007: Tiffany & Lingerr
In this episode, we’re chatting with English teacher and activist Lingerr Senghor on how she and her school have adapted to remote and online learning as schools have closed to slow the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
We discussed:
Her journey to becoming an English teacher and social justice advocate
How her school shifted to online learning
Equity and access among students
Mental health support for students and teachers
How growth may be impacted by online learning
Questions related to education that Lingerr is thinking about
Show Notes
Global Shapers: https://www.sfshapers.com/
NYTimes: As School Moves Online, Many Students Stay Logged Out
Jiggy Puzzles: https://jiggypuzzles.com/
About Lingerr Senghor
Lingerr Senghor is an English teacher and a proud social justice warrior. She's from The Gambia, and has lived there, in CA, in England, in MN, and in VA. She has a degree in English Literature from Carleton College, and an MA in English Literature from the University of Virginia. She likes superheroes, antiracist practices, and Liverpool F.C.
Connect with Lingerr Senghor
Transcript
[Opening medley by RootHub]
Tiffany Yu: Welcome to Tiffany & Yu. I’m your host, Tiffany Yu. On this episode, we’re joined by Lingerr Senghor who is a high school English teacher and social justice advocate to chat a little bit more about how her school has transitioned to remote and online learning. Because of COVID-19, teachers and students across the country suddenly find themselves forced to use technology as they teach and learn. We’re going to explore the opportunities and challenges that this presents. Hope you enjoy our conversation.
Tiffany Yu: Hi everyone, it's Tiffany here. And you're joining us for this episode of Tiffany & Yu. I have with me, Lingerr Senghor. Hey Lingerr!
Lingerr Senghor: Hey Tiffany!
Tiffany Yu: So I always like to start by sharing a little bit about how I know my guests. And Lingerr is part of the Global Shapers Community. Kasley, who was a former guest, is also part of that community. It's a group of people in their 20s and early 30s who are passionate about social impact and take on impact projects within their local communities. Lingerr joined, what is it about a year ago?
Lingerr Senghor: I think it was just about a year.
Tiffany Yu: Just about a year ago and honestly, I just loved the energy that Lingerr brings to the Shapers, always full of excitement, always references to sports teams that I don't follow and--
Lingerr Senghor: Liverpool F.C.
Tiffany Yu --and superheroes or something.
Lingerr Senghor: I'm sad this isn't on video because you can see that I'm literally sitting in a room with a lot of different superhero paintings on the wall with a Spiderman toy right next to me. I'm wearing a Godzilla shirt, a lot of pop culture is happening.
Tiffany Yu: I love it and sometimes I feel like you show up at our meetings wearing outfits--
Lingerr Senghor: Always, always.
Tiffany Yu: I am not sure what the backstory is. So anyway, I just wanted to share that because Lingerr is much more interesting than what we're actually going to talk about on our show. But Lingerr is also a teacher at The Urban School. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about that?
Lingerr Senghor: Absolutely. So I'm in my seventh year of teaching. I started teaching the second I left grad school, and I currently teach at Urban, which is a small private school in Haight Ashbury in San Francisco.
Tiffany Yu: Awesome, and what led you to want to become a teacher?
Lingerr Senghor: I think when I think about it in hindsight, it feels a little bit like, I was born and then, of course, I was going to be an English teacher and I became one. But it's a little more complicated than that. I'd start by saying that it feels sometimes like education is in my blood. So my grandfather actually founded my high school in The Gambia, West Africa. Most of my relatives, my grandmother and my parents have taught at some point or the other, so it feels like it was almost like destiny in some ways. English is a little longer of story, because I think I grew up- At a very young age, I wanted to be pony, and then once I grew out of that, I knew I wanted to do something with books or with movies. And I've always loved reading. I've loved being exposed in different worlds. I've loved the escapism of it. And it felt like reading and literature taught me so much about myself and who I was and who I would become. So I think being able to be with students on this journey as well and using literature to open up avenues of interest, of curiosity, of identity has always really mattered a lot to me. So pretty quickly in high school and college, I decided that I'd want to be an English teacher.
Tiffany Yu: I love that, and I know the second part of your job title if that's what you call it is as an Equity and Inclusion Advocate. I know that at one of your previous schools ,you had one that this Teacher for Social Justice Award. Can you talk about some of the work that you're doing there, or your interest in that?
Lingerr Senghor: Absolutely. So I think, I mean in some almost convenient ways, it feels like it's really aligned with literature, right. Because literature in itself, explores identity and like I said, gives students an avenue to explore their own. In other ways of course it's not because this is something that's very purposeful that I'm doing. But Teachers for Social Justice is actually an advocacy group in the Bay Area that tries to support teachers, support activists. And whilst I was teaching at my former school, which is called The Drew School, a colleague, to my surprise and absolute delight, nominated for this award and I got it. And my students-- it was actually really beautiful. So my students all came to the ceremony and they gave a nine person speech me. I have the video it's so cute. Why I got into this was just thinking about my life and how as a black woman, as an African, I've just felt like I've been treated differently. I've been seen differently, and often in negative ways, not always negative ways but always in different ways. And it started to really wear at me and bring me down in a lot of ways. And I think now that I have the power to do things that could make an impact in the lives of all of my students, especially my marginalized students, it feels like a responsibility in some ways, but also a fervent strong passionate desire to make their experiences better than mine was and their experiences as good as they can be. And that just looks like different things, right. It means advocating for them with other teachers, with the administration. It also just means supporting them, saying, "Hey, yeah, this really sucks and I've been through things like this and here's what I did, or what I didn't do." And just reminding them, especially in primarily white spaces like our school like Urban and my previous school Drew, that they should also be there and they deserve to be there and there are people there who have their best interests at heart.
Tiffany Yu: That's beautiful. And a lot of that really resonates with me I think as, you know, a disabled Asian woman. I remember I actually had this experience where in an internship that I had when I was in college, one of my mentors pulled me aside and said, "Hey Tiffany, I wanted you to know that you deserved your place here. You don't need to have a chip on your shoulder." And to be honest, I just felt really seen and called out a little bit but that's another thing. But yeah, number one, it's so important to have role models, and then to be able to turn--for your students--to be able to turn to someone like you and say, "Hey, these are the experiences that I'm bringing in with me when I walk into the school, when I walk into this classroom." And for you to be a mirror for that. So I feel like we could definitely have another entire podcast episode about delving into that space. But part of the reason why I wanted to bring you on is, as you know, as the whole world knows, we are living in the COVID-19 pandemic and given your role as a teacher at a high school, kind of wanted to better understand how things shifted initially when when shelter in place came, how have things changed since the pandemic?
Lingerr Senghor: I mean, in every single way imaginable but I think I'll start big and get maybe more granular. So my school has shifted like a lot of schools to virtual school. We're primarily using Zoom and Google Hangouts for vitual school. We've changed our schedule twice. Once because, of course, our usually just didn't feel like it would work, but we're trying to maintain some sense of it. And the second time was, we cannot maintain some sense of it. We have to radically change how we see our weeks. So what our schedule looks like right now is that, we still have three classes per week but the middle class is like a flex period where students can kind of be a little more free. All of our classes are shorter, meaning we're getting through a little bit less this trimester than we normally would. We have built in time for affinity spaces. We have longer lunches. We have more advising. Because I think we think that it's really crucial to maintain contact with our students as much as possible. And we're balancing that with-- I mean, it just sucks to sit and stare at your computer all day. We can't make the assumption that everyone has time to spend all day basically at school when you're at home, right, because people's home lives are entirely different. So what we've really been trying to do is balance what matters to us, which is, we see our students, we support our students, we love our students-- with, we want our students to feel relaxed and free and part of that might come from being able to engage with us and part of that will come from just having a little bit less to do, a little bit less on their shoulders, and knowing that, that's really okay because I think what we're trying to right now is model, this is really hard and we're gonna get through it by being kind to ourselves. I think that's what our schedule is modeling, that's what we're trying to do in our classes, that's just what the world looks like right now. I think getting a little smaller. It's just weird and painful with moments of joy sometimes. Because right now I'm teaching two ninth grade classes and one 12th grade class. And all of these classes, the students are still doing their best, they're still doing the reading, we're still having conversations. It's hard not to feel sad when we can't be around each other. It's hard not to feel like moments that are natural we take for granted. Just like jokes and things like that. It's a little harder to have these sort of instinctive points of connection over Zoom. So it feels like we're feeling a little more traditional than we usually are. And I think it's also just hard for our seniors and I think about them all the time because of course they've been at Urban for four years. This was their time. I'm pretty sure they're gonna be really obnoxious about it everybody. We're all excited for it, and now it's just this with us potentially being able to do something for them in the summer, but they're not having these final 12 weeks to get closure for their high school experience.
Tiffany Yu: For sure and at The Urban School, it is closed through the end of the school year, is that correct?
Lingerr Senghor: Yes, we are absolutely closed to the end of the school year.
Tiffany Yu: Still open virtually sorry.
Lingerr Senghor: The building is closed. School is still open.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, that's so interesting. I do want to come back to this. So, we'll take a quick break here and then when we come back, we'll continue chatting with Lingerr about some of the changes that have happened at The Urban School and in other schools.
Lingerr Senghor: All right, thanks.
[break]
Tiffany Yu: And we're back. This is Tiffany here and I'm chatting with Lingerr Senghor. She is a 9th and 12th grade English teacher at The Urban School, which is located in San Francisco, California. Before the break, we were chatting about--I don't know if I would call it on a holistic level, but some of the changes that have happened since COVID-19. And she was chatting a little bit about how the 12th graders were kind of excited about finishing out this year. I mean, I think some of the things I've seen on social media are around like prom and having virtual proms and then the pathways to college. Have you noticed like a little bit of a different sentiment among your 12th graders around that?
Lingerr Senghor: Around college?
Tiffany Yu: Are they excited about going to college? Is it still high levels of stress?
Lingerr Senghor: I guess, I don't think they seem as excited because I think they're excited and nervous about the entire thing, right, which is like, "Bye high school. Hi college." More and more colleges are already saying they're going to be virtual during the fall, so I think it just seems really challenging [inaudible] --not starting this whole new part of your life, but starting this entirely new part of your life, but still sitting at home and not really having the same ways to meet people. I didn't think about that with our incoming ninth graders should Urban have to go virtual for the fall, which I really hope we don't and so far, it's not really looking like we will. But how do you create an entire new life and world for yourself when you're just sitting at home?
Tiffany Yu: Yeah. One of the things you mentioned about not wanting to be a little bit more flexible with the students because you don't want them staring at screens all day. I remember coming into week five of our sheltering in place and now I wear blue light glasses all the time, because my eyes-- It's like, if I'm not on a Zoom call staring at the screen, I'm checking my email or I'm like looking at my phone or watching Netflix. I mean it's all screens. Or I'm taking a digital workout class, which is another screen.
Lingerr Senghor: Exactly.
Tiffany Yu: Which I actually think is a good segue to kind of talking about I saw an article in The New York Times, it was shared by a fellow Shaper Nathaniel around how the situation has exacerbated the digital divide. And so I wanted to kind of ask you if you've seen any of that, for your students. I know now they're at home. I've heard from some of my other teacher friends that you know within their home, both parents are teachers but their kid is eight, but they only have two laptops, you know, how do you navigate the technology that's there--then also the connectivity? So kind of curious to hear what you're seeing with your students?
Lingerr Senghor: Absolutely. And I do recommend the Times piece for everybody. I think that there's so many questions around equity and access and even just identity during this time period. We can start with some of the more practical ones, which is, does everyone have a computer? I'm really fortunate-- my students and I are really fortunate that our school gives us all computers as soon as you get there so we don't have that worry to the same extent. That said, I think, questions around internet access, which I had almost never even thought about before are suddenly very pertinent with my student body. Because they all have computers, they all have WiFi to an extent, but it can change your experience in a classroom when you can't log in, or you keep getting kicked off, or I have a bunch of students who can't ever put on their video because its too much of a strain. I have students who have peers who are also in high school or middle school or college. So everyone's on the WiFi at the same time every day. And that's just literally thinking about your computer. But we don't get to access to resources. Let's say, usually I would show a particular version of Macbeth, for example. I would just put that on the class, we already own that, it's fine. Now it's suddenly we have to ask students, do you have this access? Do you have that access? I love that they're being mindful. So one strategy that we've used is sending Amazon gift cards for students who might need to rent a version of a film or something. But it's something that we just have to keep reminding ourselves that we're not in our physical space where we can access things more easily. Everyone's in a very, very different world. So playing field that is already not quite level right because education is inherently, not really a level playing field even at a school like mine is even more imbalanced. And then we can get we can expand from that right into, like, what did their lives look like? A lot of people have parents who are home and have siblings. But what that means is, if they're the oldest, I've had some of my students tell me they need to go make lunch for another one of their siblings. That's totally fine, they should go do that. What that means is they can't necessarily be present in the exact moment of class. And that's just again, more tangible things. Some people honestly are just miserable. I've thought a lot about some of our queer students, our LGBT students who aren't necessarily in situations where they feel like they can always be their most full selves. What does it mean for them to be stuck at home? So it feels like there's just so many questions that we're thinking of every single day and I'm sure we're still missing some, and it makes me frustrated and scared and hoping that we can do the best that we can for our student body in a time that is just exacerbating everything that was already challenging.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, I mean one of the things what you're saying is getting me to think about is really around the mental health component, especially young-ish malleable age. Is that something that your school is thinking about providing or you leave the onus on the parents to be able to provide that level of support?
Lingerr Senghor: That's a great question. We absolutely provide it, so we have two full time counselors, or one full time and one part time, I don't know, we have two counselors. They started doing daily meditation leading. They're available to speak to basically anyone in our community. I also think that all of us as teachers, but it's just myself, because I'm not usually someone who's focused on mindfulness, but even in my classes, we've been doing a lot more stretching together, and breathing together, and just taking the time and space to just sink into how we're feeling. And it's almost a nice kind of silver lining that I want to take back with me because I think, in our usual school day, I don't usually ask my students to take five deep breaths, and then like, explain the color that represents their emotions, you know what I mean. I think that it's something that we're doing now. I feel like I'm doing it in response to this challenge, but I'm thinking about how I can do it more proactively moving forward. That totally wandered off topic.
Tiffany Yu: No, I think that's totally valid. It's funny, I facilitated a workshop earlier this week around mental health strategies. And one of the questions that I had proposed in the check-in at the beginning is "what color are you feeling?"
Lingerr Senghor: Exactly. What line best represents your emotions, it's been great!
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, or what weather are you feeling right now is another one I like. Great, and then I'm kind of just thinking, you know as you work with your students, even among the teachers. What's the general sentiment now that school is going to be remote through the end of the year? For those who are heading off to college in the fall or potentially coming back to The Urban School and if it is going to be remote? What are people feeling right now?
Lingerr Senghor: Do you mean the adults specifically?
Tiffany Yu: The teachers, the students.
Lingerr Senghor: I think everyone is sad to varying extents. I mean I have some students who are introverts who are like, this is the time of my life. That's amazing. We haven't even talked at all about, you know, what's all around us right. So people are scared. They're scared for the grandparents. I mean, the adults are scared for their parents themselves. A lot of people like myself are immunocompromised, so you have a lot of fear around that as well. And I think, speaking for the adults, I think we're really sad in a lot of ways. What I love about my colleagues is that we just really love our students, and we love being around them, and we love connecting with them. And we can do that on Zoom, but it's just not the same. I think one example, a friend and I were talking the other day about just hallway hi's, where the students or these adults who you just say hi to the hallway, you might chat with them once in a while. But I'm not going to talk to almost any of those people until I next see them in person because we have no reason to necessarily have a Zoom call, but it's those little points of connection that to me create the feeling of community. And it feels like a lot of that is being lost, even though we're still maintaining it by having all school meetings or advising meetings or classes. It's just not quite the same.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, and for the, I guess I'm curious like, for the teachers, since a lot of you have to be rocks for your students, do you think that you and other teachers are getting the support that you need through this time?
Lingerr Senghor: Absolutely. I think it's almost funny. I think everyone is being a rock for someone else and I'm just curious as to like, does this chain end somewhere? Because my administration, my department chair, especially my department chair, I think a lot of them are just so constantly, consistently reaching out to me, asking me if I'm okay, reaching out to other people, asking them if they're okay. So I'm wondering, who is reaching out to them to ask-- what does the circle look like because everyone needs a lot of support right now and I'm really grateful that I'm getting it from the people I work with, from my friends, from my family, from Shapers who I'm talking to about this stuff. I think it's really hard to feel like I'm absorbing all of my students' different energies. And I'm really happy to because it's part of my job, but it is hard to almost bring the energy, right, on days when I'm really sad, and they're really sad, it's now on me to be like, "Guess what, Macbeth is gonna be awesome today and here's why." And Macbeth is awesome, by the way. Let it be said. But I think it has felt like a huge strain and drain on me in ways to support them and similarly, I think it must feel that way to the people who are supporting me and the people who are supporting them. And I think even if we can't have what our usual community is, maybe this is one of the ways we're finding and creating community, right, in terms of everyone just trying to reach out to each other via support in the ways that we can or ways that we can't. And I think that some people who don't feel like they can show up in the same way for their students, their friends, their loved ones, whatever that's also really fine. I think we're literally in the middle of crisis and trauma and fear and this isn't necessarily the point where everyone needs to be a superhero, but I'm glad that the superheroes in my life have been supporting me a lot.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, I love the visual that you gave of walking down the hallway of the school and you know making eye contact and giving nods and saying hi to people.
Lingerr Senghor: Exactly.
Tiffany Yu: I mean, what do you what do you think the impact of what's happening right now will be on students? I mean, some of my other teacher friends that I've chatted with really feel like learning and growth is kind of stunted because we do want to be flexible that students are in situations right now where, you know, they can't be 100% paying attention, or, you know, they may have to step away and then come back.
Lingerr Senghor: I think that learning and growth is absolutely going to be stunted and that is okay, and unavoidable and something we'll just have to deal with in the future. And a few examples that I can think of at my school for example are-- So in English, it hasn't affected us as much, at least in my case, I can cater my syllabus to just remove things. So we were going to read three Shakespeare plays this term. Now we're going to read two. We're still learning the same skills. I think that things like some of the languages, maybe math or science, are a little more challenging because students are going to advance to the next level of math would have learned less than a student who wasn't taking it this term. So I think a lot of things will have to be recalibrated in different ways. What that can look like, I'm not sure but I think what it must have and I know it will have at least in my school is just understanding and care and kindness, because it's not really anyone's fault, right. We could keep our exact same scheduling and teach as hard as we could and teach all the exact same things that we usually would. But what are they even retaining? What should we expect them to retain when there's so many more things that are honestly just more important right now?
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, I think one of the things I've been thinking about throughout this conversation is the fact that things look different, right now, they have to. And you know this virus has kind of forced that in a way, and we're trying to adapt and be flexible as best as we can. I did see an article, I don't know if you saw about it-- If you saw it as well, but it was talking about predictions around what is going to happen when parents receive tuition bills for college of like $40-50k. You know, I don't even know how much college is now. With things being remote, and of course, I remember when we first chatted about this, we're like, I don't know if I can make sweeping statements about the future of education. But I'm just curious, I mean you're a little bit closer to it than I am. I don't know if there's going to be some revolution or something around-- because if I think longer term about this, right. Your 12th graders-- many of them are about to head to college, student debt is you know preposterous in the US.
Lingerr Senghor: Tell me about it.
Tiffany Yu: I'm just really curious what are the conversations happening.
Lingerr Senghor: It's hard because what this is gonna need, in terms of just the money is [inaudible]. I don't know what that can look like. I know that for my school, our students don't live there, right. So let's say that college was residential cost center, etc. So now you're just paying for the professors basically. I'm still not sure what that can look like where there's not consistency. I mean, my peers and I still have class every day, just about every day, or every class period we have, but my brother, for example, who goes to college, his teachers emailed him a packet basically saying, "Work through this and tell us if you have questions and that's your term." And I don't feel like that's necessarily a fair thing to ask for a full tuition for. Does that make sense? I think a lot of teaching, right, is about not just the content or skills but the instruction, and I don't know how we can assess what the instruction looks like on different people doing different things. And this isn't necessarily to shame the people who sent the packet. I think asking someone to change to a virtual way of teaching is a huge ask. That said, I think if we're being student-centric, I don't think just sending material is teaching people and charging people for that feels a little-- I don't know. It doesn't really sit right with me, so I'm glad that at least we're not going to be doing that.
Tiffany Yu: For sure and it kind of reminds me of like one of those-- so I also do some work in the diversity and inclusion space and oftentimes the people who have the marketing budgets are different from the HR people, but they're-- and it's just like different-- And the professors aren't the ones who are being like, here's the tuition bill, it's probably a different-- and then so it's like, this whole system is all trying to float effervescently together, figure out some way to work to keep everyone moving.
Lingerr Senghor: Exactly. And then you get into people's backgrounds, right. I feel like there are other things I could do with my time, but I don't have other like pressing needs, like a child. So I'm thinking about all of these, the teachers at my school or the professors who, you know, when they can leave their home and go to class they're fully there, but we can't expect the same quality of instruction, to an extent, right, from people who might have children at home, or their children are home 24/7 and that also has to be a priority. It's all just really murky.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah. Well, we'll bring it back to high school, and start to close our conversation. But what are you thinking-- what are the questions that you're thinking about in terms of what you're thinking this new normal for school and education is going to look like?
Lingerr Senghor: I think something that's floating around in my mind is just about rigor, and what is rigor? Because this term has been way less rigorous in my mind like, I don't think I'm assessing as rigorously, assigning work as rigorously. I'm not expecting my students to have the same kind of rigor or attention they usually do. And I'm curious what that looks like in the future, right, because we're part of having to be virtual or not having school at all has sort of led us to ask ourselves, you know, what is education? What do we need to keep so that they're being educated? How do we define that? And I don't think our definitions all necessarily sync up in the gigantic massive many million people who are all in education. So I'm curious about, when I think about being a rigorous or challenging teacher, what will that look like when we're back in the classroom? How important was that before? Have I been able to teach in the same way? Have they gotten similar ideas or mentalities or points of reflection or points of connection out of my teaching if I'm not assigning them, for example, weekly writing? I'm just really curious as to what-- I don't even know if I feel like anything's necessarily going to change that dramatically, at least for me. The questions are, what do we do? What does it look like online? What does it look like when we're back together? But what exactly is the heart of what we're doing with our students?
Tiffany Yu: And it's almost like, what is the skeleton of the bare bones things we need to learn to just be good humans?
Lingerr Senghor: Exactly.
Tiffany Yu: I mean sometimes I think about all of the things that-- I don't know if I wish I had learned them but like personal finance skills, learning how to be in touch with my emotions and how to communicate effectively. Those are all important things that I think I'm still learning.
Lingerr Senghor: I absolutely can't help them with personal finance, but I do think, being in touch with your emotions and being able to convey them, that is the heart of English. I think what I talk about in a lot of classes is windows and mirrors, so what do you see in this work that is like you, how, why, talk about it. What do you see this work is unlike you, which would be your window, how, why, talk about it. And I think just allowing people the option to develop a lens right, internal, external, whatever it is but I think the heart of what I do is asking people to think about themselves and their worlds and their place in their worlds. And that can happen virtually. But that's what I do in almost the abstract, right. It can happen virtually, but can it happen virtually when we're all really sad and stressed and, you know, maybe Shakespeare doesn't feel as relevant right now, though, to be fair, he was writing King Lear during a plague and we're about to read King Lear. But what does-- I think that heart can stay, but it's just different.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, yeah. That's beautiful. I wish you were my English teacher. Mirrors and windows, I love that.
Lingerr Senghor: We can do a book club but everyone hates being in book clubs with me.
Tiffany Yu: Were you-- I did read "How to Be an Antiracist," which was the last book club that I missed. We will save that for the next podcast. I guess for our listeners, I'm going to assume that the majority of them are post-college, are well into their into their careers. Are there things they should be thinking about, or how can they support secondary education? Are there questions that we should be asking ourselves?
Lingerr Senghor: I think you should be asking yourself some of the questions you asked me, which is, why does education matter? And I guess depending on what your response is, just act on that. I think that a lot of people-- if you're listening to this and you have the resources, donate money to different public school districts to systems. I think a lot of them are really struggling. Look into the different the GoFundMe [campaigns] I'm sure teachers or students might be having. I'm sure there's so many places where you can donate a computer or an iPad. So I think really figuring out, if you're fortunate enough to have plenty, what you can share with people who don't have as much. And if you don't have plenty, I think just be kind to yourselves, be kind to everyone else. That's all I'm asking my students to do and I think it's the fairest thing that any of us can do right now.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah. And some of the work I'm doing, some of our partner, nonprofit organizations that serve people with disabilities have a program where you get $10 a month for Comcast Internet and you can buy a computer for $150, like both of those very heavily subsidized and sometimes still out of reach. So just being really cognizant. It was interesting I was on a-- I watched a panel discussion over the weekend around-- what does the new Americans with Disabilities Act look like? And someone had mentioned, you know, now that we have moved to more of a digital sphere, it's access to technology and not just the iPhone, but the WiFi connection, which we chatted about as well. I feel like we had a really amazing conversation around the work you're doing in your school, what's kind of happening from an education perspective now that things have moved remote. What are you doing for fun?
Lingerr Senghor: My screen fun is definitely you know the unholy trifecta of Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus. And I'm watching-- I almost forgot HBO, how could I? So I'm watching a lot of different things. I recommend "True Blood," which I've never watched before and is extremely delicious and scandalous. I'm reading, of course, given my profession. I'm reading a novel called Lagoon, which is about aliens landing in Nigeria and it is hilarious and really exciting so far. I think I'm sitting outside and feeling a lot, feeling the sun, looking around me, trying to take it all in. I am let's see-- writing postcards, probably doing lots of-- oh, I've started to do puzzles, I hate them but they're okay. Yeah, they're very frustrating.
Tiffany Yu: I have a friend and what she does is she-- I don't know if license is the right word-- but she finds female artists, and she puts their artwork onto puzzles because she actually did that for stress relief.
Lingerr Senghor: Very cool.
Tiffany Yu: Yes, I think it's called Jiggy Puzzles. Anyway, I'll send you the link. I'll include the link in here too.
Lingerr Senghor: I'm already at that website.
Tiffany Yu: You're already at the website. Normally I ask our guests, if there's a place you want people to follow up with you if people want to continue the conversation. I know since you're a teacher that might be a little bit different, but is there is there a place where people can find you if they want to continue the conversation? We can also just refer people over to Shapers.
Lingerr Senghor: Absolutely. I think if you have ideas for me, thoughts for me, dramatic criticisms, questions, you can find me on LinkedIn, Lingerr Senghor. You can find me on Facebook I guess, but probably LinkedIn.
Tiffany Yu: Awesome, thanks so much for being on my show.
Lingerr Senghor: Thanks for having me Tiffany.
Tiffany Yu: And that's a wrap.
Tiffany Yu: Thanks for listening to this episode of Tiffany & Yu. This is your host, Tiffany Yu. If you enjoyed this conversation, please leave us a rating and write us a review over at Apple Podcasts. It allows these conversations and these episodes to be discovered by other podcast listeners. I’m hoping that we can co-create something here that’s valuable for you, so to the extent that you have feedback or other topics you’d like us to explore, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can find us at http://tiffanyyu.com/podcast. And a special shoutout to RootHub for our opening and closing podcast medleys. We release episodes weekly, so I hope that you’ll join us next week for the next episode.
[closing medley by RootHub]