Webinar Recordings

Beyond "Schools In Crisis": Teachers and Students on Our Present Realities and Collective Possibilities

Every day, we hear about the great teacher resignation and shortage, student learning loss, and the many crises facing our schools. Missing from these debates have been the voices of the educators and students within our schools who share a far more nuanced understanding of what is taking place within them. Students and educators understand the problems schools face, and the long-standing conditions that the pandemic built upon and compounded. Their creativity, ideas, and insights are crucial to building a just future for all public schools.

This panel centers the voices of educators and students as we consider: What are the contours of the crises in our schools? How did these conditions precede the pandemic and which aspects are unique to this era? What power can we harness to transform our schools into the ones our students and educators have long deserved?

Sponsored by the Anti-Racist Teaching & Learning Collective, New Haven Federation of Teachers and Recovery for All CT

Teaching the CT Black/Latinx Studies Course: Lessons from the Pilot Year

On February 10, the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective sponsored “Teaching the CT Black/Latinx Studies Course: Lessons from the Pilot Year” to explore insights and ideas from educators who are leading the newly mandated African American and Latinx elective course. You can watch a recording of the discussion here. Students and teachers from four schools across Connecticut that are piloting the course reflected on their experiences, pedagogy, and vision.

Participants spoke about the role of teacher expertise and peer discussion and emphasized the central role of student leadership and feedback in determining the range of topics and projects and ensuring the course meets student needs and interests. 

The African American and Latinx course will be taught in more than 100 new high schools next year. As shown by this rich discussion and interchange, teacher expertise and rich student leadership will remain essential in guiding the course’s implementation.

The Attack on Anti-Racist Education in CT: What Educators, Parents, and Leaders Need to Know

Connecticut has a diverse group of educators, schools, and youth-led groups committed to teaching about race and racism in ways that are accurate, complex and centered on the experiences and interests of students. Why then have these approaches come under attack? What forces are behind these campaigns, and what is their agenda for public education? And as we return to school this fall, how can we ensure that educators, parents and administrators are not silenced and punished for their efforts to meet the needs of their students?

This panel centers the voices of teachers, students, parents, and education leaders in exploring these questions. We especially invite school leaders, including district leaders, principals, assistant principals, deans, instructional coaches, and others to learn about the important role they must play in safeguarding the rights of parents, students and teachers.

Connecticut has a diverse group of educators, schools, and youth-led groups committed to teaching about race and racism in ways that are accurate, complex and centered on the experiences and interests of students. Why then have these approaches come under attack? What forces are behind these campaigns, and what is their agenda for public education? And as we return to school this fall, how can we ensure that educators, parents and administrators are not silenced and punished for their efforts to meet the needs of their students?

This panel centers the voices of teachers, students, parents, and education leaders in exploring these questions. We especially invite school leaders, including district leaders, principals, assistant principals, deans, instructional coaches, and others to learn about the important role they must play in safeguarding the rights of parents, students and teachers.

Featuring:

Meredith Gavrin, Co-founder of New Haven Academy

Daisha Brabham, History & Civics Teacher at Norwalk Public Schools

Andrea Walker, Hearing Youth Voices

Jorgieliz Casanova, New Haven Public Schools graduate and parent and Program Manager at New Haven Promise

Kristin Mendoza, ESL and English Teacher at Wilbur Cross High School (New Haven)

Tenzin Dhondup, student activist from Naugatuck Equity Alliance and Naugatuck High School

Co-moderated by Rashanda McCollum, Executive Director of Students for Educational Justice and Daniel Martinez HoSang, Yale University.

Teaching Asian American Studies

Asian American studies is a dynamic and wide-ranging field that has been taught for more than 50 years in university and K-12 classrooms across the country. The recent rise in violent and racist attacks against Asian Americans makes the need to bring this work, and other fields in ethnic studies, all the more urgent. This webinar gathered scholars, teachers, and students to introduce the contours of Asian American studies, classroom examples of how it's taught, youth voices about the need for Asian American studies, and a guide to curricular resources.

This panel was a continuation of our series of "bite-sized" introductions to the central principles, practices, and pedagogies around the broad themes of race and resistance. This webinar was sponsored by the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective (ARTLC), Connecticut Council for the Social Studies, UCONN Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, Yale University's Education Studies Program, Yale's Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM), and Public Humanities at Yale.

Featuring:

Lisa Lowe, Yale University

Jason Oliver Chang, University of Connecticut

Katie Yue-Sum Li, teacher at Charleston HS, Boston Public Schools

Joyce Fang, student at Farmington HS

Jaime Kim, student at East Lyme HS

Allison Norrie, teacher at Warde HS, Fairfield

Moderated by Daniel HoSang, Yale University, and Dora Guo, Yale student

Teaching Indigenous Studies

Indigenous Studies is a rich and diverse field that is being taught in K-12 classrooms and through tribal education institutions across the country. In this session and critical conversation, a panel of experienced indigenous teachers, scholars, community educators, and youth leaders from across Connecticut introduced critical concepts, resources, and teaching and learning frameworks applicable to educators and students at all levels, emphasizing the importance of expanding Native Studies in every grade level and subject area.

Featuring:

Sandy Grande (Quechua), Professor of Political Science & Native Studies, UConn

endawnis Spears (Diné/ Ojibwe/ Chickasaw/ Choctaw), The Akomawt Educational Initiative

Beth Regan, Long-time teacher at Tolland HS & Vice Chairwoman and Justice, Mohegan Tribal Council of Elders

Shaquanna Sebastian, Youth Council Advisor, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation

Phyllip Thomas, Youth Council Chairman, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation

Moderated by Daniel HoSang and Alex Contreras-Montesano

Teaching Black and Latinx Studies in Connecticut

This event featured Dr. Kelly Hope, a long-time New Haven-based educator and New Haven Public Schools Teacher, who shared and discussed a model Black and Latinx Studies curriculum she developed and taught in Waterbury through an innovative collaboration with the Ungroup Society, a multi-issue community empowerment organization. The multi-week curriculum, which includes lesson plans, source material, assessments and learning frameworks, is available at the link below. Dr Hope was joined by several students who completed the course and Warren Leach of the Ungroup Society, who addressed the central role of community-based knowledge and student empowerment in this course.

Moderated by Daniel HoSang, Associate Professor of Ethnicity, Race & Migration at Yale, and Benie N'sumbu, organizer with Students for Educational Justice and student at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School.

Teaching Latinx Studies: A Critical Introduction & Conversation for CT K-12 Teachers

Latinx Studies is a dynamic and wide-ranging field that is being taught in K-12 classrooms across the country, from the Kindergarten arts class to high school literature and more. In this session, an expert panel of Connecticut teachers, teacher educators, scholars and students discussed basic concepts and frameworks in the field. They also shared community resources, sample curricula and lesson plans.

Featuring:

Albert Laguna, Yale Associate Professor of Ethnicity, Race & Migration and American Studies specializing in Latinx Studies

Anne Gebelein, Associate Professor at UConn, Associate Director of El Instituto, Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean and Latin American Studies

Maria Mejia-Giron, UConn Student and Latino Studies major

Krista Bianchini, Middletown High School, teaching a new course on Latinx Literature

Bianca Osorio, Student at Metropolitan Business Academy, New Haven

Moderated by Daniel HoSang, Associate Professor of Ethnicity, Race & Migration at Yale, and Jose Garcia, Yale student and Ethnicity, Race & Migration major

The Anti-Racist Education We Need: Lessons from CT Students and Teachers

In this webinar, we hear from two experienced panels that will share specific examples of the kinds of anti-racist teaching, learning, and collaboration underway in schools across the state.

Recording from the webinar The Anti-Racist Education We Need, sponsored by the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective(ARTLC), Students for Educational Justice, and Hearing Youth Voices, from Thursday, July 30, 6:30-8:00 PM via Zoom.