difficult dialogues across race in high school and college classrooms, in teacher professional learning communities, and beyond. The authors codify best practices in race dialogue facilitation by drawing on decades of research and examples from their own practices. They share their mistakes and hard-earned lessons to help readers avoid common pitfalls. Through their concrete lesson plans and hands-on material, both experienced and novice facilitators can immediately use this inclusive and wide-ranging curriculum in a variety of classrooms, work spaces, and organizations with diverse participants. “Race Dialogues: A Facilitator?s Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom is a scholarly, timely, and urgently needed book. While there is other literature on facilitation of intergroup dialogues, none are so deeply and effectively focused on race—the elephant in the room.” —From the foreword by Patricia Gurin, Nancy Cantor Distinguished University Professor and Emeritus Research Director, University of Michigan “This brilliant book is a gold mine of wisdom and resources for teachers, facilitators, and student dialogue leaders. It summarizes, explains, and elaborates upon everything I have ever been taught about what makes for great facilitation. With experience and compassion, the authors have written a clear, user-friendly guide to facilitation of race dialogue for both youth and adults. I will recommend this book to every facilitator and teacher I train or hire.” —Ali Michael, director of the Race Institute for K–12 Educators and author of Raising Race Questions: Whiteness and Inquiry in Education

From the New York Times bestselling author of Counting by 7s comes a heartfelt story about "the importance of compassion and bravery when facing life’s challenges” (Kirkus) for fans of The One and Only Ivan and Front Desk. It's been almost a year since Sila's mother traveled halfway around the world to Turkey, hoping to secure the immigration paperwork that would allow her to return to her family in the United States. The long separation is almost impossible for Sila to withstand. But things change when Sila accompanies her father (who is a mechanic) outside their Oregon town to fix a truck. There, behind an enormous stone wall, she meets a grandfatherly man who only months before won the state lottery. Their new alliance leads to the rescue of a circus elephant named Veda, and then to a friendship with an unusual boy named Mateo, proving that comfort and hope come in the most unlikely of places. A moving story of family separation and the importance of the connection between animals and humans, this novel has the enormous heart and uplifting humor that readers have come to expect from the beloved author of Counting by 7s. “I couldn’t stop reading—I had to find out what would happen. An unusual and lovely real-life fairy tale.” —Linda Sue Park, New York Times Bestselling author of A Long Walk to Water “A gorgeous and emotional novel. I loved every page.” —Cynthia Kadohata, Newbery Medal-winning author of Kira-Kira

ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 A “warm and funny and honest…genuinely unputdownable” (Curtis Sittenfeld) memoir chronicling what it’s like to live in today’s world as a fat man, from acclaimed journalist Tommy Tomlinson, who, as he neared the age of fifty, weighed 460 pounds and decided he had to change his life. When he was almost fifty years old, Tommy Tomlinson weighed an astonishing—and dangerous—460 pounds, at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, unable to climb a flight of stairs without having to catch his breath, or travel on an airplane without buying two seats. Raised in a family that loved food, he had been aware of the problem for years, seeing doctors and trying diets from the time he was a preteen. But nothing worked, and every time he tried to make a change, it didn’t go the way he planned—in fact, he wasn’t sure that he really wanted to change. In The Elephant in the Room, Tomlinson chronicles his lifelong battle with weight in a voice that combines the urgency of Roxane Gay’s Hunger with the intimacy of Rick Bragg’s All Over but the Shoutin’. He also hits the road to meet other members of the plus-sized tribe in an attempt to understand how, as a nation, we got to this point. From buying a Fitbit and setting exercise goals to contemplating the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, America’s “capital of food porn,” and modifying his own diet, Tomlinson brings us along on a candid and sometimes brutal look at the everyday experience of being constantly aware of your size. Over the course of the book, he confronts these issues head-on and chronicles the practical steps he has to take to lose weight by the end. “What could have been a wallow in memoir self-pity is raised to art by Tomlinson’s wit and prose” (Rolling Stone). Affecting and searingly honest, The Elephant in the Room is an “inspirational” (The New York Times) memoir that will resonate with anyone who has grappled with addiction, shame, or self-consciousness. “Add this to your reading list ASAP” (Charlotte Magazine).