SLA Poetry Slam Group at ITSE 2011 Closing Keynote - speaking truth to power
(starts at 32:00)

When I become a teacher
I’ll put a map of the world on every wall in my classroom
My students will always know to have a universal mindset
When they hear freedom, they’ll think of more than spirituals and Emancipation
They’ll remember the stinking pits at Babi Yar
The curled steel at Auchwitz
Sarajevo’s rifle butts
Cambodia’s grit and sweat and death
These classroom walls will not fence their minds.
Eyes will be opened. Again.

Instead of asking my students to adjust to my teaching style
Fawn in silent awe over my genius
I’ll ask them how they learn
Then tend to the visual
Auditory
and tactile learners
the best way I can
They’ll never doubt their place in my plan,
Confuse our classroom for a cookie-cutter
Stage where they must sit on their hands.

I’ll take criticism.
Gather it like gold dust between my fingers.
Never satisfied, I’ll Practice my practice forever.

My classroom will be painted bright blues and yellows
Along with students drawings, murals and poetry
Displays of Me Magazines
And word walls
Scenes from books acted out
Role playing
and Mock trials
I will appreciate their creativity

I will teach my students inquiry
Ask them questions about the world around them
Their opinions on issues from health care to the Palestine Wall
I won’t talk at them, but with them
We’ll have discussions and debates

I will challenge them
Ask them how they would tackle issues like budgets cuts
Low reading levels
And school safety
I’ll ask them how they feel about Pennsylvania finding money to build 3 more prisons but cutting funding from schools
Or how they feel about districts paying millions for standardized test and curriculum but not having enough for extra curricular activities
They will be informed

My students will be poets
storytellers
actors
artists
analyst
activists
All while being beautiful

Everyday I will tell them they’re beautiful

~ Sinnea Douglas

Source: practicaltheory.org

“they are building walls and prisons, we are building children’s visions”
“we are the ones who’ll heal the hate”

poetry that beautifully expresses the challenges of this seemingly impossible calling to seek justice and peace and why we do it - because we all just want to go home again

wavesfadingwords:

TEDxRamallah - Mark Gonzales مارك غونزالس - Wage Beauty (by TEDxTalks)

Poet. Scholar. Lover of Life. Mark Gonzales is an HBO Def Poet with a Master’s in Education, a Mexican and a Muslim, a Khalil Gibran meets Pablo Neruda in a lyrical break dance cypher, Mark lives in the center of intersections. From Palestinian refugee camps, universities in Beirut, foster homes in Portugal, to cities across the Americas, he transcends citizenship identity to break borders and wage beauty across continents through culture. He is respected internationally for his creative approaches to suicide prevention, human rights and human development via performance, photojournalism, and narrative therapy. 

He Is Amazing ..

(via intotheordinary)

Source: youtube.com

I can so relate - “people are only comfortable up to a certain point and yet I go right through it”

bothsidesofnowhere:

reneeyohe:

“Subtlety will never be my specialty” … Wow, how beautiful. Her words are so human and authentic, they seem to reach me in a way that I haven’t felt in a really long time. It’s so refreshing to find another voice who is speaking your language, the words your heart would say. I’ve often struggled with the feeling that perhaps I share too much, that maybe I should be more guarded, speak less, keep more mystery about me and who I am… I’ve wondered at times if I give too freely of myself, bare too much and therefore make myself vulnerable to those who haven’t earned it and could very easily take what I’ve shown them and walk away, leaving me with less pieces, less whole, or harmed. Though, no matter how hard I’ve tried to change, it doesn’t satisfy me. Balance eludes me, and perhaps that’s the practice, but I don’t believe I will ever make subtlety my specialty. I prefer to live as transparently as possible, as much as it may step on toes and poke sore spots, it also has the potential to allow others to do the same. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”- Maya Angelou

Truly brilliant. Poet/Singer/Songwriter Tanya Davis

(via fifthrule)

Source: reneeyohe