Ms. Ariel Alford, has been a high school social studies teacher at Hayfield Secondary School (FCPS) for four years. For three of these, DCAESJ has born witness to the transformative racial justice education work she’s fostered with her African American history students, the wider school community, and, as you’ll come to know, far beyond the school’s walls.
Read MoreBy Vanessa Williams
DCAESJ and EmpowerEd DC’s third annual Unapologetically Black Educator Story Lounge was just as powerful, moving, and joyous as the previously held events.
Beth Barkley is principled. Beth Barkley is humble. Beth Barkley is caring. Beth Barkley is D.C.’s 2024 Teacher of the Year, or, by her words, her students are.
Read MoreDCAESJ partnered with the African American Civil War Museum for a third year to host the #TeachTruth Day of Action rally at the memorial. The D.C. site was one of more than 60 sites across the country – plus more online events – each with a unique approach to uplifting educators in their commitment to teaching the truth.
Read MoreGirls' Global Academy students were busy going out into the community and welcoming visitors to their school, all in recognition of their intergenerational service-learning day.
Read MoreIn April 2023, Teaching for Change partnered with Filmfest DC: The Washington, DC, International Film Festival for a twelfth year to bring filmmakers into D.C. classrooms to share some of their films.
Read MoreThe annual Youth Justice Summit at Capital City PCS in Washington, D.C. included six sessions of youth-led workshops on a variety of social justice topics including book banning, the impacts of gentrification, gun violence, disability and policing, and climate justice.
Read MoreGearing up for the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action is no small feat. While educators in the D.C. area likely have already been uplifting BLM at School work with participation in the Year of Purpose, the Week of Action is often taken as an opportunity to engage in more and perhaps larger scale efforts to uplift the guiding principles and national demands…
Read MoreStudents were introduced to Black writers, poets, and photographers who have recorded the power of community among Black people, then created unique visual presentations and taught middle school students at Hayfield what they learned.
Read MoreUsing the Pan-African colors as their palette, students transformed blank canvases into stunning recreations of the Sankofa bird, Black power fist, or their own original creations
Read MoreA Week of Action. A Year of Purpose. A Lifetime Commitment. And all of this can start with just a few hours of planning. On Saturday, January 7th, all DCAESJ working groups joined together and invited fellow D.C. area educators to share advice, build on resources, begin planning their BLM at School Week of Action, and continue to participate in the Year of Purpose.
Read MoreStudents at Cardozo EC — most of whom are newly arrived students from outside the United States — taught other students about the countries from which they migrated.
Read MoreStudents from Roosevelt’s International Academy, which includes many students who are newcomers to the United States from Central America, kicked off Teach Central America Week 2022 with a visit from An Open Book Foundation, Shout Mouse Press, and Santos, one of the contributing authors of Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth.
Read MoreThe middle/high school People’s History working group came together for their May meeting on Saturday, May 14, 2022. Alison Rice led the group in an activity reflecting on the words of James Baldwin in A Talk To Teachers.
Read MoreBy Kimberly Ellis and Vanessa Williams
What is the Tulsa Race Massacre? How do we, as a nation, tell the story of the massacre? What is owed to the Black community as a result of the massacre? Ashley Bryant created two weeks of lessons to explore these questions in celebration of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Year of Purpose.
Read MoreBy Tiferet Ani
This Fall I taught an LGBTQ+ Studies elective for high school students. It was being piloted for the first time. Students and teachers collaborated to develop the course outline and unit projects.
Read MoreBy Kimberly Ellis
As a native Washingtonian, Beth Sewell, an Independence and Learning Support teacher at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School (DCPS), has been surrounded by go-go music her entire life.
Read MoreBy Kimberly Ellis
In 2017, students in Dr. Dianna Hall’s 12th-grade U.S. Government and African American History classes at Phelps ACE High School (DCPS) explored the historical and cultural significance of the Monday after the Easter holiday, known colloquially as Easter Monday, to Black Washingtonians.
Read MoreOn Saturday, April 17th, the DCAESJ People’s History Curriculum Working Group met to reflect on fugitive pedagogy, try out a new lesson on Brown v. Board, and to foster community care.
Read MoreOn Friday October 9, eighty high schoolers from Capital City Public Charter School in Washington D.C. joined a Zoom call with Claudia Sparrow, director and producer of the film Maxima. Maxima follows Máxima Acuña, a Peruvian activist fighting a multinational gold mining corporation over rights to her land.
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