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Hello, fellow teacher. Below, I offer you three lists. In each one, you’ll find, on the left, a list of some of the most commonly taught “classics” in high school curricula, especially in AP English Literature Curricula. On the right, you’ll find alternatives. Unlike the “classics” on the left,…

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From film kits and lesson plans to the building blocks of a customized Learning Plan—texts, student tasks and teaching strategies—our resources will help you bring relevance, rigor and social emotional learning into your classroom—all for FREE.

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Calendars, Pyramids and Numbers: The Mayas Had it All

The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras.

Maya mathematics constituted the most sophisticated mathematical system ever developed in the Americas. The Maya counting system required only three symbols: a dot representing a value of one, a bar representing five, and a shell representing zero.

Lesson Plans, Activities and Ideas for your Classroom

Mayan Mathematics and Architecture (50 pages, 213 KB)
Students in grades 5-8 explore Mayan mathematics and architecture in this cross-curricular unit of eight lessons.

Concepts in Number Theory
Students in grades 9-12 learn basic Mayan arithmetic and develop an understanding of the Mayan calendar and Mayan mathematic achievements over three class periods.

Writing in Mayan Glyphs (45 pages, 2.96 MB)
Using Chapter 2 in this PDF, students in grades K-12 can learn to write their names in ancient Mayan glyphs.

Why Civilizations Fall: Interpreting the Evidence
Students in grades 6-8 explore factors that contributed to the collapse of the Mayan civilization and learn how archaeological evidence is gathered and interpreted.

Ancient Maya: Knowledge Through Art
Students in grades 9-12 explore Mayan culture, and our knowledge of it through its art, architecture, and the heritage of modern Maya people.

A Classical Maya News Report
Students in grades 9-12 explore the ancient civilization of the Maya during the classical period, from A.D. 300 to A.D. 900.

Background Resources

Online Activities

Printables

Video

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The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras. Maya mathematics constituted the most sophisticated mathematical system ever developed in the Americas.

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70+ Picture Books about Mixed Race Families

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70+ Picture Books about Mixed Race Families: Diverse Children’s Books featuring multiracial families; African, Asian, Hispanic, Native American; Ages 0 - 10

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1. Engage in Vigilant Self-Awareness

People who are white or perceived as white have more privilege and fewer barriers to resources than Black people and other people of color. If we do not know our power, we can abuse it unintentionally or fail to leverage it toward antiracism. Constant self-reflection enhances our ability to disrupt white privilege when we see or enact it. Some questions to ask yourself include

How does your identity provide or prevent access to necessary resources?

How does your power and privilege show up in your work with students, take up space, or silence others?

What single narratives are you telling yourself about students, and how does that affect grading, behavior management, and other interactions?

Do you and the academic materials you use uphold whiteness or lift up the voices and experiences of people of color?

2. Acknowledge Racism and the Ideology of White Supremacy

Acknowledging the social construct of race and racism and the ideology of white supremacy recognizes the problem so that we are not harmful in our ignorance and so that, together, we can strive for solutions. For educators of color, the work means continuing to call out racism and recruiting white coconspirators to join in antiracist work.

3. Study and Teach Representative History

No matter what subject you teach, history (including African American history, which is U.S. history) is important. Knowing our country's whole history helps us make sense of how our current education system perpetuates inequity.

For too long, we have taught U.S. history devoid of a true depiction of Black excellence and have focused on erasing the truth of racial oppression and uplifting whiteness. Our curriculum superficially talks about slavery and civil rights (notably, textbook provider McGraw-Hill called enslaved Africans "immigrants" and "workers" ), and teaching practices risk traumatizing Black students by enacting mock slave auctions, slave games, and underground railroad games. Alternately, resources such as Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s PBS documentary series on Reconstruction or The New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project provide a comprehensive opportunity to learn and discuss history and race with colleagues and students. The Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools also have teaching materials that explore topics like the Tulsa race riots and colonization.

4. Talk About Race with Students

To open up conversations with young people, use stories from history and literature as a starting point, and ask students to take on the perspective of a character about whom they are reading. Reading literature and role-playing enhance empathy and other social cognitive skills. Teaching Tolerance's resource, " Let's Talk: Discussing Race, Racism, and Other Difficult Topics," includes suggestions for working through discomfort. The Educational Leadership article " Helping Students Discuss Race Openly " also has a great list of steps to begin the conversation. (And the September 2019 issue of this newsletter includes guidance from educator Liz Kleinrock on how to lead students through challenging topics like race .)

5. When You See Racism, Do Something

Most important, when we see racism-whether at the individual or policy level-we must have the courage to act. White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo provides guidance for engaging in gentle but firm conversations with offenders that prevents the defensiveness that race conversations inspire. Share data on specific practices and use stories to humanize the data. Build partnerships with racial-justice organizations in your communities to integrate their work in teaching and learning. Form a taskforce to assess data, policies, and practices with an antiracist lens to disrupt systemic decisions that historically have disenfranchised people of color. Be mindful that these efforts should not be carried solely by the people of color in your school, who are living and struggling with racism on a daily basis.

Shape an Antiracist Future

In his book How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi writes, "The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist.' ... One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist'" (p. 9). Teaching for an antiracist future starts with us, the educators. An antiracist educator actively works to dismantle the structures, policies, institutions, and systems that create barriers and perpetuate race-based inequities for people of color. Educating students to see and respect the humanity and dignity of all people should be a national imperative, especially if we want to heal-and have a future-as a nation.

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Educators have an obligation to confront the harm of racism, says one social-emotional learning expert.

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Last year, I realized that I didn't have my first black teacher until I went to college. In fact, every educator who taught me-from pre-school through 12th grade-was white-identifying.

What is crazy to me is that this fact didn't strike me as relevant until I was 30 years old. As a child, and later as an adult looking back, I didn't see color in these moments-but not because it wasn't there. I didn't see it because I didn't have to, because I viewed whiteness as normal.

Too often, I and other white educators like me don't see the impact of race on our practice. But that doesn't mean it isn't there. In his iconic 1962 piece " A Letter to My Nephew," James Baldwin wrote to his 15-year-old nephew about the degree to which white supremacy has shaped white people's understanding. "They are in effect still trapped in a history which they do not understand," he wrote. "[A]nd until they understand it, they cannot be released from it."

So how do we start to understand? Teaching Tolerance offers several great jumping-off points for defining whiteness and for considering what it means to be a white anti-racist. If you are interested in doing a deep dive, the "Seeing White" podcast from Scene on Radio offers a 14-part look at the history of whiteness in the United States and its implications for today's world.

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How Can We Build Anti-Racist White Educators?

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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.