Episodes

Once upon a time, the President gave a group of African-American community leaders a seat at the table. The leaders brought their own menu. It took a long time to make the meeting a reality - lots of letters & telegrams, and several more civil rights crises (like the desegregation of Little Rock, AR schools) for 29-year-old Southern Christian Leadership Conference leader Martin Luther King, Jr. to convene a meeting with then President Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 23, 1958. King attended the meet...

(Marietta, GA) Lemon Street High School's Mr. Lewis Clyde Scott taught many students ... several of whom became teachers. He has transferred his wealth (his knowledge) in ways that have personally inspired me ... without my ever having met him. I have met many of his students. Their lives and stories have told me the kind of teacher and influence he is. On 2-10-2022, I presented some of them to the public ... and they will present Mr. Scott to you from their experiences.

The "SeeSayShow" is a short "class monologue" that shares stories powered by "real-world" LEarning. I teach my classes in a building that used to be an annex to the former segregated high school for Cobb County Blacks. Today's episode shares a story about the first Black city councilman in our city (a graduate of the segregated high school), and how a lawsuit helped to facilitate his election. I am using a "quiz bowl" gameshow shtick to engage the students.

Dear Hannah - Truth without grace is mean. Grace without truth is meaningless. Purpose describes what we want & need to do. Ambition describes who & what we want to be. Purpose is more important than ambition. However, humans are imperfect, conflicting blends of purpose and ambition. Who & what we think we are - and who & what we want to be - sometimes hinders what we want & need to do. Our litany of global issues must be addressed locally and long-term with creativity, strategy, synergy, and po...

MLK's letter writing practice was strategic. It probably helped him remember who he was meeting, who they were, and what their encounters and meetings produced. These letters were probably his KnowledgeBase, and helped him to make moves.

Let me show you something ... We have a daughter. Her name is Hannah Adelle. She studies, therefore she thinks. She thinks, therefore she is. Her name means "graceful and noble". She is a lover. She loves her parents. She loves #LEarning. She #LEarns by studying her interests ...

(NOTE: It's not all about math with me ... I introduce StandupStorytelling and #TheSeeSayShow here) Let me show you something ... I love math. I love to do math. I also love to LEarn what math *does*. Math can be a little strange, though. Its oddities can confuse and irritate me. One such oddity is math's exclusive, alienating, almost "elitist" terminology, language, and "personality" ... and math's equally exclusive teaching style ...

Let me show you something ... Let's define a few key terms again ... for the first time. "Doctrine" is a "system of authoritative beliefs". "Indoctrination" is "teaching an authoritative system of beliefs". A "discipled indoctrinator" is one who has been indoctrinated in a way that teaches them how to indoctrinate others. "Discipled indoctrinators" defend and protect the ideas that shaped their learning. They do so by portraying efforts to expose, unlearn and relearn their indoctrination ... as ...

Let me show me you something ... I am a game designer, and have discovered that they are a great way to share information. Many years ago, I wrote one called “NOW YOU KNOW (History Quiz Bowl)”. It shares the stories of ordinary people who inspired me with their work … in a “Jeopardy”-styled format. The Lewis C. Scott photo that I just shared is from a "Lemon Street Stories" category used on a “NOW YOU KNOW (History Quiz Bowl)” episode. The photo of Thomas Nast displayed now is from an early epis...

Let me show you something ... This is Lewis C. Scott. The "C" stands for "Clyde". Mr. Scott is a hero and role model of mine. He taught at Lemon Street High School - Cobb County's segregated high school for Blacks. He was everyone's favorite teacher. That is not an exaggeration. He is my hero and role model because I know that his school leaders (his bosses) leaned on him for an unusual amount of support ... and he probably never would have said that out loud ...

Let me show you something. Let's define a few words, then use them in sentences. "Doctrine" is a "system of authoritative beliefs". "Indoctrination" is "teaching an authoritative system of beliefs". "Conflation" is "confusing or blending ideas". Here's the sentence - "Education is the conflation of our fallible memories and indoctrination" ...

So let me show you something. Please bear with me - this might be hard to see (and hard to hear). I love school, but do not always like it. School does not know its role. It does not know what its name means. When you don't know your role (roll), you cannot identify and execute your power and purpose. You can abuse it easily, though ...

My name is Derrick. I study, therefore I think. I think, therefore I am. My name means "leader of his people". I am a lover. I love #LEarning. I #LEarn by studying my interests. I have studied #LEarning so much that it has become my passion ...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. As I prepare to close this chapter of my story ... and continue to move and use my voice as my authentic self ... in an environment that does not see me as I see myself ... I will always walk on a "tightrope". This is how I...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. The final "trilogy" entry is a list of six-word "stories" that present the lessons I have learned well enough to share ... 1. Equality requires both opportunity and circumstance. 2. Education begins when you finish school. ...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. My road ahead is paved with "potholes" and promise. Both provide lots of opportunities to understand. I understand where I want to be. I understand where I am. I understand how to bloom where I am planted. I understand how ...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. My visit to Hannah's class was life-changing. I had met most of her classmates through attendance at other school activities.They know me as "Hannah's Dad". Today, I reintroduced myself as a #StandupStoryteller ... and host...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. March 21 was a good day. I took the day off to dream. See, I have a dream. One day, I will use #StandupStorytelling and #The SeeSayShow to provide in-school field trip experiences to students. These experiences will be smal...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. I made a key move this year. I was able to create a STEM partnership with a young aerospace engineer from GTRI ... who was from Marietta ... and had graduated from Georgia Tech. This partnership allowed me to host Saturday ...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. Here's one of this year's greater challenges. One of my geometry classes engaged in some "shortcuts and shenanigans" ... perhaps aided by iPhones and students in other classes ... on what turned out to be the easiest test w...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. Sometimes you teach people how to treat you. Sometimes they teach you how to treat them. I have mentioned my 3rd-block class a lot here. In the Spring, we built a certain comfort and familiarity ... which can often breed co...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. Math standards changed again this year. Math, though, has not changed. Math is still as universal a language as music. It is a language that is best communicated using words ... plain, simple words. If you read math standar...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. This year, I added "Connections" and another game I call "Category Challenge" to my critical thinking arsenal ... and was able to test it a lot with several classes. Each of these games either list or group items that fit s...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. In January 2024, my daughter's school won their district level reading bowl ... a reading bowl named for Helen Ruffin ... a Black librarian from the Dekalb County school system ... who envisioned this event as a test or a m...