Monthly Monitor: Back to School Issue
Time to Vote for Your Health!
Voting is both a clinical and structural intervention, associated with better individual health outcomes and a better healthcare system overall. This is why you should strive to help improve the civic health of those you work with as researchers and practitioners.
August is Civic Health Month, a non-partisan advocacy and awareness month dedicated to amplifying healthcare advocacy and client and provider civic engagement. Civic Health Month brings together a diverse group of social work and healthcare provider organizations, voter registration organizations, and hospital partners that are excited to support healthy communities and elections.
Social work partners this year include NASW, Voting is Social Work, Social Work Helper (SWHELPER), Hope Center for Wellness, University of Connecticut School of Social Work Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work, University of Tennessee College of Social Work, and Boston University School of Social Work.
Civic Health Month was launched by VotER, a non-profit launched by Mass General Hospital physician Dr. Alister Martin that aims to equip healthcare providers to have conversations with their patients about registering to vote. You can read the latest article about VotER in The New York Times here and check out a recording of our last Social Worker panel here.
We encourage you to post about your voting recruitment and engagement efforts on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Better yet, tag at least three of your friends, family, and fellow social workers and urge them to help their communities vote safely during the pandemic. Use the popular hashtags #CivicHealthMonth, #VotER, and #VotingisSocialWork! For sample posts, click here.
Order your free Healthy Democracy Kit now to help register people to vote! You can learn more about the Healthy Democracy Kit that VotER has distributed to over 6,000 doctors, nurses, and social workers here. To order a free Healthy Democracy Kit and learn how to use it in both in-person and telehealth settings, go to vot-er.org/socialwork.
Vote like our health depends on it!
Virtual School Supply List
How to prepare yourself for a virtual school year; academically & personally.
We can all agree that preparing for the 2020-2021 academic year is the most unique to date. Traditional brick and mortar programs converting to online platforms (some students’ and professors’ worst nightmare), true tests of your internet bandwidth, and homeschooling small humans; 2020 has truly been reminiscent of a 1980s scientific fiction novel.
While you might not have a traditional school supply list this academic year, we hope this virtual supply list will assist you! In true doctoral fashion, we have organized a list of some of our favorite organization, self-care, and Apple iOS applications that have assisted us through our doctoral lives. As we transition into another academic year, we hope that you will be mindful of yourself and understand the importance of caring for yourself. Be intentional, be strong, and be well! We are in this together!
Organization
End Note
Microsoft OneNote
GoodNotes ($)
RefWorks
Adobe Scanner
Tally
Notes
Reminders
Flow App (Pomodoro time app)
Self-Care
Calm
Headspace
Nike Training Club
MINDBODY
Map My Run
Don’t let time slip through your fingers
Use a planner
As the back to school period begins, my mind turns to how I will manage my time for the upcoming year. In this new work from home world, it seems like Zoom meetings and email are taking up all of my time. Recently, I gave some thought to seriously considering how I will manage my time to ensure I make progress on my research projects and academic publications this fall. One thing that has helped me stay organized in the past that I have decided to recommit to is using a planner and I encourage others to consider doing the same. I personally invested in a customized physical planner for myself.I find the practice of sitting down each day for a few minutes to fill out meeting times for upcoming days, jot down personal and professional tasks I don’t want to forget, and even reflect on what I am grateful for to be a helpful practice. My planner, which I created using Plum paper, has sections that prompt me to do each of those things each day. Another member of our collective uses a paper planner called The Lot Planner, which has become very popular with academics on Twitter . Regardless of whether you are old school like the two of us and want a hard copy planner, or if you are high tech and want an online calendar that syncs to your phone, computer and smartwatch scheduling your time is essential to productivity. Checkout Lifehacker’s article on the best calendar apps or Buzzfeed’s article on paper planners . Either way, make a habit of using a planner or calendar and block out time for important tasks that end up on the back burner, like your writing and research, so that Zoom meetings and email don’t suck up all your productivity in this new school year. In December you will be happy you did!
Teaching During a Pandemic
Reflections and Resources
Professors everywhere are scrambling to re-work course designs, learn new Zoom features, and explore apps for the classroom. For doctoral students who are teaching, there is a need to adapt as both student and professor. In this time of change, when even seasoned professors may feel unprepared, it can be overwhelming to learn basic online and distance learning teaching skills while managing so many moving parts. We wanted to share a few resources to help you in considering your course design.
Here is a resource from Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching that has specific ideas for the use of live polling, encouraging use of text chat simultaneously with verbal dialogue, collaborative note-taking on google docs, and other tips.
Another resource is Keypath Education which has visually pleasing and easy to digest PDFs with ideas for everything from classroom activities to time management. Two of the PDFs that seemed the most relevant were “Should This Be a Live Session? Determining the Mode for Online Experiences” and “Teaching Hacks and Quick Wins for Online Instructors.” This latter resource talks about effectively utilizing the extra time you may spend reading student discussion boards and grading asynchronous engagement that would typically happen in live sessions confined by a set time limit. For these resources and more, click here.
We want to acknowledge that this Fall will be different for us all, so have compassion for yourself and your students. We are in this together.
Developing Skills to Facilitate Inclusive Remote Classrooms
In addition to the practical and logistic impacts of COVID-19 on remote classroom instruction, this epidemic created ongoing significant psychosocial and budgetary stressors that impact students’ ability to engage in academic endeavors. In general, students with marginalized statuses routinely face additional burdens of microaggressions and emotional and intellectual labor associated with tokenism. Black students face additional anxieties associated with historical and contemporary racial trauma that may further disadvantage them during this stressful time. How can doctoral students help BSW and MSW students cope with these realities?
During this critical time, doctoral students with teaching responsibilities (teaching assistantships or faculty appointments) can develop knowledge and skills to create inclusive virtual instruction and facilitate safe environments. Practicing inclusive virtual teaching techniques will result in more support for BSW and MSW students’ wellness while simultaneously promoting classroom engagement. Further, doctoral students will be more prepared to teach in a virtual setting, which may become a more attractive skill upon entering the job market in coming years.
A critical social work lens can help instructors create environments that are safe for breaking down systems of oppression and understanding one’s positionality within these structures. We identified several tools and frameworks that instructors might utilize to create safe and inclusive environments. These resources can help students interrogate assumptions and privilege without creating an overreliance on students with marginalized statuses for education. These methods also allow historically marginalized groups to fully engage in critiques of society without fear of backlash. Importantly, engaging with these pedagogies asks doctoral student-instructors to interrogate their privilege and any dynamics that may unconsciously impact attitudes towards their students.
We do not suggest that these lists are exhaustive. Please email us at sswrdoc@gmail.com with resources you have found to be particularly helpful!
Anti-Racism Pedagogy, Practice, & Tools
Academics for Black Survival and Wellness
Academics for Black Student Survival and Wellness Anti-Racist Resources Google Doc
Annie E. Casey Foundation Equity Conversation Guides for Young Leaders & Partners
APTR Anti-Racism Toolkit (addresses structural racism)
NASW Racial Equity resource page
Thurber, A., Harbin, M. B., & Bandy, J. (2019) Teaching Race: Pedagogy and and Practice
Wheaton College’s Becoming an Anti-Racist Educator Initiative. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.
Anti-Oppression Pedagogy, Practice, & Tools
Berila, B. (2015). Contemplative Practice of Anti-Oppression Pedagogy. [archived, but good information.]
Curry-Steven, A. (2003). An educator’s guide for changing the world: Methods, models, and materials for anti-oppression and social justice workshops. CSJ Foundation for Research and Education.
Fifthian, L. (n.d.) Anti-oppression resources & exercises. Organizing for Power, Organizing for Change.
Tuck, E., & Yang, K.W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity,
Education & Society, 1(1), 1-40.
Inclusive Online Classrooms
San Diego State University Digital Humanities: Setting the Tone
Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning: Inclusive Teaching and Learning Online
Appalachian State Center for Academic Excellence: Inclusive Online Teaching
Books & Articles
Bell, D. (1992). Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. Basic Books.
Dominigue, A. D. (2016). Online and blended pedagogy in social justice education. In M. Adams & L. A. Bell (Eds.), Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice (3rd ed.) (pp. 369-396). Routledge.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Taylor and Francis.
hooks, b. (2003). Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. Taylor and Francis.
hooks, b. (2013) Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. Taylor and Francis.
Freire, P. (n.d.). Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 50th Anniversary Edition (M. Bergman Ramos, Trans.; 4th ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Kiehne, E. (2016). Latino critical perspective in social work. Social Work, 61(2), 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/sww001
Poole, J. M. (2012). Critical race theory in social work education: A framework for addressing racial disparities. Critical Social Work, 13(2), 1-16.
Social Work Snippets
Quick reminders and information
GADE is pleased to host the Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Social Work Doctoral Education – A Series Lead by and Created for Doctoral Students. This four-part series was entirely created by and for doctoral students. It will engage social work doctoral students across the country and challenge us with envisioning the realities of developing, implementing, and sustaining Anti-Racist Pedagogy across doctoral programs. The first three sessions will be exclusively for doctoral students to collectively share our experiences within our own programs and develop an outline of how we can move beyond Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Social Work Doctoral Education as a theory to a praxis.
Session one will be exclusively for BIPOC PhD/DSW identified students only. The second session will be exclusively for White PhD/DSW students. The third will be inclusive of all students. All three sessions will be led and curated by doctoral students. The fourth and final meeting will include students and faculty. The goal of this final meeting is to review the findings from the first three meetings and collectively present recommendations for consideration.
Please RSVP for the first BIPOC Session on September 10th from 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. EST: https://rb.gy/4yfeix
During these unprecedented times, please remember to check your state government websites to register to vote and/or plan to vote using absentee ballots in lieu of in-person voting for your personal and community's health! Voting guidelines vary by state, so click on this link to check your state's most up to date voter guidelines for registration and election day policies!
Consider getting a flu shot to protect your respiratory system health and others during this challenging time. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services flu and other vaccines are required to be covered by your health insurance without charging a copayment or coinsurance however, some insurance plans only cover vaccines given by your doctor or at a limited set of locations.
Free self-care printables!! These can be used with clients, with students you teach, or for yourself. We all need reminders to practice and model self-care. This is a fun way to make it a priority. We hope you will share back some of the ways you use these cards with others and for yourself.
https://www.mygroupguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Self-Care-Activity-Cards.pdf
These eight policy briefs were prepared by members of the first cohort of the SSWR PhD Student Traineeship in Research Communication Program. Check them out and share with your colleagues.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is created as free service by SSWR Doctoral Student Committee Communications Subcommittee members:
Stefani Nicole Baca-Atlas
Alberto Cifuentes Jr.
Erica Linn Eliason
Latoya Hogg
Anika Langaigne
Dominique Mikell Montgomery
Pari Shah
Candra Skrzypek
Veronica Timbers
The opinions expressed in this newsletter are the opinions of the individuals listed above alone and do not claim to represent the opinions of SSWR or the SSWR Doctoral Student Committee.