Monica Edinger's Blog, page 6

Season Two of ‘Anne With An E’ is Nie

Hate-watchers alert! It is almost here. (For the record, I liked it:)

Season Two of ‘Anne With An A’ is Nie

Hate-watchers alert! It is almost here. (For the record, I liked it:)

Teaching and Learning About Slavery: Plantations Near the Whitney

Yesterday I posted about my visit to the Whitney Plantation Museum , the only one in this country to the best of my knowledge, focused exclusively on the enslaved. On the way back, our tour guide Joyce stopped outside the gates of Oak Alley Plantation, a few actual miles from the Whitney and a million metaphoric ones from it. This is because, in contrast to Whitney, it still focuses on the owners’ lives of opulence and lavishness with barely a mention of the enslaved who made that happen. Joy...

Teaching and Learning About Slavery: The Whitney Plantation

I first learned of The Whitney Plantation via this New York Times article. Opened a few years now, it is one of the most important memorials of enslavement that exists in our country and I knew when I got the chance I’d go. And so when I made my travel arrangements to go to New Orleans for the American Library Association’s annual convention, I arranged to go a day early so as to visit the museum. I then researched tours and found Let’s Just Ride LLC.  Joyce picked us up at our various hotels...

Teaching the Transatlantic Slave Trade to Fourth Graders

I spent much of last week with my colleagues and administrators examining our teaching of this difficult topic. The work was challenging, uncomfortable at times, but also exciting. I am so grateful to my IPOC colleagues who pushed us to think hard and helped us to change what we were doing for the betterment of our students. I also so appreciate my white colleagues who were open and willing to change even when it meant dropping beloved pieces of curriculum. I look forward to our teaching this...

Remembering Harry: A Comic Experience

It being the twenty year anniversary of the Harry Potter books, I’ve been invited to be part of a panel at ALA featuring Brian Selznick (Sunday at 12 at the Pop Stage). This made me look back at my many HP posts. Here’s a favorite (click on the images to see better versions of them) done shortly before the final book came out:

educating alice

I just got a new computer and spent the last week at school playing with some software I hadn’t tried before including the very fun Comic Life. Of cours...

Latest Amazon Review of Africa is My Home

While I did love the reviewer who seemed to think my book was a knife (which amazon seems to have finally removed), this person also has a perspective I haven’t seen before.

[image error]

Hard Listening

I’ve been doing a lot of in-person and social media listening these days. I have for years, but recent conversations have made me do some serious reflecting on systemic racism and my part in it.  Say by supporting it by smugly thinking I’m better than certain of my fellow good white folk. Instead of this wasted and wrong-headed thinking, I need to do the work with them, take responsibility for it as a fellow white person of privilege. I need to push myself harder to get past my own limitation...

That Disney Christopher Robin Film?

Surprisingly (at least for me who hates the Disney Pooh cartoons), the trailer is pretty darn charming.

About That Royal Wedding

Until yesterday morning I had just about no interest in the wedding. To be honest, not following it closely, I wondered why so many were so engaged. What, I wondered, made this British monarchy so compelling still? Especially for us in the United States? I was aware that the bride was American and bi-racial, divorced, and not exactly “typical” for the British royal family. Nonetheless, when people wrote of getting up early to watch the event, to have parties, etc I smiled bemused and went on...