Mundo Verde Bilingual PCS educators, Ms. Dani and Mr. CJ, started their morning meeting in their first grade classroom with a read aloud of Milo’s Museum. Students gathered around the carpet as Mr. CJ began to read Milo’s story. Several students excitedly raised their hands when Mr. CJ stopped to ask, “Milo is looking at her community and realized she did not see her community in the museum. What do you think she will do?”

LaSalle-Backus Education Campus (DCPS) music teacher Rebekah Cabaltica and twenty-five of her students (all boys) from grades 4-8 participated in an engaging workshop on go-go music facilitated by legendary go-go drummer, JuJu House.

In observance of what would have been Trayvon Martin's 23rd birthday, the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School community wore hooded sweatshirts to school today — a student-initiated proposal. One eighth grade student shared, “It means a whole lot that our school is honoring black lives because I like to fight for justice.” 

In my 12th grade English class at Parkdale High School (PGCPS), students connected their own experiences and heritage with the Proctor and Gamble commercial, "The Talk”. Students also participated in an interview with NBC News4 that highlighted an alumni of Parkdale who was a victim of police brutality.

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. 

My three and four-year-old pre-school students and I read the book One by Katherine Otoshi and discussed what it means to be a bystander and ally as well as addressing restorative justice in the story. The children drew pictures inspired by the book. The text is their words describing what they drew.

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.

Here are stories from DC area classrooms from Day Five of Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools.

Early childhood students and families at The Inspired Teaching Demonstration School began to work on a #BlackLivesMatter mural this morning. Students in Pk through 8th grade will have the opportunity to add their messages throughout the week as part of the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools.

Kenmore Middle School educator, Dr. Tiffany Mitchell, started her class today by asking her students to share what they know about the Black Lives Matter movement. Student responses included, “people marching and saying Black Lives Matter in response to police brutality,” and “football players taking a knee during the national anthem as a form of protest.”

Producers, Dr. Kmt Shockley and Kofi LeNiles, provided an engaging and interactive African centered history workshop for ninth grade students at Friendship Technology Preparatory Academy. At the core of their workshop was the history and culture of a maroon community called Palenque, San Basilio (Palenque). Palenque is located in Colombia, South America and is the focus of their upcoming documentary entitled "For Humanity: Culture, Community and Maroonage."

This week, in my middle school and high school Spanish classes we have engaged in discussion about the Black Lives Matter Movement and also Black people of Latin America in many different ways.  These have been meaningful discussions, and my Spanish 1 class is working on a project that will turn into a Socratic Seminar next week (here's the lesson) and a video news report on their research.

By Jorge Cordoba
At the Free Minds, Free People conference in Baltimore this summer, I stopped by the Teaching for Change table. They graciously donated copies of the book Caribbean Connections: Moving North for my high school ESOL students. This group of students, ranging in age from 14 to 20 years old, attend a large suburban high school in Gambrills, Maryland. They come from many different countries including Thailand, El Salvador, Nigeria… Read more >>

This month, all of the 8th grade social studies teachers at Alice Deal Middle School (DCPS) engaged their students in the popular role play, The People vs. Columbus, et al.  The lesson, written in the form of a trial by Bill Bigelow of Rethinking Schools, is available for free download on the Zinn Education Project website. The lesson is a prime example of how to engage students in learning through role play and debate. Read more >>

The news, the news, the news… it hit us all summer. And like most teachers, even when we are taking our time away from school, we think about how things will work or impact our kids—and in happy ingenious moments, maybe a great lesson plan idea. As my co-teacher and I prepared to meet our third grade class, we thought about how to approach all our wonderful young people at... Read more >>

National History Day projects are a wonderful opportunity for middle and high school students to research and learn about topics and individuals outside the typical textbook. We share here the experiences of D.C. eighth grade middle school teacher Beth Kara. Her students’ completed projects on Queen Liliuokalani, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, Assata Shakur, Muhammad Ali, and many more people of note who stood fought for social justice. Read more >>

Third-grade teacher Andy Grayson wrote to tell us that he was thrilled to share Wilfredo: Un niño de El Salvador/A Boy from El Salvador with his students. He learned about the free downloadable book in a Teaching for Change workshop sponsored by the Alexandria City Public Schools. Here is what Grayson told us about why Wilfredo is so useful: After reading Wilfredo, I observed increased discourse and engagement from a wider range of students. Students whose families have... Read more >>

When fifth grade Spanish literacy teacher Cesarina Pierre realized that her nearly two decades of teaching Caribbean students in New York City Public Schools would not fully translate to teaching Central American students in Washington D.C., she sought resources from Teaching for Change. Pierre asked Teaching for Change, a longtime partner at the school, to help her understand the unique experiences of Central American families. Read more >>

The theme was “Feed Your Brain: Nourish Your Community” and the session topics included: Food Sourcing, Food Policy and Laws, Food Production, Food Waste and Composting, School Lunches, and Food Access.

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.