I haven’t been in the mood to reflect on teaching online. Part of that is because of the way this all has happened, it’s not really teaching in my opinion, and another part of that is because I’ve been overwhelmed by adjusting to being at home full-time and paranoia about COVID spread. And now the country is on fire.

I’ve been thinking about how I can contribute to this moment. But I’m just beginning to realize how much this is hitting me. I think I was in shock as the first news of protests spreading nationwide came out. (Honestly I’m numb to the news of Black death, so the initial news of #GeorgeFloyd‘s death was more familiar to cope with.)

I’m starting to feel the pain now, but also the capability to act. We have 2.5 more weeks of school left, and I’m taking ALL of that time to walk students through what’s happening. I’m looking for kid-comprehensive resources on #BlackLivesMatter in francophone regions and on French colonialism in Africa. I’ve seen my teaching of French as an obstacle a lot of the time to discussions that I want to have in the classroom. But that’s my role right now. To open the discussion to the students I have in a way that contextualizes the protests beyond the narrow (and often distorted) scope presented by American media.