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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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