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Ancestors' Seeds by Afrocentric Montessori

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Afrocentric Montessori | Education with Cultural Embrace in Atlanta

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Empower your child’s learning with Afrocentric Montessori in Atlanta. We offer consulting, curriculum design, and educational materials. Contact us today!

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Keshet: For LGBTQ+ Equality in Jewish Life

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Keshet: For LGBTQ+ Equality in Jewish Life

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AMS: Demystifying Multilingualism in Early Childhood

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AMS: Demystifying Multilingualism in Early Childhood

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SELF-GUIDED

What does multilingualism look like in early childhood, and why is it beneficial in the short- and long-term? How can educators who have been trained on monolingual language development apply Montessori theory and prepare children to learn multiple languages simultaneously and sequentially? With content created by multilingualism experts, Gabrielle Kotkov and Michela Castellarin, this official AMS on-demand, self-guided class addresses these questions and more! It focuses on early childhood and builds on Montessori training to gain insight and strategies for supporting language development among multilingual children.

Instruction takes approximately 6 hours to complete at your own pace with no homework assignments. Each of the 6 class modules of the dynamic multimedia course includes a short introduction, content for the participant to review (including videos, podcasts, readings, resources, etc.), a game or activity related to the content, and a required discussion post. Each lesson/module is estimated to take approximately one hour to complete. You will have 180 days from the date of purchase to complete the class and download the certificate that grants 8 hours of professional development. For the best user experience, we recommend using a desktop/laptop but content can also be accessed on mobile devices. Certificates will only be awarded for full completion of the class.

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American Montessori Society: Demystifying Multilingualism in Early Childhood

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What does multilingualism look like in early childhood, and why is it beneficial in the short- and long-term? How can educators who have been trained on monolingual language development apply Montessori theory and prepare children to learn multiple languages simultaneously and sequentially? Led by Gabrielle Kotkov and Michela Castellarin, this official AMS on-demand, self-guided class addresses these questions and more! It focuses on early childhood and builds on Montessori training to gain insight and strategies for supporting language development among multilingual children.

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Autistic and Allistic (non-Autistic) people communicate differently, and understanding how Autistic people communicate helps reduce miscommunication, preempt social challenges, and resolve conflict in workplaces, schools, and other spaces. Access a simple infographic that articulates communication d

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National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth's Disability Timeline

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National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth's Disability Timeline

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NYC Public Schools Arab American Heritage Month Resources

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NYC Public Schools Arab American Heritage Month Resources

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Overview

April is Arab American Heritage Month! During this time, we celebrate Arab Americans throughout the past and present, and recognize their invaluable contributions to our country. It also serves as a time to combat Anti-Arab bigotry and to challenge stereotypes and prejudices.

Arab American Heritage Month began as a 2017 initiative that only involved a few states and cities, but recognition has been steadily spreading since then, and in April 2021, President Biden became the first U.S. president to issue a proclamation acknowledging Arab American Heritage Month.

While the celebration of Arab American Heritage Month is fairly new, the history which it commemorates dates back as far as 1527, when Estebanico Azemmouri, a native of present-day Morocco, and Antonio Bishallany, a native of present-day Lebanon, arrived to what would many years later become the United States, becoming the first members of the Arab American community that is estimated today to number approximately 3.7 million people.

Since those very early days, there have been several waves of Arab immigration into the United States. In the 1800s, the first group consisted mainly of Arab Christians fleeing religious persecution and economic insecurity in the Ottoman Empire, from the region that today makes up Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. This period came to an end in the 1920s, largely due to immigration policies that placed strict quotas on the number of people who could come into the United States from many Asian and Arab countries located within a region called the "Asiatic Barred Zone." Later, as political instability in the region increased throughout the mid-20th century, another wave of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa began arriving in search of both humanitarian protection, as well as economic and educational opportunities and family reunification. The third period began with new immigration laws that repealed the restrictive quotas in 1965 and allowed hundreds of thousands of new immigrants to come into the United States. A fourth wave that began in the 1990s continues today, even after the rise of Anti-Arab sentiment that occurred in the United States following the September 11 attacks in 2001, as well as immigration policy changes in 2017 that made it more challenging for Arab immigrants to enter the United States.

Today's Arab American community is made up of individuals with roots in 22 countries located in the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. In addition to the many nationalities represented, Arab Americans are also diverse in faith - despite a common misconception, not all Arabs are Muslim, nor are all Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa, and over half of Arab Americans are estimated to be Christian - as well as race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ability. Within their diverse community, Arab Americans are united by their primary language-Arabic-as well as by their shared history and culture.

New York City has a rich Arab American history in its own right: when the first major wave of Arab immigrants began fleeing the Ottoman Empire (what is now Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine) in the late 1800s, many of them arrived in New York. In fact, from the 1870s until the 1940s, the center of Arab life in the United States could be found in "Little Syria," a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan concentrated on Washington Street and Rector Street. By the year 1900, nearly 2,000 Syrians were living there, working in nearby textile factories and as merchants. It was also in Little Syria that some of the best-known Arab writers of the time, including Kahlil Gibran, formed the Pen Bond (also known as the Pen League) and sparked a literary movement in Arab literature. Unfortunately, the neighborhood of Little Syria had all but disappeared by the mid-20th century. Plans for construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in the 1940s forced many residents to leave the area, often relocating to Brooklyn. Those that remained were not able to stay for long: the construction of the World Trade Center in the 1960s pushed the rest of the community out of their homes.

Even still, today, the New York City Metropolitan area has the second-highest population of Arab Americans in the United States. Statewide, the Arab population in New York is one of the fasting growing in the country, with the number of New Yorkers who claim Arab ancestry estimated to have more than doubled since the 1980 Census.

Throughout April, and all year long, we hope you will join us in appreciating the rich and diverse history of this large and growing community. This month is an excellent time to learn and teach more about Arab American history, and we encourage you to do so by checking out the resources below, which include exhibitions, lesson plans, recommended reading, and more, for use both in and out of the classroom.

Events and Exhibitions

The Arab American National Museum is located in Dearborn, Michigan, but you can access their virtual tours from home! There are resources related to their core galleries along with supplemental materials for educators. Galleries include Contributions from the Arab World, Coming to America, Living in America, and Making an Impact.

1001 Inventions partnered with Google Classroom to provide digital access to interactive stories about lesser-known pioneer men and women, primarily from the Arab world, to help spark young people's interest in science while promoting diversity and inclusion in their online exhibitions.

Visit St. George's Syrian Catholic Church, one of the few remaining buildings that made up "Little Syria." It was originally built in 1812, and by 1850 was used as a boarding house for Syrian immigrants arriving in New York City at the time. For more about what remains of Little Syria, check out "What's Left of New York's Little Syria: A Short but Rich Tour."

For more, Arab America shares upcoming events throughout the year that are happening near you.

Reading List

Throughout the month, and all year long, we encourage families, educators, and students to dive into a book about the history, culture, and experiences of the Arab diaspora. The suggestions below are just a few of our favorite titles, with works of fiction and non-fiction for every grade level that feature characters and perspectives that are often not reflected in other popular works. We hope you will enjoy reading and learning from these outstanding stories.

Early Readers (Grades 3K-2)

Elementary (Grades 3-5)

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

Upper Grades (Grades 9-12)

Many of these books are readily available through the citywide Digital Library on Sora, which provides free access to hundreds of digital e-books and audiobooks for our students. For even more recommendations, check out the "Cultural Connections" collection on Sora, which features many Arab stories, and will introduce students to titles with diverse characters and world religions set in the Transcontinental Region, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and beyond.

Video and Audio Resources

Resources for Educators

Check out the National Arab American Heritage Month Educators Guide from Arab America, which provides additional helpful context and resources for teachers.

The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan has a wide range of educator resources, including a collection of lesson plans for all grade levels, and access to their digital collections.
The museum has also put together a helpful resource about the history of the Arab American community, including information about immigration, culture, and more.

To learn more about Arab scientists, inventors, and innovators throughout history, check out the 1001 Inventions Education Pack.

The Teach Mideast Arab American Heritage Month Resource Guide has materials that teach students about the past and present of the Arab American community, including sections on early immigration, music, culture, literature, and media, present-day advocacy, and more. For even more, check out the "Resources Guides" section of their website.

The Hidden Voices initiative, which began as a collaboration between the DOE and the Museum of the City of New York, helps NYC students learn about and honor the innumerable people, often "hidden" from the traditional historical record, who have shaped and continue to share our history and identity. The famous Arab American writer Kahlil Gibran is featured in Hidden Voices: Untold Stories of New York City History. Gibran lived in the Little Syria neighborhood of New York City while writing many of his most famous works.
For more information about Kahlil Gibran, The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has a lesson plan all about his life and work.

For teachers looking for more information about how to support their Arab students, particularly during the month of Ramadan, which often overlaps with Arab American Heritage Month, check out the NYC DOE's Instructional Guide about Eid al-Fitr, available to teachers on WeTeach NYC.
Additional resources that may be helpful include an interview with an Arab American educator on the subject, as well as another resource guide for teachers from PBS called "Promoting and Understanding Islam" that provides further information.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an educator guide to use in their gallery, the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia, in order to help students learn more about the history of Arab art and especially to dive deep on what is on display from their collections.

Check out the National Endowment for the Humanities Virtual Bookshelf for Arab American Heritage Month.

Learning for Justice has collected resources for Arab American Heritage Month which celebrate Arab identity, counter negative stereotypes, teach about Arab history and cultures, and ensure an inclusive environment that supports Arab American students this month and throughout the year.

The Anti-Defamation League has an Arab American Heritage Month Resource Guide for educators, families, and caregivers with K-12 curricular resources to use in classrooms, schools, and communities

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April is Arab American Heritage Month! This month, celebrate the contributions and achievements of Arab Americans throughout the past and present.

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K-8 Jewish American Heritage Month Resources

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K-8 Jewish American Heritage Month Resources

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Celebrate the diversity of Jewish American life from labor laws to the Supreme Court, from the civil rights movement to the kitchen table.
Access posters and companion resources on culinary historian Michael W. Twitty, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, labor rights activist Rose Schneiderman, and civil rights leader Rabbi Joachim Prinz.

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For Educators - Jewish American Heritage Month

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Celebrate the diversity of Jewish American life from labor laws to the Supreme Court, from the civil rights movement to the kitchen table. Access posters and companion resources on culinary historian Michael W. Twitty, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, labor rights activist Rose Schneiderman, and civil rights leader Rabbi Joachim Prinz.

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What is Translanguaging and How Can It Be Used in the Classroom?

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What is Translanguaging and How Can It Be Used in the Classroom?

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When children grow up in a multilingual household, translanguaging in the classroom can lead to more achievement in learning. Translanguaging is exhibited when a multilingual speaker utilizes more than one of the languages they know. In the classroom, this can be observed when Dual Language Learning (DLL) students combine words from their home languages with English. Research shows that translanguaging supports academic development, because a student's home language scaffolds the child's learning experience. Language and overall cognitive development are intertwined.

How Does Translanguaging Work?

A multilingual speaker is translanguaging when they use " two or more language varieties in a flexible way-not separated-to make sense of their lives." It is an additive approach to language acquisition which honors the complexities of both language learning and cognitive development. Translanguaging does not require students to create artificial boundaries between the languages they know or are learning. Students are able to use all their language skills in order to support learning. The process allows students to increase " their English proficiency by enabling them to make connections between their home language(s) and English," as well as help them understand other subjects.

Many schools are beginning to implement translanguaging as a pedagogy, especially in bilingual programs. Laura Hamman, Emeline Beck, and Aubrey Donaldson, the authors of A Pedagogy for Translanguaging, offer fellow educators three guiding principles to direct their approach:

1. Translanguaging pedagogies should be purposefully designed and implemented. The authors encourage schools to plan a flexible approach that allows for translanguaging within subject areas.

2. Translanguaging pedagogies should promote interaction and inclusion, drawing upon what students know individually and collectively.

3. The authors encourage educators to create spaces where peer-to-peer interaction is encouraged and all students are welcomed.

4. Translanguaging pedagogies should enrich learning across all of the languages in a student's repertoire.

5. The authors note that DLL students' languages are interdependent and skills acquired in one language can transfer to the other language.

Translanguaging Tips

Depending on your approach to language development at your school, educators might decide to tailor existing program guidelines to include translanguaging. Guidelines for translanguaging give educators structure and strategies for use in the classroom.

First steps to move forward with translanguaging:

Work with administration to create or adapt a pedagogical approach to translanguaging.

Keep communication open with parents/caregivers. Ask DLL families to make a list of the most commonly used words and phrases in a student's home.

Observe DLL students and how they use translanguaging to help them advance academic learning.

Ask students if they can repeat a sentence in another way, if you do not understand some of the words used. This acknowledges the student and the language they have spoken in, so that together the student and educator can work toward mutual comprehension.

Start home journals where students can write and illustrate concepts they are learning in both home language(s) and English.

Language learning for multilingual students is not simply about language; language encompasses all academic learning. It is how the mind constructs and comprehends the world around us. When educators embrace translanguaging, they support students' full range of language abilities. This in turn allows students to utilize all their skills for academic development. Translanguaging " validates and humanizes bilingual students' learning processes " and empowers them to fully participate in learning.

About the Author

V. Kulikow is a former Montessori teacher and youth services librarian. She currently works as a UX designer and enjoys content creation both with words and images. On weekends you can find her gardening, taking nature photos, and working on her garden design certification through the Native Plant Trust.

Interested in writing a guest post for our blog? Let us know!

The opinions expressed in Montessori Life are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of AMS.

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What is Translanguaging and How Can It Be Used in the Classroom?

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Translanguaging, a process where multilingual learners utilize all their language knowledge, can be used in the classroom to support students' overall learning.

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Pride Month Reads: LGBTQIA+ Stories for Children and Teens

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Pride Month Reads: LGBTQIA+ Stories for Children and Teens

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Pride Month Reads: LGBTQIA+ Stories for Children and Teens

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In honor of Pride Month, discover award-winning books that celebrate LGBTQIA+ characters and diverse storylines for children and teens.

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Uncovering Your Implicit Biases: An Exercise for Teachers

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Uncovering Your Implicit Biases: An Exercise for Teachers

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Listen to the interview with Hedreich Nichols:

Sponsored by Listenwise and Read&Write by Texthelp

This page contains Amazon Affiliate and Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What's the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org?

Becoming a more inclusive educator means making shifts in our learning environments to engage all learners, especially those who may lack a strong sense of belonging in our school community. A big part of that shift is uncovering our biases, finding out who we think of as "us" and who we think of as "them."

In my book, Finding Your Blind Spots ( Amazon | Bookshop.org), I give teachers a framework to systematically discover their own way of "othering," so that they can course correct in order to give every student a sense of belonging. To help you with that reflection, I'm offering eight questions central to finding your implicit biases and areas you need to work on in order to become a more inclusive, culturally responsible educator.

If you tend to be more a doer than a thinker, this process may make you impatient; just keep in mind that starting with action before doing the necessary reflection often means actions are doomed from the start. For the doers, I will follow the reflection with some practical next steps, a roadmap that will get you where you need to be in order to better serve students, families and communities.

Part 1: The Questions

These questions don't need to be answered all at once, but when you do answer them, make sure you set aside time to consider the question, its meaning and how you might use the information to become a better practitioner. Further, make sure you have a no-judgment zone in which to complete this exercise. What you write down should not be judged by others and you should not harshly judge yourself. Your honest responses are the most important factor in this exercise and there are no right or wrong answers. We are all on a journey and the fact that you are here reading this means you are already being intentional about becoming a better educator to all your students.

How diverse is your personal circle and why does it look like it does? While not having a diverse circle doesn't mean you are racist, elitist or any other -ist, it probably does mean that you don't have much experience with people unlike you.

1. Who are the 'others' in your life? Make a list of 10 people you consider "us" and 10 people you consider "them." These could be family members, work colleagues, neighbors, students, or anyone with whom you have fairly regular contact. In what ways are the people on your "us" list different from you? How are they similar? What about your 'others'-how are they different? How are they the same? You can make lists, Venn diagrams, sketchnotes or any other representation to show differences and similarities.

2. How often do you use generalizations? Take a week and intentionally keep track of the times you use "they" to describe people of a certain color, culture, identity, gender, etc. One common campus generalization is "the Special Ed kids," as though students under this umbrella are homogenous. Another is the admin/central office "they." Teachers often see admin as others. Keep track of "harmless" generalizations as well-"the students," "the neighbors," "the football team," etc.

3. What is your initial perception when you talk to someone with an accent different from yours, for instance, a customer service rep, parent, or even a student?

4. Do you consider the integration of diverse historical perspectives best practice or divisive politics? One example of multiperspectivity is looking at different narratives between the European settlers and Indigenous people in the colonial U.S. For instance, the Thanksgiving story is usually told from the perspectives of the Pilgrims and mainly portrays their struggles for survival. Rarely do we hear of the hardships that the Wampanoag Indians endured or how they were holding feasts of thanks years before the Pilgrims even arrived. Another example of a lesser-known narrative is that of the Powhatan confederation, the Indigenous peoples who lost both land and life due to colonization in Virginia.

5. Who is on your "free pass" list? We tend to be more forgiving of those we like and are in agreement with. List five people-friends, students, public figures-whose failings you tend to excuse or write off. Explain also why you tend to "go easy" on them.

6. When do you tend most toward non-acceptance and judgment? Are your triggers cultural differences? Ideological and religious dissimilarity? In-group/out-group challenges?

7. How much cross-cultural literature, TV, and movies do you consume in order to familiarize yourself with what for some is an uncomfortable shift to a more diverse community?

Part 2: Reflecting on Your Results

As you wrote down your answers, you may have experienced a myriad of feelings, some positive, some more uncomfortable. Mostly, we all have more biases than we would like to think we do. We tend to put ourselves in categories: good people who treat everyone the same and bad people who don't treat everyone the same. Actually, if that was the case, none of us would be good people. While we try to treat everyone equitably, there are a million conscious and unconscious decisions that hinder us from treating everyone equitably. If you drove in to work without your morning coffee, you can likely think of at least three ways you were less than fair to someone who crossed your path.

Knowing that, I hope you won't spend time on feelings of guilt and shame. While guilt can be a motivator, helping us to seek moral change and justice, more often it causes us to feel defensive or worse, it paralyzes us and keeps us from making needed changes. We all think things and feel things we "shouldn't," but if you begin by judging yourself, you'll never get to a place where you don't judge others.

On the other side of guilt, however, is an awakening, a fiery desire for change. While this may sound like a recipe for forward motion, it can also wreak havoc on a community. Well-meaning calls to action may seem helpful, but an I-know-better-than-you urgency may be off-putting and cause people to throw up walls before they can even understand how crucially change is needed. Just because change is needed doesn't mean that people in your circle are ready to change when and how you want them to. Begin with things you can do on your own and if those go well, consider finding accountability partners, one or two people who can support you in any personal or classroom initiatives.

Part 3: Next Steps (and What Not to Do)

You have asked yourself some hard questions and dealt with your feelings about what you've found out about yourself. Now, here are six easily implementable strategies you can put into action, plus two important don'ts.

1. Broaden your circle. If you teach in a different community from where you live, make it a priority to go to restaurants or a fitness class in your school community, visit the playground with your children, or take part in an event hosted by the library or place of worship. If you teach in the same community where you live, make it a point to seek out more of these experiences. If you have a family, make it a family affair. The shift will birth new conversations at your dinner table and you will have the opportunity to cement your thoughts on empathy vs. othering with those you care most about. If you're White, you may at times feel like you're getting some "what are you doing here" looks, but that's a learning experience as well. Enriching your daily life with new experiences in different places with different people builds empathy and helps you better relate to people as a teacher and human being.

2. Practice empathy with the "others" already in your life, maybe even those who trigger you most. Remember the list of 10 "others" you made? Next time your brother comes over and stays all Sunday watching game after game and "keeping your husband from the family," think about what the experience might be giving him. Maybe being with his brother in a home with food and family provides a welcome respite to his single-life existence. And although your neighbor may talk incessantly about the latest labels and fashion trends, can you imagine why that topic is so dear to her? Maybe she came from a family without much money and this is her way of trying to fit in.

Similarly, be intentional about building relationships with students you have less of a connection with. Play This or That or Would You Rather to get to know them on a human level, then capitalize on the knowledge in order to strengthen your relationships: "Hey Johnny, I see you and I really have a lot in common when it comes to food and animals! How many pets would you have if you could?" Or "I see you and I both feel strongly about the ice cream we like. Tell me why I should eat more chocolate ice cream and less vanilla? Let's organize a tasting party for Fun Friday!" Again, especially if it's mid-year in middle school, you might get some suspicious looks, and that's ok. You won't see every seed bear fruit, but just keep planting.

3. Monitor your daily intake of media. Media companies and the 24-hour news cycle are money-making entities; opinions about actual news that keep you "in your feelings" are gold for them. If you are constantly angry at "others" you won't be able to fully embrace the children of those 'others' in your classroom. Further, it will be unlikely that you will teach your students to embrace others if you are all firmly planted on one side. In order to maintain a safe classroom space for all students, decide how much media consumption you personally need to be informed. Then spend time consuming media that calms and centers you. Better yet, take an extra walk around the block. We are most likely to act on our baser impulses when we are stressed. Anger-especially from the person designated as the person to manage classroom culture-disrupts neutrality and upends the emotional balance of the classroom. Biased perspectives also shade classroom interactions, adversely affecting relationships with and between students who have divergent opinions. Staying balanced and calm will give you the mental space you need to be reflective in your interactions with all your students, especially your "others."

1. Know the difference between communication barriers and content barriers. Communication can be a barrier to learning and that can play out in many different ways. We may assume, in error, that people with accents don't understand the concepts we are teaching, that students don't read or decode well, or that children come from a disadvantaged background and may be low-performing. The reality may be that students don't understand certain mathematical terminology, the colors and fonts on our slideshows may not be dyslexia-friendly, or that the "general knowledge" terms and situations used in word problems may only be general knowledge in upper middle class settings. So learn a second language, learn more about African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and its structure, and learn more about designing presentations for accessibility. Know your content AND how to bridge content so it is accessible for all learners.

2. Keep a log on whose behaviors you correct in class over two weeks. Look for patterns and allow no rationalizations. Let the pattern speak for itself. Then learn more about cognitive biases and be intentional about mitigating your own. Once you realize how many cognitive biases guide our thinking on a daily basis, you can be more intentional and less reactive. The more you practice, the better you'll get.

3. Understand that bias in classrooms is not confined to the biases of people in the classroom. Every bit of curricular material has been written by a person with perspectives and biases, whether intentional or unintentional. To learn more about biases in textbooks, look for exceedingly positive or negative portrayals of events and people. To unearth slants in media and current event portrayals, use tools like the non-partisan AllSides Media bias chart and fact checkers. Use language like, "according to this source" and "the authors of this textbook state...". Also, consider asking the question, "whose stories are missing, who else was there?" to teach students about the most important bias, silence.

And now for a couple of don'ts.

1. Don't assume that content knowledge is static. Everything evolves. We used to think the world was flat, exercise in pregnancy was bad, and everyone needed eight hours of sleep. As more artifacts and documents are unearthed, we can now round out truths. With the realization that history is someone's documentation of a set of events from a certain perspective, we are free to seek out diverse perspectives. Just as no one suggests bloodletting to cure cancer, let's be open to taking in new knowledge and helping our students become critical thinkers.

2. Don't get defensive. When a student or staff member tells you a comment or action has offended them, don't assume they are being too sensitive, too easily offended or "taking it wrong." When someone trusts you enough to tell you how an interaction has made them feel, apologize, then ask for clarification and an explanation of how they feel you could handle the interaction better in the future. Don't, under any circumstances, make excuses for why you did whatever it was.

A list of excuses that are not reasons in the eyes of the offended:
* I'm old, forgive me.
* I didn't grow up around (Mexicans, Asians, Black people, etc.).
* Well, y'all change it all the time.
* I don't believe in all that.
* You can't say anything anymore
* How am I supposed to know?
* I can't keep up.
* I didn't mean it like that/I didn't mean anything by it.

Bonus: Get to know current and evolving terminology. Chapter 3 of Finding Your Blind Spots is full of resources and explanations; here are two examples: 'Orientals' and 'Indians' are not appropriate terms for Asians and Native Americans; and using an article before the name of a cultural group ( the Blacks, the gays) is akin to saying those people.

Creating inclusive classrooms and campuses takes more than celebrating months and buying diverse materials and Colors of the World crayons. Being intentional about our cognitive processes as educators and as humans is central to understanding how we uphold and perpetuate biased structures and systems. Once we understand how often we value some and devalue others, we can do more than put a band-aid on the existing problem. We can begin to normalize diverse populations being a part of our school day, regardless of the population make-up of our school community.

It sounds like a heavy lift, something to add to an already overflowing plate. It sounds like there are a million ways that your intentions could be misread. They probably will be, but don't be afraid to get it wrong. Fail up!

I advocate working on becoming a more inclusive educator on my podcast, #SmallBites. How do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time.

Come back for more.
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Uncovering Your Implicit Biases: An Exercise for Teachers

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An essential step toward becoming an anti-racist educator is uncovering your own implicit biases. This exercise will get you started.

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De-centering Whiteness in Montessori Spaces

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De-centering Whiteness in Montessori Spaces

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RECORDING

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On Sept. 21, 2020, we explored some of the ways in which whiteness informs and limits our ability to fully realize Dr. Montessori's vision for justice. We learned about the historical construction of whiteness, the legacy of racism in schooling, and the ways in which racism manifests within the Montessori community and ourselves. This session, which was created specifically to address the role of white Montessorians striving to work in solidarity to dismantle racism, encouraged white participants to dive deeply into their own racial identity development in order to engage authentically in movements for racial justice.

Suggested Reading

About the Presenters

Katie Kitchens (they/them/she/her) has worked in public, private and non-profit Montessori environments for the past decade as an instructional coach, teacher trainer and primary and elementary guide. Currently, Katie is pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Studies, researching racial identity development in young white children. Katie is also grateful to be the English Speaking Elementary Guide at the Keres Children's Learning Center. Katie strives to work in partnership to uproot racist ideology within themself and their community, and work in coalition toward what Dr. Montessori called universal liberation.

Colleen Wilkinson is an AMS credentialed teacher (Early Childhood), teacher educator, consultant, and a Director at Montessori Country Day School in Houston, Texas. She lives with her wife, teenage daughter, and many pets in the suburbs. She serves on the AMS Peace and Social Justice Committee. In her local school district, she serves on the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee and District Education Improvement Committee. In addition to her partnership with trauma-informed care and social justice organizations, she provides professional development and support groups for parents and educators. She is passionate about trauma-informed care, ABAR work, adoption and foster care, and disability rights. She has said: "The most important aspect of a Montessori classroom isn't the Pink Tower or the Colored Bead Stair, it is the relationship you have with each and every one of your students."

Mara Matteson, o riginally from Ohio, did her teacher training at the University of New Mexico and taught for the Bernalillo Public Schools for 16 years. In 2005, she completed Elementary Montessori training at the Washington Montessori Institute at University of Maryland Loyola. She earned her New Mexico Administrative license in 2006, and now works as the administrator for the Keres Children's Learning Center (KCLC), a nonprofit Montessori school dedicated to native language revitalization and educational sovereignty at Cochiti Pueblo .

All funds raised will support the work of the Black Montessori Education Fund (BMEF).
Donate Today:

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De-Centering Whiteness in Montessori Spaces - Association Montessori International/USA

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De-centering Whiteness in Montessori Spaces On Sept. 21, 2020, we explored some of the ways in which whiteness informs and limits our ability to fully realize Dr. Montessori's vision for justice. We learned about the historical construction of whiteness, the legacy of racism in schooling, and the ways in which racism manifests within the Montessori community and ourselves.

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Supporting Students from Immigrant Families

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Supporting Students from Immigrant Families

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Supporting Students from Immigrant Families

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Immigration has been at the front of the national conversation for years. Many immigrant children experience challenges adjusting to a new country and culture and being fully included in schools. In families without immigration documentation, the fear of family separation, arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and deportation continues to cause anxiety among children and their families.

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ASAN November Newsletter Dear friend, As we've begun wrapping up the year, we're still hard at work here at ASAN! We've celebrated self-advocacy and looked back at the work we've done this year, and we've continued to work on the issues to come! Earlier this month, we celebrated ASAN's birthday at our 2023 ASAN Gala,...

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The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is a national grassroots disability rights organization run by and for Autistic Americans, advocating for systems change and ensuring that the voices of Autistic people are heard in policy debates and the halls of power. Our staff work to educate communities and improve public perceptions of autism. As a 501(c)(3)...

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ASAN October Newsletter Dear friend, It's the most boo-tiful time of year, but we're still fighting some of the scariest things our community deals with, like discriminatory health care systems, subminimum wage, and lack of supports. Here's what we've been working on this month. In September, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...

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The State of Washington recognizes the importance of educating youth about disability history through its enactment of a state law establishing October as Disability History Awareness Month. This Act requires each public school to conduct or promote educational activities that provide instruction, awareness, and understanding of disability history and people with disabilities. By educating youth, we can ameliorate negative stereotypes and perceptions that can easily lead to exclusion, bullying, low self-esteem, and discrimination. Perceptions of disability should include concepts of dignity, liberty, autonomy, and strength instead of fear, pity, weakness, and paternalism or maternalism.

Additional resources for teaching about disability pride can be found here: https://www.oeo.wa.gov/en/education-issues/one-out-five-disability-history-and-pride-project

Portrait of the Whole Person Curriculum

Portrait of the Whole Person is a curriculum for elementary school students designed to teach students how disability rights fit into the broader civil rights movement, to perceive disability as a reflection of societal views of differences, and to treat people with disabilities with respect and dignity. It contains four distinct lesson plans comprised of three in-class instruction lesson plans and one lesson plan governing the research and writing of a biographical sketch and creation of a portrait of a notable person with a disability. It is also complete with a graphic organizer, rubrics, a power point, and a list of references students can use for research.

Portrait of the Whole Person is free of charge. Our one request is that if you implement it in your classroom, please email info@dr-wa.org with your name and email so we can send you a survey to gather feedback regarding the curriculum. In addition, please email info@dr-wa.org with any further questions.

Portrait of the Whole Person: Curriculum Overview
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Lesson 1: Let's Talk About Disability
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Lesson 3: The Disability Civil Rights Movement
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Lesson 4: Researching and Writing the Biographical Sketch and Creating the Portrait
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Rubric 1: Review of the Biographical Sketch
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Rubric 2: Student's Increased Knowledge
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Rubric 3: Creation of the Portrait
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List of references - coming soon

Notice

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The Content is made available only for your personal, noncommercial educational and scholarly use. You may not use the Content for any other purpose, or distribute or make the Content available to others, unless you obtain any required permission from the copyright holder. Some Content may be provided via streaming or other means that restrict copying; you may not circumvent those restrictions. You may not alter or remove any copyright or other proprietary notices included in the Content.

The following federal funding partners shared in the cost of producing the Portrait of the Whole Person Curriculum publications: the Administration for Community Living ACL (Award #1701WAPADD); the Department of Health and Human Services Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services SAMHSA (Award #3X98SM005397-17S1); and the Rehabilitation Services Administration RSA (Award #H240A170048). These contents are the sole responsibility of Disability Rights Washington and do not necessarily represent the official views of ACL, SAMHSA or RSA.

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Portrait of the Whole Person - Disability Rights Washington

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Portrait of the Whole Person is a curriculum for elementary school students designed to teach students how disability rights fit into the broader civil rights movement, to perceive disability as a reflection of societal views of differences, and to treat people with disabilities with respect and dignity.

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Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage month with the following lessons, activities, videos, and more.

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Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage month with the following lessons, activities, videos, and more.

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No matter our color, ZIP code, or language, we want all our children to have a public education that imparts honesty about who we are, the integrity in how we treat each other, and the freedom to pursue our dreams.

Hispanic Heritage Month is not only a time for those of Hispanic and Latino descent to celebrate their cultural roots but also an occasion for people from all backgrounds to learn, appreciate, and celebrate the rich tapestry of Hispanic and Latino cultures.

Despite efforts by some politicians today to whitewash history, to restrict our freedoms to teach and to learn, throughout our history, Hispanic and Latino communities have left an indelible mark on the fields of art, music, literature, science, politics, education, and countless other domains. Their enduring legacy is not only a source of pride for those who share this heritage but also a source of inspiration for all of us who recognize the power of diversity in shaping our shared humanity.

Through this list of curated resources, books, lessons, videos and activities, we invite you to explore, learn, and celebrate the vibrant heritage and contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities to our world.

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Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage month with the following lessons, activities, videos, and more.

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

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13 Ways to Celebrate Africa Day - Google Arts & Culture

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

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Tribal Nations of Settler Colonial United States

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Tribal Nations of Settler Colonial United States

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Laminated Three-Part Picture & Text Cards
10 Regions, 37 Tribes, 158 Cards in All!

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Tribal Nations of Settler Colonial United States

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This set was created by Indigenous educators to raise the awareness about the contemporary existence of Tribal Nations. The creators of this set, Trisha Moquino (Cochiti, Kewa, Ohkay Ohwingeh) and Marcus Trujillo (Laguna Pueblo), believe the names of Tribal Nations should be in the American national consciousness.This set highlights 37 Tribal Nations spread across 10 regions of the settler colonial United States (4 tribes from each region except Hawaii, which has 1). After reviewing the text card accompanying each tribe, teachers can facilitate naming, matching, and sorting activities leading to children reading the names of the tribes. Primary children will pore over the detailed illustrations and Elementary children can use the text cards as a starting point for doing further research.Cards are laminated to the edge, not beyond. Control card with label is 4” x 5½”. Ages 3-12.Set includes:Three-Part Cards for 37 TribesInformative Text Cards for Each TribeTeacher’s GuideVocabulary List
Geographic Regions & TribesAlaska: Central Yup’ik, Cheesh’Na, Inupiat, Sun’aq
California: Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, Yurok TribeGreat Basin: Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Walker River Paiute Tribe, Washoe Tribe of Nevada & CaliforniaHawaii: Native HawaiiansMidwest: Fond du Lac Ojibwe Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Ho-Chunk Nation, Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation, Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa – “Meskwaki Nation”Northeast: Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Oneida Indian Nation, Penobscot Nation, St. Regis Mohawk TribePacific Northwest: Chinook Indian Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Lummi, Tulalip TribesPlains: Comanche Nation, Crow Tribe of Indians, Pawnee Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal NationSoutheast: Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Seminole Tribe of FloridaSouthwest: 19 Pueblos of New Mexico, Dine/Navajo Nation, Hopi, San Carlos Apache Tribe

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World Colors Multicultural Heavyweight Paper

9 Color Multicultural Mini Tempera Cake

Crayola Multicultural Kit

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Floor Puzzles

Photographic Multi-Cultural World Puzzles

Racial Cognition Dress-Up Peg Puzzle

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Differing Abilities Poster Pack

Multicultural Kids Posters for Classroom Decoration

Real Infant Photo Posters

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IACS serves the Indian American community through programs, services, and advocacy for people of all ages and life stages. We help seniors, youth, women, and families with the often difficult and complex circumstances that affect their daily lives. In addition to helping them manage logistics and details, we help them build connections with others in a safe and welcoming environment so that everyone feels they've found a place where they truly belong.

We, The Indian American Community Services - IACS (formerly IAWW) strongly condemns the horrific shootings in the Atlanta, GA area, killing eight people, six being women of Asian descent. AAPIs across the nation continue to remain shocked, struggling with the fear and anxiety from such senseless violence. We stand in solidarity with all Asian American, Pacific Islander and BIPOC communities. The Stop AAPI Hate coalition reported over 3,700 hate incidents between March 2020 and February 2021 and this does not include the innumerable incidents that go unreported as many AAPIs and members of the BIPOC communities retreat into anonymity and silence when bullied or reeling from such hate-filled acts. We must acknowledge the structural violence, misogyny, racism, classism, and white supremacy in the senseless violence that continues to strike at the soul of our nation. Anti-Asian racism is not new to the United States rather the year 2020 with the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism have exposed what has been eroding our nation's communities for centuries. Yet, our work is not done by simply stating the above, rather this is the time for us to take responsibility for change in our city, county, state and nation, in the conversations both at decision-making tables and at home, to call out the ridiculing and stereotyping of BIPOC, AAPI communities, invest time on conversations and calls to action on divesting and investing into community bridge building efforts, get involved in civic work to ensure we elect leaders who represent us and whose values and vision align to ensure the thriving of all communities. We hope that every member of our community recognizes and does not forget the fear, pain and outrage rightly provoked by such senseless killing. As in the summer of 2020, we once again commit to looking inward to address our own biases around race, religion, caste, class, and color while working towards much needed change in addressing structural racism, classism and misogyny.

We, the Indian American Community Services (IACS), denounce the ongoing discrimination and violence against the black community in the United States. We are deeply sorry for our years of apathy and silence on this matter until now. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 - allowing our immigrant community, along with many other black and brown immigrants into the United States - was created because of the civil rights movement fought for by the black community. We have a responsibility and a duty to be better allies to the black community by actively working to end this pandemic of racism and continuously affirming that Black Lives Matter. In the coming weeks and months, we urge every member of our community to self-educate, reflect on, help combat the daily deep-rooted racism and discrimination that the black community faces. We hope that every member of our community recognizes and does not forget the fear, pain and outrage rightly provoked by the senseless killing of George Floyd (and many others). We commit to looking inward to address our own biases around race, religion, caste, class, and color while pushing for reparations and integration. We pledge to advocate for a system where reparation would involve an official apology for centuries of slavery and discrimination, and the money necessary to overcome their effects. Investing reparation funds into traditionally black, often diverse neighborhoods, through social innovations, community housing, family and support services, transportation, education, K-12 education savings accounts and after-school programs vs. providing additional investments into law enforcement programs is critical. To start, we will work with our peers in our black communities to ensure that we support COVID-19 emergency assistance needs for small businesses and families as a collaborative effort, while continuing to self-examine and educate ourselves. While many may look for a return to normalcy, George Floyd's death (and those of countless other Black Americans before him) is evidence enough that we do not wish for this "normalcy". Intense, daily work will be needed to keep supporting and advocating for our Black community in pursuit of justice and equality. We commit to following our Black leaders charge in this work and urge you to join us in this movement.

Our contribution can help sustain IACS efforts to support Indian Americans throughout our region.

"IACS is for everyone. Seniors, adults, youth, children and women. When there is no family to support you and loss is so deep, I reached to IACS to help me get back on my feet."

Pran Wahi is referred to both affectionately and respectfully as Pranji by those of us whose lives have been touched by his wisdom and community service since 1997.

See His Story Here

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IACS serves the Indian American community through programs, services, and advocacy for people of all ages and life stages. We help seniors, youth, women, and families with the often difficult and complex circumstances that affect their daily lives.

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After the Audit: Classroom Libraries that Foster Critical Consciousness

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After the Audit: Classroom Libraries that Foster Critical Consciousness

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When I first started my work as an elementary school librarian 12 years ago, I didn't yet comprehend just how powerful books are as vehicles of ideology nor that, as a white woman, my racial identity alone could be a barrier to all children fully accessing everything that a library should offer.

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Both as a librarian and the mother of two white children, I came to recognize the potency of books, narratives, and the impact of my own positionality which led me to a pedagogical shift that centers racial and social justice in my work with children and pushes me to continually cultivate my own critical consciousness alongside my students'.

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In the world of children's literature there are many amazing advocates, educators, librarians, authors, illustrators and others doing work that matters. If you follow hashtags such as #OwnVoices, #DisruptTexts, and #WeNeedDiverseBooks, you will be able to follow the work of BIPOC folks who prioritize the books and other media our children consume.

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Through these conversations and practices, many educators and librarians embrace the idea of diversifying their libraries by having books that are more representative of the diversity in race, ability, gender expression, sexuality, religion, socioeconomic status, cultures, value systems, etc. of the students in their classrooms and in our world. As a result, over the course of the last few years, I have seen the rise in popularity amongst librarians and teachers utilizing tools such as " diversity audits" to evaluate their collections for representation. I, too, have written about evaluating bookshelves for the Horn Book, and believe this is a good first step in working with young people to start questioning who is being represented in their books and libraries. However, oftentimes this practice can result in a superficial checklist of represented identities rather than leading to the impactful conversations about social identities and their relationship to power that develop a critical consciousness in ourselves and our students.

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In the world of children's literature, and in my own library, much of the conversation around representation centers Rudine Sims Bishop's metaphor of books as "windows and mirrors". As an elementary school librarian, I appreciate being able to frame the conversation around this metaphor, as this can concretely illustrate who is represented and reflected in kid lit the most. Sarah Park Dahlen and David Huyuk along with the Cooperative Children's Book Center recently put out the 2018 infographic of Diversity in Children's Books 2018.

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The creators of this image so rightly point out, that while publishing practices have gotten incrementally better with physical representation of characters, it does not mean the book's content, authenticity, or character's self-efficacy is well represented. If representation is only measured in aesthetics, we are losing an integral piece in the purpose of having 'windows and mirrors' for our students.

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So, how do we move forward as educators in diversifying our classroom book collections and libraries while keeping attributes of authenticity in narratives and agency?

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It is important to educate ourselves about the books we choose,because a book cannot "do it all." Raising your own critical lens as well as bringing in your students' voices will also help to avoid what Derman-Sparks refers to as " tourist curriculum "-- a result of superficially engaging with diversity in texts which leads to "othering" the ways of being that are outside dominant cultural norms and further marginalizing students. An educator should not only prioritize their students' experiences and knowledge, but also recognize the ways in which their own socialization and social identities impact the ways in which certain narratives are amplified or invisibilized.

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By developing our own critical consciousness to engage in and facilitate powerful book discussion in which our students share connections and criticisms, we, as a classroom community, can go deeper than we could with merely a superficial reading.

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We, as educators, can step beyond simply diversifying our bookshelves by refining our critical lens. In doing so, we can ask ourselves a number of questions that more deeply analyze the ways in which social identities intersect with power and privilege. For example:

How does my own identity inform which books I utilize with children?

What narratives do I gravitate toward? What narratives do I shy away from? Why?

Which parts of my identity inform this selection of books? What parts of my identity make some narratives less attractive to me?

When I am choosing to engage in a book that highlights characters and practices outside of my racial and/or cultural understanding and experience, do I know who wrote the book or who recommends the book?

What are the criticisms against the book? Who is lodging these criticisms and what are their identities and positions of power?

When new books arrive in Phipps Soeiro's library, she sorts them by theme and hosts teachers for a preview discussion guided by questions regarding identity, race, bias, power, and privilege.

Another important factor is to be mindful of is nostalgia.

Just because we may have fond memories of a book, author, or reading experience, does not mean that the text was unproblematic. Nor does it mean that "classics" are better than contemporary books. As I said in Harvard Ed. magazine, "A lot of people will see a brown child on the cover of a book and think that's enough but it's not. We have to look critically at the agency of that child, who wrote the book, the dominant narrative in the book. It takes a lot of work." So what is that work?

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Does this text reproduce stereotypes and literary tropes? (ex. magical Black characters, girls in need of saving, exoticizing, etc.)

Who wrote the book? What is their lived experience?

Who is the main character? Who's inner voice, lived experience, and/or comfort is being centered? Who are we invited to empathize with by the narrative?

Do BIPOC characters have agency? Are BIPOC characters in decision making roles? OR are BIPOC characters relegated to "side-kicks"?

Does this book center deficit thinking or further victimization of marginalized groups?

One way to do this is to evaluate a collection for bias, not just representation, by asking yourself the following questions:

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These questions are not just for you to consider-- involve children in this work!

Be transparent in your thinking and allow them to question and critique as well. Read more about how a colleague and I did this with a second grade classroom here. We, as educators, should continually refine our critical consciousness, check our biases, and question our motivations, both as a model for and alongside our students.

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While the questions above can serve as a starting point to guide you in a deeper analysis of your classroom library and more impactful read aloud discussions with students, you can continue to refine your adult critical lens in the following ways:

About the Author

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Liz Phipps Soeiro (she/her) holds a BSEd from Lesley University '02, an MLS from Simmons University in '07 and an EdM from Harvard Graduate School of Education '19 . She has been an elementary school librarian for over a decade and currently works in Cambridge, MA Public Schools, and is the founder of the Cambridge Book Bike. Liz was named a 2017 Library Journal "Mover & Shaker," 2017 School Library Journal School Librarian of the Year: Hero of Family Outreach, and was awarded the Conant Fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Education for the 2018-2019 academic year.

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After the Audit: Classroom Libraries that Foster Critical Consciousness

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While publishing practices have gotten incrementally better with physical representation of characters, it does not mean the book's content, authenticity, or character's self-efficacy is well represented.

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Loving and Critical: Reflecting and Interrogating my Montessori Identity

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Loving and Critical: Reflecting and Interrogating my Montessori Identity

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Children at work in a Montessori Classroom.

My identity is wrapped up in being a Montessori teacher. Montessori is a method of education that has been part of my professional and personal life for over 15 years. I am the friend that always buys Montessori toys or materials as gifts for new moms and children's birthdays. My three children have attended Montessori school since birth. I have worked as a Montessori early childhood teacher, a Montessori teacher educator, and a Montessori teacher education program director. Montessori education is part of who I am.

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As a white woman striving to do the work of racial justice and continuing to develop my critical consciousness (shoutout to Embracing Equity for supporting me in this journey!), I've realized the Montessori part of my identity requires a more in-depth interrogation. A deeper interrogation that wasn't part of my Montessori training, nor did I experience it in many Montessori communities I have been part of over the years - a deeper interrogation that I thought I was doing all along.

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"We can admire Dr. Montessori for who she was-someone who smashed gender stereotypes and gender expectations of her time to build a radical and revolutionary educational method-while also accepting that she was imperfect
- Britt Hawthorne
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Dr. Maria Montessori was a human being. Human beings are fallible. Why do we so often hold Dr. Montessori up on a pedestal, a pedestal where she can do no harm? It can feel scary, even disrespectful, to question someone we so admire. But as Montessori teachers, this is precisely what we teach our students to do. To respect each other's deepest personal and human qualities and to think critically, to use our voice and agency to find our place in society. The discomfort we feel in questioning Dr. Montessori is also connected to the subconscious ways in which we uphold whiteness in education - to the characteristics of white supremacy culture.

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Britt Hawthorne (2019) said, "We can admire Dr. Montessori for who she was-someone who smashed gender stereotypes and gender expectations of her time to build a radical and revolutionary educational method-while also accepting that she was imperfect" (p. 61). Are we listening to Britt's call? Are we accepting that Dr. Montessori was imperfect? We have to stay with the discomfort we might feel. We cannot allow racial comfort to be "prioritized over engaging in the hard work of interrogating power and privilege" (Gist et al., 2019).

Part of this interrogation includes a loving critique of the things we love the most. As James Baldwin (1955) says, "I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." We can be loving and critical at the same time.

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You can google Maria Montessori quotes and get over 2 million results. These quotes will often include attribution to Maria Montessori but will not include the full citation. I have spent hours looking for the true source of quotes, often finding the quote incorrect or not even finding a source for it. It's as if Dr. Montessori is omnipresent. As Carly Riley has pointed out to me, this is similar to the way Dr. King's quotes have been weaponized to make points he did not intend or how Dr. Montessori's idea of peace education can be (and is often) conflated with anti-racist education. When Montessorians speak of Maria Montessori, you get the sense that they are speaking of a long-lost friend from childhood. I have heard myself talk of Montessori education as not just a method of education but a way of life. Without a doubt, Montessorians create community everywhere we go. We create unspoken norms that, if left unquestioned, center the dominant way of being and exclude those who do not assimilate to the dominant way of being.

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We work through an in-depth inner preparation on our path to becoming Montessori teachers. As a teacher education instructor, I often remind adult learners that this path to being a Montessori teacher is lifelong. Dr. Montessori (1967) writes of the teacher, "she must learn how to observe, how to be calm, patient, and humble, how to restrain her impulses, and how to carry out her eminently practical tasks with the required delicacy" (p. 151). We place so much emphasis on the characteristics of the teacher as defined by Montessori. In this quote, she states a guide must be humble, which is to be free from pride or arrogance. Are we practicing humility if we place Dr. Montessori on a pedestal? Tiffany Jewell summed this up well when she said, "decolonizing myself as an educator and mama is recognizing that I am not the only one with all the answers and to have some humility, to honor my humanity, nod to the past and look towards the future" (Willoughby, 2020).

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Christenson (2019) suggests "explicit teacher qualities have the potential to evolve into a seemingly inflexible social identity that may prevent Montessori teachers from exploring and accepting other ways of being in a classroom" (p. 48). As we read and internalize the image and role Dr. Montessori created of the "Montessori Teacher," we have to reflect on what it means to each of us personally, what it means to the culture we grew up in, and to the culture we are currently in. If we feel we must exhibit the hefty characteristics of a Montessori teacher that Dr. Montessori described, then we must do so in all areas of our practice and our life, including in our learning of Dr. Montessori and her method of education. We must interrogate her thoughts, beliefs, so that we can not only develop our critical consciousness but also use the Montessori method in the way she intended - "to help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit" (Montessori, 2007, p. 69).

A stack of critical pedagogy books as well as some of the works of Maria Montessori.

When we enter our training, we immediately begin reading the work of Dr. Montessori. This is undoubtedly an essential step in our journey. We should always read the work of Dr. Montessori! However, we must shift from reading her work as "the word" and move towards reading her work through a critical lens. Perhaps this level of critique comes naturally to you; maybe you are already critiquing Dr. Montessori and her method as you refine your own pedagogy and better understand your identity as a Montessorian. If not, I offer one way to begin.

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Below are five characteristics as defined by Jones and Okun (2001). The list of characteristics includes more than this, but we will only reflect on these five for brevity. Although, I encourage you to dig deeper on your own.

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Perfectionism

Perfectionism is interconnected to all characteristics of white supremacy culture. It is pervasive. It is the characteristic I have found the most challenging to investigate in myself. As I write this, I am contemplating all the ways perfectionism shows up in Montessori communities, and the thought that keeps coming to me is "but this is just my personality." I'm very "type A," I'm very organized, and on and on. Do you hear my excuses? I do. I've also seen my tendency towards perfectionism arise in my racial justice work. I have paused for far too long before saying or doing anything, out of fear of messing up. We can't let perfectionism stand in the way causing us to get stuck in this awareness space. We must work through the four stages of developing a liberatory consciousness and take action (Love, 2000). For me, I am leaning on friends and colleagues to hold me accountable not only in the awareness of when perfectionism gets in the way, but also with what action steps might look like.

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Defensiveness

I remember the conversation I had with a friend several years ago, where I defended the "pull yourself up from your bootstraps" mentality. I'm embarrassed to admit this. Even as I type this now I want to launch into all the reasons I once held that mentality. Again, a friend held my feet to the fire as together, we interrogated this belief system. My defensiveness also speared its ugly head as I was processing the characteristic of perfectionism. I've observed the defensiveness in schools and Montessori classrooms when we ask, "why do you do it this way?" We can believe in the Montessori method AND be critical at the same time (see either/or thinking below).

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Either/Or Thinking

Your child can play video games AND go to a Montessori school. You can be committed to Montessori education AND engage in other evidence-based education practices. You can remain a member of your Montessori organization AND challenge its role in systemic oppression. We have to get outside binary thinking. We can admire Dr. Montessori AND critique her work. We can be "good Montessori teachers" AND use a critical lens to discuss the pedagogy.

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Fear of Open Conflict

We might feel we are not practicing "grace and courtesy" when we question someone we admire, a mentor, or someone in a leadership role. To move forward with a critical lens, we have to discern the difference between being polite and having difficult conversations. Ask the hard questions during your training or when joining a new school, push for a better response than "this is how it has always been done." And when others push you with what feels like difficult questions, don't let defensiveness get in the way (FYI: I wrote that sentence as a reminder to myself). I believe Dr. Montessori would want us to dig deeper - to think for ourselves and to be open to the gift of feedback that allows us to self-construct.

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Only One Right Way

What does "grace and courtesy" look like in different cultures? Dr. Montessori wrote about grace and courtesy through her white-centric European lens but also noted that her method of education could, with some adaptation, be applicable to all societies and nations of the world (Montessori, 1967). Are we shifting our lens as we work with children and families from different cultures? I recently listened to Maati Wafford discuss how grace and courtesy is filled with racism in our Montessori environments. We must understand that there is more than one right way to being graceful and courteous. Consider the child who sings while working or works best in community with friends. Is this disruptive or is this culture? Another way I have observed the only one right way characteristic is through the conversation of what "Montessori" is. There are many institutions and people who argue what it means to be a Montessorian. While it can be important to define the method for policy and accreditation purposes, we have to be careful of finger-pointing or telling folks they aren't "Montessori enough." It is harmful.

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As Katie Kitchens shared in a previous Embracing Equity blog post, "It is past time for us to work toward becoming co-conspirators; we must interrogate our identities, heal our own wounds, and seek out communities where deep trust to be held accountable is prioritized." As Montessorians, especially white Montessorians, we must move beyond binary thinking, fully humanize ourselves and Dr. Montessori, and push for deeper critical analysis, even when it is uncomfortable.

About the Author

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Heather Gerker, she/her/hers, is a doctoral student in Education Policy and Teacher Education at the University of Cincinnati. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 10 years in many capacities: as a Montessori early childhood teacher, teacher educator, and a teacher education program director. She is currently a Teacher Educator with Greater Cincinnati Center for Montessori Education and West Side Montessori School Teacher Education Program. Heather is deeply passionate about supporting teachers on their anti-bias, antiracist journeys.

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References

Baldwin, James. (1955). Notes of a native son. Beacon.

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Cross, B. E. (2005). New racism, reformed teacher education, and the same ole' oppression. Educational Studies, 38(3), 263-274.

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Christensen, O. (2019). Montessori Identity in Dialogue: A Selected Review of Literature on Teacher Identity. Journal of Montessori Research, 5(2), 45-56.

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Gist, C., Jackson, I., Nightengale-Lee, B., & Allen, K. (2019). Culturally responsive pedagogy in teacher education. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.

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Hawthorne, B. (2019). Dr. Montessori's Racism. Montessori Life, 31(1), 61.

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Jones, K., & Okun, T. (2001). White supremacy culture. Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change.

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Love, B. J. (2000). Developing a liberatory consciousness. Readings for diversity and social justice, 2(470-474).

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Montessori, Maria. (1967). Discovery of the child. Ballentine Books.

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Montessori, Maria. (2007). Education for a new world. The Montessori series, Volume 5. Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company.

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Wafford, Maati. (2021). Oppression, Power & Privilege in Montessori Environments [Conference presentation]. American Montessori Society: The Montessori Event, virtual.

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Willoughby, V. (2020). On being comfortable with discomfort: Tiffany Jewell explains what it means to be anti-racist. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com?detailStory=tiffany-jewell-anti-racism-childrens-nonfiction-author-interview

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Loving and Critical: Reflecting and Interrogating my Montessori Identity

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As a white woman striving to do the work of racial justice and continuing to develop my critical consciousness, I've realized the Montessori part of my identity requires a more in-depth interrogation.

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10 Activities for Jewish American Heritage Month Newsletter 

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10 Activities for Jewish American Heritage Month Newsletter 

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10 Activities for Children for Jewish Heritage Month

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How to Talk About Houselessness With Children

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How to Talk About Houselessness With Children

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How to Talk to Your Kids About Houselessness

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When our children ask, “Why do those people live under a bridge?” how should we respond? Learn how to talk about houselessness with kids.

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In discussions about consent today, we're moving beyond the binary of "Yes means yes" and "No means no." Montessori director and toddler teacher Corey Jo Lloyd explains consent as "a constant conversation not just about who touches who-it's ultimately about shared power." For young children, this means they're in control of their bodies; if they want to hug, receive a kiss, have their picture taken, or wear a costume, they can actively consent. Keep reading to access my recommendations for books about consent to begin or contribute to the sex education of your learners.
Disclaimer: Sex education and sexual health can be personal conversations that may bring up traumatic experiences and uncomfortable memories. If so, please take care of yourself as you engage with this blog post and recommended resources.
When Is The Right Time For a Comprehensive Sex Education?

When I say "comprehensive sex education," I mean having conversations about mental health, emotional health, physical health, assigned sex, assertive communication, puberty, sex-based harm, gender identity, gender discrimination, nonsexual consent, sexual consent, boundaries, safer tattooing practices, sexually-transmitted infections, and sexuality.

Similar to discussing racism and drugs, it's never too early or late to start talking about consent.

Expert after expert has shared that comprehensive sex education works best if it begins before the start of sexual activity. During this time, parents feel less pressure to "get it right" when they have the time and space to respond to questions, read books based on scientific explanations, and use hypothetical stories to role-play. Children feel more comfortable and open to learning about sex when they're not experiencing the ups and downs of hormones.

For people not yet convinced, did you know the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advocates for the widespread availability of comprehensive sex education?

They support ensuring that all children and adolescents receive age-appropriate, evidence-based education that equips them with the necessary knowledge to make well-informed, safe, and positive decisions regarding their sexuality and sexual well-being.

Becoming a Sex-Positive Family

When I say "sex positivity," I'm referring to the view that the only relevant concerns regarding the sexual act, practice, or experience of sex are the consent, pleasure, and well-being of the people engaged in it or those affected by it.

Sex positivity places no moral value on different sexualities or sexual acts. It helps people set aside judgments and make room for the diversity of human sexuality.

In contrast, "sex negativity" is the normalized view that sex is harmful, shameful, disgusting, and or something to be feared. Sex negativity devalues sex and the experience a person has with sexuality. It promotes the belief that nonconforming sexual expression is not valuable and erases honest expression of sexualities and authentic connection between people.

Before beginning to teach your children about consent, it can help to define your family's approach and stance on sex education. Start with yourself and your parenting partner(s) by challenging/unpacking any sex negativity that you hold within yourself.

To engage in meaningful and honest conversations with your child, approach conversations with curiosity rather than fear.

Consider these sex-positive family values:

Your questions and observations are valid and worthy to be discussed

Puberty and sex won't be taboo conversations in our home

I'm a trusted adult that won't judge or shame you

What you're experiencing is perfectly normal

We're on the journey of learning together

You won't have to figure it out alone

Books About Consent For Children

As antiracists, we understand that sexuality (like race) is often a taboo topic in many homes. We also understand that sexual violence and discrimination (like racism) must be dismantled. I believe in helping families dismantle the taboo of sexuality and work to become sex-positive households. These recommendations for books about consent can help to accomplish this!

For Children

Including babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary children.

This inclusive book provides a gentle and accessible introduction to the concept of reproduction for children, using inclusive language and illustrations to explain how babies are conceived and born.

Celebrating body diversity and promoting self-acceptance, this picture book encourages children to embrace and appreciate their bodies, fostering a positive body image and promoting inclusivity.

This book introduces the concept of consent to young children, teaching them about personal boundaries, body autonomy, and the importance of respecting others' choices through simple and engaging illustrations and text.

Designed for tweens, this informative and inclusive book explores topics related to bodies, gender, sexual orientation, and relationships, providing accurate information in a sensitive and age-appropriate manner.

Aimed at tweens and older children, this comprehensive guide covers various aspects of sexuality, puberty, reproduction, and sexual health, providing clear and accurate information with vibrant illustrations.

Geared towards tweens and early teens, this book educates young readers about the importance of consent, personal boundaries, and respectful communication, empowering them to understand and assert their own choices.

This frank and inclusive guide addresses various topics related to sex, relationships, consent, communication, and personal well-being, providing teens with a comprehensive resource for navigating these important aspects of their lives.

With a focus on gender, sexuality, puberty, and body positivity, this book for teens offers inclusive and engaging information about diverse experiences, identities, and relationships.

This accessible and informative guide provides clear explanations and practical examples to help readers understand the concept of consent, establish healthy boundaries, and navigate consent in various contexts, promoting respectful relationships.

For Young Adults and Beyond

Aimed at young adults and beyond, this thought-provoking book explores the concept of consent in a broader societal context, highlighting the importance of freedom, choices, and mutual agreement in all aspects of life.

My parenting guide offers practical advice and strategies for parents and caregivers to actively raise children who are aware of and challenge racism, fostering inclusivity, empathy, and social justice from an early age. This includes creating a sex-positive family!

Celebrating Consent

Equipped with these books about consent , you're on your way to building a sex-positive family and helping your children develop strong, healthy relationships with themselves and others. Congratulations!

As your children begin to uphold their boundaries, here are two phrases you can use to respond. These phrases come from Ashley Speed, a queer Montessori educator helping teachers and parents honor the fullness of children's identity and expression:

"Thank you for communicating your boundaries."

"Thank you for respecting your boundaries."

I'm rooting for you!

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It is never too early to discuss consent. Explore 10 books about consent for every age as recommended by Britt Hawthorne.

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Ableist Language To Avoid and Alternative Phrases

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Ableist Language To Avoid and Alternative Phrases

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Language isn't just a tool to communicate with-it's an influential medium for creating meaning in our lives. When we unconsciously use biased language, we inadvertently create a biased understanding of the world around us negatively impacting our communities. Ableist language perpetuates ableism, which is discrimination against people with disabilities. Even if you think you are in the clear, as someone who cares about creating an inclusive society for all people, the reality is that most of us use some form of ableist language every day. Keep reading to learn more about how you can avoid ableist language and some alternative phrases to use in their place.

Ableism impacts people with disabilities on the macro and micro levels. This blog post delves deeper into the micro level of ableism. Explore my article on macro ableism here.

Ableist Language To Avoid

Ableist language is any term or expression that devalues people who have a disability.

Ableism perpetuates the false narrative that there is something "wrong" with people with disabilities and that they are inferior to able-bodied people. When we use ableist terms, we perpetuate a negative connotation with disability.

Ableist language is used as a quick, thoughtless way to describe something-but it doesn't effectively describe what we want to say. Part of taking a stance against ableism is expanding your vocabulary, so you can accurately describe your thoughts and views of the world around you. It also means leaving behind hyperbolically / "humorously" diagnosing yourself and others and, instead, saying what you mean.

For example, the following words are associated with disabilities and are often used negatively:

Crazy: "She's acting so crazy lately, I can't keep up with her mood swings." - This is ableist because it stigmatizes and trivializes mental health conditions. This includes other psychological terms like "bipolar" or "narcissist."

Barren: "That land is so barren; nothing good can grow there." - This is ableist because "barren" historically referred to women unable to bear children, perpetuating negative assumptions about their worth based on reproductive abilities.

Retarded: "Stop being so slow; don't be retarded." - This is ableist because it derogatorily mocks individuals with intellectual disabilities, using their condition as an insult.

Dumb: "Why did you make such a dumb mistake?" - This is ableist because it uses "dumb" as an insult to suggest someone is unintelligent, which reinforces negative stereotypes about people with speech or hearing impairments.

ADD: "I'm so ADD today; I can't focus on anything." - This is ableist because it belittles the challenges faced by individuals with ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) and misrepresents the disorder as a casual trait.

OCD: "She's so OCD about cleanliness; it's annoying." - This is ableist because it reduces a serious mental health condition to a quirk, trivializing the struggles of those living with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder).

Lame: "That party was so lame; nothing exciting happened." - This is ableist because "lame" historically referred to people with mobility impairments, using their disability to describe something as uninteresting or dull.

Crippled: "My car's engine is completely crippled; it won't start." - This is ableist because it uses "crippled" as a metaphor to describe a non-living object, disregarding the offensive historical context of the word when applied to people with disabilities.

Blind: "You're blind if you can't see how amazing this movie is." - This is ableist because it uses "blind" metaphorically to suggest someone is unaware or ignorant, perpetuating negative stereotypes about individuals with visual impairments.

Deaf: "Don't be deaf to my advice; you need to listen to me." - This is ableist because it uses "deaf" metaphorically to imply ignorance or unwillingness to listen, which can be disrespectful to individuals with hearing impairments.

Use This, Instead of That

Below are more accurate ways to describe what you are trying to say, instead of using ableist language like those described above. This is not an exhaustive list.

Feedback: We welcome your feedback on this article and additional ideas and reflections. Please send your feedback and comments to contactme@britthawthorne.com

People-First Language or Identity-first Language

The best way to refer to disabled people is to ask them what they prefer. However, if you are unsure, it's recommended by experts to use person-first language when referring to children. When referring to adults or individuals with autism, it is best to use a combination of person-first and identity-first language. This combination helps to challenge the misconceptions and discrimination that people with disabilities often face while also destigmatizing disabilities.

For example, saying "he's a person with Down syndrome" versus "a Down syndrome man" avoids unnecessarily centering the person's disability and identifying them foremost by their disability. Some disabled people, particularly the blind, Deaf, and autistic community, prefer identity-first language. For example, saying "he's autistic" versus "a person with autism," shows a positive relationship with their identity, which should be respected.

Tips for Adjusting Your Language

In making these changes, expect to make mistakes. It can be difficult to change the way we express ourselves, even if we strongly believe it is the right thing to do.

Accountability Partner

Find an accountability partner, a friend, family member, or colleague who also wants to make a conscious effort to use more inclusive language. Share your commitment to using language that avoids ableism and discrimination. Hold each other accountable by reminding each other when you slip up and celebrating your successes together.

Create a Language Journal

Keep a small notebook or use a notes app on your phone to create a language journal. Whenever you catch yourself using ableist language or encounter such language in conversations, write it down. Reflect on why you used that language and how you could have phrased it differently. This journal can help you become more aware of your language habits and track your progress over time.

Utilize a Pocket Guide

Create a pocket-sized guide to use instead of ableist language. Whenever you are uncertain about a word or phrase, refer to this guide to choose a more inclusive option. Having quick access to this resource will make it easier for you to make language changes in real-time.

Practice Mindful Speaking

Before speaking, take a moment to think about the words you are about to use. Ask yourself whether the language you are about to use may perpetuate stereotypes or harm others unintentionally. Practicing mindfulness in your speech will help you develop the habit of choosing inclusive language more consistently.

Be Open To + Seek Feedback

It's okay to make mistakes. The odds are that you will at some point. Have grace with yourself (and others) when mistakes happen. If you are correcting someone, remember to call them "in" instead of calling them "out." The difference is that you are calling them into a conversation, the feedback is an invitation, instead of a means to judge them and kick them out of an exclusive club of people who don't make mistakes.

If you are corrected, do your best not to be defensive. The person who is calling you in is trying to help, and they are not judging you. Ideally, you can reply with "Thanks for teaching me!" or "Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'm going to research this more." or even "I am learning new things and care about making others feel included."

Educate Yourself

Take the time to educate yourself about the experiences and perspectives of people with disabilities. Read books, articles, and watch documentaries that provide insights into their lives and the challenges they face. The more you learn, the better you'll understand the importance of using respectful language and avoiding stereotypes.

Remember, implementing language changes is an ongoing process, and it's okay to make mistakes. What matters is your commitment to improving and creating a more inclusive and compassionate environment through your words. Over time, these small changes will have a positive impact not only on your life but also on the lives of those around you.

And as you practice, remember, I'm rooting for you!

If you enjoyed this article, consider buying me a cup of coffee. I'm Britt, a Black bi-racial momma, author, and anti-bias facilitator, who provides free resources to families on subjects ranging from ableism to antiracism.

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Ableist Language To Avoid and Alternative Phrases

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Ableist language, images, and ideas are all around us. Learn how to relearn the language of disability to combat ableism.

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Social Justice Books Gentrification & Housing Book List

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Social Justice Books Gentrification & Housing Book List

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Gentrification & Housing - Social Justice Books

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Elementary | Middle / YA | Adult Teaching for Change carefully selects multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. Learn about our criteria for selecting titles. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome. Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk(*).

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Social Justice Books Food and Water Justice Book List

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Social Justice Books Food and Water Justice Book List

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Food and Water Justice - Social Justice Books

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Elementary | Middle School | High School / Adult Learn more at Food First.org. Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. Learn about our criteria for selecting titles. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome.

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Social Justice Books Learning about Economic Class Book List

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Social Justice Books Learning about Economic Class Book List

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Early Childhood: Learning about Economic Class

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Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

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Education and Socioeconomic Status Factsheet

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The impact of socioeconomic status on educational outcomes and reducing slow academic skills development, low literacy, chronic stress and increased dropout rates.

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Social Justice Books Learning About Family Structures Book List

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Social Justice Books Learning About Family Structures Book List

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Early Childhood: Learning about Family Structures

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Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

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Social Justice Books Disability Book List

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Social Justice Books Disability Book List

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Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

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Social Justice Books Body Positivity Book List

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Social Justice Books Body Positivity Book List

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Lesson Plans to Welcome All Families in Your School Community

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Lesson Plans to Welcome All Families in Your School Community

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Welcoming Schools teacher-friendly lesson plans were designed to help educators create classrooms and schools that foster a sense of belonging for all of your students and their families and caregivers.

A key focus of our program is to provide comprehensive resources for educators to teach about all kinds of families inclusive of LGBTQ+ families and to affirm all identities across the gender spectrum.

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Lesson Plans to Embrace All Families in Your Elementary School

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Welcoming Schools teacher-friendly lesson plans were designed to help educators create classrooms and schools that foster a sense of belonging for all of your students and their families and caregivers. A key focus of our program is to provide comprehensive resources for educators to teach about all kinds of families inclusive of LGBTQ+ families and to affirm all identities across the gender spectrum.

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5 Tips for Blending Your Montessori Practice and Supporting Children with Disabilities

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5 Tips for Blending Your Montessori Practice and Supporting Children with Disabilities

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A major hurdle for any teacher-a seasoned veteran or one just out of training-is the realization that all the tricks up your sleeve to captivate, cajole, and connect a child to work simply aren't working. Montessori teachers are experts in the field of adapting lessons to meet the needs of individual children, but what happens if the needs of some children in the classroom are out of the scope of our teaching experience?

Sometimes the trick is to think outside the Montessori "box." While it is true Maria Montessori designed her didactic materials for children with disabilities, classrooms nowadays-children's needs, family's demands, and childcare regulations-are vastly different from the classrooms she observed in the early 1900s. According to the Office of Special Education Programs' 2018 - 2019 data, 24.6% of children with disabilities between the ages of three and five attended a school day program but received the majority of services in another location.

Blended practice combines multiple, evidence-based methods for teaching children with and without disabilities into a comprehensive approach that ensures that all children in inclusive settings meet high standards ( Grisham-Brown and Hemmeter 2017). Hannah Harris, co-director at Red Oaks Forest School in Lexington, KY described what blended practice looks like at her school:

"The mother of a child with cerebral palsy contacted the teacher to tell her some of the things they were doing were a little too challenging for her son. So the teacher, the director, and I met and worked on some workarounds: ways to tweak things, ways we could accommodate the child, and we came up with a proposal to share with the mom to see if she thought it would work. These were not changes that structurally changed the school; they were changes that could be made if you just had the will to do it. You know, move this activity to after we take this break instead of before it; or we will have you meet us here instead of here-pretty minor things but that makes a major difference to whether the child can participate or not. It's an ongoing dialogue we have with families and teachers."

A Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a theory that is built into many federal special education and inclusion guidelines and policies (McKenzie and Zascavage, 2021). In a nutshell, UDL creates a framework for teachers to use to implement best practices when designing an inclusive curriculum for individual children by emphasizing opportunities for children to experience their environment. In their book, The Inclusive Classroom: Creating A Cherished Experience Through Montessori (2021) they provide useful, creative ideas that incorporate UDL principles into the Montessori classroom such as:

Working alongside the child through the entire sequence of longer Practical Life activities such as shoe polishing or watering a plant.

Instead of 10 trips to the math shelf to retrieve the Red and Blue Number Rods, take turns or walk with the child to get the rods.

Rethinking the control of error in certain materials to accommodate a child with special cognitive needs.

Allow the child to work with a peer during the work cycle to sustain interest and stamina.

Behavior Is Communication

While it is always helpful to be quick on your feet with variations for all the different Montessori materials, there are times when the child's behavioral needs interfere with his ability to learn. All behavior is a form of communication, and it is the teacher's job (hopefully in conjunction with administrators, parents, guardians, and specialists!) to identify what that child is trying to say.

This flow chart outlines some familiar challenges children with special needs can face during the school day and ways the classroom teacher and peers can be supportive.*

If the behavior looks like:

The child could be experiencing:

You can support the child by:

Aggression towards others on the playground or when around groups of children

Uncertainty about how to communicate in social situations

Implementing a peer-to-peer coaching system

Fidgeting or inattentiveness during the work cycle

Restlessness or fatigue

Providing an intentional, structured sensory diet (in addition to the child's freedom to move about the classroom)

Disruptive or challenging behavior during transitions

Anxiety about a change in routine

Creating a transition tailored to that child's needs (could include visual aids or positive reinforcement)

Reluctance to engage with peers or destructive to other's work

Uncertainty about how to initiate or engage in play

Providing a dramatic play, blocks, or loose parts area of the classroom

Trouble choosing work or using the work constructively

Lack of interest or understanding of the available work choices

Establishing a close relationship with the child's family to understand what activities the child enjoys outside of school

*These tips are not meant to replace the expertise of pediatricians, professional occupational, physical, or ABA therapists.
AMS members receive unlimited access to our on demand library of professional development. Learn more about this subject by accessing our video on Strategies for Handling Challenging Behaviors in the Classroom.

About the Author

Emily Webb is a research assistant in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, where she is pursuing her Masters of Science in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education. Formerly, she was a Montessori teacher, Kentucky credentialed teacher educator, and co-director of Lexington Friends Preschool in Lexington, KY. She is AMS-credentialed (Early Childhood). Contact her at webbemily8865@gmail.com.

Interested in writing a guest post for our blog? Let us know!

The opinions expressed in Montessori Life are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of AMS.

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5 Tips for Blending Your Montessori Practice and Supporting Children with Disabilities

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Teaching outside the Montessori "box" requires flexibility to reach children with disabilities.

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High five or hug? Teaching toddlers about consent

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High five or hug? Teaching toddlers about consent

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High five or hug? Teaching toddlers about consent

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Though we often think of consent as a topic for the teenage years, we can build this understanding much earlier. Have you seen the video of the preschool kids greeting each other as the school day begins? Each child gets a high five, a fist bump, a handshake, or a hug.

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Self-paced Learning for PREK-2 Teachers: Supporting Dual Language Learners

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Self-paced Learning for PREK-2 Teachers: Supporting Dual Language Learners

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Supporting Dual Language Learners - PBS KIDS Self-Paced Learning

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Get the facts on the power of bilingualism for young children! Build a personal toolkit of resources and strategies to nurture home languages in your classroom, with a focus on supporting Spanish language.

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The Multilingual Learning Toolkit is an online hub for research-based key principles, instructional strategies, and associated, free, practical, and easy-to-use resources that are geared towards educators who teach PreK-3rd Multilingual Learners. As the resource library continues to grow, make sure you stay connected for the latest updates by filling out the short sign-up form at the bottom of the page.
Learn about the project >

Learn about the best way to use this site

To enhance your experience, we recommend you start with learning how to use the Multilingual Learning Toolkit.
Visit how to use this site >

Learn about the best way to use this site

To enhance your experience, we recommend you start with learning how to use the Multilingual Learning Toolkit.
Visit how to use this site >

Excited to explore, but unsure where to begin?

The User Guides are designed to support teachers, administrators and professional development (PD) providers, and teacher education faculty to find a helpful place to start using the Multilingual Learning Toolkit! The guides offer a reflection tool to support educators to identify priorities for their own learning, plus activities and protocols forexploring the resources in the site.

For Administrators
and PD Providers

For Teacher
Education Faculty

Watch this video to learn more about the Multilingual Learning Toolkit website!

Starter Guide

Foundational Principles

Instructional Strategies

Best practices + resources

A collaborative effort among organizations and individual experts

A collaborative effort among organizations and individual experts

The Multilingual Learning Toolkit is the result of the partnership between a diverse group of stakeholders, maximizing the expertise of local and national practitioners, researchers, and advocates who are champions for Multilingual Learners (MLs). The guide serves as an introduction to supporting young MLs in PreK-3rd Grade, sharing the foundational principles and evidence-based strategies for instruction that are critical for educators to know.
Explore the Starter Guide >

Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages

Key foundational principles for educators working with Multilingual Learners
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Multilingual Learning Toolkit * Dual Language * Multilingualism

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Promoting the benefits of multilingualism and providing resources supporting Pre-K through 3rd grade multilingual children and teachers.

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Promising Strategies for Supporting Dual Language Learners, Regardless of the Languages Teachers Speak

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Promising Strategies for Supporting Dual Language Learners, Regardless of the Languages Teachers Speak

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It's important for teachers to create a welcoming environment for children and families from all cultures and who speak different languages. Here are a few quick tips.

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Montessori for Children with Learning Differences

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Montessori for Children with Learning Differences

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In 1950, Dr. Maria Montessori gave a lecture at the University for Foreigners, in Perugia, Italy, in which she drew a diagram of the four planes of development (Grazzini, 1988). The triangles represent Montessori's fundamental psychological theory, with each plane representing one of the sensitive periods of development.

"Montessori education is geared to peaks and valleys of human formation." Dr. Montessori suggested we "divide education into planes and each of these should correspond to the phase the developing individual goes through".

This diagram represents the progression of typical development from birth to age 24. Montessori, who had worked with children with varying exceptionalities, at the Orthophrenic School, in Rome, recognized that children challenged in learning had what she referred to as an unequal development. As we look at the four planes for the typical child, we might envision all of the lines from birth to age 24 as wavy lines, indicating this unequal development.

In a 1988 lecture, Dr. Sylvia Richardson suggested that to identify children at risk for learning differences with the goal of early intervention, the teacher should observe the development of coordination, language, attention, and perception. All of these areas can be clearly observed in the Montessori classroom. In particular, the Sensorial curriculum helps the teacher to observe the child's perceptual development and is diagnostic of uneven development.

In The Absorbent Mind, Montessori (1967) also described the early development of children between birth and 3 years of age as proceeding along different tracks.

For example, coordination might be developing typically, while language and speech may show delays of disorder and attention and perception may be below average for typical development. There could be any combination of these unequally developing areas. It is important that these areas, which will contribute to cognitive ability and adaptive ability, develop evenly, because in the period between 3 and 6 years, Montessori indicates these important skills will be integrated, and if there is uneven development, it hinders the integration of these skills to assist the child in learning. This creates a domino effect, in which unequal early development and integration of these skills affect all of the planes that follow the first, hence contributing to learning differences.

Working from this premise, Montessori (along with French physicians Jean Marc Gaspard Itard and Édouard Séguin) explored ways that education could help minimize the differences between the typically developing child and the child who experiences learning and attention differences. This early work in sensory education led to the comprehensive multisensory curriculum of the Montessori Method. While the Method helps all children, it is critical to the progress of children who learn differently-including children with dyslexia, ADHD, communication disorders, intellectual deficiencies, and autism. I will briefly describe these learning differences and then discuss how the Montessori curriculum can be used with children with these differences.

The research of Dr. Gordon Sherman, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston, has shown that the child with the specific reading disorder of dyslexia has a brain that is significantly different from the typical reader-not damaged or abnormal, just different (Sherman & Cowen, 2003). Using MRI studies of individuals with dyslexia reading, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, of the Yale University School of Medicine (2003), has found that the dyslexic brain is processing letters and sounds into words as the beginning reader does rather than as the typical reader, who, becoming fluent, primarily uses the word form area of the brain. Even in adulthood, the individual with dyslexia does not process visual and auditory information as the typical reader does.

Studies of ADHD indicate that this difference is a chronic neurobiological condition in which the person has difficulty with sustained attention and impulse control. Persons with ADHD have a physical, neurological challenge caused by a lack of release of neurotransmitters in the brain that assist with arousal and ability to concentrate and control impulses. Difficulty with executive function is noted in children with ADHD-they have trouble organizing and prioritizing.

For children with communication disorders, including speech and language development difficulties, we see differences in articulation, fluency of speech, language comprehension, and expression. The brain is not processing auditory information accurately or performing the task of bringing meaning to the words that are heard.

Students on the autism spectrum have challenges with oral language development and social skill development. Children with intellectual deficiency have low average mental ability to severe deficiency in intellectual development.

Each of the difficulties listed above can be found individually or in combination, preventing a student from learning as a typically developing student does.

To help the child who learns differently, when the usual presentation is not helping a student, Montessori educators can use several techniques:

reduce the difficulty of an activity

use more tactile-kinesthetic input

create control charts

focus on the development of oral language

increase the structure for the child with impulse control difficulties, assuming the necessity to help the ADHD child to sustain attention, teaching how to make work choices and how to develop a cycle of work

combine Multisensory Structured Language techniques with Montessori Language presentations.

Examples of these techniques are given below.

Practical Life:

Use fewer dry materials in initial pouring activities (for example, 5 large beans versus many grains of rice) and less liquid.

Note: If the child is not holding the pitcher correctly, the lesson may have to become how to hold a pitcher and work up to pouring.

Dressing Frames: lesson reduced to a first presentation of untying, unbuttoning, unbuckling, etc., with each step presented in separate lessons working toward the final step of mastering the direct purpose of the lesson

Cutting bananas and bread before cutting more solid foods, like carrots

Attaching language to the name of the presentation and all of the materials used in the lesson that is at the level of the child's oral language development

SENSORIAL:

Pink Tower: Reduce the number of cubes to use every other cube, beginning with the largest, thereby increasing the discrimination to a 2 cm difference. Use more tactile kinesthetic exploration of each cube, if necessary, to show the child how to make the choice; arrange the cubes in random order on the mat and say "find the big one." Repeat this for the first 3 cubes. After the third cube, most children perceive how the choice is being made to build the cubes in gradation. This activity varies in 3 dimensions- height, width, and depth.

Brown Prisms (Brown Stairs): Use the same procedures as described for the Pink Tower. This activity varies in 2 dimensions-height and width.

Red Rods: Use the same procedures as described for the Pink Tower. It may be necessary to create a control chart for the child to practice building the rods from long to short, until he perceives the difference, which in this activity varies only by one dimension-length.

Knobless Cylinders: Use the same procedures as described for the Pink Tower.

Geometric Solids and Geometric Cabinet: Demonstrate to the child as you present the use of the senses of feel (tactile and kinesthetic), which will assist visual perception.

Color Box III: Reduce the number of shades to be discriminated between, beginning with 3 dark, 3 lighter, and 3 lightest. Increase the range of discrimination until the child can perceive the differences in all 7 shades. A control chart can also be used.

Memory Bag: Begin the year with objects in the bag that are made of different materials and are distinctly different in shape. During the year, increase the difficulty by making all of the objects of the same material, such as wood, and increase the similarity of the shapes of the objects. With all Sensorial activities, add as much language to the presentation as possible (after the initial silent presentation). Naming each object (e.g., big, little; large, small; larger, smaller; largest, smallest) expands the child's vocabulary. As the child is able, add describing words to each activity (e.g., heavy, light, rough, smooth, and the names of colors).

MATHEMATICS:

As with the Sensorial materials, add the sense of feel, both tactile and kinesthetic, to the presentation of each Math material. This assists the child whose visual perception is faulty.

Number Rods: As language is attached after the initial presentation, each rod should be touched and counted. For example, perceptually the 2 rod is not actually two things, but one rod painted in two different colors to represent the quantity 2. If, during the presentation, the teacher says, "This is 2," and touches and counts, "1, 2," the child's perception may be more accurate. This is true for all rods from 2 to 10.

Spindle Box: When presenting, tap the rod into the palm of the other hand. This increases the sense of feel and assists the child when he imitates this movement in one-to-one correspondence in counting. If the child or other children in the room are sensitive to the sound of the rods dropping into the box, line the number slots with felt.

Cards and Counters: If the child shows confusion with all 10 numerals and counters, reduce the number to 5 and build up to 10 as the child indicates he can accomplish the work. Use this activity in the Elementary program, and expand it to the realization that all numbers that end in 2 are even, including 12, 22, 102, 1002, etc.

For math functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), children with learning differences usually need more repetition. It is very important to attach language to each math function: Adding is putting amounts together, subtraction is taking an amount from a larger amount, multiplication is a fast way of adding, and division is a way to allot equal amounts to each person. All of these words are abstract and the Montessori Math materials provide ways to help make them more concrete and hence more understandable.

Typically developing students seem to pick up math facts by using the Golden Beads for the math functions, along with the addition and subtraction strip boards. Those with visual and auditory processing difficulty have more challenges in learning these facts. In addition to manipulatives, practice writing number facts on a textured surface, thus using four VAKT channels (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile) to help the student store information in memory. Various VAKT strategies include writing on the textured side of an 8" x 11" piece of Masonite board, writing in a sand tray, writing on a flat surface covered with shaving cream, and skywriting. Skywriting entails using the nondominant hand placed on the shoulder of the dominant hand while the student traces the letter or word in the air with a large arm movement.

Making transitions from the Golden Beads to a more abstract work, like the Small Bead Frame, in which color represents quantity, usually takes more time and practice.

LANGUAGE:

Since oral language skills may be a weakness for many students with learning differences, it is usually necessary to add a program of oral language development assessment and instruction to enhance vocabulary and verbal expression. The MACAR Oral Language Development Manual is one such program (Pickering, 1976).

Written language, which includes reading, spelling, composition, and handwriting, requires the combination of Montessori language materials and the therapeutic techniques of a multisensory structured language (MSL) approach (e.g., Orton-Gillingham, Sequential English Education (SEE), Slingerland, Spalding, or Wilson Language).

Use additional phonological awareness shelf activities (pat out each sound in a word; place a small floral stone or disk on a picture card for each sound in a word).

Present the Sandpaper Letters in the sequence taught in the therapeutic program.

Use the decoding pattern of blending the beginning sound to the word family of short and long vowel word family words. In this manner of decoding, the student is blending two units of sound rather than three or more, which is more difficult.

Reduce the difficulty of word building by reducing the number of letters used and not presenting the full tray, which can be overwhelming to students with processing difficulties. For example, use a set of 5 pictures (cat, hat, sat, mat, bat) and just the letters needed to build the words (5 As, 5 Ts, and one each of C, H, S, M, and B). Students with processing challenges have difficulty seeing the patterns in words. These sets are put together by word family, such as at, ap, ab, an, ag, etc. The same types of sets are made for the other short vowel word families. After mastery of the short vowel patterns, long vowel word families may be used in a similar fashion.

Montessori's excellent sequence of language materials are multisensory and sequential. The MSL program adds more detail to the strategies that work for students who learn typically in order to adapt them for those who learn differently. As the student proceeds to more irregularities of language, Montessori color-coded works provide for these higher-level language skills to increase accurate reading and spelling. Comprehension is embedded in the early word building by attaching meaning through the use of pictures for each word that is built.

Use linguistic readers to practice the patterns the student is learning. Decoding and comprehension are included in these readers and subsequent readers as they master more patterns of the language.

Handwriting is carefully taught by beginning with prewriting activities, including the Metal Insets. The formation of each letter is taught, preferably in cursive, beginning with the Sandpaper Letters. Students with learning differences experience spatial and directionality confusions. Cursive with letters connected into words and spaces between the words is an assist to these students. There are fewer reversals noted in cursive and the writing is more legible. There is no difference in the motoric requirements for one handwriting system over another. Students learning to write in cursive do not have a problem reading print.

Montessori grammar is very helpful for all children, including those with learning differences. The grammar symbols help make a very abstract concept- parts of speech-more concrete. Grammar boxes and sentence analysis are organized in a way for the student to understand the structure of the language.

For students of all ages-Early Childhood through college-the strategies described here can be applied to the level of the concepts being taught. Developmental stage, rather than chronological age, is the critical factor in helping a child learn. The art of teaching is to match the level of the lesson to the student's individual developmental stage using the Montessori Method and therapeutic strategies, as necessary, to enhance the educational progress of the student.

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Montessori for Children with Learning Differences

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The Montessori Method is intrinsically designed to cater to each individual. This article offers myriad ways Montessori teachers can adapt their lessons for students with learning differences.

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Essential Guide to Dual Language Learning

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Essential Guide to Dual Language Learning

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The numerous approaches to Dual Language Learning and the changing best practices make it difficult for educators to stay up-to-date with bilingual education. Even the labels used to refer to learning with two or more languages changes depending on the organization. However, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) uses Dual Language Learning (DLL) to encompass other frequently used terms, such as bilingual, English Language Learners (ELL), English learners, Limited English Proficient (LEP), English as a Second Language (ESL), and student of a Language Other Than English (LOTE).

The United States Census Bureau reports that, in 2019, over a quarter of children lived with at least one foreign-born parent. On average, 1 in every 4 children under the age of 6 will have a home language that is not English. Research shows that Early Childhood is the best time for children to become proficient in their home language. More so, babies can " detect the sounds of one or more familiar languages from birth." Even before speaking children " use the language they hear to help organize the concepts they are learning." Educators have an opportunity to help DLL students build on their home language knowledge to increase overall communication skills and cognitive development.

Benefits

Incorporating DLL strategies in the classroom has a number of benefits for all students, regardless of home language.

Brain Power

Studies show that on average, children who are introduced to a second language in Early Childhood, outperform single language speakers on cognitive tests once they enter their teens.

Parent Participation

When parents were asked to encourage literacy skills for their children using their home language, DLL students' ability to acquire vocabulary increased in both languages.

Stronger Social Connections and Cultural Awareness

Children learn about different cultures when in mixed classrooms composed of native English speakers and DLL students.

Tips for Educators

Communication with parents/caregivers is crucial for children's development. If possible, before the school year starts, find out which students are Dual Language Learners. Ideally, teachers can conference with multilingual parents/caregivers to better understand children's needs before the first day of school. This is especially important for pre-talkers-babies and toddlers-experiencing separation anxiety. They will find comfort in the cadences of their home language.

Find out which languages are spoken at home.

Ask for a list of 10 - 20 words the child knows and keep the list handy in the classroom (ask for translations of other words you think will be helpful).

For babies, ask parents/caregivers to record the infant's favorite lullaby and share it for use at rest time if needed.

For babies and pre-talkers, with parent/caregiver permission, record the child's pre-language babbling or early word formation to discover what word the pre-talker is attempting to say.

For pre-talkers, create an emotion board with photos of different facial expressions from happy to sad.

Children and educators can use the photos to support communication.

Create pictures to help support communication of a child's basic needs. For example, toileting, snack, and other routine activities help aid in this important language development.

Stock classroom libraries with books in children's home languages.

Invite families to participate in story time-both in English and the home languages of students.

Encourage Language labeling work for readers in both English and home languages. (Ask parents/caregivers to participate.)

Invite all families to create photo books where both home language and culture can be shared with peers.

If language is a barrier to communication with a DLL student's parent or caregiver, look for organizations or government departments that connect schools with translation assistance. See CPS English Language Learners as an example.

Related Articles

Montessori Dual Language Immersion Programs

Learn how two Montessori bilingual Spanish/English schools utilize a dual-language immersion program to encourage linguistic diversity for their students. Learn More.

Being Bilingual: The Dual Mindset of a Public Montessori Educator

Maria Carvajal, a student support specialist for the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector, shares insight into the mindset of a public Montessori educator. Learn More.

Dual Language: The Pathway to Peace

Gain insights from an educator's firsthand experience and learn why dual language, Montessori education is shaping the future of our world. Learn More.

By approaching DLL as a whole classroom experience, educators not only support children from multilingual homes, but also widen the world of native English speakers. With some planning and support, educators will be able to accommodate every individual child's language needs.

About the Author

V. Kulikow is a former Montessori teacher and youth services librarian. She currently works as a UX designer and enjoys content creation both with words and images. On weekends you can find her gardening, taking nature photos, and working on her garden design certification through the Native Plant Trust.

Interested in writing a guest post for our blog? Let us know!

The opinions expressed in Montessori Life are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of AMS.

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Essential Guide to Dual Language Learning

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A guide to Dual Language Learning (DLL) with tips for educators.

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Multilingual Montessori - montessori resources and inspiration for raising multilingual children

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montessori resources and inspiration for raising multilingual children

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Debunking Myths About Multilingualism: Strategies to Support Multilingual Students and Families

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Debunking Myths About Multilingualism: Strategies to Support Multilingual Students and Families

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RECORDING

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Please join us for this informative webinar with Gabrielle Kotkov on how to support multilingual students and their families.

▶︎ How children acquire language

▶︎ Bilingual and multilingual language development

▶︎ How to communicate language development and acquisition principles to parents from a Montessori perspective

▶︎ Strategies to support children in the classroom who speak multiple languages

THIS WEBINAR IS IDEAL FOR YOU IF

▶︎ You are concerned that children will get confused by learning multiple languages

▶︎ You're not sure if it is too early or late to teach additional languages

▶︎ You have concerns about multilingualism causing speech delays

▶︎ You need guidance on how to support children in the classroom who speak a different home language
Best for teachers of the Montessori primary level (ages 3-6) Webinar length: 55 minutes
Gabrielle Kotkov is a Montessori educator and the creator of the Multilingual Montessori, , account, and the host of the Multilingual Montessori . She is an AMI- trained 3-6 Montessori Guide and has worked in Montessori schools in NYC, London, and Austin, Texas. She holds a bachelor's degree in Italian from Vassar College and a TESOL Certificate from Teachers College Columbia University. She is a Fulbright Grant Alumni, during which she spent a year teaching English to Italian high-schoolers in Catania, Sicily. She has a Masters of Science in Child Studies from Linköping University in Sweden.

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Join us for a free webinar on how to support multilingual students and their families.

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Keres Children's
Learning Center

The Keres Children's Learning Center (KCLC) is a not-for-profit educational organization that supports Cochiti Pueblo children and families in maintaining, strengthening, and revitalizing their heritage language of Keres.

Nurturing the
whole CHILD

Maria Montessori crafted an approach toward education based on meeting children's developmental needs and satisfying their developmental tendencies that they might fully realize their unique potentials.

Teachings passed down
through KERES

KCLC utilizes the Keres language naturally, supporting children who are already bilingual in Keres and/or supporting families in helping their children learn Keres.

Help Us Help our Children

We are grateful
for your SUPPORT

Thank you for supporting the work of the Keres Children's Learning Center. Your valuable contribution is incredibly important for the development of our programs.

KCLC Weekly
list of ACTIVITIES

March:
March 1 - Children Full Day

March 4 - Children Full Day

March 5 - Tuition Tuesday

March 7 - Children 1/2 Day; 11:30 Pickup

March 8 - Children Full Day

March 11 - Parent Seminar

March 12 - Children Full Day

March 13 - Staff Inservice

March 14 & 15 - Children Full Day

March 18 & 19 - Children Full Day

March 20 - Children 1/2 Day; 11:30 Pickup

March 21 & 22 - Children Full Day

March 25 - Parent Seminar

March 26 - Children Full Day

March 27 - Children 1/2 Day; 11:30 Pickup

March 28 & 29 - Spring Break

Native Language Symposium

To build awareness, inspire connection and belonging in the work of Indigenous Education, and create opportunities to collectively work toward Indigenous language revitalization through education using an immersion, dual-language, and Montessori model rooted in community knowledge and values.

Join us at the 3rd Annual Chipping In for KCLC Golf Classic hosted by Cochiti Golf Club on Friday, May 24, 2024.

Individual, 4-man teams and sponsorships are available!

9:00am Shotgun Start Four-Person Scramble

$600 - 4-man team

$150 - individual

Fees cover: green fee, golf cart, range balls, continental breakfast, lunch and prizes!

Sponsorships Available

Platinum

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Click the flyer for more information

Words from Trisha Moquino...

Dear Keres Children's Learning Center Family, Friends, Community!

I hope all is well with you and your own families in this new year of 2024. Our active board of directors, our KCLC families, and our staff know that I have been working on a succession plan, but I wanted to let you all know. I am so grateful for you all in believing in the mission of KCLC. I am also grateful for our Cochiti Tribal Leadership, our founding board members (Dr. Joseph Suina, Matthew Pecos, Dr. Rebecca Blum-Martinez, Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore, Scott Riley, Dr. Eunice Romero Little), our past and present board members, our elders, our families, our staff, our funders, our mentors, our allies for the unwavering support in launching and sustaining KCLC. This has been a group effort, and we would not have been able to accomplish the mission of KCLC without all of you.

For the good of myself and my family, I can no longer do so many jobs-I want one job. I am first succeeding the Education Director position on February 1, 2024, to Celeste Penni Naranjo. Next, I will be succeeding the CEO position to Dr. Curtis Chavez on June 3, 2024. I will continue to work at KCLC, training our future CEO and our new Keres-speaking elementary teacher-in-training, Gabby Rosetta. I will also continue to work with the Director of the Indigenous Montessori Institute, Povi Mitchell. We have an amazing staff and leadership team, made up of Penni Naranjo, Curtis Chavez, Mara Matteson, Jerome Garcia, Povi Mitchell, and Katie Kitchens. I will continue to mentor the leadership team and staff. I will also continue in my capacity as co-founder on the KCLC Board of Directors. I want to succeed my leadership in a good way, at a point when things are strong. Now feels like the right time.

To all the iiwas who have attended KCLC- you are the reason for KCLC. You give KCLC purpose. And to the iiwas' parents- without you, KCLC doesn't exist, for we wouldn't have a school without children. Nay'trah.

It has been a blessing to work on KCLC over the last 18 years in a leadership position, and I look forward to continuing to work at and support KCLC in a different capacity. I am grateful to our ancestors, who answer our prayers, to my own family-my husband, our daughters, my mom, Abby Arquero, my aunt and uncle, Joann and Orlando Crespin-for their support of me, and to all of you, for your leadership, support, guidance, and continued belief in the mission of KCLC.

With Love and Gratitude,

Trisha

There are 3 ways you can make your donation.
1. Donate Online - Click on donate button
2. Donate by Mail Keres Children's Learning Center P.O. Box 113 Cochiti Pueblo, NM 87072
3. Donate by Phone - Call 505-274-8049 or 505-999-8310

Thank You,
KCLC Family

KCLC

Keres Children's Learning Center

Our Mission
Keres Children's Learning Center (KCLC) strives to reclaim our children's education and honor our heritage by using a comprehensive cultural and academic curriculum to assist families in nurturing Keres-speaking, holistically healthy, community minded, and academically strong students.

Keres Children's Learning Center

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Keres Children'sLearning Center The Keres Children's Learning Center (KCLC) is a not-for-profit educational organization that supports Cochiti Pueblo children and families in maintaining, strengthening, and revitalizing their heritage language of Keres. Nurturing the whole CHILD Maria Montessori crafted an approach toward education based on meeting children's developmental needs and satisfying their developmental tendencies that they might fully realize their unique potentials.

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Bill Nye Uses Science to Explain Why Racism Doesn’t Make Sense

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Bill Nye Uses Science to Explain Why Racism Doesn’t Make Sense

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Bill Nye Uses Science to Explain Why Racism Doesn’t Make Sense | NowThis

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One of the best ways to understand racial, social and systemic inequities is to educate yourself. Dr. Kira Banks has curated a selection of books and other publications that are helpful for individuals and institutions to understand social equity. Here is the most complete list of available resources.

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One of the best ways to understand racial, social and systemic inequities is to educate yourself. Dr. Kira Banks has curated a selection of books and other publications that are helpful for individuals and institutions to understand social equity. Here is the most complete list of available resources.

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Mapping

We strive to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves.

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Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

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Character Development of the Inspired Educator with Tammy Oesting

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Character Development of the Inspired Educator with Tammy Oesting

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PODCAST

Tammy Oesting, world-renowned Montessori trainer, consultant, and public speaker, joins us to talk about the preparation of the adult – specifically our own character development. First, Tammy describes the characteristics of an inspired educator. (To inspire others, we ourselves must be inspired!) Tammy also talks about prosocial emotions and their role in this conversation. And finally, she answers the question, “How do we, as adult learners, cultivate these characteristics?” Join Tammy for this lively and inspiring conversation!

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Greenspring Center for Lifelong Learning

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Character Development of the Inspired Educator with Tammy Oesting

with Tamara Sheesley Balis

Tammy Oesting, world-renowned Montessori trainer, consultant, and public speaker, joins us to talk about the preparation of the adult - specifically our own character development. First, Tammy describes the characteristics of an inspired educator. (To inspire others, we ourselves must be inspired!) Tammy also talks about prosocial emotions and their role in this conversation. And finally, she answers the question, "How do we, as adult learners, cultivate these characteristics?" Join Tammy for this lively and inspiring conversation!

Owner of ClassrooMechanics, Teacher Trainer, Public Speaker, Consultant

Voices in Montessori Podcast

Igniting vibrant and engaging conversations in the Montessori movement to inspire, elevate, and support educators, leaders, and schools.

Listen and Subscribe

Listen and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Voices in Montessori Podcast can be found on iTunes, Apple Podcast, Samsung Podcast, Podbean, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio.

Stay tuned for our latest episodes.

We invite you to Like, Follow, and Subscribe to get the latest updates from Greenspring Center for Lifelong Learning.

We invite you to join our growing community of educators and leaders! Subscribe to our newsletter and join us on social media to keep up to date on our latest releases.

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Character Development of the Inspired Educator with Tammy Oesting - Greenspring Center for Lifelong Learning

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Character Development of the Inspired Educator with Tammy Oesting with Tamara Sheesley Balis Tammy Oesting, world-renowned Montessori trainer, consultant, and public speaker, joins us to talk about the preparation of the adult - specifically our own character development. First, Tammy describes the characteristics of an inspired educator.

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American Indians in Children's Literature

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American Indians in Children's Literature

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Established in 2006 by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books. Dr. Jean Mendoza joined AICL as a co-editor in 2016.

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American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL)

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Designed to help readers develop a critical eye about representations of American Indians in children's and young adult books

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Filipino American History Month Reads - King County Library System

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Filipino American History Month Reads by KCLSDiversity - a staff-created list : Read about Filipino culture, history, and experiences. Find books by Filipino-American authors. Browse some of our picks for all ages.

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Resources to help children celebrate and understand our diverse world.

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Race, Ethnicity, and Culture - Sesame Workshop

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Explore free, bilingual resources on race, ethnicity, and culture that families can use to develop children’s understanding, curiosity, resilience, and empathy.

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Multi-ethnic Dolls

Set of Diverse Washable Baby Dolls

Set of Differently Abled Play People

Multi-Ethnic Baby Doll 4-Pack

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How to respond to everyday prejudice, bias, and stereotypes in schools

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Social Justice Book's American Indians / Indigenous Peoples / Native Nations Book List

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Social Justice Book's American Indians / Indigenous Peoples / Native Nations Book List

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This list is by Debbie Reese of American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL). AICL provides critical perspectives and analysis of indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society.

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12 Books About Bridging Language Barriers

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12 Books About Bridging Language Barriers

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These picture books feature characters who find ways to communicate with older relatives or with each other, even when they don’t share a common language.

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English Language Learners

These picture books feature characters who find ways to communicate with older relatives or with each other, even when they don't share a common language.

Have you ever played Pictionary? How about charades? The general premise of these games is that you have to convey information nonverbally to your partner(s) so they can say a specific phrase or the name of something. While many people enjoy improvisational games such as these, if you were suddenly forced to communicate all of your needs and wants this way, all day, every day, it would be limiting and frankly exhausting.

The games above suggest two strategies for compensating for a language barrier: drawing and gesturing. For most adults, a sudden language barrier would be inconvenient but manageable; for a young child entering a new classroom where they don't know the primary classroom language, a language barrier can make the school day experience seem overwhelming, frustrating, and interminable.

Fortunately, there are picture books available that feature the theme of language barriers. Perhaps more important, they also suggest nonverbal language "bridging" activities for young children to consider. Activities such as drawing, dancing, cooking, and building a snowman are some of the collaborative activities featured in the 12 books below.

Reading the picture books below allows young children, regardless of their primary language, to see, listen, and consider the activities in each book and formulate their own nonverbal communication strategies to add to their ever-growing relationship-building tool kit to benefit each child in a classroom.

12 picture books featuring activities that serve as language bridges

Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome, by Kat Zhang, illustrated by Charlene Chua. Lin is a new student in Amy Wu's class who doesn't speak English. Amy uses her powers of observation and creativity to formulate assorted school and home plans to make Lin feel included and welcome. Author Kat Zhang reads her book in this video. Corresponding teacher resources are available on the publisher's website and featured at the end of the book. (Preschool-grade 3)

Drawn Together, by Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat. A grandchild and grandfather speak different languages but soon discover that they have a special way of communicating through their mutual love of drawing. A corresponding Reading Guide is available on the Reading Is Fundamental website. Author Minh Lê reads his book in this video, and illustrator Dan Santat shares his inspiration and technique here. (Preschool-kindergarten)

Gibberish, by Young Vo. Dat is a young boy who has recently undertaken a big voyage to move away from one home and arrive at another, where everything is different. He finds it especially challenging to navigate his way through a school day attempting to understand a language that sounds to him like "gibberish." Author-illustrator Young Vo shares the inspiration for his book in this video. (Preschool-grade 3)

Luli and the Language of Tea, by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Hyewon Yum. While their parents attend an English class, a group of young children gather to play in a playroom next door. A young girl named Luli addresses the problem of uniting this group of children who each speak a different language by hosting a celebratory tea party in the playroom. A corresponding educator's guide is available on the publisher's website. (Preschool-grade 2)

Mariana and Her Familia, by Mónica Mancillas, illustrated by Erika Meza. Mariana and her mother drive to Abuelita's for a family reunion. Mariana is anxious because she doesn't speak Spanish and she doesn't know these family members. Abuelita and Mariana ultimately lovingly communicate via looking at picture books, cooking, and sharing hugs. There are corresponding student activities on Mónica Mancillas's website, and the author introduces her book in this video. (Preschool-grade 3)

Mustafa, by Marie-Louise Gay. Mustafa has recently moved from far away to a place where he now searches for what is familiar. While playing in the park, he meets a girl named Maria. Although their languages are different, they manage to communicate through the outdoor activities that they can do together in the park. A corresponding teacher's guide is available on the publisher's website. Author-illustrator Marie-Louise Gay reads her book here. (Kindergarten-grade 3)

My Words Flew Away Like Birds, by Debora Pearson, illustrated by Shrija Jain. A young girl reflects on the comforts of her familiar old home and the challenges of her new home. Will she ultimately find something that feels familiar in this new place? Yes! Ultimately it's making a friend that helps the little girl feel at home. (Preschool-grade 3)

Next Door, by Deborah Kerbel, illustrated by Isaac Liang. This wordless picture book features two young children who become new neighbors. One child speaks only Arabic and the other child communicates using American Sign Language. They use gestures, drawing, and sharing food to communicate and ultimately initiate a friendship. (Preschool-grade 2)

Quiet Time With My Seeya, by Dinalie Dabarera. A little girl and her grandfather may speak different languages, but they communicate perfectly through activities such as playing dress-up, cooking, and going on nature walks. (Preschool-grade 1)

A Thousand White Butterflies, by Jessica Betancourt-Perez and Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Gina Maldonado. A little girl in the United States looks out her window on a winter day and sadly thinks about her father and friends in Colombia. She will be starting school in January, but what she anticipates will be her first day of school in America winds up being her first snow day. She is initially disappointed but then plays in the snow with a neighbor, who coincidentally is also a future classmate. A corresponding Teacher's Guide is available on coauthor Karen Lynn Williams's website. (Kindergarten-grade 3)

We Laugh Alike/Juntos nos reímos, by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez. This book features two groups of children with two languages to navigate on one playground. All of the children soon discover that their similarities transcend their differences as they identify and learn games, songs, and dances that unite them in play. (Kindergarten-grade 3)

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12 Books About Bridging Language Barriers

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These picture books feature characters who find ways to communicate with older relatives or with each other, even when they don't share a common language.

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Mini-Course: Responding to Bias Incidents in K-12 Schools

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Mini-Course: Responding to Bias Incidents in K-12 Schools

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VIDEO

This 25-minute course can be used as a professional learning experience to help educators explore best practices in responding to incidents of bias in schools. You will learn how to minimize harm, increase allyship, and create teachable moments when hate based incidents arise in your school community.

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Mini-Course: Responding to Bias Incidents in K-12 Schools

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Educators, use this online professional learning experience to help you explore best practices in responding to incidents of bias in schools.

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https://blacktoystore.com/
Black owned company celebrating Black joy through Black toys.

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Embracing Equity's Real Talk, Real Actions: Episode 1 Is Montessori Racist?

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Embracing Equity's Real Talk, Real Actions: Episode 1 Is Montessori Racist?

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VIDEO

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Real Talk, Real Actions: Embracing Equity.

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Celebrating Filipino American History Month

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Celebrating Filipino American History Month

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October signifies an important month for Filipinos in the United States. The month-long celebration commemorates the recognition of the first Filipinos to arrive in the continental United States. As the second-largest Asian American group in the US, it is only important to recognize the contributions and the role they have played in the molding the history and culture of the country.

To honor the history, achievements, and legacy of Filipino-Americans, let's look back at some programs of Asia Society across all centers that highlighted Filipino excellence.

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Celebrating Filipino American History Month

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October signifies an important month for Filipinos in the United States. To honor the history, achievements, and legacy of Filipino-Americans, let's look back at some programs of Asia Society across all centers.

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Resources to Help Celebrate Filipino American History Month

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Resources to Help Celebrate Filipino American History Month

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By: Jennie Walker Knoot, Librarian at the Debra S Fish Early Childhood Resource Library

Add some of these wonderful titles by and about Filipinos & Filipino Americans to your celebration of Filipino American History Month! October 18, 1587, marks the first known arrival of Filipinos to the continental United States and, in 2009, the US Congress officially recognized Filipino American History Month for the first time. While it became a national holiday in 2009, many organizations, local and state governments throughout the country have celebrated the history, achievements, and legacy of Filipino Americans in October for many years. Check out the links at the bottom of the page to discover more ways to honor the rich cultural heritage of Filipino Americans.

All titles are available through the Debra S Fish Early Childhood Resource Library, a branch of the St. Paul Public Library. If you'd like more title recommendations, our librarian would be happy to help! Please contact Jennie at librarian@thinksmall.org

Children's Titles:

When lola visits (Age Focus: 1 - 6 years)

For one young girl, summer is the season of no school, of days spent at the pool, and of picking golden limes off the trees. But summer doesn't start until her lola-her grandmother from the Philippines-comes for her annual visit. When Lola visits, the whole family gathers to cook and eat and share in their happiness of another season spent together. From the publisher

Keep dancing (Age Focus: 5 - 7 years)

Lito and his twin sister, Nenita, plan to perform a Filipino folk dance at their school's spring festival, but when snickering classmates threaten to derail his confidence, Lito learns to dig deep and keep dancing. From the publisher

Is it a mermaid? (Age Focus: 3 - 7 years)

Set in the Philippines, this picture book is about a very magical dugong who thinks she's a mermaid. From the publisher

Cora cooks pancit (Age Focus: 5 - 8 years)

When all her older siblings are away, Cora's mother finally lets her help make pancit, a Filipino noodle dish. Includes recipe for pancit. From the publisher

Lakas and the Manilatown fish (Age Focus: 6 - 8 years)

A boy, his father, and an increasing number of people rush through the streets of San Francisco's historic Filipino American neighborhood, Manilatown, in pursuit of a fish that can talk and jump and play. From the publisher

English/Tagalog bilingual edition

Adult's Titles:

Love you: Poems

Sarah Gambito explores the recipe as poetic form and a mode of resistance. Through the inclusion of real recipes that she and her family cook from, she brings readers to the table, not only to enjoy the bounty of her poems but, slyly, to consider the ways in which Filipino Americans, and people of color in general, are assailed and fetishized. In addition, the book explores the manifold ways that poetry can nourish and provide for us. From the publisher

Never have I ever

"Am I dead?" Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask. Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap's debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, "A Spell for Foolish Hearts" to the terrifying tension of the urban legend "Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez." From the publisher

I was their American dream: A graphic memoir

"I Was Their American Dream is at once a coming-of-age story and a reminder of the thousands of immigrants who come to America in search for a better life for themselves and their children. The daughter of parents with unfulfilled dreams themselves, Malaka navigated her childhood chasing her parents' ideals, learning to code-switch between her family's Filipino and Egyptian customs, adapting to white culture to fit in, crushing on skater boys, and trying to understand the tension between holding onto cultural values and trying to be an all-American kid. Malaka Gharib's triumphant graphic memoir brings to life her teenage antics and illuminates earnest questions about identity and culture, while providing thoughtful insight into the lives of modern immigrants and the generation of millennial children they raised. Malaka's story is a heartfelt tribute to the American immigrants who have invested their future in the promise of the American dream." From the publisher

In the country

"A powerful, globe-trotting debut short-story collection from an exciting new writer-vivid, character-driven stories about Filipinos from every walk of life... Exploring the universal experience of loss, displacement, and the longing to connect across borders both real and imagined, In the Country speaks to the heart of everyone who has ever searched for a place to call home." From the publisher

Home bound: Filipino lives across cultures, communities, and countries [available through MNLink instead of SPPL]

Espiritu deftly weaves vivid first-person narratives with larger social and historical contexts as she discovers the meaning of home, community, gender, and intergenerational relations among Filipinos. Among other topics, she explores the ways that female sexuality is defined in contradistinction to American mores and shows how this process becomes a way of opposing racial subjugation in this country. She also examines how Filipinos have integrated themselves into the American workplace and looks closely at the effects of colonialism. From the publisher

Online Resources:

Filipino American History Month - October 2022 - FANHS (fanhs-national.org): The Filipino American National Historical Society announces the theme for this year's Filipino American History Month, highlights important anniversaries in Filipino American history, and provides some tips on how to celebrate

Filipino Tradition and Parenting According to a Child Development Coach (onemega.com): Hear from early childhood expert Bloss Villafuerte as she discusses Filipino traditions, what gentle parenting is and how it aligns with Filipino values, and how this parenting style impacts children

10 Ways to Celebrate Filipino American History Month - Google Arts & Culture: Jumpstart your celebration of Filipino American History Month with this quick guide from Google, including historical info about the commemorative month and important Filipino Americans

Food, Crafts, and Fun to Celebrate Filipino American History Month | CAMP: Discover fun ways to celebrate while learning more about the culture

Filipino Plastic Bag Kite : 4 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables: Learn how to make a simple, authentic Filipino plastic bag kite

Tinikling Facts, Worksheets, Origin & Story Behind For Kids (kidskonnect.com): Tinikling is the Philippines' national dance and is a traditional folk dance that originated during the Spanish colonial era.

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Resources to Help Celebrate Filipino American History Month

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By: Jennie Walker Knoot, Librarian at the Debra S Fish Early Childhood Resource Library Add some of these wonderful titles by and about Filipinos & Filipino Americans to your celebration of Fil...

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They're Not Too Young to Talk About Race

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They're Not Too Young to Talk About Race

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Classroom Solutions for Sensory-Sensitive Students (Featured in Montessori Life Magazine)

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Classroom Solutions for Sensory-Sensitive Students (Featured in Montessori Life Magazine)

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Alicia Noddings Wednesday, September 20, 2023

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Classroom Solutions for Sensory-Sensitive Students (Featured in Montessori Life Magazine)

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Explore how to create a sensory-friendly school environment. (Part 2 of 3 articles about sensory sensitivity in Early Childhood.)

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Social Justice Books: Latinx and Latin American Titles

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Social Justice Books: Latinx and Latin American Titles

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Latinx and Latin American Titles | Social Justice Books

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Here are titles on Latinx/Latin American History

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National PTA 2023-2024 Multicultural Calendar

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National PTA 2023-2024 Multicultural Calendar

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VIDEO
This session provides principles and strategies for helping educators to address the increasingly insistent need of young people for guidance in becoming their best selves. Presented by Dennis Shirley and Andrew Hargreaves

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NWAIS: The #BecomingAntiracist Leadership Series

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NWAIS: The #BecomingAntiracist Leadership Series

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This series is designed for anyone committed to the journey to become antiracist. All the sessions will be challenging, informative and action oriented. Educators, administrators, school leaders and DEI practitioners are all welcome to participate.
Monday, December 11
Thursday, January 11
Thursday, February 8
Thursday, March 7
3:00 - 4:30 PM PT

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Gender Affirming Pronouns Workshop, Fall 23-24 Inservice

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Gender Affirming Pronouns Workshop, Fall 23-24 Inservice

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Building a Language Affirming School Culture

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Chinese Name Pronunciation Workshop, Fall 23-24 Inservice

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Chinese Name Pronunciation Workshop, Fall 23-24 Inservice

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Name pronounciation worshop @ Eton School

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Empowering Educators: A Digital Series on Race and Racism

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Empowering Educators: A Digital Series on Race and Racism

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VIDEO

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Empowering Educators: A Digital Series on Race and Racism

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First Book presents "Empowering Educators" - a series of free resources designed to support educators in helping their students engage in effective, courageo...

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Inclusive Teaching in the Classroom with Britt Hawthorne

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Inclusive Teaching in the Classroom with Britt Hawthorne

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VIDEO

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Inclusive Teaching in the Classroom with Britt Hawthorne: Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

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In this 5-part teaching series, Britt Hawthorne breaks down the components of culturally relevant teaching. In Video 1, Britt helps us get started on our cul...

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K-5 Framework for Teaching About American Slavery

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K-5 Framework for Teaching About American Slavery

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Skip to main content

Our youngest students deserve a truthful, age-appropriate account of our past. These resources for elementary educators include a first-of-its-kind framework, along with student texts, teaching tools and professional development for anyone committed to teaching this hard history.

Download the Framework

Here are a few key elements of the framework and the accompanying resources:

Key Concepts
The foundation of the K-5 and 6-12 frameworks, the Key Concepts pinpoint 10 important ideas that all students must understand to truly grasp the historical significance of slavery. Explored through Essential Knowledge in the elementary grades and Summary Objectives in middle and high school teaching, the Key Concepts serve as tools educators can use to structure their teaching.

Essential Knowledge
Each of the 20 "Essential Knowledge" sections identifies an age-appropriate understanding for students to reach and outlines additional information that will help them get there. It also offers recommendations for supporting student learning. Essential Knowledge items 1-10 are designed for K-2 students, and items 11-20 are designed for students in grades 3-5.

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Our youngest students deserve a truthful, age-appropriate account of our past. These resources for elementary educators include a first-of-its-kind framework, along with student texts, teaching tools and professional development for anyone committed to teaching this hard history. Download the Framework

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National Equity Project: Liberatory Design for Equity

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National Equity Project: Liberatory Design for Equity

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Virtual
Wednesdays, January 31 - March 6, 2024 | 9:30 am–12:30 pm Pacific

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Liberatory Design for Equity | Jan 31 - Mar 6, 2024

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LGBTQ+ Book Recommendations for All Ages

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LGBTQ+ Book Recommendations for All Ages

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Bilingual

In this slideshow, you will find 10 bilingual books (grades K-3) with LGBTQ+ themes. You will also find various Instagram accounts that advocate for different aspects of inclusion/representation in the classroom.

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LGBTQ+ Book Recs - Teaching Outside the Binary

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In this slideshow, you will find 10 bilingual books (grades K-3) with LGBTQ+ themes. You will also find various Instagram accounts that advocate for different aspects of inclusion/representation in the classroom.

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10 Young Black Climate Activists to Watch

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10 Young Black Climate Activists to Watch

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A heartbreaking fact of our times: All living people today were born into the climate crisis. Whether someone's 8 or 85, we all live on a planet whose climate is rapidly declining due to human impact. But here's the thing-while climate catastrophes currently affect us all, it's our youngest generation, and in particular, young People of the Global Majority, that will suffer the greatest burden. Thankfully, there are lots of inspiring young Black climate activists that are bringing light to the intersection of climate change and racism. Keep reading to learn about 10 young Black climate activists that are sending a message of both hope and resilience in this fight.

Why Youth Are Crucial in the Fight

It's an outdated, damaging viewpoint that says children should be "seen not heard." Young voices should be cherished, celebrated, and engaged with.

Youth Are More Connected Than Ever Before

Young people are more connected than ever. Social media has a huge role in modern-day social change movements; we've all witnessed the incredible power of hashtags such as #MeToo, #TimesUp, and #BlackLivesMatter, so it's only fitting that environmental activism is as much online as it is in the streets. Utilizing this connectedness is our modern-day superpower.

Young People Are the Largest Generation Of Youth, Ever

Young people today are already the largest generation of youth to ever exist . They represent a huge cohort of society that has valuable voices to add to the fight against climate change. We also mustn't forget youth in the Majority World -as they represent a staggering 88% of young people globally. When young people's voices come together, it's a beautiful thing.

Youth Should Know About Collective Care

"In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower." - Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Individualism is a toxic trait of colonialist thinking. If we shift to a culture of collectivism, then we empower people to join their community and stand for something. When we communicate the ideal of collective care and collective responsibility to children early on, we can teach them that public health is important. We must show them that we should always protect and advocate for vulnerable, minoritized communities, and how the Global South is vital in this conversation.

Tackling the Climate Crisis: 10 Young Black Climate Activists Who Are Charging Ahead

Born into a family of changemakers, Irsa Hirsi has been involved in activism since she was just 12 years old. Emboldened by a case of police brutality against a Black man in Minneapolis, Irsa added her voice to the city's mass Black Lives Matter-led protests. During high school, Irsa became involved with environmental activism, going on to co-found the U.S. Youth Climate Strike. She was featured in Fortune's 40 Under 40 Government and Politics in 2020 due to her climate activism.

Leah Thomas is a leading voice in the intersectional environmentalism movement. Also known as "Green Girl Leah," Leah launched her community, The Intersectional Environmentalist, in 2020. It's an educational climate justice collective which spearheads more diversity in climate activism. She's since written the book The Intersectional Environmentalist and the Instagram page of the same name, which has nearly half a million followers.

In 2020, at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate attended to encourage world leaders to take the climate crisis seriously. But when a photo was published of her and four other activists, you'd never have known she was there. She was cropped out. Instead, the Associated Press published the photo of four white activists. Her experience and the dialogue she started afterward remind us how much we need to diversify the climate activism space.

Livia Pinaso is behind the Brazilian branch of the youth-led organization, Polluters Out. The group's lens is on COP25, calling on them to address their failures in tackling the fossil fuel industry. Her efforts and voice are particularly potent in a nation that is home to the largest rainforest on Earth, the Amazon.

Nicknamed 'Little Miss Flint', Amariyanna "Mari" Copeny wrote a letter to then-president Barack Obama when she was just eight years old. She told him of the water crisis in her hometown, Flint, Michigan, and how their water was contaminated with lead. Her widely-publicized campaigning eventually saw Obama authorize money to help solve the issue. Sadly, as of 2023, the crisis is ongoing.

Russell Raymond is another activist that fights climate change from a place of heartbreaking experience. In 2017, a hurricane ripped through his home on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Now, as a climate activist, he serves as a Youth Advocate for UNICEF.

In 2015, Vic Barret, along with 20 other youth plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit against the United States government. In the lawsuit, they accused the government of knowingly violating their rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as neglecting their duty to protect public grounds by permitting the combustion of fossil fuels. His activism and passion are inspired by his hero, environmentalist, and Honduran Indigenous leader Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores.

In late 2020, Yurshell Rodríguez, a member of Colombia's Indigenous Raizal community, saw her home completely devastated by Hurricane Iota. As an Environmental Engineer at the National University of Colombia, Yurshell is driven by a passion for protecting the coral reefs that surround the island she grew up on, Old Providence in the Caribbean. A significant win for the climate activist was in 2018, when she and a group of other activists won a case against the Colombian government, holding it accountable for its failure to stop Amazon rainforest deforestation.

A true advocate for trees, Leah Namugerwa is a youth climate activist from Uganda, who's become well-known for her tree-planting campaigns. She's so passionate about planting trees to help combat excess carbon, that for her 15th birthday she celebrated by hosting a tree planting party. Her Birthday Trees Project encourages seedlings given to people on their birthdays if this is how they choose to celebrate.

As the youngest-ever White House Advisor in American history, Jerome Foster II is a force in the environmental movement. He's a leading organizer for Fridays for Future and started his charitable organization called One Million Of Us-a group that mobilizes young people to stand up for the climate.

Let Our Youth Inspire You To Engage

If you're not already following a youth climate activist, honestly what are you waiting for? I've found so much inspiration from their political engagement, partnerships, legal actions, and lawsuits. The more voices we have in the effort to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, the better.

Young or Not, Here's How To Get Involved

While there's a whole host of factors that are causing the climate crisis, if we all picked a cause and made a little effort, then we'd see mass collective action.

There's an abundance of ways that you and your family can dive headfirst into climate action. If you're after a few ideas, here's what has worked for us as a family.

Reduce our consumption of fast fashion. As a family, we choose to support brands with clear ethical practices. If shopping new, we utilize the Good On You app before making a purchase. As a reminder, thrifting is always a sustainable option.!

Try to eat more plant-based meals. An Oxford study identified that going vegan is the single biggest way an individual can reduce our carbon footprint. By eating plant-based, you can reduce your carbon footprint by up to 73%.

If you eat fish, choose responsibly-sourced options to disrupt the overfishing emergency (or better yet, cut out fish altogether!).

Head to your nearest crop-swapping meet-up, and swap herbs, vegetables, and fruit from your garden. If you don't have a garden, try out community-supported agriculture (CSA) for locally-grown produce.

If you have the space and resources, try composting. This is also a wonderful way to introduce children to the cycles of nature, and have them care for worm friends!

We can do this planet-changing work together. I'm rooting for you.

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10 Young Black Climate Activists You Need To Know

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A heartbreaking fact of our times: All living people today were born into the climate crisis. Whether someone's 8 or 85, we all live on a planet whose climate is rapidly declining due to human impact.

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Asian American and Pacific Islander Month Booklist

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Asian American and Pacific Islander Month Booklist

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Asian American and Pacific Islander Month

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In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Month, join us in celebrating AAPI-owned bookstores and AAPI authors across the United States.

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Asian American Education Project's Lesson Plans

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Asian American Education Project's Lesson Plans

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Home | The Asian American Education Project

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Through relevant and engaging lesson plans and activities, the resources developed will seek to inspire a deeper understanding of the history, current experience, and future trajectory of Asian Americans, our nation's fastest-growing demographic group. Important content and themes explored in the series will be used to teach concepts while meeting national content standards.

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How Teachers Can Support Arab-American Students

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How Teachers Can Support Arab-American Students

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Sponsored by Fearless Schools and Google's Applied Digital Skills

One November morning in 2015, Sawsan Jaber was in her suburban Illinois classroom preparing for a day of teaching. As an Palestinian-American teacher in a district with an overwhelmingly white teaching staff, Jaber already felt out of place among her colleagues; that feeling was underscored by what happened next. An ISIS bombing had just struck Paris the day before, which prompted another teacher to stop by Jaber's room that morning to ask, "How do you feel about what your people did in France yesterday?"

That moment-the insensitivity and ignorance of that question-changed the direction of Jaber's career. Although she was planning to pursue a Ph.D. in English, she could no longer ignore the urge to use her own experiences to look more deeply into whether Arab-American students feel a sense of belonging in schools. Her district had seen a massive growth in its population of Arab students, but had taken no deliberate steps to learn about what unique needs they might have or how to meet them. Those students became the focus of her dissertation.

Every student deserves to go to a school where they feel seen and included, where their academic and emotional needs are met, and where they can proudly share and be accepted for their whole selves. Because this is not the reality in most schools, equity work is still urgently needed. Here on this site we have turned our attention many times to issues of equity and social justice in education, but none of that attention has been given to struggles that are specific to Arab-American students.

While most of the approaches we've explored for making our classrooms more inclusive for all students would by default improve the climate for Arab-American students as well, there are some ways that this population gets excluded in U.S. schools that are unique to them. How this exclusion manifests itself might not be readily observable to most teachers, unless they know what to look for and have a sense for what is going on in the minds and hearts of these students.

If they did know what to look for, they'd see what Dr. Jaber found in her Ph.D. studies, a dynamic in our schools that ranges from outright discrimination of Arab-American students to a more subtle but equally powerful form of marginalization, one that causes students to hide parts of their identities in order to fit in, that makes them feel invisible and conspicuous at the same time, and that conceals their failure to thrive, even when they look like they're navigating school successfully.

Sawsan Jaber, Ph.D.

Whether you teach in a school with only a few Arab students or a substantial Arab student population, there are things you can do to make things better for these students.

This was the focus of my conversation with Dr. Jaber on the podcast, which you can listen to in its entirety above, or read the transcript, also linked above. What follows is a summary of the main takeaways from our conversation.

What do we mean by "Arab-American?"

The first step in creating a foundation of support is identification, knowing which students are experiencing this particular kind of marginalization. Is it only students from countries where Arabic is spoken? Muslim students? Both?

The answer lies largely in how students are perceived by their peers.

"The experiences of Arab students and Muslim students are often very, very similar in American public schools." Jaber explains. "So although there are two different populations and sometimes there are intersections, it's not always the case. Arab Americans are Arabs who come from 26 different Arab-speaking countries. Islam is a faith, so you have Arabs who follow all different types of faiths. If you look at Palestine, for example, there's a huge Christian population that is also considered Arab. But you can also be Muslim and be from anywhere; you have Muslims from all over the world and in all colors and who come from all different backgrounds. So you can be an Arab Muslim."

Attempting to narrow down a definition highlights one root of the problem: Many people in the U.S. have limited knowledge about the different cultures that make up the Arab world, so their view is oversimplified. Whether a student is from an Arabic-speaking country or one that is mistaken as such, like Afghanistan, the experience for that student in a U.S. school can be very similar, especially in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks of 2001.

"All Muslims are put under the umbrella of this extremist, rigid, violent faith," Jaber says, "and that's not Islamic at all....this monolithic version of Arabs and Muslims (has) been created through the media and through current events that have been distorted."

What is the climate like for these students in U.S. schools?

In order to thrive academically, students need to feel a secure sense of belonging at school (St-Amand et al, 2017). Educators can determine if this is happening through four markers: positive emotions, positive relationships with peers and teachers, willingness to get involved in group activities, and harmonization, where students adapt to situations and people around them in order to fit in.

At first, Jaber saw all of these markers in the students she observed. "Some of them are top tier, doing excellent, straight A's, involved in extracurricular activities. They seem to have some type of social circle. They have great relationships with their teachers. Teachers aren't complaining that these kids are difficult or unmanageable. So they check all of these boxes."

When she interviewed the students, however, a different picture emerged. "The things they revealed were very, very contrary to what you would see on the outside. Their stories show that they didn't feel included at all."

She found that students fit into one of three categories:

They assimilate to fit in. These students bring a change of clothes to school, give themselves more American-sounding nicknames, or deny cultural markers, like sitting at the regular lunch table while fasting for Ramadan, rather than at a designated table for students who were fasting. These choices create a lot of dissonance between students and their parents, who want them to stay aligned with their religion and maintain a sense of pride in their cultural identity.

They immerse themselves in extracurriculars and sports. Finding a common hobby is a way for some students to develop camaraderie with other, non-Arab students. But the friendships are largely superficial. "These kids were very intentional to only share what they had in common, which was the sport. Once they got deeper into identities and shared experiences, they had nothing in common." When Jaber asked students if the relationships continued past the end of the activity, the end of the season, "The answer was almost always no."

They silo themselves. In a process Banks (2017) calls failed citizenship, these students retreat from the larger population and keep to themselves, focusing on schoolwork and making no attempt to integrate themselves into the culture. In her interviews with these students, Jaber says "a lot of things I heard were like They're never going to accept us, and I'm not willing to compromise who I am."

"All three of those scenarios are obviously really unhealthy and go against what we believe to be best practice and kind of a healthy culture for students, whether it's a classroom or an entire school," Jaber says.

When working with Palestinian students, Jaber noticed an especially acute sense of disconnection. "They are considered by default anti-Semitic and anti-American by claiming their Palestinian identity," she says. "And one of the biggest traumas for Palestinian students who live generational trauma through their parents' experiences already is the idea that I can't claim this part of myself. When I look at the map, I don't see that part of myself. When I'm reading books in global studies classes or in literature classes, I'm always being portrayed as a terrorist, or I'm always being portrayed as somebody who cannot coexist with other people."

Imagining Something Better

So what would it look like if a school environment was a nurturing place where Arab-American students experienced a more authentic sense of belonging?

"I would imagine it would look the same for any student who comes from any type of marginalized background," Jaber begins, "-or even not necessarily from a marginalized background. If I have a handful of white students in a primarily Black school, for example, what would it look like for those white students to feel like they belong in that environment as well?"

Some of the features we'd notice in a school that made these students feel included are:

Ease in using first language. "If they have a first language," Jaber says, "they're embracing that first language in writing."

Willingness to share cultural identifiers. "They share things about themselves that we wouldn't know otherwise," Jaber says. "And they're offering to do that. It's not best practice to go to a student and say, 'Hey, why don't you tell us about Ramadan,' for example. But it's great when you have a kid who's writing an assignment and they're willing to share about Ramadan, because it's something that they decide is important enough for them to share, and they feel safe enough to share it."

Representation in materials. "The school is creating what Rudine Sims Bishop calls mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. So intentionally in activities, in classrooms, in curriculum, (these students) see themselves represented accurately."

Representation in personnel. "They see a representation of themselves in school-whether it's administration or teachers-people who understand them and look like them that can be role models and safe spaces."

The thread that runs through all of these features is that a student's cultural identity is a built-in, organic part of the school experience, creating an environment in which the student is no longer an "other."

"It's about kids feeling that your teacher thinks that who you are is important enough for them to be doing the work to really immerse themselves in getting to know who you are," Jaber says.

Steps Teachers Can Take Toward a More Inclusive Climate

Before we get into action steps, it's important to note that although our examples are provided through the lens of supporting Arab-American students, they apply to all students and their cultural backgrounds.

They will also benefit all students, regardless of their identities.

"Whether (your school has) one student, 10 students or even if you have no Arab students, having these conversations is really important," Jaber explains. "Because eventually these kids are going to move out into the real world and interact with all different types of people. They're going to be (part of) decision-making bodies. They're going to be in political positions. They're going to be doctors who are going to have Arab patients. They're going to have interactions with people who might be from this background and other backgrounds. And so one of the things that we have to do for all students is really arm them with the tools to be able to recognize, interrogate, appreciate people from other backgrounds, whatever that looks like."

Know Your Students and Their Families

Getting to know students as individuals and learning about their unique, specific cultures will go a long way toward making them feel seen and included. "It's really important if you're teaching populations of Arab students or teaching about Arab students to consider the fact that the Arab countries are so different," Jaber says. "Anybody who immerses themselves in the Arab culture will realize how beautiful and how rich and how diverse, and how much it has to offer."

From the very start of the school year, instead of focusing primarily on establishing protocols, prioritize relationships. "Our first two weeks of school in my classroom," Jaber says, "we always start with really interrogating positionality, sharing how we identify, sharing real stories that really impact who we are, like childhood stories of-here are some things that happened to me that really shape how I view the world. I ask the students, How do you see yourself? How does the world see you? And how do those things impact how you view and see the world?"

This process can happen through class discussions, through journals, or in one-on-one conversations. It's essential, Jaber says, for teachers to set the tone by sharing their own stories with students. When she does this, "I am teaching somebody who has never heard about Palestine or Palestinians or refugees or understood refugee experiences by counter-storytelling. Telling your story, and not having somebody else tell your story the way they see it, can change minds and hearts by itself."

Getting to know your students well should also include building relationships with their families. Making this happen requires intentionality and creativity; just putting out a broad invitation to all parents to participate in events or serve on advisory committees will likely not be enough.

"Even when there's an all-call, very few parents of color will often come to the table because you have not done a good enough job to make the kids who you interact with on a daily basis feel safe. So the parents definitely aren't going to come running to the table either. It has to be intentional, and part of the way to do that is to offer parents the tools, classes, universities, workshops, and opportunities like translating things, offering things in the evenings so that parents who have jobs and have to work or have younger kids and can't afford babysitting come to the table and participate in a lot of ways. If you're not getting that representation, really interrogating your culture and your environment and asking why."

Enrich Your Curriculum

In an effort to be culturally responsive, some schools bring in texts that they think are reflective of Arab students' culture, but that ultimately miss the mark. This happens frequently with Khaled Hosseini's book, The Kite Runner.

"Hosseini is Afghanistani," Jaber explains. "So it's not even anything that any of these kids, whether Arab or Muslim, can really relate to because it's an extremist form of Islam. I'm not taking away from his experience and his story, but it definitely is a unique experience and a unique story that many Muslims around the world can't relate to."

Instead of adding one or two single-story texts to your curriculum, strive to broaden your existing collection to include a wide variety of stories from many countries. "There's so many Arab poets that you can bring into the classroom and highlight and have the kids feel that pride in their own language and in their own history, and then feel more comfortable sharing it because they feel like you value it as a teacher."

This also applies outside the English classroom. "Offer Arabic as a second language," Jaber suggests. "There's Arab contributions in science. There's Arab and Muslim contributions in history in America way before the violent representations in World War II and definitely before 9/11, right? Which is usually where Arab and Muslim history and current events starts and ends. There's so much more to who we are and our contributions as Americans in this country."

When it comes to Palestinian students, Jaber says, "I'm not going to get into the complexities of Palestine and Israel and tell anybody what they should think about that in general, but I really think it's important -because I know we're not there yet as a country to represent one or the other-to represent, at least represent both. At least bring in the Palestinian perspective. Validate your students' identities. Let them see themselves and their experiences and their histories represented accurately as well in what you're teaching in the classroom."

If you teach history in grades 11 or 12, one excellent resource is the University of Pennsylvania's Teaching Beyond September 11th curriculum, which Jaber had a hand in creating. The curriculum looks at the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath through a critical and social justice lens.

Ask Students (and Former Students)

One of the best ways to learn how to improve the climate for the Arab students in your specific school is to ask them. A believer in the Street Data approach, Jaber suggests that teachers assemble focus groups of students, parents, and former students, who can be an especially rich source of insight.

"Bring the kids who graduated from the school and their parents and ask them, What didn't work for you? Let's fix it. You have a resource. Kids are often, when they're not a part of the system anymore, much more vocal about what didn't work for them when they were a part of that system."

When running these focus sessions, invite students who represent different groups. "The kids who were academically doing well and the kids who didn't do so well academically, the kids who were in the dean's office every week or every day. Talk to them and ask them what motivated them to act the way they did during school."

Build Staff Representation

"Just like any other group of students, (Arab-American students) benefit from seeing Arab teachers and administrators in districts where there is a number of Arab students," Jaber says. Schools with a deep desire to help a diverse student body feel a sense of belonging will take intentional steps to build a faculty that reflects that same diversity.

"You have the power."

When asked if she had any final thoughts, Jaber wanted to end on a note of optimism and empowerment for teachers.

"We have so much that we can really impact and shape for these kids," she says. "Sometimes there's kids who the only reason they come to school is because they need to see you. Teachers sometimes don't acknowledge or name the power and the impact that they have on shaping students' lives. Sometimes you're the hope that they have in a world that just feels so hopeless. Take that power and do something great with it."

References

Banks, J. A. (2017). Failed citizenship and transformative civic education. Educational Researcher, 46(7). https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0013189X17726741 [PDF]

St-Amand, J., Girard, S., & Smith, J. (2017). Sense of belonging at school: Defining attributes, determinants, and sustaining strategies. IAFOR Journal of Education, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.22492/ije.5.2.05 [PDF]

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How Teachers Can Support Arab-American Students

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Sponsored by Fearless Schools and Google's Applied Digital Skills One November morning in 2015, Sawsan Jaber was in her suburban Illinois classroom preparing for a day of teaching. As an Palestinian-American teacher in a district with an overwhelmingly white teaching staff, Jaber already felt out of place among her colleagues; that feeling was underscored by what happened next.

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Integrating Arab Narratives Across the Curriculum

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Integrating Arab Narratives Across the Curriculum

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Listen to my interview with Sawsan Jaber, Reem Fakhry, Fatma Elsamra, and Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi (transcript):

Sponsored by JumpStart

This page contains Amazon Affiliate and Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What's the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org?

One of the many ways we can make our schools more nurturing for all students is to diversify our classroom materials. When students see people like them in the curriculum, it shapes their identities by offering a reflection of themselves; Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop describes these kinds of materials as "mirrors." Diverse materials also serve as what she calls "windows" and "sliding glass doors," allowing us to view people who are different from us and enter worlds different from what we're familiar with.

While many educators embrace the goal of diversifying classroom materials in theory, they may not be confident about how to achieve it. Websites like We Need Diverse Books and Diverse Book Finder are great places to start. Another approach is to look into our curricula to find places where the contributions of many cultures can be more fully acknowledged.

We'll be doing this here with a specific focus on Arab cultures. A little over a year ago, Dr. Sawsan Jaber helped us understand how Arab-American students often experience exclusion, bullying, and other forms of marginalization in our schools, and how we can do a better job of supporting them. Now she returns with three other educators - Fatma Elsamra, math, Reem Fakhry, science, and Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi, social studies - to focus more specifically on the curriculum piece of this work, approaches we can take to integrate Arab narratives into our teaching and curriculum.

The Big Picture

"I think oftentimes people think cultural responsiveness sits more in a humanities classroom," Jaber says. "And the reality is that the Arab heritage and the Arab culture is something that is across content areas. When we really interrogate curriculum in most schools, we often see a conflation of Arab and Muslim identities. We see those come up only when we're talking about the Ottoman Empire or 9/11. Those very limited stories are not creating a fuller picture, like the contributions that Arabs have in arts, in the maths, to the sciences, and in humanities."

Weaving these contributions into the curriculum doesn't have to mean a huge overhaul, she says. Teachers "can easily augment standards and things that we're doing in our classroom spaces...that narrative is one that is very present in a lot of things we're already doing, but people don't know because it's an intentionally erased narrative."

English Language Arts

The most obvious way to integrate Arab narratives into ELA classes is through literature, by adding more work by Arab authors to the materials available to students and the texts teachers choose to study closely as a class.

"Poetry is very much part of the Arab culture," Jaber says. "Even our Quran is written in verse. It's a beautiful literary piece to really analyze." While other genres of literature from Arab voices haven't been as easy to find, that is starting to change. Jaber says there has been an emergence of new novels from contemporary Arab writers, but these are still somewhat limited.

"The reality is no matter how many novels we do read about the Arab world, there are 20-plus countries and they're all very, very different, even within the same country. I'm Palestinian. If you come from a village in Palestine, it's very different than if you come from the main cities. So the culture is different. The traditions are different. The dialect of Arabic that's spoken is very different. And so no matter how much we read about cultures that we are not a part of, there is always something to learn."

One book in particular, Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, is a popular choice in American classrooms, and Jaber takes issue with this being positioned as a representation of Arab cultures.

"Hosseini is not an Arab. I think oftentimes there's a conflation of identities. Yes, he may identify as a Muslim, but the Islam that's represented in that text is extremist Islam. It's not the Islam that many Muslims follow or the Islam the majority of Muslims follow. So if we're putting this text into the curriculum because we feel like it's speaking to the students, whether Arab or Muslim, it's not speaking to them. It's immersing them in stereotypes of themselves. And oftentimes it's not taught as a stereotypical text. And so it becomes the only window that a lot of other kids, whether there are Arab students in those schools or not, have into the Arab culture - or they think they have into the Arab culture, because he's not an Arab. And then there's nothing else that's in the curriculum, oftentimes, that actually is representative of these students."

Because there is so much diversity under the big umbrella of Arab culture, Jaber puts an equal amount of effort into creating an environment where students feel safe to tell their own stories - not just Arab students, but all marginalized students.

"We spend the first months of school really just questioning identity through literature and talking about it deeply. As an English teacher, I've learned (how to) get students to feel comfortable enough and safe enough to let go of their sense of duality when they're walking into my classroom space. That takes a lot of culture-building and community-building first. And then, how do I get them to really realize and think about how important it is for them to reclaim their own narratives? Because Arabs aren't the only marginalized group that have had their narrative taken away from them. And so by doing it this way, we're kind of elevating the voices of the students in the classroom, and they are becoming the content creators that become the main resources of our classroom space."

With that said, she cautions teachers not to use Arab students to teach the rest of the class about their culture. "The worst thing we could do is single out specific students to ask them like, 'Hey, are you fasting in Ramadan? Can you tell us about Ramadan?' That's the worst thing you can do to a child who already is in crisis about who they are, because it's gonna make them stand out more."

Instead, create regular opportunities for students to write about their own experiences, even if they only do so privately. "Get them to really think about themselves, their place in the world, who they are, and all of these different big questions that will help them come to terms with whatever it is that they're dealing with and really heal from it," Jaber says.

ELA Resources

Social Studies

"I think the main reason why Arab Americans are not in curriculum is because people look at Arab Americans through such a stereotypical and biased lens," Shinnawi explains. "They tend to be overlooked. And therefore people look at the Arab communities as a new phenomenon, something that happened maybe in the last couple of decades, or something that's related to what's going on geopolitically in the region of the Middle East. And it's also always taught as the concept of either Arabs or Muslims and a concept of something 'foreign' or in the past."

When Arab narratives are included, she says, the inclusion is often limited to coverage of Islamic Spain, the Crusades, or 9/11. "So you have all of these pieces of Arab history that are either in the past, that don't even exist anymore, or in the present but more in such a stereotypical negative concept of everything as war."

One important shift in social studies would be a recognition that people from Arab countries have been in the United States for generations. Along with so many of the other groups who arrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a large wave of Arabs immigrated to the U.S. at that time. Many in this early wave were Christian, from countries now known as Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan. They settled in the big cities, yes, but many also made their homes in the Midwest, something that isn't really covered in history textbooks. "Their experience is just like every other immigrant experience," Shinnawi says. "So when you start normalizing people that you haven't normalized for a long time, that's difficult for some people to understand."

Another important step would be to make sure any curriculum that incorporates more representation of the Arab experience is written and vetted by those with lived experience. Shinnawi describes how much of the curriculum on Arab and Muslim history is written by people in academia, often by those who have no personal experience with the topics they are writing about. "When curriculum is written by people outside of that lived experience, a lot of it is written through a biased lens. Intentional, unintentional, regardless of what it is, it's biased. They're going to come in and they're going to present their own understanding of the religion and interpretation of the culture." For more accurate and positive representation, those who publish curriculum need to be intentional about who is writing the material.

Social Studies Resources

Math

One of the most important ways to integrate Arab narratives into mathematics instruction is by acknowledging the contributions made to the field by people from Arab countries.

"The history of math started actually from an Arab, a mathematician scholar named Muhammad al-Khwarizmi," Elsamra explains. "He is actually known as the father of algebra." Al-Khwarizmi is also credited with creating the Arabic number system that we still use today and introducing the concept of zero. While his tremendous influence on mathematics is sometimes given a brief mention in textbooks, Elsamra says, "That's not enough. One line should not be the end all be all when it comes to the inception of mathematics and how it came into fruition."

Math teachers can also bring in tools that have Arabic origins, like the abacus. "That's a math manipulative that can be brought back into the elementary classrooms where students can learn the four basic operations through using the abacus and understand, conceptually, what's behind addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Some schools still use it, but it's not something that's used often. You never know what students can benefit from something like this. But also tying it into the history and how this is a tool that before calculators, this is what mathematicians used to calculate the four basic operations or just do basic counting. And it can be brought back into the classroom as early as pre-K when students start learning how to count."

Elsamra points out another area for connection: geometry. "The Arab culture is infused with such beautiful architecture and patterns and vibrant colors and tessellations," she explains. "Geometry is not just about statements and justifications. You have that piece of the patterns and the tessellations, and it's important for geometry teachers to incorporate projects and activities where students can look into these patterns and tessellations and architecture through the Arabic world and the palaces and the mosques and the churches that were built in the Middle East. They carry such beautiful architecture, and bringing that through geometry would be such a beautiful thing for our students to see."

While these integrations will enrich all students' study of mathematics, they will have a profound impact on Arab students.

"Imagine how a student feels, an Arab student in the classroom, just being proud of their ancestors," Elsamra says. " This is what my roots are coming from, and these are the people, and this is how they affected my studies today. The Arab students aren't feeling that connection or that appreciation or that value, and knowing that their ancestors had a lot to do with how things are run today in all content areas, it would it definitely change their outlook on a lot of things."

Math Resources

Science

Because the history of science has been taught through a Eurocentric lens, Fakhry explains, Arab contributions have been largely erased or whitewashed.

"The time period we know as the Dark Ages...we're only seeing what's happening in Europe. But if we turn our focus slightly to the East, we can see that there is a Golden Age happening, innovations that are surpassing anything that could have been imagined. Scientists who have been able to identify the difference between measles and smallpox. Surgeries are happening, surgery that was not happening anywhere else on the globe. Sanitation measures were happening, so people were being able to overcome disease. That was not happening in the West."

Just as the West was coming out of the Dark Ages, she says, "anything that was published in the East is now being translated into Latin. The names of the scientists are now being whitewashed and they're Latinized. And all of a sudden Abbas Ibn Firnas, who was an aviator, figured out how to fly, is now Armen Firman. And students are coming into science class, and they're not learning about what happened during that time because it's too old. It's too ancient. It's gone, completely erased. All they're learning about is what happened in Europe. It's all Eurocentric."

The resources below are a good place to start uncovering those contributions that have historically been erased.

Science Resources

Other Resources

These are not aligned with any particular content area, but offer more information, stories, and perspectives on the intersection of teaching and the Arab experience in America.

How to Connect

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Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

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Integrating Arab Narratives Across the Curriculum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Listen to my interview with Sawsan Jaber, Reem Fakhry, Fatma Elsamra, and Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi (transcript): Sponsored by JumpStart This page contains Amazon Affiliate and Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

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Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN)

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Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN)

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The C.R.O.W.N. Act stands for "Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair," and was created in 2019 to ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles such as braids, locs, twists, and knots in

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OSPI Native Education Curriculum Materials

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OSPI Native Education Curriculum Materials

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These support materials work compatibly with standards-based curriculum. They augment and enrich the instructional and curricular approach of Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State. Tribal History American History - an American Indian Comments Unwritten Chapters American Indian Urban Relocation - developed by Shana Brown (Middle School) Spanish Language

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Partnering With Families to Support Black Girls

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Partnering With Families to Support Black Girls

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Emmy is a 6-year-old Black girl who knows she's beautiful and smart. Yet, she doesn't know how others see her and, more broadly, what it means to be a Black girl in the United States. As we reflect on the injustice involved in anti-Black police violence, we acknowledge how such events can add traumatic stress for Black girls. Perhaps like other Black girls who hear their families lamenting over national race issues and worrying for their children, Emmy, too, was saddened, anxious and concerned when she heard that police officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor and, more recently, 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant. To better support Black girls who may experience heightened levels of psychosocial stress inside and outside of schools, we urge educators to authentically engage with Black girls and their families and caregivers.

In our work together at Rowan University, we-Latino professor Adam Alvarez and Black woman doctoral student Eshe Price-often share our collective observations, experiences and ideas for improving conditions for youth of color. Being parents of color and former K-12 teachers, we approach the intersection of race, trauma and education with a sense of intimacy. We have witnessed firsthand the racialized wounds that occur in school settings, particularly for Black girls like Emmy, Eshe's daughter.

For Black girls, who are often viewed as less innocent than their white peers, common trauma-based responses like withdrawal, isolation, depression, irritability, aggression or risky behaviors tend to be criminalized. Consequently, their responses to social and economic issues over which they have no control are more harshly punished. In the process, many of their bodies are violated by agents of the state. Many Black girls are pushed out of school, funneled into the justice system and struggle with high levels of cascading stress. This is why the combined support of educators, families and caregivers is crucial.

Doing More for Black Girls

There are certainly major systemic changes that need to occur, yet individual educators, staff members and administrators can intentionally support Black girls in school settings. They can learn to become authentically engaged and nurture Black girls, rather than rely on trauma resources that may not offer critical insight. We share seven recommendations collated from Black parents we have spoken with in our work and everyday lives.

Center empathy and love.

Engaging with Black girls' families and caregivers inside and outside of school will require more empathy. Empathy is essential for sharing hurts and joys with Black people. We also need more love. Love must be foundational for bridging the us/them mentality we see in many schools and throughout society. Demonstrating love and empathy will mean centering Black girls' feelings of belongingness and success in school. Engaging in collective struggles with school faculty around issues of justice from a place of love and empathy may be the most essential way to support Black girls.

Do some introspective work.

Building the kind of school culture that will prioritize Black girls' perspectives and sense of well-being requires educators and administrators to do some introspective work. What could you do to better honor the lived experiences and wealth of knowledge that your Black girl students bring with them into the classroom? Exploring aspects of identity, culture and privilege are vital for understanding the nature of conflicts inside and outside of school settings. These reflective steps may be important to develop more progressive movements and quality support for Black girls. After doing introspective work, educators can better understand what drives some Black girls' high levels of stress and even traumatic experiences within school.

Listen to Black girls.

Emmy's parents suggest that educators and administrators simply listen to Black girls. They encourage cultivating brave spaces where Black girls can share, process, develop a critique of the world and explore ways to resist structural oppression in their lives, schools and communities. This is vital because, sadly, there are too many stories of Black girls being the targets of race-based school bullying. As students return to school, Black girls may continue to be harassed virtually. Listening to Black girls is an important start and can lay a foundation for powerful anti-racist work.

Invite Black parents and caregivers to share.

Schools can invite Black parents and caregivers to share their ideas and experiences within the school and community to better understand how to improve school connectedness. When youth feel connected to caregivers and their schools, they experience significantly fewer reports of trauma and depressive symptoms. If schools can learn from families and caregivers how best to connect, they can enhance their effectiveness in supporting Black girls. Schools should vary their approaches to connecting with Black families. Think about what you do to involve your students' families. A survey may be fine in some cases; whereas, in other cases, panel discussions or town hall meetings could be more insightful.

Engage with Black families and caregivers beyond school walls.

Engaging with Black families and caregivers outside of school goes a long way. In Emmy's school district, the superintendent attended a peaceful protest led by several Black girls. This act of engagement with Black youth and families fostered a dialogue that generated a change in the curriculum to include African American history and social justice content. For school faculty and staff, the work of supporting Black girls extends beyond school days and school walls.

Diversify school faculty and staff.

Diversifying school faculty and staff can serve as another way to support Black girls. So much literature shows the benefit of a diverse staff and especially how Black educators can improve achievement for Black students. Black girls and their families want to see themselves represented among school staff who may share similar cultural experiences and ways of knowing. Supporting Black girls means surrounding them, in school, with caring Black people who can identify with and work through their racialized and gendered school experiences. Think of ways you can support more diverse hiring practices. What work needs to be done to ensure that your school and your school district are places that would welcome and support Black teachers and other teachers of color?

Reimagine school policies on discipline.

Reimagining school policies on discipline, zero-tolerance and student codes of conduct will be a critical support for Black girls. Emmy's parents want school policies to protect instead of punish. If Black girls break school rules, it's important that educators investigate the fullness of the context and situation. Policies should not further marginalize Black girls; rather, policies should support them. Find out about model policies that other schools are using that support all students. When you look at your current discipline policy, what policy changes will ensure that all students, especially Black girls, are supported instead of pushed out? Then you can advocate for updating your school's discipline policy.

More is needed from educators and school leaders. With these recommendations, we imagine that Black girls will know that they matter-academically, culturally, socially and emotionally. Girls like Emmy, then, will have the necessary support to resist, heal and learn because of the conditions in their schools, not in spite of them.

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Partnering With Families to Support Black Girls

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Emmy is a 6-year-old Black girl who knows she's beautiful and smart. Yet, she doesn't know how others see her and, more broadly, what it means to be a Black girl in the United States. As we reflect on the injustice involved in anti-Black police violence, we acknowledge how such events can add traumatic stress for Black girls.

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Social Justice Books Book List: Environment / Climate Justice

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Social Justice Books Book List: Environment / Climate Justice

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Environment / Climate Justice | Social Justice Books

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Here are titles on the environment for children, young adults, and educators.

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Social Justice Books Book List: Arabs and Arab Americans

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Social Justice Books Book List: Arabs and Arab Americans

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Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

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In addition to Bellevue School District schools and Family Connection Centers, Africans on the Eastside (AOE) is here to serve families and students who may need help in school or help in understanding how the school system works.

With over 30 years of volunteer experience within the school district and surrounding communities, Africans on the Eastside parents and family partners have a wealth of information about the education system, special programs and how to access help if families need it.

AOE offers learning opportunities for youth and parents and meeting opportunities to discuss issues that may be affecting our communities.

Our staff can help you find resources that you can use to support yourself and your students at home, in school and in many situations in the community.

Advocacy and Mentor Training - Webinars, Workshops, 1:1 check-ins are a few of the ways that AOE can support families and students.

We can also assist you when you want to talk to leaders in your school or with community organizations.

On-line workshops, trainings, and classes to learn new ways to support your student.

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Aoe | Africans on the Eastside | Seattle

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In addition to Bellevue School District schools and Family Connection Centers, Africans on the Eastside (AOE) is here to serve families and students who may need help in school or help in understanding how the school system works.

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CISC helps immigrants throughout King County achieve success in their new community by providing information, referral, advocacy, social, and support services.

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Sno-isle Booklist: Autism Acceptance Month

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Sno-isle Booklist: Autism Acceptance Month

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Explore a selection of books from autistic authors with valuable perspectives for those on the autism spectrum.

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Jacket cover images copied to clipboard.

Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing up and Pursuing Their Dreams

What People on the Autism Spectrum Wish Their Parents Knew About Growing Up, Acceptance, and Identity

Autistic Transgender People in Their Own Words

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Autism Acceptance Month - Sno-Isle Libraries

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Autism Acceptance Month by SnoIsleLib_ChristalC - a staff-created list : April is Autism Acceptance month! Here is just a small selection of books from Autistic authors with valuable perspectives for those on the Autism Spectrum and their allies you can check out today.

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Sno-isle Booklist: Cool Contemporary Kids

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Sno-isle Booklist: Cool Contemporary Kids

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Books about the lives and adventures of modern kids who are on the autism spectrum.

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Cool Contemporary Kids - Sno-Isle Libraries

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Cool Contemporary Kids by SnoIsleLib_PeggyN - a staff-created list : Books about the lives and adventures of modern kids who are on the autism spectrum.

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Not even water? And other things not to say to your Muslim friends during Ramadan

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Not even water? And other things not to say to your Muslim friends during Ramadan

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For about 2 billion Muslims around the world - almost a quarter of humanity - it's Ramadan, the holiest period in the Islamic calendar. This year, the first day of Ramadan's sunrise-to-sunset fasting began at sunrise on Thursday, March 23, and lasts until the evening of Thursday, April 20.

There are about 3.45 million Muslims in the United States, and that number continues to climb. But if you're not Muslim, you might still not know exactly what to say (and not say) to Muslim friends, co-workers and colleagues during the month, whether they're fasting or not. Here are a few tips from Muslims across the United States collected over the course of Ramadan!

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Not even water? And other things not to say to your Muslim friends during Ramadan

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For about 2 billion Muslims around the world - almost a quarter of humanity - it's Ramadan, the holiest period in the Islamic calendar. This year, the first day of Ramadan's sunrise-to-sunset fasting began at sunrise on Thursday, March 23, and lasts until the evening of Thursday, April 20.

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The Key Role of Educators in the Emerging Field of Children’s Racial Learning

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The Key Role of Educators in the Emerging Field of Children’s Racial Learning

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RECORDING

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Note: We partnered on this webinar with Edweb.net. If you want to watch it for Continuing Education Credit, you can signup to join the Edweb.net community (for free) and then watch it (and other webinars mostly geared at educators) on their platform. You can also watch it here if credit doesn't matter. What follows is their blurb of the webinar. Thanks!
The headlines tell us that in recent years our schools have become a battleground over whether and how to teach our children about race and racism. In EmbraceRace's recent Reflections on Children's Racial Learning report, they begin to chronicle the counter-narrative, highlighting the emergence of a multi-sectoral field of learning and practice centered on children's racial learning. The Reflections report provides insights from leading experts in education, parenting, children's media, healthcare, and social science research on the critical work being done in this emerging field, and on what more can be done to teach children about race in healthy, affirming ways. During this edWebinar, you learn about why effective guidance and modeling from adults is necessary to help kids overcome the odds of developing racial biases and anxieties and be more prepared to act in ways that help dismantle structural racism. The presenters invite educators to consider how they can join the diverse and growing group of educators, parents, media professionals, healthcare providers, and others who are planting the seeds of healthy racial learning for children across America. In addition, they share ideas and resources for educators who are motivated to help build the field of children's racial learning.

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The Key Role of Educators in the Emerging Field of Children's Racial...

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Effective guidance and modeling from educators - and from all the adults in the lives of children - is necessary to help kids overcome the odds of developing racial biases and anxieties and be more prepared to act in ways that help dismantle structural racism.

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Trans and GNC Voices

Students

Educators

More Voices

Pronouns

At the foundation of trans inclusion in school is an understanding of gender. GLSEN's gender terminology guide and visual can help educators and students learn and lead discussions that can foster understanding of diverse genders.

Part of this understanding is recognizing the importance of gender pronouns. Learn more by exploring GLSEN's pronoun resource, and offer pronoun buttons to make your school more trans-inclusive. You can also download and print pronoun stickers ( he, she, they, blank) on Avery 5390 labels.

According to GLSEN research, compared to other students in the LGBTQ community, transgender and gender nonconforming students face more hostile school climates. To learn more, see GLSEN's full research report and webinar on trans student experiences, and our report on trans students and school facilities, co-authored with Movement Advancement Project.

Transgender Awareness Week from November 11 to 19, Transgender Day of Remembrance/Resilience on November 20, and Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 are important moments for trans inclusion, to create safe and inclusive schools for trans students. But making school trans-inclusive is a year-round effort.

Below is a wealth of resources that center trans and gender non-conforming students and educators. These resources share personal experiences and can help students and educators learn about gender diversity, pronoun visibility, trans students' rights, and inclusive curriculum and GSA practices.

Looking for more? This educator webinar and GSA guide go deeper into how to support trans and non-binary students.

Trans Rights

Trans-inclusive school policies are critical to creating school environments that are safe and supportive for trans students. These tools can help you in advocating for these policies:

To learn more about trans students' rights, see GLSEN and ACLU's Know Your Rights guide. If you face harassment or discrimination at school, make sure to #ClaimYourRights and report complaints to the U.S. Department of Education.

Classroom and GSA Activities

Trans students, like all students, thrive when they see themselves reflected at school. This means teaching lessons and activities that include and represent trans identities both in the curriculum and in meetings of LGBTQ student clubs.

Try out these activities:

Educators, want the latest resources sent to your inbox? Sign up for GLSEN's Educator Network!

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At the foundation of trans inclusion in school is an understanding of gender. GLSEN's gender terminology guide and visual can help educators and students learn and lead discussions that can foster understanding of diverse genders. Part of this understanding is recognizing the importance of gender pronouns.

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Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books

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Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books

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Based on "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Updated in 2013.*
Children's books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, and disability). The visual and verbal messages young children absorb from books (and other media) heavily influence their ideas about themselves and others. Depending on the quality of the book, they can reinforce (or undermine) children's affirmative self-concept, teach accurate (or misleading) information about people of various identities, and foster positive (or negative) attitudes about diversity. Children's books teach children about who is important, who matters, who is even visible. Consequently, carefully choosing quality children's books is an indispensable educational and child-rearing task.

It is important to offer young children a range of books about people like them and their family - as well as about people who are different from them and their family. All of the books should be accurate and appealing to young children. Fortunately, there are some good anti-bias children's books, which are available as a result of the ongoing activism of many individuals and groups over many years. However, while choices have improved over past decades, the lack of quality multicultural kid's books currently being published has frustrated many communities. The number of children of color in the United States continues to rise, but the number of books published by or about people of color stays the same or even decreases.

Check the Illustrations

Look for Stereotypes: A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a particular identity group (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, ability/disability), which usually carries derogatory, inaccurate messages and applies them to ALL people in the group. Stereotypes dehumanize people. So, too, does misinformation. ( See Box 1 below for a list of common, harmful stereotypes).

Unfortunately, all of us absorb socially prevailing stereotypes about a range of people, even if we do not consciously subscribe to them. To alert you to stereotypes in children's books, as well as other media, it is useful to list all the stereotypes you know about various groups of people as precondition for critically reviewing children's books. The books you choose should depict people compassionately and as real human beings. Also consider if images depict all people as genuine individuals with distinctive (rather than stereotypical) features. Books containing stereotypes require you to engage children in critical thinking, but should probably be eliminated from your collection.

BOX 1: Common Harmful/Undermining Stereotypes

Strong, independent girls and women are "manlike"

Book-loving or nonathletic boys and men are "effeminate"

Latino men talk funny, are lazy, gang members, or wear oversize sombreros

Latina women are earth mothers or subservient

African American men are gang members, oversexed, or underemployed

African American women are too independent, oversexed, or "welfare moms"

Arab and/or Muslim men are terrorists

Arab and/or Muslim women are voiceless and passive

All Muslims are Arab / All Arabs are Muslim

American Indians live in teepees, carry bows and arrows, or are half-naked in winter

American Indians were only significant in the past (read)

Disabled people are not independent or are to be pitied

Disabled people must "overcome" their disabilities rather than just live with their disabilities

LGBTQ+ people are invisible

Poor people are invisible

Poor people are depicted as passively needing help from others

AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islanders) are depicted as the "model minority"

AAPI are exotic or their food is exotic/abnormal

All AAPI know martial arts or are meek and compliant

AAPI are portrayed with slanted eyes or just lines to represent eyes

Jewish people are all Zionists (read)

Jewish people are wealthy and yield undue influence in the financial and political world

Look for Tokenism: This is the "one only" message. Regularly seeing only "one" person of any group in a book teaches young children about who is more or less important. Examples of tokenism include books with only one African American child among many white children or having only one book about children with disabilities among many other books. Tokenism also becomes stereotypical. It only allows children to see one view of a group of people, rather than the diversity that exists among all groups.

Look for Invisibility: What children do not see in their books also teaches them about who matters and who doesn't in our society. Invisibility in their storybooks - as well as in textbooks as they get older - undermines children's affirmative sense of themselves and reinforces prejudiced ideas about people who are not seen (See Box 2 for examples of groups who tend to be invisible). The booklists on this website include a great variety of books with groups who are often excluded. (The titles are vetted by Teaching for Change.)

BOX 2: Examples of Groups of People Who Are Often Invisible in Children's Books or Mainstream Media

Families who live in rural areas

Blue-collar workers

Musicians, artists, and writers

Families with two dads or two moms

Single mothers or fathers

Homeless families

Families with an incarcerated parent

People of Middle Eastern descent

Families who practice Islam

Transgender adults and children

Check the Story Line and the Relationships Between People

Even if a book shows visual diversity, the story line may carry biases related to how it handles power relationships among people of various identities. Are whites or male characters the central figures with people of color or female characters in essentially supporting roles? To gain acceptance and/or approval does a child of color, a girl, or child with a disability have to exhibit extraordinary qualities or be the one to understand, forgive, or change? Are the achievements of girls and women based on their own initiative and intelligence, or are they due to their looks or relationship with boys/men?

Are people of color, women, low-income families, or people with disabilities depicted as needing help or in passive roles, while whites, men, and "able-bodied" people are in leadership and action roles? How are problems presented, conceived, and resolved? Who typically causes a problem and who resolves it? Your book collection needs a balance of different people in "doer" roles.

Look at Messages About Different Lifestyles

Do the lives of people of color or people living in poverty in the story contrast unfavorably with the norm of white, middle-class suburban life? Are negative value judgments implied about ways of life that differ from the dominant culture or economic class (e.g., people are to be pitied, or the story is about one person who "gets out" of the less desirable way of life)? Do images and information go beyond oversimplification and offer genuine insights into the lifestyle of the characters in the story? Does the setting reflect current life - or past assumptions about life? Does your book collection depict diversity among people within a specific racial/ethnic group, such as a range of family structures, living environments, socioeconomic conditions and types of work, and male/female roles within the family? (Remember that every racial/ethnic group has diversity, including people who self-identify as white).

Consider the Effects on Children's Self and Social Identities

In addition to specific books, also examine your book collection. Do your books reinforce or counteract messages that teach children to feel inferior or superior because of their skin color, gender, family income, able-bodiedness, or type of family structure? At school, will all of the children you serve see themselves and their family's way of life reflected in your book collection? Will all children of color, including those with mixed heritage, girls, and children from the many types of family structures, children living in poverty, and children with disabilities see one or more characters with whom they can readily and positively identify? If they are visible in your book collection, are the illustrations and information accurate and respectful? Does your overall collection balance the backgrounds of all the children in your program? Does it also show diversity within the social indentity groups to which the children belong (e.g., a range of ways to be female and male, families reflecting different kinds of jobs within a racial/ethnic group). Does your book collection also include a balance between diversity within your classroom and beyond your classroom?

At home, does your book collection reflect diversity among the groups to which your family belongs? Does it have stories about people like you who have contributed to creating a more just world? Does it also include a range of books showing diversity beyond your family and neighborhood?

Look for Books About Children and Adults Engaging in Actions for Change

To fully develop a strong sense of self and a disposition toward cooperation and fairness, children need to know how to stand up for themselves and others when faced with unfairness. They also need to know about people from all social identity groups who have - and are currently - working for justice for all. In addition to previous criteria, here are more items to consider: The story line should be about children and adults working together, rather than perpetrating the myth that change happens because of special, individual people who do it by themselves. Does your book collection include a balance of people who have made important and honored contributions to American life as well as the world community - and not just the traditional white, male "heroes?" Do some of your books about important people include struggles for justice? Do they show people who were/are poor or from racial/ethnic groups of color? Are people with disabilities engaged in these struggles for justice?

Consider the Author's or Illustrator's Background and Perspective

All authors write from a cultural as well as from a personal context. In the past, most children's books were by authors and illustrators who were white and members of the middle class. As a result, a single cultural and class perspective dominated children's literature. There are now excellent books by people of color from a range of backgrounds - although not nearly enough. Consider the biographical material on the jacket flap or back of the book. What qualifies the author or illustrator to deal with the subject? If the book is not about people or events similar to the author or illustrator's background, what specifically recommends them as creators of the book? What is the author's attitude toward her/his story characters? Are the images accurate and do the illustrators respectfully render the people in the story? Do you have books reflecting a balanced range of author and illustrator identities and experiences?

Watch for Loaded Words

A word is loaded when it in any way demeans or makes people invisible because of any of their identities. One example is the generic use of the word "man" to stand for women as well as men (although the opposite never occurs). This traditional terminology is now questioned by many because of its sexist implications. Here are some examples of ways to avoid sexist language: community instead of brotherhood; firefighters inserted of firemen; human family instead of family of man; ancestors instead of forefathers; chairperson instead of chairman. Examples of adjectives applied to people of color that carry racist messages include: "savage," "primitive," "superstitious," "backward," "inscrutable" and "treacherous." Always consider the context in which a word is used and to whom it applies.

Look at the Copyright Date

Copyright dates indicate the publication year, not the time of its writing, which might be two to three years before the copyright date. Although a recent copyright date is no guarantee of a book's relevance or sensitivity, copyright dates are useful information. More children's books began to reflect the reality of a pluralistic society and nonsexist and non-ableist perspectives in the 1970s. Since then, the range of accurate, respectful, and caring books reflecting diversity has increased significantly (unfortunately the diversity of books published in the United States still does not accurately reflect the actual diversity of the people living here). When considering new books for your collection, begin with most recently published ones and then continue with descending copyright dates.

Assess the Appeal of the Story and Illustrations to Young Children

Although these guidelines focus on the messages about diversity and equality reflected in children's books, it is also important to take quality into account. Be sure the book is a "good read." If children find the story or illustrations boring, a book will not hold their attention, even if the book adds a specific kind of diversity you need. Check for active, interesting story lines where different kinds of people are integral to the people in the story, not the main topic. For example, in A Chair for My Mother, a young child tries to save money to get a comfortable chair for her waitress mother. Although the book shows a single parent, working-class family, and a resourceful girl, it is not didactic. Also look for illustrations that are colorful and recognizable to young children. Although they enjoy a range of styles, illustrations that are too subdued or abstract may not hold their attention.

Check for age appropriateness. Most booksellers list any picture book as appropriate for early childhood even if the story line is really for primary grade children. Sometimes a book for older children will work if you simplify the story or "tell" the story rather than read it. In some cases, this is the only way to get books that present specific groups of children (e.g., stories with Cambodian children or children with learning disabilities). Some additional issues to consider:

Many children's books use animal characters instead of people and there are some excellent books that explore diversity with animal characters (e.g., And Tango Makes Three or A Coyote Solstice Tale). Children enjoy these. However, such books are not a substitute for exploring issues of diversity and anti-bias fairness with people as the main characters.

Some early childhood teachers wonder if it is necessary for every book in their collection to show diversity. Every book needs to be accurate, caring, and respectful. However, you will want individual books about specific kinds of people (e.g., a biracial family or a family with adopted children). Diversity becomes essential in the balance of your book collection, where you want to avoid invisibility or tokenism of any group.

Folk and fairy tales have long been a mainstay of children's literature. In the cultures from which they come, folk and fairy tales were used to teach important lessons and values related to their culture of origin. Children love them in their original versions - not their commercially sanitized adaptations. However, folk and fairy tales also carry messages that convey sexism, classism, and racism and must be used thoughtfully as part of introducing young children to diversity and anti-bias values of quality and fairness.

Overuse of folk tales to "teach" about a specific ethnic/cultural group leads to misinformation and confusion. They are about animals and occasionally people from a mythical past and are designed to teach core values and beliefs in their culture of origin. They are not about how people actually live in contemporary society - and that is what young children need to understand. Information and images about how people really live now is what enables young children to build connections to people who are from different cultures while countering stereotypes that children have already absorbed (e.g., how American Indians really live).

Finally there is the somewhat sensitive issue of what to do about "classic" or "well-beloved" children's books. Many of these are wonderful as children's literature, but unfortunately they often convey values of sexism, racism, ableism, or even colonialism. People who love the books that pose this dilemma argue that it is OK to use them because they "reflect their times," which they imply somehow excuses their biased messages. For example, I adored the Babar series of books as a young child and was unpleasantly shocked to realize as an adult how much the images and story lines reflected messages of European colonialism in Africa. I chose not to use them with my own children, wanting them to learn accurate information about how people in Africa really live. Not sharing childhood favorites may sadden some, but it is far better than the harm caused by reinforcing messages of racism and colonialism.
In a nutshell - as you choose books or critically examine your current book selection, always keep in mind the power of books - their words and their images - to nurture or, conversely, to undermine a child's sense of self, positive attitude toward others, and motivation to act for fairness.
Additional Resources

Louise Derman-Sparks is an internationally respected anti-bias educator and author (along with Julie Olsen Edwards) of Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. She has co-authored several additional books with Dr. Carol Brunson Day (Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism), the ABC Task Force ( Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children), Dr. Patricia Ramsey (What If All the Kids Are White?), and Dr. John Nimmo and Debbie Leekeenan ( Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide for Change). She speaks throughout the United States and abroad, and served on the NAEYC Governing Board from 1998 to 2001. Louise has a lifelong commitment to building a more just society for all people. Her children Douglass and Holly, now grown, were her inspiration. A Pacific Oaks College faculty member for 33 years - when its mission and pedagogy reflected anti-bias education principles - Louise is now retired.
*In 1980, the Council on Interracial Books for Children published the book Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and Storybooks. A shorter version of the book in pamphlet form, "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism," followed. One of the first guides written for teachers and families, it became an invaluable tool for hundreds of thousands of people. Both the book and pamphlet have been out of print for several years. Rethinking Schools published their adaptation of the original Guidelines in 1994.

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Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children's Books - Social Justice Books

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By Louise Derman-Sparks Based on "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Updated in 2013.* Children's books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, [...]