2023 Curriculum Fair: Black Lives Matter at School
I walked away feeling inspired to develop a curriculum that flows through the 13 principles throughout the year and grows from grade to grade for elementary art.
I learned to definitely bring more awareness of this throughout the whole year, not just during the month of February!
The resources you provided are incredible and so appreciated. I can’t wait to share them with my colleagues at my preschool and fellow educator friends. Thank you!
For me it was a sense of solidarity. I often feel alone in this work in the community I live in. There are folx from all over the world here!
Sending huge gratitude to you all as D.C. Educators. I am in awe of the work you do and the incredible programs you offer us.
Loved the grounding and opening — a soft entering into space together — locating us each in the why. Appreciation for the design and to the organizers for adjusting digital workshop day to feel humane and possible.
The fair kicked off with a welcome from Teaching for Change associate director Keesha Ceran. She introduced national Black Lives Matter at School representatives N’Kengé Robertson and chanel hurt, who shared the new Black Lives Matter at School curriculum, the Week of Action, and the Year of Purpose. They were followed by Vanessa Williams, program manager for D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) and education anew fellow Kimberly Ellis, who talked about the many Black Lives Matter at School resources and teaching stories at the DCAESJ website, as well as D.C. area plans for the Week of Action. Finally, Ceran introduced a gallery hall of resources for attendees to interact with one another on pre K – 12 resources about Black Lives Matter at School.
Early Childhood Gallery Elementary Gallery Middle School Gallery High School Gallery
Free Books and InService Credit
Thanks to donations by publishers, 50 participants who completed the evaluation received a book for children or young adults related to the Black Lives Matter at School 13 Guiding Principles. Attendees also received a 2.5-hour professional development certificate.
Workshops
Read below for highlights from each workshop, as well as resources shared.
Black Lives Matter in Early Childhood Classrooms: Using Children’s Literature to Spark Conversation From Toddlers to 3rd Grade
Presenter Laleña Garcia provided participants with tips and real life examples of how to discuss topics about race and anti-biased behavior with children and their families. She highlighted the importance of teaching anti-bias work during early childhood due to children’s ability to show the same racial attitudes as adults. Laleña presented participants with a vast list of childhood books that support students’ understandings of the guiding principles of Black Lives Matter at School. She also modeled effective ways to discuss current news topics that students and parents commonly ask about. Participants shared:
I feel better prepared to handle pushback/easing discomfort from grownups. Also, the concept that non-fiction books with photographs of actual children help build humanity was such a great point that I plan to implement immediately!
Lots of great titles and ways to teach the systems of racism in a kid friendly way. I love how she’s so straight forward and clear. Modeling of how she talks to her students. It was so inspiring. I want her to come do some Professional Learning for our teachers, just really modeling these amazing methods and it looks so easy.
Education as an Exercise in Restorative Justice by Black Broad Branch Project
The Black Broad Branch Project presented the importance of centering Black place-making throughout history as an exercise in restorative justice. The understanding of who has historically had access to a particular space often informs how that space is valued, both economically and socially. This historical context offered participants a more-complete understanding of how the city of Washington, D.C. was formed and the importance of sharing the stories of historic Black figures with future generations. Participants discussed and generated a list of practical ways how they can incorporate local community and familial histories to inform the historical narratives being taught in their classrooms. Participants shared:
I loved the idea, from the families and descendants, that telling the truth and telling stories, reconnecting people to our history, is an essential component of reparations. And central to why this education is important.
I mostly walked away feeling inspired to research more about my local lands and the histories tied to these spaces. I also was interested in the three ACE components of reparations because much of my learning around reparations has been tied to compensation alone. Lastly, I was grateful to learn about tangible versus intangible losses.
Critical Race Theory: A Lens to Understand Our Context
In this session, Leah Owens and Brandie Waid briefly reviewed the ten core tenets of critical race theory. They drew connections to how the ten core tenets may impact the education system and provided examples on how educators may take action by analyzing the situation to develop a counternarrative. Leah highlights a quote from an Edweek article, “Scholars who study critical race theory in education look at how policies and practices in K-12 education contribute to persistent racial inequalities in education, and advocate for ways to change them.” Participants then gathered in breakout groups to discuss specific examples from their own schools and/or districts and analyzed those examples through the tenets of critical race theory. Participants shared:
Powerful workshop!!!!! I have gained so much more understanding on how to address CRT in my classroom, curriculum and discussions with my colleagues/admin. I love the resources offered and I plan to join Radical Pedagogy Institute group meetings to continue expanding my knowledge and progressive education/anti-racism education .
The Core Tenets diagram helped me understand what CRT is about, and the example applied to lived experiences were helpful in understanding how to apply them.
How to Identify White Supremacy and Anti-Black Racism in the U.S. History Curriculum
This session helped teachers understand commonly-used tactics of white supremacy and anti-Blackness in the social studies curriculum. Black Americans are both underrepresented and misrepresented, as evidenced in the way that complex social movements are reduced to tales of individual heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. Other narrative tactics are more subversive, and require a close-reading of the curriculum to understand how they work. Teacher participants learned how to use the methods from the study by Drs. Tiffany Mitchell Patterson and Chris Seeger by analyzing their own curriculum frameworks. Mitchell Patterson and Seeger grabbed peoples’ attention with a “Guess Who?” activity that challenged them to guess the most referenced white men, white women, Black men, and Black women in Virginia’s history standards. They then walked through the general ways in which Black people are represented in the language and framing of Virgina’s standards. For example, individual Black people are often lifted up as “messiahs,” or how anti-Black racism exists in silos punctuated throughout U.S. history, at best, instead of as a throughline since its origins and founding. Participants shared:
This was really wonderful. I learned SO much and found it empowering and energizing and really just pretty darn incredible. I can’t wait to read the paper the two facilitators co-wrote and share it with my grad school cohort and professors!
This made me wonder what this work looks like in my state. I’m curious what’s already being done and where we can do more.
I learned to identify the kinds of language and messages that feed white supremacy and anti-black racism in curriculum standards.
During this workshop, Laleña Garcia provided participants with tips for adopting How We Can Live into their curricula. Garcia explained that children are never too young to learn about the Black Lives Matter movement and how they have anchored their work in the 13 guiding principles. Questions on every spread of How We Can Live encourage discussion of and reflection on the principles, and supporting materials include an introduction for children that explains the history of the movement and its relevance for their lives. Participants were encouraged to tap into their childhood imagination and discuss how the world would evolve if everyone adopted the Black Lives Matter principles into their day to day lives. Participants shared that they learned:
The importance of moving kids from looking at trauma to taking action and centering possibility and joy.
How to have open and honest conversations with young students about race, and how to incorporate anti-bias teaching into your classroom all year long.
I learned that it is ok for me as an adult to use my imagination and sit with discomfort. Also learned that it is ok to have discourse with students about the BLM principles, you will be surprised at what they say.
Liberatory, Anti-Racist Education for Black, Queer and Trans Youth; Yes, Even in Mathematics
In this session, Brandie Waid discussed the importance of inspiring more liberatory spaces for Black, queer and trans youth in PK-16 education. Waid introduced NYC’s Ballroom Culture through the lens of scholars Ed Brockenbrough and Shamari Reidan, whose research focuses on building communities of care in classrooms. Participants discussed how NYC’s Ballroom Culture, a community of predominantly Black and Brown queer and trans folx, might serve as a model for educators to understand how to create liberatory spaces. Waid shared concrete examples of how they have infused these lessons in their own classroom — a mathematics classroom — and participants were provided with time to brainstorm other ideas of how to apply these lessons to their own classroom contexts. Participants shared:
I learned how to make a classroom environment more welcoming and using techniques from queer advocacy movements to make a space that invites students to stand in their truth and welcome their growth and exploration of who they are.
This session really challenged me to rethink how I structure mathematics and frame social justice units. It helped me to think about how I can start with student interests as much as possible and teach the math from there. It also helped me think about how I can bring more joy into social justice math!
During this workshop, Jonathan Peraza Campos noted that in eras of increased austerity, poverty and struggle, critical educational approaches and models that emphasize liberation have always emerged as part of intellectual and political movements against the status quo and systems of power. Most importantly, he provided a historical tour of the ways that Black, Latinx, and Indigenous educators in past movements have modeled what education for liberation can look like. Participants gathered in breakout groups to review how they may add to their toolbox of pedagogical and organizing tactics to create a subversive and liberatory education in and outside of the classroom. Participants shared:
There are so many educational models that span across cultures and multi generations in history. Learning about what has been done allows us to disrupt the erasure and return to a liberating way of knowing and doing.
Jonathan really laid the groundwork of presenting the ways in which education, especially for BIPOC folks, has been a means of liberation. By presenting many different lenses he really allowed folks to be able to get a larger picture of what it means across cultures and movements and circumstances that people put their foot on the ground to ensure that their people are taken care of.
Workshop handout with resources recommended by Jonathan Peraza Campos
Stitching Memories: Personal Stories, Activism, & the Gee’s Bend Quilters
Presenter Dena Rapoport introduced the history of the Gee’s Bend Quilters, highlighting the work of artists Missouri Pettway, Mary L. Bennett, and Mary Lee Bendolph. Rapoport reviewed the techniques used by the artists, illustrating how their approach was a way of transforming the traces of hard labor and want into a manner of solace. Participants created their own quilt and were encouraged to draw inspiration from their personal lives. Participants connected that the process of creating their quilts can be a tool for discovering their own personal histories, and learned that using the power of their own memories is a source of strength towards activism. Participants shared:
I learned how memories and owning who we are gives us more autonomy as well as initiatives to connect with others. Also, how art amplifies us.
I loved learning how to connect personal memories through quilts and remembering the communal activities women of the past shared.
Exploring the concept that “personal history can be a form of activism. Thinking about having a strong sense of self, our identity, and where we come from. I’m excited to take this exercise to my own classroom, school, and school district. I would love to do this as an after school community event.
Teaching Wake: The Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts
In this workshop, Peta Lindsay, Charla Johnson, and Cyrus Hampton introduced participants to a curriculum focused on Wake co-created by The Ida B. Wells Education Project and Dr. Rebecca Hall. Lindsay, Johnson, and Hampton led participants through some of the ready-made lessons and resources, including panel analysis and hexagonal thinking, a discussion strategy. Participants shared:
I could adapt these techniques to other graphic narratives. So useful!
It was relevant, detailed and engaging. Amazing work!
Understanding the Anti-CRT Project Through Stories of the McCarthy Era
In this workshop, Ursula Wolfe-Rocca introduced participants to the teaching activity Subversives: Stories from the Red Scare. In this mixer lesson, participants are introduced to 27 different targets of government harassment and repression to analyze why disparate individuals might have become targets of the same campaign, determining what kind of threat they posed in the view of the U.S. government. Participants entered breakout rooms with different people where they learned how, why, and by whom the individual was targeted. Participants then noted similarities, patterns, and connections across the individuals they had learned about. Throughout her workshop, Wolfe-Rocca stressed the importance of James Baldwin’s concept of a “usable past.” Baldwin stated, “To accept one’s past — one’s history — is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.” Wolfe-Rocca invited participants to consider two questions inspired by Baldwin: How is this history useful? How does it clarify and illuminate our current moment? Participants shared:
Just a fantastic activity, and one I plan to replicate in class. This was an excellent way for the audience to determine questions such as who decides official identity, how does power enforce identity, and what happens to those deemed threatening to “official” identity.
It was useful to gain specific individuals and stories who were targeted by the Red Scare and challenge prevailing narratives about how and why it happened.
Whose Story? Teaching Local Lynching History in the English and History Classrooms
In this workshop, Lesley Younge and Caitlin Atkins of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project (MoCoLMP) highlighted their educational strategies for introducing local histories of racial terror lynching in the classroom and facilitated discussion around connections to frequently taught content. After grounding participants in some history about their involvement with MoCoLMP, Atkins and Younge allowed attendees to choose a breakout room to either investigate historic newspaper reports from the Maryland State Archives or analyze contemporary poetry on lynching. Participants considered the impact of poetry and storytelling as tools for racial reconciliation. Participants shared:
I appreciated the lesson plan examples and resources that they shared, as well as the phrasing around teaching about racial terror as local history not as Black history. Loved the example memorials that the students created — very beautiful and moving. It’s something we could do in our classrooms to honor local individuals.
In my social justice class we learn about 15 year old Howard Cooper who was lynched a couple of miles from our school. I use Baltimore Sun articles to teach his story, but really am grateful for the idea of turning those newspaper articles into memorials and remembrances. Reframing the history — who tells the story.
Workshops with ASL interpretation are marked [ASL].
SESSION ONE
Stitching Memories: Personal Stories, Activism, & the Gee’s Bend Quilters
Recommended for all age levels.
This hands-on arts-based workshop invites learners of all levels to step into the world of the Gee’s Bend Quilters. Discover the hand-made quilts from Gee’s Bend and the personal meaning and memories stitched into them. During the second half of the workshop we will engage in a simple art-making activity inspired by the Gee’s Bend Quilts. We will use quilting as a metaphor for discovering our own personal histories. We will view using the power of our own memories as a source of strength towards activism. The workshop encourages participants to consider how pride and power in one’s own life, personal history, and memories can be a source of activism. Participants should join the workshop with the following materials: 5 pieces of paper, Pencil, scissors, glue stick, liquid glue, or tape, newspaper or magazine scraps (optional), coloring materials (crayons, colored pencils, markers, optional)
PRESENTER BIO
Dena Rapoport is a museum educator and coordinator of family programs at the National Gallery of Art. In this capacity, she helps students and families learn together and connect to creativity and to the process of art making. She holds a B.A. in History of Art from The Ohio State University and an M.A. in Art History from The George Washington University where she worked as a teaching assistant. Previously, Dena held positions at The Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of African Art. She previously attended the Harvard Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute and presented at NAEA and WISSIT. Dena enjoys exploring Washington, D.C. by bike, listening to podcasts, and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.
[ASL] Liberatory, Anti-Racist Education for Black, Queer and Trans Youth; Yes, Even in Mathematics
Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School, Adult Education.
In this session, teachers will gain an introductory understanding of what it means to engage in an anti-racist, queer, and trans education through the lens of scholars whose research focuses on the lessons we might learn from NYC’s Ball Culture, a community of predominantly Black and Brown queer and trans folx, in order to inspire more liberatory spaces for Black, queer and trans youth in PK-16 education. These lessons are centered on building communities of care in our classrooms, as well as the abolition of PK-16 education as we know it. The presenter will share concrete examples of how they have infused these lessons in their own classroom — a mathematics classroom — and participants will be provided with time to brainstorm other ideas of how to apply these lessons to their own classroom contexts.
PRESENTER BIO
Brandie E. Waid (they/she or elle/ella) is a queer, disabled, Latinx independent math coach and activist-scholar. She is the founder of The Queer Mathematics Teacher (QMT) and co-founder of Radical Pedagogy Institute (RPI). She obtained her PhD in Mathematics Education from Columbia University and formerly served as an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Drew University. She has also taught middle and high school mathematics in both New York City and Central Florida. Waid’s research and work at QMT and RPI centers on using a queer lens to challenge traditional practices in mathematics teaching. To learn more, visit the QMT website or the RPI website.
[ASL] Liberating Education During the Schooling Crisis
Recommended for Middle School, High School. This workshop centers the teaching of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx educational traditions to highlight the radical and liberatory educators in historical social movements. By expanding participants’ knowledge about these traditions, this workshop aims to add to their toolbox of pedagogical and organizing tactics to create a subversive and liberatory education in and outside of the classroom.
PRESENTER BIO
Jonathan Peraza Campos (he/him/él) is the program specialist for the Teaching Central America project at Teaching for Change. He is also an abolitionist educator and organizer grounded in the Black radical tradition and Central American social movement education. Much of his work aims to build consciousness and power in Latinx, Indigenous, Black and all minoritized communities to exercise our educational liberation through our movement traditions for a world free from oppression.
Understanding the Anti-CRT Project Through Stories of the McCarthy Era
Recommended for Middle School, High School, Adult Education. In the 2020s, educators who teach for Black lives, who affirm the 13 principles and 4 demands of Black Lives Matter at School, are accused of teaching “CRT” and in many states, face curricular gag rules. These attacks are not new. In this workshop, participants will learn about an earlier era in which educators, among others, became targets of government harassment and repression — the Red Scare. Attendees will engage in a mixer activity involving 27 different targets of McCarthyism: men and women, immigrants and native-born, young and old, racially diverse, in government and outside it, affluent, middle class, and poor, Queer and straight. We will analyze what these targets had in common and bring these insights to bear on today’s attacks on racial justice movements.
PRESENTER BIO
Ursula Wolfe-Rocca taught high school social studies for 20 years. She is an organizer and curriculum writer for the Zinn Education Project and is on the editorial board of Rethinking Schools magazine.
Whose Story? Teaching Local Lynching History in the English and History Classrooms
Recommend for High School.
In this workshop, Lesley Younge and Caitlin Atkins of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project (MoCoLMP) will highlight educational strategies for introducing local histories of racial terror lynching in the classroom and will facilitate discussion around connections to frequently taught content. Attendees will participate in a student activity of their choosing: either an investigation of historic newspaper reports from the Maryland State Archives or an analysis of contemporary poetry on lynching. Participants will consider the impact of poetry and storytelling as tools for racial reconciliation.
PRESENTERS’ BIOS
Caitlin Atkins is a high school educator with eight years of independent school teaching experience. She earned her BA from Georgetown University, where she studied political philosophy and comparative religion, and her MA from Fordham University, where she studied book history. Prior to teaching, she coordinated volunteers and events at non-profit organizations including Habitat for Humanity and the Appalachia Service Project. She currently works at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School where she has taught courses on world religions, social justice, service learning and literature. She has led sessions on topics including local lynching history and restorative justice and is an active member of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project’s Education Committee.
Lesley Younge has been a progressive educator in independent schools for 16 years. She earned her MSEd from Bank Street College and is currently a middle school English and Math teacher at Maret School in Washington, DC. Lesley previously taught at Whittle School and Studios, Sidwell Friends School, The Dalton School, Horizons DC, and The Central Park Conservancy.
How We Can Live: An Educator’s Guide to the Book
Recommended for Early Childhood, Lower Elementary.
How We Can Live: Principles of Black Lives Matter is a book that came together out of solidarity and activism. Join the author (the illustrator will be there in spirit) to learn more about how this book came to be and how to use it in your PK-12 classroom.
PRESENTER BIO
Laleña Garcia: (she/her) is a kindergarten teacher living in Brooklyn. A graduate of Yale University (BA, History) and Bank Street College of Education (MS, Early Childhood and Elementary Education), she’s been teaching in NYC since 2000. Laleña also works for the New York State Early Childhood Professional Development Institute as a Gender and Sexuality Trainer, helping early childhood professionals and families to create expansive and supportive understandings of gender, sexuality, relationships, and family structure. A member of the NYC Black Lives Matter at School steering committee since 2018, Laleña also provides professional development for schools and other institutions seeking to deepen their anti racist work. Her online course for adults, Rooted, offers contextual background and concrete strategies for anti bias work in early childhood and elementary settings. Laleña’s first children’s book, What We Believe was published by Lee and Low in 2020. The companion hardcover, How We Can Live, was released to starred reviews in October of 2022.
When she’s not giving young children the tools they need to resolve conflicts and smash binaries, she enjoys reading, surfing, and zooming around Brooklyn on her beloved bicycle (always wearing a helmet!).
[ASL] Education as an Exercise in Restorative Justice by Black Broad Branch Project
Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School, Adult Education.
Historical narratives of spaces and places have material impacts on the ways in which they are experienced by different people. The understanding of who has historically had access to a particular space often informs how that space is valued, both economically and socially. Using the story of two historic Black families in Washington, DC, this presentation reflects on the ways in which racially restrictive covenants and the historic weaponization of public policy have shaped the demographic landscape of the city through present-day. The history depicted in Black Broad Branch offers attendees a more nuanced understanding of the founding of the nation’s capital, which centers Black place-making after the Civil War and into the twentieth century. This historical context offers attendees a more-complete understanding of how the city of Washington was formed and historic Black figures whose stories should be shared with future generations.
PRESENTER BIO
Black Broad Branch Project, a local public history and advocacy project that is working to amplify the history of Black-owned land in the 19th and 20th centuries in Washington, DC.
Critical Race Theory: A Lens to Understand Our Context
Recommended for all age levels.
In recent years we’ve seen a lot of articles, laws, and conversations centered on Critical Race Theory in PK-16. In order to engage in these conversations, teachers need to have a basic understanding of what Critical Race Theory is (and what it is not) and why it is a useful tool in understanding our school contexts. This session will provide teachers with this understanding, as well as provide them with opportunities to discuss specific examples from their own schools and/or districts and analyze those examples through the tenets of Critical Race Theory.
PRESENTERS’ BIOS
Brandie E. Waid: See presenter biography above.
Leah Z. Owens is a writer, teacher educator, and teacher-scholar-activist who works through her consulting firm, Just Writing LLC. She credits the many leadership and teaching positions she has held for the development of her anti-racist worldview as well as her commitment to equity and humanization. Her journey includes serving as a high school English teacher for Newark Public Schools; co-founding the Newark Education Workers Caucus (NEW Caucus), a social justice caucus within the Newark Teachers Union; organizing childcare center workers into a union; and serving as a member of the Newark Board of Education (2016-2019). Leah holds a BA in English from Duke University. From Rutgers-Newark, she earned a Master of Public Administration degree as well as her PhD in Urban Systems. As an activist-scholar, her research interests include critical democratic education, teacher leadership, and ontological inquiry. Leah is an active citizen in several community and political organizations, including the Newark Branch of the NAACP where she serves as chair of the education committee. To learn more about Leah and her work, visit blackwomanteacher.net.
Teaching Wake: the Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts
Recommended for Middle School, High School.
How do we recover voices of revolt that have been silenced by mainstream historical narratives? How do we honor the legacy of heroic Black women in our classes and community? How do we center resistance, agency and collective power when teaching the painful history of slavery? These are monumental questions facing educators who strive to teach for justice and liberation.
Educators from the Ida B. Wells Education Project will share their framework for teaching about slavery, resistance and the long struggle for Black liberation in the Americas and will introduce participants to their curriculum to accompany Dr. Rebecca Hall’s groundbreaking work, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts. This powerful graphic novel tells the story of one African American woman scholar’s search to uncover the hidden legacy of women-led resistance to African slavery. NPR describes this work as a “remarkable blend of passion and fact, action and reflection.” Participants will leave this workshop with resources and strategies for centering empowering narratives of African resistance to slavery in their classrooms, as well as tools for helping students investigate hidden histories of resistance in their own communities and create their own graphic novel narratives of resistance.
PRESENTERS’ BIOS
Peta Lindsay is a secondary educator, a community organizer and a leader in developing and implementing student-centered, culturally responsive and empowering education for diverse youth. She currently teaches history, Ethnic Studies and African American Studies courses in Los Angeles. Lindsay is also the founder and Director of the Ida B. Wells Education Project, a Black-led multicultural collective of classroom educators, dedicated to bringing empowering learning that centers African American history, culture and life to our schools and communities. Lindsay is able to offer both framework and practical tips for empowering diverse students through social science education in the secondary classroom.
Charla Johnson is an educator, writer and activist from the South. After growing up in the Metro-Atlanta area, she attended Spelman College, where she earned a B.A. in English and Secondary Education. Afterwards, she taught high school English Language Arts in Decatur, Georgia for thirteen years. During that time, she worked inside and outside of the classroom to provide high-quality, inclusive, empowering and identity-affirming educational experiences for all students. Her interests lie in instructional technology and design and curriculum development. She earned a M.S. Instructional Design and Technology from Georgia State University. As a writer and activist, Charla has written and published works of fiction and non-fiction in various outlets, as well as used her pen and keyboard in the service of several social justice organizations. Charla currently resides in New Orleans.
Cyrus Hampton is a classroom educator and the assistant director of the First-Year Writing Program at Howard University. He has been working in the classroom since 2006, teaching a range of levels from Pre-K up to college. A proud alum of both the District of Columbia Public School System and the undergraduate program at Howard University, he has seen, firsthand, the value of diverse, representative education curriculums for both marginalized and privileged students. He joined the Ida B. Wells Education Project because he shares in the vision that education is one of the most important routes through which to fight inequality and oppression and that educators have a duty to be non-neutral to systemic injustice.
[ASL] How to Identify White Supremacy and Anti-Black Racism in the U.S. History Curriculum
Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School.
This session will help teachers to understand commonly-used tactics of white supremacy and anti-blackness in the social studies curriculum. Black Americans are both underrepresented and misrepresented, as evidenced in the way that complex social movements are reduced to tales of individual heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. Other narrative tactics are more subversive, and require a close-reading of the curriculum to understand how they work. Teacher participants will learn how to use the methods from our study by analyzing their own curriculum frameworks.
PRESENTERS’ BIOS
Chris Seeger is a social studies teacher, researcher and curriculum designer. His research explores themes of white supremacy and anti-blackness in the U.S. history curriculum. He also creates curriculum resources that emphasize critical historical inquiry and diverse perspectives. He is the creator of historydilemmas.com.
Tiffany Mitchell Patterson is a manager of social studies at District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Her research interests include racial and social justice in education, education activism, critical civic education, teaching Black and underrepresented narratives in social studies education. Advocacy, activism, intersectionality, anti-racist and anti-oppressive education lie at the core of her work. Education is her revolution.
Black Lives Matter in Early Childhood Classrooms: Using Children’s Literature to Spark Conversation From Toddlers to 3rd Grade
Recommended for Early Childhood.
It’s never too early to start talking to children about race and anti-biased behavior. Remember, early childhood covers the ages birth through eight! Join an experienced early childhood teacher and hear more about ways to use books to support students’ understandings of the Principles of Black Lives Matter at School.
2023 Curriculum Fair: Black Lives Matter at School
I walked away feeling inspired to develop a curriculum that flows through the 13 principles throughout the year and grows from grade to grade for elementary art.
I learned to definitely bring more awareness of this throughout the whole year, not just during the month of February!
The resources you provided are incredible and so appreciated. I can’t wait to share them with my colleagues at my preschool and fellow educator friends. Thank you!
For me it was a sense of solidarity. I often feel alone in this work in the community I live in. There are folx from all over the world here!
Sending huge gratitude to you all as D.C. Educators. I am in awe of the work you do and the incredible programs you offer us.
Loved the grounding and opening — a soft entering into space together — locating us each in the why. Appreciation for the design and to the organizers for adjusting digital workshop day to feel humane and possible.
On Saturday, January 21, hundreds of educators gathered virtually to connect, collaborate, and prepare for the 2023 National Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action (February 6–10) and Year of Purpose.
The fair kicked off with a welcome from Teaching for Change associate director Keesha Ceran. She introduced national Black Lives Matter at School representatives N’Kengé Robertson and chanel hurt, who shared the new Black Lives Matter at School curriculum, the Week of Action, and the Year of Purpose. They were followed by Vanessa Williams, program manager for D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) and education anew fellow Kimberly Ellis, who talked about the many Black Lives Matter at School resources and teaching stories at the DCAESJ website, as well as D.C. area plans for the Week of Action. Finally, Ceran introduced a gallery hall of resources for attendees to interact with one another on pre K – 12 resources about Black Lives Matter at School.
Early Childhood Gallery Elementary Gallery Middle School Gallery High School Gallery
Free Books and InService Credit
Workshops
Read below for highlights from each workshop, as well as resources shared.
Workshops
Black Lives Matter in Early Childhood Classrooms: Using Children’s Literature to Spark Conversation From Toddlers to 3rd Grade
Presenter Laleña Garcia provided participants with tips and real life examples of how to discuss topics about race and anti-biased behavior with children and their families. She highlighted the importance of teaching anti-bias work during early childhood due to children’s ability to show the same racial attitudes as adults. Laleña presented participants with a vast list of childhood books that support students’ understandings of the guiding principles of Black Lives Matter at School. She also modeled effective ways to discuss current news topics that students and parents commonly ask about. Participants shared:
I feel better prepared to handle pushback/easing discomfort from grownups. Also, the concept that non-fiction books with photographs of actual children help build humanity was such a great point that I plan to implement immediately!
Lots of great titles and ways to teach the systems of racism in a kid friendly way. I love how she’s so straight forward and clear. Modeling of how she talks to her students. It was so inspiring. I want her to come do some Professional Learning for our teachers, just really modeling these amazing methods and it looks so easy.
Resources
Education as an Exercise in Restorative Justice by Black Broad Branch Project
The Black Broad Branch Project presented the importance of centering Black place-making throughout history as an exercise in restorative justice. The understanding of who has historically had access to a particular space often informs how that space is valued, both economically and socially. This historical context offered participants a more-complete understanding of how the city of Washington, D.C. was formed and the importance of sharing the stories of historic Black figures with future generations. Participants discussed and generated a list of practical ways how they can incorporate local community and familial histories to inform the historical narratives being taught in their classrooms. Participants shared:
I loved the idea, from the families and descendants, that telling the truth and telling stories, reconnecting people to our history, is an essential component of reparations. And central to why this education is important.
I mostly walked away feeling inspired to research more about my local lands and the histories tied to these spaces. I also was interested in the three ACE components of reparations because much of my learning around reparations has been tied to compensation alone. Lastly, I was grateful to learn about tangible versus intangible losses.
Resources
Critical Race Theory: A Lens to Understand Our Context
In this session, Leah Owens and Brandie Waid briefly reviewed the ten core tenets of critical race theory. They drew connections to how the ten core tenets may impact the education system and provided examples on how educators may take action by analyzing the situation to develop a counternarrative. Leah highlights a quote from an Edweek article, “Scholars who study critical race theory in education look at how policies and practices in K-12 education contribute to persistent racial inequalities in education, and advocate for ways to change them.” Participants then gathered in breakout groups to discuss specific examples from their own schools and/or districts and analyzed those examples through the tenets of critical race theory. Participants shared:
Powerful workshop!!!!! I have gained so much more understanding on how to address CRT in my classroom, curriculum and discussions with my colleagues/admin. I love the resources offered and I plan to join Radical Pedagogy Institute group meetings to continue expanding my knowledge and progressive education/anti-racism education .
The Core Tenets diagram helped me understand what CRT is about, and the example applied to lived experiences were helpful in understanding how to apply them.
Resources
How to Identify White Supremacy and Anti-Black Racism in the U.S. History Curriculum
This session helped teachers understand commonly-used tactics of white supremacy and anti-Blackness in the social studies curriculum. Black Americans are both underrepresented and misrepresented, as evidenced in the way that complex social movements are reduced to tales of individual heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. Other narrative tactics are more subversive, and require a close-reading of the curriculum to understand how they work. Teacher participants learned how to use the methods from the study by Drs. Tiffany Mitchell Patterson and Chris Seeger by analyzing their own curriculum frameworks. Mitchell Patterson and Seeger grabbed peoples’ attention with a “Guess Who?” activity that challenged them to guess the most referenced white men, white women, Black men, and Black women in Virginia’s history standards. They then walked through the general ways in which Black people are represented in the language and framing of Virgina’s standards. For example, individual Black people are often lifted up as “messiahs,” or how anti-Black racism exists in silos punctuated throughout U.S. history, at best, instead of as a throughline since its origins and founding. Participants shared:
This was really wonderful. I learned SO much and found it empowering and energizing and really just pretty darn incredible. I can’t wait to read the paper the two facilitators co-wrote and share it with my grad school cohort and professors!
This made me wonder what this work looks like in my state. I’m curious what’s already being done and where we can do more.
I learned to identify the kinds of language and messages that feed white supremacy and anti-black racism in curriculum standards.
Resources
How We Can Live: An Educator’s Guide to the Book
During this workshop, Laleña Garcia provided participants with tips for adopting How We Can Live into their curricula. Garcia explained that children are never too young to learn about the Black Lives Matter movement and how they have anchored their work in the 13 guiding principles. Questions on every spread of How We Can Live encourage discussion of and reflection on the principles, and supporting materials include an introduction for children that explains the history of the movement and its relevance for their lives. Participants were encouraged to tap into their childhood imagination and discuss how the world would evolve if everyone adopted the Black Lives Matter principles into their day to day lives. Participants shared that they learned:
The importance of moving kids from looking at trauma to taking action and centering possibility and joy.
How to have open and honest conversations with young students about race, and how to incorporate anti-bias teaching into your classroom all year long.
I learned that it is ok for me as an adult to use my imagination and sit with discomfort. Also learned that it is ok to have discourse with students about the BLM principles, you will be surprised at what they say.
Resources
Liberatory, Anti-Racist Education for Black, Queer and Trans Youth; Yes, Even in Mathematics
In this session, Brandie Waid discussed the importance of inspiring more liberatory spaces for Black, queer and trans youth in PK-16 education. Waid introduced NYC’s Ballroom Culture through the lens of scholars Ed Brockenbrough and Shamari Reidan, whose research focuses on building communities of care in classrooms. Participants discussed how NYC’s Ballroom Culture, a community of predominantly Black and Brown queer and trans folx, might serve as a model for educators to understand how to create liberatory spaces. Waid shared concrete examples of how they have infused these lessons in their own classroom — a mathematics classroom — and participants were provided with time to brainstorm other ideas of how to apply these lessons to their own classroom contexts. Participants shared:
I learned how to make a classroom environment more welcoming and using techniques from queer advocacy movements to make a space that invites students to stand in their truth and welcome their growth and exploration of who they are.
This session really challenged me to rethink how I structure mathematics and frame social justice units. It helped me to think about how I can start with student interests as much as possible and teach the math from there. It also helped me think about how I can bring more joy into social justice math!
Resources
Liberating Education During the Schooling Crisis
During this workshop, Jonathan Peraza Campos noted that in eras of increased austerity, poverty and struggle, critical educational approaches and models that emphasize liberation have always emerged as part of intellectual and political movements against the status quo and systems of power. Most importantly, he provided a historical tour of the ways that Black, Latinx, and Indigenous educators in past movements have modeled what education for liberation can look like. Participants gathered in breakout groups to review how they may add to their toolbox of pedagogical and organizing tactics to create a subversive and liberatory education in and outside of the classroom. Participants shared:
There are so many educational models that span across cultures and multi generations in history. Learning about what has been done allows us to disrupt the erasure and return to a liberating way of knowing and doing.
Jonathan really laid the groundwork of presenting the ways in which education, especially for BIPOC folks, has been a means of liberation. By presenting many different lenses he really allowed folks to be able to get a larger picture of what it means across cultures and movements and circumstances that people put their foot on the ground to ensure that their people are taken care of.
Resources
Stitching Memories: Personal Stories, Activism, & the Gee’s Bend Quilters
Presenter Dena Rapoport introduced the history of the Gee’s Bend Quilters, highlighting the work of artists Missouri Pettway, Mary L. Bennett, and Mary Lee Bendolph. Rapoport reviewed the techniques used by the artists, illustrating how their approach was a way of transforming the traces of hard labor and want into a manner of solace. Participants created their own quilt and were encouraged to draw inspiration from their personal lives. Participants connected that the process of creating their quilts can be a tool for discovering their own personal histories, and learned that using the power of their own memories is a source of strength towards activism. Participants shared:
I learned how memories and owning who we are gives us more autonomy as well as initiatives to connect with others. Also, how art amplifies us.
I loved learning how to connect personal memories through quilts and remembering the communal activities women of the past shared.
Exploring the concept that “personal history can be a form of activism. Thinking about having a strong sense of self, our identity, and where we come from. I’m excited to take this exercise to my own classroom, school, and school district. I would love to do this as an after school community event.
Resources
Teaching Wake: The Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts
In this workshop, Peta Lindsay, Charla Johnson, and Cyrus Hampton introduced participants to a curriculum focused on Wake co-created by The Ida B. Wells Education Project and Dr. Rebecca Hall. Lindsay, Johnson, and Hampton led participants through some of the ready-made lessons and resources, including panel analysis and hexagonal thinking, a discussion strategy. Participants shared:
I could adapt these techniques to other graphic narratives. So useful!
It was relevant, detailed and engaging. Amazing work!
Resources
Understanding the Anti-CRT Project Through Stories of the McCarthy Era
In this workshop, Ursula Wolfe-Rocca introduced participants to the teaching activity Subversives: Stories from the Red Scare. In this mixer lesson, participants are introduced to 27 different targets of government harassment and repression to analyze why disparate individuals might have become targets of the same campaign, determining what kind of threat they posed in the view of the U.S. government. Participants entered breakout rooms with different people where they learned how, why, and by whom the individual was targeted. Participants then noted similarities, patterns, and connections across the individuals they had learned about. Throughout her workshop, Wolfe-Rocca stressed the importance of James Baldwin’s concept of a “usable past.” Baldwin stated, “To accept one’s past — one’s history — is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.” Wolfe-Rocca invited participants to consider two questions inspired by Baldwin: How is this history useful? How does it clarify and illuminate our current moment? Participants shared:
Just a fantastic activity, and one I plan to replicate in class. This was an excellent way for the audience to determine questions such as who decides official identity, how does power enforce identity, and what happens to those deemed threatening to “official” identity.
It was useful to gain specific individuals and stories who were targeted by the Red Scare and challenge prevailing narratives about how and why it happened.
Resources
Whose Story? Teaching Local Lynching History in the English and History Classrooms
In this workshop, Lesley Younge and Caitlin Atkins of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project (MoCoLMP) highlighted their educational strategies for introducing local histories of racial terror lynching in the classroom and facilitated discussion around connections to frequently taught content. After grounding participants in some history about their involvement with MoCoLMP, Atkins and Younge allowed attendees to choose a breakout room to either investigate historic newspaper reports from the Maryland State Archives or analyze contemporary poetry on lynching. Participants considered the impact of poetry and storytelling as tools for racial reconciliation. Participants shared:
I appreciated the lesson plan examples and resources that they shared, as well as the phrasing around teaching about racial terror as local history not as Black history. Loved the example memorials that the students created — very beautiful and moving. It’s something we could do in our classrooms to honor local individuals.
In my social justice class we learn about 15 year old Howard Cooper who was lynched a couple of miles from our school. I use Baltimore Sun articles to teach his story, but really am grateful for the idea of turning those newspaper articles into memorials and remembrances. Reframing the history — who tells the story.
Resources
Workshop Descriptions
Workshops with ASL interpretation are marked [ASL].
SESSION ONE
Stitching Memories: Personal Stories, Activism, & the Gee’s Bend Quilters
Recommended for all age levels.
This hands-on arts-based workshop invites learners of all levels to step into the world of the Gee’s Bend Quilters. Discover the hand-made quilts from Gee’s Bend and the personal meaning and memories stitched into them. During the second half of the workshop we will engage in a simple art-making activity inspired by the Gee’s Bend Quilts. We will use quilting as a metaphor for discovering our own personal histories. We will view using the power of our own memories as a source of strength towards activism. The workshop encourages participants to consider how pride and power in one’s own life, personal history, and memories can be a source of activism. Participants should join the workshop with the following materials: 5 pieces of paper, Pencil, scissors, glue stick, liquid glue, or tape, newspaper or magazine scraps (optional), coloring materials (crayons, colored pencils, markers, optional)
PRESENTER BIO
Dena Rapoport is a museum educator and coordinator of family programs at the National Gallery of Art. In this capacity, she helps students and families learn together and connect to creativity and to the process of art making. She holds a B.A. in History of Art from The Ohio State University and an M.A. in Art History from The George Washington University where she worked as a teaching assistant. Previously, Dena held positions at The Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of African Art. She previously attended the Harvard Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute and presented at NAEA and WISSIT. Dena enjoys exploring Washington, D.C. by bike, listening to podcasts, and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.
[ASL] Liberatory, Anti-Racist Education for Black, Queer and Trans Youth; Yes, Even in Mathematics
Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School, Adult Education.
In this session, teachers will gain an introductory understanding of what it means to engage in an anti-racist, queer, and trans education through the lens of scholars whose research focuses on the lessons we might learn from NYC’s Ball Culture, a community of predominantly Black and Brown queer and trans folx, in order to inspire more liberatory spaces for Black, queer and trans youth in PK-16 education. These lessons are centered on building communities of care in our classrooms, as well as the abolition of PK-16 education as we know it. The presenter will share concrete examples of how they have infused these lessons in their own classroom — a mathematics classroom — and participants will be provided with time to brainstorm other ideas of how to apply these lessons to their own classroom contexts.
PRESENTER BIO
Brandie E. Waid (they/she or elle/ella) is a queer, disabled, Latinx independent math coach and activist-scholar. She is the founder of The Queer Mathematics Teacher (QMT) and co-founder of Radical Pedagogy Institute (RPI). She obtained her PhD in Mathematics Education from Columbia University and formerly served as an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Drew University. She has also taught middle and high school mathematics in both New York City and Central Florida. Waid’s research and work at QMT and RPI centers on using a queer lens to challenge traditional practices in mathematics teaching. To learn more, visit the QMT website or the RPI website.
[ASL] Liberating Education During the Schooling Crisis
Recommended for Middle School, High School.
This workshop centers the teaching of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx educational traditions to highlight the radical and liberatory educators in historical social movements. By expanding participants’ knowledge about these traditions, this workshop aims to add to their toolbox of pedagogical and organizing tactics to create a subversive and liberatory education in and outside of the classroom.
PRESENTER BIO
Jonathan Peraza Campos (he/him/él) is the program specialist for the Teaching Central America project at Teaching for Change. He is also an abolitionist educator and organizer grounded in the Black radical tradition and Central American social movement education. Much of his work aims to build consciousness and power in Latinx, Indigenous, Black and all minoritized communities to exercise our educational liberation through our movement traditions for a world free from oppression.
Understanding the Anti-CRT Project Through Stories of the McCarthy Era
Recommended for Middle School, High School, Adult Education.
In the 2020s, educators who teach for Black lives, who affirm the 13 principles and 4 demands of Black Lives Matter at School, are accused of teaching “CRT” and in many states, face curricular gag rules. These attacks are not new. In this workshop, participants will learn about an earlier era in which educators, among others, became targets of government harassment and repression — the Red Scare. Attendees will engage in a mixer activity involving 27 different targets of McCarthyism: men and women, immigrants and native-born, young and old, racially diverse, in government and outside it, affluent, middle class, and poor, Queer and straight. We will analyze what these targets had in common and bring these insights to bear on today’s attacks on racial justice movements.
PRESENTER BIO
Ursula Wolfe-Rocca taught high school social studies for 20 years. She is an organizer and curriculum writer for the Zinn Education Project and is on the editorial board of Rethinking Schools magazine.
Whose Story? Teaching Local Lynching History in the English and History Classrooms
Recommend for High School.
In this workshop, Lesley Younge and Caitlin Atkins of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project (MoCoLMP) will highlight educational strategies for introducing local histories of racial terror lynching in the classroom and will facilitate discussion around connections to frequently taught content. Attendees will participate in a student activity of their choosing: either an investigation of historic newspaper reports from the Maryland State Archives or an analysis of contemporary poetry on lynching. Participants will consider the impact of poetry and storytelling as tools for racial reconciliation.
PRESENTERS’ BIOS
Caitlin Atkins is a high school educator with eight years of independent school teaching experience. She earned her BA from Georgetown University, where she studied political philosophy and comparative religion, and her MA from Fordham University, where she studied book history. Prior to teaching, she coordinated volunteers and events at non-profit organizations including Habitat for Humanity and the Appalachia Service Project. She currently works at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School where she has taught courses on world religions, social justice, service learning and literature. She has led sessions on topics including local lynching history and restorative justice and is an active member of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project’s Education Committee.
Lesley Younge has been a progressive educator in independent schools for 16 years. She earned her MSEd from Bank Street College and is currently a middle school English and Math teacher at Maret School in Washington, DC. Lesley previously taught at Whittle School and Studios, Sidwell Friends School, The Dalton School, Horizons DC, and The Central Park Conservancy.
How We Can Live: An Educator’s Guide to the Book
Recommended for Early Childhood, Lower Elementary.
How We Can Live: Principles of Black Lives Matter is a book that came together out of solidarity and activism. Join the author (the illustrator will be there in spirit) to learn more about how this book came to be and how to use it in your PK-12 classroom.
PRESENTER BIO
Laleña Garcia: (she/her) is a kindergarten teacher living in Brooklyn. A graduate of Yale University (BA, History) and Bank Street College of Education (MS, Early Childhood and Elementary Education), she’s been teaching in NYC since 2000. Laleña also works for the New York State Early Childhood Professional Development Institute as a Gender and Sexuality Trainer, helping early childhood professionals and families to create expansive and supportive understandings of gender, sexuality, relationships, and family structure. A member of the NYC Black Lives Matter at School steering committee since 2018, Laleña also provides professional development for schools and other institutions seeking to deepen their anti racist work. Her online course for adults, Rooted, offers contextual background and concrete strategies for anti bias work in early childhood and elementary settings. Laleña’s first children’s book, What We Believe was published by Lee and Low in 2020. The companion hardcover, How We Can Live, was released to starred reviews in October of 2022.
When she’s not giving young children the tools they need to resolve conflicts and smash binaries, she enjoys reading, surfing, and zooming around Brooklyn on her beloved bicycle (always wearing a helmet!).
[ASL] Education as an Exercise in Restorative Justice by Black Broad Branch Project
Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School, Adult Education.
Historical narratives of spaces and places have material impacts on the ways in which they are experienced by different people. The understanding of who has historically had access to a particular space often informs how that space is valued, both economically and socially. Using the story of two historic Black families in Washington, DC, this presentation reflects on the ways in which racially restrictive covenants and the historic weaponization of public policy have shaped the demographic landscape of the city through present-day. The history depicted in Black Broad Branch offers attendees a more nuanced understanding of the founding of the nation’s capital, which centers Black place-making after the Civil War and into the twentieth century. This historical context offers attendees a more-complete understanding of how the city of Washington was formed and historic Black figures whose stories should be shared with future generations.
PRESENTER BIO
Black Broad Branch Project, a local public history and advocacy project that is working to amplify the history of Black-owned land in the 19th and 20th centuries in Washington, DC.
Critical Race Theory: A Lens to Understand Our Context
Recommended for all age levels.
In recent years we’ve seen a lot of articles, laws, and conversations centered on Critical Race Theory in PK-16. In order to engage in these conversations, teachers need to have a basic understanding of what Critical Race Theory is (and what it is not) and why it is a useful tool in understanding our school contexts. This session will provide teachers with this understanding, as well as provide them with opportunities to discuss specific examples from their own schools and/or districts and analyze those examples through the tenets of Critical Race Theory.
PRESENTERS’ BIOS
Brandie E. Waid: See presenter biography above.
Leah Z. Owens is a writer, teacher educator, and teacher-scholar-activist who works through her consulting firm, Just Writing LLC. She credits the many leadership and teaching positions she has held for the development of her anti-racist worldview as well as her commitment to equity and humanization. Her journey includes serving as a high school English teacher for Newark Public Schools; co-founding the Newark Education Workers Caucus (NEW Caucus), a social justice caucus within the Newark Teachers Union; organizing childcare center workers into a union; and serving as a member of the Newark Board of Education (2016-2019). Leah holds a BA in English from Duke University. From Rutgers-Newark, she earned a Master of Public Administration degree as well as her PhD in Urban Systems. As an activist-scholar, her research interests include critical democratic education, teacher leadership, and ontological inquiry. Leah is an active citizen in several community and political organizations, including the Newark Branch of the NAACP where she serves as chair of the education committee. To learn more about Leah and her work, visit blackwomanteacher.net.
Teaching Wake: the Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts
Recommended for Middle School, High School.
How do we recover voices of revolt that have been silenced by mainstream historical narratives? How do we honor the legacy of heroic Black women in our classes and community? How do we center resistance, agency and collective power when teaching the painful history of slavery? These are monumental questions facing educators who strive to teach for justice and liberation.
Educators from the Ida B. Wells Education Project will share their framework for teaching about slavery, resistance and the long struggle for Black liberation in the Americas and will introduce participants to their curriculum to accompany Dr. Rebecca Hall’s groundbreaking work, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts. This powerful graphic novel tells the story of one African American woman scholar’s search to uncover the hidden legacy of women-led resistance to African slavery. NPR describes this work as a “remarkable blend of passion and fact, action and reflection.” Participants will leave this workshop with resources and strategies for centering empowering narratives of African resistance to slavery in their classrooms, as well as tools for helping students investigate hidden histories of resistance in their own communities and create their own graphic novel narratives of resistance.
PRESENTERS’ BIOS
Peta Lindsay is a secondary educator, a community organizer and a leader in developing and implementing student-centered, culturally responsive and empowering education for diverse youth. She currently teaches history, Ethnic Studies and African American Studies courses in Los Angeles. Lindsay is also the founder and Director of the Ida B. Wells Education Project, a Black-led multicultural collective of classroom educators, dedicated to bringing empowering learning that centers African American history, culture and life to our schools and communities. Lindsay is able to offer both framework and practical tips for empowering diverse students through social science education in the secondary classroom.
Charla Johnson is an educator, writer and activist from the South. After growing up in the Metro-Atlanta area, she attended Spelman College, where she earned a B.A. in English and Secondary Education. Afterwards, she taught high school English Language Arts in Decatur, Georgia for thirteen years. During that time, she worked inside and outside of the classroom to provide high-quality, inclusive, empowering and identity-affirming educational experiences for all students. Her interests lie in instructional technology and design and curriculum development. She earned a M.S. Instructional Design and Technology from Georgia State University. As a writer and activist, Charla has written and published works of fiction and non-fiction in various outlets, as well as used her pen and keyboard in the service of several social justice organizations. Charla currently resides in New Orleans.
Cyrus Hampton is a classroom educator and the assistant director of the First-Year Writing Program at Howard University. He has been working in the classroom since 2006, teaching a range of levels from Pre-K up to college. A proud alum of both the District of Columbia Public School System and the undergraduate program at Howard University, he has seen, firsthand, the value of diverse, representative education curriculums for both marginalized and privileged students. He joined the Ida B. Wells Education Project because he shares in the vision that education is one of the most important routes through which to fight inequality and oppression and that educators have a duty to be non-neutral to systemic injustice.
[ASL] How to Identify White Supremacy and Anti-Black Racism in the U.S. History Curriculum
Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School.
This session will help teachers to understand commonly-used tactics of white supremacy and anti-blackness in the social studies curriculum. Black Americans are both underrepresented and misrepresented, as evidenced in the way that complex social movements are reduced to tales of individual heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. Other narrative tactics are more subversive, and require a close-reading of the curriculum to understand how they work. Teacher participants will learn how to use the methods from our study by analyzing their own curriculum frameworks.
PRESENTERS’ BIOS
Chris Seeger is a social studies teacher, researcher and curriculum designer. His research explores themes of white supremacy and anti-blackness in the U.S. history curriculum. He also creates curriculum resources that emphasize critical historical inquiry and diverse perspectives. He is the creator of historydilemmas.com.
Tiffany Mitchell Patterson is a manager of social studies at District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Her research interests include racial and social justice in education, education activism, critical civic education, teaching Black and underrepresented narratives in social studies education. Advocacy, activism, intersectionality, anti-racist and anti-oppressive education lie at the core of her work. Education is her revolution.
Black Lives Matter in Early Childhood Classrooms: Using Children’s Literature to Spark Conversation From Toddlers to 3rd Grade
Recommended for Early Childhood.
It’s never too early to start talking to children about race and anti-biased behavior. Remember, early childhood covers the ages birth through eight! Join an experienced early childhood teacher and hear more about ways to use books to support students’ understandings of the Principles of Black Lives Matter at School.
PRESENTER BIO
Laleña Garcia See presenter’s bio above.
Posted: February 2, 2023