Modules

The Asian American Education Project is dedicated to supporting educators in delivering Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) histories to students across the nation. Our team believes that education is integral to quelling hatred and violence against marginalized communities. During this session, participants will learn more about why teaching APIDA curriculum matters and how to integrate APIDA narratives into everyday classroom instruction. Participants will also receive an overview of a series of key topics that align with our thematic units and tips on how to advocate for APIDA curriculum beyond the classroom.

The idea of “decolonization” is a hot topic these days. To understand decolonization we must first understand historically what colonialism is and how it has shaped our thinking and actions in the U.S.  Who was, and who was not colonized?  Colonialist thinking can permeate education, media, government policies, and our daily lived experiences. Colonialist thinking can empower some of us, while disenfranchising, exploiting or marginalizing others.

In what ways do we consciously or unconsciously engage in colonialist practices, beliefs or concepts today?  What steps can we take to begin to decolonize our thinking and why does that matter?  What is the cost to individuals or communities if we choose not to?  What is the benefit to individuals or communities if we choose to “decolonize” our thinking and act differently?  Join this interactive discussion about the impact of colonization and decolonization on the way we live and work together.

The News Literacy Project (NLP), a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information, and equal and engaged participants in a democracy. During this 2 hour webinar John  Silva, NLP’s senior director of profession development, will cover:

• What is misinformation, and how and why it spreads
• Fact checking and verifying misinformation – what are the skills you need
• How to have a conversation with people whose beliefs are based on misinformation

Interactive and individual exercises are included.

How we teach and how students learn in our ever-changing, uncertain, and sometimes complex world looks utterly different from even a few years ago. This diverse, new world calls for educators to lead bravely and inclusively, embracing a classroom that may look, sound, and even think differently than they do. That beautiful state of difference is what binds us all universally as humans, and it’s through that lens that we can begin to create a socially just world of true collaboration and genuine acceptance.

Understanding, honoring, and sharing our personal narratives and stories around race, gender, language, generation, culture, and education is how we can honor and amplify our students. Yet, many educators still find it challenging to realize a genuine connection to their marginalized and BIPOC students and the many intersectionalities they represent in and out of the classroom. 

In this essential training of discovering “Why,” educators will find and fine-tune their roles as champions of inclusion and co-conspirators for change, and the opportunity to take charge of not continuing to perpetuate a false or incomplete narrative. Together, teachers will unpack the awkward and sometimes uncomfortable questions of Why inclusion and belonging really matter and why as educators they should care about the profound impact it has on their students, colleagues and communities. 

Hear from journalists who have extensive experience reporting on underreported issues facing communities throughout Latin America, explore associated lesson plans and learn how to apply journalistic processes and techniques that spark students’ enthusiasm and engagement in developing critical thinking, questioning and investigation skills.

Through a partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Learning for Justice, we introduce K-12 educators to the Learning for Justice Social Justice Standards. After exploring available resources, participants leave with an understanding of how to authentically incorporate these social justice standards across school subjects.  Participants learn how taking an anti-bias approach to curriculum and instruction improves critical student engagement, analysis and voice.  Classrooms become communities built on shared inquiry and dialogue.

Educators have the unique opportunity and responsibility to be role models of inclusion and belonging in their classrooms. A key piece of creating this experience for our students is engaging in reflective practice on how Whiteness can permeate the learning environment. For the purpose of this training, we will utilize Portland Community College’s definition of Whiteness as “the construction of the white race, white culture, and the system of privileges and advantages afforded to white people in the U.S. (and across the globe) through government policies, media portrayal, decision-making power within our corporations, schools, judicial systems, etc.”  This session will focus on examining the anatomy of White privilege and how we can be better “accomplices” in bringing equity to our classrooms.

Teach students about under-reported stories of indigenous people in the U.S.  Teachers hear from journalists who uncovered how US universities profited from stolen indigenous land. Develop students’ critical thinking, text analysis and writing skills. Students find under-reported stories in the news and in their own communities.

Connect with award-winning journalists and educators to explore questions about global, systemic issues and media literacy.  Teachers learn how to develop students’ journalism skills to tell stories from their own communities through interview skills development, simple photojournalism techniques and writing exercises. Discover how journalism skills support critical thinking, creativity and social-emotional learning.

Who were the Africans who were captured, put aboard slave ships and sold into slavery in southern U.S. states. For example, teachers may learn about the story of Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim scholar from Senegal who was put aboard a slave ship to Charleston, SC and enslaved for 40 years.  Through intrepid reporting, countless interviews, and mapping to remote African villages, journalists uncover 15 scholarly texts attributed to Omar, including his autobiography.  Students learn how assumptions are made, identities are misrepresented, and erroneously characterized and distorted.  They learn who enslaved people really are.

Teachers take a tour of the Smithsonian Learning Lab, where they learn to build museum collections of U.S. history, with access to the full range of artifacts, images, photographs, text and video from the Smithsonian universe and other primary sources, such as the Library of Congress. Teachers learn to search on historical topics, assemble their collections, borrow from existing collections and add existing lesson plans.  They are prepared to bring the Smithsonian Learning Lab to their students. 

During this session, teachers will take a virtual tour of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery with a focus on the role art can play in sharing examples of Black excellence and Black agency. Through conversations about artworks from the 1850s and 1870s, educators will unpack the way(s) a piece of art tells a story, emphasizing the presence and importance of including the work of Black Americans across American history.  Additionally, we will consider our roles as educators in creating and elevating narratives, and the value this has for students.