Picking Favorites: The “I Should Be Packing” Edition

It’s a step up from “I should be grading,” so I’ll take it. (Also, as a content warning, the Terry Crews and Johnny Iuzzini stories both discuss sexual assault.)

Terry Crews understands that he is in a unique position to speed up that progress. So, instead of internalizing his abuse and spreading it to others with toxic actions of his own, he is taking the steps necessary to break the chain before our eyes. — What About Your Friends? Why Hollywood’s Abandonment Of Terry Crews Is Unacceptable

These quotes aren’t meant to replace the standard Dr. Seuss and Lewis Carroll standards, but rather we feel they deserve to be added to the canon of inspirational book quotes. These are the words of authors of various genders, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, disabilities, and other intersections of identity. — Diversifying the Canon of Inspirational Book Quotes

Four tips for including the news in your curriculum while helping students cope with the abundance of negative stories: We need our students to leave classrooms knowledgeable and critical but also hopeful. We have a responsibility to balance the horrors with the hopeful and the frightening with what is also festive. — Teaching Current Events in the Age of Social Media

Owusu, a second-year student at Morehouse School of Medicine, has a protan-type color vision deficiency, which leads to a form of colorblindness. It causes colors like red, green, brown and orange to appear indistinguishable. There are also times when he confuses blue and purple.

This fall, though, his classmates secretly raised $350 to buy Owusu a pair of Enchroma glasses, which enhance color perception for people who are color blind. — Classmates help Morehouse medical student distinguish colors for the first time

Before classes start, as I’m drafting my syllabi, I print out calendars for every month of the term and lay them out on my desk. Using different colored markers for each section/course, I plot out the due dates for every assignment I will give throughout the semester. A cluster of different colors in a three-day span is a quick visual cue that I ought to reconsider some due dates. — How to Escape Grading Jail

Grading until you cry — End of Semester Bingo

Okay, class, here’s what I want you to bring with you on the last day of school before winter break. I want you to find a poem, a saying, a paragraph you like — something that speaks to you because of its message, its beauty, its format. I want you to copy it onto a piece of paper, put it into a box, and wrap it. Be sure to include, before you wrap it, the name of the author and your name as the giver. — The Perfect Classroom Gift: A Gift of Words

This is so pure and my heart has grown three sizes. LOOK AT HIS FACE. OMG. Click through all the pictures. They are worth it.

This thread is also worth a read, especially during this gift giving season:

“For inmates, reading is not only a form of escapism during their sentences but also an opportunity to improve their chances of assimilating back into society after their release, reports about literacy in prison have found.”

AND

“All too often, prison censorship, in addition to being an arbitrary abuse of authority, denies the incarcerated the chance to get out of jail and stay out.” — Texas Prisons Ban 10,000 Books (There is a lot infuriating about this story. This is all about the further dehumanization of prisoners. I’m upset about the books, but NO SNACKS? I mean, come on. Inmates are people. Yet, our prison system treats them as less than. Which, really, makes sense given the virulent racism of the entire justice system. But still. Infuriating.)

Big Little Lies is getting a second season. I honestly do not know how I feel about this.

In short, teaching rhetoric in our writing classes leads us to ask students to examine their own positions, their own ethics, their own commitments. — An End-of-Year Plea: Teach Rhetoric!

’Tis the season for my favorite thing in the world: Patti LaBelle’s classic, unforgettable performance of Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas” from the 1996 National Christmas Tree Lighting. This is my Charlie Brown Christmas. This is my A Christmas Story. This is a very special time for me, and I’m so glad to share it with you. Watch the infamous performance for President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton, and all of ’90s, C-Span-watching America below. Then watch it again. And read my exhaustive breakdown. — Patti LaBelle’s Disastrous Tree Lighting Performance Is the Only Good Christmas Tradition

The Root presents our annual list of the most compelling books published in 2017 by black authors in affordable, regular print runs—which is why Beyoncé’s $300 literary opus on the making of Lemonade that dropped this August does not make the list. — The 16 Best Books of the Year by Black Authors

Here are two facts: 1) Throughout the tail end of Matt Lauer’s tenure at NBC’s Today, ABC’s Good Morning America beat it in the ratings, and 2) In the two weeks since Lauer was kicked to the curb for sexual misconduct and replaced by Hoda Kotb, Today’s viewership has surpassed GMA’s by a considerable margin. — A Funny Thing Is Happening to Today Now That Matt Lauer Is Gone: Its Ratings Are Going Up

Thanks for ruining Christmas, Johnny: After allegations against Johnny Iuzzini, ABC pulls ‘The Great American Baking Show’ off the air

While this catalog may look like a talisman of yuppie waste, designed to lure in aspirational marks who have already ceded to living the bulk of their lives in monstrous, crippling debt … I’m here to tell you this catalog is THERAPY. It is an escape. It is the way we cope with things here. And really, isn’t that better than actually fixing anything wrong with the world? I say yes. — The 2017 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog

Use the filters to explore more than 350 titles NPR staff and critics loved this year. — NPR’s Book Concierge

Why don’t people just read the fiction, though? What is behind the fascination with the real-life connection between authors and their work? — Stop Reading My Fiction as the Story of My Life

But any teacher can change a student’s life; shy teachers, old teachers, part-time teachers, those with tenure, and those without. And the change can happen regardless of what you teach, where you teach, or who you teach. — Priceless Gift Exchanges between Faculty and Students

SaveSave