CET Writes

In order to be truly effective, educators must recognize that what they teach is merely a vector for the greater objective: teaching students how to think. Regardless of the practice fodder, students must be taught how to critically consume information, break it down to understand its individual parts, compare it to their present understanding, and use it to build a new understanding that is truly theirs. Developing these skills is vital to preparing them for life-long learning in a dynamic future. My drive to educate is fueled by my desire to make the invisible visible, and thereby demystify the process of understanding. In my teaching methods classes, an article by Robert Probst stood out to me by explaining that American high school English classes are too often taught as prep courses for a literature degree; whereas many of the students may not pursue higher education at all, let alone study literature beyond the minimum requirements. In this environment, few skills are taught; in...

Although I’ve led a relatively privileged life, I’ve never been allowed the luxury to forget that I am Black and that this life is Promethean fire, stolen from those who would refuse me such power. From a young age, I was raised with an awareness that the life I enjoyed was hard-won, secured by generations of conscious decisions to undermine institutional inequity, and that it could only be retained and furthered by never seeming too Black,  always outworking non-Black peers,  and pretending obliviousness to shock at my excellence. I was groomed to live as an exemplar of this rhetorical triangle, persuading the powers of American society not to bar my way to success and perhaps even grant the same opportunities expected by my non-Black peers. At home, I was taught to blend into non-Black America as a successful woman capable of navigating any social register. I grew up the daughter of college-educated professionals in an upper-middle class, predominantly white neighborhood in ...

Thelma Streeter (circa 1948) Earlier today I was chatting online with a friend and colleague about the surreal and exhausting state of the world, and he made the following statement:  Sometimes, I feel like an imposter in the conversation  [about equity work], as I am the quintessential benefactor of this historic class system, but I still feel like it has to be much more difficult to be a mouthpiece as a black American. So often, it has to feel like people immediately shut down when you start talking about inequality. Or systemic racism. To which I replied: If you're the imposter, then I'm the sleeper. I, too, have benefited from the same class system. My parents circumvented and exploited it, and then taught my brother and I to not only do the same but to also conduct ourselves as if we have always been here. And that was just the most recent generation. Some day, we'll talk about my social-climbing, paternal grandmother. ***** Thelma Streeter (née Dennis) was born on Jul...

Image from  amazon.com As a matter of full disclosure, please be aware that I was gifted a free electronic copy of this book to review. Serena the Sailboat is a charming tale about a day’s adventure involving the protagonist and her friends Simon Seagull and Danny Dolphin. After parading through the harbor and bidding their friends a joyous farewell, the trio head out to sea for a day of fun in the sun; however, their outing turns perilous when a storm rolls in and Serena fears that the gale may breach her hull. Recognizing the power of their collective strength, the friends find a safe harbor where they can weather the storm together. In Serena the Sailboat , Laura Thomae Young crafts a sweet, gentle story in verse while Raina M. Tubba’s illustrations extend the fun sing-song rhyme of Young’s quatrains in a friendly style that will make a good read for pre-kindergarten children ages 3-5. Furthermore, fans of Eric Carle, Leo Lionni, and classics from the Little Golden Boo...

Unlike Rickety Stitch, I know exactly how I arrived at the inaugural Greater Austin Comic Con; indeed, I recall my origin story in more than half-remembered snippets that come to me in a dreamlike state. Just under fifteen years ago, I rather unironically met the man of my dreams and then became his beautiful wife. 🎶 At this point, I quickly realized that I’d been on the periphery of comic fandom all of my life. Comics feature heavily in the reading preferences of all of the significant men in the Christinaverse—my husband, my father-in-law, my father, and my brother. Upon further investigation, as a veteran teacher of literature and literacy I quickly recognized that superheroes are frequently modern instantiations of literary archetypes and that having so much of the story told via a mélange of expertly crafted images and text greatly benefits struggling readers. In short, comics are not only fun to read but could easily be the edification of the innocent!  Thus, ...

Image from Amazon.com Jensen Graham’s fertile thought life is full of heroic antics and daring do in which he regularly saves not only himself but his friends as well. Unfortunately, his actual existence is less spectacular.  As an overweight, awkward, socially inept middle schooler, he finds math hard, friendship harder, and avoiding bullying—even by those he thinks of as friends—hardest of all. Although Jensen has always struggled in that game we call life, someone seems to have cranked up the difficulty setting. So, when the elevator tries to break him down… he stalls out and is at a complete loss as to how to recover himself. Forced into introspection by the school newspaper’s power team, Jensen accepts some ugly truths, finds guidance in YA novel, and actively works on “fixing what’s wrong, changing what’s around [him], and doing what [he’s] afraid of” (236). Brave would be a good read for late elementary and middle grade readers (grades 5-8) who enjoy painfully awkw...

Having barely survived a demon possession,  Mia must move in with her Milanese extended family where she’ll stay alive by learning the family heritage and mastering the family trade of demon catching with the ancient lore of bell, book, and candle.  In the course of these studies, she begins to understand that the world is far more complex than she ever believed it to be and the powerfully seductive forces at play can’t be easily categorized.  Beyer constructs a narrative in which the quick and the dead, the animate and the inanimate, as well as the characters and the setting have had a long standing multi-generational intimacy. As the plot unfolds, the audience quickly realizes that the protagonist seems to have a walk-on part in an expansive drama that has been playing out for a very long time.    Nonetheless, for this scene Mia seems to play the role of both Dante and Cervantes simultaneously-functioning as not only the damned but also the guide through th...