A Study of Racial Fragility Among Michigan Educators

WEEK FIFTEEN WHEW! Let me tell ya, this week was a WHIRLWIND-but in the best way possible. The first week back from Spring Break is usually pretty busy, but nothing compares to the hustle and bustle of this week...and it all started with the SAT. After surviving Monday (and fully online school which gave me some big ol' flashbacks) I spent the night cramming in some unnecessary studying to make myself feel better. Then, the big day had arrived. Tuesday, April 13th, the SAT. Not that this blog post is all about the SAT, but I have to say, it was kind of a huge relief to finish that test (and surprise essay) and realize that I never have to think about Khan Academy prep ever again! Hallelujah! Anyways, let's cut to the chase. Friday morning: Han's Big Interview. Was I ready for this once-in-a-lifetime experience? Yes. Was I sweating? Also yes. To set the scene, it was like 9:25 and I logged into the mysterious Zoom link and he wasn't there yet, so I sat in my professional

WEEK FOURTEEN Ahoy matey! It is I, Han, and I write to you from Pittsburgh! I may or may not have forgotten to write this blog post before I left for Spring Break on Friday, so I am rapidly penning this from the floor of my hotel room. I don't have much time because we have a dinner reservation at Mad Mex at 5:15, but nonetheless, here is a summary of my week. It was once again very steady: I was going to have that glorious meeting with Dr. Flennaugh, but I got caught up so we had to move it to after Spring Break, I sent my research to 8 more K-12 schools, and I once again got to make mud and plant corn for my fellow researcher Emma! As for the K-12 schools, I sent my proposal to Hopkins, Howell, Huron, Ionia, Ithaca, Jackson, Kalamazoo, and Kalkaska. As of right this very minute I have only heard back from Eaton Rapids and they said....wait for it.....I know you know what's about to happen....."no". Ha! Gets me every time! I did not send a one-week follow up with the

WEEK THIRTEEN Hey! You're back again to read the best blog of your entire life! Yahoo for you! I am very pleased to inform you that my week was pretty steady. Here's what went down. So to start off the week, I hopped right back onto the MSU train as it pulled into the station. This time, the train's name was Mr. Flennaugh. He is a professor at MSU and, astonishingly, very excited by my research project (his own words!). I emailed him initially at the start of the week just to get a feel for who this man was and he responded within 24 hours expressing his interest for the project and also how he wanted to set up a Zoom meeting to further expand our communication. Now my heart is really racing. I email him back with my availability for next week and....he doesn't respond. Have no fear though, he was probably just busy and I'm sure we will work in a meeting next week somehow.  Alright, moving along. This week was also time for me to send out some more K-12 proposal ema

WEEK TWELVE Wow, its Monday, and as you can tell, last week was very all over the place. It started out swell, all of a sudden Okemos responses were flooding in..7, then 8, then BOOM 19 (and mysteriously 21 by the end of the week)! This progress seemed to be carrying over to MSU as well, after Mr. Rasmus so graciously sent information about my survey over to an acquaintance at the university (Mr. Popovich). He informed me that my research proposal would likely be brought up at the next college meeting! Yes! The good fortune! On top of that, Mrs. Noble of Okemos 7-8 Middle School also got in touch with me about distributing my survey to the middle school! Then, as quickly as it began, my victory streak came crumbling down. Okemos withdrew from my survey. To protect the privacy of the bearer of bad news, I will not go into detail about this withdrawal, but needless to say, I am a bit upset about this. This news overshadowed a large portion of my week but MSU, like the faithful companions

WEEK ELEVEN As Buffalo Springfield once said, "there's something happening here, and what it is ain't exactly clear." This was my mantra for the week as I realized that nobody can truly handle my research but me. Well, that's a bit exaggerated, but nonetheless, the frustration is real in Han Land. As I waited patiently for signs of life from Haslett (none of which I received), I got some disheartening news from Webberville...they will not be participating in my research (wow, shocking, I know). After settling down from a moment of pure rage, I forced myself to acknowledge and understand the immense pressure being put on teachers as schools return to in-person learning. Additionally, I came to grips with the fact that Williamston and East Lansing both had great showings which, in itself, is a great accomplishment. Other than that, I waited for MSU to show up with some more responses (considering it was sent to 60+ teachers) and to my dismay, I have seen no more tha

WEEK TEN When the going gets tough, the tough get going! It's been a week of calling out into the abyss and getting no feedback whatsoever, but my research project shall prevail. Here's what I've been doing: Over the course of the week I sent a plethora of emails. I sent to Superintendent Friddle of Webberville to see if he had approved of my research (no response), I sent a follow-up to Superintendent Cook of Haslett to see if he had even received my first proposal email (no response), and I sent a check-in email to Mrs. Parkin to see if we can boost our response count from MSU. As of now, we only have 6 responses from MSU (flashbacks to Okemos are swirling through my head) but I have dubious hope this number will grow because, in total, Mrs. Parkin sent my survey to 63 professors (18 from Biology, 40+ professors in her department, and a few to professors in Physiology)!  As for the Okemos investigation, my work continues. In class I asked Sophie Casey to probe her mom (a

WEEK NINE Well would you look at that, it's almost March, and that means 17 days till St. Patty's Day! This week was refreshing. I didn't receive many rejections, and I finally set up my research connection with MSU! Now, I know you're on the edge of your seat waiting to see if we got anymore K-12 schools to join, or heck, any more Okemos responses...unfortunately those are both negative, but that's where MSU will pick up the pieces.  To start the week, I began by entering more of my East Lansing data, which if you haven't picked up on already, is a grind. Then I seemingly closed some ties when I sent out my first batch of "One Month Later" emails, along with a couple "Two Week Later" emails. I took from the overwhelming silence from Superintendents that it was time to move on to universities. In class, Mr. Rasmus and I brainstormed who I should contact to begin the research process with MSU and I quickly recalled that Mrs. Parkin was a scien