ZingerLearns @ZingerLearns@social.cleverlibre.org

It's time for me to tell the tale of the most recent bad review we received at our coffeeshop.

We don't get bad reviews often! We're a good shop with good pricing and fast service and friendly staff and literally the best coffee you can get for at least an hour in any direction.

But sometimes we get bad reviews from tourists who are upset that we are a coffee shop and not a breakfast joint, and sometimes we get bad reviews from bigots who are upset that our staff is mostly queer and about half trans or that our floor manager is an indigenous woman. Sometimes they'll complain about our music (https://mountaintown.fm slaps, fuck you.) and sometimes they'll complain about the fact that we're "too woke", presumably because we have some queer and trans pride stuff hanging inside, and we don't police the queer and trans price stuff that our staff wears, and we sell radical literature (and we write, publish, and distribute radical literature, but most of the time the people who are complaining don't know that.)

None of that is what we're talking about today, though.

Now that they're coming under attack from the right, it's useful to be able to point to the benefits of social-emotional learning (SEL) programs. A new review of 12 metaanalyses comprising >500 research reports finds significant positive effects: https://is.gd/NXmxPq

@ZingerLearns @edutooters I think the more important part is to indicate which aspects that you are commending were witnessed by both of you, and which ones from each one of you. That way, it does not look like you were not wishing to stick your neck individually out, but really is a matter of both wanting to contribute collegially from your own experience.

Another approach would be to have a recommendation from each of you, indicating each one the period/project that you’re covering…

@ZingerLearns @edutooters Interesting. A "we, the undersigned" letter of recommendation sounds different and powerful, actually.

My kids are looking for colleges, so I made a site with college info that others might like: https://collegetables.info/. Includes info like faculty and student demographics over time, finances over time, abortion access in the state, state rep support for same-sex marriage, what fields students graduate in, etc.

It's open source (https://github.com/bomeara/collegetables) and uses #rstats and #rmarkdown

Please let me know what other sources of data would be helpful!

#college #highered #ipeds

The Texas Observer will remain open thanks to more than 4,000 donors, but our GoFundMe effort will close by the end of the day today! The work is not done yet! You can still donate to the #Texas Observer and help keep liberal Texas #journalism alive!

GoFundMe Link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/laid-off-texas-observer-journalists-and-staff
Donation Link: https://www.texasobserver.org/donate/

#TexasNeedsAnObserver #KeepTXOAlive

Nazi-Karen LibsOfTikTok lead her millions of followers to call in bomb threats into Iowa schools over “This Book Is Gay” — a book allowing LGBTQ students to learn more about themselves

Northwest Junior High had to be evacuated on consecutive days last week while police searched for explosives

Chaya Raichik is a domestic terrorist.

White Christian nationalists are domestic terrorists.

Special mention for Elon Musk’s Twitter for creating the algorithm to promote hate.

ICE car values plummet in China and it is the canary in the coal mine | Electrek

https://electrek.co/2023/04/01/ice-car-values-plummet-in-china-and-it-is-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/

This subheading from Inside Higher Ed perfectly encapsulates a fundamental problem with U.S. public universities. Their leaders are too often more concerned with their own careers than with protecting one of the most vital institutions in the world. #highered @academicsunite https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/03/31/floridas-college-presidents-stay-silent-major-reforms

An update on recess: It's immensely valuable yet still not required in most states; indeed, it's treated not only as unnecessary but as a privilege that a teacher may snatch away at whim to punish children: https://is.gd/fXOUrY

Greetings #Fediverse members!

I've been joining a number of conversations about the recent growth on the Fediverse, and I keep hearing the term "users".

I'd like to remind everyone here that the community is made up of people, humans, members.

"Users" dehumanises, alienates, and allows for a particular brand of technospeak that smacks of addicted eyeballs and lost privacy.

I am a member of the community, not a user of software. Please try to reduce, ahem, using the word.

#FridayThoughts

TurboTax spent millions in lobbying to prevent an IRS Free File program and employs deceptive tactics to hide their free program and get people to pay.

You don't have to give them your money. The free government program is online at https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile

Elementary school bans Dolly Parton/Miley Cyrus duet because song had the word ‘rainbow’ in the title https://deadstate.org/elementary-school-bans-dolly-parton-miley-cyrus-duet-because-song-had-the-word-rainbow-in-the-title/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

There it is, folks.

Republicans already passed a NATIONAL bill to target transgender youth

Lauren Boebert added an amendment to forcibly out students to their parents

Your reminder the books the Nazis were burning in May 6, 1933? They were transgender studies materials from the Institute of Sexology

If we don’t stand for trans citizens now then who will stand for us when it’s our turn?

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5/text

#TransRightsAreHumanRights

There’s a body cam video now and I’m not going to link it. Yes, these officers did their jobs and it’s a job most people don’t want to do.

But for those who say that schools just need to hire a security guard or a resource officer or arm teachers, they should watch the video. It took numerous highly trained officers to stop this shooter, who was armed to the teeth with weapons intended for war and it was after the deceased were already gone.

A resource officer isn’t going to stop anything.

Meritocracy musings: Successful people, including scholars, want to believe their status is earned. @DavidLabaree is honest enough to tell a different story about his own career trajectory: https://is.gd/qS3tQB.

This passage on teaching/assessing jumped out at me:

Sustaining Education for Today & A Lasting Future: Building the Interdisciplinary Subject - Human Restoration Project awarded $75,000 to continue implementation of Holistic Think Tank interdisciplinary learning curriculum. @HolisticTT #restorehumanity

http://www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/sustaining-education-for-today-a-lasting-future-building-the-interdisciplinary-subject