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In the spring of this year I completed the NCFDD Dissertation Success 12-week program and gained perspection on my dissertation journey. Perspection is thinking about the future, getting clarity on what you want and how to get there, and working backwards into the present. I’ve held grief, and I’ve done some brave things. I’m leaning into what I love, and I will forever be doing something that allows for balance and giving back to my community.

I continued supporting the development of online courses for W&M’s Reading Literacy Certificate, and I worked for Prince George’s County and District of Columbia Public Schools.

I’m cultivating my network of mentors, and I had an opportunity to meet via Zoom with Dr. Carlotta Berry, founder of Black in Robotics. I supported her research by assembling, programming and evaluating  a Lily~Bot. I participated in BiR Workshops: Robot Arm (6/18), Arduino (7/16), Introduction to Drones (9/17) and Plant -Watering (10/1). I visited the Naval Academy to participate in a STEM Workshop (AJ was home on leave and he tagged along)!

With the end of the Federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) declaration, I directed the first face-to-face camps for M-NCPPC since COVID. My entire July was consumed by 4 weeks of fun with STEAM Enrichment, Roblox and Teen Coding camps at Harmony Hall Regional Center.

I support The Arc of Greater Williamsburg as a Volunteer Pen Pal. I served as an eCybermission Army Educational Outreach Program Virtual Judge, and helped welcome the return of Maryland FIRST LEGO League’s Southern Regional Technology & Recreation Complex Qualifier as a Lead Judge. I also mentor McKinley Technology High School’s Firebird Robotics Team. We celebrated our team’s first place win at the FIRST Chesapeake regional robotics competition in Blacksburg, VA and recognition by the Council of the District of Columbia.

I’m six years STRONG instructing boot camp at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling and STRONG Nation and MOVE at Onelife Fitness – Clinton. I’m certified in CIRCL Mobility. I’m still walking solo or with my GirlTREK Crew – the Fort Washington Trekker’s!

I got a new ride in April and not by choice. Unfortunately, my Mazda CX-5 was declared a total loss in March when another driver ran a red light. No one was seriously hurt thank goodness. No photo needed because I replaced it with the same make and model.

My garden expanded a little … well, a lot! And I made time for some fun and travel along the way. My 40^th high school reunion was a blast! Here’s a photo from my high school prom, and another of me and my French teacher from high school during the reunion.

Whew! 2022 was a year of rest and getting my affairs in order. I celebrated a very special birthday (an amibigram and a palindrome). As a Holmes Scholar, I participated in a roundtable session and presented my dissertation proposal to my peers at our annual conference in New Orleans in early March. After the first review by my chair, there is a lot of work to do on my proposal. I reconnected with local schools in Prince George’s County and the District, and I supported a M-NCPPC Steam Camp. I spent a few hours each week building online courses for W&M’s new Reading Literacy Certificate while I worked to reclaim my personal space.

After experiencing a mild case of COVID-19 last summer, I started teaching Strong Nation twice a week at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (my first face-to-face class in two years). I led a GirlTrek Crew, walking every week at a local park or National Harbor. My little container garden was a success!

I visited the mountains in Colorado, met my Pen Pal for breakfast in Williamsburg (at Panera Bread, of course), went skydiving and horseback riding in Virginia Beach, and built a campfire by a cozy cabin in the woods in North Carolina.

Instead of resolutions, I have adopted a nudge word: consistent. So whatever 2023 has to offer, I want to be consistent with the attitudes, people, habits that have been working for me. Peace and blessings in the new year!

This was originally posted in late February 2022. Somehow it got lost in the migration. Fall 2021 is still a blur. Each week I drove three hours from Maryland to Williamsburg. I discovered audiobooks and podcasts on Spotify. One of my favorites is the Blk + In Grad School podcast. I stayed at a hotel 2-3 nights each week. Days were spent at my desk working and studying, and most evenings in class. Nights at the hotel were unpredictable. Sometimes I could study and get adequate rest, other times not. I drove three hours home after class on Thursday evenings to spend time with my husband, prepare healthy meals, wash clothes, pack and do it all over again. I experienced a level of physical and mental exhaustion that left me depleted and having panic attacks. For weeks, I woke up startled thinking that I had missed a deadline.

I started working on my dissertation through a seminar course. When I started the course, I was still contemplating my research question, and I didn’t have a chair or committee members. With everything else going on, I felt disoriented and unorganized, especially regarding my literature review. I had a fear of hitting hurdles, and I hit quite a few. A little background … participating in track and field runs in our family. When my son joined the track team, he had a fear of hitting the hurdles. He would run towards a hurdle, stop, jump over it, then start running towards the next one. While running is not my sport, I definitely understood his hesitation. I’ve seen hurdlers crash and fall, hurt themselves on the track, with all eyes focused on them. Over time, my son’s form improved, he got stronger, he got faster, and he grew more confident. He went on to become captain of the track and the cross-country teams at his school, not because he was the fastest, but because he persisted. Others saw his potential, providing encouragement and correction, positioning him to grow and inspire others.

Now I find myself running towards a hurdle, stopping, jumping over it (or barely making it over or hitting it and falling), then running towards the next one. This spring I am lowering the hurdles a bit (starting with an organized work plan and schedule), taking time to breathe and enjoy the run along the way. I look forward to watching my form improve, and to becoming more skilled and confident in this academic journey.

Here are some highlights:

What I read …or listened to:

Podcasts were perfect for the three hour drive each way. I highly recommend these three podcasts:

Blk + In Grad School Podcast

The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast

PhD Tips Podcast

I finally met my Pen Pal! We had lunch outside at Panera (our favorite), and we worked out together with GYM GUYZ (top left). After a rough start, my mustard greens in my small container garden survived, and I ended up with several harvests before the frost (top right). Towards the end of the semester, my cohorts organized a nice get together for CLD faculty and students. I really appreciate my new mug! I had dropped my favorite Wonder Woman mug a few weeks earlier, and it was on my wish list (bottom left). Finally, Amelie and I grabbed a quick photo at the end of my last class. Our next photo will be ringing that bell!

The spring semester brought online adventures in the form of Quantitative Research Design Methods III, Assessing Learning, co-teaching Leveraging Technology for Learning, and comprehensive exams (one down, one to go). Co-teaching was my first experience getting to see what goes on behind the curtain, and one of the most rewarding opportunities of my academic experience at W&M. And I enjoyed an unexpected treat from Dr. Eddy for helping out with her leadership course – my favorite … popcorn!

After a much-needed break from coursework, renovations, routines, and Zoom fatigue, I made the trip back to campus at the end of May to retrieve items from my office. A gift bag was on my desk containing a plaque that read “she believed she could so she did”. Thank you, April. Resilience is less about bouncing back and more about adapting, growing, and recognizing that we cannot do this work alone.

What I’m Reading … narratives about complicated relationships, how to cultivate genius through historically responsive literacy, how artificial intelligence is changing the nature of education, what engaged pedagogy looks like, and how to be an antiracist. How do you choose to educate yourself?

Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life. I resumed my GA position at the Technology Integration Center (TIC) and continued my work as a graduate fellow with the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) to reimagine the Student Partner Program. The summer brought an opportunity to work as an Online Teaching Assistant supporting Arts and Sciences courses. I also assisted with the Executive Ed.D. Program and the research of diversity, inclusion, and equity resources.

“When I need to be rescued
And I need a place to swim
I have a rock to cling to in the storm”
Lyrics from “Lovers Rock” by Sade

My better half, Brood X cicadas and Kali kept me entertained. The newest member of our family, “Kali”, is my daughter’s brown tabby. In addition to cat-sitting, I enjoyed walks, bike rides, my mini-garden, and fishing with my nephew. I love texting with my Pen Pal from The Arc of Greater Williamsburg. I just wrapped up our summer session of STRONG 30. I participated in our Virtual SYNC Summit, Bee & Goody’s Virtual 5K, and taught 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th graders from Camp Launch two sessions daily for two weeks – whew!
I supported the William & Mary Educational Review as a lead reviewer for Team Orange, and I continue to participate as a Holmes Scholar. Here’s my reflection on the “Advancing Anti-Racist Teaching through Educational Research” session that I participated in.

Robots? But of course! I volunteered as a Remote Core Values Judge for McKinley High School’s FIRST LEGO League robotics tournament. I treated myself to Zara, my Computer Hacker Smart Buddy. I served as a Tech Aide with a Black Girls CODE summer camp focused on the fundamentals of robotics for students between the ages of 7-9. It’s a doll on a Siggy robot scooter. I also participated in ISTE21, and Scratch Around the World conferences.

In Memory of Janet Lathan … Mentor, friend, and former FIRST Senior Mentor in Washington, DC, Janet Lathan passed away due to COVID-19. She was a fierce champion of robotics. There is a photo of us at a Scratch Day event in May 2009 in my first project.

‘Even as we grieved, we grew.’

From “The Hill We Climb” by Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman

On point, Amanda Gorman, and thank you. With only a week before the start of the spring semester, I’m ready to reflect on last semester. But if I’m honest with myself, I needed to experience the events of January 20^th and to soak in Amanda’s eloquent poetry to reaffirm optimism. An optimistic mindset is defined as a belief in your own agency to create a different outcome. Studies show that optimism may be one of the most important traits that impact leadership, teaching, and learning. As an educator, optimism gives me hope in the face of many failed attempts, and that yes, there are solutions to seemingly intractable problems (Diefenthaler et al., 2017).

Several factors tempered my usual optimism since this summer. I never imagined that I would experience housing instability. This impacted my decision to defer my graduate assistantship and become a part-time student. I enrolled in two online courses: one at William & Mary (Designing for Learning) and the other at Liberty University (Curriculum Evaluation). So in the midst of three relocations in a six-month period, a pandemic, the movement for racial justice, political upheaval, and juggling classes and work, I became an advocate for designing for learning. Stavros Yiannouka (WISE) offers that disruption in education presents opportunities (Diefenthaler et al., 2017). There is opportunity in disruption to improve my teaching and learning practice through design thinking. I participated in the Designing for Learning (D4L): Issues & Approaches Virtual Symposium which was attended by educators from Hampton Roads school divisions and William & Mary’s School of Education. You can check out my session and resources on culturally responsive teaching in the K-12 classroom here. And to those who believe that “multiculturalism, all the -isms — they’re not who America is”, I offer a resource on the dimensions of equity: multiculturalism, social justice, and culturally responsive teaching by Zaretta Hammond (see Slide #18).

Learning Through Work

Last fall, I accepted a term-limited Graduate Fellow position with the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) working 20 hours weekly supporting STLI’s Student Partner Program. Student Partners are undergraduate students that assist W&M faculty as they embrace blended teaching and learning strategies in their courses. I was star-struck when I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Alison Cook-Sather, a leading researcher in student-faculty pedagogical partnerships.

I continued my position as a fitness and wellness instructor with Campus Recreation, teaching group fitness online. Even Tiger (my classmate Frances’ cat) joined in! Look at his tongue! LOL

Staying Connected Through Volunteering

This fall I become a lead reviewer for The William & Mary Educational Review for Team Orange, and I continue to participate as a Holmes Scholar. A highlight was meeting with my fellow Holmes Scholars and Dean Knoeppel in November.

My volunteer efforts – all online, ranged from getting to dive into qualitative analysis through EAGER, to leading a cardio dance class for the W&M School of Education’s Admin Team (The Ugly Sweater/Shirt/Pants Workout). I volunteer with The Arc of Greater Williamsburg’s new Pen Pal Project and shared my robots with them virtually. I serve as a Virtual Learning Partner for a local elementary student from WJCC Public Schools. It is such a joy to work with Katie and Ariana.

This November, my husband and I quietly celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary, and after numerous court filings, hearings, and delays due to the pandemic, we were back in our home by Christmas. The work continues. Healing. Restoring. Unpacking. Purging. Preparing for comprehensive exams. Studying. Working. The more I learn, the more I’m convinced that we know how we learn, and we know what really works in teaching and learning. We need knowledgeable and skilled leadership in implementation.

Diefenthaler, A., Moorhead, L., Speicher, S., Bear, C., & Cerminaro, D. (2017). Thinking and acting like a designer: How design thinking supports innovation in K-12 education. WISE and IDEO. https://www.wise-qatar.org/2017-wise-research-design-thinking/

I started this semester exhausted. I took on 12 credits during the fall term (and yes, I was duly warned by my advisor against doing so). I acknowledged that impostor phenomenon is real. I balanced my studies with working my part-time jobs, conducting qualitative research, taking care of my better half and our home.

In February, to say that I was busy is an understatement. In addition to supporting the Technology Integration Center, I joined the Faculty Taskforce on Esports in the Curriculum as a collaborator to explore Esports and curriculum connections at W&M.

I traveled with the W&M Fitwell team to the 2020 Southeast Collegiate Fitness Expo at Radford University. I helped to facilitate “Line Dancing 101: The Art of the Boot Scoot Boogie” class. That was so much fun!

I celebrated my birthday by attempting the LES MILLS GRIT Initial Training. It’s a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout, and the floor coaching component of this format is exceptional.

Ozobots invaded Bayside High School on February 20th during the annual Pi Day event sponsored by the STEM Ed Alliance.

I had the pleasure of traveling with our W&M Holmes Scholars to participate in the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education’s (AACTE) 72^nd Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. Robin DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility” was the keynote. Here we are enjoying a meal together at Mary Mac’s Tea Room. Simply delicious!

That was my normal. Then `\_(‘~’)_/`

I ended this semester traumatized. I did my best to finish my projects and papers while grieving the illness and death of those I knew and the many that I didn’t know. I logged in for Zoom sessions in the midst of unreliable Internet service and occasional power outages. My Surface stopped charging. My graduate assistantship transitioned online, and I was furloughed from several part-time jobs.

With my workout routine in chaos, and nursing an injury from a fall off of my bike, I suffered from insomnia. When I had to venture out, I always wore a mask. I signed petitions. I donated. I participated in prayer and candlelight vigils, holding a sign that I made in protest of systemic racism. I read Robin DiAngelo’s book. I witnessed principalities and powers prioritize reopening, and many people in public spaces without masks.

I can’t breathe. I never want to go back to normal. I believe that we have an opportunity to rest, and then work to reimagine and reform our pedagogy, our practice, and our research. As a scholar, I am questioning how this unique context of pandemic and social justice impacts my research interests and shapes best practices with (and without) technology.

Like last year, I was employed as an Online Teaching Assistant supporting W&M Arts and Sciences online summer courses. I refreshed and facilitated my second online course, Deeper Learning: Unpacking the 5 C’s, a 5-week online course for K-12 educators from across the state of Virginia exploring the 5 C’s: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, and citizenship.

I served as a Digital Media Judge for McKinley Tech’s Senior Virtual STEM Fair on May 28^th. In June, I joined Black Girls Code’s TechMe Series, Tapping into Apps to learn how to create apps using MIT APP Inventor.

I participated in the Summer Institute on Education, Equity, and Justice (SIEEJ) 2020 Virtual Conference. The theme was Uplifting Women and Girls of Color Through Antiracist Pedagogy, Practice, and Policies.

On the horizon, I will participate in a few more conferences including ISTE’s Summer Learning Academy and ASCD’s Respond, Reimagine, Restart virtual conference.

We’ll be packing up and moving back to Maryland in a few weeks. COVID-19 is still raging. And I’m getting ready for comprehensive exams this fall. I ask for your prayers.

Denise Lewis Ph.D. ’22

For as long as I can remember, I have loved making and eating popcorn. Here I am in popcorn heaven honoring Dr. King’s legacy of service by volunteering at the James City County Winter Carnival.

I volunteered at ASWAD, and yes, that is actor and filmmaker Tim Reid who hosted an African Diaspora Film Festival. During a break from volunteering, I watched the award-winning ‘Daughters of Chibok‘, a virtual reality story of the aftermath of the kidnapping of the Chibok Girls in northern Nigeria.

Even before I officially became a student at William & Mary, I was blessed to hear from world-renowned scholars. Dr. Hrabowski, President of UMBC drove down from Maryland in the midst of a snowstorm to speak on the four pillars of college success in science (3/21/18). I had lunch with Dr. Loewenberg Ball; and later that day, I attended her presentation on disrupting racism and oppression through teaching (11/1/18). Dr. Steele was the keynote speaker at the Annual Diversity & Inclusion Symposium (11/1/19). Over the winter break, I read his book “Whistling Vivaldi” and learned more about his research as a psychologist on the impact of social identity contingencies. Ta-Nehisi Coates delivered an inspiring and entertaining keynote address for the 10th Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) (11/8/19). His vivid descriptions of researching and writing his historical novel “The Water Dancer” gave me valuable insight into the phenomenological approach.

Top Left and Right: Trip to Capitol Hill with EPPL 601 Educational Policy:  Development and Analysis – October 25, 2019

Bottom Left: Robots and Halloween Treats with CRIN E09 Instructional Technology (Elem) – Designs for Technology-Enhanced Learning (Elementary)  – October 30, 2019

Bottom Right: Discovering Technology Ghosts in Tyler Hall in CRIN S32 – Digital Humanities (a.k.a. “The Greatest Class Ever”) – November 5, 2019