Location: Statewide
Training Type: Online Real Time
Total Hours: 15
Cost: Free
Scholarship: No
Vicky Senni
(802) 793-2744
SparkTeacherEdVT@gmail.com
Teaching in Solidarity with Black Lives and for the Emancipation of Humans November 17, 2020
Teaching in support of black lives at an early age requires us to be clear about our own thinking. This is essential because racism permeates society and is passed to children both implicitly and explicitly. How do we help young children to see everyone’s humanity as connected to their own lives? How do we help students to think critically about the world and strengthen their sense of justice and fairness? How do we extend our practice of caring and open ways of relating to one another? Spark Teacher Education Institute will facilitate online learning communities aimed at building curricula that centers Black lives and equity. We will co-construct curriculum and interrogate our pedagogy to inform our teaching practices. Through study and reflection we will build upon our experiences and understanding, with the knowledge of others. We will continue to learn together and work towards organizing Black Lives Matters in School week of action. You will receive 15 hours of professional development credits (that includes meetings and independent work). We will meet on the following Tuesdays from 4:30-6:30pm EST. December 1 + 15, January 5 + 19 **This is a grant funded professional learning opportunity offered free of charge!
- Child Development & Learning
- Family & Community Partnerships
- Developmentally Appropriate & Inclusive Practices
- Curriculum & Learning Environments
- Professionalism & Ethical Practice
- Infant/Toddler
- Preschool/PreK
- School-Age
- Program Directors/Managers
Why Join this PD? Teaching in support of Black lives and equity is more than just methods or adding a social justice lesson. Teachers need to investigate and challenge white supremacy in their pedagogy and curricula to move the center. Teaching in support of Black Lives is an opportunity for educators to connect a long history of racialized inequities to school based practices, curriculum, and broader structures of schooling. These sessions are organized to offer a place for questioning and active collaboration to forge new paths of inquiry and initiatives in your schools and broader communities. Spark Teacher Education Institute has been working with teachers for over 20 years to centralize the experiences of working people, women, and people of color, in order to teach against exploitation and build an equitable world for all. Spark Teacher Education Institute was started by Janaki Natarajan and offers teacher certification in Social Justice Education. Teachers learn the social justice pedagogy and connect the world to their classrooms. Participants work side-by-side for an entire year with a skilled mentor teacher, learning to integrate social justice and equity content into the mainstream curriculum. The program strives to instill an understanding of self and others in conjunction with the development of skills, knowledge, critical thinking and compassion required for creating an equitable and engaging learning environment for all learners.