Summer of Social Justice

05/22/2020

Teen environmental activist—and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s daughter—has a plan to address the climate crisis. But she needs your help.

04/23/2020

A collection of poems, prose, and audio and video recordings that explore Islamic culture.

03/18/2020

Homeschool Resources A small collection of anti-oppressive, anti-racist homeschool curriculum ideas and resources for families impacted by closures caused by the coronavirus Please note, this is not a comprehensive list AT ALL, but a start that may help you out. This list is not curated, and c...

11/19/2019

The bilingual Haitian Creole-English storybooks feature Haitian girls of color and provide insight into the rich culture of Haiti In a world of books

10/25/2019

This holiday, distinctly different from Halloween, presents a wonderful opportunity to foster empathy among students.

10/13/2019

The series will reimagine Hindu deities as children who attend a special day care and discover their own powers while there.

10/12/2019

Nope. Silence about race can reinforce racism by letting children draw their own conclusions.

05/29/2019

The eight-part podcast is a prequel to a PBS Kids animated series coming this summer.

05/23/2019

Check out these summer reading programs! Kids could earn a free book from Barnes and Nobles!

Kids in grades 1-6 can get a free book from Barnes and Noble's summer reading program when they read 8 books. Updated for Summer 2019.

04/06/2019

The debut book from the Academy Award-winning actress is set to be released later this year.

02/26/2019

Just finished up an amazing unit on cities. First, we brainstormed what is in a city. We used the UN goals for sustainable development and diverse families to ground out planning. We connected to the last unit about human diversity and accommodation by designing accessible buildings. Students made Braille signs, wheelchair ramps, ASL interpreters, solar panels, free admission, and more! Then, I created a makerspace for kids to build their buildings. One kid made a pulley system elevator for his apartment. Then came time to put it all together... I used tape to create a 4x4 grid and covered the tables in green. We talked about the benefits and challenges of nature and cities, and how our land evolved from all nature to cities. This included a discussion on whose land we occupy (indigenous Chinook) and what we should do about it. I have kids their own grid and they designed how they thought we should allocate the land between preserving nature, giving back to Chinook, or developing the buildings we just made. Then they had a class debate/discussion. Each of my 3 classes decided something different. Some students decided to stack their buildings to make more room for nature! Finally, we learned about maps and orientation, labeled all of our buildings, and drew and labeled maps of our city.

02/05/2019

Xin Nian Kuai Le! Celebrating Chinese New Year by creating pigs in our classroom turned makerspace! Happy Year of the Pig! 🐷

If you’re gonna teach about holidays, teach about them all. Doesn’t have to be stuck on traditional foods either. Incorporate it into your regular curriculum. We’re doing a STEAM heavy unit so that’s what we did.

Oh, and we had teachable moment about mocking the Chinese language. After I read a story that had several Chinese words, a student started mockingly speaking gibberish. We opened up a conversation about the harm we cause when we mock people’s language, we talked about glossaries and having the responsibility and resources to learn how to say things correctly. It’s important to 1. Correct harmful implicit biases, stereotypes, and any form of racist behavior (impact >intent) and 2. Model how to speak up against bias 3. Teach kids to think critically about the world and their actions and impact. If you’re a teacher, prepare yourself to have these kinds of conversations :)