By Vanessa Williams
On Thursday, April 11th, Capital City PCS juniors took over teaching duties and facilitated workshops for their peers via the annual Capital City Youth Justice Summit. More than thirty workshops were presented on a variety of topics, including gun violence, outdoor education, and the climate crisis.

Anti-Bias Early Childhood Working Group Meeting

The meeting kicked off with a welcome and land acknowledgement. For the icebreaker, working group members shared how they have cultivated a sense of respect for and responsibility to the earth in their classrooms and the ways their schools support or undermine environmental justice.

By NaVonda Marshall
My kindergarten class went on an inspiring field trip to the Anacostia Community Museum in Southeast D.C. to experience their exhibit, “To Live and Breathe: Women and Environmental Justice in Washington, D.C.,” which was open from May 19th, 2023 - January 7th, 2024.

The annual Youth Justice Summit at Capital City PCS in Washington, D.C. included six sessions of youth-led workshops on a variety of social justice topics including book banning, the impacts of gentrification, gun violence, disability and policing, and climate justice. 

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and Teaching for Change will host the annual Indigenous People’s Day Teach-In online on Saturday, September 12, 2020. The focus this year is environmental justice, in particular food and climate.

U.S. history high school teacher Jessica Rucker at E.L. Haynes shares a lesson she has used with her students during the pandemic for their asynchronous learning.

Students are leading the charge in combating this climate crisis, with groups like Zero Hour and U.S. Youth Climate Strike standing up for their futures and advocating for changes in climate policy. But what about our youngest learners? How can we encourage young children to become the future leaders in the fight for climate justice?

K-12 teachers are invited to learn about Indigenous knowledge, sustainability practices, and the importance of water. Attend poster or workshop sessions and explore classroom resources from Native Knowledge 360° and the Zinn Education Project’s Teach Climate Justice campaign.

Jerome Foster II opened the Third Annual D.C. Area Climate Justice Summit with a moving speech that encouraged his peers to take a stand and speak up about the importance of climate justice. The summit, organized and run by Youth Climate Summit USA, is completely youth led. This year’s D.C. area event took place on April 24th at the Silver Spring Civic Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. Read more >>

Stapert became inspired to incorporate the curriculum from A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis into Lowell’s academic program.