February Study Group Meeting Ideas | |
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Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all way to run a study group. Below are suggested prompts and activities from the study group facilitation guide for February.
If your group is hosting a Black Lives Matter at School event (or series of events) for the Week of Action, you might need to push this meeting to March!
Opening writing/sharing
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To engage with Section Three of Teaching for Black Lives, select at least one chapter to read together as a common text. Use questions from the Discussion Guide as a foundation for your conversation. After you have debriefed and shared, talk about how the section’s themes — gentrification, displacement, and anti-Blackness — apply to your district’s or school’s locale.
What is the history of your neighborhood in terms of segregation and housing? How has the area changed over time? What role did white supremacy and racism play in those changes?
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Study group members responded powerfully to Donovan Livingston’s poem “Lift-Off,” shared during the Black Lives Matter at School Planning Workshop in January.
We encourage you to watch and respond to the poem together as a study group. In the workshop, we asked participants to jot down golden lines as they listened and share them in the chat, along with the thoughts and questions the words provoked.
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Study Groups Participating in
Black Lives Matter at School
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If you’re participating in the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action on Feb. 6–10, 2023, or during the entire month, we’d love to see pictures of your classroom activities and events! Share via Discord or use this form and you will receive a children’s or YA book in appreciation. | |
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What Study Groups are
Reading and Watching
| We’re sharing some of the prompts, films, videos, and books that study groups have included in their meetings. | |
Security and safety aren’t the same thing. Security is a function of the weaponized state that is using guns, weapons, fear and other things to ‘make us secure’… Safety means something else, because you cannot have safety without strong, empathic relationships with others. You can have security without relationships, but you cannot have safety — actual safety — without healthy relationships. | | | | |
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Naperville
Group members are currently reading Section 3: Gentrification, Displacement, and Anti-Blackness. As a part of this focus, they watched and shared their reactions to Kimberly Jones’ #BLM How Can We Win?
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San Leandro
The San Leandro study group recommended Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, a documentary film by Jeffery Robinson, because it “highlights primary sources and foregrounds history that permeates through today’s society.”
Brooklyn
In December, the Brooklyn study group members listened to a couple of podcasts that discussed schools in their district, but are relevant to educators everywhere.
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School Colors, a narrative podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape U.S. cities and schools.
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Nice White Parents, a five-part series where the narrator turns her attention to what is arguably the most powerful force in our schools: white parents.
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Rethinking Schools Editorials | |
While you wait for the print copy of the Winter Issue of Rethinking Schools magazine, read the featured editorials: | |
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The First CRT Election
Mercifully, enough young people and women voted in the midterms in impressive numbers to turn the predicted red wave into a red washout. But there is no denying the growth of a right-wing, anti-public schools movement fueled by a toxic mix of dark money, sickening and dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and fever dreams of all-out voucher privatization.
The “Learning Loss” Trap
The learning loss narrative shrouds itself in moment-in-time data from standardized tests, but it is not really about this moment. Rather, it is a weapon wielded against the past, to shift blame for pandemic school closures, and against the future, to narrowly frame the policy choices ahead.
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If you haven’t signed up for your free subscription to Rethinking Schools visit our dedicated members page to get instructions. | |
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Florida Bans
AP African American Studies
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We want to hear your response to DeSantis’ decision to block the new high school AP course on African-American studies for allegedly violating the Florida law.
Share your thoughts and respond on Discord. Would your Teaching for Black Lives Study Group be welcome under this new McCarthyism?
Take a look at stories in Florida history that would be off limits to students.
DeSantis and Florida education officials know that when students learn from history, they demand and can organize to shape a more just future.
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Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Online Classes | |
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Register for the upcoming Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online classes with people’s historians. In each session, a teacher interviews the historian and breakout rooms allow participants in small groups to meet each other, discuss the content, and share teaching ideas.
We hold the classes at least once a month at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET on Mondays for 90 minutes.
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ASL interpretation provided.
Professional development credit certificate provided upon request.
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People’s History Workshops | |
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Reconstruction — the era in which four million recently emancipated people sought to build new lives and, indeed, a new country — is woefully neglected in most pre-k-12 curriculum.
On Monday, April 3, Jessica Rucker will follow up on the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online class with Dr. Kidada Williams, by providing educators teaching ideas and frameworks, using resources from Dr. Williams’ work as well as the broader Teach Reconstruction campaign.
This 75-minute session will begin at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET on Monday, April 3.
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Racial Justice is
Environmental Justice
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Join us on Monday, April 17, to experience a new classroom activity about the water crises in Flint, Jackson, and other cities across the United States.
This 75-minute session will begin at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET on Monday, April 17.
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Closing Event with Jarvis R. Givens | |
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ASL interpretation provided.
Professional development credit certificate available.
Our dedicated members page provides an updated list of events for you to reference throughout the year.
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The Rebellious Life of
Mrs. Rosa Parks
Streaming License for Teachers
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PO BOX 73038, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20056
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