Prior to my son being born, I always saw the world differently. Prior to my son being born, I always recognized inequalities that existed.  Prior to my son being born, I never felt compelled to speak out.

Teaching for Change has opened up a new world for me. As the ESOL Department Chair at Buck Lodge Middle School in PG County, I am always trying to find ways to advocate for my students who mostly come from Central America. The Introduction to Central America lesson has allowed me to show our teachers how they can make better connections with our students.

On September 2, 2018, Greg Carr gave a talk on Reconstruction as part of the Busboys and Poets A.C.T.O.R. series. The talk was co-hosted by Teaching for Change and the Zinn Education Project. Read more >>

Every seat was full for the Indigenous People's Curriculum Day and Teach-In on September 8, 2018 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Read more >>

In this new school year, we express our profound appreciation to Faye Colon for her work with Teaching for Change where she was the founding coordinator for the D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice. We also welcome new staff members Rosalie Reyes and Rachel Mehl. Read more >>

Amy Trenkle, a DCPS middle school teacher, piloted the Zinn Education Project's Make Reconstruction History Visible project with her students. Read more>>

The Algebra Project and the Washington Teachers’ Union have launched a citywide math literacy campaign. The We the People Alliance for Math Literacy is a grassroots effort to introduce revolutionary methods for teaching math literacy that have been proven to make math accessible to students. Read more >>

On our one year anniversary, we share highlights from our accomplishments. Read more >>

This course is for D.C. area teachers who are eager to write about their own classrooms through a social justice lens. Read more >>

On Saturday, June 2nd at the beautiful Halcyon Arts Lab fifteen early childhood educators gathered to discuss gender, bias, and stereotypes in children’s literature. The session began with a community building activity through storytelling. Read more >>

Kevin Fox, an 11th-grade social studies educator at Cardozo Education Complex (DCPS), is teaching his students to analyze Cold War conflicts in Central America through an exploration of poetry and history. A lesson titled, Poetry Fires the Revolution, which is available for free download at TeachingCentralAmerica.org inspired Fox to teach this topic to his students. Read more >>

On Saturday, May 19th at the beautiful Halcyon Arts Lab, forty D.C. area educators met to discuss how to address issues of race, representation, and history in developmentally appropriate ways. Read more >>

In their U.S. history class, 8th-grade students at Alice Deal Middle School (DC Public Schools) examined the historical significance of the Fourth of July through the lens of race. Read more >>

Twenty educators from D.C. area schools gathered at the Anacostia Community Museum on April 27th for a curator tour and workshop on their new exhibit A Right to the City. Following the tour, led by Samir Meghelli, Teaching for Change staff Faye Colon and Deborah Menkart led educators through several activities they could use with their students in preparation for a visit to the museum. Read more >>

More than 70 Alexandria City Public School (ACPS) administrators gathered at the Lee Community & Senior Center on April 24 for a workshop on culturally relevant curriculum facilitated by Teaching for Change staff Faye Colon and Deborah Menkart. Read more >>

U.S. history came alive inside Room B219 at Theodore Roosevelt High School (DCPS) with a lesson about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) through role-playing and actively engaging in decision-making. Read more >>

On April 24, close to 100 D.C. area educators filled the Blackburn Center at Howard University for a teach-in on the hidden history and relevance today of Reconstruction. The event was hosted by the Howard University School of Education, Teaching for Change’s D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice, and the Zinn Education Project as part of the Zinn Education Project campaign to teach Reconstruction. Read more >>

Teaching for Change partnered with Filmfest DC: The Washington, DC International Film Festival for a seventh year to spread the word about the international film festival and to bring filmmakers into D.C. classrooms. Filmmakers from Queens in Training, Puerto Rico: Citizens in Peril, and The Foreigners' Home visited four classrooms. Students learned a lot from viewing the documentaries, preparing questions, and interacting with the filmmakers. Read more >>

At Claremont Immersion Elementary (Arlington Public Schools), fifth grade teacher Wendy Bermudez had her class engage 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. Read more >>

I used a number of lessons from D.C. Area Black LIves Matter Week of Action resource page and others I collected at that BLM curriculum share. #Lastwords was one of the most powerful lessons for many of my students.I have a number of students with significant learning disabilities as well. So in their classes, I used the lesson related to the book Milo's Museum. We're still working on this unit, but they seem to really be enjoying it!