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Nicola Northcott

@nicnorthcott.bsky.social
207 followers 392 following 22 posts

Totally in love with being an ESOL teacher. Germanist and general languages nerd. She/her.

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Reposted by Nicola Northcott
Neil Cohn @neilcohn.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Our new paper may be one of coolest studies I've ever done. We show that the structures of visual storytelling in comics aligns with the word order of the languages of the comic authors. Here's what we did... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Syntactic headedness aligns with visual narrative structure
Recent research has highlighted how visual narrative sequences involve similar structures and processing as syntax in language, yet no work has asked …
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.
But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other
stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in …What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed.
Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب
"La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty.
That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
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Gwrach Gymraeg @cherylmorgan.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Wait, so the Prime Minister wants to send cis men to women’s prisons because the men’s prisons are overcrowded, but he wants to send trans women to men’s prisons because we are supposedly a danger to women 🤦‍♀️
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Queermany Berlin @queermany.berlin · 26/07/2026
In Gedanken bei allen Opfern & Angehörigen. #csdberlin Jetzt zählt nur Solidarität und generell die Sicherheit unserer gesamten queerfeministischen Community! Wer Unterstützung bzw. Anschluss sucht oder in diesen schweren Stunden nicht alleine sein wollt: queermany.berlin/signalgruppe-austausch
ANGRIFF AUF DEM 
CSD BERLIN
In Solidarität mit Betroffenen

In Gedanken bei allen
Opfern & Angehörigen.
Jetzt zählt nur Solidärität und
generell die Sicherheit unserer 
queerfeministischen Community!

Wenn ihr Unterstützung braucht oder Anschluss sucht 
 queermany.berlin/signalgruppe-austausch
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
A barrister represents his clients in court. Clients who are political dissidents. He now faces criminal prosecution for doing so. Not Turkey. Not Egypt. Not Russia. England. Astonishing, deeply disturbing, and part of a long slide towards authoritarianism. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Palestine Action barrister’s prosecution criticised as ‘chilling’
CBA chair says contempt charge over closing speech by Rajiv Menon KC has left lawyers fearful of doing their job
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Wie Sie in fünf Schritten digital unabhängiger werden www.zdfheute.de/ratgeber/dig...
zdfheute.de
Mehr Datenschutz und weniger Abhängigkeit: Wie digitale Souveränität im Alltag leichter gelingt
Mehr Kontrolle über Daten, Datenschutz und Cloud: Europäische Alternativen stärken digitale Souveränität. Der Einstieg in fünf Schritten erklärt.
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WeRateDogs @weratedogs.com · 25/03/2026
A viral dog rescue from 2016 is now immortalized with a statue in Kazakhstan. When a dog fell into the Sayran reservoir, bystanders formed a human chain to pull him to safety. The statue is a reminder of the value of unity, solidarity and collective action. 14/10 for all
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 17/03/2026
Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.
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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...” A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today. lithub.com/renee-nicole...
lithub.com
Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that poem.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, mother to a six-year-old boy, was murdered earlier today by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, a few blocks from her home. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune: [An ICE agent] s…
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Truthout @truthout.org · 03/01/2026
More than 64,000 children in Gaza have reportedly been killed or maimed since 2023. Many who survived are now orphans. buff.ly/q8D41XY
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Dr. T. Flo (Trying to get back on two feet in 2026) @tnflorvil.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Look at the US interventions. ugh
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Matt Shuham @mattshuham.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
I’m at Times Square, where an emergency “No War On Venezuela” protest just took to the street. Easily a thousand people here in real-feel 20°F weather. “No more coups, no more wars, Venezuela’s not yours!” “No boots on the ground no bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere!”
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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 25/11/2025
BBC censors a lecture removing author’s remarks on Trump that refer to him a the most openly corrupt American president.
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
ESOL teachers and linguists! I need your help! I am teaching an A2 level group words for describing people (we've been learning words like bald, slim, short etc.) and I could do with some advice on what to teach them to say to describe a person's skin colour given the level of their English.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 07/10/2025
I don't even know what to say about @aaron.bsky.team announcing that actually they feed all images posted on Bsky into an AI that just a year ago they told everyone they had banned from using Bsky images
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E.D.E. Bell @edebell.com · 27/09/2025
Good morning. These translations need visibility to fund. I know there are a lot of things going on, but that doesn't explain why this really worthy project hasn't been at least talked about in public. If you know people who value translation, could you tell them?
ko-fi.com
Support African Translation Project
African Translation Project, Goal 4: Fully Fund Two Translations, by 31 October, still needed: $3575, 64%, If this goal is met: Translations will be fully funded for Bengithi Lizokuna and Zvinobvinza,...
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Dr. T. Flo (Trying to get back on two feet in 2026) @tnflorvil.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Remembering the black history of Weimar Berlin: www.the-berliner.com/politics/bla...
the-berliner.com
Remembering the black history of Weimar Berlin - The Berliner
Three Cameroonian Berliners from a century ago were key figures in Berlin's black history, remembered for their fight for self-determination.
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Hoywoj @aushoywoj.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
In Brandenburg fanden heute die ersten beiden von 29 Bürgermeisterwahlen statt. Nach #Meißen + #Wolmirstedt setzte es auch in #Wriezen + #Nauen deutliche Niederlagen für die AFD. In ihren beiden Hochburgen rutschte die Partei von 46% auf 27% bzw. von 37% auf 16% (Vergleich BTW 25) 🧵 #dieblaueDelle
Das Bild zeigt ein Stimmdiagramm der Bürgermeisterwahl in Wriezen mit einer Wahlbeteiligung von 60%, bei der Karsten Ilm (CDU) mit 48,8% der Stimmen deutlich vorne liegt.

Das Bild ist ein Balkendiagramm, das die Ergebnisse einer Bürgermeisterwahl in Wriezen zeigt. Die Wahlbeteiligung betrug 60,0%. Drei Kandidaten werden aufgeführt: Thomas Knels (AfD) mit 27,0% der Stimmen, Nils Nestler (WRZ) mit 24,2% der Stimmen und Karsten Ilm (CDU) mit 48,8% der Stimmen. Die Balken sind farblich unterschiedlich kodiert (blau, orange, dunkelgrau). Das Bild zeigt ein Stimmdiagramm der Bürgermeisterwahl in Nauen (Stand 14.09.2025, 19:14:25). Die Wahlbeteiligung lag bei 51,1 %. Das Diagramm zeigt die prozentuale Stimmenverteilung auf vier Kandidaten: Meger (31,4%), Zießnitz (5,5%), Wiebersinsky (47,3%) und Kilian (15,9%). Es handelt sich um ein Zwischenergebnis, bei dem 30 von 30 Wahlbezirken ausgezählt sind.
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
I despair of them.
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alonsonichols.bsky.social @alonsonichols.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
It’s amazing how the simplest things had such meaning at the roots of our language. In Spanish the word for bred is “pan” and bread is still at the heart of words such as acompañar (to accompany), compañero (companion), compañía (company). With whom would you break bread or be close?
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Radical Graffiti @radicalgraffiti.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
"Will you sign my petition demanding new shackles ?" Poster spotted in Sydney
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Da capo!
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
This is clearly genuine, and I have to imagine that Ireland's own history with a preventable famine explains why Israel's genocide resonates so much. What Palestinians are going through today is not that different from what the Irish did, only this time it's being live-streamed.
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Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Some REAL good news; The EU is backtracking on its earlier decision to abandon stronger anti-discrimination protections, following a campaign by @ilgaeurope.bsky.social. Now there will be stronger protections and rights in the EU for LGBT people.
ilga-europe.org
EU Commission reverses course on anti-discrimination directive | ILGA-Europe
The European Commission has revived its draft Equal Treatment Directive after public outcry and a 33,000-signature petition.
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
@womensrugbyshow.bsky.social Do you know anything about the fact that the WRWC are charging more for parking for blue badge holders than for able-bodied fans? Seems to be a policy across a number of venues.
Picture of section of Women's Rugby World Cup official website showing parking for a match at Franklin's Gardens, Northampton to watch Women's Rugby World Cup matches.Picture of section of Women's Rugby World Cup official website showing blue badge parking space fee for a match at Franklin's Gardens, Northampton to watch Women's Rugby World Cup matches: £15.Picture of section of Women's Rugby World Cup official website showing public parking space fee for a match at Franklin's Gardens, Northampton to watch Women's Rugby World Cup matches: £12.50.
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Interesting article, including the fact that US citizens are referred to as émigrés and not immigrants.... www.dw.com/en/mexican-t...
dw.com
Mexican town welcomes US emigres – DW – 07/27/2025
More and more US citizens are deciding to leave their country because of growing hostilities against migrants and other social groups. Many are moving to Mexico. DW met with some of them in the city o...
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Sam/サム 📚 @samtobenkyou.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Hey #langsky, they have English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian audiobooks!
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Kneecap @kneecapceol.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
After the media damage is inflicted and seen by millions of eyes,you receive a private email to say there's no evidence and no action,seen by two people only There's no public apology. They don't send this to media or post it on police accounts We will continue to fight. We will continue to win.
One element of the political policing intimidation attempt is over. 

We played a historic set at Glastonbury. Whole area closed an hour before due to crowds. A celebration of love and solidarity. A sea of good people at the world's most famous festival.

Shortly afterwards we learn of an active police investigation. An investigation that followed after the Prime Minister himself said it "was not appropriate" we played Glastonbury.

Walk off stage to the rapturous sounds of good people and into the creaking scheming sounds of the establishment.This "investigation" was reported across the world's media often with wildly misleading headlines. 

Every single person who saw our set knew no law was broken, not even close....yet the police saw fit to publicly announce they were opening an investigation. 

Why open and publicise an investigation into fuck all?

This is political. 

This is targetted. 

This is state intimidation.After the media damage is inflicted  and seen by millions of eyes - you receive a private email to say there's no evidence and no action - that is seen by two people only. 

There is no public apology, they don't send this to media or post it on police accounts. 

We will continue to fight.

We will continue to win.Email from Avon and Somerset Police to Kneecap legal team: "I am Senior Investigating Officer for Avon and Somerset Police's investigation into Kneecap's performance at the Glastonbury Festival on 28th June 2025. Following a review of the evidence, I have determined there will be no further action.

I would be grateful if you could communicate this to your clients, and/or advise me of an alternative way if contacting them.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Regards,

Detective Superintendent [Name redacted]"
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TheBossRoss 🧶 @thebossross.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Iranians distrust the U.S. not because they 'hate our freedoms, but because of the "arrogance" of U.S. foreign policy, which imposed a dictatorship on Iran in the 1950s, explains commentator Joy Reid.(analystnews_ on Insta)
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Sophia Babai @swingingstorm.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
My mom and stepdad are from the same diaspora group as Zohran Mamdani’s dad (same like “my stepdad was kicked out of the same town and knows some of his classmates”) and apparently the New York Times doesn’t understand how diaspora works, so I am going to tell you a little about my mom’s people!
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
SIGN THE PETITION: Defend the right to protest: no proscription of Palestine Action palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/NoProscription
palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk
PETITION: Defend the right to protest: no proscription of Palestine Action
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Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 09/06/2025
Another world is possible if we fight for it.
haymarketbooks.org
FREE Ebooks: Abolish the Border, Abolish the Police
In solidarity with all those standing up for our communities against the brutality of immigrant detention and police repression, we're offering free ebooks of three crucial books about border and poli...
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historianmemory.bsky.social @historianmemory.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Zambia's lost language invented by women but almost killed by colonialism
How social media is pushing back against the still common idea that African societies never had a knowledge system.
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Ex-FBI-Mann: Musk war Ziel russischer Agenten www.zdf.de/nachrichten/...
zdf.de
Ex-FBI-Mann: Musk war Ziel russischer Agenten
US-Milliardär Musk soll Ziel russischer Agenten gewesen sein. Sie sollen sich nach ZDF-Recherchen in sein Umfeld geschleust haben.
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Show me your hatespoons!!! (This absolutely needs to be a thing.)
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ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly @arablit.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Please share this call widely. We want everyone to participate in this shared space, for our GRIEF issue, Spring 2025. Some letters will appear in the magazine; many more online.
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Lynn Nothegger @lynnnothegger.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Send this to every woman you know in Germany. Was going to say especially the middle-aged mums, but I think it works for all ages. I saw myself in the mum. My daughter will see herself in the young woman.
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
"The move will potentially bar 71,000 people who have successfully applied for asylum from claiming UK citizenship" Labour is willing to break international law for the sole purpose of punishing 71,000 vulnerable people who did nothing to deserve such cruelty www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
UK to refuse citizenship to refugees who have ‘made a dangerous journey’
Home Office accused of shutting out refugees, as new guidance says those applicants will ‘normally be refused’
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Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
There’s a Turkish phrase about the upside of hitting rock bottom being that things can’t get any worse. It goes göte giren şemsiye açılmaz and it means “an umbrella up one’s ass cannot be opened”
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Christine York @cmymtl.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Petition to protest the closure of the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University in the UK. chng.it/fgmQprWh2t
chng.it
Save MLANG at Cardiff University!
Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?
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Charles Forsdick @cforsdick.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
“Studying global culture uniquely through the medium of English would demonstrate an indifference to both linguistic and viewpoint diversity. Worse still, it would impose an Anglo-normative framework on the cultural realities being examined.”
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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
How can we trace same-sex relationships in rural archives, when love letters were heavily euphemistic or burned after reading? For LGBTQ+ History Month, Tim Jerrome shares his research into queer rural relationships: from his first find, to the challenges faced. merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2025/02...
merl.reading.ac.uk
Thomas and Austen: a gay relationship in the MERL archives? - The Museum of English Rural Life
For LGBTQ+ History Month 2025, researcher Tim Jerrome shares how he's using rural archives to research same-sex relationships in the countryside.
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TheBossRoss 🧶 @thebossross.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
2/2 There's a whole dedicated website now for anti-AfD, pro-democracy events & protests: www.demokrateam.org/aktionen/
demokrateam.org
Aktionen gegen Rechts
Demos, Konzerte, Lesungen, Workshops und viele weitere Events gegen Rechts findest du in unserer Aktionsübersicht.
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Nicola Northcott @nicnorthcott.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
www.zdf.de/dokumentatio...
zdf.de
Hannah Arendt - die politische Denkerin
Zur Person - Das legendäre Interview: Hannah Arendt war eine bedeutende Theoretikerin der Politik und eine messerscharfe Analytikerin.
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Ian Cushing @iancushing.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
if you are a teacher and are interested in dismantling deficit thinking about language and designing linguistically equitable schooling, then this summer school in Manchester might be just the thing for you 💃
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Lena Berger @lena4berger.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Grandiose Bilder aus Bratislava heute abend: Die Proteste richten sich gegen Premier Fico, der als Marionette des Kremls die Slowakei auf einen pro-russischen Kurs zwingen will. Die Hoffnungen dieser Menschen ruhen auf Europa und nicht auf Russland.
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Erin Burrell says protect trans kids @erinkb.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
For all my #BookSky friends that are trying to move away from the Bezos infrastructure, just a reminder that Goodreads is owned by him through Nash Holdings. Clicks are currency friends @thestorygraph.com is a Black Woman founded company www.womenwhocode.com/blog/world-b...
womenwhocode.com
Women Who Code - Empowering women to excel in tech careers
Women Who Code is on a mission to empower diverse women to excel in technology careers. We support engineers, developers, data scientists, architects, designers and other technologists with the resour...
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