New online classes, teacher spotlight, voting rights, and more
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Coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change.
Join Us in the Freedom School
“I came away impressed by the resilience of people taking risks to teach the truth. I had the feeling that I was witnessing a meeting of the kind of unofficial network that Carter G. Woodson pioneered.”
For educators and learners seeking more than a typical professional development session, the Teach the Black Freedom Struggleonline series combines live access to leading people’s historians, structured reflection in small groups, and an ongoing national community committed to truth and historical justice.
Attend on your own, add the classes to your syllabus, or bring your students as a group. Join educators, students, and community members committed to teaching truth and building a more just world.
This month is Black August, honoring Black political prisoners, freedom fighters, and resistance against systemic oppression. In observation, explore these audiograms from the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online classes with Brian Jones and Kellie Carter Jackson.
Educator Brian Jones spoke about his book, Black History Is for Everyone, a look at how the study of Black history challenges our understanding of race, nation, and the stories we tell about who we are.
Based on the gift of the Zinn Education ProjectTeach the Black Freedom Struggle series, I was able to design a for-credit professional development series in which educators attend the monthly classes and then engage in in-person and online community discussions. Each month, educators share what was striking, provocative, and/or new knowledge, as well as how they might bring these histories into their learning environments. — Heidi Given, equity coach
Somerville educators shared:
I incorporated texts and resources almost immediately into my U.S. history classroom.
This PD opened my eyes to Black history that I have never been exposed to.
History instruction and content can enable the white supremacy status quo or it can disrupt it.I want my curriculum to disrupt it.
Invite educators at your school district to participate in this year’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle series. We can arrange for them to be in the same breakout groups.
Prentiss Charney Fellowship
Spotlight on Tiferet Ani
The Zinn Education Project hosts the Prentiss Charney Fellowship to support a cohort of people’s history educator leaders in studying, learning, and organizing. Today we celebrate fellow Tiferet (Tif) Ani.
As a Prentiss Charney fellow, Tif co-developed the 20-lesson unit On a MOVE with the MOVE Activist Archive Curriculum Collective and Philadelphia teachers. The lessons explore how to repair histories of state violence. Tif co-presented the curriculum in ourTeach the Black Freedom Struggle series.
Tif notes that “having a space to learn from and with the fellows, as well as small-group thought partners about our projects, has been invaluable for the collaboration, support, and accountability.”
We are lucky to teach, learn, and organize alongside Tif and all the Prentiss Charney Fellows. Consider a donation to continue and expand the fellowship in memory of education activist and union leader Michael Charney and leading Ohio education lawmaker, C. J. Prentiss.
Free Book
Budget Justice
“How would you spend $1 million in your neighborhood? What would be your priorities?”
Invite students to imagine how their city’s money should be spent and to realize that city budgets are not neutral documents.
The Marguerite Casey Foundation donated copies of the book to organizations designated by Su, who selected the Zinn Education Project and The Debt Collective. Su recognizes the importance of young people being informed about — and, in return, engaging or even reshaping — the public policies that govern their lives, and working together for a future in which they can truly thrive.
Teacher-Led Study Groups
Teaching for Black Lives
The Teaching for Black Lives study group is a place of refuge and also a source of strength to fight back. — Amira Elmallah, administrator, Sacramento, California
Each year, the Zinn Education Project sponsors Teaching for Black Lives study groups across the United States.
Using the Rethinking Schools book Teaching for Black Lives, educators explore how to teach about racism, resistance, and joy in free, teacher-led professional learning communities.
“In a moment when public education is under coordinated attack, Educating in Dangerous Times is a powerful declaration that schools are not neutral spaces but sites of struggle over truth, dignity, and justice. This book is a compelling invitation to organize for the future our students deserve.” — Jesse Hagopian
On Saturday, August 29, connect in person with D.C. area educators for workshops on teaching about marginalized histories in the archive, socialjustice elementary math, oral history interviews on gentrification, the fight for D.C. Home Rule, and more.
Hosted by Teaching for Change’s D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice. Attendees can also network with local education organizations. Every attendee leaves with a free book, PD credit, teaching ideas, teacher allies, and inspiration for the new school year. Learn more and register.
On Tuesday, October 6, the Zinn Education Project will host the “Who Gets to Vote?” curriculum workshop that will introduce educators to a voting rights mixer role play that includes a variety of people with firsthand experience having their voting rights granted or denied. The roles reach back as far as the colonial era and forward to the present.
Participants will also have an opportunity to meet in groups with other social justice teachers from across the country to discuss ways to address this topic in their own teaching. Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian will facilitate the workshop.
Teachers are under attack for teaching truthfully about U.S. history. Please donate so we can continue to offer free people’s history lessons and resources, and defend teachers’ right to use them.
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