October 22, 2024 · curriculum
I couldn’t resist writing about Filipino American History Month as I have SO MANY great books to recommend. Before you start reading all of the books, however, don’t forget to look at a map! First, make sure students know where the Philippines are (and clarify the spelling of the Philippines and Filipino), but also look at some maps like this showing where the largest Filipino populations are in the United States. You can also talk about migration generally and ask students what they notice or might theorize from these maps. Make sure you explain what the month actually is or ask students to share what they know or have experienced: Filipino American history month . Some other great videos: Lola's Work - StoryCorps Why Is It Called Filipino American HISTORY Month? Celebrating Filipino American History Month with unique flavors Books!: I am a huge Erin Entrada fan! Gabby and I read Hello
Filipino American history monthbook recommendations
October 14, 2024 · curriculum
Tips and Resources for Responding to Pushback from Families or Administrators We know there is so much you want to discuss with students, but you might have concerns about pushback, resistance, complaints or worse. I realized we give general advice often when writing about a specific topic, but have never written a post about it. So here it is! Hope it is helpful. When I was most recently teaching full time, my go to response to parents who worried that topics were too “scary/political/polarized/controversial etc” was, “We/I totally agree this is a complex topic that must be addressed thoughtfully and with intention. Here is a resource to help you as we work together to keep answering your child/student’s questions. Thanks for your partnership in this important work!” I also noted how rigorous asking and answering critical questions about the world is and how students are practicing
pushbackresistanceconflictcontroversial topicspolitics
September 27, 2024 · event
Happy Friday (and almost end of September)! I hope everyone's back to school season is going as smoothly as possible. We are so excited to be hosting an event with Katy Swalwell . Please join us for our first-ever Educator Pitch-In Collective ! We're hosting a Zoom hangout on Tuesday, October 15 from 5:30-6:30 CT for educators to share concerns, ideas, and resources for teaching the 2024 election. We are focusing on elementary as there are so few resources out there, but everyone is welcome! We'll also share a vetted resource pack as a "party favor." Register by 10/8 at www.tinyurl.com/EPIC1election . FREE event, donations appreciated. Please spread the word and share with any educators you know. Also, happy Hispanic Heritage Month! Read more ideas for how to recognize this month (and why it starts on September 15th) in our post from last year
electionteacherseventprofessional development
December 15, 2023 · book review
For the littlest ones (babies/toddlers!): 1. How We Eat by Shuli de la Fuente-Lau - we love food in our families (and together as a duo)! This book nails it for us for the content and especially for the inclusion, the real photos of sweet kiddos and their diverse families enjoying food in so many ways. This one is fantastic for the baby who is enjoying looking at faces AND will be fun and has tons of content to talk about together for years to come. (The 4 year old has this book memorized and went through a phase where he read it almost every day before bed!) 2. Dog’s First Baby / Cat’s First Baby by Natalie Nelson - We were gifted these last holiday season and I love them. POC mamas, cute brown little babies, simple images, simple text that delivers and adorable message. Refreshing from what has been out in the board book market and a great gift for the families you know with pets! 3.
book recommendationsbooksboard booksbaby booksbaby gifts
September 28, 2023 · current events
From Top 13 most challenged books of 2022 (infographic) – Reader Updated Banned Books Week is next week (October 1-7, 2023). As you can see from the infographic above, censorship continues to increase. I read about new books being banned or challenged almost everyday. Often they are books I love and have used in my classroom. Apart from supporting and celebrating librarians and libraries (as we advocated in our Banned Books Week 2022 post!), it’s hard to know what to do. Penguin Random House shares some resources and ideas for activism and advocacy here. For Banned Books Week in schools, we have some ideas below as well. Attend this free webinar from the Illinois Library Association on October 2nd to learn about their important work and what you can do. Request a Free RIGHT TO READ KIT from Rally for the Right to Read . Participate in Let Freedom Read Day . This year is the first time
Banned Books Weekbanreprecensorshipbooks
September 14, 2023 · Uncategorized
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15- October 15. Read more about why it starts on September 15th and enjoy these helpful resources from the National Museum of the American Latino here . As always, heritage months should only be reminders or extra opportunities to celebrate and recognize a community, because students should see themselves in their learning and what they learn should reflect the diversity of our world every single day. When introducing Hispanic Heritage Month, start by asking or clarifying who is Hispanic? Ask students what they know about the term and what questions they have. Start by looking at a world map, but emphasize that there are many Hispanic Americans as well. If you aren’t sure about distinctions and terminology or just want a refresher before answering lots of students’ questions, these two articles might help: The
September 7, 2023 · back to school
This wonderful piece by the inspirational Carla Shalaby: Are We Teaching Care or Control? inspired me to write about class contract creation. I prefer “class contract” or “community agreements” over saying rules as rules feel more draconian and compliance focused, while agreements or a contract as a community emphasizes how we are all working together and sharing accountability for OUR community and space. For a deeper discussion about compliance vs care, we’ve used The Wedding Portrait (listed below). I am out of the classroom for another year, so won’t be putting these ideas to work just yet. Here is a post from 2018 back in the days when Gabby and I were co-teaching: Creating Our Class Contract! Some essential components of class contract creation for me are hopes and dreams or some type of reflection and goal setting, multiple read alouds, and starting with students’ ideas about
back to schoolbeginning of the school yearcontract creation
August 18, 2023 · back to school
All photo credits from Goodreads.com It always feels like I (Nina) blinked and back to school is upon us again all of a sudden, but this summer time passed even faster than usual. I don't know how we are here already - it still feels like it should be July to me! And so many of my teacher/school friends are already back at work somehow. If you already started school or went back to work, hope you are having a smooth as possible start to the school year. This will be my second fall in a row out of the classroom, and while I have some adventures coming up that I’m excited about (more about that in a future post) and love the extra time with my little ones, it is always bittersweet as Teacher New Year is so exciting, nerve-wracking, and just so many emotions as once. I may not be planning back to school read alouds for my own classroom, but I’m still excited about lots of new books! Here
back to schoolbeginning of the school yearread aloudbook recommendations
August 7, 2023 · current events
July is Disability Pride Month in recognition of the fact that the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed on July 26th, 1990. I missed the opportunity to write about Disability Pride Month last month, but saw this event: Centering Disabilities in the Classroom and felt inspired so figured a week late isn’t too bad. Also, with classroom set up and back to school looming, I know I appreciate reminders about setting up my classroom in the most accessible way possible and thinking about all the different voices and perspectives I want to showcase. I share some resources and ideas below, but really, this event on Wednesday, August 16th from Lee & Low Books with Patty Cisneros Prevo (author of Tenacious: Fifteen Adventures Alongside Disabled Athletes as pictured above) looks fabulous and valuable on many fronts. As Emily Ladau says, “language is one of the most important signals that we
disabilityDisability Pride MonthADAbooks
June 16, 2023 · current events
With Juneteenth coming up, we wanted to share some resources. I have never actually taught about Juneteenth as school is usually out for us by then, but it is definitely worth addressing even as you finish up and get ready for summer. The book pictured above, Juneteenth for Mazie , would be a great place to start with elementary school kids, but more ideas from the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) are linked below. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, but was a public holiday in Washington DC and many other places before that. Originally, it was celebrated in Texas and slowly spread through migration around the country. We are including some reading lists and information for children and adults below. Happy Juneteenth (and summer break or almost summer break! Celebrating Juneteenth | National Museum of African American History and Culture
JuneteenthJunesummerholidaysslavery
June 5, 2023 · curriculum
Happy June to all teachers and students! You made it this far and are so close. We know/remember how incredibly exhausting this time of year can be between the heat, endless end of the school year events and requests, report cards, cleaning and packing up your classroom, and of course, the bittersweet farewells with your students. If you still have some time with your students, our Pride Books 2022 post will give you some read aloud ideas for Pride this month. You can also work with your students on setting up for Summer Reading in a joyful and fun way (we hope). We wrote about End of the School Year Activities in 2022 and in 2019 "What is always on your end of year list?" A quick 10 always on there items from us because we have so many and love traditions and making memories with our classes. Lastly and maybe most importantly, don’t forget to think ahead about what YOU need this
summerJuneend of the yearschool's outsummer reading
May 11, 2023 · curriculum
May is Haitian Heritage Month ! There are many ways to celebrate Haitian Heritage Month , but why not start with asking students what they know about Haiti, finding Haiti on a map, and learning more about Haiti ? After Gabby and I took a social justice educators’ tour to the Dominican Republic , we shared some of our experiences with our students and they were fascinated by the fact that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share an island, but are two completely separate countries that speak different languages. This led to a great discussion about why certain languages are spoken where and how borders are created and are a social construct. Our trip encouraged me to learn more about Haiti as what little I knew came from books (I definitely recommend American Street by Ibi Zoboi ) and a few friends of Haitian origin. I was embarrassed that I knew almost no Haitian history and had no idea
HaitiHaitian Heritage Monthgeohistoryslavery
April 14, 2023 · holiday
Earth Day is Saturday, April 22nd this year, which means you have the week before at school to do some lead up activities! The Earth Day 2023 theme is “invest in our planet.” You could use the theme to ask students what they think that means or what actions they could take. It’s important to keep in mind that some actions to invest in the planet are more accessible than others. For example, reducing food waste is something everyone can relate to as it doesn’t require going anywhere or buying anything and all students could brainstorm or share strategies they try at home while eating organic food or buying “sustainable” fashion can often be more expensive and therefore inaccessible for some families. Two resources I’ve found useful when teaching about reducing food waste are: Be A Food Waste Warrior | Educators Toolkits | WWF Reducing Food Waste Activity Book | US EPA But of course,
Earth Dayearthenvironmentenvironmental justice
April 7, 2023 · curriculum
Happy Arab American Heritage Month! Some reminders and tips: Note that Muslim characters or a Muslim author or illustrator is NOT the same as Arab. Not all Muslims are Arabs (as this map of the Muslim population by country shows). If you feel like going down a maps rabbit hole, here are some more maps: 40 maps that explain the Middle East ! Arabs are not all Muslim . Arabs are speakers of Arabic which is different from Middle Eastern people. Read more here: Arab, Middle Eastern, and Muslim? What’s the Difference?! - TeachMideast Persians are not Arabs. Read more here: MYTH vs. FACT: Persians and Arabs - American Iranian Council . (We’ll have to do a separate post about some of our favorite Persian authors and books!) If these designations are confusing for you and your students, start by looking at a map (cover photo) and talking about what you know and brainstorming how you could
Arab American Heritage MonthArabbooksmonth
March 27, 2023 · book review
This cover image and all in this post are from goodreads . Find us on there if you want LOTS of book recommendations. BABY BOOKS I LOVE THEM BABY BOOKS I LOVE THEM Baby baby baby books.. I looooooove them. (sung to the unicorns I love them song from Despicable Me) No one will get this reference but this is how my brain works, alas. We’ve had 3!? New babies in our lives this Spring. All nearing the 2 month ish mark and I feel that means it is officially time to start overwhelming their parents with board books. I joke!! Sort of. In the world of all the baby crap and the ways people can be supportive postpartum, baby gifts can be more fraught/annoying/clutterful than helpful. Quick tips if you are gifting to postpartum loved ones (from my perspective and my perspective only!) Food- always helpful. (groceries, bagels & fixings delivered to their house, Spoonful of comfort soup, a takeout
book recommendationsboard booksbaby booksbaby giftsbooks
March 1, 2023 · curriculum
Happy Women’s History Month! We last wrote about how we recognized Women’s History Month in the classroom in 2018 when we were co-teaching in 3rd grade with this post: Womyn's/ Womxn's/ Women's Herstory Month . All of those books are still wonderful and the general tie ins with other subjects, March Book Madness , and celebrating International Women’s Day are all things I would be bringing into my classroom if I was teaching this year. I also am intrigued by the FairPlay Home (Eq)uity Tool Kit . I haven’t used this myself and still need to investigate more, but love the idea (and the tagline “Close the Chore Gap!”). Instead of stopping at acknowledging women’s invisible labor (or expressing gratitude to all the amazing women in our lives), let’s teach kids to be aware of it and think critically about it. You know kids will find a creative solution to the “chore gap” and be reflective
Women's History Monthwomenmonthfeminismbook recommendations
February 10, 2023 · curriculum
Valentine’s Day is next week and while it always feels a little commercial and sometimes a bit exhausting for me (so much red, pink, and glitter everywhere!), it is a fun moment to get us through gray February. Also, it’s an excuse to celebrate kindness, caring for others, your classroom community, and eat chocolate! Every year, my students would bring me dark chocolate as they know from my shares that is what I prefer, and it was always a sweet moment of being truly seen and appreciated. We wrote about Valentine's Day last year, specifically talking about our investigation of the holiday and what our students came up with as well as a few read alouds. One new read aloud that I am very excited about is Your One and Only Heart by Rajani LaRocca, Illustrated by Lauren Paige Conrad (cover photo; from this list ) - always love anything by Dr. Rajani LaRocca and it’s a great STEM connection.
Valentine's Dayvalentineread aloudpostcardsforCharlottesvilleholidays
February 7, 2023 · curriculum
It is suddenly February and BLM at School Week (February 6-10) is here! I am not in a classroom this year, so am sharing some of our past work below in case anyone is looking for a new angle, read aloud, activity, or any other reminder. One quote that has been sticking with me lately is from Walidah Imarisha as she masterfully explains Why Aren’t There More Black People in Oregon? She says, “I call it a living legacy not history because it walks with us everyday.” That seems like a perfect way to conceptualize Black History Month and how to center what we teach our students in the present and the future. Black History Month (from 2022) Black History Lesson: Sit-Ins (from 2021) Black Lives Matter at School (from 2021) Black History Month: Past Ideas & Thoughts (from 2020) Ideas for Black History Month and Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action (from 2019) Reflecting on Black Lives
Black Lives MatterBlack History MonthBlack lives matter at schoolhistory
January 13, 2023 · current events
When Barbara Walters died at the end of December, I saw a tweet noting that she and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were born the same year (1929) and that is how much (potential) life was stolen from him. It was a stark reminder for me. This year marks 55 years since Dr. King was assassinated. How to best address Martin Luther King Day in the classroom is a constant question for us. We’ve written about it before and always wonder what the best approach is. Doing or saying nothing doesn’t feel right, but neither does a quick one day activity. You can read about our approach last year here: MLK Day 2022: Reminders & Ideas and our approach with 5th graders here: Observing MLK Day in the Classroom . Teaching the History of Voting Rights in the USA is also always a timely reminder and important lesson. There are so many book lists out there already, so we will just share a few books for read
MLKMartin Luther Kingholidaysservice learningread aloud
January 9, 2023 · curriculum
Gabby reading a book aloud to some third graders. Happy New Year (to everyone, but especially teachers who are welcoming students back from break!). Below are some routines to keep you afloat as we re-enter school and get through the winter together. Morning Meeting - the start of the day is everything. Bringing back a game they loved back in September (to them, and us! Feels like ages away) is like returning back to a nice friend you know well. Still fun, but predictable and no one has to be stressed about new rules. Reminding students of how far you have come from the beginning of the year when you were all learning these new routines (and each other’s names!). Read aloud! (after returning from recess or lunch, preferably) Starting the New Year with a new read aloud book if it lands there for you is very helpful to us. Catching ourselves (and our students) into a story is always a
new yearroutinesresponsive classroomWinter
December 14, 2022 · curriculum
We are so close to having a break! Also, I always find that once we make it to winter break, the rest of the school year flies by somehow. This first chunk of the year is often the hardest in so many ways. Once the routines are established and community is built, the rest of the school year can feel more manageable. But every year and every class is different. The lead up to winter break can be so exciting and often coincides with snow days, winter concert or assembly practices, lots of illnesses/sharing germs, and other disruptions, so your students will definitely react to everything that is going on. Keep in mind that some kids do not like breaks as they miss school and really thrive on routine, or might not have secure access to food at home or a stable environment for so many reasons. I always openly acknowledge to my students that I have mixed feelings about whatever my plans will
winterbreakDecemberHuman Rights Dayholidays
December 7, 2022 · current events
Saturday is Human Rights Day! From Human Rights Day 2022 | OHCHR , “Every year on 10 December, the world celebrates Human Rights Day , the very day when, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). ” While you won’t be at school on Saturday, you can still have your students learn about Human Rights Day. I would start by asking my students what they know about human rights. Let students reflect and share out, and then share this definition (or modify it to make it work best for your students): Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death. I’ve paraphrased for students that human rights are the things that every human being is entitled to have. Next, I would ask students what rights they think are the most important. They can make lists in small groups and compile
human rightsHuman Rights Dayrightssocial justice educationSocial Studies
November 17, 2022 · curriculum
It’s November! We made it through most of the Fall and the election! Thanksgiving (and a break!) is around the corner, so sharing some reminders and activities. Here are some from the past: Thanksgiving & Native American Heritage Month Resources & Reminders . Always center Native American perspectives however you address Thanksgiving in your classroom (and in general). For example, you and your students could look at the Native Land map to see whose land you're on and emphasize that they are still here. You could research the tribe whose land you are on and find out about where they are living now. Also, show students the table depicting original tribal names and note that many tribal names were changed by white settlers. Learn about land acknowledgements by watching Land Acknowledgement | Molly of Denali . (Sidenote, Molly of Denali is a great example of representation, own voices, and
ThanksgivinggratitudegratefulNative American studiesNative American Heritage Month
November 7, 2022 · current events
Happy Election Day Eve! I know many of us are feeling a lot about the election, and waiting for the results will make for an anxiety ridden late night. I often end up staying up too late for inconclusive results, so I have learned to turn off the TV, put my phone down, and go to bed! Two years ago, when we were all waiting for the presidential election to take place, addressing the topic on everyone’s mind and Teaching the History of Voting Rights in the USA actually gave me some relief and channeled some of all of our nervous energy into learning about participating in democracy and civil rights. Also, students were excited to share the way many of their family members voted (by mail, early voting, etc). We read Granddaddy’s Turn, A Journey to the Ballot Box for that lesson, but another great picture book to use to start the lesson is Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the
electiondemocracyelection daymidtermpicture books
October 13, 2022 · curriculum
October is LGBT History Month ! While the month has already started, it’s never too late to join in and introduce (or re-introduce) your students (and yourself) to some LGBT icons. As explained on their site, “Each day in October, a new LGBT Icon is featured with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images and other resources.” You can find out more in the 2022 Overview Video . Remember that LGBT History Month is a reminder only - we should be learning about LGBT people every day of the year. If students ask why LGBT people have a specific history month, just ask the question right back to them: why do YOU think we celebrate a specific history month for LGBT people? You can have them generate a list of names of LGBT people they’ve learned about at school in the past. I had a student ask why there wasn’t a “straight history month” and another student responded, “That’s EVERY month.”
LGBTLGBT History Monthmonthhistory
October 1, 2022 · current events
Our first joint Halloween costume - a double high five! Our 5th graders were amused. Rebecca Nagle reminded me that it was suddenly fall and a perfect time to share resources and reminders for the upcoming holidays. Her tweet thread explains it beautifully and shares helpful resources. Our blog posts below share different strategies and ideas for addressing Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples Day), Halloween, and Thanksgiving in the classroom. We taught these lessons with elementary school students (3rd or 5th grade), but they can easily be adapted for older learners. Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples Day): October 12th Unfortunately, Columbus Day is still a federal holiday, although more and more communities have voted to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead. We facilitated Columbus Day Debates with our students one year and led a Holiday Inquiry: Columbus Day another year. If you
holidaysinvestigationColumbuThanksHalloween
September 15, 2022 · current events
Banned Books Week , from the American Library Association (ALA) is September 18-24th this year. Their website has lots of ideas, resources, and more information. We worked with a wonderful librarian in the past who always recognized Banned Books Week with students and we learned a lot from her. While the ALA has been recognizing Banned Books Week for 40 years, this year librarians are facing unique challenges and a record number of book bans (or attempts). These book bans and attempts to control or limit curricula are affecting teachers as well on many levels. Here are some ideas for how to recognize and introduce this week to your students. *Important reminder: Always support librarians! They are amazing humans who do everything under the sun for our communities. We always knew this, but it was reinforced yet again during the early days of the pandemic when libraries provided meals,
book banscensorshipBanned Books Weekbookslibrary
September 6, 2022 · Uncategorized
Back to School Night Tips Oh back to school night (BTSN!), it’s not my favorite time if I am being honest. It feels so stressful to have to present a set up room and school year plan when you’re just trying to get your footing and get the kids situated.. Then suddenly you are on display for parents and guardians and tons of questions! Whew. It’s a lot. Here are some tips for BTSN that help us make it feel a little more successful. At the heart of it, BTSN can feel like the first day of school for guardians and is their main (sometimes only) peek into what school looks and feels like for their kiddos. With that in mind, the goals for BTSN for me remain: A) Invite them into our world and affirm we are on the same team for their child/ren B) Communicate my expectations of them and how communication will work for the year C) Stay afloat for myself amidst juggling the beginning of the year
parentBTSNpaneltipslist
September 1, 2022 · back to school
Back to school read aloud with a detailed roadmap on the board behind me. Happy Back to School! I know many schools are starting early this year, so if you already started school, congratulations on making it through the first day/week(s)! The first couple weeks are always so incredibly draining. I am not in a classroom this fall for the first time in many years so I am missing the first day anticipation and exhaustion! I’ve always loved setting up my classroom and writing students’ names on everything. Usually, I join my students in writing a letter to myself on the first day of school. It’s always fun to look back on and be surprised about your assumptions, emotions, thoughts, fears, and hopes. I also have shifted to asking students to share a moment of joy or deliciousness instead of something they did this past summer. It’s more inclusive and avoids isolating students who didn’t
back to schoolbeginning of the school yearresponsive classroom
August 15, 2022 · curriculum
Wonderful resources for our biography unit! Not pictured: video of Libba singing. As I said in this post , choosing nonfiction (or any) resources critically is SO IMPORTANT, so here are some do’s and don’ts when looking for mentor texts or any type of media for students to consume. Look at publication dates. In general, older (sometimes “classic”) books tend to have stereotypical portrayals of people of color and gender roles (and more). Also, sometimes “classic” books are viewed with nostalgia and problematic and/or factually incorrect depictions are excused by saying “it was a different time.” Some examples: Little House on the Prairie, George and Martha (George dresses up as an “Indian”). We are not saying you cannot use these books, but be prepared to address the problematic images, language, or events. Avoid anything stereotypical, overly simplistic, or cartoonish (think of the
nonfictionmentor textbookscritical literacy
August 1, 2022 · Uncategorized
Throwback to one of our favorite Halloween costumes! Hope it inspires you to have some fun with classroom set up! How is it August already? As we gear up for “teacher new year,” we have lots of beginning of the year activity ideas for you to start getting to know your students and building community. We also have some invaluable beginning of the year tools & tips from the past, as well as great r ead aloud ideas for back to school and more specific b ack to school activities for distance learning . One reminder I need every school year is these computer tips: how to rollout the great (but challenging) tool! However, before you start thinking about all the wonderful exploration and learning you will do with your students, you need to set up your classroom and get yourself ready for the year. Honestly, after the past few years, none of us feel ready and I know many of you could use
July 21, 2022 · curriculum
Students use maps to do research. I know it is the middle of summer, but I finally had time to reflect on and write about one of my favorite units in both reading and writing: nonfiction! I’ve tried out many different kinds of nonfiction units over the years and while I still love our Biographical Essays: Researching People Who Inspire Us unit, I have enjoyed the students’ enthusiasm and engagement in all of them. Nonfiction literacy is so important. It ties into media literacy and understanding and learning about the world around you, is a life skill (you will always need to understand and explain information!). There are so many facets to it between learning about facts vs opinion, critical literacy, synthesizing information, and more. But most of all, it is fascinating and FUN. Some essential elements: you MUST have great mentor texts (we had a lot of success with Pink is for
nonfictioncurriculumreadingwritingunits
July 7, 2022 · health
A teensy sampling of my poppyland… SUMMER! We all need 20 of them. At least. 20 Summers for everyone. There’s really nothing we can add to the noise of takes on this past year, be it from school struggles to the pandemic to gun control to racism or sexism or transphobia...I’ll stop my list there, there’s just been so much. We know you of all people know it has been a loooooong year(s). And yet. Have you been getting emails about summer PD? (our list of free ones in case you have the bandwidth, included!) Goals for next year? Meetings already scheduled?? I know I personally can’t imagine most of us are available for anything else in our buckets. So I thought I’d share something non-teaching related during these burnt out, violent times. And not in an everything is cheery way toxic positivity way, but a keeping ourselves afloat and looking for moments of light to reach for as humans type
June 30, 2022 · conferences
Happy July! I (Nina) hope you’ve had some time to rest and reflect on the school year. I’m home with a baby, so no summer professional development (PD) for me this year, but traditionally summer is the time for me to learn about something new, attend a conference, talk to other teachers, and get new ideas and inspiration. If you had a really rough school year (or just a “regular” school year because teaching is so hard!) and you need time away from teaching however that might look for you, I also completely understand that. One other thing to mention is that a lot of professional development is really expensive and it can be hard to get a spot. These two things combined make it inaccessible for so many teachers. As a private school teacher, I’m lucky to work at a school that has a budget for PD and pays for travel, accommodation, meals allowance, etc. We are also permitted to request
professional developmentPDworkshopwebinarsummer
June 17, 2022 · curriculum
My former co-teacher’s “shelfie” from the fall of 2020. She created it digitally, but you can also use paper! We wrote about some of the ways we set students up for summer reading a few years ago, and I still am not a fan of forced or assigned reading. There is research that reading logs actually reduce students’ motivation to read and negatively affect their attitudes toward reading . And honestly, they are just annoying! Imagine having to log how long you read and how many pages you read when you are reading before bed to relax. This applies to summer reading as well. Assigning a book or list of books students must read takes the joy out of reading. It’s much better to give them freedom and encouragement to find something they want to read and (hopefully) enjoy it! This has been a long, hard year for teachers, so it’s also really important that you find your own summer reading that is
readingsummersummer readingbook reviewbook recommendations
June 8, 2022 · Uncategorized
A page from Little Feminists: Families Happy Pride! Always important. Incredibly important this year. May we keep on keepin’ on to ensure we AND OUR CHILDREN can embody and explore and all be our full selves safely and lovingly. We humans are so diverse and contain multitudes. Here are some of our favorite books for Pride. I could go ON AND ON about queer and LGBTQIA+ type books and have written or posted about many in the past as I love to read them personally (especially MG/YA/ sci fi and graphic novel ones...send me your faves!) so I will try to keep this short and just give my current mood (spoiler, the current reading mood is on the lighter side of life) top picks but feel free to ask for more bonus ones! Baby: Little Feminists: Families So queer so amazing. Perfect for babies because it is photographs so they can enjoy it from a super young age. Perfect age with a baby book
June 6, 2022 · blog posts
One of our beloved "class pets!” We’re almost there, we're almost there! As I’ve been thinking about what I’ll take with me from this school year, when I’m at my most positive (which is rare, especially these days to be honest!) I find myself holding onto the goofy moments of community with students. We’ve written about simulations we’ve designed to discuss inequity or how we incorporate representation into our curricula... but today I wanted to just highlight some foolishness we’ve done in the past, which are some of my favorite memories. 1. The Annual Birthday Prank To be perfectly honest, we keep kid birthdays low key. They become difficult to keep up with and there’s always the issue of off school year birthdays or inequities or over the top parental moves. However, we like to model how fun it is to celebrate others together. Our tech director is someone who helped everyone out, is
end of the yearpranksfunmemories
June 1, 2022 · curriculum
The first slide from our tie dye how to slideshow for students. Happy June! You made it! This has been quite the year, so now it is time to celebrate everything you all have accomplished together and have some fun! I have a number of different traditions or fun activities that I love for the end of the school year. We wrote a post a few years back with some of our favorites , but I have even more ideas that are listed below. Write a poem for your class! We had an introduction and conclusion stanza or two as well as two lines for each student. We definitely took liberties with the rhyming, but it’s something students really love and appreciate. We’ve heard about the poem as a fond memory or something students have held on to years after (we also gave each student a copy to take home). A photo slideshow is always fun and appreciated! It’s been harder with COVID, masking, being in two
end of the yearsummertraditionsgratitude
May 15, 2022 · national month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I almost didn’t start writing this post because I don’t know what to say or recommend. While these ideas from a previous post still stand, none of them can combat the serious issues teachers and students (and families) especially are facing after over two years of intense challenges and tragedy. So many families are struggling with grief , teacher stress and burnout is rampant, and new guidelines recommend that all children 8 and older should be screened for anxiety due to pandemic effects. None of my suggestions or ideas can “fix” this situation. So many factors are outside of our control, but what you can try to do is take care of yourself as much as possible. If that means taking a break from teaching or looking at a new school or new role, so be it. During the worst part of the pandemic for me, I found taking short walks outside could help me
Mental Health Awareness Monthmental healthbook recommendationsendwriting
May 8, 2022 · Uncategorized
Recently when sharing about our chapter in Anti-Oppressive Education in “Elite” Schools with Katy Swalwell’s class, we were asked about all of the simulations we have created and taught. This was not a question we could answer quickly during a brief Q&A, so we tried to compile them all here. We may have missed one (or more), but it is a good place to start! Some of these simulations were done with 3rd graders, 5th graders, and/or adults. Some posts talk about more than one simulation and how they go together. I also included some investigations and some inquiry work as it all goes together and I didn’t want to omit something based on a rigid definition of “simulation.” Of course, this is only a list of the ones we have written about that we have created so far, so I’m sure there will be more to add sooner or later! Simulations: What continent do you think they are from? Drawing humans
May 1, 2022 · national month
Happy May! Teachers (and students!), you are so close to the end of the school year. Before the school year ends, it is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! This year, more than ever, it is important to uplift and share AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) voices as w e are facing a huge increase in hate crimes and anti-Asian sentiment . The Library of Congress hosts this site with lots of teacher resources, both historical and current . Another helpful resource is Standing Together from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center which addresses the need to stand together against rising racism, hate, and violence. This site also provides facts and resources . Newsela has a lot of articles and text sets that would work for AAPI Heritage Month depending on what you want to focus on. Also, make sure you look at a map! It’s always helpful to talk about what “Asian” actually means,
Asian American Heritage Monthrepresentationbooksbook recommendationspicture books
April 17, 2022 · holiday
April is flying by, which means it is almost Earth Day! I’m a proponent of including conservation and environmental responsibility in our learning as naturally as possible (shout out to the Science teachers at my school who do some amazing work with students covering water testing, erosion, soil analysis, invasive plants, and more). However, it’s always worth acknowledging Earth Day and joining in the celebration. We wrote a post last year with some Earth Day picture book favorites, and here are a few more options for this year. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney: I’ve had this book since I was a child and now have a t-shirt to match! It’s worth a read for the gorgeous illustrations alone and is also a great goal setting/resolutions read too. However, make sure you address the “Indians” her grandfather was carving to put in front of cigar shops. It’s a stereotypical image of American
Earth Daynatureearthscienceread aloud
April 10, 2022 · national month
Happy April or National Poetry Month! Poetry is something to infuse into your classroom (and life) everyday, but if you don’t have time to teach a standalone poetry unit, you can use it as a morning greeting, introduction to a topic or subject, or a way to share information. There are so many different types of poems. We don’t have a poetry unit as part of our 3rd grade curriculum, but we make sure to have plenty of poetry books in our classroom. I’ve learned that students who read one novel in verse often want to try others, so I always include them on my “teacher recommendations” shelf. Novels in verse also make wonderful read alouds, too. They sound beautiful when read aloud and are relatively quick reads. Here are some ideas for teaching poetry that we shared in 2019 . Many of these could be standalone lessons or part of a larger poetry unit. In the past, Gabby read This is a Poem
poetryNational Poetry Monthpicture booksmiddle gradenovels in verse
March 31, 2022 · curriculum
It is hard to believe, but Friday is April 1st (get ready for April Fool’s Day!) and Saturday is the beginning of Ramadan! Of course, it depends on the sighting of the new moon, but it seems likely that will occur on Saturday, April 2nd. Even if you think you don’t have any students who observe Ramadan, it is still something to teach and learn about as over two billion people participate all over the world! Also, you don’t always know how people identify or who they might have in their life. At my current school, I’ve had one student who shared with me that they were Muslim and appreciated when I shared a book with the class that felt relevant for them (which of course happened before Ramadan because we learn about the world and everyone who lives in it every single day). When I taught in New York City, many of my students followed Islam and often had to miss school for Eid or other
RamadanIslamMuslimrepresentationdiversity
March 22, 2022 · current events
Happy Spring! Before we move on to April, don’t forget that March is Disability Awareness Month. I also saw that both Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and Students with Disabilities Awareness Month are in March as well. I recently discovered that March is National Noodle Month , too, so lots to cover this month. Disability Awareness Month has been celebrated since 1987, and like all awareness or heritage/history months, it really is just a reminder that disabilities are part of life and our teachings, materials, and classrooms should reflect that. So while we are close to the end of the month, the reminders and materials below are really for every single day. This year, I have been thinking a lot about people who are immunocompromised, at high risk for COVID and/or can’t safely get vaccinated and how mask mandates are ending and many people seem ready to move on. My child is
disabilityrepresentationDisability Awareness Monthableismbook recommendations
March 15, 2022 · curriculum
Happy (almost) spring! It definitely feels like spring here in DC, and with that, comes Deaf History Month! I actually had never heard of Deaf History Month (March 13- April 15) until very recently, so wanted to write and spread the word as well as share some ideas and resources. You can read more about the origins of Deaf History Month here . It dates back to 1997, with other holidays and recognition before that. I’ve included some books below, but sadly, there weren’t as many as I had hoped. Also, it is important to make sure we are showing students how there are a wide variety of people who are Deaf, deaf, or hard of hearing. Make sure you understand the difference in terminology before talking about it with students. I found this resource from the NAD (National Association of the Deaf) very helpful. Another great resource and significant institution to teach students about is
DeafnessDeaf History MonthDeaf cultureableismdisability
March 7, 2022 · current events
Happy International Women’s Day ! There are so many ways to celebrate! We love showing our students how this is an international holiday that has been celebrated for over 100 years (starting in 1911). It’s also fitting that this holiday takes place during Women’s History Month . We wrote about different ways we recognized and celebrated Women’s History Month in our classroom a few years ago . Here are some new ideas we have either already started or hope to try soon: We attended a virtual event at Politics & Prose with Michelle Duster and Laura Freeman for the new book Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth (pictured above). Michelle Duster, the author, is actually Ida B. Wells’s great-granddaughter which added an extra level of excitement for students as well as helped them understand the time frame for when Ida B. Wells was alive a bit better. I’m a huge fan of author and bookstore events! We
Women's History MonthwomenbiographiesNewselaBrainpop
March 2, 2022 · book review
The picture book bracket for this year. So many good books! Happy March! I usually find there is so much to look forward to this month: spring, Women’s History Month, spring break (at my school at least), more sun, and MARCH BOOK MADNESS! March Book Madness is exactly what it sounds like. It is March Madness, but for books! There are 3 categories: picture books, middle grade books, and young adult books. Each gets its own bracket and anyone can vote on the website for each round. They start with 16 books (“Sweet 16”) and have “games” between two books and slowly go through rounds until we reach the championship. When I taught 5th grade, we followed the middle grade bracket, and in 3rd we follow the picture book bracket. It is so much fun and gets students excited about reading in so many ways. Often, students who are resistant to trying out a new genre are happy to expand their reading
book reviewbooksreadingMarch Book Madness
February 28, 2022 · current events
From the Washington Post : Russia-Ukraine conflict explained in maps If your household is anything like mine, the news has been on A LOT lately. Or you’ve been reading on your phone. Or both. I have a toddler so I try to watch the news when he is asleep and he can’t read what I’m looking at on my phone (and doesn’t let me look at my phone when he is around!), but I imagine it’s harder with older kids. One thing I’ve learned from teaching elementary school is that kids are aware of much more than we think and pick up everything we are thinking and feeling. So they know something is happening in Ukraine and it’s something that adults have been talking about a lot. They might come to school with facts to share, unanswered questions, misconceptions or incomplete information, or a combination of all of these. It’s hard to know where to begin and how to approach such a complex topic
UkrainewarrefugeeconflictNews
February 13, 2022 · curriculum
The tracking table we gave students to guide reflection and record observations during our investigation. Congratulations to teachers who have made it halfway through February! It is always a feat of endurance, but even more so this year. Last year, my co-teacher and I decided to find a way for students to exchange cards (no food) despite all of the challenges as we felt that they needed the joy and celebration. We were back in person, but only for half days, and the adults at our school had just started to get vaccinated. So we had the students bring in cards earlier in the week, distribute them in bags they decorated, and then had the bags “quarantine” so we would all feel comfortable touching them. This was before the revelations about how COVID actually spreads and we wanted to bring some connection and fun to a very odd school year. Of course, we said no food, and specified that
holidaysValentine's Dayvalentineracesocial class
February 2, 2022 · curriculum
Two of the quarters my students designed Happy February (and Year of the Tiger!) This week is Black Lives Matter at School week (we interpret the “week” part loosely and will probably spend 2-3 weeks introducing BLM, going through the 13 principles, and crafting our own class statement). You can read some important reminders in our Black History Month past posts here . As always, try to focus on relating whatever you learn to the present so students can make the connection to their own lives and the current world we live in. And remember that Black history is American history. Here are two examples of stories that help students to make the connection to now: Maya Angelou will be first black woman on US quarter : this is the Newsela link, so if you sign up for a (free) account, you can access the article at different reading levels. We had students read this article and then design their
Black History MonthBlack Lives MatterBlack lives matter at school
January 30, 2022 · book review
We wrote about this last spring, but wanted to share that Anti-Oppressive Education in Elite Schools: Promising Practices and Cautionary Tales From the Field is out (Nina received her copy!). We co-authored a chapter and it’s very exciting to see our words in print. You can read more about the book and enjoy some excerpts (including our chapter and an interview with us) here . We’ve been lucky enough to work with Katy Swalwell in the past and Gabby knows Ayo Magwood who we hope to collaborate with in the future. They are both doing really important work and are definitely worth following, but really the whole book has so much to offer. Please let us know what you
bookspublished piecesSocial Studiessimulations
January 18, 2022 · curriculum
Photo credit: https://www.childrensbookworld.com/book/9781629799391 Another 3rd grade teacher I know had a colleague forward her a link to an Art of Teaching post I wrote 4 years ago (a slightly modified version of this post on our blog ) about teaching MLK day! It was a nice surprise and funny coincidence, as well as a welcome reminder to use primary sources with my 3rd graders. This year, however, we went with a different approach as my co-teacher (who is new to me this school year!) had the brilliant idea of widening our focus to Dr. King’s legacy and movement and thinking about the people who came before and after him. I also always remind educators to tie Dr. King’s work back to today and future work. This is not a one lesson or one day reminder, it is something you should think about all year. Two obvious examples of this work continuing are Black Lives Matter at School Week and
MLKcivil rightsread aloudpicture bookspast posts
January 5, 2022 · curriculum
A message of encouragement from a former 3rd grade student! Sending love to teachers and families as we tackle yet another round of uncertainty and anxiety! I’m trying to take things one day at a time and remember that I’ve done this before when my students and I were not vaccinated. It seems like I will be in school in person with increased mitigation and vigilance. However, it also seems likely that some students and staff will need to stay home due to infection, so we may be teaching some students on Zoom and some in person at the same time. I experienced this set up for most of last year and found it to be the most difficult and least effective set up as it makes teaching and learning harder for everyone, but at least this time around it will be temporary and I have all my experience from last year to draw upon! For those of you who are finding yourselves unexpectedly teaching
virtual toolsvirtual learningonline learninghybrid learningCOVID
January 3, 2022 · Uncategorized
Happy New Year, everyone! We made it. Weather, COVID, Winter in general.. Life! Whew, a lot is going on. If a good story/book helps invigorate you (or your class, or a lesson, or a book club) we thought we’d share a few we really enjoyed this past year. These are Gabby specific so if you don’t like the vibe- please blame Gabby’s taste only :). Board Book: We Are Little Feminists: Families : I love this book for so many reasons. It has pictures of real people which is fun starting pretty early for littles, and then it is the kind of board book that has longevity for the conversations you get to have while reading it. Also the queer and multigenerational rep in this one just delights my heart and I love it. A great gift if you have any babies in your lives. Picture Books The Tree in Me - the art alone is wow, the poetic nature of it all is totally Corinna. I know I have shared this one
November 30, 2021 · curriculum
My 3rd graders and I have been learning all about maps! We learned about different features of maps, different kinds of maps, made our own maps (which were so creative) and more. This week, my co-teacher and I asked students to bring in a map from home. We told students it was their “homework” so they took the assignment very seriously, reporting talking to their parents to get permission and reporting back to us that they looked at different maps they found at home and decided not to bring in some that were too large or fragile etc. Once we all had maps at school (and we of course had some extra ones for students who forgot), we started our map exploration. First, as a class, we watched a Brainpop (not Brainpop Jr.) video about map skills and reviewed features of maps we might look for and reminded ourselves to use the map key or legend to help us understand the information the map was
mapsgeographyracehousingDC
November 21, 2021 · curriculum
Image from My Map Book by Sara Fanelli Happy almost Thanksgiving! This has been an incredibly long fall, especially for teachers. Even when we are beyond tired, it is always a good time to remind people (including ourselves) to give thanks and reflect on what we are grateful for. We like to share with students that there are many benefits to giving thanks including our own mental and physical health. But first and foremost, it’s important to appreciate the people in our lives who take care of us and keep us safe. Make thank you cards. My class will be working on thank you cards for many of the staff in our school building, especially the custodians who clean up after us every single day as well as the kitchen staff who cooks for us. If you don’t know everyone’s name, find time to introduce yourself, learn how their name is spelled, and how they like to be addressed. Most of the people
gratitudegive thanksThanksgivingthanksgrateful
November 17, 2021 · curriculum
Resources & Great Place to Start American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) Teaching for Change 2021 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Curriculum Teach-In (especially the section about Native Voices in Children’s Literature by Dr. Debbie Reese, the creator of AICL) Native American Heritage Month Resources For Teachers Our ideas for addressing Thanksgiving in 3rd grade this year (on top of expressing gratitude to all the people who take care of us at school): The word Indigenous - explained l CBC Kids News Newsela article: A Native American poet reimagines Thanksgiving and the poem referenced in the article: America, I Sing You Back by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke Read aloud: We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell We also just bought two new books that we are VERY excited about: Classified, The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell JoJo Makoons by
thanksthanksgivingNative American studiesNative American Heritage Monthread aloud
November 9, 2021 · blog posts
We ran a Students of Color affinity group for grades 3-5 at our school and hope to be able to meet again later this year. We used to meet during lunch (pre-COVID) which was so lovely, but since that’s currently not possible with all of our protocols, we are trying to find another time and space. We’ve found that many schools have affinity groups for older students, but want to share support and ideas for starting an affinity group with some of the younger ones as well. Our crew really benefited from it and it was a time we all looked forward to as a breather during the week! What to Prepare A general overview of your proposal/plan to share with administrators so they know and take this endeavor seriously. Everything about this process is easier if you have administrator buy-in. They will be bombarded by at least a few parents as you get going, soon enough. Maps/globe Vocabulary: Race,
affinity groupsStudents of Colorlower schoolelementary schoolrace
November 2, 2021 · book review
Image credit: Goodreads.com I just finished From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks and this book has so much potential for classroom use! It is a delightful read and a wonderful middle grade novel to share with kids in many ways. The main character is having both friend and family drama which will be so relatable to many upper elementary students and middle schoolers. Also, she loves to bake and wants to be a pastry chef so the descriptions of cupcakes alone will pull some students in. I’ve always loved books that included letters between characters, and Zoe (the main character) exchanges letters with her biological father, Marcus, who is in prison. Many students (and adults) don’t hear any humanizing stories about people who are incarcerated or the toll our massive incarceration rates has on families and children. Zoe’s father, Marcus, says he is innocent, and Zoe talks to her
book reviewnew booksbooksincarceration
October 26, 2021 · Uncategorized
Salutations friends, We are constantly on the lookout for strong representation in kid lit. We both firmly believe (read the research!), and know from teaching our students the power of providing young humans (and all humans!) with as holistic an experience of representation of humanity as possible. It’s good for everyone! We often talk about windows and mirrors and we love the ways our students grow as they sort themselves out within the beautiful web of the diverse human experience. We have an ongoing collection of books we love (you can read about some we love for different occasions all over this blog) but one has become appallingly apparent to us in our representation quest: SINGLE MAMAS. Shoutout to SINGLE MAMAS EVERYWHERE. We have been hunting and are beyond disappointed by what we’ve found. Some of the best mamas we know are badass single mamas and not only do their babies
October 19, 2021 · Uncategorized
We are both more visual readers than audiobook listeners. However, we see the value and ways audiobooks can be excellent. I’ve currently been listening to a lot more while walking my dog or doing chores. They can really work for our students, too. I’ll do a graphic novels post soon (one of my true loves) but I wanted to give audiobooks their time to shine and provide a mini celebration and reminder that audiobooks are valuable and reading, too! We love them because: They are accessible and inclusive! Excellent tool as a repeat to an in-class read-aloud, review for homework/bonus work, or with headphones as a calming time. Incredibly enjoyable for some kiddos. Some of us are audio-first strength humans. This format can really be what feels best for students. It can be its own assignment - in a fun and real-world application way while practicing fluency. Students can hear strong
October 12, 2021 · blog posts
Gabby’s post, Ten Habits to Help Teachers and Students Stay Positive and Engaged , was published on The Art of Teaching! Please read and share widely as I’m sure we all could use some reminders right now. And let us know your tips as
guest postengagementStudent-centeredsocial emotional learning
October 5, 2021 · blog posts
Image from storydistrict.org You can find a list of podcasts and related resources with amazing classroom potential in this past post about remote learning options , but I mainly listen to podcasts for myself. They make cooking and housework more fun and are a great way to get through a road trip (if my baby allows us to listen to one, that is). There are so many podcasts related to education and teaching, but for the most part I like to listen to ones that are less classroom focused and more of a break. Here are some recommendations to help us get through another unprecedented and unpredictable year in the classroom. Educators Lead: Nina was interviewed and featured on here , it’s a great way to hear from other educators Teaching Hard History from Learning for Justice (previously Teaching Tolerance): this podcast goes through real events of American history, most of which I did not
podcastreadingstorytelling
September 28, 2021 · curriculum
From https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/06/beauty-and-color-scenes-from-ethiopia/530166/ In my third grade class, we usually end our year with an integrated Social Studies, Reading, and Writing unit where we learn about the different regions of and research different countries in Africa, but this past year we ran out of time and weren’t able to do a lot of the creative grouping or sharing of materials that characterize this unit. So instead we focused on learning more about Ethiopia as a class. We chose Ethiopia as Washington D.C. is home to the largest population of Ethiopian born people in the United States. There are also many Ethiopian Americans in and around D.C. In past years, we’ve ordered food from a local Eritrean restaurant as part of our end of year celebration, but this year we were sadly unable to do that. We started our study of Ethiopia by looking at maps, watching
Social StudiesgeographyinquiryEthiopia
September 21, 2021 · Uncategorized
2021 Back to School: Graphic Novels! This list will grow but I am overdue for shouting out my love for graphic novels. As Fall rolls back in and kiddos bring in their favorite books from the summer and look for recommendations from us, remember our graphic novel friends. They are contagious in the best way (they will ripple through a whole class quickly if it gets rave reviews!) and get everybody back into the reading swing from the summer if they have been stagnant. There has never been a better time for fantastic graphic novels and here are a few of my recent faves that I hope you can share with some of your students to get them excited about reading at school again. Middle Grade See some of our favorite graphic novel series to pass to kiddos here. Snapdragon I know I have shouted this one out previously but it truly doesn’t get better than this quirky witchy, gender bendy mystery
September 14, 2021 · Uncategorized
Fall 2021 Back to School Series Recommendations! We love series because they are the gateway to keeping/getting a student hooked sometimes. We’ve found they can be the final piece of the puzzle or golden ticket to having a reluctant reader get into a book. They also work well as the start of a class read-aloud or book club, and then students can choose to continue on the series hooked to know what happens next! The picture book series are also great because of their foundational sense of familiarity while giving students the chance to take on the text independently or take their analysis (compare/contrast) levels deeper with each book. Here are some that would be great to pass along to students coming back into the mix this Fall. Young readers Jada Jones Series Alvin Ho (we still like these for his humor, accessibility, and the mix of graphics and text for young readers) Julian is a
September 7, 2021 · Uncategorized
image from fistfuloftalent.com Gabby here. One thing I’ve been coming back to time and time again this past year, be it endless COVID lifestyle navigations, trying out all of the things thrown at us as teachers (from always but especially these past two years), or as humans in our own lives is: the importance of changing our minds. This year one of my big undercurrent goals is to nurture the acceptance and celebration of changing our minds. Our kids have already been beyond exceptional at this and I think it will be easy to be in awe of and affirm them right from the jump of this school year. One great example of this was Simone Biles changing her mind at the Olympics, doing what she needed to do to take care of herself. The backlash she received is an unfortunate excellent example of a lot of things (racism, sexism, etc.), but also of how rigid and how difficult it is for so many of us
August 25, 2021 · curriculum
A virtual example “Shelfie” my co-teacher made last Fall. ORGANIZATIONAL Online calendar template for planning: while paper planners are wonderful, this past year I realized having everything online helped me feel reassured and less helpless when we had to suddenly quarantine or wait for test results. It’s also less to keep track of and carry back and forth, and especially useful if you are co-teaching as you can easily share the document and track changes in real time. I personally use these online calendar templates and turn them into Google Docs, but many different formats or platforms would work depending on what is easiest for you. My co-teacher and I really like the commenting and tagging options on Google Docs. I would be lost without my calendars as they have EVERYTHING on there from basic lesson plans to students’ birthdays to my dentist appointment. Anecdotal notes: as
back to schoolonline toolsvirtual toolsname activitiesfamily involvement
August 24, 2021 · tools
A slide with some of our thoughts on Virgil, a character from Erin Estrada Kelly’s Hello Universe Some of these tools are ones that I have used for years, others I really grew to appreciate during the pandemic when teaching solely online, when teaching in a hybrid model, and when teaching with students distanced from me and each other. I also found many useful when simultaneously teaching students in the classroom and online (over Zoom). I’m fortunate that my school has accounts at many sites and sets them up for us, but all of these sites offer a free option so students could use them at home or with whatever technology is available to them. Epic : Epic is a digital library for kids. It includes virtual leveled books, audiobooks, “read to me” books, and videos. There is a great nonfiction collection which would really work for students doing research at home. They do have limits on how
virtual toolsonline tools
August 17, 2021 · Uncategorized
SUMMER BOOK SHOUT OUTS A peek at some of our summer highlight books from board books to adult. We hope you are resting some (a lot, please!) and making some summer memories in ways that feel good. We wanted to do a quick shout-out to some of our favorite summer reads so far in case anyone is searching for what is next, aren’t we are always?! We love that it continues to be such a great time for kiddo books and that some awesome authors and publishers are continuing to work towards books that provide all our kiddos with windows and mirrors. Sometimes we just get so happy that this time continues to shift for our students (and ourselves!) as teachers and humans. More books, about all of us , always. Board Books Little Ladybug (interactive finger puppet! silly!) I am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness Feast for 10 My Heart Fills with Happiness You Hold Me Up Press Here (we enjoy the creative
August 17, 2021 · curriculum
From WorldAtlas.com As we watched the tragic scenes in Kabul unfold this past week, we thought about how to broach the topic with students in the classroom. Many students might have questions or a vague idea that something is happening based on overhearing adult conversations or catching snippets of the news. Where to start? One place to start that usually works well for us is with a read aloud . Sadly, we don’t have a lot of books set in Afghanistan, and the ones we could find ( list of picture books here ) are all about war, refugees, or women and girls being denied rights and education. These are unquestionably important stories, but we want to avoid presenting a single narrative about Afghanistan. It’s also hard to find picture books written by Afghan or Afghan-American authors, but we will keep looking now that we are aware of the deficit in our libraries! One book that many of my
current eventsSocial Studiessocial justice educationforeign policyAfghanistan
August 9, 2021 · book review
Cover image from Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena, published earlier this year. While “teacher new year,” as I call the beginning of the school year, is normally my favorite time of year, I am having a hard time with the uncertainty surrounding the beginning of the school year and am still processing everything that happened last year. I’m sure many others are feeling the same way (including lots of our students!). However, it is August already, so back to school is around the corner. So I am thinking about books I want to read to my students at the beginning of the year or have read in years past as sharing books with kids is always something I enjoy, whether it’s done at a distance, virtually, or side by side! These are books that came to mind or that I’ve used in the past, but obviously the possibilities are endless. Hopefully this list will help you with some back to
booksread aloudback to school
August 3, 2021 · curriculum
Photo credit: http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/slideshow/the-civil-rights-movement/# This past February, we spent most of the month taking time to learn about, talk through, and create our own statement for Black Lives Matter at School Week . However, we wanted to address Black History Month and explicitly connect American history to our lives today. There are, of course, many ways to do this, but one way I’ve always loved teaching history to elementary school students (or really any students) is using primary sources and read-alouds. They can make the past tangible and far more real for students, as well as feeling “grown up” and authentic. I took inspiration from PBS History Detectives and modified one of the lessons they created for high schoolers or middle schoolers. We started by watching the 2nd video titled Integration Report. (It’s the one that is 2 minutes long. The 6
Black History MonthBlack lives matter at schoolBlack Lives MatterSocial Studiessocial justice education
July 19, 2021 · curriculum
In February, my co-teacher and I (along with our entire school) learned about Black Lives Matter’s 13 Guiding Principles as part of Black Lives Matter at School week . My co-teacher and I chose to spend more than a week as we felt that we needed more time to introduce the topic, teach each principle, and allow time for reflections, shares, and questions before creating our own class statement. After learning about all 13 principles, we came up with the above statement about what our class believes. All of the language in the statement comes directly from students, and we worked to make sure their beliefs and voices were being expressed. Every student signed the statement (including two virtual learners who sent me their signatures electronically) and it hung outside both of our classrooms (we had to be in two rooms with smaller groups this year due to COVID). We started thinking and
Black Lives MatterBlack lives matter at school
July 15, 2021 · curriculum
A student wrote this letter to Erin Estrada Kelly after we finished reading Hello Universe! I wanted to write this post in May for Mental Health Awareness Month, but clearly time has gotten away from me (yet again). Here is a post Gabby managed to write in a more timely fashion for Mental Health Awareness Month in the past! As we look toward the next school year with lots of uncertainty and anxiety inducing unknowns looming for most kids and teachers, here are some ways to support kids in managing their disappointment or anxiety about our unknown future. Please keep in mind that these are strategies to deal with uncertainty and anxiety, but NOT ways to handle grief or trauma. Some things I tried that seemed to support my students this year: Talk about what you miss or would have done in more typical circumstances periodically. It’s okay to acknowledge disappointment and important to
mental healthMental Health Awareness Monthemotionsocial emotional learning
May 13, 2021 · book review
Take a peek a 3 books of poetry we turned to this
May 6, 2021 · Uncategorized
Greetings! If you are teaching right now we have no words to champion your efforts (and truly, good enough IS good enough!) as you hang on and complete this school year. We don’t like to support over-working and hero narratives around teaching, and also— teachers are remarkable. Three quick things we have to share with you. The first is that we are getting published in a book coming out very soon! You can check it out below. We are fans of anthologies (I particularly LOVE the Best American Non-Required Reading Series also known as BANR by nerdy fans of the series like me, I can’t help but slide in a book rec)! and it is pretty neat that we get to be a part of this anthology conversation about our how we’ve approached our work in private schools. Here’s the book: Anti-Oppressive Education in "Elite" Schools I’ve been hopping in and out of some of these sessions and I wish we had more
April 22, 2021 · Uncategorized
Hello! If we haven’t said it lately, we are happy to be sharing our time on this planet with you. Like all good (intentional) holidays, Earth Day is one we would say is a daily practice and celebration. Just like our bodies, we only get one planet! There are SO many ways to integrate nature, gratitude for the Earth, climate justice activism, science and natural wonderment into the classroom through literature… but I tried to choose a few that might be a little different/ less obvious. We are indeed a fan of We are Water Protectors currently getting a lot of air time right now, as well as Jane Goodal l related books that we’ve written about in the past. Here are a few other sweet picture book options. *1. My current FAVORITE is The Tree in Me by Corinna Luyken. I don’t know her but shou-tout to this stupendous fellow Midd grad. The art (like always with her work) is resplendent and
February 1, 2021 · curriculum
Our piece about Black History Month in the classroom was published by McGraw Hill’s Inspired Ideas! You can see the live piece here . We thought today was a good day to send it out, as is it February 1st. Today is also the first day of Black Lives Matter at School week. I (Nina) am not teaching today as we have a snow day (hence the photo of the masked snowman above), but already started having conversations with and hearing questions and thoughts from students last week. This year, I am hoping to go over all 13 of Black Lives Matter’s Guiding Principles which will naturally take more than a week (for everyone, but especially 3rd graders). DC Area Educators for Social Justice (a project of Teaching for Change) has some really useful resources for educators . Also, read about the first year we participated in Black Lives Matter at School Week here ! We also wrote a piece with teaching
Black History MonthBlack Lives Matter
January 17, 2021 · current events
Image credit: Goodreads Before the election, we wanted to focus on something other than the actual candidates as many students (and teachers, including me) were feeling so stressed about the outcome. So we learned about the history of voting rights in the United States of America. We started, as we so often do, by reading a picture book to the students. We read Granddaddy’s Turn, A Journey to the Ballot Box and talked about what we knew and what we could infer about Grandaddy and the narrator. In this excellent book by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein, a young boy goes with his grandfather to vote shortly after the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. It appears that they are in the rural South. The narrator’s grandfather is dressed up and has waited a long time to be able to vote. However, they are turned away and disrespected. Granddaddy is told he needs to read a complex text, and
votingelectioncurrent eventsMartin Luther Kingprimary sources
January 10, 2021 · current events
Here is a list of resources that I found helpful after last Wednesday’s attack on the US Capitol. Please comment below if you have more to add. As always, sending support to all of the teachers out there who are holding it together and holding it down for their students. Beyond the Stoplight: Resources for teachers on the days after the attack on the US Capital This post has a really important reminder that teachers do NOT have to “teach” about this horrific event, but if you are going to talk about or give your students space to talk about it, do so “with intention, care, and an explicit commitment to justice and equity.” Twitter thread by the Zinn Education Project: “ Teach About the Coup AND the Georgia Victory . They are connected. Now more than ever, students need lessons and inspiration from organizing in the face of white supremacy.” (Thanks to Teaching for Change for
NewsNewselacurrent eventswhite supremacy
August 20, 2020 · games
From Social Emotional Workshop 2016 Games, brain breaks, Morning Meeting activities, and community building exercises are a vital part of learning in our 3rd grade classroom. I’ve (Nina) been thinking a lot about how we can continue to incorporate games and brain breaks even when teaching over video or while staying six feet apart. Here are some of the ideas we came up with - Gabby is the game genius, so I asked her to help me brainstorm! We came up with two lists, which are below. I tried to link to a description or provide it myself unless it seems really self-explanatory, but if anything is not clear, please comment below and we will give you more details. On live video (Zoom, Google hangouts, etc) Keep in mind that a whiteboard with names or teams behind you where you can show them their points and keep updating it or keep track of rounds, etc. will help many of these! Also,
gamesbrain breakscommunity buildingname activitiesresponsive classroom
August 14, 2020 · curriculum
Reading Sherman Alexie’s Thunderboy Jr. to my class a few Septembers ago! I (Nina) am preparing to go back to work after my extended maternity leave. This is shaping up to be an unpredictable and unprecedented school year, but I hope my students and I can still find joy in learning and getting to know each other. My school has decided that we will start the year fully remote, although we are small (and independent) so we are lucky to have an option of some in-person small group meetings to meet students and parents, do some technology training, and distribute materials at the beginning of the year. Conceptualizing distance learning has been challenging for me. In August of 2018, I wrote about some of my favorite ideas to start the school year and I am trying to think about how I can still do some of those activities with my students, maybe with a new twist! I try to think about the
back to schoolbeginning of the school yearcommunity buildingget to know youname activities
August 6, 2020 · Uncategorized
Book Reflection Time! Some books that have given us good moments this summer. Here are made up awards I’m giving books I’ve enjoyed this summer. Best Calming vibes: How To Relax ( I now want this entire series because How To Fight and How to Love were also great ... I still burn the top of my mouth trying eat all the time so How To Eat is probably what’s up next, clearly I need it). The most lovely: The Carrying : Poems - Let’s be honest pretty much anything she touches turns beautiful. These are no exception. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (is it an adult book? A kids book? A little Pooh Bear vibes? Hard to say but it was sweet and lovely). Made me think/ continued learning: How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective - especially excellent. If you haven’t read This Bridge Called My Back I would recommend pairing the two! Girl, Woman, Other - it’s just
July 29, 2020 · Uncategorized
That’s great, we believe in you, here are some humble tips! We figured The Color of Fear would be an apt image for this post! (watch this film if you haven’t seen it, a real gem). Is your company trying to make an affinity space? A conversational community? A SURJ group? What’s the name, what's the style, what’s the vibe? OK, ok we’re not trying to tease. These spaces can be really effective, important, and even transformative -- when done well and properly supported and cared for. We actually happen to be really passionate about these types of spaces, they’re incredibly special when successful. We’ve started students of color groups and facilitated them, as well as run adult conversational communities (year long ones-- shout out to the National SEED project!), and conference ones. Every group of humans is different and facilitating is a true art form. If there’s anything we’ve really
July 23, 2020 · curriculum
Gabby with one of our students’ favorite read aloud books! After reading Weeding Out Racism’s Invisible Roots: Rethinking Children’s Classics | Opinion by Padma Venkatraman in the School Library Journal, I thought about book choices in classrooms and schools. I know most teachers right now are grappling with how and if they will be able to be with students in person this fall and of course, everyone’s safety and health is the most important thing. However, if you are like me, you are trying to plan and organize for what little we can control. One thing we can control is what books we choose to share with students. Children receive so much information and so many ideas through their surroundings and exposure from a very young age. Racism and institutional exclusion through societal messaging starts so early. At school (and out in the world, in the media, and more), students are shown
representationbooks
June 2, 2020 · Uncategorized
Hi wonderful people. We thought it might be useful to share some new and old favorite resources of ours that we turn to as we engage in our justice educatorianship. We’ll come up with a new trendy term for it just to keep everyone on their toes (we’re kidding, there’s a lot of those to keep up with as it is). We do want to start with the brief (sometimes painful, but essential and realistic) reminder about how this work is ongoing.. and ongoing..and ongoing. We aren’t surprised because we know how deep this work has to go and yet that doesn’t remove the pain/numbness/exhaustion/tears the list goes on. We respect that sometimes the heavy fury of this work in our society comes in the form of self care (see our list below for good vibes). Other times, it’ll come in the form of modeling the answer to the guiding questions we teach backwards from: HOW DO WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO TALK ABOUT
March 13, 2020 · curriculum
One of our students wrote this letter to Hillary Clinton! I am home on maternity leave, but more and more of my fellow teachers are hearing about school closures due to health concerns and potential exposure to coronavirus. I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to send work home or set up some kind of remote learning that are equitable and developmentally appropriate. First and foremost, ask your students for suggestions (if you have advance warning)! They will have lots of creative ideas for how to best keep their learning going at home. At the very least, they will be able to share the reality around internet access, quiet workspaces, free time, and more at their homes. They will also feel better if you include them in the process and model how this is a new situation for all of us and we are being flexible, understanding, and doing our best. Remember that some students may be helping
remote learningschool closing
February 3, 2020 · curriculum
The Black Lives Matter class statement our third graders came up with a few years ago. Seeing all of the activity around Black History Month on various social media platforms inspired me to write a blog post again (I know it has been a long time - I (Nina) was busy having a baby!). I am on maternity leave, so won’t be teaching in a classroom this February, but will link to some of our past posts with our ideas and reflections. My memories of Black History Month when I was in elementary school are pretty vague, but I remember learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and maybe even singing some songs about how he helped our country. As an elementary school teacher myself, I definitely have had to teach into the idea that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “fixed” racism in our country or that racism was something bad from our past. You can read more about one way we approached MLK Day in the
Black History MonthBlack Lives MatterSocial Studiessocial justice educationFebruary
July 12, 2019 · curriculum
I’ve always loved teaching Social Studies through inquiry. Start with questions students have, and then let them explore, research, and learn from there! This approach has led to biographical essays about inspirational historical and contemporary figures , case studies about different countries, companies, and Virginia Indian tribes , investigations into various holidays , and so much more. My hope is that teaching Social Studies through inquiry supports my students in continually learning about the world in a curious and open way. Some essential parts of inquiry in Social Studies (for me) are: Keep the final product open or at least open ended! There are so many ways to share what you learned - let students figure out the best way to do so and personalize it. Encourage creativity! We asked our students for annotated illustrations of the Virginia Indian tribe they studied, and every
Social Studiesinquirycase
July 1, 2019 · conferences
Last year, I took on a new role at my school and in addition to be a 3rd grade teacher, I was also the Co-Teaching Facilitator . It was fun to be able to work with my colleagues in a new capacity and rewarding to find and provide resources to (hopefully) support them. As part of this role and some hopes for next year, I attended The Art of Coaching Teams Institute through Bright Morning . I had already read and worked with The Art of Coaching by Elena Aguilar and was excited to add The Art of Coaching Teams (also by Elena Aguilar) to my resources bank. The workshop packed a lot into two days and I especially loved the opportunities to collaborate with others and make what we were learning and discussing relevant to our own work. There was so much to appreciate, but here are a few of my highlights: I loved the Cycle of an Emotion (in the photo above). It is so concrete and applies to
conferencesinstituethe art of coachingteamsco-
May 23, 2019 · blog posts
We were asked what is always on our end of year to do list.. Below are a few pieces we always have on that list. Ironically, for me the end of the year has so many of its own mini lists and rituals. A few things that are always on there for me are: 1. Write thank you notes (this includes personal ones I write, and also putting aside class time and guiding the students to reflect and write their own. These include notes to students, ridiculously reliable, wonderful maintenance staff, an amazing receptionist, a family that has been really kind, a colleague/peer that helped you out, a class of students you used to have that is graduating etc..) 2. Log that all our classroom books have been returned! Have students help out, remind families etc. 3. Set aside class time to solicit student feedback. We wrote blog posts about how and why we do this in 2017 and 2018. End of year feedback from
end of the yearreflectionsummersummer reading
May 14, 2019 · conferences
Participants’ drawings during our activity Last month, I had the opportunity to present at the Capital Area Progressive Schools (CAPS) Conference! The theme of the conference was Responsive Practice: Diversity, Equity, and Differentiation. This conference takes place every two years and all CAPS members faculty and staff are invited to join. This year, my school had the day off for students so everyone could attend and it seemed like most other schools did so as well. It was so lovely that so many schools were able to do this so we had so many other teachers (and faculty and staff) to meet! Coming from a small school with only one class per grade, it’s always very exciting to have a chance to talk to other 3rd grade teachers. My (new) co-teacher and I presented our W hat continent do you think they are from? drawing humans activity that Gabby and I designed as part of our 3rd grade
Capitol Area Progressive Schoolsconferencesprofessional developmentworkshopsocial justice education
May 3, 2019 · Uncategorized
A Few Additions: Our Favorite Recent Reading in Honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Check out last year’s post here ! Here are a few more worth taking a peek at this month, or any month:) The House that Lou Built by Mae Respicio We know we chose this one for Womyn’s month, too-- but with intersectionality and all, Lou and her family have a ton of awesome women as well as rocking their heritage, being thoughtful, and the list of what they rock goes on.. ! Enjoy the Bay Area vibes, tiny house-plot, girls who know what they want, and Filipino rep— it’s a keeper. Counting on Community by our fave (we met him!!!) Innosanto Nagara. This is our favorite board book of his and is most certainly what Gabby will be giving to all of her loved ones who have babies. A beautiful counting book that adds aspects of the lovely things that make community. This has his staple artistic beauty,
March 4, 2019 · Uncategorized
Great New Books to Keep You Celebrating Womens’/Womyns’ History Month (All Year Long) image from: https://hfhealthyliving.org/five-ways-celebrate-womens-history-month-new-york-city/ If you are a regular of our blog (hi!) you know we are of the mindset that while we appreciate the monthly celebrations as reminders to re-up our work, we don’t want to fall into the trap of only emphasizing the community being supposedly celebrated during only that month with our students. That being said, we love an excuse to add extra incentive and energy around learning about womyn. So here are some newer fiction books (most we read as ARCs so we could keep you as in the loop as possible) that have heroines that we think will aid in great conversations, or are solid options for keeping your students hooked in their adventures and inspired! The House That Lou Built by Mae Respicio We love this for its
February 21, 2019 · curriculum
Happy snow day all! Not teaching today means I have time to reflect on and write about some activities we tried out this month related to the Black Lives Matter At School Week of Action (which we also participated in last year ), and Black History Month. While it happens that our biographical essays unit (which ties in with our non-fiction reading unit) falls during this month, we of course try to teach with an anti-bias framework every day (and all day!). Our curriculum, language, literature, and so much more should reflect the diversity of our world (as we the teachers do!) and we work hard to make this a reality everyday. So we are very purposeful about what we teach during Black History Month/Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in hopes of avoiding the pitfall of teaching Black history only one month out of the year. This month, we used a number of wonderful read alouds to
Black History MonthBlack Lives Mattercurriculumread aloudNews
January 14, 2019 · curriculum
From A Fire In My Hands, by Gary Soto Happy Snow Day to any other teachers who are at home like me today! Since I actually had time to read books that were not for school today, I was reminded of a poetry unit we taught with our fifth graders. There were so many great sessions, examples, ideas, and books for teaching poetry at NCTE (which I attended in November) that it made me miss teaching a full poetry unit! For those of you who have a poetry unit or are just looking for new ways to teach, introduce, or incorporate poetry, here are some of my favorite lesson ideas: Start by asking students what is poetry? How can you tell if something is a poem? What makes something a poem? We asked our students to think about these questions and then looked at a lot of different poems together. This is a great way of dispelling misconception (poems must rhyme, anything can be a poem, etc). Our
poetryliteracymentoread aloudNCTE
December 15, 2018 · conferences
Late last month, I had the honor of participating on a panel presentation at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) annual convention. I was sharing details about our beloved storytelling unit on a panel about cultural relevancy, the arts, and student voice! I was lucky to be paired up with an excellent co-presenter (the panel ended up just being the two of us!) and loved sharing details about what still is one of my favorite units to teach. I was originally slated to be on a panel with four other people, but as it worked out, only two of us were able to present. We were both able to share more details about our work and had more time for questions (which is often my favorite part). Not surprisingly, the highlight of my presentation really was the video of a student performance from our Final Stage show where every single one of our students performed a true story about
storytellingNCTEconferencesprofessional developmentworkshop
December 6, 2018 · Uncategorized
Gabby here- first post in eternity. It’s finals week over here in graduate school land, and as I begin to reflect on the term (or procrastinate-- whatever you want to call it!), I have been thinking about what past teacher me could be reminded about from my current student life. Here are a few pieces that came up as I reflected (or procrastinated, really, you decide- just don’t tell me!). Hopefully these can be helpful right before the upcoming break, or when students return in January.. in addition to reviewing all those hard taught classroom expectations that they forgot! Time: What is time really, you know? And how does it just disappear so fast?! In seriousness, the demands of time management of a student are hard (different from a teacher’s but still very hard in its own way!), and I forgot to the degree they are especially when we calculate in the rest of their lives. Students do
Student-centeredstresssocial emotional learningWinterpedagogy
October 26, 2018 · curriculum
A snapshot of our “contract wall” showcasing some student art! As we near the end of October and my school has its Fall round of conferences with families, I was recently pleased to notice how many of my students use the language of our class contract (rules for our class) in their reflections about how the year is going for them. Creating our contract was a multi-step process starting with a read aloud and ending with a signed contract and accompanying art projects (and of course a shared understanding about the kind of community we want to create). We started with a read aloud (always a wonderful place to start!). Our first chapter book read aloud of the year is Save Me a Seat by Gita Varadarajan and Sarah Weeks . We read a few chapters and a day and do a variety of responses to our reading to help us empathize with the characters. The main characters’ negative experiences at school
responsive classroomsocial emotional learningclassroom managementcommunity buildingconferences
September 5, 2018 · Uncategorized
Hi everyone-- Gabby here writing to you from Oregon! While one of us gearing up for another great year leading the classroom, the other one of us is actually getting ready to be a student again... (cue the student-esque excitement annnd cue the whining about homework... well, hopefully I’ve outgrown that!). When I wasn’t packing or convincing cats that it’s fun to fly on planes to their new home, I have been doing my best read some soon to be released middle grade and YA lit. I have been loving the ARC (advanced reader copy) life. Here are a few of the recently released or soon to be released (!!) notable reads from the summer. Hopefully, you haven’t spent your whole classroom budget (like we did last year!) and you’ve got room to add a few of these to your shiny classroom library to kick off the year right! Picture books- This cover is so fabulous we won't even try to make it smaller!
literacybook reviewbooksread aloudnew books
August 29, 2018 · curriculum
Setting up our classroom for the new school year! I know many teachers have already had their first day (or week) of school and I’m sure you had lots of wonderful activities, read alouds, get to know yous, and interactions planned. I am planning for my first day of school next week and reflecting on some of the activities I’ve used in the past that I know I want to use again. Here are some of my favorites: Name related activities : Name activities are the best. They provide an opportunity for you to learn about your students and ask them how they would like to be addressed in class. They also create a chance for you to share something about yourself while learning about students’ identities. Here are some of my favorites: Create your Name : this activity was inspired by SEED. Have your students create their name in a way that feels good to them, using whatever materials you have on
back to schoolsocial emotional learningcurriculumMath
August 22, 2018 · curriculum
Thank you card from a student at the end of the school year. We try and end every school year by asking our students for their feedback and reflections. Students love this as it is their turn to evaluate us for a change! We love modeling how asking for and receiving feedback is part of learning and growing, as well as demonstrating our commitment to lifelong reflection and learning. Also, I’m always surprised by what students remember, appreciated, and enjoyed. Sometimes, the things they complain about during the school year are the things they say they enjoyed the most at the end. Some patterns we’ve noticed over the years are that students tend to especially appreciate amazing read alouds, the well stocked and curated classroom library (and personalized book recommendations from their teachers), experiences (for example field trips or guest speakers), games (and fun!), and their
feedbackstudentevaltechnologyend of the year
August 13, 2018 · conferences
Posters we made about children's developmental stage at different ages. This past week, I had the opportunity to attend a Responsive Classroom Course for Elementary Educators. I was introduced to Responsive Classroom in college as part of my elementary educator training, but it was wonderful (as always) to engage with other teachers and have some valuable review and even more important reminders. Some things I took away and am still thinking about are: Yardsticks (Child and Adolescent Development Ages 4-14) by Chip Wood: I love this resource! We give out the 3rd grade related pamphlets to families at back to school night, and the book is a great gift for new parents (of 4 year olds and up). Asking what is developmentally appropriate for a specific age is always a good question and a great place to start. This information is so valuable for so many reasons. If something in your class
professional developmentworkresponsive classroomsocial emotional learning
July 26, 2018 · professional development
As co-teachers, we get to come up with joint educational Halloween costumes! This school year, I’m adding a new role to my plate: Co-Teaching Facilitator! I’ll still be working as a 3rd grade teacher, but also hope to work with teacher teams and support them (and their collaboration). I’m very fortunate to work at a school where Lower School (K-5) Homeroom classrooms have co-teachers (and of course to have this opportunity to try out a new role without having to stop teaching!) and would like to support other teacher teams to utilize all the great opportunities that come along with co-teaching. Even if you don’t (or cannot) co-teach, collaborating with other teachers is so valuable for so many reasons! I find having another adult in the room is so valuable (not only because I can actually go to the bathroom if need be) in many ways, but especially in terms of making observations and
co-teachingco-teaching facilitatorcollaboration
July 17, 2018 · conferences
Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend the National Presbyterian School Diversity Institute featuring Rosetta Lee . I first encountered Rosetta when we were both presenting (about microaggressions) at the Asian Educators Alliance in 2016 , and have been a big fan ever since! I also loved attending a local conference and meeting many early childhood educators who also work in the DC Metro area. There were so many things to love about this institute. I especially appreciated being able to attend a session for early childhood (PK-3rd) educators, as so many diversity or social justice workshops seem to be geared for middle school and up. There is nothing like being surrounded by early childhood social justice educators to make you feel vindicated for all the times you insisted that third graders (or even fifth graders) are most definitely NOT “too young for this work!” I also was so
curriculumprofessional developmentanti-biasconferences
June 11, 2018 · Uncategorized
We feel so hip, so cutting edge! It is no surprise to any of you who follow us here (or on Twitter) how much we love literature. We have seen on a daily basis how transformative it can be for us personally, but also for our students. As a result, we are now reading ARC's ( Advanced Reader's Copies) to continue our ongoing quest of excellent, thoughtful, diverse literature. If you are someone who is looking for a reader (or two! ) feel free to reach out to us! We have loved reading the ones we have received so far. We especially loved How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs. The very first piece (Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands) in her short story collection blew our minds from the get go with its nuance, humanity, and the way it got at the depths of the many layers in our identities. Beautifully done-- we hope you can snag a copy this summer (It is officially out July 24th,
literacyread aloudsummer readingdiverse voicesdiscussion
June 6, 2018 · curriculum
Student book review for Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper after our book clubs wrapped up. It’s so close to the end of the year (and summer!) that we have started getting questions about summer work and summer reading. We absolutely want to encourage students to read over the summer in order to maintain their good reading habits (which are important life skills) and avoid the dreaded summer slide . In our class (and at our school), we’ve found our students tend to have consistent access to books and reading options all summer, so for the population we work with, the most important way to encourage summer reading is to promote reading all year long! All year, we have read alouds in our 3rd grade class . While we know this takes up a lot of instructional time, we have found that reading chapter books out loud to our 3rd graders has improved their comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and
book reviewbookssummer readingcurriculumread aloud
May 29, 2018 · curriculum
Art by Justin Hubbell at: http://www.justinhubbell.com/wonderful/ We feel so strongly about taking care of onself, putting your oxygen mask on first etc. We love the artists above and hope you check out their work as being supportive and encouraging of gentle and loving mental health. We hope this month you are (especially educators!!) taking some moments to take extra care of your mental health. Here are a few things that we do to support and facilitate taking care of ourselves in our little classroom community! 1. We do our best to model good habits with our students always. One afternoon during pick up time a father said he would send me an email later. His daughter turned to him and said, "Oh, Dad, she doesn't answer emails after 4pm, she has a life!" And although the dad had a surprised reaction, it was refreshing to see a student who had understood boundaries and was happily
mental healthMental Health Awareness Monthemotional learning
May 22, 2018 · book review
Oh how we love representation, it is so essential and of course, it benefits all of us. As we typically note, designated 'months' for any given demographic of humans is not something we follow-- every day is a day to learn about communities and cultures you do or don't belong to! However, we do appreciate the added push for elevating underrepresented voices and perspectives! Representation was our focus this month, ensuring that as many API perspectives were integrated into our daily learning as possible. Here are a few resources that our students especially loved during "API Heritage Month"! Representation through awesome characters: Aru Shah and the End of Time and The Serpent's Secret (both pictured above) are both great adventure novels were tons of fun, and both were packed with mythology and had bright heroines! We felt like we learned a lot and the world building in both was
book reviewbooksAsian American Heritage Monthrepresentation
April 27, 2018 · conferences
Last week, I was fortunate enough to facilitate a workshop at the Asian Educators Alliance (AsEA) Conference here in Washington, DC! I presented a workshop titled Rebranding Microaggressions: Otherizing and Marginalization at the AsEA Conference in Berkeley, CA in 2016, so it was wonderful to be back and connect with so many amazing educators on the other side of the country (and without even needing to fly anywhere)! My workshop was titled What Continent Do You Think They Are From: Confronting & Challenging Internalized Stereotypes. I led participants through the drawing humans and guessing what continent they might be from activity that we created for our class as an example of one activity you could use to uncover racial, gender, geographic or other biases. I find that the activity highlights and counteracts internalized stereotypes, assumptions, and bias, and hoped it would provide
conferencesworkshopdrawingstereotypeAsian Educators
March 21, 2018 · curriculum
It's Womyn's Herstory Month ! Every day is women's day etc etc.. and yet, we are also loved celebrating women and putting women (besides ourselves!) even more at the forefront this month. Full disclosure we are both huge book people so the list of books could go on for a while. Below are a few fantastic anthologies that we turn to often in our classroom and have used for many different projects throughout the year. We put these in the front of our room and hype them up extra for this month (along with books from March Book Madness especially Ada Twist, Scientist, The Most Magnificent Thing, I Dissent, The Water Princess , and Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist ). Through these read alouds (which the student's have been loving and asking for more of!), we've enjoyed the way we can tie this into conversations about maps in Social
Women's History Monthgenderwomensocial justice educationSocial Studies
March 20, 2018 · curriculum
We have been working hard on a nonfiction biography focused unit in Reading and an essay writing unit in Writing. Students perused the biographies we have in our classroom (so many amazing picture books and the Who Was.. series that is at a good level for 3rd graders), and then chose three people they’d like to research and write about. We had already done a number of read alouds of picture book biographies so were able to get our students excited about people they weren’t initially familiar with and showcase some amazing women and PoC. We also looked at photos, video clips, and listened to music. They were hooked! One thing that was important to remember going into this unit is that research is not only done through reading (even though we love books and LOVE recommending books to children) - we used photos, videos, video clips, maps, and more! Photos are a great way to start talking
essaywritingresearchbiographyBlack History Month
February 28, 2018 · curriculum
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. As we reflected on Dr. Martin Luther King Day , anti-bias education is not something we do just one week (or day, or month) out of the year. It is something we try to do all day, every day as part of our curriculum, teaching philosophy, and classroom culture. The people we highlight and celebrate in our classroom day to day reflect the diversity of our world (just like we the teachers do!). Image from https://wearoutthesilence.org We started our BLM week by asking students: What do you know about Black
Black Lives Mattersocial justice educationanti-biasrace
January 18, 2018 · holidays
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC. Photo credit here . Every year, when we have a long weekend for Martin Luther King, Jr. day, we wonder how to address the holiday. Issues of inequality cannot simply be explained and dismissed in one day, and simplistic or one-dimensional descriptions of Dr. King don’t do him justice. We also try to incorporate social justice education into our classroom everyday, as oppression, prejudice, and discrimination are always relevant to teaching and learning about the world. We often find that our students think that racism and segregation were a problem, and Dr. King “fixed” that problem and everyone is equal now. They make statements about how everyone is equal now and Dr. King caused that through nonviolence and an inspiring speech. So we start by asking students what they know about Dr. King. Younger students in particular focus
holidaysMLKMartin Luther KingNewselaprimary sources
January 12, 2018 · Uncategorized
Finding the opportunities in our problems, creating new vocabulary for the classroom, and teaching into post Winter Break transition blues! We are back from Winter Break and full swing into the wonderful world of 3rd grade! We are also... tired, but isn’t everyone? That tiredness though, and the adjustment period back into school routines , means that we (teachers and students alike) might bump into a few more dilemmas throughout our days. It happens! It is part of being human, and because we try to be thoughtful humans we have decided to teach INTO it! (Key word being try!). Our first piece of teaching into it (besides the typical reviewing of our classroom contract etc..) is to read one of our recent favorite books aloud: What Do You Do With a Problem? By Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom. You may have stumbled upon other fantastic work these two have created, our personal favorite being,
January 4, 2018 · curriculum
One of our student's New Year's resolutions - resist MORE against Trump! We have an annual tradition of writing New Year’s Resolutions with our students, and adapted our ideas from the past this year to work for our 3rd graders. We enjoy this writing piece for many reasons: it often yields inspiring and hilarious responses from students (two examples pictured), it’s a great way to review our class contract and reflect as we come back from the break, it’s a quick and high success writing piece as we get used to being back at school, and of course, it’s important to model reflection and goal-setting for our students. This year, we used the beloved Kid President video that we wrote about in our New Year’s resolution post last year with our students and their 7th grade buddies. For Writer’s Workshop with just our 3rd graders, we started by watching the New Year’s Brainpop video . It tied in
writingNew Year's resolutionsreflectiongoal setting
January 4, 2018 · simulations
In conjunction with the National Council for Social Studies Annual Conference, Nina's piece on teaching perspective and Economics through simulations was published here . Please read and let us know what you
simulationscurriculumEconomics
November 14, 2017 · simulations
In the process of teaching (and learning) geography in our third grade classroom, we found that our students were very North America and Europe centric. While eight year olds are naturally egocentric, we wanted an activity to shift their perspectives and push them to realize that there are “real, important people” ALL OVER the world. So we redesigned our beloved activity where we draw people to realize our internalized biases (that we wrote for 5th graders, but have used with adults as well) to make it more geography focused and 3rd grade appropriate. While we were focused on introducing inspiring (and unexpected) people from different continents, we also thought we might uncover some gender and racial biases along the way. We have been learning about world geography starting with the seven continents and five oceans since the first week of school. We started with the continents and
simulationgeographySocial Studiessocial justice educationcurriculum
November 6, 2017 · book review
A photo from our end of our read aloud celebration. Our first chapter book read aloud this year was Save Me a Seat by Gita Varadarajan and Sarah Weeks. It’s an amazing book for so many reasons, and was the perfect first read aloud for our class. While we felt it allowed for natural segues into many of the beginning of the school year discussions and activities, it’s a perfect book for anytime of the year. There are two narrators which leads to two vastly different perspectives (often on the same event). Our students reflected often on how two people can experience the same events very differently. This helped them brainstorm ways to be understanding and empathic. One of our students referenced part of the book as an explanation of how misunderstandings happen and why assumptions are dangerous. One of the main characters, Ravi, is a new student (and recent immigrant). His experiences
read aloudbook reviewbookscurriculum
October 24, 2017 · Uncategorized
We are back in DC and reunited with our 3rd graders, a little wiped, but feeling very grateful. We just returned from the NWTSJ Conference (Northwest Teaching for Social Justice) in Seattle! We were graciously asked to return and do another presentation, and we couldn't pass it up. As we met participants along the way, we frequently got the question, "Wow, DC!? Why did you come all the way here?" The answer is simple. We love this conference. The energy is infectious, and we love checking out the hard work of largely West Coast public school educators. The conversations are dynamic and the passion seems neverending. A few highlights beyond the Seattle fresh air and rain were: A workshop about how to teach about the not so distant, painful history of Japanese-American Incarceration. We have been looking for resources for how to make this history more visible and this definitely fueled
conferencesSocial Studiessocial justice education
October 15, 2017 · curriculum
Last week, we reconsidered Columbus Day. While our school does not recognize the holiday and remained in session on Monday, it is still a federal holiday and many of our students’ parents had the day off. To lead up to our inquiry work, we asked students to respond to the question, “If you could create a holiday, what holiday would you create and why?” for their Morning Work. They had predictably fun and silly ideas - Kids’ Day when you get unlimited candy, Pets’ Day when pets can go everywhere, etc. However, the idea emerged that a holiday is about celebrating someone or something POSITIVE. Later that week, we did a read aloud of Encounter by Jane Yolen and David Shannon, which tells the story of Columbus arriving in San Salvador in 1492 from the perspective of a Taino child. After reading the story, we had students complete an I think/I wonder chart about the the events described in
holidaysColSocial Studiessocial justice educationhistory
October 3, 2017 · curriculum
Part of the handout we used to scaffold this written response for our students. Inspired by #iwishmyteacherknew , we asked our students to tell us what they wish we knew about them (and in general). We started by asking them what was on their minds now that they are back at school, and then asked them how they are different at school versus at home. These prompts set them up to share insights with us that could help us know and support them as the complex humans they are. Specifically, we asked if there was anything they wished we knew or anything they wanted to share with us. We also asked how to best motivate them or help them if they are feeling stuck. We were impressed with the depth of thought our students revealed in their answers. Many adults won’t be able to tell you what motivates them or helps them when they are feeling stuck (or will give you a cynical answer that doesn’t
beginning of the school year#iwishmyteacherknew
September 27, 2017 · current events
A student's monument plans Gabby's post, Creating Monuments of Our Classroom Rules After Charlottesville , was published on the Teaching for Change website! It details what we did next after writing postcards for Charlottesville and how we eventually developed our class "contract" or rules. Please read and let us know what you
Charlottesvillepublished pieces
September 26, 2017 · curriculum
Congratulations! Your school has just received a gift or made the leap and decided to be a '21st century' school and now all of your students have….. COMPUTERS. Dun. dun. Dun. We know. It's exciting because these tools provide access to so much knowledge and so many resources! It's also terrifying because…well, the internet. We are constantly trying to sort out what it looks like to be the best educators we can be while utilizing the computers our students are lucky to have in our classroom. As we searched around to see how other teachers have rolled out computers, we found there really aren't many resources out there to give teachers the skills on how to unleash these tools that can seemingly do almost anything with their students. We are still learning and will have new ideas for you as we sort out how this can work best with our 3rd graders this year. But for now, here a few tips we
computerstechnologyclassroom management
September 11, 2017 · current events
One of the activities on our (very long) to do list for the first week of school was writing Postcards for Charlottesville through the #DearYoungPerson campaign with our new third graders. On Friday afternoon, we carved out some time and got started. We started with a read aloud of Painting for Peace in Ferguson by Carol Swartout Klein and used the book as an segue into a conversation about using art and images to help people feel better. Next, we asked students if they had heard of Charlottesville and looked at Charlottesville on a map to see how far it was from our school (less than 3 hours). We received a variety of responses to our question, from “I’ve heard of it before” or “my family member works there”, to “there was a violent riot there.” We had two students who knew more details and shared longer explanations about white supremacists, torches, and terrorism. We confirmed
CharlottesvilleactionpostcardsforCharlottesville#DearYoungPerson
August 19, 2017 · curriculum
My first day of school (with students present) is in a little over a week. My co-teacher and I are moving from 5th grade to 3rd grade, and although our students will be younger and more concrete, we will continue to talk about current events. We don’t have a choice. This work is too important to stop because it is scary, uncomfortable, or difficult. You know your students and what will work best for them, but here are some ideas of how to adapt and use the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)’s 10 Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide in your classroom. The 10 steps below are from their guide’s new edition. A few reminders: if you are afraid that something is “too scary,” stop and think about students (and their families) who are already scared before they come to school. If you are afraid to be “too political,” remember that teaching is a political act. Everything you say - or
current eventscurriculum
August 17, 2017 · Uncategorized
Message from two students on the last day of school (names removed for privacy). As the beginning of the new school year approaches (or Teachers’ New Year, as I like to call it), memories and reflections from last year always pop up as we decide what we want to keep, adapt, and get rid of as we start anew. This year, Gabby and I are moving from teaching 5th grade to teaching 3rd grade, so the calculation is even more complex. The first way we close the year is by literally closing a book. We also finished our class read aloud, Walk Two Moons, on the very last day of school, which felt perfect - Walk Two Moons (if you haven’t read it, RUN and pick it up!) has a complex, multi-faceted ending with lots of emotions, just like the end of the school year. It also reminded me for the umpteenth time how much I love read alouds and how they are an essential teaching and learning tool, but also
back to schoolend of the yeartraditionscommunity building
July 28, 2017 · curriculum
Excerpt from a student's reflection about our storytelling unit. Storytelling is one of the best units I have ever taught. It seamlessly integrates our Reading and Writing instruction, encourages students to use their voices and consider other perspectives, develops communication, presentation, and persuasive skills, and both pushes and allows students to express themselves in a new way. One of the stories we have our students write and perform is inspired by Storycorps and based on an interview with someone close to them. The Storycorps inspired story is the 2nd writing project of our storytelling unit. Timing wise, it usually coincides with Grandparents and Special Friends Day (a tradition at our school), where grandparents/special friends come to school with students for a shortened schedule. We use the Homeroom time to watch Q & A , an animated Storycorps interview by a child named
storytellinginterviewliteracyfamily involvementpublic speaking
July 26, 2017 · simulations
As part of our Social Studies curriculum, Gabby and I teach Economics to 5th graders (although next year, we are moving to 3rd grade and are developing a brand new geography curriculum this summer - stay tuned!). We are often asked how we do this and how we expect 10 years olds to understand something so complicated that many adults don’t understand fully. Our response: laying a groundwork in elementary school will help our students understand more as adults. Also, challenging and countering previously held beliefs only gets more difficult as students get older so it is essential that we explore the realities of money, poverty, and class while our students are still in elementary school and remain somewhat open-minded. Many of the activities we use in this unit sprang from our students’ misconceptions or desires to learn more. When we start this unit, we often hear variations of “people
Economicsanti-biassimulationsmoney
July 20, 2017 · book review
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech is our read aloud for the last few months of the school year. Aside from being an incredibly captivating story with beautiful writing, it also fits perfectly with our curriculum as we are studying storytelling (and Sal, the main character, is telling a story) and American Indian studies (Sal has Indigenous ancestors and visits sacred Native sites). We also study Health & Wellness so the budding young romance is perfect for our class to experience as well. There are also many other relevant and significant issues skillfully woven into this story (mental illness and the related stigma, family dynamics, and gender equality, to name a few). We have a bin full of books by Sharon Creech that we only bring out of the closet (with a lot of fanfare) when we start reading Walk Two Moons . Soon, the books are fought over (especially Absolutely Normal Chaos as it
read aloudbooksbook reviewmentor text
July 19, 2017 · simulations
Well into summer, I finally have some time to sit down and reflect on the school year! One piece I wanted to take a closer look at was the end of year evaluations from students (of us!). Gabby and I created a Google Form with seven required questions and an optional anything else you’d like to add (they are all listed or summarized below in bold font). We then asked our students to give us honest, thoughtful feedback as part of our reflection and planning for next year. We find that using a Google Form and having students respond on their computers often causes them to write more and feel more “anonymous” and empowered to be honest. There are many reasons why we ask our students for feedback. Primarily, we do want to know what they are taking away, thinking, feeling, and reflecting and student evaluation of teachers is an important and often overlooked resource. We also want to give
feedbackevaluationend of the year
May 25, 2017 · simulations
An except from a student's reflection homework the night after the simulation. When we start teaching Native American studies, students often refer to Native Americans only in past tense or as peoples who “used to live here.” We correct this misconception and learn about American Indians TODAY, but we also ask our students where they got this idea from and why this so often is the dominant narrative about indigenous Americans. This exploration requires some understanding of history (which remains limited by the literal mindedness of 5th graders) and the reality of extermination, eradication, and (forced) assimilation that native peoples experienced. Before we start learning about boarding schools in detail, we want our students to have an experience they can use as a parallel to forced assimilation. Another student's reflection showing revised thinking! An important disclaimer is that
simulationNative American studies
May 15, 2017 · curriculum
The amazing Anne Thomas talking to our students about storytelling! We were incredibly fortunate to have the one and only Anne Thomas come in and visit our classroom! Her visit is an annual tradition as part of the introduction to our storytelling unit and it is a day we look forward to all year. My co-teacher Gabby and I first saw Anne perform at a Story District show in DC, and were immediately impressed. Later that week, we emailed her, casually mentioned we were her biggest fans, and asked her to come visit our class. And so the tradition was born! Our storytelling unit is an integrated Reading and Writing unit that takes place every spring in our 5th grade class. Students read, write, listen to, and watch amazing stories. Before Anne’s visit, we had read some great stories with the kids (including Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown ) and talked about what components are key to
storytellingguest speakerpublic speaking
May 11, 2017 · curriculum
Some of the beautiful portraits our students created (and delivered) to SOME seniors! Service Learning In 5th grade we do a service learning experience that aims to honor what is developmentally appropriate for 5th graders and prioritize maintaining the utmost dignity of the others. Service Learning is such a complicated realm, as we work to ensure that we don't "otherize" or create complicated (and potentially problematic) narratives about what 'help' is and who helps whom. Our SOME (So Others Might Eat) project is one of our favorite service learning experiences, because we think it does work towards our ideals of what service learning should look like: meaningful to all, authentic, and a learning experience! The Process! Our project starts when 5th grade goes to study portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery - learning about how portraits are about more than just a face, but the
service learningartDC
March 18, 2017 · conferences
Excited to share some of our favorite activities with others at PSPP (pom poms in hand!) We had the pleasure of visiting GDS High School and attending the Private Schools for Public Purpose (PSPP) conference ! We presented some experiential learning activities we do in our 5th grade classroom (two of our favorites, our drawing activity and pom pom simulation , and some new ones like our factory simulation in our Econ 101 unit!), along with how we talk about race and socio-economic status in our classroom. We were privileged to spend our workshop time with thoughtful, justice-oriented educators. Unlike some other presentations we have done, this space was small and intimate, and we loved getting to hear from everyone and have a dynamic discussion. We heard all about affinity groups, equity work, and innovative programming at other schools. Our trusty bin of workshop supplies: pom poms,
conferencesworkshoppresentPSPP
March 15, 2017 · curriculum
We submitted a piece about an experience from our classroom to Embrace Race, a multiracial community of people supporting each other to help nurture kids who are thoughtful and informed about race. It was published recently! Please read T he Message We Send When We Try Not to Talk About Race and let us know what you
racemediumpublished piecesdiscussion
March 5, 2017 · simulations
Excerpt from a student's reflection homework (after the simulation). Our pom pom simulation is a personal favorite. It simulates privilege, the cyclical effects of poverty, oppression, and more. Students always make new connections and take their reflections to a level we never could have anticipated. This year was no exception! There are 3 rounds to the pom pom simulation. Round One consists of collecting pom poms. You have one minute to get as many pom poms as you can. Pom poms, of course, simulate wealth (and power). There is a catch. Students receive slips of paper with “assignments” on them. These instructions make it harder for some people to gather pom poms than others. Some examples: You can use both of your hands, but you may not move your feet at all. You may not bend your knees. You must wear an oven mitt on your non-dominant hand and use that hand to pick up pom poms. You
simulationsocial classSocial Studiessocial justice education
February 16, 2017 · curriculum
Image from the Women's March on 1/21/17. Sunday, February 19th is the 75th anniversary of the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 (in 1945) which led to the removal and internment of approximately 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry. Many of them were US citizens. Many of them lost property or were forced to sell at a loss when they were removed and relocated. I personally find “relocation” and “internment” misleading as people were incarcerated and given no choice about their removal from their homes. Image credit: http://hdjapaneseinternment.weebly.com/uploads/6/8/7/3/6873644/9418554_orig.jpg While this shameful occurrence in American history is and always will be relevant, it feels especially relevant today with the recent Muslim ban, fears of a Muslim registry, and frequent executive orders. You know your students and school best, so I compiled some
historySocial Studiessocial justice educationMuslim bandiscrimination
February 13, 2017 · curriculum
The cards we used for "life twists" that different students received throughout the simulation. “I don't understand why other companies treat their factory workers inhumanely if you can still be successful if you treat people like people.” Economics 101 is in full swing in 5th grade! We tried out a BRAND new simulation today and were reminded how difficult it is to check all of the details for experiential learning activities. Whew! That being said-- we are pleased with what our students experienced and how they are now thinking about different types of work, wages, and the many levels and layers of circumstances that can alter people's financial stability. SET UP: This one is complicated to set up. We have three groups, and each group had different tasks and varying working environments: Office workers (5 students) Task: read news articles and created a presentation Could takes breaks
simulationsEconomicsSocial Studiessocial justice educationsocial class
February 1, 2017 · podcast
Interview on educatorslead.com Nina was featured on a podcast as an edu-leader! You can listen to her interview with Educators Lead here . It's also available through: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/educators-lead-jay-willis/id1068590753 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=79340&refid=stpr Google Play: http://www.educatorslead.com/googleplay Please listen and comment below with your thoughts and responses - we'd love to hear what you
podcastinterview
January 30, 2017 · curriculum
Protesters at Dulles Airport on Saturday night. We were demanding entrance to the United States for people affected by the ban. Coming off a weekend of protesting, I find myself thinking hard about what to say to my students tomorrow when they ask me about the news. We saw some of our students at the rally at the White House today. They will want to share observations from their experience tomorrow. Students will also have questions about checks and balances since we recently concluded a unit on US Government. They will have overheard conversations between adults and understood only snippets of what was going on in the media. Where do we start? Our planned read aloud for tomorrow! Start with a read aloud. Ask students what connections they can make to the story. Can they make text to self connections? Model by thinking of a time you yourself were homesick or scared or missed someone.
protestresistcurrent eventsread aloudSocial Studies
January 27, 2017 · simulations
"Well in the real world not everyone can get everything and this kind of showed me that not all our decision making processes are fair." Notes on our whiteboard from the students' brainstorming and decision making process. How it Works: Yesterday in Social Studies, we did our Sinking Ship simulation (idea credit: we first read about this here ). We had the students in half groups (when half the class is with us and half the class is with a different teacher) so we only had 13 students at a time. For each group, we started by handing out “assignments” on folded slips of paper. The different roles were: migrant worker senator someone who is currently unemployed child firefighter teacher nurse doctor babysitter college student taxi driver lawyer scientist We then asked our students to get in a circle and told them that they were on a sinking ship, and there were only FIVE spots in the
simulationsocial justice educationproblem solvingcollaborationSocial Studies
January 23, 2017 · curriculum
Hi everyone, Gabby here. I'm excited to share this idea with you today. It is one of my favorite ideas and tool we have used so far this year. You may have also noticed (we are 110% sure you have) that writing is a process and writing can be hard! We all have our moments where we slump into the doldrums and lows where we just do not know how to get out. I noticed this with myself when working on storytelling pieces.. Each time I started to take on a story, I found myself landing in the same slumps and moaning at very similar times in the process. My friends would laugh on the phone, "Gabby, this always happens to you.. Right about now!" What helped me was recognizing that the lows came specifically during the brainstorming process (and deciding which idea to use!) and just that knowledge that this was a part of my process, gave me some perspective to work through it. And thus, the
writingcurriculumprocessmapreluctant writers
January 18, 2017 · curriculum
"I learned that the small population of the upper class have more money than the huge population of the middle class. I do not think it is fair because a small amount people get a huge advantage over the massive amount of people in the middle/lower class." That's right, today in class we talked about the very agreeable subject of…. Money! We started our Economics unit yesterday with a simulation. In our activity we had the students do IR (independent reading) in spaces that simulated how wealth is distributed in the US. For example: 1 student has 11 chairs (wealthiest 1% has 42% of US wealth) 3 students have 9 chairs (next 9% has 36% of US wealth) 22 students have 6 chairs (bottom 90% has 22% of US wealth) This part of the simulation was all fun and games for us. We squealed and giggled and playfully whined about our legs being squished trying to cram onto those 6 chairs. But then… We
curriculumEconomicssimulationsactive learning
January 10, 2017 · Uncategorized
One Word From Sophia By Jim Averbeck and Yasmeen Ismail Summary: Sophia is a passionate young person who really wants her One True Desire for her birthday. She spends the book trying out different tactics (graphs, word choice, surveys etc.) to persuade her family members to get her, her wish. We love that she is multi-ethnic (!!!) and that this is represented in the different family members she goes to speak to throughout the book. Sophia is also hilarious and always makes us laugh (teachers and students). Be warned, there is a line about poop, this is pretty much a guaranteed giggle. We also love the sophisticated vocabulary that this book employs-- many of our students feel inspired to elevate their language after this read aloud! Questions/conversations with students: We go over vocabulary in this text We go over her strategies, explicitly noting her thoughtful use of graphs, charts
January 5, 2017 · Uncategorized
We started off the new year by having our students write their own New Year's Resolutions. We (teacher and students) love Kid President , and we (teachers) love his framing of thinking about what we can do for others in the new year. So we watched his AWESOME YEAR Challenge and brainstormed ideas for what we can do to make 2017 awesome for somebody else. Students had their own templates which included a section for brainstorming ideas. Next, they chose ideas they wanted to elaborate on, and used these sentence starters: I resolve to… I will do this by… This is significant because… (So what?!) We frequently include the "so what" section as it really pushes students to be reflective and think about a bigger picture instead of making a concrete or limited statement. We also ask our students to choose one resolution and think of two ways we (their teachers) can help them work on or achieve
January 2, 2017 · Uncategorized
We hope you all have been finding moments of peace and moments of rest during the holidays. We are gearing up for tomorrow and this next chapter in the school year. We hope to bring calm and routines back into the lives of our spunky 10/11 year olds! For now we wanted to leave with you a few quotes that have been guiding our preparation into the new year. We hope they support you in your work and your self care! Sending you warmth, Gabby +
December 15, 2016 · book review
Crazy Hair b y Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean This is one of our favorite books! Ms. Arca reads this one, but we both relate. Summary : This book is a rhyming text (we call it a poem) in which a little girl asks the main character why his hair is so "crazy". He responds with the most dazzling array of answers. There are beasts that live in his hair, and a circus, and hot air balloons.. The art is also phenomenal. Each stanza ends with "..inside my crazy hair" and even our 5th graders will fill in that section and join in the reading. How we use it: We use this text in our poetry unit . We LOVE it. This is one of the last poems that we have our students write in the unit because it is more personal. The prompt for this poem is to take back ownership and claim an aspect of yourself that you sometimes feel insecure, judged, or uncomfortable about. I (Ms. Arca) then talk about how even though
book reviewpoetry
December 3, 2016 · Uncategorized
Gabby reading Fox aloud to the students in preparation for our text-based debate. We tried something new this week and launched our character analysis unit with a text based debate! I got this idea from attending a debate related workshop at the Capital Area Progressive Schools conference at Green Acres last month. Our students LOVE debating so we had to try it out. The idea of a text based debate is that students agree or disagree with a claim about a character and find evidence from the text to back up their argument. We used the book Fox by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks . The claim we used was: Magpie is a good friend. If you don't know the book, you should check it out! image credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2651521-fox We started by having students do a quick write in their writer's notebooks answering the question: what makes someone a good friend? Then, we read Fox aloud
November 22, 2016 · curriculum
We submitted a piece about our storytelling unit to Bright, Medium's platform for news about innovation in education and it was published today! Please read Telling Truth: Why we teach storytelling to fifth graders and let us know what you
storytelling
November 20, 2016 · curriculum
"It's personal." "No one has ever talked about race in front of me so I think you don't talk about it. Ever." "My parents have only talked about it once in front of me and they were REALLY uncomfortable, so I learned you shouldn't talk about race." Earlier this school year, we asked our students what they know about talking about race. A few representative responses are quoted above. All of our students also agreed that race is confusing and they don't know much about it. We discussed how when something is confusing or we don't know much about it, the way to learn more about it IS to talk about it, even if it is uncomfortable. So, this week was "race week" in our classroom. We started with a drawing activity , challenging students to realize stereotypes and expectations they've internalized without realizing, and continue on to learning about institutionalized racism and learning
raceanti-biasdrawingstereotypesilent conversation
November 10, 2016 · Uncategorized
Yesterday was a difficult day, in every sense of the word. I went into school feeling devastated and exhausted. Other teachers came into our classroom for hugs. Many of my coworkers were in tears, sharing stories of heartbreaking questions their children asked them that morning. Some were wondering what to do to make sure they or their family members would stay (and feel) safe. Image credit: VOA news ( http://www.voanews.com/a/minnesota-state-legislature-llhan-omar-somali-refugee/3589660.html ) But our students were arriving, whether we were ready or not, so I set up our sign-in prompt for the day. It was the photograph above with the headline: "Ilhan Omar will be nation's first Somali-American legislator." Students wrote thoughts and questions related to the headline as they trickled into the classroom. Later, we watched this video during Morning Meeting. My students responded to the
electionpolitics
November 6, 2016 · conferences
Getting ready to lead our workshop! On Friday, we were fortunate to be part of the contingent from our school attending the Capitol Area Progressive Schools (CAPS) conference! The conference was held at another area progressive school and teachers and staff from seven other progressive schools were in attendance. We were excited by the prospect of sharing our simulations and curriculum with local schools as the possibility of continued collaboration is so much higher when you are in the same city! Our workshop centered around the social justice work in our classroom, with participants actually experiencing two activities we created ourselves: our drawing activity that highlights internalized stereotypes and our pom pom simulation . As always, our participants brought their own unique perspectives, responses, and reactions to our activities. During the drawing simulation, multiple people
conferencescurriculum
November 2, 2016 · Uncategorized
This photo always makes us laugh and reminds us of the birth of the "Pomelo Hat Challenge" Here are our pomelos before 1. We got hungry. And 2. We all become creative fashion designers! Great news! Per request (we should've thought of this sooner), we have made it so that you can subscribe to our blog. YAY. We hope you'll join us (and keep the pressure on us) as we document our school year and our thoughts on social justice ed. As always, keep us posted on what you are up to/thinking/what is working for you all out there. We've loved being education and social justice nerds with you all. With excitement and love, Nina + Gabby Subscribe below :) Subscribe to our
subscribe
November 2, 2016 · Uncategorized
Hallo again! (see what we did there ? Nina says this wasn’t my finest). Yours truly were there , and they're ( their was also a costume but is not pictured). Of course we can all have a reminder about homophones on Halloween! It was just recently Halloween in 5th grade and we wanted to share one of our favorite parts of prepping for the holiday. In 5th grade since we are constantly examining systems and institutions, we examine many holidays throughout the year and Halloween is no exception! Halloween is a jackpot for discussing stereotypes, cultural appropriation, gender norms, “trends” and media. In short, we LOVE it as a way to inspire even more social justice conversations. We do an investigation into Halloween in which students are broken into four groups: “boys" costumes, "girls" costumes, cultural/international costumes, and "women’s" costumes. We have either found appropriate
social justice educationsocinvestigationholidays
November 1, 2016 · conferences
We went to beautiful Portland, Oregon to present at the Northwest Teaching for Social Justice conference (NWTSJ) . This conference is unique in that it is organized BY teachers and mainly run by volunteers. It was our first time in Portland and at this conference, and we were loved both (the sun even came out specially for our visit)! The keynote speaker, Kevin Kumashiro, Dean of the University of San Francisco School of Education, reminded us that education is a social movement and the purpose of a social movement is to change the status quo and the dominant or “common sense” way of thinking. His rhetoric around “common sense” resonated with us as we often tell our students that saying something is obvious or common is NOT an argument. Historically, it was “obvious” (to those in power) for a long time that white men were superior. It also speaks to the relevance of identity and
conferencesprofessional developmentcurriculum
October 19, 2016 · curriculum
The newly opened National Museum of African-American History & Culture ! What an AMAZING museum. Our minds are still reeling with personal thoughts and our own identity politics, along with the incessant thinking that teachers do about every single one of their students and their learning. Our brains are on museum-fire! Here are few things we are thinking about post-trip. As adults -- we were reminded yet again the beauty, pain, and necessity of education. We especially loved the quote above. We also felt immensely grateful to be teaching at a (progressive and independent) school where we have autonomy over our curriculum and discussion topics. We feel even more well-equipped (even just taking photos at the museum has given us so many resources and jumping off points). In addition, we feel even more charged to continue educating, re-educating, and unlearning with our students this year!
field tripsracecivil rightsprotestsNMAAHC
October 17, 2016 · Uncategorized
Gif (in case you want the full enjoyment of this photo-- you're welcome!) That's right! The kids are in charge! We recently had two days of conferences with students and their families. Our favorite parts about student-led conferences are below. We share about these because while we know that not all schools have space for this type of set up with the official parent conferences, student-led conferences can also be done within your classroom as a way of checking in. They can confer with just you, or confer/present in small groups with you, as well. There are so many ways to utilize the format. Here are some key takeaway pieces about student-led conferences that we love: While we provide (especially at the beginning of the year) support and graphic organizers etc.. students begin practicing the essential life and student skill of REFLECTION. Students also build off of this reflection
conferencesstudent reflection
October 12, 2016 · curriculum
We must be the luckiest humans in the world! (Well, that and Nina spent a good 7+ hours on the phone listening to Wade in the Water ). Can you guess where we are going with our students? We are going to the NMAAHC ! After this elated moment of realization, it hits us.. Wow. We are going to the NMAAHC. That is phenomenal AND… How in the world do we prepare fifth graders for such a monumental moment, challenging and remarkable history, and then of course, logistically how many hours can we stretch with 26 ten and eleven year olds in a museum?! The questions, concerns, and backwards planning gears all began cranking at terrifying speeds. So here we are. Sharing with you some of the first pieces of preparation before we head to the museum on Tuesday (!!). 1. We think together as a class about: why do we learn about history? Why does it matter? We did this before we studied Indigenous
social justice educationfield trips
October 10, 2016 · curriculum
Map of the four voyages of Christopher Columbus from Britannica Kids . We love debating as a way of developing critical thinking, practicing analytical skills, and thinking through persuasive arguments before we start writing them down as essays. Today, on Columbus Day (still a federal holiday), we had our students debate whether or not Columbus Day should be a holiday. To set up this lesson, we have the students in two groups and give each group a different text. One is framed to be pro Columbus and one is framed to be anti Columbus. We have them read and learn more about Christopher Columbus and then we offer them the opportunity to choose a side for the debate. This series of lesson serves to introduce debating and giving them an opportunity to be try it out themselves, help students recognize the problematic nature of history from one perspective, and demonstrate that author’s
ColumbusSocial Studiessocial justice educationIndigenous American Studies
October 5, 2016 · Uncategorized
We found an awesome "Women's Rights Advocate Monster" on someone's homework today! Cool! Is it only Wednesday? There's so much happening this week! The world keeps spinning! In our classroom especially there is a buzz about the upcoming election (especially the debates) and protests on protests on protests. One realm of protests our students have some background on in different capacities are the Black Lives Matter protests, largely the sports related ones. Another area of protest news that we have had energy around is water protectors against the DAPL (largely from us, because that protest has had a severe LACK of coverage). All of this is to say, while we have been working hard in 5th grade to tackle routines and settle in for the school year-- the world continues on! Finding the time and space to be informed about these news stories and issues can seem daunting and frustrating. Meet…
Social Studiessocial justice educationcurriculumcurrent events
October 5, 2016 · curriculum
Protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline! Service learning has been really tricky for us in the past as it can feel contrived or otherizing or at the very least, feel less than meaningful for our students. Below are two ideas we have to incorporate thoughtful, beneficial service learning into our new school year. We are very excited about some programs that are in the Dominican Republic, specifically, Alta Gracia , which would go really well with our Economics unit. Alta Gracia pays their workers a living wage and says that, " In addition to this salary, we respect our employees’ rights as workers and as human beings, including the right to a safe and healthy workplace, the right to be treated with dignity and respect on the job, and the right to form a union." We met with Alta Gracia employees and multiple union leaders and workers this summer, and feel like this could be a great
service learninglabor
September 30, 2016 · Uncategorized
Our students were beyond excited to learn all about Goodreads! They feel grown up having graduated from physical “reading logs” and love the social interaction Goodreads provides. It is much more dynamic than reading logs as you update what you are currently reading (so the page by page tracking option is still there) and what you want to read in the future. Also, when you finish a book, you rate it, review it, and can recommend it to others! In a classroom where we really could talk about books all day, Goodreads provides a framework for reviewing and recommending books as well as a meaningful way to get ideas for new books to read. Some of our more competitive and numbers minded students also love the “challenge” option and how Goodreads automatically keeps track of the number of books you read. They set goals for the number of books they hope to read in the remaining months of 2016
September 7, 2016 · Uncategorized
Every year on the first day of school (or Teacher's New Year as we like to call it), we ask our students to write a letter to themselves detailing their expectations, hopes, and goals for the year ahead. Tomorrow, we will collect their (sealed) letters and put them away until the last day of school. It is always fun to watch students laugh as they open their letters at the end of the school year and are shocked by their growth (as writers, learners, and more) and how their perceptions and expectations have changed! Below is my letter to myself: Dear (future) Nina, No matter how many first days of school you teach, they always feel the same: exciting, exhausting, and nerve-wracking! There are so many things I am joyfully anticipating this year: a third year in a row teaching the same grade at the same school with the same co-teacher (unprecedented stability for me), mentoring an
first day of schoolwritingreflection
August 26, 2016 · curriculum
We were so excited to visit the Alta Gracia factory and meet with employees! And we're back to continue our reflection on preparing for the upcoming school year. In this post we want to share with you some of the things we want to change for the upcoming school year. Change is constant, and we are excited to take it on, even as it brings some discomfort (and often a little extra work) into our lives. As Emily Style says, "Half the curriculum walks in the room with the students on the first day.." Which to us means that this list will most definitely get a whole lot longer and intricate as the year progresses! We are going to try… Mini-home groups: We already made a push to have affinity groups at our school. We now run an affinity group for 3-5th graders that we feel has brought so much life and love to our students of color. We love it so much that we have been wondering how to bring
back to schoolservice learningactivism
August 20, 2016 · Uncategorized
One of our class "pets" serving as an audience member while students practice their stories! It is that time again (ahhh how does it happen so fast?!) We know many of our fellow teachers and friends have already begun.. To those colleagues we wish you a joyful, honest, and growth-filled school year! This summer was full. On a global and national level, it was full of pain, confusion, and fear. There is also Olympic excitement. There are protests continuing on for the Dakota Access Pipeline… The list goes on. For us personally and professionally, the summer was full for those aforementioned reasons, and also because we traveled a lot, went to a few conferences, and listened a lot. We see summer as an integral part of educator reflection. As we head into the school year, we want to share with you the kinds of questions we ask ourselves to prepare for the amazing humans we will foster
back to schoolreflection
August 18, 2016 · conferences
Enjoying the sunset over the ocean! We were very fortunate to join a group of educators for a Friends Beyond Borders Social Justice Tour through the Dominican Republic earlier this summer. We loved exploring and learning more about a stunningly beautiful country as well as getting to know and collaborating with other educators. Our trip covered so much ground and inspired a lot of reflection, so we will most likely be coming back to it in many future blog posts. For now, here are a few key takeaways: Diverse authors: My main context for background information about Dominican history and culture came from Junot Diaz books. This background helped me make connections and build upon previous knowledge. This is why diverse authors and voices are so important! Also, (sidenote) why do I know so little about a country the US has occupied twice in the last century? Once starting on May 5, 1916
professional developmentexperiential learningdiverse voices
July 26, 2016 · conferences
Gabby here! I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to learn a great deal at the National SEED Project this past week. SEED charges itself with "creating conversational communities that drive change" and then trains facilitators. The newly trained facilitators (now me!) go back to their communities and continue the work of creating a space for intentional conversations. I had an incredible time spending a week with the facilitators of SEED. There are so many layers to the program and so much that I am processing that I am not currently able to explain. However, below are some key takeaways that I will be bringing back to my classroom (and life) from all of the amazing people and the awesome work we did at SEED Seattle 2016! 1. "Windows" and "Mirrors" SEED uses windows as a way of seeing into a perspective that is new to you, and mirrors as getting to see yourself. We used
professional developmentanti-biassocial justice education
July 20, 2016 · conferences
Hello and happy July! We are writing to you from the SDE 2016 Differentiated Instruction Conference in Las Vegas, where we are learning as much as we can about differentiated instruction! When we are not wondering about how the temperature can be 115 degrees or why there is a fake sky inside, we have found numerous takeaways we can't wait to bring back to the classroom. Below are a few different reminders and insights we would like to share with you! They cover a range of tips from the vast world of differentiation. 1. We (still) love Pop-up Debates ! We do these in our classroom and we loved hearing about how others do debates in their rooms/schools. We are re-committed to using these as a way to talk through news articles, get content moving, and especially excited to keep using debates before our Persuasive Essay unit. We were reminded to use templates to give students practice for
professional developmentdifferentiation
June 30, 2016 · curriculum
Two students dressed up as US on "Character Day" (for Spirit Week at the end of the year)! Now that it is FINALLY summer (happy summer, teachers! Congratulations on the end of the school year!) We had free time to work on a summer curriculum and instruction program within our entire school. We compiled a social justice education scope and sequence based on existing work and needs from an anti-bias perspective. I (Nina) worked with one of the Art teachers and our author in residence to come up with common vocabulary, document existing work, and identify gaps or areas we'd like to see more work done. For reference, our school is K-8 and independent with one class per grade. First of all, it was fascinating and inspiring to hear about and detail the work our colleagues are doing! We have some amazing investigative work around gender in Kindergarten, work around social class, wealth,
social justice educationscope and sequencecollaboration
June 20, 2016 · Uncategorized
Introducing our storytelling end of year extravaganza: Final Stage! The year is wrapping up in 5th grade! Where has the time gone?! We love many things about the end of the school year, but our favorite is the culmination of our Storytelling Unit. We have a big Final Stage show in which every single one of our 26 students steps up onto the stage and tells a true story LIVE! There are so many reasons why we love teaching storytelling. It is rigorous, social justice oriented, colorful, and has the power to be incredibly personal and meaningful. We love how it opens up spaces for each student's voice, and we love how it allows space for deeper connections with family friends, especially in the act of reflection. However, this year, we had our students fill out a survey so we could have a sense of what they thought about studying the craft of storytelling. Check out some of their thoughts
storytellingdiverse voicesoral historycurric
June 10, 2016 · Uncategorized
Students participating in a "gallery walk" admiring each other's final projects! Our final Social Studies project for this year was a case study of a Virginia Indian tribe. We wanted students to learn about the peoples who have been in this area for thousands of years and understand that each tribe is different. For the final product, students wrote a top ten list indicating the top ten things you should know about this tribe. They also designed an annotated illustration to go along with their top ten lists. We were very impressed with their work. One of our students who studied the Rappahanock Tribe reflected: "This particular tribe and many other tribes are facing a challenge that is that they do not have enough money. This is because of the white settlers pretty much completely. Many of them live on their reservation but if they did not many of them would be having a tough time
Native American studiesVirginia IndiansCase Studies
May 8, 2016 · Uncategorized
Background: Following the Responsive Classroom model, the norms and expectations in our classroom are called our 'covenant'. In our classroom, we spend the first month and a half (!) trying to sort out what we value individually and as a class, so that we can create a covenant that feels true to us. We have three dynamic simulations in which students 'experience' Anarchy, Totalitarianism, and Republicanism. After each class period, we reflect on each government model to decide what we like best about it. We take these positive aspects and try to figure out how we want our classroom to run and which pieces we would like to incorporate into our community. The covenant is a labor of love and becomes all their own. This year, our class created a written covenant, a song (they are an incredibly musical bunch), and a logo which was "reproduced" (AKA copied and laminated) for everyone to put
simulationsexperiential learningIndigenous American StudiesSocial Studiescurriculum
May 5, 2016 · Uncategorized
In our classroom we have a Social Studies unit focused on Virginia's (and Maryland's) Indigenous people. This unit developed after we noticed that our students had no idea about the people, cultures, and communities that have been on this land for thousands of years. One part of this unit that we are just getting into is an investigation about the one and only Pocahontas. She is from a tribe in the Virginia area, called the Pamunkey (part of the Powhatan Confederacy) and thus is very relevant. She also was a source of great interest to our students-- so we went with it! Investigations are a great way to get students (or anyone!) invested in a conversation, and gives the space for everyone to get some more background information before taking on a heavier or more dynamic conversation. Our Pocahontas Investigation was structured by having small groups (3-4 students) doing what is
Native American studiesIndigenous peoplesinvestigationPocahontas
May 2, 2016 · Uncategorized
This week, we shared a note in our all school newsletter about our presentation at the White Privilege Conference. We were surprised and touched when a parent of a former student came to tell us she read our newsletter addition and she was so happy to hear about us sharing our work with a larger audience! Apparently, our work with her child last year changed the way she thought about inequity, structural poverty, racism and more. This has impacted her role as a teacher at an inter-faith Sunday school as they now do activities that she said she never would have thought of before we taught her child. She said that from experiential activities even the young students were able to understand more abstract concepts because they were engaged and felt something. She was thrilled to see that we are reaching other adults and educators. It's always lovely to hear positive memories from a former
thanksparent
April 18, 2016 · Uncategorized
We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to facilitate a workshop at the White Privilege Conference in Philadelphia this past weekend. We presented our workshop, Is This Equitable?: Experiential Learning Activities to Confront White Privilege and White Supremacy on Sunday twice and really enjoyed hearing feedback, ideas, questions, and suggestions from other conference attendees. For our first activity, we had our participants draw people based off of descriptions we provided. This led to a fruitful discussion about internalized bias and stereotypes and how this activity can be used to claim and work through unconscious racism and prejudices we all had. The act of drawing people and then confronting the tangible visual of who you envisioned versus who we were actually describing creates cognitive dissonance and makes privilege real and personally relevant. We talked about how we