Darius B. Wimby - The Pop Culture Educator

Join the 2021 Early Career Educators of Color Cohort and I this Thursday, October 21, at 8:00 PM EST during the 2021 NCTE Awards Ceremony. Along with the cohort, NCTE will honor all 2021 award recipients in a virtual ceremony. This event is free and open to al literacy educators and families and friends of the award recipients. Interested in attending? Please click on the link in my bio or here: https://ncte.org/2021-awards-event/.

My co-teacher and I have been working very hard with our students on mastering plot structure and summary writing. This week, our students have each selected a children’s book to read and analyze individually. Each student is responsible for creating a plot diagram of their book, analyze the illustrations found in their books, and summarize their children’s book and either recording themselves read the book via FlipGrid OR reading aloud in front of their peers during class. Some may find this task easy, but it’s quite challenging to do because children’s books are short and succinct. I was hoping we could read to elementary students in our feeder schools, but Covid had to mess that up.

Here are some of the titles the students are reading for this mini-project. One of the best things I love doing this activity is the kids see themselves on these book covers, and it is done with intention! Plus, even though they are in the 9th grade, they enjoy the read aloud in class we did (despite them complaining initially 😂).

Spending some time in the library tonight since I’m back in school to earn a certificate in Literacy Education. My focus is to explore ways on helping Black students and families in improving our literacy rates in our communities. These books by Dr. (I, too, am a ), Dr. April Baker-Bell , and Dr. Patricia A. Edwards are definitely helping me thus far in this program and making some changes in the schools and communities currently and in the future.

Introducing the next installment of the “Atlanta Influences Everything: The Soundtrack” curriculum: the 205 & Park Experience, the official theme for the 2021-2022 school year. When I was younger, it was always a dream of mine to host 106 & Park, so I made it a reality. Please enjoy the nostalgia of the 2000s along with the Throwback Joint of the Day and live music from the resident DJ for 205 & Park, DJ VENOM .tv! Check out the “205 & Park Experience” video on my page to see how we’re coming with teaching and learning for my new 9th grade students.

I love doing Frayer models with my students when we introduce new vocabulary for our unit. Had to show my students a model of how their Frayer models should look, especially with COLOR, because they were ready to turn in only using pencil. And that’s just boring! 😂 Make creativity a requirement in schools again!!!

It’s officially the third week of school, and it’s about that time for my students to see what our year-long Lit./Comp. 9 class looks like each week. I know when they walk in the classroom tomorrow, the complaining and moaning will start, but it’s essential to have the foundational stuff down before we can move into our first Unit of the school year. Looking forward to a great year as always!

“We are trendsetters, revolutionaries, and unapologetically dope!”

These last four days, I participated in the 2021 EC-EOC Summer Institute, along with 11 other educators of color supported by our three mentors. It was everything I needed and more to reignite my spirit to making change in the education field. To know there are other revolutionary educators in the world like myself made me feel seen and validated in the work I’m doing with my students. To each of you, thank you for an amazing weekend and being an inspiring and authentic figure for everyone in attendance, and I must say our EC-EOC cohort will be the best that NCTE has ever seen! Love to each and everyone of you all the way from Atlanta! This is only the beginning for us - NCTE Convention 2022 won’t be ready for the brilliance and 🔥 we’re bringing to the conference.

One thing I dislike about education is some educators LOVE using certain terminology to describe the types of students they teach and the school they work at, especially during these professional development sessions. “I teach at a Title I school,” “My SPED students can’t do the work,” and “I know my gifted students can do this, but my general Ed and remedial kids can’t” are just some of the statements I’ve heard this summer alone in these PDs. It gives off a very negative connotation.

I know I’m guilty of this myself; however, I try my hardest to ensure I speak about my students positively and show that my school and students are so much more than these educational labels they’ve been placed upon them.

Grateful for this honor from NCTE and being recognized by my school, GA State, and the College of Ed at GSU!

Congratulations to CEHD alum Darius Wimby, who was named a 2021 Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award recipient! Read more about this recognition from the National Council of Teachers of English: http://ow.ly/KlHh50Fr83T

I was fortunate to participate in a blog interview with Teacher2Teacher discussing how to help my students find their voices and the power within them to change the world. Please read and share with your networks!

Looking at The Bigger Picture: Students Finding Their Voice and Power As I was planning for this current school year, I knew I wanted to do something different, curriculum-wise, with my students, because I felt like I wasn’t giving them the total learning experience in my first two years. When I was first developing the course, I came across the question, “What is...