Thank you, Sonya

by | Monday, August 03, 2020

Written for my dear friend Sonya-Gunnings Moton, on her retirement from the College of Education at Michigan State University.

Dear Sonya, wishing you all the very best on your retirement. Just want to say how much I have valued having you as a friend and colleague during my stay at MSU. And yes, I totally need to pay you for all the cigarettes I bummed off you during the conversations we had in the “smoking” space in Erickson Hall. All worth it, because it led to one of the most amazing projects I have been part of—the MSU Urban-STEM project. These photos cannot capture just how transformative this project was: 125 teachers working in Chicago Public Schools working with the most awesome instructional and support team ever. We made it happen. A genuine, meaningful and transformative partnership at so many levels. 

Sonya, it has been my privilege to have worked with you over the years. I have learned so much from you, your strength, moral clarity, passion and commitment to education. And most of all, you confirmed something I sort of knew already—that we can be ultra-serious about the work we do, but that does not mean that we need to take ourselves too seriously. You cut through the academic bullshit to focus on what was truly important. You reminded me everyday that one can laugh and have fun even while being passionate and totally committed to the work.

I miss your irreverence, laughter, passion and commitment. You made my world, and that of everyone else who came in touch with you, a better place. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. I am a better person for having known you. I wish you all the very best and I do hope our paths will cross in the near future.

A few randomly selected blog posts…

The infinity of primes (proof as poem)

The math-po (and sci-po) stream keeps flowing. Math Mama Writes, who started the whole math-poetry movement has some more on her blog, and here is Erin Nash with some really beautiful biological poetry. And of course, here's her husband Sean Nash having his students...

This is your brain on technology!

May years ago I wrote an essay titled On becoming a website. It was about my experience on teaching online and I suggested somewhat facetiously that in order to be a good teacher online I needed to actually "become" the course website! I started the essay by...

Hurting but happy!

This morning I participated in (and completed) the Capital City River Run Half Marathon. The emphasis is of course on "completed" - I wasn't into breaking any records here. I got a pace of 10:15 per-mile (which was approximately what I had last year as well). The...

Of teaching & cooking

Elizabeth Helfant over at Digital Learning Environments Blog has an interesting posting titled The Pancake principle. She makes a connection between technology integration and making pancakes, and offers three tenets of the Pancake principle. This posting is inspired...

Mind(ful) Wandering & Creativity: New article

Mind(ful) Wandering & Creativity: New article

Illustration by Punya Mishra We have covered a wide range of issues related to creativity, technology and learning in our almost decade-long series that we write for the journal TechTrends. Over the past few years we have conducted almost 30+ interviews with some of...

Structured Improvisation and creativity

Structured Improvisation and creativity

Improv(e) Design by Punya Mishra In this article, in our ongoing series on Rethinking technology & creativity in the 21st century, we interview Dr. Keith Sawyer, Morgan Distinguished Professor in Educational Innovations at the University of North...

Mirror, mirror

Imagine you are standing in front of a bathroom mirror; how big do you think the image of your face is on the surface? And what would happen to the size of that image if you were to step steadily backward, away from the glass? A recent article in the NYTimes (Mirrors...

TED is bullshit 🙂

Evrim Baran (who I often joke is the only reader of this blog) sent me this link to a set of notes by Jeff Jarvis from a TED talk he recently gave. He says that he used the opportunity of a TED event to question the TED format, especially in relation to education,...

TPACK newsletter #4, Aug – Sept 09


Welcome to the fourth edition of the TPACK Newsletter, now with 494 subscribers (representing a 36% increase during the last four months!), and appearing bimonthly between August and April. If you are not sure what TPACK is, please surf over to www.tpack.org...

2 Comments

  1. Sonya Gunnings-Moton

    Our paths will cross again…you can count on it my friend. Thank You!

    Reply
    • Yolanda Hood, Ed.S

      Dr. Gunnings-Moton,

      My name is Yolanda Hood (when I met you I was Yolanda Jackson at Holmes Middle School in Flint, MI under the leadership of Cheryl Adkins).

      I have been trying to follow you and your great work ever since you worked with us during an amazing professional development and when you honored me the chance to listen to and speak with Pedro Noguera during a session at MSU.

      As Dr. Angelou said, “People may not remember what you said or did, but they’ll remember how you made them feel”. I’ll never forgot those two moments. Meeting and “sitting at your feet” helped to increase my drive for being a responsible and intentional culturally proficient Teacher-Leader.

      Thank you for what you’ve done in education in Michigan. It is to be commended. I’m interested in knowing what new things are you involved in as an independent consultant and work at MSU. I’m leaving my info here and hope to be able to connect with you.

      Congrats on your retirement and best wishes!
      – Yolanda Hood, Ed.S

      Reply

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