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"Lessons In Liberation" provides critical context for understanding the oppressive, unjust measures that disproportionately affect so many students. This book will allow you to reimagine the classroom as an abolitionist space that frees students from the systemic inequities that fracture their sense of community and belonging.

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Born from sustained organizing, and rooted in Black and women of color feminisms, disability justice, and other movements, abolition calls for an end to our reliance on imprisonment, policing and surveillance, and to imagine a safer future for our communities.

Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators offers entry points to build critical and intentional bridges between educational practice and the growing movement for abolition. Designed for educators, parents, and young people, this toolkit shines a light on innovative abolitionist projects, particularly in Pre-K-12 learning contexts.

Sections are dedicated to entry points into Prison Industrial Complex abolition and education; the application of the lessons and principles of abolition; and stories about growing abolition outside of school settings. Topics addressed throughout include student organizing, immigrant justice in the face of ICE, approaches to sex education, arts-based curriculum, and building abolitionist skills and thinking in lesson plans.

The result of patient and urgent work, and more than five years in the making, Lessons in Liberation invites educators into the work of abolition.

Contributors include Black Organizing Project, Chicago Women's Health Center, Mariame Kaba and Project NIA, Bettina L. Love, the MILPA Collective, and artists from the Justseeds Collective, among others.

View the full table of contents here.

Praise for Lessons in Liberation

" Lessons in Liberation is an abundant and generous offering, packed with resources to help us collectively build toward abolition in and out of the classroom. This excellent toolkit is a call to imagine, to act, to dream, to expand our notions of what education is and can be-and of the bold and radically nurturing society we can grow together. It's an essential read for teachers, organizers, and students of all kinds!"
- Maya Schenwar, co-author of Prison by Any Other Name and editor-in-chief of Truthout

"This resource book underscores the necessity and urgency of abolition of the prison industrial complex in, by, and through educational systems. Chock full of ideas, workshop activities, guiding principles, tools, reflections, and campaign strategies, Lessons in Liberation will grow and deepen our movements. For those looking for an on-ramp into abolition through education-this is for you."
- Liat Ben-Moshe, author of Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition

" Lessons in Liberation is an inspiration! The authors establish foundational knowledge about what it means to be an abolitionist educator while also providing concrete actions for those who are committed to co-constructing a more just world with the youth in their classrooms. It is a deeply critical, empathetic, and loving text-the medicine that is needed to rise together."
- Curtis Acosta, Ethnic Studies Educator

"The tools needed for liberation and freedom are in this book. Like all of us, if you are striving to be an abolitionist educator, this book is your guide. Lessons in Liberation pushes us to unlearn, to be vulnerable, and to find our humanity so we can enter classrooms ready to freedom dream, to dismantle, and build for collective struggle, liberation, and love."
- Bettina L. Love, author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

"Abolition is a theory whose time has come in classrooms and schools, but those of us practicing in these spaces need a more complete picture of what that looks like on the day to day. Lessons in Liberation is just that. Each page is an invitation to dream and create a new world, but also how to build that world and what tools we may need to do so."
- Teachers 4 Social Justice

"Lessons in Liberation successfully sets out to answer a critical question: What does abolitionist education look like in practice? Lessons in Liberation pulls together a stunning mix of background articles and teaching ideas, all aimed at being useful for educators and community activists interested in doing the work of abolitionist education."
-Rethinking Schools

The Education for Liberation Network & Critical Resistance Editorial Collective are a team of writers, educators, and thinkers from various backgrounds and social movements working toward abolition in our time.

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A political vision for a future ripe with alternatives to imprisonment and punishment. Born of patient and urgent work, and more than five years in the making, Lessons in Liberation expands our scope beyond defunding the police and toward our most far-reaching freedom dreams.

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Written by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, "Just Ask!" is a great read-aloud for a lesson on or conversation about collective needs. It also teaches students about how to approach and understand differences in ways that build connection and community.

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Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You

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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and award-winning artist Rafael Lopez create a kind and caring book about the differences that make each of us special -- available in Spanish, too.

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Community circles with a restorative-justice focus allow students to learn about and from each other while also developing a strong sense of trust. These circles can be used to talk about important questions and/or collectively address any harm to the community and its members. With a clear sense of purpose (as determined by the teacher or anyone who initiates the circle), these can be incredibly effective and strengthening community bonds and/or repairing those that have been severed. Here is a brief article on community circles (from which the image was taken): https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/community-circles-build-restorative-school-cultures

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Carla Shalaby's novel urges us all to think differently about how we perceive and interact with students who we see as "troublemakers." A gripping collection of portraits of four young students, this is a must-read for teachers who want to reimagine what inclusivity and community look like in their classrooms.

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In this dazzling debut, Carla Shalaby, a former elementary school teacher, explores the everyday lives of four young "troublemakers," challenging the ways we identify and understand so-called problem children. Time and again, we make seemingly endless efforts to moderate, punish, and even medicate our children, when we should instead be concerned with transforming the very nature of our institutions, systems, and structures, large and small. Through delicately crafted portraits of these memorable children-Zora, Lucas, Sean, and Marcus- Troublemakers allows us to see school through the eyes of those who know firsthand what it means to be labeled a problem.

From Zora's proud individuality to Marcus's open willfulness, from Sean's struggle with authority to Lucas's tenacious imagination, comes profound insight-for educators and parents alike-into how schools engender, exclude, and then try to erase trouble, right along with the young people accused of making it. And although the harsh disciplining of adolescent behavior has been called out as part of a school-to-prison pipeline, the children we meet in these pages demonstrate how a child's path to excessive punishment and exclusion in fact begins at a much younger age.

Shalaby's empathetic, discerning, and elegant prose gives us a deeply textured look at what noncompliance signals about the environments we require students to adapt to in our schools. Both urgent and timely, this paradigm-shifting book challenges our typical expectations for young children and with principled affection reveals how these demands-despite good intentions-work to undermine the pursuit of a free and just society.

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In this dazzling debut, Carla Shalaby, a former elementary school teacher, explores the everyday lives of four young "troublemakers," challenging the ways we identify and understand so-called problem children. Time and again, we make seemingly endless efforts to moderate, punish, and even medicate our children, when we should instead be concerned with transforming the very nature of our institutions, systems, and structures, large and small.

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This book revolutionizes the way we think about classroom community by rethinking the punitive and disciplinary measures that often fragment it.

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Beyond Discipline

From Compliance to Community

(Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1996/2006)

What is most remarkable about the assortment of discipline programs on the market today is the number of fundamental assumptions they seem to share. Some may advocate the use of carrots rather than sticks; some may refer to punishments as “logical consequences.” But virtually all take for granted that the teacher must be in control of the classroom, and that what we need are strategies to get students to comply with the adult’s expectations.

Alfie Kohn challenged these widely accepted premises, and with them the very idea of classroom “management,” when the original edition of Beyond Discipline was published in 1996. Since then, his path-breaking book has invited hundreds of thousands of educators to question the assumption that problems in the classroom are always the fault of students who don’t do what they’re told; instead, it may be necessary to reconsider what it is that they’ve been told to do – or to learn. Kohn shows how a fundamentally cynical view of children underlies the belief that we must tell them exactly how we expect them to behave and then offer “positive reinforcement” when they obey.

Just as memorizing someone else’s right answers fails to promote students’ intellectual development, so does complying with someone else’s expectations for how to act fail to help students develop socially or morally. Kohn contrasts the idea of discipline, in which things are done to students to control their behavior, with an approach in which we work with students to create caring communities where decisions are made together.

Beyond Discipline has earned the status of an education classic, a vital alternative to all the traditional manuals that consist of techniques for imposing control. For this 10th anniversary edition, Kohn adds a new afterword that expands on the book’s central themes and responds to questions from readers. Packed with stories from real classrooms around the country, seasoned with humor and grounded in a vision as practical as it is optimistic, Beyond Discipline shows how students are most likely to flourish in schools that have moved toward collaborative problem solving – and beyond discipline.

“Provocative . . . His many vignettes, culled from classrooms across the country, lend dimension to…an excellent resource [that] … can transform classroom management practices.”

— Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

“This little book . . . [is] really about doing the essential work that will help democracy thrive.”

–NAIS Academic Forum

“Highly recommended for libraries, schools, and colleges, especially for those interested in creating learning communities.”

— Choice

Beyond Discipline has been and continues to be one of the most important books to me and to the faculty I work with. The philosophy articulated in the book has transformed the entire culture of our junior high school.

— Charles Glassman, New York, NY

After teacher candidates in my class read the first few chapters [of Beyond Discipline], they are always mad: ‘Who does that Kohn guy think he is?’ After the next couple of chapters: ‘Oh, maybe that Kohn guy knows something.’ After they finish the book, they’re on the bandwagon and committed to creating communities in their classrooms.

— Linda Neiman, teacher educator

To order Beyond Discipline,

call the publisher, ASCD, at 800-933-2723 or  click here

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This book will transform the way you think about and approach conflicts in your classroom. Understanding and implementing restorative practices will allow you to foster and deepen community through collaborative, collective problem solving.

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The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education

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A fully revised & updated handbook for teachers and administrators on creating just and equitable learning environments for students; building and mainta…

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Bettina Love's "Punished For Dreaming" examines how the Reagan Presidency kickstarted dangerous narratives about and perceptions children of color that pervaded schools in the form of policies that disproportionately punished these children. This book will have you questioning whether the educational reforms in our nation's history did more to disenfranchise students than to empower and support them.

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Punished for Dreaming In Punished for Dreaming Dr. Bettina Love argues forcefully that Reagan’s presidency ushered in a War on Black Children, pathologizing and penalizing them in concert with the War on Drugs. New policies punished schools with policing,

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This talk with academic and advocate Bettina Love provides a great deal of information on abolitionist pedagogy as well as concrete steps for actualizing it. Make sure to check out the Plain Text version of Abolitionist Principles embedded in the site. You can also access it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oA6k8GbXUEMBcNASy_zSStSsEhIwb_nltWa8vDDOakI/edit#heading=h.qlco3kdzpcs7

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SNF Paideia Program at the University of Pennsylvania

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"Decolonizing Dialogue" Series Wrap-Up + Resources

This week, I'm reading We Want to Do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love.

Before I get into Love's book, a note: This is the final post in this semester's "Decolonizing Dialogue" series! I have loved publicly exploring dialogue, anti-oppression efforts in and beyond education, and the relationships between the two via this blog medium. I thank you, the reader, as well as the authors of these 8 rich and thought-provoking texts for sharing their thinking and methods. I will be drawing on them as I teach my COMM 290 course "Good Talk" next semester here at Penn.

For the sake of having all the posts accessible from one place, here are links to the other 7 posts in the series:

If you enjoyed this series, check out more of my public-facing writing on dialogic pedagogies at Thinking In Community, the official blog of the Humanities Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, at this link: https://sites.utexas.edu/humanitiesinstitute/?s=Sarah+Ropp

Finally, see my website for open-access downloadable resources related to dialogue: sarahropp.com/resources-for-dialogue/. This page collects all of the graphics I've created for this series as well as other original graphics, activities, and ideas related to dialogue. I update it regularly with new resources, and all are free for anyone who would like to use them.

Overview of We Want to Do More than Survive

Bettina L. Love is the Georgia Athletic Association Endowed Professor in Education at the University of Georgia. She is the cofounder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network and the creator of Get Free, a hip-hop civics curriculum. Her work is informed by critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and Black feminism, and she has won a number of awards for her scholarship, teaching, and advocacy efforts related to anti-racist educational reform.

We Want to Do More than Survive, published in 2019, is Love's second book, following 2012's Hip Hop's Li'l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip-Hop Identities and Politics in the New South. In We Want to Do More than Survive, Love argues for a pedagogy that actively works towards radically restructuring and reimagining the prevailing educational model in the U.S. This pedagogy, which Love calls "abolitionist teaching," is devoted to intersectional racial justice in and beyond the classroom through civics education, community coalition building, and critical theory. She refers to recent high-profile events and activism related to racial injustice; academic research in education; abolitionist histories; critical theory; and her own experiences as a Black, queer, female student and educator to make this argument.

The graphic below presents, in Love's own words, some of the core principles of abolitionist teaching. (Access a plain-text version here: Abolitionist Teaching Principles plain-text version. Download a PDF of the graphic here: Abolitionist Teaching Principles PDF.)

Major Concepts: Educational Survival Complex; Character Education; Freedom Dreaming; and Homeplace

Here are some of the anchoring concepts from We Want to Do More than Survive. For each one, I've suggested a few questions, inviting you to dialogue with these ideas through the lens of your own values, experiences, and goals.

Educational Survival Complex. Love characterizes the prevailing educational system in the U.S. as an "educational survival complex, in which students are left learning to merely survive" in schools that mimic and reproduce the same inherently inequitable and oppressive structures of the larger society (27). Those structures include the punitive logics of the carceral justice system; the competitive, production-driven logics of neoliberal capitalism; and the conformity-driven logics of cisheteropatriarchy - among others. Students of color or what Love calls "dark children," as well as poor children, suffer disproportionately and extremely within the educational survival complex, but it is, Love argues, an inherently damaging system for all. Privatization and profiteering, through the proliferation of charter schools and the corporations that sell standardized tests, capitalize on the dreams of dark-skinned and poor communities to "do more than survive" - i.e., to use education as a vehicle for economic advancement and liberation. Just as damaging, Love suggests, is the "spirit murder" that occurs when teachers and administrators degrade and dehumanize their students of color on a daily basis through (for example) discriminatory discipline practices, the ridicule or erasure of non-White cultures and language varieties, and low expectations for academic performance. Such constant degradation keeps "the spirit enduring in constant survival mode" and "is violence by another name" (33).

What is your response to the concept of the educational survival complex? Does this align with your experiences as a student (K-12 and/or college)? In general, do you believe your education has encouraged you to survive or to thrive, neither, or both?

In regards to the concept of spirit murder: what state is your spirit currently in? Thinking of the classroom, the workplace, and/or the community spaces you operate within, what practices and mechanisms help your spirit thrive and feel strong? What practices and mechanisms batter your spirit?

Character Education. A defining feature of the educational survival complex, Love says, is its growing emphasis on "character education" over civics education. That is, in this highly individualistic system, students are encouraged to develop the individual character traits that will (supposedly) help them overcome any and all disadvantages in their pathway through education, rather than encouraged to critique and challenge systems of inequality. This is the fanatic focus on cultivating " grit, " the no-excuses ethos, and the "work hard, be nice" mantra. Efforts to first instill and then measure and assess grit among poor and dark students have a direct link to a long history of "good" White people in the U.S. attempting to reshape the supposedly inadequate moral character of people of color in order to help them conform and survive - rather than abolishing the structures that make their survival so difficult in the first place. This history includes (for example) the Christianization of enslaved people, Indian boarding schools, and prohibitions against speaking Spanish at school. While Love acknowledges that grit, resilience, and hard work are positive traits for students to possess, she rejects the way in which character education has displaced civics education in schools. Instead of this hyper-focus on exceptionalism and the individual's power to miraculously overcome structural barriers, she suggests that we must work towards closing the "civics empowerment gap" by educating students in media literacy and how to become informed, active citizens through practices such as petitioning, protesting, public speaking, problem-solving across difference, and civil disobedience (70).

What was civics education like in the schools you have attended (K-12 and college)? Do you, in general, feel empowered to engage in change-making efforts such as the ones Love lists? Why or why not?

What kind of character education has been promoted in the educational settings and/or community settings you operate within? Are you familiar with the discourse and history of "grit," "no excuses," or "work hard, be nice"? What has been the impact on you of the kinds of character education you were (or weren't) exposed to?

Homeplace. Throughout We Want to Do More than Survive, Love emphasizes the vital importance of homeplace for students, especially dark and poor students. In critical contrast to the individualism, spirit murder, and competitive character education of the educational survival complex, the concept of homeplace stresses the importance of community, affirmation, and safety for learning. A notion from bell hooks, Love explains, "'homeplace' is a space where Black folx truly matter to each other, where souls are nurtured, comforted, and fed. Homeplace is a community, typically led by women, where White power and the damages done by it are healed by loving Blackness and restoring dignity" (83). Within homeplace, character components like grit, zest, and potential are not obsessively tracked and measured so much as an environment is created within which these traits - which dark and poor kids already possess - can be protected and nurtured (79). Love describes how, for her, the homeplace that allowed her spirit to remain intact through struggles with poverty and her parents' addiction was created through a network of supportive adults and peers - including teachers, coaches, mentors, and older students - a constellation of community centers and youth activist organizations, and joyful engagement with Black cultural elements like music and basketball.

How do you respond to this notion of "homeplace" and its importance within educational spaces? Regardless of your identities, when have you experienced your own form of "homeplace" in your school(s) or community(ies)? What made homeplace possible or impossible for you in these spaces?

What are our responsibilities to each other regarding homeplace? That is: how might you be able to contribute to (or at least avoid destroying) other students' homeplaces?

Freedom Dreaming. "Freedom dreaming is imagining worlds that are just, representing people's full humanity, centering people left on the edges, thriving in solidarity with folx from different identities who have struggled together for justice, and knowing that dreams are just around the corner with the might of people power" (103). In Love's formulation, freedom dreaming is the beginning of abolitionist teaching; she insists, "These dreams are not whimsical, unattainable daydreams, they are critical and imaginative dreams of collective resistance" (101). She argues that this dogged power and will to continue to imagine new futures and alternate ways of being is the same power that has created and sustained every abolitionist and anti-oppression movement throughout history. If the educational survival complex aims to shut down freedom dreaming or repackage it as neo-liberal aspirations of individual wealth and advancement within an un-critiqued system, truly abolitionist teaching and learning insists on the importance of fostering freedom dreams. Love explains that freedom dreaming both supports and is supported by Black joy, love, and wellness as well as art in its many forms.

What does freedom dreaming look like for you? That is, how would you define "liberation" for yourself personally as well as for the people from your various communities? What kinds of art or inspiration helps you to engage in freedom dreaming?

In what way does, or can, dialogue support freedom dreaming? Have you been a part of dialogues that are about collective freedom dreaming or the sharing of freedom dreams? If so, what was that experience like? If not, what do you imagine it might be like?

If you like this content and want more, follow us on social media and subscribe to our listserv.

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Abolitionist Teaching and Learning with Bettina L. Love - SNF Paideia Program at the University of Pennsylvania

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In We Want to Do More than Survive, Love argues for a pedagogy that actively works towards radically restructuring and reimagining the prevailing educational model in the U.S. This pedagogy, which Love calls "abolitionist teaching," is devoted to intersectional racial justice in and beyond the classroom through civics education, community coalition building, and critical theory.

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"We Got This" is all about the power of actively listening to students. Further, it outlines concrete strategies for rethinking what access to content and community looks like for all students.

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Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be

While challenging the teacher as hero trope, We Got This shows how authentically listening to kids is the closest thing to a superpower that we have. Cornelius Minor identifies tools, attributes, and strategies that can augment our listening, allowing us to make powerful moves toward equity by broadening access to learning for all children.

"That's the problem with you, Minor" a student huffed. "You want to make everything about reading or math. It's not always about that. At school, you guys do everything except listen to me. Y'all want to use your essays and vocabulary words to save my future, but none of y'all know anything about saving my now. "

In We Got This Cornelius Minor describes how this conversation moved him toward realizing that listening to children is one of the most powerful things a teacher can do. By listening carefully, Cornelius discovered something that kids find themselves having to communicate far too often. That "my lessons were not, at all, linked to that student's reality."

While challenging the teacher as hero trope, We Got This shows how authentically listening to kids is the closest thing to a superpower that we have. What we hear can spark action that allows us to make powerful moves toward equity by broadening access to learning for all children. A lone teacher can't eliminate inequity, but Cornelius demonstrates that a lone teacher can confront the scholastic manifestations of racism, sexism, ableism and classism by showing:

exactly how he plans and revises lessons to ensure access and equity

ways to look anew at explicit and tacit rules that consistently affect groups of students unequally

suggestions for leaning into classroom community when it feels like the kids are against you

ideas for using universal design that make curriculum relevant and accessible

advocacy strategies for making classroom and schoolwide changes that expand access to opportunity to your students

"We cannot guarantee outcomes, but we can guarantee access" Cornelius writes. "We can ensure that everyone gets a shot. In this book we get to do that. Together. Consider this book a manual for how to begin that brilliantly messy work. We got this."

(click any section below to continue reading)

Contents

Foreword, Kwame Alexander

Acknowledgments
Introduction: PART 1 This Ain't Everybody's Hero Story-It's Yours 1. Begin by Listening We All Want Better
How Listening Can Help

How to Listen to What Students Are Really Communicating
2. You Can Disrupt the Status Quo in Your Class
How to Ensure That Your Lessons Speak to What Students Say They Need

Question the Things That Define Your Classroom Culture

Identify Any Groups That Consistently Benefit Less from the Way Things Are
3. Do Your Homework and Then Go for It
Change the Way You Do School So That Kids Have More Opportunities to Succeed

Identify Why Change Needs to Happen

Do a Little Bit of Research

Decide What to Do and Make a Plan

Execute the Plan
PART 2 Taking Your Dreams off Deferment
Find a Productive Way to Say No

4. Show Kids That You Hear Them

Plan for and Hold Regular Class Meetings to Maintain Community

Designate Specific Kids Who Can Give You Feedback
5. Make Curriculum Work for Your Kids
Shift from a Punitive to an Instructive Mind-Set

Use a Universal-Design-for-Learning Framework to Make Learning Accessible

Understand Exactly What You're Being Asked to Do

Understand What Test Prep Is Really Asking You to Do

6. Being a Good Teacher Versus Being a Good Employee

Engage in Imaginative Mind-Set Work

Gather a PR Team as You Make a Plan to Be Better for Kids
Epilogue: The Gravity of Our Work
Bring It Back to the Classroom

Companion Resources

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While challenging the teacher as hero trope, We Got This shows how authentically listening to kids is the closest thing to a superpower that we have. Cornelius

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One of the best books I have ever read, "It Won't Be Easy" validated so many of my personal and professional struggles and reaffirmed my love for this. This is a must-read for all teachers - you are doing great.

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Besides the fact that it is truly laugh out loud funny, this book stands in for what so many teachers need: the teacher-friend whose room you can stomp into when you need empathy over your lack of coolness; the friend who will make you feel better about the mistakes you made, who will celebrate your crazy schemes, who will help you find your reasons why you need to come back when you want to quit. That kind of friend is a rare and precious person who doesn't exist on many campuses, so thank God that Tom gave us one in book form that's portable enough to take wherever we need companionship.

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A frank and funny behind-the-scenes look at teaching from a hard-working and highly entertaining Teacher of the Year

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"Our Class Is A Family" is such an important reminder of what a "classroom" really means. It helps redefine "family" as those who make you feel safe and accepted.

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Teachers do so much more than just teach academics. They build a sense of community within their classrooms, creating a home away from home where they make their students feel safe, included, and loved.

With its heartfelt message and colorfully whimsical illustrations, "Our Class is a Family" is a book that will help build and strengthen that class community. Kids learn that their classroom is a place where it's safe to be themselves, it's okay to make mistakes, and it's important to be a friend to others. When hearing this story being read aloud by their teacher, students are sure to feel like they are part of a special family.

"Family isn't always your relatives. It's the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile, and who love you no matter what." -Unknown

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Our Class is a Family (Our Class is a Family & Our School is a Family)

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Our Class is a Family (Our Class is a Family & Our School is a Family) [Olsen, Shannon, Sonke, Sandie] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Our Class is a Family (Our Class is a Family & Our School is a Family)

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"The Circles All Around Us" is such an important story about new friendships and experiences. It uses a circle as a metaphor for our world getting bigger with each year and interaction- our circles only evolve if we are kind to and welcoming of others.

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Praise for The Circles All Around Us

"Written in rhyme and featuring soft pastel illustrations, this title demonstrates how bringing new people into our lives, even though it can sometimes be scary or uncomfortable, can happen and can make our lives better for it." - School Library Connection

"The overall message is one of inclusion and performing acts of kindness. A delicate line and soft colors depict a diverse cast of winsome characters and the dainty details of how they spread goodwill." - School Library Journal

"How and why a symbol of exclusion can be transformed into just the opposite . . . the message is worthy." - Kirkus

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The Circles All Around Us by Brad Montague: 9780593323182 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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The debut picture book from the creator of the viral sensation Kid President is a moving take on how we can create bigger and bigger circles of community and connections as we grow-now a New York...

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This is a wonderful book about the importance of approaching problems (and especially the most daunting or formidable ones) with grace and grit. It encourages students to view problems as opportunities for growth and learning, rather than as insurmountable obstacles.

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"What do you do with a problem? Especially one that follows you around and doesn't seem to be going away?
Do you worry about it? Ignore it? Do you run and hide from it?

This is the story of a persistent problem and the child who isn't so sure what to make of it. The longer the problem is avoided, the bigger it seems to get. But when the child finally musters up the courage to face it, the problem turns out to be something quite different than it appeared.

This is a story for anyone, at any age, who has ever had a problem that they wished would go away. It's a story to inspire you to look closely at that problem and to find out why it's here. Because you might discover something amazing about your problem... and yourself.

What are problems for? They challenge us, shape us, push us, and help us to discover just how strong and brave and capable we really are. Even though we don't always want them, problems have a way of bringing unexpected gifts.

So, what will you do with your problem? Now that's up to you."

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What Do You Do with a Problem? (Signed Book)|Signed Book

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"What do you do with a problem? Especially one that follows you around and doesn't seem to be going away?Do you worry about it? Ignore it? Do you run and hide from it?This is the story of a persistent problem and the child who isn't so sure what to make of it.

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I read "I Am Human" to my students every year. It is very hard to teach empathy, but we need to try in order to build the communities we prize. This is a beautiful story about making thoughtful, compassionate choices. It demonstrates what having empathy can look like both for other people and for yourself.

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Susan Verde grew up in a brownstone in the heart of Greenwich Village in New York City with her older brother Michael. She spent much of her time as a child clad in bell bottoms and rainbow suspenders, roller skating up and down her block with a skate key around her neck and a piece of chalk in her pocket (for spontaneous hopscotch).

Susan's household was filled with books, music and the smell of mocha chip pies, which her mother made for their neighborhood restaurant. Susan often wrote stories and poetry to share with family and friends and even her high school poetry magazine. Susan's love of literature began in utero (according to her mother) and never dwindled. She can, to this day relate very well to Amelia Bedelia.

Ultimately, she moved to the Hamptons and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and a Master's in reading remediation and become an elementary school teacher at a private school in Bridgehampton. She has also participated in the Southampton Children's Literature Conference at Stonybrook University.

Although no longer a school teacher, Susan is a certified kid's yoga instructor which allows her to frog jump and wag her tail in Downward facing dog with great frequency.

Currently, Susan lives in East Hampton New York amidst an explosion of Legos, art supplies, and picture books with her twin boys Joshua and Gabriel and her daughter Sophia. They are the constant inspiration for her writing. They never let her forget how to see things from a child's point of view and keep the kid in her alive and kicking.

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I Am Human: A Book of Empathy (I Am Books)

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I Am Human: A Book of Empathy (I Am Books) [Verde, Susan, Reynolds, Peter H.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. I Am Human: A Book of Empathy (I Am Books)

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"More Than Words: So Many Ways To Say What We Mean" is an important story about the different ways we can communicate and build relationships. This book teaches us that self-expression can look different for each and every one of us, which makes seeking to understand one another all the more important.

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In the tradition of All Are Welcome and The Day You Begin comes a touching picture book about the many unique ways we communicate, and how we can better list…

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Gratitude Slips are a wonderful way to recognize each member of the community for their contributions to the whole group. The teacher cuts out these slips and gives every student a set. The student then gets to distribute one slip to each member of their class. The goal is to ensure that every student both gives and receive a slip. (There is also an option to do a Gratitude Circle whereby each student says the name (or names) of those they want to dedicate their slip to).

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I love the idea of co-constructing a Kindness Calendar- students and teachers together can come up with one act of kindness for each student to perform. Students can have their own copy, which they color in at the conclusion of each day if they have committed the kindness act. The idea of co-creating the calendar can help ensure the acts of kindness benefit the classroom community and its members. This image is from "Natural Beach Living."

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Empathy mapping for collective needs is a great way for students to come together to check-in with themselves and/or address a class-wide issue. An empathy map can help students plan for how they and their peers might think about or experience a problem or respond to a given circumstance. It can also be used as a general check-in activity, whereby students can write freely about how and what they are feeling. Lastly, it is a useful tool for comparing how students perceive they might feel about something and how they actually do feel if and when that something happens. Empathy maps help promote self-reflection and collectively problem solving. Further, they allow students to learn about and better relate to one another. https://hope4hurtingkids.com/emotions/overcoming-emotions/the-empathy-map/

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"What Would You Do?" activities are a great way to inspire critical thinking and group-decision making. Teachers and students both together and separately can come up with scenarios that they present to groups or pairs. Students have to talk openly about what they would do in response to the scenario and why. These can be silly questions or realistic classroom dilemmas for students to consider and plan for collectively. This activity is also a great way to learn about students' values and beliefs. https://www.twinkl.com/resource/what-if-flashcards-t-c-2549306

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These inclusivity posters are a great way to decorate your classroom or students' work spaces. They can be found for purchase on Teachers' Pay Teachers or here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UvC_z8lXnNEBmrl50MeW_d20rBTMY6J7/view?usp=sharing

They are simple, succinct reminders that each student is a vital, celebrated member of their community.

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I love the idea of teachers collecting photos of students (of course with the students' guardians' permission) and pasting them in the center of these circles. Then, the teacher can give the students the papers to fill in the blanks or add information. I envision putting all of the finished circles up on a classroom wall and inviting a gallery walk to view all of the different, meaningful communities students are a part of. file:///Users/kaygottlieb/Downloads/CommunitiesFREEBIE-1.pdf

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These self-compassion reminders, which I found on Canva (linked below) are simple, powerful affirmations that should be made visible and accessible to students. Though it is of course incredibly important for students to have empathy for others, they also need to be able to demonstrate self-compassion and self-love. https://www.canva.com/design/DAGETBuISDw/AGD9F1zsTDzwygdjKKuU0A/edit

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There is a whole package of social justice posters on Teachers' Pay Teachers that features anchor charts like the one above (apologies if it's a bit blurry). I love the idea of featuring prominent historical and/or current figures who have fought for peace, justice and equality. Perhaps as the school year progresses students can add the names and photos of other important people who have impacted the world in positive, long-lasting ways. I would also encourage each student to include an image of themselves and a note about something they have done to better the world. Here is the link to the poster package: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/K-2-Social-Justice-Posters-Kid-Friendly-I-Can-Anchor-Charts-4739756