Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. Math standards changed again this year. Math, though, has not changed. Math is still as universal a language as music. It is a language that is best communicated using words ... plain, simple words. If you read math standards (the old ones or the new ones), the words might get in your way. The math standards are perhaps written by math teachers ... who may not be as adept at "turning a phrase" ... as they are in mistaking rigamarole (unnecessary compilation) with rigor (appropriate level of difficulty) ...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. In January 2024, my daughter's school won their district level reading bowl ... a reading bowl named for Helen Ruffin ... a Black librarian from the Dekalb County school system ... who envisioned this event as a test or a measure of reading comprehension ... based on all the books that were nominated for this Georgia book award, whose name escapes me ... but I understand the premise of the contest ... and I like contests like this (for the most part) ...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. Let's move away from analyzing the status quo. Let's move toward discussing hope, healing, and substantive change. Our world is deceitful and wicked ... but life is still for the living. There are still purposeful pursuits that are worth our time and energy. Purpose fuels my fire ... not sharing inconvenient truth. Inconvenient truth does show how to navigate treacherous, choppy waters, though. And still I rise ...

Dear Hannah - I'm a #StandupStoryteller. I'm the "Brother From Another Planet". Strange people think I am strange. I think that what I experience is strange. And still I rise. I just completed another school year. I am trying to see where I have been ... and where I am going. A friend analyzed our school environment many years ago. They asked me to vet their data-driven findings ... for accountability. I did. I found that they told no lies. They told a sobering, inconvenient truth ...

Dear Hannah- I aspire to be a five-tool+ "standup storyteller" (AKA "griot") - poet, rapper, singer, teacher, orator, writer, producer, director. I am still learning how to use my tools, but I am getting there. LEarn to use your gifts. Love, Daddy

Dear Hannah - As the name suggests, The People In My Neighborhood (TPIMN) is a project that helps me learn more about where I live. It began as an effort to organize the neighbors in our subdivision, then grew into an effort to learn about our adjacent communities - then their adjacent communities, etc. It has grown into a powerful storytelling tool. Love, Daddy

Dear Hannah - Nine Men's Morris is an ancient board game combining the speed of checkers, the strategy of chess and the simplicity of tic-tac-toe. It is easy to play, but difficult to master. Become a master. Love, Daddy

Dear Hannah - Vision, Mission, and Steps provide a path that helps you to walk in your life's purpose. Vision describes what your efforts will produce / create - it describes your "end". Mission describes the concrete path to your vision - it describes your "means". Steps describe specific projects and tasks required to navigate that path - your "who", "what", "when", "where", "why", and "how". Write these - so that whomever reads it may run with it. Love, Daddy