Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action: Giving Voice to the Black Village

The week of February 4, 2019 was an exciting time in DC area schools. In conjunction with the start of Black History Month, Center for Inspired Teaching joined forces with Teaching for Change to implement the second annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in DC. LaTonia Smith Cokely, our Manager of Professional Development, and Mara Duquette, our Director of Program Administration, were kind enough to answer some questions about this initiative and to reflect on its importance.

In a city like DC with a large Black community, it seems that Black History Month would already be a high-profile event in the school calendar. Why the heightened focus on a specific week?

Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action is designed to share, promote, and enact BLM’s guiding principles to support students of color both in and out of school. The Week of Action is connected to but separate from the Black Lives Matter Movement. While Black History Month is designed to foster intentional celebration and reflection around the lives, experiences, and successes of African Americans, the Week of Action focuses on curriculum and events centered around BLM’s national demands. Demands specific to the Week of Action include ending zero tolerance policies in school, mandating Black history and ethnic studies, hiring more Black teachers, and funding counselors, not cops. We’re here to connect educators with resources and a community to help students examine, address, and grapple with issues of racism and discrimination that persist in their lives and communities.

Who initiated BLM in Schools and when? Does Inspired Teaching partner with other organizations in making this happen?

The Week of Action began in Seattle in 2016. It expanded to a few more cities in 2017, and in 2018, several other major cities including Washington, DC joined the movement. Last year, Inspired Teaching partnered with Teaching for Change to implement the first BLM at School Week of Action here in DC. We worked in conjunction with the national organizers and also locally. As a community movement, many different organizations and schools across the area participate, hosting events, sharing resources, and implementing lessons in classrooms throughout the week.

What were this year’s curriculum guidelines?

Monday: Restorative Justice, Empathy, and Loving Engagement
Tuesday: Diversity and Globalism
Wednesday: Trans-Affirming, Queer Affirming, and Collective Value
Thursday: Intergenerational, Black Families, and Black Villages
Friday: Black Women and Unapologetically Black

However, this varied from school to school, depending on grade level and how teachers chose to engage their students. For example, this is what Inspired Teaching Demonstration School did with their elementary kids:

Monday: Screen Printing
Tuesday: Trayvon Martin Memorial Day
Wednesday: “I Have the Right to Be a Child” Read-Aloud
Thursday: Black Lives Matter Banner
Friday: Poetry and Spoken Word Share

What kind of responses to this initiative have you seen?

Hundreds of educators in our community have endorsed this Week of Action through the efforts of Teaching for Change. Several organizations and politicians have formally endorsed it as well. In fact, DC Area Educators for Social Justice posted a full list of this year’s endorsers and participating schools. So overall, we’d have to say that response to the Week of Action was extremely positive.

What powerful experiences or observations can you share from this year’s Week of Action?

There are two that come to mind immediately: Speak Truth and the Open Mic.

Speak Truth is an Inspired Teaching program designed to engage students from all over DC in honest, respectful dialogue that will expose them to a diverse array of perspectives. Last year’s Week of Action was the first time that we hosted an Intergenerational Speak Truth, and we did it again this year. It was a powerful evening, with both adults and students engaging in deep, thoughtful dialogue. Not often will adults truly listen to what teenagers have to say, and we were honored to give them an opportunity. Groups spoke on topics such as Kamala Harris’ criminal justice record, colorism, the recurrence of blackface, and allyship (supportive association with a group to which one doesn’t belong). Denisha Jones, the Director of Teacher Education at Trinity Washington University, wrote a succinct, powerful reflection about her experience at this Speak Truth event.

For the Open Mic, we partnered with Teaching for Change and the bookstore/cafe Politics and Prose to host a performance event on the theme “Ode to the Black Village.” Emceed by poet and school psychologist Carl Obeng, it quickly transformed into an open sharing between students, educators, poets, and community members. A lot of the people there had attended last year’s open mic and wanted to participate again. Our guests led and participated in robust conversations around the experiences of Black people and the purpose of the Black Village, which refers to a community whose mission is supporting one another as extended family while challenging the notion of a “standard” family structure. We believe this village exists both in and out of schools. We also believe that schools can foster it by hiring Black teachers and mandating curricula that include Black history and ethnic studies, expanding the Black Village, and supporting the growth and development of Black youth.

It was uniquely powerful to hear the thoughts and experiences of people from all age groups and backgrounds speaking intentionally about how to support Black students in schools. Because many adults are so removed from student experiences and school cultures, it’s helpful for them to hear and discuss what students and educators go through daily — specifically those who are most impacted. Through this event, we heard from students, artists, educators, and activists who are curious and passionate about ensuring that the demands voiced during BLM at Schools Week of Action are heard and met.

What changes or improvements would you like to see for next year’s Week of Action?

We want to work more closely with the DCPS Office of Equity to determine more ways we can work with them to expand usage of the curriculum and reach more teachers and students. We’d like to engage more community members in critical conversations around issues related to Black lives in DC through physical and virtual events. In the months leading up to the 2020 Week of Action, we hope to work more closely with Teaching for Change to create more opportunities for educators and community members to have these conversations yearlong as opposed to just in the first week of February. We’re also looking forward to having even more of our own Inspired Teaching alumni participate by using the BLM curriculum.

Micaiah Anderson

Community Outreach Specialist

As a Community Outreach Specialist, Micaiah is responsible for program promotion and outreach support for Inspired Teaching events and workshops. Micaiah has a passion for collaborating with community members to build-power and connect. She is an educator with a heart for youth and has experience supporting students fight injustices within their schools and communities. She has a BA in Political Science from, the real HU, Hampton University & anticipates graduating in May 2024 with a Masters of Arts degree in Educational Policy Transformation from Georgetown University.

AUTONOMY

"I want to have a say in what happens to me."

Autonomy is the need for independence; the ability to make choices, to create, to explore, and to express oneself freely; to have sufficient space, to move around, and to feel unrestricted with opportunities to exercise free will.

Brady Maiden

Outreach Coordinator

As the Outreach Coordinator, Brady helps maintain Inspired Teaching’s social media presence and supports the organization’s mission to connect with DC community leaders, educators, and parents. Brady has her Master’s in Public Policy from George Mason University and her BS in Political Science from Northern Arizona University. She is passionate about community, equity, and coalition building recognizing that learning and growing with the community at large is how we continue to be impactful.

What brings you joy in life?

I find joy in spending time with my friends and family and meeting new people. I like going to concerts and festivals, and finding new books to read.

The Learner’s Cycle, Wonder-Experiment-Learn, and the Teacher’s Cycle, Observe-Plan-Instigate, comprise Inspired Teaching’s approach to engaging students in inquiry-based learning.

When they are engaged in the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, students are immersed in learning. They take the lead in designing authentic learning experiences around their own interests and their school’s standards of learning. Each discovery leads to a new question which in turn leads to more wondering and more learning. In the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, Learn is not a destination or an endpoint; it is a deeper understanding, leading to a deeper wondering and new possibilities that create new entry points to further exploration. The cycle continues because what students have learned generates more wonderings that require more experiments that foster more learning – and on and on.

The Observe-Plan-Instigate Cycle is the work of an Inspired Teacher. While a student is expected to follow the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, the teacher joins them on the learning journey while following their own cycle of Observe-Plan-Instigate. This cycle ultimately serves to ensure an inquiry-based atmosphere is at play in the classroom.

Jaqueta Abbey

Teaching and Learning Specialist

Jaqueta is the Teaching and Learning Specialist for Inspired Teaching. In addition to her current role with Inspired Teaching, Jaqueta is a first-grade teaching assistant. Her background features a variety of traditional and non-traditional experiences in the field of education, including working as an adjunct professor, teaching summer reading programs to children and adults, and tutoring children in the foster care system. Jaqueta earned a B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in Interactive Media from Elon University.

What brings you joy in life?

Creative self-expression! In addition to my passion for storytelling, I love dancing of all kinds. I've studied belly dance, bachata, and Brazilian Zouk among other styles. I also enjoy glass fusing, crocheting, photography, and cross stitching. These art forms allow me to express myself and build connections with other people at the same time. I think life would be a lot less vibrant without artists and storytellers!

Michelle Welk

Communication & Marketing Specialist

As Communications and Marketing Specialist, Michelle is responsible for finding and creating new ways to highlight Inspired Teaching and promote its programs in order to expand and deepen the organization's impact. Michelle has worked in communications in an array of settings, from creative agencies to state politics to national nonprofits. She has a BA in Journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia and is passionate about education, access, and equity.

What brings you joy in life?

My son, the beach, making a persuasive argument and good food!

Max Peterson

Real World History Assistant Teacher

Max received his Bachelor’s degree in History and African American Studies from Boston University in May 2016. He has worked in museum curation at the Museum of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Max has worked with young people of varying ages from young children to young adults transitioning to college.

Feedback and Accountability

We grow through feedback and an understanding that the quality of our work is a reflection of what we are learning, but the shift to remote learning this spring disrupted a lot of the tools teachers were used to using to evaluate student growth. How might we do things differently this fall? Participants in this workshop will explore ways to bring meaningful assessment into the virtual and/or socially-distanced classroom and approaches to student feedback that strengthen motivation, and build relationships and achievement.