EQUITY MATTERS 4
Check Your Culture Gauge
I have culture, you have culture, and the school community has a culture - all are important. So, how do we truly access culture and understand it in a way that it can be used as a tool to inform our practices, enhance our ability to reach and teach more students and increase colleague connectivity? Join us. We'll laugh, dialogue, watch, and listen as we dive deep into the distinctions and dimensions of culture. Come check your culture gauge.
Presenter: Edward Walker
Decolonizing Literature
By uplifting POC narratives and reducing barriers of access to high quality contemporary literature, this workshop aims to give attendees the tools and knowledge necessary to provide rigorous and joyful independent reading experiences for their students.
Presenter: Kathryn Copley
Expanding the Canon: Musicians as Authors of the Movements
Studying authors and texts from Nina Simone to N.W.A., to H.E.R. and Lil Baby, this workshop will capitalize on student generated high-interest texts, re-examining the canon and those who control historical narratives of both the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements. This workshop would provide teachers with materials and ideas on how to expand their discussion of not only authors and literature in their courses but also how to examine history through a lens not dominated and controlled by white authors.
Presenter: Meighan Bannon
Exploring Equitable Grading Practices
The workshop goal is to engage educators in conversation about grading practices and share strategies that promote equitable grading. I hope educators will explore and have honest conversations about what grades do and do not tell us and think deeply about the biases we bring to the process of grading.
Presenter: Kristin Newton
Learn about Resources in Cambridge
This workshop is designed to help all staff become knowledgeable about the resources in Cambridge. We will review and discuss a comprehensive list of resources available to students and families who reach out for help. All are welcomed to join. New teachers are strongly encouraged to join.
Presenter: Greta Hardina
"Medical Apartheid" Beyond just knowing "Tuskegee"
As COVID-19 ravages the world, in the United States specifically, there is a history beyond the most notable cases of the Tuskegee Syphillis Study and Henrietta Lacks that must be engaged with regarding the injustices enacted on African-Americans by the United States.
Presenter: Nathan Whitfield
Reimagining the traditional DO NOW: Engagement in the Virtual World
This proposal aims to share how we engaged students during remote learning by creating and maintaining a system that is accessible to all students. This system captures students’ attention at the start of each class through trivial and randomized questions that allow them to express their beliefs, identity, and cultures, thus building a positive community.
Presenters: Amal Mohamed and Dionne Harden
Rhythm & Percussion Workshop
Rhythm is so basic and so primal. While it’s universal, it takes different forms in different cultures. So while a percussive beat can bring people together, it can also be a way to express our own culture, energy, and voice. This workshop will show how to incorporate music and rhythm into your classroom, creating an inclusive environment where students are invited to bring their own rhythms and percussion into the class. We’ll talk about basic music concepts like quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes. We’ll listen to styles like hip-hop, jazz, and world music, with drumming samples from the US and other places, including Japan, Ireland, and the Caribbean. Feel free to bring a wooden spoon, a colander, an empty coffee can with the plastic lid and 2 tablespoons of rice, or other found objects that we can use for percussion.
Presenter: Guillermo Nojechowicz
*This was a live performing presentation
Using Student Data to Inform Practice
This workshop has two objectives: to showcase how qualitative and/or quantitative student data can be used to drive instruction, and to engage in a conversation about how school professionals can better utilize student data as a tool for reflective practice, and as a means to improve student outcomes.
Presenter: Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah