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Framework Guiding Questions for Distribution

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Understanding how school discipline policies can contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline is essential for educators and families. Harsh punishments, automatic out-of-class time and police involvement for discipline can push young people out of classrooms and into the criminal legal system. But educators, parents and caregivers can help to change this harmful system by advocating for and implementing practices that prioritize mental health and well-being.

We offer this new resource page that highlights LFJ articles and content to open dialogue, shift practices and foster change to benefit all young people.

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Learning for Justice | Education Resources

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Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Obituary writing is more about life than death: the last word, a testament to a human contribution.

Yet who gets remembered - and how - inherently involves judgment. To look back at the obituary archives can, therefore, be a stark lesson in how society valued various achievements and achievers.

Since 1851, The New York Times has published thousands of obituaries: of heads of state, opera singers, the inventor of Stove Top stuffing and the namer of the Slinky. The vast majority chronicled the lives of men, mostly white ones.

Charlotte Brontë wrote "Jane Eyre"; Emily Warren Roebling oversaw construction of the Brooklyn Bridge when her husband fell ill; Madhubala transfixed Bollywood; Ida B. Wells campaigned against lynching. Yet all of their deaths went unremarked in our pages, until now.

Below you'll find obituaries for these and others who left indelible marks but were nonetheless overlooked. We'll be adding to this collection each week, as Overlooked becomes a regular feature in the obituaries section, and expanding our lens beyond women.
You can use this form to nominate candidates for future "Overlooked" obits. Read an essay from our obituaries editor about how he approaches subjects and learn more about how the project came to be.

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Remarkable People We Overlooked in Our Obituaries

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Obituary writing is more about life than death: the last word, a testament to a human contribution. Yet who gets remembered - and how - inherently involves judgment. To look back at the obituary archives can, therefore, be a stark lesson in how society valued various achievements and achievers.

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An incredible resource!
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in classrooms across the country.

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The Zinn Education Project is my compass in a sea of corporate textbooks, packaged common core curriculum and standardized testing. My entire curriculum is based on lessons that can be found on the Zinn Education Project.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Portland, Ore.

Your support is needed to help more students learn people's history. 100% of Zinn Education Project funding comes from individuals like you. Donate today.

By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

From voter ID laws to voter-roll purges, gerrymandering to poll closures to the deadly in-person voting conditions during a pandemic, the right to vote is under attack and the stakes are high. It is critical that students learn about the fight for voting rights, past and present.

Nov. 30, 1924: Shirley Chisholm Born...

Teaching About the Violence in Palestine and Israel...

I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don't BELIEVE in it. It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give HOPE, because for hope we don't need certainty, only POSSIBILITY.

-Howard Zinn

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Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

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The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn's best-selling book A People's History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level.

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Rethinking Schools is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism.

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Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools collaborate to bring people's history to the classroom.

A dedicated website to encourage and support teaching about Central American history.

The best selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, YA, and educators.

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Building social justice starting in the classroom.

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Transforming Teaching and Learning about Native Americans

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Native Knowledge 360° | Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Educational resources, lesson plans, teacher training, and strategies to support positive change! Native Knowledge 360° is a national initiative to inspire and promote improved teaching and learning about Native America. #NK360

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Stories from people of all backgrounds and beliefs

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Stories from people of all backgrounds and beliefs

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"I believe in the power of Facing History."

-Durias D., Facing History Alum

"I went to a Facing History workshop and it opened my eyes."

-Tareeq R., Educator

Facing History & Ourselves
uses lessons of history
to challenge teachers
and their students
to stand up to bigotry and hate.

Facing History & Ourselves is more than our name. It is an active and continuous process that calls on each of us to connect the choices of the past to those we face today. To build a more just and equitable future, we must face our history in all its complexity, Are you ready to face history with us?

Learn how you can experience Facing History

Facing History has thousands of research-based resources and professional learning events to support Social Studies and English Language Arts education.

Not in the United States?

Sign Up

And hopefully, they will always remember what happened to us and make sure that it won't happen again.

Sonia Weitz, Holocaust survivor and poet

Sign up to download the PDF version of our textbook, Holocaust and Human Behavior.

Facing History students are 94% more likely than their peers to report that their class motivated them to learn.

92% of Facing History teachers agree that Facing History helps their students stand up for what they believe even when others disagree.

91% of elective teachers agree or strongly agree that their Facing History course promoted their students' abilities to ground reading, writing, and speaking in evidence from text.

Demand for our work is greater than ever. Make a 100% tax-deductible donation today and you'll help us reach even more teachers and students around the world, giving them the tools to stand up to bigotry and hate.

Gift Amount

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Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.

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How Teachers Can Help Kids Find their Political Voices

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How Teachers Can Help Kids Find their Political Voices

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Transcript of "How teachers can help kids find their political voices"

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: Social justice belongs in our schools, says educator Sydney Chaffee. In a bold talk, she shows how teaching students to engage in activism helps them build important academic and life skills -- and asks us to rethink how we can use education to help kids find their voices.

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Works for Young People That Enhance Their Understanding of Others 

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Works for Young People That Enhance Their Understanding of Others 

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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American Indians in Children's Literature Book List

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American Indians in Children's Literature Book List

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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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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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EPISODE #158: Black Lives Matter for Middle Schoolers

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In the novel Ghost Boys, a twelve-year-old unarmed black boy is shot by a white police officer. Jewell Parker Rhodes talks about why she wrote this story for middle schoolers, and why she's counting on them to advance racial justice.

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The Importance of Bearing Witness | Fernando Pérez | TEDxBellevueCollege

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Teaching for Social Justice and the 2020 Census

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Teaching for Social Justice and the 2020 Census

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Teaching for Social Justice and the 2020 Census

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Teaching for Social Justice and the 2020 Census

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Youth-Led Movements the Changed the Nation

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Youth-Led Movements the Changed the Nation

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Thousands of students around the Bay Area participated in school walkouts Wednesday to demand stricter gun laws, part of a nationwide string of student demonstrations spurred by last month's mass shooting at a Florida high school.

It's the latest and most widespread indication that a youth-led movement, initially started by the survivors of the shooting, has taken hold nationally.

Almost immediately after 17 students and faculty were shot to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 14, a group of student survivors turned horrific tragedy into a powerful call to action.

Students took to the streets and the airwaves, demanding local and national officials tighten notoriously loose state and national gun laws that allowed the troubled 19-year-old shooting suspect to so easily purchase a military-style assault rifle.

Teach with the Lowdown

Suggestions for nonfiction analysis, writing/discussion prompts and multimedia projects. Browse our entire lesson plan collection here.

Within four days of the shooting, the students had come up with a name for their movement (Never Again), a policy demand (stricter background checks for gun buyers), and a date for a nationwide protest in Washington, D.C. (the March for Our Lives, scheduled for March 24th).

It's an impressive feat of activism by a notably resilient group of high school students, most too young to vote.

In their coverage of the emerging movement, many news outlets conveyed a sense of surprise that young people would so strongly assert themselves and take leadership on an issue that directly affects them.

But they shouldn't be.

This is hardly the first time high school students have led the charge in pushing for nationwide reforms. In fact, the nascent Never Again movement follows in a long tradition of middle and high school students who, despite being too young to vote, have helped lead landmark social and political movements. Among the most recent (and often overlooked) examples include the young people on the frontline of the Black Lives Matter movement , activists fighting for immigration reform, and the group of American Indian youth who helped spark the Standing Rock movement in South Dakota last winter.

Scroll through this timeline to explore just a handful of the many movements led by young folks, 18 and under, that helped shape the society we live in today. Note that this is far from an exhaustive list, so if we've overlooked a major movement that you think deserves inclusion, please let us know!
VIEW FULL-SCREEN VERSION HERE
As University of Oklahoma professor Kathryn Schumaker noted in a recent Washington Post commentary , student protesters have long risked disciplinary action or worse to force the nation to have difficult conversations about the future they stand to inherit.

"Young people often have a greater sense of the possibilities for change than their elders do and less concern about the short-term consequences of seeking long-term reforms," she writes.

WATCH: PBS Student Reporting Labs on youth reactions to the shooting

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Too Young to Vote, Old Enough to Act: A Brief History of Major Youth-Led Movements | KQED

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There's nothing new about youth-led movements in America.

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The Children's March Movie and Lesson Guide

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The Children's March Movie and Lesson Guide

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The Children's March tells the story of how the young people of Birmingham, Alabama, braved fire hoses and police dogs in 1963 and brought segregation to its knees. Their heroism complements discussions about the ability of today's young people to be catalysts for positive social change.

"Definitely Academy Award material! I was in tears at the end, along with some of the students. ... This is the best civil rights documentary I've ever used."

Pennsylvania teacher

The Children's March kit includes:

A 40-minute teachers' edition of the Academy Award-winning documentary film, available in VHS or DVD format, with closed-captioning; and

A teacher's guide with 9 standards-based lesson plans for social studies, language arts and music classrooms.

Produced by Teaching Tolerance in association with HBO.

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The Children's March tells the story of how the young people of Birmingham, Alabama, braved fire hoses and police dogs in 1963 and brought segregation to its knees. Their heroism complements discussions about the ability of today's young people to be catalysts for positive social change. "Definitely Academy Award material!

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KQED provides Public Media for Northern California. KQED supplies local news, arts, food, cooking, science, and education information through public broadcasting, blogs, podcasts, video, audio, workshops, and events.

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Is Ecotourism Helping or Hurting Our National Parks?

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This post is part of KQED's Do Now U project. Do Now U is a biweekly activity for students and the public to engage and respond to current issues using social media. Do Now U aims to build civic engagement and digital literacy for learners of all ages.

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Introduction

This unit is a series of four complementary activities that accompany the documentary film The Murder of Emmett Till. They provide a vehicle for discussing this powerful film while also establishing important historical context to better understand its place within American history and for our understanding of the fragility of democracy. Ideally, all lessons should be used, but they can also can be used on their own.

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This unit is a series of four complementary activities that accompany the documentary film The Murder of Emmett Till. They provide a vehicle for discussing this powerful film while also establishing important historical context to better understand its place within American history and for our understanding of the fragility of democracy.

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Summarized version for those of us who are too busy teaching to read a 300+ page document :P

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UC Davis on Shifting Instruction to meet the new framework

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UC Davis on Shifting Instruction to meet the new framework

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How do we change conversations in our classroom to meet the needs of our 21st century students?

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First, the bad news. We're not getting new standards anytime soon. I know we need them, and maybe the powers that be will find both the motivation and funding to take up the cause, but I'm not holding my breath.

But now the good news. We are, assuming the State Board of Education approves it next month, getting a new Framework and it will provide both updated grade-level content and discipline-specific strategies to improve student learning and literacy. Teachers can incorporate these practical, engaging, and innovative strategies into their classrooms today.

Simply put, the new Framework is vastly different from previous versions, and it offers both a conceptual model and concrete examples to help your students. Here's what you need to know:

Discipline-Specific Inquiry. Like the Common Core State Standards and C3 Framework, the new Framework encourages teachers to organize their instruction around questions of significance for students to explore and, after analyzing relevant evidence, develop their own interpretations. By employing disciplinary tools to deepen content knowledge, student critical thinking and literacy will also be improved. Like the ELA/ELD Framework, the new HSS Framework includes a variety of grade-level specific classroom examples to support student inquiry. For example, in the 9th grade elective chapter, in the section on California history, students are asked to consider demographic and economic data in order to investigate the state's population growth in the mid-20th Century: "Why did California attract new residents? What could it offer to them?"

Expanded Content. As many have rightly pointed out, the new Framework is a lot longer than it has been in the past. One main reason for this is that there is substantially more content in this version. For example, we've added content on a variety of different topics in response to recent legislation (such as the FAIR Act), to incorporate the latest historiography (such as a more connected and less regional approach to world history), and to integrate public comment (such as an expanded section on Korean Comfort Women).

Student Literacy. In order to understand and be successful in their study of history, geography, economics, and government, students must be able to comprehend what they read, write clearly and persuasively, and communicate with each other and adults. These disciplinary demands align with the literacy expectations outlined in the Common Core and English Language Development Standards, and the new Framework offers strategies to integrate content and literacy instruction. For example, in the 8th Grade chapter on nineteenth-century U.S. History, there is a detailed example of how history and ELD teachers can work together to examine the writing of Frederick Douglass to both better understand the abolitionist movement and improve student reading comprehension.

Citizenship. Although previous iterations of the Framework also included significant attention to developing student understanding of our democratic system of governance, this version extends that work by offering concrete examples of how schools can not only teach how our government works, but it goes one step further to support student participation in civic discourse, and to promote public service. The Framework provides opportunities for students to marshal the lessons they've learned in history-social science classes to improve their local communities. In the 4th grade chapter, for example, students explore primary sources on a variety of Californians in order to develop their own answer to the question, "How did this person contribute to the state?"

For a fuller explanation of these shifts, as well as specific examples, you might want to check out the introduction and one or more grade level chapters in the current draft, available or a downloadable PDF version of this post, click here. For more information about the Framework, or to secure support for its implementation at your school or district, contact one of our local CHSSP sites across California. And, f here.

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First, the bad news. We're not getting new standards anytime soon. I know we need them, and maybe the powers that be will find both the motivation and funding to take up the cause, but I'm not holding my breath. But now the good news.

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UC Davis HSS Curriculum Adoption Toolkit

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UC Davis HSS Curriculum Adoption Toolkit

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A must see for any team considering new curriculum. Some sections are geared towards high school, but they are still applicable to elementary and middle grades.

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This guide reviews content areas and the guiding questions that go along with each standard.

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Empowering Youth to Change the World

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WOW! What a Year!
The 2019 Youth Poster Contest Was Amazing!

The 2019 Youth Poster Contest attracted 235 incredible posters from 11 high schools and 17 public schools, both public and private, throughout Marin. The calibre of the messaging and the artwork was our best ever.

Again, our goal was to provide a highly-visible public platform for the youth of Marin to stand up and speak out on social justice, women's rights, firearms regulation, immigration, climate change, gender and sexual equality, and other issues important to them.

Our four professional poster artists judges had the most difficult time selecting the top posters. In the end, they selected 10 finalists, 10 winners and the Producer's Award Winner. Visit the 2019 Poster Gallery page to see these amazing posters.

Most especially, for 2019 we expanded our outreach to engage students from underserved communities. We held four in-school professional artist-led workshops, a field trip to the Haight Street Art Center and an unprecedented five-session, over 5 days, Social Justice Poster Course at Novato High School.

Prominent environmentalist David Brower once said: "I'm always impressed with what young people can do before older people tell them it's impossible."

2019-2020 Exhibition Tour

Our 2019 Exhibition Tour is now underway. Beginning with our Awards Ceremony at RileyStreet Art Supply, the 21 posters will travel throughout the Bay Area on a very special Exhibition Tour and will be seen by tens of thousands of people. Visit the Exhibition Tour page for dates and locations.

Oxford dictionaries defined youthquake as a "significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people."

Youthquake sounds like it should - the rallying cry by our youth to shake up the stagnant ground upon which politicians and others who will not raise their voice, or their vote, against this madness. We must all join this youth movement for sanity and safety.

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partnership, Marin county, community, activism, summer of Love,

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The 2019 Youth Poster Contest attracted 235 incredible posters from 11 high schools and 17 public schools, both public and private, throughout Marin. The calibre of the messaging and the artwork was our best ever.

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Cheatsheet for Critical Historical Thinking

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Cheatsheet for Critical Historical Thinking

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Critical Historical Thinking CheatSheet .pdf

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Developing a H-SS Framework-Aligned Lesson

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Developing a H-SS Framework-Aligned Lesson

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4zhuZRtHHzmdWVKYm45VzlwZzQ/view

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Strengthening civil society through First Amendment & Media Literacy Education

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Newseum ED is provided as a free educational resource and contains copyrighted material. Registration is required for full access. Signing up is simple and free.

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Museums Should Honor the Everyday, Not Just the Extraordinary

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Museums Should Honor the Everyday, Not Just the Extraordinary

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Ted Ed

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Ariana Curtis: Museums should honor the everyday, not just the extraordinary

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Who deserves to be in a museum? For too long, the answer has been "the extraordinary" -- those aspirational historymakers who inspire us with their successes. But those stories are limiting, says museum curator Ariana Curtis.

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CREATIVE STUDIO

We build visual campaigns with and for movements and the brands that support them. Our campaigns promote critical thinking and build compassion, capturing the attention of tens of millions of people, providing them with pathways for direct action to solve some of humanity's most challenging issues.

EDUCATOR HUB

Our Educator Hub is both a network and a set of resources for tens of thousands of educators, reaching 1 million+ students nationwide! Our learning experiences help students: explore new ideas through art & technology; analyze how those ideas relate to their own lives, and; activate their voices and advocacy for a shared world.

INNOVATION LAB

Our latest experiment at Amplifier Labs is this live spatial gallery showcasing our Mental Health and Wellbeing artwork. Click on any avatar and join this space to tour the work and maybe even have live conversations with people from around the world (who will appear as avatars as well) about this important topic!

Download and Print

Amplifier makes all of our 1000+ artworks available for free non-commercial download so you can print them and put them up in your home, your place of work or school, and around your community!

Shop

Our online store features printed artwork such as limited edition posters, apparel, stickers, postcards & more! E very dollar we raise goes directly to distributing the work to places we believe need this art the most - in the streets, classrooms across the country, and to community organizers working at the frontlines of change.

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Muslim Americans

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Muslim Americans Bust Myths About Their Faith | Truth or Myth

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Due to the pandemic, we are currently taking reservations only with timed entry.

NWHF COVID Policy

In an effort to keep our guests and staff safe, we ask that visitors please follow the guidelines below:

We ask that visitors please wait outdoors until your reservation time. You may shop in the gift shop during your reserved hour.

Masks must be worn at all times inside the building by all visitors over 2 years of age. If you do not have a face mask, one will be provided to you at the welcome desk.

If you have a fever or other symptoms of COVID-19 or have been in close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 14 days, we ask that you please wait to visit the Hall of Fame.

Visitors are asked to social distance 6 feet from other visitors. Groups from the same household will be allowed to check in together but must remain together.

Check-ins will be limited by time and number to allow sufficient time and space to look at the displays.

Surface areas in the building will be cleaned and sanitized by staff throughout the day. Hand sanitizers are available for visitors.

Follow this link to make reservations with timed entry.

Thank you very much for helping out!

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Due to the pandemic, we are currently taking reservations only with timed entry. NWHF COVID Policy In an effort to keep our guests and staff safe, we ask that visitors please follow the guidelines below: We ask that visitors please wait outdoors until your reservation time.

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With the U.S.-Mexico border a focal point of division in today's American politics, it has become commonplace for one group of Americans to hurl insults at Mexicans and clamor for the building of a wall to keep them out, while another group insists on Mexicans' goodness relative to others and reminds Americans that they have made invaluable contributions to the country.

Amid all this, it is easy to forget that migrations between today's United States and Mexico once went in the reverse direction, that what is now Mexico City was once the Aztec capital - and that it was, without a doubt, the beating heart of North America.

Corn farmers had lived in central Mexico longer than anywhere else and, as a result, had developed a great civilization, complete with marketplaces, schools and running water. People as far north as today's Utah had heard all about their marvelous and wealthy land, and whenever warfare or drought brought suffering, hundreds and even thousands of people would make their way south, hoping for a better life.

The city that emerged on a lake in the central valley of Mexico was called Tenochtitlan (Ten-och-TEE-tlan) and its people were called the Mexica (Me-SHEE-ka). Today we call them the Aztecs, and they have a fearsome reputation in our minds. The Spaniards, whose conquest of the Aztecs began 500 years ago this year, in 1519, told us most of what we think we know about them. Apparently motivated by guilt about what they had destroyed, the Europeans painted a bleak picture of Aztec life before the Christians arrived. (Remorse can be seen in a famous account written by the foot soldier Bernal Diaz de Castillo: "Of that beautiful place, nothing is now left standing."). Since the 1970s, archaeologists, in uncovering their most dramatic site, twin temple pyramids, produced a horrifying record of skulls and serrated flint-knives. Taken together, these artifacts and accounts suggested that the Mexica were a barbaric and violent people.

But defining the Aztecs based purely on their European conquerors' judgments and the look of a few silent objects leads to an incomplete picture at best. Until we have heard people speak for themselves-explain their actions and motivations; disclose their fears and insecurities; and express love, humor and wit-we don't really know them.
Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter
Up until now, we haven't had the resources, or perhaps even a genuine desire, to seek out Aztec stories, as told by the indigenous people themselves. But thanks to new research, if we really try, we can still hear ancient Mexicans speak. The Aztecs had a pictographic writing system of their own, and as a result, were fascinated when the Spanish friars first taught them the phonetic Roman alphabet. They saw the alphabet's potential and immediately began to use it to write things down in their own language of Nahuatl (NA-wat), often without the Spanish friars even knowing what they were up to. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated and rarely consulted by scholars.

Today, when we read their words, we learn that they had a sense of humor and also that they had long lived in fear. They had left their homes in the north because their situation was so bad. They had had to fight their way from today's New Mexico down to Mexico City, and they had seen many of their children die. By the 1500s, they had not only survived, but managed to prevail, and they were taking no chances of being forced to go backwards. They used their brains and their brawn to defeat their neighbors - first the other ethnic groups in the central basic of Mexico, and then much farther afield. To make sure they remained on top, they used the threat of human sacrifice to keep others in line. If any group placed unwelcome demands on them, they were not averse to putting those people's children in wooden cages, just to make a point. But on the whole, like most humans, they preferred to laugh and dance and do the decent thing. They knew that all peoples had something special to offer, and the markets of their great city were stocked with proof of this-the products of the widest possible reach, created by talented artisans from across the land. Later, in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s, some of their descendants (now mixed with Spaniards) returned north and settled the area from California to Texas. This migration only stopped when the United States invaded their country in the 1840s and defeated them in war, suddenly claiming the region as their own.

Much like the Mexica people who traveled south from what is now known as the American Southwest, many of today's Mexicans-their literal and figurative descendants-are powerless and displaced. Likewise, the people of Central America, who once existed on the edges of the Aztec empire, find themselves facing poverty and violence and look to the north with hope. The Aztecs' wit was legendary. If they were here today, they would probably see a certain irony in the situation. That instead of traveling south, Mesoamericans now journey north, reversing the steps taken by their ancestors so many years ago. And that even in the face of American hostility and outright violence, they still find hope, energy and resilience, much like their Aztec ancestors in the shadow of their Spanish colonizers.

For too long, we have accepted as fact the records left behind by the Spaniards, whose language, culture and worldview vastly differed from the people they conquered. Five hundred years ago Hernando Cortés arrived in Mexico, and all these centuries later we still don't really know the Aztecs-or their descendants-at all. There is a rich and multifaceted Aztec history that we've been missing all along. Luckily for us, the Mexica people had the forethought to write down their stories, to record their voices for posterity. It's time we started listening.

Camilla Townsend is Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University. She is the author of numerous books, most recently Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, available now from Oxford University Press.

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We Learned About the Aztecs From Their Conquerors-But New Research Is Letting Them Speak for Themselves

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With the U.S.-Mexico border a focal point of division in today's American politics, it has become commonplace for one group of Americans to hurl insults at Mexicans and clamor for the building of a wall to keep them out, while another group insists on Mexicans' goodness relative to others and reminds Americans that they have made invaluable contributions to the country.

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In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed. On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is time to tell the story.
"1619" is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.

In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed. On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is time to tell the story.
"1619" is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.

THIS POD IS BEAUTIFUL 💚💚💚

I've head the book since it dropped so now I have to read it and if the book is a reflection of this pod in any way, BOOK GOLD!!! I LOVED the story of her uncle and the story about music *chef's kiss*!!! All the stories, truly & the story about the farmland in Louisiana had me in tears. WE NEED MORE STORIES LIKE THISSSSSSS. Thank you 💚💚💚.

Great historical journalism

Excellent summarization of how the systems that built 250 years of slavery still drive our societal structures today! Compact but comprehensive series. Tells a true American history in an interesting, story telling way. Everyone should listen and absorb this; understanding our history will allow us to build a better future!

Amazing journalism of a sad but most be told history

Thanks for your work. A brilliant account of just some of the realities of what it means and has meant to be African- American. Watching all the Hulu episodes now.

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In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed.

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From 1619-2019 (400 years after the first shipload of slaves were transported to Jamestown)

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Four hundred years ago this month, English pirates brought enslaved Africans to America's shores. We reflect on how the legacy of slavery has reverberated through the generations to the present.

We begin in Ghana, a place of pilgrimage for African Americans who are tracing their roots. Reporter Rupa Shenoy of the public radio program "The World" introduces us to a woman who first traveled to Ghana in the 1960s and eventually moved there permanently. She now runs a reconciliation program where American descendants meet with tribal elders in an attempt to reconcile the painful history of slavery.

Next, host Al Letson speaks with Nikole Hannah-Jones, a MacArthur genius and New York Times Magazine journalist. She argues that the arrival of the first enslaved Africans was an elemental moment in the nation's history and that the founding principles of American democracy were not true until enslaved people and their descendants made them true.

We end with Letson recounting a trip he made to the African nation of Malawi several years ago. For most of his visit, he struggled to relate to the place and its people. Then, an unexpected encounter on his last day gave him a deep sense of connection, as well as insight into the shared experience of slavery.

Dig Deeper

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Four hundred years ago this month, English pirates brought enslaved Africans to America's shores. We reflect on how the legacy of slavery has reverberated through the generations to the present. We begin in Ghana, a place of pilgrimage for African Americans who are tracing their roots.

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Ned Blackhawk Q&A: Understanding Indigenous Enslavement

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Teachers: You are invited to join the KQED Youth Media Challenge: Let's Talk About Election 2020. Middle and high school educators across the U.S. are empowering students to share their take on issues that matter to them. Learn how your students can create and publish audio or video commentaries for a national audience.

The Election 2020 media challenge is a free, standards-aligned program on KQED Learn, co-hosted by the National Writing Project and PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs.

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Teachers: You are invited to join the KQED Youth Media Challenge: Let's Talk About Election 2020. Middle and high school educators across the U.S. are empowering students to share their take on issues that matter to them. Learn how your students can create and publish audio or video commentaries for a national audience.

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Reframing the Conversation around Immigration

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Paul A. Kramer: Our immigration conversation is broken -- here's how to have a better one

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How did the US immigration debate get to be so divisive? In this informative talk, historian and writer Paul A. Kramer shows how an "insider vs. outsider" framing has come to dominate the way people in the US talk about immigration -- and suggests a set of new questions that could reshape the conversation around whose life, rights and thriving matters.

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The Conquest of Mexico paintings are significant both artistically and historically. Painted in the seventeenth century, the eight detailed canvases tell the story of the 1521 Spanish conquest of the native Aztec people. These images highlight battles between the Spanish and the Aztecs, ceremonial encounters of the Spanish conquistador with the emperor Moctezuma, and other pivotal historic moments. The series ends with the dramatic Conquest of Tenochtitlán (the capital of the Aztec civilization, now Mexico City) and the capture of the last Aztec king.

SELECT A PAINTING OR BEGIN WITH...

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Exploring the Early Americas Conquest of Mexico Paintings

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The Conquest of Mexico paintings are significant both artistically and historically. Painted in the seventeenth century, the eight detailed canvases tell the story of the 1521 Spanish conquest of the native Aztec people. These images highlight battles between the Spanish and the Aztecs, ceremonial encounters of the Spanish conquistador with the emperor Moctezuma, and other pivotal historic moments.

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The 1619 Project Curriculum in Lesson Plan Grouping - The 1619 Project, inaugurated with a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, challenges us to reframe U.S. history by marking the year when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as our nation’s foundational date. Here you wil…

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Live Events. Compelling Stories. Vital News.

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Skip to content Skip to search Skip to footer

Free and Flexible Resources to Teach the History-Social Science Framework

Welcome to Teaching California!

On this website you will discover classroom-ready resources to help teach California's History-Social Science Framework. Our inquiry sets include curated collections of primary sources, teacher and student notes, activities, and other tools that will help guide you through a research-based approach to improving student reading, writing, and critical thinking.

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678 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settings ACCEPT

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Teaching California - Bringing Archives into the Classroom

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Skip to content Skip to search Skip to footer Free and Flexible Resources to Teach the History-Social Science Framework On this website you will discover classroom-ready resources to help teach California's History-Social Science Framework.

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Examining Black Identity in the 1901 World's Fair

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Examining Black Identity in the 1901 World's Fair

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Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin: A historical musical that examines black identity in the 1901 World's Fair

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In this lively talk and performance, artist and TED Fellow Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin offers a sneak peek of her forthcoming musical "At Buffalo."

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"It is the calling of the humanities to make us truly human in the best sense of the word." - J. Irwin Miller

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ThoughtCo.com is the World's Largest Education Resource

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From chemistry to computer programming, arts to World War II, ThoughtCo.com provides guides, tips, and resources to help you understand more about the world around us.

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Wounded Knee - "Removing the Stain" on History legislation

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Wounded Knee - "Removing the Stain" on History legislation

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July 24, 2019

C ontent Warning: Historical violence, genocide

United States history is soaked in the blood of Indigenous peoples, and for too long, violent white supremacy and murder have been heralded as acts of heroism. The 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre is a prime example of the U.S. commending an atrocity as a valiant military effort. Thankfully, a few members of the United States Congress are working to rectify these errors in order to seek historical justice and remove the stain on American history.

Last month, H.R. 3467 ("Remove the Stain Act") was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and subsequently referred to the House Committee on Armed Services. The bill calls for the rescission of the 20 Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers following the massacre. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) co-sponsored the act along with Reps. Paul Cook (R-Calif.), Sharice Davids (D-KS), Daniel Kildee (D-MI), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), and Denny Heck (D-WA).

If enacted into law, the Remove the Stain Act would require not only the rescission of the medals, but also the removal of the names of those awarded from the official Medal of Honor Roll maintained within the United States Code. The descendants of the individuals will not be required to return the physical medals, but in removing the names, the U.S. government could finally take the first meaningful step toward historical justice.

"This bill is particularly significant because it's a marker that shows that our country is finally on its way to acknowledging and recognizing the atrocities committed against our Native communities," Rep. Haaland said during a press conference last month on Capitol Hill.

Above: Rep. Haaland meets with leadership during a visit to Kirtland Air Force Base in Feb. 2019

While 1890 may seem like a long time ago, it's actually only been a few generations since the bloodiest military attack on Indigenous people in the United States. It is far past time that we work to right the wrongs of one of the worst massacres of Native men, women, and children in American history.

So what exactly happened at Wounded Knee?

The backdrop of the Wounded Knee Massacre is the final decades of what historians call "the Indian Wars"-a time marked by increased hostilities and land grabs by the U.S. government. On Dec. 15, 1890, Indian agency police attempted to arrest Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull in the hopes that it would stop him from joining the Ghost Dance movement.

When Sitting Bull refused to comply with the arrest, the police shot him in the chest and head.

Sitting Bull's murder led Chief Spotted Elk (also known as Big Foot) of the Miniconjou Lakota to seek protection under Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota Nation in order to keep his band safe. On their way to Pine Ridge, Spotted Elk and his band were intercepted by Samuel Whitside, a Major of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry. Whitside had orders to escort Spotted Elk and his people to a cavalry camp on Wounded Knee Creek.

The next day, Dec. 29, 1890, the cavalry disarmed Spotted Elk and his band. Black Coyote, a man described as deaf in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, was ordered to surrender his gun by soldiers.

When he did not give his gun and fired, the Cavalry began shooting as many unarmed Indians as they could.

"The Medal of Honor is meant to reward soldiers who act heroically. But at Wounded Knee, they didn't show heroism; they showed cruelty."

After the bloodshed ended, between 250-300 out of the initial 350 Indians were killed, including Spotted Elk. As for the U.S. soldiers, 25 were dead and an additional 39 were wounded-mainly from their own fire.

Eyewitnesses who survived the encounter later described the horror in harrowing detail: women shot while trying to flee, children butchered by soldiers, and an infant trying to nurse from his dead mother.

As a result of this massacre, the U.S. Army awarded 20 Medals of Honor to the soldiers at Wounded Knee.

"They couldn't kill us all," said Manny Iron Hawk, a descendant of a woman who survived the slaughter at Wounded Knee. The story has been a part of his family's legacy for generations and was committed to writing in Lakota by his grandfather. "We are the people that survived, and we are the people that today are made flesh and blood of Wounded Knee, and we're still here."

According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Foundation, a Medal of Honor is the highest award a member of the Armed Services can receive for active bravery "against an enemy force." In awarding these medals to people who slaughtered unarmed Indigenous people, the United States government is not only condoning these actions, but also saying that Indigenous people-here for millennia before colonization-were and still are an enemy of the United States.

This isn't the first time a request was made to rescind the Wounded Knee Medals of Honor. It is, however, the first time members of Congress initiated the call.

Reps. Haaland and Davids, of the of the Laguna Pueblo and Ho-Chunk Winnebago peoples, respectively, are the first two Native women to be elected to Congress-and both are raising awareness for issues pertaining to Indigenous sovereignty. Their efforts on the Remove the Stain Act, and Rep. Haaland's work on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, exemplify the importance of Native representation in the halls of government.

The introduction of the bill, in Rep. Haaland's words, "shows the continued work and strength of the Native American people who have fought for over a century for the United States to acknowledge the genocide of our people that has taken place on this soil."

For decades, Native communities have protested the mischaracterization of the events at Wounded Knee. Activists have launched campaigns calling for the rescission, terming the commendations "Medals of Dishonor."

In 2001, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe passed Tribal Council Resolution No. 132-01 requesting federal action on the matter. Then, in 2007, the National Congress of American Indians also put forth a request for the federal government to renounce and/or nullify the medals.

"The Medal of Honor is meant to reward soldiers who act heroically," said Rosebud resident William Thunder Hawk. "But at Wounded Knee, they didn't show heroism; they showed cruelty."

For the Lakota people and many other Indigenous communities around the country, Wounded Knee represents unresolved grief and intergenerational trauma. Fortunately, it looks like these wrongs may, at last, have a chance to be righted.

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July 24, 2019 C ontent Warning: Historical violence, genocide United States history is soaked in the blood of Indigenous peoples, and for too long, violent white supremacy and murder have been heralded as acts of heroism. The 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre is a prime example of the U.S.

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Rewordify - website that can take text or an entire web page and change the lexile (free version) one level but (pro version) gives many more options

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Rewordify - website that can take text or an entire web page and change the lexile (free version) one level but (pro version) gives many more options

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From frustration...

...to understanding

The ravenous throng scampered toward the delectable viands, which the chef had impeccably arrayed on the table.

The extremely hungry crowd ran toward the delicious food, which the chef had extremely well organized (into rows) on the table.

Rewordify.com simplifies difficult English. Enter hard sentences (or whole chapters) into the yellow box at the top of the page. (You can also enter a web site URL.) Click Rewordify text and you'll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding. The reworded words are highlighted- click them to hear and learn the original harder word. You can change how the highlighting works to match the way you learn!

Do you dislike dictionaries because they're confusing and unhelpful? You'll love Rewordify.com's clear, easy-to-understand definitions-they change to match the original word or phrase's part of speech, verb tense, and singular/plural form, so they make sense. Our amazing Rewordifying Engine is what makes it all possible, and no other web site has it.

Want to see something now? Click Classic Literature at the top and start reading-easier.

Learn more words faster. Our exclusive Learning Sessions actively teach you words so you learn them. Any time you paste in a block of text, our software finds all the hard words, lets you pick which ones you want to learn, and then teaches them to you in a Learning Session.

A Learning Session isn't an online quiz: it's an effective, step by step process where you hear words and phrases, type them, and read them. The software re-teaches you exactly what you need when you need it, and moves ahead when you're ready. When you've learned a word, the site stops "rewording" it, so the site grows with you as you learn! Learn more about Learning Sessions.

Learn the way you want-from what you want to read. You can change the way the site works to fit your learning style as you read and learn from almost any text passage or web page. See the different highlighting styles in the box? You can pick any of them, and lots more options. Click the Settings link (at the bottom of the page now, or at the top of any page) to see all the choices you have. (The demo text in the box here never changes.)

Chart your progress and have fun. You can keep track of your learning with lots of detailed charts that show how you're doing. Plus, as you use the site, you earn points and get Learning Stars -a fun reward for reading and learning!

Now you can easily get your students involved in their learning: let them select the text that interests them. Let them print and complete the activities with which they're most comfortable. Imagine each student learning vocabulary customized to his or her interests, while you have time to teach instead of typing. Could differentiation by interest or readiness be any easier? You can start doing it today, for free.

You never have to type another vocabulary list or quiz again.

Type (or copy-paste) in any block of text in the yellow box at the top of this page, click Rewordify text, and click the Print/Learning activities button. Here's how. You (or your students!) can select from a rich variety of quizzes and learning activities, with or without answer keys.

Do you need to teach (or not teach) particular vocabulary words and phrases? Rewordify.com gives you the exact control you need for specialized vocabulary instruction. You can make customized word lists so the site rewords and teaches any word or phrase exactly the way you want.

Learn the way you want-from what you want to read. You can change the way the site works to fit your learning style as you read and learn from almost any text passage or web page. See the different highlighting styles in the box? You can pick any of them, and lots more options. Click the Settings link (at the bottom of the page now, or at the top of any page) to see all the choices you have. (The demo text in the box here never changes.)

Chart your progress and have fun. You can keep track of your learning with lots of detailed charts that show how you're doing. Plus, as you use the site, you earn points and get Learning Stars -a fun reward for reading and learning!

Now you can easily get your students involved in their learning: let them select the text that interests them. Let them print and complete the activities with which they're most comfortable. Imagine each student learning vocabulary customized to his or her interests, while you have time to teach instead of typing. Could differentiation by interest or readiness be any easier? You can start doing it today, for free.

Save all your documents online so anyone can read them and learn from them at any time.

Just log in, rewordify something, and click the Share button.

Select how public or private you want the document, enter the title, author, etc., and you're done!

You get a link that you can put in your online lesson plans, teacher web pages, or blog. No more rewordifying the same thing over and over again!

You can view, manage and edit all your documents from any computer. Just log in (or create a free, safe account) and start building your learning library. Here's how to do it.

At Educator Central, you can create and manage student accounts, monitor your students' learning, and get detailed reading and learning analytics that help you make smart classroom decisions. For free. Now.
(In a hurry? Log in. Click Educator Central at the top.)

In a few minutes, you can create student accounts on Rewordify.com, and easily monitor your students' reading and learning progress. Get actionable learning and error analytics as your students read and learn from any document you post, or from any document or web page they want to read.

Imagine each student learning different words based on his or her interest or ability level. It's easy to do: Rewordify.com designs and teaches individualized vocabulary lessons with our highly effective Learning Sessions, so you have the time to teach students the important stuff: how to learn, how to break through obstacles, how to believe the words "I can do it."

As your students read and learn, get detailed charts and reports that tell you what you need to know-by student, by class, or for all your classes.

Effectively match interventions with students, based on detailed error breakdowns that let you see what you need to see in a few clicks.

Student accounts are anonymous, and they keep your students safe and focused on learning.

Start using it now: Log in and click on Educator Central at the top. Read more about Educator Central.

Rewordify.com is free online software. You're using it now. There's nothing to buy or install. It works on any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Just point your browser to Rewordify.com and start reading and learning. Yes, it's tablet-friendly-no mouse needed. Yes, your whole school district can create teacher and student accounts, without entering any personal information. When? Now.

It's fast. Wasting your (and your students' time) is bad. That's why Rewordify.com was designed from the ground up to be lightning-fast and use very little data. The site doesn't have a hundred images of puppies and kittens and a hundred links to a hundred lists. What it does have is speed and ease of use, which are very nice when you have to teach a room full of teenagers. Or adults.

It's an app. Want the app? You're using it. Wasn't that easy? The site is a web app, which is great for you, because you get almost-daily site updates automatically -so you can read and learn, not download and install app updates.

We keep kids safe online. Rewordify.com requires no personal information. Student accounts are completely anonymous and cannot post or share anything. Read more about how we protect children's privacy.

Rewordify.com can display simplified versions of web pages. Our state-of-the-art web filtering technology blocks millions of inappropriate sites and questionable language, to protect kids online and keep them reading only what they should be reading. Read more about how we protect children from inappropriate material.

Difficult English is intelligently simplified with our exclusive Rewordifying Engine

Saves time when reading hard text, improves comprehension and self-confidence, and increases total reading time

Copy-paste entire text passages into the yellow box and press Rewordify text. You'll see a simplified version. Read more.

Definitions are easy to understand, context-aware, and match verb tense and part of speech

Reduces frustration and improves comprehension by maximizing time spent reading versus dictionary research

Copy-paste any text passage into the yellow box and "rewordify" it. Click the highlighted words. Read more.

Learning Sessions actively teach individualized vocabulary lessons with research-proven multimodal techniques

Improves vocabulary and word retention

After you "rewordify" text, you'll see a purple bar at the top. Click the buttons to pick hard words and learn them in an effective Learning Session. Read more.

Site carefully monitors student reading time, learning progress, and learning errors, and gives educators full-color, real-time charts and reports

Gives actionable learning data that helps improve student learning outcomes

Create an account. Click on Educator Central. Create free student accounts. Post assignments online. Get learning data. Make smart classroom decisions based on valid data. Read more.

Site identifies and extracts over 58,000 difficult words and phrases from any text and creates a rich variety of learning activities with answer keys

Saves time when teaching and gives students individualized learning activities

Copy-paste any text passage into the yellow box and "rewordify" it. Click Print/Learning Activities. Pick the quizzes, activities, vocab lists, cloze activities you want, with keys. Print them. Read more.

Software allows users to change the difficulty level and presentation style of the output text

Improves engagement by allowing easy differentiation by learning style and readiness

Copy-paste any text passage and "rewordify" it. Click Settings. Change the text presentation style, "rewordifying level" (difficulty level), even the highlighting style. Read more.

Site works as an app on any device, using a minimum of data

Allows for easy district rollout on nearly any existing device while conserving Internet bandwith

Point any device's browser to Rewordify.com and it works like an app. Here's how to make an app icon on your home screen or desktop.

Site calculates accurate text complexity measures, including our exclusive READ score

Improves engagement and learning through the selection of appropriate reading materials

Rewordify any text passage. Click the Stats button. Read more.

Site's browser app (bookmarklet) extracts most web pages to Rewordify.com for learning in one click

Improves engagement and total reading time through independent selection of high-interest materials

Install our free browser app. Browse the web. At any page, click the "Rewordify text" button. Read the extracted text on Rewordify.com.

You can post any document and share it publicly, privately, or with a password

Increases reading time and organization of learning materials

Log in. Paste in a document and "rewordify" it. Click the Share button, share it, and get a link. Post the link to your teacher page. Or, add it as a Rewordify.com assignment. Here's how to post documents. Here's how to create assignments.

Site calculates points and displays Learning Stars based on total minutes read and words learned

Increases reading time and engagement by making the site more fun

Log in and start reading and clicking on the purple bar to do Learning Sessions. Points and Learning Stars will display. Click My Learning/My Documents to see charts of your progress. Read more.

Over 300 pieces of classic literature are available

Improves comprehension of the classics-from Shakespeare to Douglass to Austen

Click Classic literature at the top. Or, type a word like Frankenstein into the search box at the top.

Here's what to do next:

First, do the demo. You'll be an expert in five minutes: Click here for the demo.

Learn the site, step by step. Our First-Time User Guide clearly shows you how to get started.

Teachers: Learn about Educator Central and all it can do to help improve student learning outcomes. Also, you can print lots of free, full-color literature to help you get started in the classroom.

Have some fun. Are you up for a vocabulary challenge? Play Rewordo. Be aware: it's not easy.

Browse some classics. Want to be more sure of Shakespeare, or brush up on Bronte? Scroll to the top, and click the Classic Literature link. It's a fast way to get started using the site. Or, use the Search bar at the top. Try entering the word raven to understand the deal with Poe, that black bird, and the "Nevermore" thing.

Check out the goodies. You can install our One-Click Learning browser applet that lets you rewordify most web pages in one click. Our cool (and free, of course) School Clock tells you the current time and date, what class period you're currently in, countdowns to the next period, and more. You can customize it for any school's schedule, and make as many different School Clocks as you have different day schedules. Use it now.

Show the love! Please tell us about mistakes the site makes when "rewording" and defining words. That feedback is the single most valuable thing you can do to help the site (and learners around the world). Click here to contact us. Do you want to help defray the site's operating costs, and read a great thriller at the same time? You can! Get your copy of Electric Dawn.

Contact us. We want to help you! Please use the Contact page with any questions or comments.

Site summary: Rewordify.com helps with reading comprehension and vocabulary development by simplifying English to a lower reading level. It lets you reword a sentence or reword a paragraph. It will simplify English by reducing text complexity. It's a dictionary alternative that will improve comprehension and teach vocabulary. It's an important part of reading instruction and vocabulary instruction for ESL students, people with reading disabilities, people with a learning disability, or anyone who wants to improve reading skill.

35650 / 9.0

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Rewordify.com | Understand what you read

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Rewordify.com helps you read more, understand better, learn new words, and teach more effectively.

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Radical Tea Towel | Political, Feminist & Literary Gifts

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Political and social statements for the kitchen and home. Stand out with ethically-made and inspiring tea towels.

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A variety of resources (some free, some not) for teachers in all curricular areas

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Tes provides a range of primary and secondary school teaching resources including lesson plans, worksheets and student activities for all curriculum subjects.

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Above the Noise Video Series

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Skip to Main Content

Take a deeper look at research and facts behind controversial and trending news topics. More More

ABOVE THE NOISE is a show that cuts through the hype and takes a deeper look at the research and facts behind controversial and trending topics in the news. Hosted by Myles Bess and Shirin Ghaffary.

Above The Noise is a local public television program presented by KQED.

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Skip to Main Content Take a deeper look at research and facts behind controversial and trending news topics. More More ABOVE THE NOISE is a show that cuts through the hype and takes a deeper look at the research and facts behind controversial and trending topics in the news.

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American Slavery

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Most students leave high school without an adequate understanding of the role slavery played in the development of the United States-or how its legacies still influence us today. In an effort to remedy this, we developed a comprehensive guide for teaching and learning this critical topic at all grade levels.

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Most students leave high school without an adequate understanding of the role slavery played in the development of the United States-or how its legacies still influence us today. In an effort to remedy this, we developed a comprehensive guide for teaching and learning this critical topic at all grade levels.

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About This Guide

For many educators, helping children learn English is a joy and a privilege. But classroom educators may not always know their administration's approach to serving English language learners. Similarly, school leaders may not know how educators are approaching ELL instruction in the classroom. Reviewing a few key practices as a staff can help move the entire school toward a comprehensive and culturally responsive approach to serving English language learners and their families. This guide can help get the process started.

The recommendations in this guide were largely adapted from Critical Practices for Anti-bias Education, a professional development publication from Teaching Tolerance. The guide also leans heavily on tasks and strategies found on this site and on material developed by our legal colleagues at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In addition to best practices that can be applied throughout the school building, the guide includes at least one Teacher Leadership Spotlight in every section. These spotlights draw attention to ways in which teachers can take action outside the classroom to ensure ELL students and their families enjoy welcoming, equitable experiences at school.

Appendix A: Suggested Anti-bias Strategies for Use With ELL Students
Appendix B: Monitoring the Language Program Graphic Organizer
Appendix C: Planning for District-wide Language Access Services

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For many educators, helping children learn English is a joy and a privilege. But classroom educators may not always know their administration's approach to serving English language learners. Similarly, school leaders may not know how educators are approaching ELL instruction in the classroom.

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To feel safe and to feel seen. To feel valued and capable of growth. These are simple concepts-basic pillars of student achievement and the results of good pedagogy.

For many queer students these rights remain out of reach. But LGBTQ students who go to school in a fully inclusive environment-where both curriculum and schoolwide policies value their identities-experience more positive outcomes. They also experience less harassment, feel more valued by school staff and face fewer barriers to success.

We also know that an LGBTQ-inclusive school benefits all students. Seeing LGBTQ identities valued in the classroom, in the curriculum and in day-to-day interactions inspires empathy, understanding and respect.

With this guide, we hope to help school leaders ensure that all students feel safe, seen and capable of success; to ensure that the curriculum is as complete and representative as possible; to ensure that the school climate fosters open and respectful dialogue among all students and staff; and to prepare youth to engage and thrive within our diverse democracy.

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Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students

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Skip to main content To feel safe and to feel seen. To feel valued and capable of growth. These are simple concepts-basic pillars of student achievement and the results of good pedagogy. For many queer students these rights remain out of reach.

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Leadership in Equity of Opportunity

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Individuals and organizations working toward creating equity and economic opportunity in the Bay Area through education, employment and basic needs such as asset building, housing or safety net services. The course is appropriate for all levels of leadership and experience. Executives and Heads of State have benefited as much as students or community advocates - and we need all levels to work together to create change. Participants thrive when they are willing to start with a beginners mind, are committed to equity and social justice and value systems thinking.

Participants will bring to the program a project, ideally in the context of something they are already working on, that they hope will impact equity and opportunity in the areas of education, employment and basic needs. In addition to the 3 intensive sessions, participants will be paired with two other participants for a weekly call between sessions to further learning and accountability to practice of what is learned. The expectation is that participants will continue after the program to use the knowledge, capacities and project design skills in the community for positive change.

Dr. Monica Sharma, trained as a physician and epidemiologist, worked for the United Nations since 1988 for 22 years. She has published and presented over 250 articles in journals and international forums. Currently, she engages worldwide as an International Expert and Practitioner on Leadership Development for sustainable and equitable change. She works with United Nations, universities, management institutions, governments, business, media and community organizations. She is the Tata Chair Professor at the Tata Institute of Social 3 Sciences in Mumbai.

As a practitioner, her proven track record of generating measurable results at scale, as well as enhancing leadership on every continent, is unique. She designs and facilitates programs for whole systems transformation and leadership development in both developed and developing countries. Using cutting-edge transformational approaches and methodologies, the purpose is to achieve measurable and sustainable change. She also designs and implements workshops - 'learning-in-action programs' - with both business and non-profit organizations on different aspects of Leadership Development for Sustainable Change.

She is currently engaged with over 20 organizations worldwide. Monica is now working to foster emerging leaders world-wide - proactively seeking out potential leaders, unleashing their power of effective creativity, enabling them to manifest their full potential. These leaders recognize the invisible, multiple patterns and systems that shape societal and planetary situations and actions; they distinguish, design and deliver actions sourced from self-awareness and empathy; manifest sustainable and equitable change, creating new patterns as they solve problems.

In 2009, Monica Sharma received "The Spirit of the United Nations Award", given to a person whose work is an expression of the core principles, spirit and vision on which the United Nations was founded. Monica Sharma was honored because "of her inspirational leadership, skilled wisdom and devoted attention to the United Nations,...for guidance in developing effective strategic frameworks for action for application world-wide.....that has manifested in effective programs and leadership development initiatives." Monica Sharma also received the prestigious Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) 2009 Honorary Membership Award, for her contribution in fostering transformational leadership world-wide resulting in measurable change and for her strategic work with the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH) related to nursing and health care.

Who are we as community leaders? What are our shared values? What is it inside of us that motivates us and keeps us committed to our work in the face of challenging times? Who do we need to be to create the change we want to see? How do we listen deeply for shared values and opportunities to leverage change? How do we become systems leaders empowered with the tools we need to create change? How do we begin to look at our work through the three components of sustainable change (solving problems, shifting systems and activating potential)?

How do we design our projects and align grants and strategic plans to simultaneously solve problems, shift systems and activate our own and our community's potential for change? How do we see and address the larger systems inherent in the problems we are trying to solve? How do we plan differently to create the impact we want to see? What are the different stages of leadership development and how do they inform our collaborative efforts? How do we talk about the change we want to create and enroll others in creating this change? How do we connect events, programs and other activities to measurable outcomes and impact?

How do we run meetings differently and more effectively to move the agenda forward? How do we empower others to lead the change they wish to see? How do we fundraise more effectively and sustainably? How do we identify and use leverage points to create scalable systemic change? How do we hold multiple perspectives and transcend divisiveness while adhering to universal values? How do we effectively track and measure the change we are creating through our projects over time? How do we align multiple projects and initiatives toward a unified goal?

In addition to the 3 sessions, each participant will be assigned to a learning group with 2 other participants. One 45 minute call per week is expected during the time between sessions to activate and deepen the application of what is learned each session. Comprehensive instructions will be provided in the program to guide these calls.

Attendance at all 3 sessions is required.

Limited partial scholarships for individuals and group discounts for teams of 3 or more are available. Scholarships are limited - please apply for scholarships no later than January 5, 2020 for priority consideration. Please contact for our scholarship form and to discuss options.

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Leadership for Equity & Opportunity | risetogetherbayarea

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Individuals and organizations working toward creating equity and economic opportunity in the Bay Area through education, employment and basic needs such as asset building, housing or safety net services. The course is appropriate for all levels of leadership and experience.

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An alliance of trainers, organizers, and institutional leaders devoted to the work of creating racially equitable organizations and systems.

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Radical Truth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Radical Truth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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While Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches and work are often sugarcoated, it's important to teach that King championed economic justice and taught Black self-love while also pushing back against neutrality, imperialism and systemic racism.

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The Radical Truth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., born January 15, 1929, became the most well known leader of the modern civil rights movement. But the truth of King's legacy is often whitewashed and sanitized. On his birthday, MLK Day and year round, use these resources to provide students with a more complete, radical context of King's fight for justice-and discuss how his work still creates ripples today.