Day  3 of the module.  I needed a little time to get acquainted with the materials and the format.  As I reflect on what is resonating with me so far, it’s others’ expressions of the costs of caring and the confusions of caring.  I know my motivation when I applied to be in the cohort were about how to move myself forward in an area where I already feel pretty good about my approach (and our approach as a program).  The nature of my discipline & profession (social work) centers care from the outset.

I’m realizing that I have a couple goals:

1. Moving outside my comfort zone a little, I want to continue pushing myself to think about course design, content, and delivery — things like representing a wide array of diverse voices and perspectives in the subject areas where I teach; making course materials and class attendance broadly and easily available with minimal “hidden barriers” (like the costs of textbooks); thinking about un-grading: how and why that might work or not work, how & when to implement, to what end, etc.  To me these are next steps in my care & equity journey
2. But then second, and what resonates more immediately (probably because it requires less effort for me to think about!) is thinking about the costs of caring and the impacts of caring on me as an educator and academic.  What am I doing and not doing as a result of the efforts required of me to create and maintain a classroom of care & equity?  How do I balance continued growth in goal 1 while attending to the demands implicit in goal 2?