Episode #2
Shattered and Becoming: Andrew Goff and the Weight of Being Enough
Andrew Goff threw a mug that said “Best teacher ever” at a wall. It was his twelfth year in the classroom, and the email that set it off came from someone he had counted as an ally. His second memoir, Shattered and Becoming: A Teacher’s Journey Between Policy and Purpose, is about the year that followed. A new principal told Andrew he could not speak Spanish with the three-quarters of his pre-K class who spoke it. The policy did not actually say that, and Andrew found out too late to use it. Two boys in that classroom, both labeled with autism, both named David, were thriving with embedded supports. When Andrew brought the data, the answer was that it worked in his classroom but would not work in anyone else’s. Both boys ended up in self-contained autism classrooms. Andrew will not let us make villains out of the people whose decisions caused that harm, and he explains why without letting anyone off the hook. We also get into designing curriculum for the margins, the not knowing mindset, and following the breadcrumbs after a fifteen-year federal grant is canceled by email. Then Andrew becomes the first guest to play Awake Among the Stars. Expanded show notes, resources, and the full transcript: https://mcie.org/think-inclusive/shattered-and-becoming-andrew-goff-and-the-weight-of-being-enough-1402/ Sponsors IXL, an all-in-one K-12 platform that adapts to each student: ixl.com/inclusive Behavior 360 from Inclusive Schooling, professional learning that treats behavior as something to understand rather than manage: inclusiveschooling.com/mcie-behavior
