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Teaching for Change Spring Update
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Greetings!
We hope you enjoy these news stories made possible by the support of donors, funders, and allies like you. Please help us deepen our impact by sharing these stories, talking about What Kids Aren't Learning, and joining our Teaching Out LOUD campaign. Sincerely, Deborah Menkart
Teaching for Change |
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THE STAKES ARE TOO HIGH Now more than ever, an education that teaches students to examine the truth in history and society is under attack. Children are being denied books, lessons, and teachers that encourage social justice and academic excellence. BE AN ADVOCATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE Help Teaching for Change create schools where children learn to read, write, and change the world by taking action in our Teaching Out LOUD campaign. Read more. _______________________________________________________________________________________  WHAT KIDS AREN'T LEARNING
On March 12, we raised over $7000 at the Teaching Out LOUD kickoff event What Kids Aren't Learning: History Under Attack and Why It Matters, featuring panelists Jeff Biggers, Enid Lee, and Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Watch and share clips online. Over the course of the evening, the panel drew from contemporary events and educational standards to provide context for the current attack on K-12 education... (read more).
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"There are some profound tendencies in this country to deliberately under-educate people..."
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Click here for video clips.
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"When we say [teaching history] is painful, shameful, embarrassing---- to whom? For whom? Because clearly the students who everyday are being left out of the curriculum, being marginalized, are in pain.... We have to ask, 'Who is it painful for?'"
Enid Lee, Teacher educator and co-editor of Beyond Heroes and Holidays
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"I see that same process now of how they are strip mining [and] removing aspects of history in order to not discuss it."
Jeff Biggers, Cultural historian, journalist, and activist
Click here for photos.
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| Organization Announcements |
Teaching Out LOUD: Stand With Us, Stand for Social Justice Teaching
On Monday, March 12, Teaching for Change launched the Teaching Out LOUD campaign with What Kids Aren't Learning: History Under Attack and Why It Matters.
We need your help to raise $15,000 to provide social justice books, lessons, training, and other resources for teachers, students and parents.
Your gift helps us impact the lives of students, parents, and educators.
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Black History Is U.S. History
Ask Me About Freedom Schools
This February, Teaching for Change promoted the importance of teaching Black History all year with Ask me about: Freedom Schools commemorative buttons and a webpage with resources for teachers and students. Why Freedom Schools? Teaching for Change advocates for the type of learning and pedagogy used in Freedom Schools. Read more.
You can still make a donation and request your own limited edition commemorative button while supplies last. |
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Promising Early Results from Evaluation
Teaching for Change's parent engagement approach "encourages parents to voice and work proactively, often with school staff, to address their concerns," concludes the group conducting a formal evaluation of the Tellin' Stories Project in an early report. Tellin' Stories has been recognized nationally as one of the most effective approaches in the country for breaking barriers to school engagement for traditionally marginalized parents. Read more.
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Bringing Parents Back to the Table
"I feel more confident because of the Tellin' Stories meetings - I can approach the principal and the teachers... What I didn't do when my other children were in school, I'm doing now," says Olga Salazar, a parent from Thomson Elementary (DCPS) in Washington, D.C.
Using Teaching for Change's unique approach to family engagement, Thomson has seen more parents participating this year than in recent memory. Read More.
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Book Giveaways and Great Events
for D.C. Area Educators
    
Teaching for Change is pleased to announce these special events for D.C.-area educators. They include author events with books about teaching and middle school literature. Thanks to a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, we are able to offer free books for teachers at selected events. | |
NAACP Image Award Nominees for Literature include Progressive Favorites of Teaching for Change
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Zinn Education Project rallies to raise awareness of the Tucson, Ariz. banning of Mexican American Studies
The Zinn Education Project signed on to the Teacher Activists Groups network's No History Is Illegal campaign to defend Tucson's Mexican American Studies (MAS) program. The Mexican American Studies program was declared illegal by the state attorney general, classes were terminated, and books were banned. As part of the No History Is Illegal campaign, teachers across the United States are encouraged to teach lessons and use books from the banned Mexican American Studies program.
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 Teacher Takes the Pledge to Teach about Tucson
English teacher Mon�t Cooper raised awareness about the struggle in Tucson with her 10th graders at Capital City Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. She explained that: "After watching excerpts from the documentary Precious Knowledge, I knew this was an issue my students needed to discuss and take action on in the classroom. I quickly wrote a lesson plan based on a poem by Mart�n Espada and our current theme of bullying." In each of her four classes, Cooper repeated the same lesson, engaging students in a poetry study that was interrupted by a prearranged intruder. Read more. | | If We Knew Our History Series Launched
The Zinn Education Project announced a new monthly column called If We Knew Our History on the importance of teaching a people's history. The articles were featured at Huffington Post and Common Dreams online. Read and share The Real Irish American Story Not Taught in Schools and Changing the Climate in Schools. Register for the Zinn Education Project.
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Zinn Education Project Receives $67,000 from Working Assets/CREDO Thanks to all who voted on the 2011 Working Assets/CREDO ballot. We were awarded $67,000, about half the annual funds needed to operate the Zinn Education Project (coordinated with Rethinking Schools). Please add your support by making a donation in 2012.
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2011 Highlights
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McComb, Mississippi Students Take Civil Rights Movement History Tour
"You read about it and you have it for a minute and then you lose it. When you experience it hands-on it stays with you forever," said sophomore Sabrina Mays about the 3-day Civil Rights Movement tour in May of 2011 for 44 students from McComb, Miss. Watch the video. Read more.
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Spring Volunteers
Teaching for Change offers many thanks and best wishes to our spring 2012 interns: Noor Kalkat, Laurence Moses, Gabriel Deerman, and Elizabeth Zinar! | |
Celebrating Anniversaries
Tellin' Stories Parent Organizer Am�rica Calder�n and Senior Publications Coordinator Lauren Cooper are two reasons behind our growth and success these past few years. Please join us in congratulating them on their 4th and 5th anniversaries respectively as Teaching for Change staff members.
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Donor Spotlight  "I love how Teaching for Change works with teachers and parents to provide an education for children and young adults that will cause them to think creatively, question the status quo and strive for the betterment of all. Rarely does an organization come along that echoes your thoughts, goals, and aspirations for the world. Teaching for Change does that for me. That is why I donate to this well deserving organization." -- Linda Finkel-Talvadkar, Teaching for Change donor
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