Anti-Bias Early Childhood Working Group Meeting

The meeting kicked off with a welcome and land acknowledgement. For the icebreaker, working group members shared how they have cultivated a sense of respect for and responsibility to the earth in their classrooms and the ways their schools support or undermine environmental justice.

Students in Ariel Alford’s African American history class at Hayfield Secondary School (FCPS) learned from two artists-turned-educators based in the United Kingdom who shared their stories and curriculum modules designed to champion people of African and African diaspora heritage.

Elementary and Secondary Working Group Meeting

The April elementary and secondary working group meeting centered on a problem of practice that was raised by a working group member: how to find strategies for teaching about Black history that recognize both resistance and joy. Additionally, how to find ways to involve caregivers in that learning. 

On April 9, 2024, 17 students and their teachers took a field trip to the beautiful early 20th-century building on 16th Street in Washington, D.C. The visit was part of a partnership with the school through the DCPS Embassy Adoption Program. Tubman teachers Susannah Schantz and Suzannah Danforth, along with their students, have collaborated throughout the year with embassy staff to bring lessons on Cuban culture and geography to the fifth-grade class. 

Bruce-Monroe @ Park View Elementary School (DCPS) devotes six weeks to in-depth study of Black Lives Matter principles.