A Culturally Responsive Classroom
Centro’s Puerto Rican Heritage Cultural Ambassadors Program is a free, self-paced, multimedia online course in Puerto Rican history, culture, and traditions, with a focus on the migration experience of the stateside diaspora. The goal of the program is to inspire the next generation of Puerto Rican leaders to become a driving force of change for themselves and their communities. The program engages youth and educational institutions in promoting the teaching and learning of our heritage. Participants not only gain knowledge but also develop leadership, research, and presentation skills.
The History of hip-hop. See how you could find creative ways to engage your students in discovering the love of history.
Ramón Emeterio Alacán Betances
Historical Resources
The above link will take you to some great resources and titles that will inform teachers on existing history of Latinos in the United States.
Teachers can now access historical context and current understandings of Puerto Rico's economy. The materials gathered here help place the current moment within the larger political, social, and economic history of Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory and illuminates how both the crisis and its proposed solutions are impacting the daily lives of millions of Puerto Ricans both within the territory and across its growing diaspora. Each topic has a few key texts along with some primary documents, multimedia, and suggestions for further reading. This resource has included texts in both English and Spanish to make this syllabus as accessible as possible and is working towards a fully bilingual version.
Instructional Resources
Did you know Latinos were involved in the American Revolution, Civil War, and many others throughout American history? Their presence and contributions in other areas are many. Who are these soldiers, scientists, policy-makers, inventors, social scientists, engineers, educators, politicians, artists, etc., that have made innovative contributions in the U.S. and globally? You will be intrigued and excited to find out about the creative, game-changing contributions these courageous pioneers have accomplished. Click on the Latino Memoir icon to the left to access a fun Test Your Knowledge of Latino Contributions & Presence in United States History & the Americas.
TIMELINES
Brief_History_PR_IBrief_History_PR_II
Brief_History_PR_IVChronologicBrochure_2015.pdfDisaporas_in the_History_P1.pdfDisaporas_in the_History_p2.pdfWhere_do_Puerto_Ricans_Live.pdf
U.S. Patriots
Civic Engagement
Every year youth from the Mid-West Region participate in a series of FREE training for a total of 30 hours, November through March. Ten students are selected to participate in the Annual Angelo Del Toro Puerto Rican Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute in Albany. The Institute's purpose is to foster the leadership skills of LatinX students and to introduce them to New York State's legislative process. Students must be in 11th or 12th grade and have at least one parent of LatinX/Hispanic descent to participate. College scholarships are awarded to seniors on a competitive basis at the conclusion of the Institute. You can find out more information by going to the following link: The Angelo Del Toro Puerto Rican/Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute
The National Hispanic Institute was founded in 1979 and annually serves between 2,000-2500 students. To date, NHI has served over 100,000 students and works with 80 colleges and universities. NHI's mission is to create experiences that engage in achieving high school and college-age youth in community leadership roles that advance our quality of life.
PRHYLI-Manual-2021-22.pdf
Student Academic Achievement
Hispanic Serving Institutes (HSIs)
The year 2020 marked 28 years since Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) were specifically funded through federal legislation. Excelencia in Education has taken responsibility for chronicling the impact and changes across HSIs, issuing the annual list of institutions, creating the definition of Emerging HSIs, and producing numerous seminal briefs and fact sheets starting with their launch in 2004. In 2021, Excelencia brought the full project, 25 Years of HSIs to the public.
HSIs-New-York.pdf
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at Alexci.Reyes@rcsdk12.org. I have worked as an educator with the Rochester City School District for 20 years now. I am a proud graduate of RCSD, and even more, excited to have pursued the field of education and taken a role in the very same district I was educated in. Moving towards more inclusive curricula has catalyzed a national conversation with frequent misunderstandings, conflict, and passionate debate. The goal here is not to be inclusive for the sake of inclusivity, but to provide a more honest intellectual journey with our students. In doing so, we reveal to our students that they have been visible in the American tapestry for much longer than they realize. The narrative of Latinos in America is not solely the topic of immigration, but a much larger narrative that reveals civic engagement, civil & social progress, contributions in all sectors of society, and a closer look at current issues affecting the diverse Latino community. There is current research that suggests there may be in some instances throughout classrooms in our country, too much emphasis on racism and oppression, leading students to distance themselves psychologically from membership in a historically marginalized group (Center for Enterprise Strategy, 2020). This is where, we as educators, look strategically to providing a balanced approach to teaching history and rekindling the imagination in the History classroom.