[KC]: A Check-in and a Big Fat Kudos

Happy July, everybody!
How's everyone doing? Staying safe? Staying healthy—physically, mentally, and emotionally? Be sure to take care of yourselves as we are still in this weird, new space. Things are changing in our "worlds" right now. We're still in a space of quarantine, dealing with new challenges as we fight a very real but invisible attack. We're in a space of new vision and new perspective where we are challenging what it means for everyone to be truly seen and valued, what it means to matter, as we continually redefine and grow our country and our place in this world. With any big moment in our lives, change brings discomfort, exhaustion, and a need for release as we stretch and grow. So build these outlets in your lives to give you that needed release for your physical and mental health, even in a responsibly-quarantined way. For me personally, I've found music, exercise, and building things to be some of my favorite outlets. These are things that help me decompress in the midst of learning and growing and doing the needed work at this moment to influence positive change. What are some of your outlets? Drop them in the comments if you feel like it :]

I want to thank you for jumping on this blog with such enthusiasm! It's been a true pleasure to read these early posts and see you tackling big ideas with such thoughtfulness. Mrs. Ugale and I have been most impressed with reading the comments on the posts. We really like how you all are conscious of your tone while being confident enough to disagree with or qualify the ideas of your peers. Keep that up! That's a big piece of rhetoric and the ability to understand nuance in argumentation. So there's your BIG FAT KUDOS. It's fun to see and it makes us particularly excited for the types of conversations we can have in class this coming year.

I've noticed a lot of us are speaking on the Room for Debates. I like that you seem to be enjoying the readings. Don't forget that you're not tied to the readings for your posts. If you come across something that is tangentially related to our bigger ideas, feel free to bring that in. We love to see you make connections "in real life" and outside of assigned reading. haha. Mrs. Ugale and I will be popping into these comments and posts with our own thoughts as well, but we wanted to give you space early on to create an atmosphere of your own (and you've done that very well thus far).

Always here,
Ms. Colln