International Day of Peace

Happy Peace Day, folks!

Today, September 21, is recognized as the International Day of Peace by the United Nations. As the UN describes it, “Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.” It’s a moment to pause and reflect on peace or to literally cease firing at one another.

In 2018, #PeaceDay overlaps with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The two being intertwined, it seems an apt opportunity to talk about how peace can only be achieved by bringing about a world in which human rights are upheld for all, and human rights can only be upheld if we start from a place of mutual understanding, respect, and empathy. 

If you’re to broach this conversation with students, books can help shape their understanding – as can just getting to know one another beyond tropes and stereotypes.

• From Medium, a 2016 article on “Children’s Literature as a Vehicle for Peace” by Summer Edward, Editor-in-Chief of Anansesem.
  “…is there anything more important than creating a peaceful world for our children? If we are not here on earth to be vehicles for peace, to add our voice, our energy and our talents to the task of creating a better world, then what are we here for? Is social justice an elite tool to be wielded in the hands of a few acclaimed activists or is it a human imperative to which each individual is called? These are serious questions for each and every human being.” 

• “50 Books About Peace and Social Justice” from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC).
• Social Justice Books. Run by Teaching for Change, this website provides “more than 50 carefully selected lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.”
• “Picture Books with a Message” from the Teach Peace Now website. This is a long list of carefully selected books on topics such as Anti-War and Peace Education,  Activism and Social Justice, Anti-Racism/Anti-Bias Books, Anti-Bullying, and Conflict Resolution | Kindness & Caring | Cooperation, among others.
• “30 Children’s Books About Diversity that Celebrate Our Differences” from Bookriot.
• “2018 We’re the People Summer Reading List.” This may be last but is certainly not least. It’s a curated collection of books that celebrate “diversity and all its intersections” put together “by and about IPOC (Indigenous and People of Color), people with disabilities, and people from the LGBTQ| community. Chosen books are thoroughly discussed, vetted and given second reads.”

Let us know in the comments if there are other resources you turn to for discussing peace, change making, empathy, and human rights with your students, or other ways you frame these discussions.

~ Keira

 

 

 

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February 24th | Week in Review

¡Hola a todos! I hope these resources are of use. I know with recent current events it may seem like the future of education is bleak, however, we must remain strong and stay in solidarity. Together we can get through these dark times!

– Check out why these librarians are protesting Trump’s executive orders on Reforma.

— Additionally, Reforma shared about Talk Story Together- Sharing Stories, Sharing Culture. This is a great joint literacy project from the American Indian Library Association and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association that celebrates and explores the stories of children and their families. Story telling is embedded in culture, and it’s a meaningful way to learn about each other.

February 10th | Week in Review

¡Hola a todos! This week’s Week in Review focuses on resources that look at questions such as, what does it mean to be a teacher, and what responsibilities does that entail, especially in these times? I really hope the resources are of help to you, I always love gathering the materials and learning with you.

– A Talk with Teachers: Revisiting James Baldwin’s Vision for Education is an article shared by Teaching for Change. Here is a snippet of Baldwin’s view of education and teachers, “one of the paradoxes of education was that precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with your society. It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person.”

January 20th | Week in Review

¡Hola a todos! Today’s Week in Review is a bit longer than usual because there were so many valuable resources to share this week. The content has given me hope, and I hope it will do the same for you. Enjoy!

– The Zinn Education Project shared a new lesson plan to teach about the Reconstruction Era titled, Reconstructing the South: A Role Play. While a historical lesson, the themes are relevant today. “This role play asks students to imagine themselves as people who were formerly enslaved and to wrestle with a number of issues about what they needed to ensure genuine “freedom”: ownership of land—and what the land would be used for; the fate of Confederate leaders; voting rights; self-defense; and conditions placed on the former Confederate states prior to being allowed to return to the Union.”

November 4th | Week in Review

¡Hola a todos! The readings for this week are a mix between celebrating Día de los Muertos and bilingual education. I really hope you enjoy them.

– After Nearly 2 Decades, Californians Revisit Ban On Bilingual Education. “Our children live in Spanish-speaking families, Spanish-speaking neighborhoods, and listen to Spanish television when they’re home. If school refuses to teach them English, where are they going to learn it? They’re not going to go to college if they don’t have academic English down well.”

– Our Teaching for Change friends shared on Facebook their favorite bilingual children’s book (and one of ours!), Just a Minute!: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book, in celebration of Día de los Muertos.

— Also on Facebook, Latinas for Latino Lit shared their list of chapter Books with Latina Protagonists.

–Here are 21 Of The Most Powerful Things Ever Said About Being An Immigrant shared by our friends at We Need Diverse Books. Warsan Shire writes, “You have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.”

– Lastly, from Remezcla, we discovered 5 Virtual Día de los Muertos Altars to Women Who Defined Music History that you can share in your classroom.

Abrazos,
Alin Badillo

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Image: Día de los Muertos Art. Reprinted from Flickr user Kubetwo under CC©.

Abolish Columbus Day

Saludos todos! As many parts of the country recently celebrated Columbus Day, and we are quickly approaching Thanksgiving, we wanted to take the time to draw attention to a new educational campaign, Abolish Columbus Day, created by the Zinn Education Project (a project of Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools). Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools are both excellent resources for educators interested in multicultural teaching, diverse literature and social justice, and we’ve featured their resources many times here on the blog. This initiative aims at rethinking Columbus Day and the way in which our history remembers the genocide and continued colonial practices against the indigenous peoples in the United States and Latin America.

October 14th | Week in Review

¡Hola a todos! Here is the latest Week in Review:

– Our friends at Lee & Low Books posted on their blog an Alternative History Book List. The list is part of acknowledging Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day, for which, they write, “we are offering a series of blog posts that look at pieces of history that have been hidden, silenced, altered, or swept under the rug.”

— Teaching Tolerance shared on their Facebook page The Problem with Columbus ‘Discovering’ America. “The idea of a holiday to celebrate the people who lived in the Americas before Christopher Columbus ever set foot there got its start in the 1970s.”

– Teaching for Change recommended on their Facebook page the new children’s book “Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds.” By Jorge Terl Argueta and illustrated by Alfonso Ruano. The book “describes the challenges of leaving one’s homeland and the journey north.”

–Also, Lee & Low Books shared  a piece by one of our favorite authors, Guadalupe García McCall, in which she discusses reasons why some History is Not on Text Books.

–Thanks to our friends at the Tulane University’s Stone Center, we discovered Google’s latest Arts and Culture initiative: the Latino Heritage and Cultures project, which offers a wide range of resources, “from ancient artifacts to contemporary street art, [to] explore the depth and diversity of Latino cultures.”

– Lastly, Rethinking Schools shares 9 Teaching Resources that Tell The Truth About Columbus. “States and cities are increasingly recognizing Indigenous Peoples, but appropriate and readily available lesson plans have fallen behind the trend.”

Abrazos,
Alin

p.s. We’re sending this out just a bit ahead of time, as UNM is on Fall Break today and tomorrow! Enjoy the autumn weather!!

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Image: Illustration, Somos como las nubes / We are like the clouds  by Jorge Argueta and Alfonso Ruano.

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WWW: Teaching about Haiti with Love

¡Feliz viernes a todos!

I am so happy you are reading today because I am showcasing a great resource from Teaching for Change, which is another blogging site full of great teaching guides and supporting resources for the classroom. This week, to honor our themes of Afro-Caribbean cultures, Black History Month, Haiti, love and community, I am highlighting their resource for Teaching about Haiti. Because of all the supporting documents available through the page, this resource makes including Haiti in classroom discussion even easier! According to Teaching for Change, “It is important for students to gain a deeper understanding of the history and the roots of…Haiti. The U.S has been involved with Haiti for centuries, yet it has received little attention in textbooks or the curriculum. Part of our commitment to the people of Haiti can be to not only increase our support but also our awareness. As informed citizens, we can advocate for respectful and constructive relations with Haiti in the months and years ahead.”

WWW: Teaching for Change: Put Central America on the Map in Schools!

Teaching for Change incorporates social justice into its lesson plans so that students gain the “the skills, knowledge and inspiration to be citizens and architects of a better world.” I’m thrilled to learn that this organization has launched a campaign to support teaching about Central America. The campaign features a collection of lessons, quizzes, book lists, biographies of historical figures, slideshows, and readings dedicated to the study of Central America. Check out some of the available units:

¡Mira Look!: Beyond Heroes and Holidays

As you may have already read, the theme for our first month back is multicultural education.  Many of our posts this month may not have that specific focus on Latin America that they typically do, but the topics and ideas that they cover undergird much of our approach to how and why we hope educators incorporate multicultural teaching in the classroom, and the specific Latin American resources we offer here at Vamos a Leer.

In today’s ¡Mira Look! I wanted to share one of my favorite teacher resource books, Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural, Education and Staff Development edited by Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart and Margo Okazawa-Rey. It’s an award winning educator’s guide that provides lessons and readings on topics such as how to analyze the roots of racism, investigate the impact of racism on all our lives, examine the relationship between racism and other forms of oppression such as sexism, classism, and heterosexism, and learn to work to dismantle racism in our schools, communities and the wider society.  Goodreads provides a great description of the book: