2023–24 School Year Highlights

As the 2023–2024 school year ends, we at Teaching for Change, thank you! Together, we’ve empowered educators, engaged students, and fostered social justice in classrooms across the nation.

In the past year, we hosted the 5th Annual Teach Central America Week, our annual teach-ins with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, a national Black Lives Matter at School Curriculum Fair, the 2nd Annual Social Justice Curriculum Fair for D.C. area educators, and much more. Our Social Justice Books website remains a vital resource for teachers, librarians, and parents.

Your support is crucial. Donations help us provide anti-racist teaching resources, host curriculum fairs, and advocate for social justice in education. Continue reading to learn more about our work and how you can get involved.

Second Annual Social Justice Curriculum Fair

In August 2023, the D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) hosted its second annual Social Justice Curriculum Fair in Washington, D.C. Educators from the D.C. metro area gathered to learn about local organizations supporting social justice education, participate in workshops across subjects and grade levels, and learn about DCAESJ in preparation for the 2023-2024 school year.

There were workshops on banned books, disability theory, gender identity in early childhood, equitable game math design and play, storytelling, literature to decolonize the canon, and more. Breakfast and lunch were provided and everyone walked away with a children’s or young adult book of their choice.

3rd annual Social Justice Curriculum Fair
Date: Saturday, August 17, 2024
Location: Washington, D.C.
Learn more and register.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Teach-Ins With the Smithsonian

In September 2023, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Teaching for Change co-hosted the 7th annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day Curriculum Teach-In for 110 educators in the museum. Held on the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools, this year’s teach-in focused on education sovereignty. Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Chippewa) offered a keynote and participants selected from two rounds of workshops on Indigenous peoples’ history and life today.

We also held an online teach-in in November 2023. A participant noted,

When I come away from a learning opportunity hungry for more, I feel like another door has been opened. The keynote and both workshops have my mind spinning on how I can incorporate these conversations into future possibilities.

Upcoming events

Upcoming events in partnership with the National Museum of the American Indian

Fifth Annual Teach Central America Week

In October 2023, we coordinated the sixth annual Teach Central America Week. Hundreds of educators from 38 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Costa Rica, and El Salvador signed up to participate using free lessons and resources from our Teaching Central America project website TeachingCentralAmerica.org. Organizations across the country endorsed the week and publishers donated books to give to teachers who shared stories.

For example, at Bruce Monroe at Parkview in D.C., there was a school-wide carnival of learning about Central America with every grade showcasing their work. The third graders had studied public monuments and memorials to community and historical figures — with a focus on African American and Central American leaders. They asked the audience for their session: What should be the criteria for awarding a public celebration? Who has a monument? Who deserves a monument?

Seventh Annual D.C. Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Curriculum Fair

Our D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) continued to nurture and grow the ways in which we uplift the 13 guiding principles and national demands of Black Lives Matter at School. In January 2024, we held the seventh annual Black Lives Matter at School Curriculum Fair. Hundreds of people from across the country gathered online to prepare for the Week of Action and Year of Purpose in February 2024.

Participants benefited from welcoming remarks by BLM at School representative Sam Carwyn, keynote speaker Dr. Enid Lee, grade-level gallery walks, and eight interactive curriculum workshops.

Thanks to donations by publishers, curriculum fair participants who completed the evaluation were entered for a chance to win a book for children or young adults and educators who submitted teaching stories during the week of action received a book related to African American history and culture.

Teach the Beat: Bringing Go-Go Music to D.C. Students

More than 2,000 students learned more about the official music of D.C. through our Teach the Beat program. We continued our partnership with the Washington, D.C. NBA G-League basketball team, Capital City Go-Go — coordinating go-go educational programs at their games in February 2024 and March 2024.

We coordinated classroom visits by go-go artists to dozens of classrooms in six schools this year. After one of the visits, Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science PCS teacher Destini Collins shared:

I cannot begin to express how incredible this experience was for the students. It was an incredibly rare, sacred, and artful opportunity for them to make connections beyond our classroom, into the community, into the world. Thank you for how incredibly interactive, engaging, fun, joyful, and intentional this experience was for the students AND everyone in attendance.

Thirteenth Annual Collaboration with Filmfest DC

In April 2024, Teaching for Change partnered with the DC International Film Festival for a thirteenth year to bring filmmakers into D.C. classrooms.

Students in ten D.C. area classrooms learned about filmmaking and social justice issues from viewing the films and participating in discussions with the filmmakers.

Jennifer Myers, 6th grade language arts teacher at School Without Walls at Francis Stevens, shared:

I thought it was very valuable for my students to connect their unit study on immigration experiences to the real-world examples provided in the documentary short The Test. My students were interested to learn about how the citizenship process plays out in the real world, as well as the nuts and bolts of capturing a story in a documentary format.

Teaching for Black Lives Study Groups

In May 2024, our Zinn Education Project hosted an End of Year Celebration for the Teaching for Black Lives Study Groups. Over 110 educators wrapped up the school year with a chance to share, listen, and reflect on the work their study groups achieved. The Teaching for Black Lives campaign will continue to provide teachers with support, resources, and encouragement to teach young people honestly about systemic racism and how to organize for justice. Learn more about the program and apply to host a 2024–2025 study group.

Social Justice Books

Our Social Justice Books website continues to be a destination for teachers, librarians, and parents looking for guidance on book selection all year long.

With book bans continuing to rise, we promoted our list of recommended banned books to shine a light on titles with a social justice theme. We documented a 4th grade classroom that studied and challenged book bans and Scholastics’s opt-out of diversity practice.

In light of the current crisis in the Middle East, we continued to expand and promote our book list on Palestine.

As we do every year, we reviewed new titles and added dozens of titles to our recommended lists.

Fourth Annual Teach Truth Day of Action

In June 2024, our Zinn Education Project coordinated the fourth annual Teach Truth Day of Action. Educators nationwide hosted more than 170 #TeachTruth events to challenge the media silence and encourage everyone to defend the freedom to learn. Children’s future depends on what they learn today.

However, across the country, legislatures have passed laws to criminalize teaching honestly about U.S. history and to restrict students’ ability to ask questions and think critically.  Visit the Zinn Education Project website to learn more about some of the events.