I posted about trying to find Anti-Bias Children's Lit during my Diversity & Children class last semester. You can read about it Here, Here, and Here. I posted about the struggles I was coming up against in finding age and developmentally appropriate as well as current anti-bias books in my area of Southern California and online.

While I still cannot find a ton of books for ages 3 to 5 in my area, with book sections regarding anti-bias lit either non-existent (Barnes & Noble) or slim to none (C&M School Supply), and most anti-bias lists being outdated or having slim pickings online, I keep my eyes out for news regarding anti-bias children's lit.

This has led me to reading about Marley Dias, the young activist on a mission to collect 1000 books featuring black girls. Tired of reading about "white boys and dogs" (aren't we all), she started this campaign to show that there's more to reading than reading about white people. But she says it better than I can:

"I believe black girl books are really important because when you are young you want to read lots of books, but you especially like to read books with people that look like you. While I have books at home about black girls, the books at school were not diverse. Children do most of their reading in schools or because of schools. Teachers assign books that you must read. If those books are not diverse and do not show different people’s experiences then kids are going to believe that there is only one type of experience that matters. Also, if books are not diverse then kids will not learn about the experiences of other members in their community." (Grassroots Community Foundation)

It reminds me of all the assigned reading featuring troubled white boys and men trying to find their ways, like The Outsiders, Flowers for Algernon, and The Call of the Wild. Even the stories in the special English classes I took (Creative Reading and Writing) had white male protagonists. There was a smattering of female characters in there...but they were usually white, too. If you look at this Goodreads list of required reading, you can mentally check off as you go: white protagonist, white protagonist, white protagonist - with few exceptions to provide hiccups to the monotony.

Some teachers, of course, would have bookshelves with other books in them.These were the shelves that housed Maus and other holocaust books, and whatever was donated to that particular teacher, usually in the form of drug store novels by Koontz and Crichton. I think I and maybe two other kids actually read from those shelves, which were often just provided for extra credit book report reasons anyway. Required reading was boring, and often taught kids that reading was not worth exploring.

I do remember one book that was required reading about a black female protagonist: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

One!


I was a rather prolific reader in school, and to be honest, I can't remember many non-white protagonists in children's books. Maybe Claudia in The Babysitter's Club and Julie from Julie of the Wolves. I don't remember one Mexican-American mixed race girl protagonist...someone like me. I think there was one in the book with a Hispanic protagonist: And Now, Miguel. It's very hard for me to remember much more than that.

That's a problem for someone who graduated high school in 2000. That's a continued problem if this is still how it is for kids in school today. We cannot change narrative to include other perspectives if we don't actually provide diverse narrative!

I still love this book! I think it definitely deserves to be read by children everywhere.

I am definitely interested in changing the required reading lists kids and teens will face in schools. I love that Marley Dias is taking a step forward and inspiring so many. I even sent Grassroots a suggested for a book that I didn't see on the list, Ada Twist, Scientist, which I reviewed in my previous posts. I'll continue posting about this subject as more opportunities and campaigns like this become available and they pass my feed.


If you'd like to read some of Marley's favorites, check them out here.

When it comes to notes, I'm usually a bullet-pointer. It's easy and effective for me, and I highlight stuff that is important. It may not be pretty (in fact, it's not pretty at all), but it works. It, however, isn't that great for math notes.

The first math teacher I had (last semester) gave us the tip of numbering our note pages, but since his teaching style was so disorganized it didn't help much. I've taken that advice into account this time, and researched a few ways to write notes, but found something that blended my bullet-point style with math.

First, set aside a few pages to create a Table of Contents.
This will help you later when you are studying and are trying to figure out what the heck you are supposed to study without flipping through a million pages.

Formulas on the left, Table of Contents on the right. I had screwed up the order but it still works.

I update this page with important page info, like Chapter Titles and the pages they are on, or where something specific is. It's an ongoing list! If you end up not using a few pages, tear them out for scratch paper later.

Next, set aside a few pages for Formulas and other important notes.
I write down all the formulas I encounter on these pages and what they are for. I then mark "Formulas" on the Table of Contents as the first few pages, with Formulas being the first page.

I keep a list of Formulas for easy reference at the front of my notebook!

I also have a page where I marked perfect squares and cubes, like an easy reference guide you see on the back of Pee Chees.

I bold and highlight each Chapter and Section.
I also mark them in the table of contents.

Left hand side has the work, right hand side has the explanation with important bits highlighted. Note the page numbers at the top!

Even though I note them in Table of Contents, if I am flipping through the notes, the Chapter and Sections will catch my eye. It also helps them stand out from the rest of my scribble-scrabble.
 
I write down definitions under the Chapter and Sections.
We are never quizzed on them, but it helps to know what is what. I don't usually mark these in the Table of Contents.

My previous teacher quizzed us on definitions, so now I'm a bit paranoid about knowing them. I note them and read them over, which actually does help with figuring out examples.

When showing examples, I do the work on one side and explain what I am doing step by step on the other.
Even if I always remember the order of operations, or to FOIL, or whatever, I always spell it out because I know when I go back to these notes later, I'm going to spend forever trying to figure out what I did where. This will save me time when I am reviewing before a test.

Here's the basic template without my messy handwriting! I don't color-code my notes like this, but you can if you want to.

The book doesn't do a good job in explaining each step. I think it assumes that I understand what its talking about, which can hinder my progress because 1) half the stuff they talk about is from Beginning Algebra which I took in 2002, which I don't remember much of, and 2) they over explain some steps and don't explain others at all.

"Dumbing it down" in notes may seem a little extra, but during review time, as I said, it's a life-saver!

That's it!
As you can see, this is rather utilitarian. There's no fancy colors or zentangles or coding system (all those colors will make my ADD mind go nuts anyway). Just the facts and explanations in an easy to find format. The only other way I think to make my notes better would have been to do them on graph paper. However, since I put all my classes in one notebook so I wouldn't lose any of them like I did last semester, I have to do with plain lined paper.

How do you organize your class notes? Are there any tips or tricks that you use that I haven't mentioned here?

Okay. Backstory. Me and math? Not friends. It's a long history that starts in the 2nd grade and I still would rather be doodling in my notebook than worrying about math. Public school pushed me all the way through to Trig and I don't know how because I don't remember half of what I was "taught."

If it were up to me, I wouldn't take a math class ever again. But I need to get through Statistics for Social Sciences for my major, and to do that I need to pass Intermediate Algebra. I did take this class before, but since I did that before the dinosaurs roamed the earth apparently, I need to take it again.

Yeah.

Last semester I tried, the teacher was...whatever. This semester the new teacher seems able to teach to the most math-inept of us all, (read: me). As I type this I'm awaiting the results of our first math test that I actually feel like I did good on, which is weird for me. But before the test, teach asked us if we had any questions.

I had one. I had a big one. It was an equation I had struggled with for two nights. I tried to figure it out and for some reason my brain couldn't wrap itself around it. I'm going to type this equation for you, and you are allowed to laugh if you get it (but only if I am allowed to laugh when you can't remember the definition to a $5 word from 11th grade, only fair). Ok, ready for it?

(x-y)²+3(x-y)-10

Yeah. I tried to factor it. Because that's what you're supposed to do, right? That was the instructions. I tried to group, rearrange, split, multiply out the (x-2)², EVERYTHING. I even tried plugging it into MathPapa and a few other engines to no avail. None of the answers I got matched what was in the back of the book.

See, for all you people who are "math smart", this is where us other people get tripped up. This is the "language barrier" or whatever. Don't think as it as in I can't do math. Think of it as in I am not fluent in this language. Keep laughing. Whatever.

So I shoot my hand up and was like, "Yeah, I got a question! Tell me how the heck you get the answer for this!" I then proceeded to lay down the equation as if it were the D.B. Cooper mystery. Surely this was a trick question and the answer in the back of the book was a typo. It had to be.

The teacher, bless his teacherly heart, writes it up there on the board and goes, "Instead of x-y, just substitute the x-y for another letter, like w."

He writes it out like this:

w²+3w-10

And then:

(w+5)(w-2)

And then he goes, "Just put the x-y back in where the w is."

And just like that:
(x-y+5)(x-y-2)

Ta-freakin-da.


Like I just couldn't. I couldn't handle it. The possibility of feeling stupid had no chance to sink in with how blown my mind was. It was like a whole new world opened up. One of the biggest OMG moments of my college experience and I swear I will never forget this stupid equation as long as I live.

It wasn't that I couldn't do the math, it was that I just didn't know you could do that. If you're thinking, well, that's a basic concept of Algebra, to substitute one thing for another, well...now you know where sometimes teaching fails. The importance of concepts get swapped for right answers and points on a piece of paper. I should have known this. But I didn't.

However, there is a point to all this. It doesn't have to do with an answer that is literally right in front of your face or accepting yourself as you are or whatever other platitude of the day that passes your FB or Insta feeds. It doesn't even have to do with if I will ever use (x-y)²+3(x-y)-10 in my life (I probably won't, who knows).

The teacher didn't do anything truly different than what the book said to do, but the book (wh

I think this has to do with the ability to teach and the frustration we get when we think something can be so simple but is so complex to others. Empathy can help you to understand that not everyone thinks the same way. I definitely want to be a teacher and I have to keep in mind that what may seem so easy to me may not be easy to others, and there are ways I'm going to have to articulate my process for others to understand. That doesn't make that other person stupid or me condescending (it would be if I treated them as they were stupid). Just as we expect students to learn we must also be willing to teach to them.

I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis around 2006 but was not informed of this diagnosis until last year. This disease, if you are not familiar with it, is an autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks and destroys your thyroid. I have probably had it for much, much longer (probably since I was 8 or so), and have dealt with symptoms and secondary diseases because of it, most without knowing they were related to this disease. The biggest symptoms I struggle with are constant fatigue and "brain fog," mysterious aches and pains, digestive issues, persistent weight issues, depression, anxiety, and panic attacks.

If you also suffer from a chronic illness, you understand how much of a toll it can take on your life. There is the spoonie movement which speaks about the amount of energy it takes for someone living with a chronic illness to do what other "normal" people do on the daily. I've always told people that I felt, "For some reason it takes 200% effort for me to do something that takes someone less than a hundred to do."

When I decided to go to back college, I was a little hesitant because until then I had perceived my illness as a "cannot" label, but I also felt sort of better because now I knew why I felt the way I did. The first time around, I honestly believed that I just wasn't trying hard enough, and I was somehow lazy, and perhaps just stupid in some ways. Turns out that I, and everyone who fed into these beliefs, was wrong! I've been able to turn this into a positive and now I am a straight A student.

Going back, I knew I would need to be gentle with myself in certain aspects of college life and the demands it requires. I knew there were some things I just couldn't do, and some things that for others would require personal responsibility that I just couldn't help. One of those things is my inability to remember certain things, and another is my inability to look pleasant and happy when inside I feel like a car running out of gas with two flat tires and a child that threw up in the back seat. Even if others don't understand what is going on, I owe it to myself to be more forgiving. And that's all that matters.

But I want people to know that college life with an autoimmune disease can be possible. I can't speak for other autoimmune diseases that take a much more serious toll on people, and I can't speak for all chronic illnesses. I'll let you know how I manage my disease in school, and maybe some of these tips or tricks can help you.

1. Keep an assignment list: Last year I struggled with keeping on top of things. It is inevitable I will forget stuff. Some teachers have praised me for my organizational skills, but the truth is I am trying doubly hard just to seem normal in this area. I started keeping an assignment list this semester and so far it is INVALUABLE to my success. Without it, I forgot one assignment. Since I started using it, I've been on the ball. I use it to plan WAY ahead, and even factor in time for studying. This alleviates a lot of anxiety, and when you have anxiety issues, that's priceless.
2. Plan my classes right: Give yourself time to rest and relax, and that includes taking stock of time needed for studying and homework. If you overload yourself, even if overloading yourself means a "normal" schedule, you won't be able to get the A you deserve 
3. Find my studying method and stick to it: If there is a class I need to study for, my study method is to re-write the info over and over in different ways until it sticks. Copying the information word for word doesn't help, and repeating facts doesn't work. Reading the book for some reason confuses me, and Powerpoints don't do much for me either. I need to be able to utilize the information for my way of thinking. A week or two before an exam, you'll find me writing down questions and answering them over and over in my notebook until I'm certain I understand. I'll maybe break out some flash cards if I feel I need to but honestly the notebook method works best for me. If there's a specific method that works for you, find it and stick to it. I can say almost certainly that cramming the night before an exam never seems to work for anyone with a chronic illness. Either you have memory issues like me or you wake up sapped for energy because you pushed too hard the night before. Plan ahead and work studying into your schedule, and make the classes work for you, not the other way around.
4. Respect my physical limits: if my major required some PE type classes, I would most likely pick something like swimming and yoga. Intense exercise not only knocks me out for a few days, but can also trigger inflammation. My life is a constant balance of trying to keep inflammation at bay, so this is a big deal. But if you have physical limits that leave you with questions on how to get to class or up a flight of stairs, or to complete a class that is required for your major (say you have muscle weakness in your hands but for some reason your major wants you to take ceramics), speak with the people in your disability services center at college. They may be able to work something out for you, like someone to transport you from class to class, prioritized registration, or swapping out a class for one you can manage better.
5. Bring food with me: A big part of my disease is the lack of metabolism and also digestive issues. I haven't been formally diagnosed with celiac (still chasing that diagnosis), but I treat myself as if I do because of gluten sensitivity. I am on the Auto Immune Paleo diet, so I take food with me everywhere. I will unabashedly eat in class if I have to! I can't rely on the cafeteria or snack machines to carry something that works for me, so I plan ahead.
6. Take advantage of the school's health services: some colleges have free health services like check ups, lab tests, and psychologists. Our campus even has dental services that can go so far as to remove wisdom teeth! I've stopped into see a counselor a few times when I felt overwhelmed about my condition or my workload. They're there for a reason, so why not?
7. Take a day off if I have to: I've skipped a few days of class here and there. I try to limit it to one class meeting a semester per class. I don't want to miss much, but if there's a day where I just can't, I'm going to give myself a break.
8. Let my teachers and school know: you don't have to actually do this, but if your condition is enough that you feel you may miss a lot of school, or you may have a spotty schedule, please let them know. Most schools may have a disability center that can help you with resources or advocate for you to your teachers. I've yet to let a teacher know what's up with me, but if it becomes a problem to my grade I will let them know.
9. Utilize my academic counselor: Let them know what you are facing and work with them one on one, and frequently. Let them know your special circumstances. They may refer you to disability services, but if they know what you're up against, they may be able to help you with something you hadn't thought of.
10. Find a support group/person on campus: I've yet to do this and I think it's something I need to do. I try to find one person in each class who can help me if I am absent. It would be nice, however, if there was a group or person to rely on for chronic illness support on campus. Maybe I should start a Chronic Illness Club or something, who knows? But having someone to talk with about the issues I face, and being able to provide support in return is something I lack.
11. Let go of things I can't control, including other people:  Once when speaking with a professor, I suddenly felt very tired. It was after class, and the conversation was very interesting and an offshoot of class discussion. I'm one of those people who isn't very talkative unless you give me a specific topic of conversation, and this conversation was a rarity. I didn't want it to end. But I knew that if I didn't go home and go to bed, I was going to be sorry for it the next day. I brought the conversation to a close and excused myself. The professor didn't ask why or anything, which is fine. Before I knew what I was up against, I would have stuck it out and felt crappy the next morning, and resentful that someone just didn't understand what I was going through. I tell this story because when faced with chronic illness, sometimes we just want everyone to automatically understand because we're tired of explaining, making excuses, and falling short of other's expectations.
    By being gentle with ourselves, we know that none of that matters. It isn't our fault that we are this way and if others have a problem with it, oh well. Do what you can and move on. My goals are my As and keeping myself healthy. Everything else will just have to work itself out.
12. Talk about it! This is also something I need to work on. So many times I want to talk about my issues but when it comes to personal issues I feel like people don't particularly care. I think a lack of awareness leads to this apathy. But if someone asks me why my hands shake, or why I am always cold, or why I can't eat cookies with the rest of the class on birthdays or finals day parties, I explain why. I cannot control how they react to what I have to say but I won't let that deter me from speaking my truth. Turns out that one time when I did, there were several other people in my class who have the same thyroid issues! I've written about it in student polls about weight loss and health. I've worked it into essays and gotten credit for it. Being an advocate for your own health also means speaking up and bringing awareness to your colleagues, if not for your own well-being but also for those who may be suffering in silence. Besides, your story deserves to be told.

Keeping this in mind, college has been, for the most part, very positive. There are times where I pushed myself a little too far. I had almost had an anxiety attack during a final presentation, and it was visible. The teacher commented on it and I was a little embarrassed. I decided afterward that I didn't care. I got my grade, and I implemented strategies to avoid that situation. That didn't mean I was going to stop taking classes that required presentations. It meant that now I am going to plan ahead and I am not going to take on too many responsibilities.

So far, going back to college has been a challenge but also a relief. It's a challenge because now I can focus on stuff I would have avoided before because I knew I couldn't do it but didn't know why. Now, it is a relief because I see that when I take care of myself, I am able to achieve far more than if I ignored my own needs.

You can do this!

Please share any stories you have about chronic illness and autoimmune disease as a student, including coping strategies and tips for other students. The more awareness, the better. We all deserve education, despite diseases we have no power over. Tell me your success stories, tell me about your less than successful stories. Is there something I've written that you disagree with? <3