On January 30, 2021 Teaching for Change and the Howard University School of Education co-hosted an annual curriculum fair to help educators to learn more about the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Year of Purpose. More than 500 educators from 42 states and the District of Columbia deepened their practice as they learned from the keynote speakers and participated in workshops.

We share our best wishes for DC Area Educators for Social Justice (DCAESJ) coordinator Rosalie Reyes who is departing Teaching for Change and stepping into new horizons in their life. As they describe their next pursuits: “I will be diving into early childhood education research, continuing racial justice pursuits through birth-work as a doula, and I will begin Washington State University's Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education doctoral program in the fall.”

On the evening of Tuesday, February 2nd, nearly 70 participants attended a virtual town hall on racial justice held by Glen Haven Elementary School. This was the third Town Hall for Racial Justice held by the school since June 2021.

Middle school students from the class of Lia Bengtson and Tarja Lewis at Kendall Demonstration School in D.C. created a video to kick off Black Lives Matter Week of Action at Schools. They challenged viewers to think about why Black lives should matter to EVERYONE.

Early childhood students at School Within School @ Goding explore Black joy through the Afrofuturist art of Cyrus Kabiru, who creates glasses (he calls c-stunners) out of discarded materials.

Kindergarten students study the Black Lives Matter Principle “intergenerational” during the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, developing a deep understanding of the principles by reading and discussing multiple books.

Dr. Shani King, children’s rights lawyer, professor, and children’s book author, joined first grade students at Garrison ES for a virtual read-aloud of his new book, Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter.

By Lizzie McCord
Dr. Alana Murray and Tiferet Ani shared resources for teaching about Black women’s activism during the 2021 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Curriculum Fair. They began the session by sharing some historical context for Black women’s organizing, giving special consideration to the work of the Combahee River Collective and Marsha P. Johnson of STAR.

By Lizzie McCord
During the 2021 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Curriculum Fair, Jaimee A. Swift led a workshop building on her work at Black Women Radicals, the organization she founded to uplift the stories of Black women and gender expansive people’s activism.

By Lila Chafe
Almost one hundred participants attended Dr. Shari Berga’s workshop, co-facilitated by Akailah Jenkins McIntyre, titled “Teaching, Loving, and Believing Black Girls.” Both facilitators are part of the Wells Collective, a collaborative of diversity practitioners that focus their work on empowering women.

By Ashley Bryant
After a busy morning of attending the BLM at Schools Virtual Curriculum Fair on Saturday, January 30, 2021 with powerful conversations about teaching resistance and oppression, global issues of restorative justice, and displacement and protest in Washington D.C., Dekebra’s presentation titled “Mindful Moments: Radical Wellness for Black Lives” was a welcomed and much-needed call to self-care.

From Maryland to Missouri, Oregon, New York, North Carolina to the District of Columbia; over 100 attendees joined Peta Lindsay, Charla Johnson, and Cyrus Hampton, leaders of the Ida B. Wells Education Project, in a panel discussion via Zoom on “Joy in Resistance: Teaching about Oppression with Hope and Inspiration” as part of the Teaching for Change and Howard University’s 2021 Black Lives Matter at School Curriculum Fair.

By Leah Danville
Dr. Tiffany Mitchell Patterson is an Assistant Professor of Secondary Social Studies in West Virginia University’s College of Education & Human Services Department of Curriculum & Instruction (CILS). On Tuesday, February 2, she hopped on her two-hour Zoom class with 12 pre-service secondary social studies teachers for the first monthly lesson on how to implement a Black Lives Matters (BLM) curriculum into their future classrooms. The class, comprised of people in their 20s and 30s who are almost all white, quickly identified similarities between the BLM movement and guiding principles in their own lives.

DC Public Schools has endorsed the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and sent the following notice and video to all its staff: DCPS is proud to support DC Black Lives Matter at Schools Week of Action, taking place from February 1-5, 2021. This week is a national movement of educators organizing for racial justice in education. The goal is to collectively affirm the lives and uplift the voices of Black students.

Imagine a world rooted in justice. What would it look like? Zo Clement, special education teacher at Two Rivers Charter School in Washington, D.C., set out to answer this question with middle school students over the summer.

“How many Central Americans can you name?” Caneisha Mills, 8th- grade teacher at Hardy Middle School in Washington, D.C. asked her advisory. During Teach Central America Week, Mills used the remote learning Central America mixer template to explore the lives and experiences of Central American figures with students.

Your donation will help us work with D.C. area teachers to overcome the challenges of remote instruction to make the fourth annual D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action a success.

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.

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.

On Friday October 9, eighty high schoolers from Capital City Public Charter School in Washington D.C. joined a Zoom call with Claudia Sparrow, director and producer of the film Maxima. Maxima follows Máxima Acuña, a Peruvian activist fighting a multinational gold mining corporation over rights to her land.