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
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
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
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
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