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I am a high school teacher of World History 2 and IB HoA. I also am a SPED team teacher. This project interests me because I believe that the history/social studies classroom is a place that can potentially lead to a deeper understanding of our collective identity as a species, people, nation, etc and in many very well-documented ways, our traditional curriculum fails to engage people of all races, ethnicities, and identities. I would love to see a change to make the history classroom one in which all students can see their own place in the identity of our historical study.

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I am a special education teacher at Frost Middle School. I teach history and civics and I am the history CLT lead. I am passionate about this project because I believe it is important that all perspectives be honored. By opening up students to different perspectives, we can make them the best global citizens they can be.

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I teach 4th and 5th grade at Providence Elementary. History is the story of us and I have always been driven to understand the reasons why we do the things we do - the paths not taken - the casual cruelties and kindnesses - and the unintended results of action and inaction that leads us to where we are today. I have been blown away by my students as we discuss the deep issues of fairness, inclusion, and respect. This year as we discussed segregation, there were several stories that students shared of inequality and exclusion, but one student told of her third grade year in Arizona, where brown and black students were reprimanded for taking too long to go to the bathroom, given fewer snacks, and spoken to unkindly by the teacher. When I asked her how she felt when that happened - she said "really sad and angry - it felt unfair, but it also made me feel bad about myself." That story is why we have to tackle these issues head-on!

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I am a 4th grade teacher at Saratoga Elementary. I just completed my fourth year teaching VA Studies and it is by far my favorite subject to teach.

The reason I am interested in the project is to broaden the knowledge that we are providing the teachers to help develop more culturally aware students.  I feel that we can not assume that all teachers will have a passion for history and take it upon themselves to learn more than what is provided for them to teach. That is our job, we have to give the teachers more tools and information so misconceptions, stereotypes, and inadequate understandings of cultures and history can be stopped.

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Hi everyone! I taught 4th grade at Wolftrap Elementary for the past 7 years. This year, I will be starting as an Advanced Academic Resource Teacher at Pine Spring Elementary.

This project matters to me because of what I feel is so much a part of the world right now - in large ways and small. We need a curriculum that identifies, as much as possible, the complexities of this country's history and power dynamics. We need children to understand that privilege affects them. We need all students to see the relevance of different perspectives and influences.

My students would sometimes come in, the last two years especially, fired up about something in the news, but then act bored in history class, even though news had direct connections to the days lessons. We have to help students to see these relevancies and connections!

As a beginning of the school year activity this past year, my students had to identify where they were born and two countries they were connected to. The idea was that students would then be able to use one colored piece of yarn to connect a picture of themselves to where they were born, and two other colored pieces of yarn to the countries they connected with. One student came in with Palestine listed as one of his countries, which was not included on our map. A class discussion ensued about what locations are included on maps and why.

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This project matters to me because at crucial points during my childhood, teachers “saw” me, and the education system served me. I know that this made the difference in my ability to imagine possibilities for myself and my future that were far beyond what my experiences would have otherwise allowed. And I know that part of the reason I had such transformative experiences is because the system was designed for white, American-born, middle class kids like me. I spent most of my childhood believing that school was a meritocracy - and that life was a meritocracy - that rewarded excellence, simply because (conveniently) I was being rewarded. It was so liberating and unsettling to later begin to see our various systems through a critical lens, with the help of people who had lived or studied other experiences.

One experience from this year I’ll share relating to cultural responsiveness is an ongoing conversation I’m fortunate enough to have with critical friends within and beyond the social studies team about professional learning for teachers. A lot of the PD I experienced as a teacher fell short of our evolving definition of cultural responsiveness. There were no opportunities to critically examine our values or biases, or the systems that inform what our students face in and out of our classes, affecting their learning. There were rarely acknowledgments of teachers’ expertise, personal or cultural contexts, or interests. There was often an implied hierarchy, with few opportunities for teachers to co-construct an understanding or co-design resources or approaches. I got to see Chris Emdin speak recently, and he asked the educators in the room how we are going to help kids get free if we are not free. That resonates with me, and I hope to continue thinking about what a liberated, anti-racist model for professional learning might look like, and how I might help build those kinds of spaces alongside other educators.

I’m so excited to do this work with you!

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Hi everyone! I teach 4th grade at Camelot Elementary. Being culturally responsive is so important in today’s modern society. The children we teach must be able to learn about the past, but how the past has impacted them and their families. Working in such a diverse school has challenged me to shift my own thinking about history. When we used to teach about history, it was historically through a pretty culturally unresponsive lens. I have seen a difference in my students, their level of engagement, and my own teaching style since starting to embed cultural responsiveness in my day to day life!

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I taught AP World History, AP Human Geography and World I  at Oakton HIgh School where I just finished my 12th year of teaching. I have always believed that in order to understand our (me and my students) place in the world and current events there needs to be an understanding of the past. Over the years, one of the most constant refrains I hear from student feedback is how  much their worldview expanded by learning of the different cultures and histories around the world. My hope is that this project will help to orient more teachers and students to cultures other than their own. As student bodies become more diverse, it is crucial that we provide students the opportunity to not only see themselves in the curriculum but also to be aware that there is no one single story.

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I am interested in this project for many reasons. First, the language we use in our curriculum often has a subtle, yet powerful influence over the the people with whom we serve and work with.

There were at least two experiences this year that occurred in Loudoun County and upstate NY that reminded me how ignorance can cause damage and hurt.

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Hi everyone. My name is Jess and I teach 7th grade US History at Liberty MS. I made the move to middle school four years ago from the elementary world. As I transitioned from elementary to middle, I realized the drama and conflict that occurred between the students wasn't all the different between elementary and middle. The one word that kept coming to me was, "perspective". To be honest, some of the conflict is between teacher and student.

These conflicts made me reflect on my own role as teacher and citizen and the impact I could make. My mission as a teacher began to shift and I found myself emphasizing perspective and empathy as the foundation of as many lessons as possible. My lessons became less factual and more thematic and relative to the issues that cause conflicts in their lives today. It's not always a race, class, ability, religious, gender, or age issue. Usually it's a human issue. As I began to see the changes in myself and my students, I shared more of what I was doing with my colleagues. I enjoyed the process the past years of creating, implementing, and sharing these LIFE lessons.

I am very excited to work with all of you and to be part of a group to help bring meaningful life change not just to the students, but dare I say it, to even ourselves, and to our county. We have the influence to impact so many human beings in the work we do, students and adults alike.

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Culturally Responsive Education- Introduction 

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Culturally Responsive Education- Introduction 

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Hi! My name is Lucie Larkins Brown and I'm really looking forward to meeting you all. I was initially interested in this project due to a combination of personal and teaching experiences. I've always been interested in understanding the perspective of others and see it as key to living harmoniously and kindly with one another.

I am currently a 7th grade teacher (History and French), and in the past I taught AP World History, World Cultural Geography & US History at the HS level. I'm originally from the U.K., and spent five of the last ten years in Alabama diving into issues of race in the Deep South. I've always been drawn to topics which students have had limited exposure to, particularly when they cause students to challenge and reconsider assumptions and prejudices. During the past year I enjoyed the process of teaching WWII Japanese internment camps in the U.S. as students wrestled with automatic judgement of Nazi concentration camps and were left having to reconcile the comparisons between the treatment of US citizens and the automatic judgement they faced, with that of German Jewish (and other) citizens and their treatment by the German state.

I look forward to learning from all of you, and developing resources we believe will open students' eyes to a framework which encourages critical thinking and leads to more open-minded, kind, global citizens.

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Hello! My name is Hilary Sesin. I teach 4th grade at Herndon Elementary.

This project interested me because of 4th grade's heavy emphasis on Virginia Studies, which I taught for the first time this year. In college I studied American History through the lens of the creation of culture and identity in the American South, which was a formative experience in reshaping my understanding of American History. Bringing that knowledge to the VA Studies PPG this year was interesting and often challenging with respect to identifying power/identity issues honestly. Since coming to FCPS, I have also taken the Cultural Proficiency course and helped plan and lead the PD session in our school last year, so I was really intrigued to see all these facets of my experience come together for this Summer Curriculum project.

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This project interested me because as an Advanced Academic Resource Teacher one academy course that we have to take is the Young Scholars class.  It teaches us that at the elementary level one of our jobs is to look beyond the CogAt/NNAT scores and look at the whole child, regardless of cultural background and their experiences.

I took the county wide Culturally Responsive Cohort this past school year. We had many good discussions and some of these were definitely eye opening. I hope to always grow as an educator and that feel this training has helped me to be a better person and educator. One of the things discussed in our training was that the panel of parents explained that they are not as concerned about learning about the curriculum we teach but more interested in know what to expect from the teacher (ex: routines, homework expectations, how they are graded)

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Hello, my name is Jenna and I have been teaching social studies since 2003. I have worked at several high schools in FCPS but also spent 3 years teaching middle school at a Title 1 school in Atlanta. Additionally I have worked in both Spotsy and Prince William counties. I have seen and experienced a lot! I believe that many students are misunderstood and underserved which is why this project interests me. I do believe that as social studies teachers we are more culturally aware but I am excited to learn more and be able to educate others in my school as one of the Equity Officers next year. I  am also starting the Combating Intolerance course at CVHS and am hoping that this project will allow me to create an impactful year for my kids.

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Culturally responsive teaching engages culture and history to empower students as learners and human beings.

A first step toward fulfilling this definition involves teachers’ ability and willingness to identify the issues related to power and identity that shape what we know and how we teach and learn.