I have written this blog post a dozen times in my head already.
I'd say that's why I'm not writing my December OneWordx12 post until Dec 12th but upon looking back at the the last few months it would appear that most of my one word posts have been published this late into the month. I wonder if that's because it's 2020 and everything seems to be just a little bit harder (and somethings so very much harder) or the nature of trying to choose one word to represent an entire month 12 times through the year?
As this is my first time doing OneWordx12, I don't really have an answer.
I know that picking this word has been an uphill battle. Not in a bad way but due to the fact that I couldn't seem to settle on one word and the circumstances and emotions around the word kept changing.
The first word I wanted to pick was teacher.
The word teacher is such a big word. And it means so many things to so many people. In a recent conversation Chris Cluff posed a question about the idea of "if you take the idea of being a teacher out of your identity, who are you?" and it really stuck with me.
During the lock down last spring I wrote this blog about being (or not) a teacher-librarian and I had been feeling similar feelings about my current role except now looking at the "teacher" part of the equation.
Many people have asked how this year is going and how I feel and for a lot of the time I answered that I no longer felt like a teacher.
An instructional coach? Yes. A curator? Yes. A book deliverer? Yes. A storytime reader? Yes. But a teacher? No.
My access to working with students between September and now has been very limited. And I fully recognize that most educators are barely keeping their heads above water these days so inviting another educator into their space (virtual or otherwise) to co-plan and co-teach is an added layer that they can't handle. So I read a lot of books to a lot of classes. I asked some questions and discussed some ideas.
But was it teaching? I don't know. It didn't feel like it.
But then it was almost as if a light switch was turned on and all of a sudden people were looking for me to join them to teach. Perhaps they were feeling like they had a handle on this year a little more. Perhaps it was that they wanted to explore coding and had very little experience of their own. Whatever the reason, the word teacher didn't seem to quite fit in the same way for December. I had been hoping that by choosing it I would focus on the ways in which I was still teaching, even if it was small or with adults, but the sentiment didn't seem as necessary anymore.
The second word I wanted to pick was decenter.
As it always seems with December (and for the most part November) we are slapped in the face with Christmas as soon as Halloween is over. I am a big believer that all things Christmas should wait until at least November 12th in order to give space to Remembrance Day. This year it seems many people who celebrate Christmas needed the cheer and sparkle a little earlier than usual this year and started putting up their trees and decorations sooner than normal. We put ours up on American Thanksgiving which is a about a week early for us. And I get that desire.... at home.
I understand why people might be feeling the need for more cheer and sparkle this year but as always, I struggle with the amount of Christmas that is brought into the schools.
Every activity in December doesn't need to have an element of Christmas in it. There's no need for reindeer math or Santa letters (That's a whole other blog post...). And there shouldn't be a tree or an elf on the shelf in any classroom. In my opinion.
While I hear people's reasoning that it's not the religious aspects of Christmas and that many of the children like it, I wonder what message we are sending when our classrooms continue to mimic the dominant culture of the wider society. Do these same educators who put up Christmas tree and center so many of their activities in December around Christmas do the same for every other holiday? Do they also do menorah math and dreidel writing prompts? Do they find a way to ensure that Diwali and Eid are the centre of all the activities in their classroom during the months in which they fall?
I think if we are devoted to being anti-racist educators who decolonize our teaching, our bookshelves, our assessments then we also need to be prepared to take a hard look at Christmas as ask how we can decenter it in our schools.
So why didn't I pick decenter as my December word?
Well, I think it goes back to my first choice in words- teacher.
I'm not with students all the time. I'm not creating a community classroom space for these discussions. I don't feel as those I have the leverage in which to enact direct change. I can discuss the ideas with my colleagues (I have). I can add ideas and link articles in my library weekly update (I have). I can join in with Twitter threads and post my thoughts (I have).
But if I'm not a teacher in a classroom space can I actually create meaningful change?
I don't know.
I don't know how much or even if many of my colleagues are reading my library weekly updates. I don't know if they are looking at the articles I am linking and taking the time to reflect on their practice. I don't know if they are seeing it as another add-on and skimming past. I don't know.
And so upon reflection it felt like journey would be a better word for the last month of 2020. Because what a journey this year has been. And what a journey we are still in.
The pandemic is nowhere near over. The journey of dealing with that and the far-reaching affects on the education system will be something we are dealing with for many years to come. The cultural reckoning that has taken place this year as people grapple with ideas about white supremacy and being antiracist need to continue to be pushed to the forefront of our consciousness and confronted every day in all spaces.
By choosing the word journey I can continue to reflect on both my roles as a teacher and as a librarian and how I use those roles to push forward the need to decenter the dominant culture in our school spaces.
