Athena Kopsidas, art teacher at Seaton ES (DCPS), led students through projects that incorporated books and art during the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.

As part of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action at Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS, 4th graders studied the importance of representation in books and the book bans that have been escalating throughout the country since 2021.

Using the Black Lives Matter guiding principles and the book Don't Touch My Hair to discuss consent with young children.

In Spanish 1 at Thurgood Marshall Academy, students learned about several Afrolatinos during the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.

Students at Mundo Verde explored representation and marginalization in history with their fourth-grade teacher, Dani McCormick.

Now that February is ending (how is it already March?!), we are looking back to the beginning of the month when we participated in the nationwide Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.  When talking about something like Black Lives Matter with third graders, we work hard to make sure that the points of entry and examples are tangible, accessible, and developmentally appropriate.

In my fifth grade classroom at Rockview Elementary School (MCPS), we spent the majority of the reading block during the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools reading and analyzing poems by Langston Hughes.

Educator Trisha Boyd, at KIPP DC Lead Academy, conducted a read aloud on accepting differences to the entire second grade.

For the DC Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools, Inspired Teaching Fellow Brittney Henderson (‘13) and her kindergarten students at West Education Campus (DCPS) read One by Kathryn Otoshi, a book that addresses the importance of inclusion in a diverse community. Afterwards, the class discussed why everyone must be kind to each other even when people aren’t kind to them, and created posters to demonstrate how to be kind.

Students in a fifth-grade DCPS classroom at Langley Elementary School explored the Black Lives Matter guiding principles of Restorative Justice, Empathy and Loving Engagement. The teacher invited the students to explore the meaning of difference, diversity, and community. 

One of the thirteen principles of the #BLM movement is Black Villages. The Inspired Teaching Demonstration School hosted "Voices of our Village," an event during which families, teachers, and school leaders had honest conversations about diversity and equity. They looked at student work, discussed implications of taking this on, and brainstormed next steps to keep this energy in their school.