It’s official, #TooDopeNation. Kev and Gera have lost their minds. Remote has put us in the Upside-Down. It’s a post-modern world where everything is everything, and even when we go to the building for better internet there is a lag. Gerardo and Kev play around, discuss their life in this world of #RemoteLearning and all that comes with it.

In an unexpected turn of events, Kevin decides to ask Gerardo to rethink his NFL boycott. What ensues is a reflection on popular culture, social, political, and spiritual experiences and bonds, men’s relationships, and our dads. Sneaky emotional.

Finally, if you have the fortitude for additional nonsense, there is a post-credits scene…

We love y’all. Stay dope.

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Week 3 of Remote Learning, and the fellas get together to talk about how it is. We bomb on Google Meets, find we’re still mad at School-ol-ogy–School(lol)ogy?–and go into unpopular territory in this moment: things that are actually kinda cool in remote. We share the funny stories from Twitter, the touching moments when students go into the next room to ask their grandmothers and aunties about their family history, and learn that we can never know every reason a student might not want their camera and/or microphone on.

Remote Learning is hard, and Remote teaching is frustrating at times. But the silver linings might help us get through, and maybe consider what post-COVID school could include. Be ready to laugh and reflect.

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A few weeks ago, Jordan Huerta, history teacher and coach of softball and basketball at Tattnall County High School in Georgia, was informed that he would be suspended from coaching this coming school year, citing “Racially charged banter” on his social media page. The school has no social media policy for teachers, and the word that kept coming up regarding his situation was “professionalism.” Mr. Huerta had merely posted his personal support for Black students in his community, and a commitment to “do what I tell my students to do, which is listen” in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Derek Chauvin and the Minneapolis Police Department. The firestorm that ensued blindsided Jordan, who never imagined that affirming Black children could land him in hot water. On today’s emergency episode, he shares with us more about who he is, his path to a social justice and anti-racist mindset, and his state of mind during this troubling episode. He shares inspirational and instructional insights, and is still able to laugh during a very hard time.

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In this difficult time, it is critical to hold onto and #hustlehope. Our young leaders are engaged and fired up, as they have been for YEARS. Youth activism and leadership is nothing new; we are still learning to listen to them. We’ve remixed our January 2017 episode #TooDopeStudents as a reminder that the energy of the young ones is contagious, and gives us a wave to ride to true change and justice. Enjoy!

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Kevin and Gerardo attempt to wrap up the school year. As always, ish is wild. With protests sweeping the nation following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement, a strange end to remote learning with nothing but uncertainty ahead, the fellas try to make sense of the present to build optimism for the future.

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Kevin and Gerardo sit down with three Denver-area high school students to get their take on Remote Learning in spring 2020. In all the discussions and meetings over remote learning in this time of COVIS-19, it is striking to us how little student voice has been a part of planning for this, perhaps the most significant moment since the advent of compulsory education. For all our talk about cultural responsiveness and student voice in schools, we have continued the trend of ignoring those values when it matters most, leaving our young leaders and scholars bewildered, lost, and losing confidence in their own role in schools. A warning: their words are convicting, and indict all of us.

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Kevin and Gerardo are back on a Sunday evening, discussing the important and persistent equity questions that have exacerbated since the shutdown of school buildings. We challenge those emerging #digitalequitywarriors who will invariably jump into the spotlight, though many have tuned out the equity conversation for years. We share our experiences, our fave digital teaching tools, and list our 4 no-skip albums. Shoutout to @JenntheTutor and @JessycaMathews for contributing to this episode!

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The boyz had some leftover MBs, so we decided to ask the hard question: Should we be doing this? Like, Remote Learning. Is this the best move for students, or is this the best move for the status quo? A number of intelligent people have sounded the alarm, that maybe this sprint to remote learning isn’t the correct move. Maybe it hurts our most vulnerable students more than it helps. What do you think? Listen and decide.

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Kevin and Gerardo discuss week two of shelter in place in the city of Denver. They discuss uncertainty, equity, and opportunity as we navigate uncharted waters in education and in the world at large. Also, our first Instagram live show! Subscribe and listen today!

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