By Kimberly Ellis

The founding co-coordinator of the D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice People’s History Curriculum Working Group, Caneisha Mills, has been named the 2021 D.C. History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 

This award highlights the significance of history education by honoring exceptional U.S. history teachers from elementary school through high school. 

Mills teaches 8th grade U.S. History and serves as the Social Studies Department Chair at Hardy Middle School in Washington, D.C. 

Mills has created numerous lessons that inspire students to create change in their communities by connecting history to critical analysis of contemporary issues. In 2020, she designed a lesson titled “Who’s to Blame? A People’s Tribunal on the Coronavirus Pandemic” exploring responsibility for the coronavirus crisis in the United States. She wrote an article about the lesson that was published in Rethinking Schools magazine.

Mills has also offered numerous professional development workshops for DCPS, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and DC Area Educators for Social Justice. She has been a dedicated breakout group facilitator in the Zinn Education Project’s online people’s historians series. Learn more about Caneisha Mills and this award on Hardy Middle School’s website.