#vted Reads Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education

Welcome, listeners, to another episode of vted Reads: talking about books by, for and with Vermont educators. In this episode... we own an oversight.



On this show, we are dedicated to breaking down systems of inequity in education. We administer flying kicks to the forehead of intersectional oppression! But we haven't yet talked about disability.



So in this episode, we fix that, as we chat with Dr. Winnie Looby, who coordinates the graduate certificate in disability studies at the University of Vermont. Dr. Looby also identifies as a person with a disability, which is important, listeners, because the rallying cry of disability advocacy has long been "Nothing about us, without us."



So we're here, we're clear, and we're talking about "Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice", by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Let's limber up those kicking legs, folks, and talk about how disability too, is an equity issue.

In this episode, I sit down with educational phenoms Christie Nold and Jess Lifshitz.  And we’re joined by Brendan Kiely, Author of The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege.



Now, you might be wondering what The Other Talk actually is.  As many of you know, black people and other people of the global majority frequently have to have “The Talk” with their children about how to survive when they’re stopped by police in America.  That’s right, when they’re stopped by police.  It’s the talk about how to survive that experience.  Parents often draw the meat of it from their own experiences of brutality and loss.  But what talk do white people have with their children?  Lovely listeners, this episode goes out to everyone who believes in young people as Jess Lifshitz puts it more than they believe in adults.  Don’t get us wrong, adults, you are salvageable.  But boy, there is work to be done.  I’m Jeanie Phillips, and this is #vted Reads; a podcast about books by, for and with Vermont educators.  Let’s talk.

Listeners, it won’t come as a shock to any of you that with the state of the world as it is many of our systems are at a breaking point, our schools in particular.  But when we are all broken, that’s where the light gets in.  So, as we sit here together in our brokenness, let’s make sure the break is wide enough that we can rebuild with intention, with equity, and with heart.  And for that, we’re going to need a blueprint.







In this episode, we welcome author, educator, and Vermont transplant Kathleen Kesson who talks about Community Schools Blueprint: Transforming Our School Community Partnership.  Kathleen and I talk about the possibilities we see for widening the cracks in traditional schooling by building opportunities for students and communities to support one another in authentic, real-world ways.















There’s lots to celebrate about the foundations of our education system, but let’s face it.  Even before the pandemic, it was already deeply, deeply flawed.  What can we learn from the concrete examples of innovation, a deep human connection we’ve seen emerge during this pandemic?  Who are the people and your can be most wished can pass on their skills and knowledge?  And what opportunities do students in your community currently have to learn those skills and knowledge?  Plus, it’s very likely beyond the time we turned our elections over to middle school students.  Don’t believe me? Kathleen shares how she has seen it in action.















The 21st Century Classroom · Community Schools Blueprint





I’m Jeanie and this is #vted Reads, a podcast about books by, for, and with Vermont educators.  Let’s chat.  Thank you for joining me, Kathleen.  Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.







Kathleen:  Hi, Jeanie.  Thanks for inviting me to your podcast.  Well, I guess we can start with what I’m doing in Vermont.  I came to Vermont in 1992 as a Director of Teacher Education at Goddard College.  I spent 10 years there teaching at Goddard.  And for about five or six of those years, I had a funded research institute at the University of Vermont.  It was called the John Dewey Project on Progressive Education.  So, kind of a scholar of Dewey’s work, I was fascinated with Vermont, because this is where Dewey was born, and this is where he went to college.







And when I got the job offer up here, I was also intrigued because I knew that Vermont was one of the few places that had no standardized testing mandates at the time and no standardized textbook adoption procedures.  So, I knew that teachers had a lot of autonomy, or at least I assumed that. I was really interested to see how Vermont was putting Dewey’s ideas into practice.  So, I spent 10 years at Goddard.  I did then get recruited by an urban university in New York City to help develop a program for teachers there and spent 17 years doing that.  And I’m now happily retired, back to Vermont where I live in South Barre.  And I do a lot of gardening and a lot of action and advocacy work with various organizations in the state who are continuing to work on implementing a more p...

Listeners, I’m going to ask you to bear with me on this one. This is one of my favorite episodes we’ve ever recorded because, in it, you’ll hear students at U-32 school in Montpelier, Vermont, get to bring their questions about the book “Dig”, by A.S. King, directly to the author. 







If you haven’t read it, “Dig” is a powerful young adult novel talking about white experiences of white supremacy in the United States. And from the questions these students brought author A.S. King, it resonates deeply with students as they work to dismantle racism in this country. 







So why am I asking you to bear with me? 







We recorded this conversation over Zoom, and all the students in this episode, along with fabulous librarian Meg Allison, were in their school, so all were masked. Let me draw you a picture, listeners: A.S. King in her attic bower, me in my lovely home recording space, and Meg and her students gathered around a library table in the school library in Montpelier. As the students all come up to the laptop to talk with King, you may hear chairs scraping or shoes scuffing, the laptop being jostled — the whole deal. 







That’s why we’ve also made this episode available as a full captioned video on our YouTube channel, so if that’s more your speed, you have that option available. 







Thanks for bearing with us and remembering how much educators and students have to bear right now. 







I’m Jeanie Phillips, and this is Vermont Ed Reads, talking about what educators and students in Vermont are reading. 







Let’s chat.









https://soundcloud.com/innovativeed/dig?si=672b0036b26547f2b99837fbffbd90e8&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing









Meg: To be able to talk to the author of Dig! We have spent the last month talking and reading about it, and it has sparked so many conversations. Students are invited to come up and ask a question. Really, thank you so much, Amy, I want the kids to take this away.







Amy (AS King): I have a question, though, for you.  What made you decide to do this? What made you like it, what started this whole thing?







Meg: After I had read this book, I found it like it's an essential book. It's an essential book for young people to read. And so, we are hosting book groups here as well. It's just, I think it actually should be like a part of our curriculum. And I know some of our students are going to talk to you about that. But especially in Vermont, we are a school that flies a Black Lives Matter flag out on our flagpole.







Amy: That’s why I want to move there Meg, that's why I want to move there.







Meg: We’re a school that successfully raised a student-led campaign to ban the Confederate flag on our campus, not just the parking lot, but on campus. And it sparked conversations in our school. And as we evolve in these conversations towards equity and racial justice, really thinking about like, what is our role as white students, white people, white humans? And in your book, just like Jeanie, and I were speaking before you get on the call, we can't think of another book that unpacks the roots of white supremacy and the way that you do. So, this is a conversation sparker that we hope continues throughout our building.







Amy: Awesome. All right, let's give it to the students. And thank you for that explanation, because I didn't know where exactly this started. So good morning, guys. How's it going? How's Vermont today?







Students: Cold.







Amy: Awesome. Throw questions at me. Ask me whatever you want.

Lovely listeners: today is a work day.Now, we all know that talking about anti-bias work is a vital component of the kind of school change that makes our classrooms safer and more engaging for students of color. Doubly so when we are white educators, and when we teach in predominantly white spaces, in predominantly white communities. But sometimes, it feels like all we do is talk, and then assure ourselves that the work is done. It’s not. It's really, really not.Real change in dismantling bias in our classrooms can only come about when talk turns to walk. When we are serious about change, we share our own journeys, with all their missteps, rocks in the shoes, and joy-filled leaps and bounds. We share, and we listen, and only when we see what the work takes can we make the change we want to see in the world. On this episode, we welcome Emma Vastola and Emily Gilmore to the show, as they share their own journeys and all the work they take on, that they do each day to dismantle bias — and before we go any further I ask that you take a moment and hold these two Vermont educators in gratitude with me. 
Now, we’re going to be using Liz Kleinrock’s “Start Here, Start Now: A Guide to Antiracist and AntiBias Work in Your Community” to guide our conversation, and as you listen, I want you to consider — reeeeeeeally consider — these two questions: one, how can YOU share your own work in this way? and two, what’s stopping you?I’m Jeanie Phillips. Welcome to another episode of vted Reads: a podcast about books by, for, and with Vermont educators. Let’s chat.  









https://soundcloud.com/innovativeed/start-here-start-now-with-emily-gilmore-and-emma-vastola?si=237070727d1c401eb7d164d96613dce7&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

















Jeanie: I'm Jeanie Phillips and welcome to #vted Reads. We're here to talk books for educators, by educators, and with educators. Today I'm with two fabulous educators, Emma Vastola and Emily Gilmore, and we'll be talking about Liz Kleinrock’s Start Here Start Now: A Guide to Antibias and Antiracist Work in Your School Community. Thank you so much for joining me, Emily and Emma. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.















Emily: I'll start off. This is Emily Gilmore. I use she/her pronouns. I am a cis, white, former social studies teacher, now working for Great Schools Partnership, as of this year. I was in the classroom for nine years. I live in Winooski, Vermont, land of Abenaki and I’m really excited to be continuing conversations with Jeanie and Emma.















Emma: Thank you, Emily. So my name is Emma Vastola. I am a cis white female. I am currently teaching a multi-age fifth and sixth-grade classroom at a preK - six school in Mount Holly, Vermont. I am really excited to be here to talk with Jeanie and Emily today.







Jeanie: Thank you both so much for joining me. As you know I love to read and I love to expand my to-be-read pile even though it's practically toppling over now. What's on your bedside table? What are you both reading right now? Emma, why don't you go first?







Emma: Okay, so let's see. I, like you Jeanie, have a topple-like bedside table with lots of books on it. And so I'd have to say the one at the top is Dr. Wayne Dyer's Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. That is one I go back to repeatedly that's always there. Another one that I have been reading is Adam Grant’s ...

Lovely listeners: we're baaaaaaack! And we missed each and every one of you. 







To celebrate our return, in this episode we brought back guests from *Vermont* Reads, a statewide program that encourages everyone across Vermont to read one book each year, and then turn and, you know, talk to one another. We are HUGE fans. 







And yes, the names are confusing. They're Vermont Reads -- reading across Vermont -- and we're Vermont *Ed* Reads, reading across Vermont, but make it education. (Please imagine my jazz hands as I say that).







Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup returns to the show this time with Lizzie Lyons, the Children's Advocacy Coordinator at the Vermont Network, an organization focused on addressing domestic and sexual violence across the state. Together, we'll be talking about We Contain Multitudes, by Sarah Henstra, a book about boys, poetry, queerness, and how the artist formerly known as Prince refuses to stop changing lives, wherever he appears. (Hint: stay tuned for dance party details.)







Now, as you might've guessed from Lizzie's presence, We Contain Multitudes contains some mention of domestic violence, which we touch on briefly in this episode. It's an important topic, and part of the work this year with Vermont Reads is providing educators and other adults with tools and resources for supporting students (and more specifically LGBTQIA students) who are dealing with this issue. There are minor spoilers for the book at the 39-minute mark, but we feel like we did a great job yelling SPOILER ALERT! at the top of our loving lungs. Jog ahead two minutes and you're fine.







But don't jog too far ahead, because we really did miss you, and we missed this, and we are so happy to be back having these important conversations.







So! Without further ado: I'm Jeanie Phillips and this is #vted Reads: talking about books by, for, and with Vermont educators. 









https://soundcloud.com/innovativeed/wecontainmultitudes?si=68bfb0bdeb724a1a9237c2e0e6128c6b









Jeanie: I'm Jeanie Phillips and welcome to #vted Reads. We're here to talk books for educators, by educators, and with educators. Today I'm with Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup and Lizzy Lyons and we'll be talking about We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra. Thank you so much for joining me, Christopher and Lizzy. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.







Christopher: Hi, Jeanie and hi, Lizzy. It's great to see you both. I'm really excited to be here to talk about We Contain Multitudes. I'm the director at Vermont Humanities. I've been around now for about 4 years. So, this is the fourth Vermont Reads book that I've worked on, and might be my favorite. One of the things that really speaks to me about it, that I feel like I should tell people about right up front, is that this is the first LGBTQ youth choice in Vermont Reads 19 year history. And maybe coincidentally, I am a queer-identified person. And so, this book speaks to me pretty specifically and reminds me a lot of some of the experiences that I had as a young person.







Lizzy: And my name is Lizzy Lyons. I'm really excited to be here. I was approached by Christopher at Vermont Humanities when they chose this book. As part of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence because of some of the themes in this book. And we have been invited to be a partner in some of the programming that's happening for this book, and we're really excited about that. The Vermont Network is working alongside 15 different statewide organizations in Vermont and we work around themes of domestic...