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Other Stories Mykella Palmer Other Stories Mykella Palmer

Elementary Working Group

D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice has launched a working group for D.C. area elementary (3rd-5th grade) educators. The group meets monthly on weekday afternoons. If you are interested, please apply.

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Stories from the 2021 DC Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action

From February 1-5, 2021, Teaching for Change's D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice hosted the fourth annual D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. This local week of action is part of the National Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Year of Purpose campaign taking place in cities across the U.S. to promote a set of national demands based in the Black Lives Matter guiding principles that focus on improving the school experience for students of color.

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Students Explore Black Lives Matter through Dialogue and Reflection

Students in Sam Chiron’s Introduction to Law class at Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS discussed images and text related to the questions: What is Black Lives Matter? What are the 13 Guiding Principles? The lesson was an introduction to a month-long unit on the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Reflections on the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and the Vital Role ECE Anti Bias Group

By Lila Chafe
On the warm Wednesday evening of March 3, 2021, early childhood educators joined the DCAESJ Anti Bias ECE Working Group’s monthly meeting. As they logged on, participants shared memories from years of collective joy and action, preparing for the departure of the working group’s coordinator, Rosalie Reyes.

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Teaching Stories Mykella Palmer Teaching Stories Mykella Palmer

34th DC International Filmfest: Filmmakers Dialogue with D.C. Students

Teaching for Change was pleased to partner with Filmfest DC in October of 2020 for the ninth year to bring filmmakers to DC classrooms. Through this partnership, students and educators gained access to the 34th Washington, D.C. International Film Festival documentaries to view at home, and ten classes hosted filmmakers, including two films in the Justice Matters series. Here are descriptions of the virtual classroom visits.

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Teaching Stories Mykella Palmer Teaching Stories Mykella Palmer

Teach Central America Week: October 5-11, 2020

Teaching for Change hosted the second annual Teach Central America Week from October 5 – 11, 2020. Hundreds of teachers from 35 states and the District of Columbia signed up to participate and organizations across the country endorsed the week. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to sign up to pledge to Teach Central America and share your stories about how you teach about Central America all year long. Here, we share news about lessons, events, teaching stories, and resources from this year’s Teach Central America Week.

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Langdon ES Fifth Graders Learn About Go-Go

Go-go artist “Sweet” Cherie Mitchell visited Langdon Elementary School in connection with Teaching for Change’s Teach the Beat program. This is the second year that the program has been able to visit Langdon, a partner in Teaching for Change’s Tellin Stories parent engagement project. At the January parent-principal meeting, parents participated in an icebreaker where they were asked to consider: what does go-go music mean to you?

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Learning about the Go-Go Pocket Beat vs Bounce Beat at Moten ES

In “crews” of four to five, students each picked up an instrument from Ju Ju’s percussion section of cowbells and several types of drums. Then as a whole class, with drumsticks in each hand, Ju Ju taught the students to tap out a go-go “pocket beat” and a “bounce beat” that is popular among younger go-go performers and listeners.

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Anacostia HS Drumline Learns About Go-Go

Go-go musician Sweet Cherie, keyboardist and singer for the all-female Bela Dona Band, joined the music class at Anacostia HS as part of the 2020 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. A highlight of the visit was when Sweet Cherie led the room in Junkyard Band’s go-go classic, “Sardines.” One of the drummers joined her in the circle and midway through the song added a bounce beat to the rhythm.

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Connecting to the 13 Principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement in Fifth Grade

I led students in a “See, Think, Wonder” routine of a photo of a Black man drinking out of a water fountain labeled “whites only” and then asked them why do they thought I was wearing this on a day where we would be talking about the Black Lives Matter Movement. Then students broke out into groups to discuss one of the 13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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