This video features an all-school study at the Bronx Community Charter School – a K-8 public school in the Norwood section of the Bronx, New York – of the cultural wealth of the children and families in the school. It explains the school’s Black Lives Matter curriculum, an effort to address children’s questions about their identities and to help them understand and process their concerns about world events taking place around them. Featuring Folakemi Williams, the school’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the video portrays images of kindergarten and first grade.
Use these guiding questions to help facilitate discussion around this video.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Early Childhood Education
Working with Families to Support Equity and Inclusion
The Impact of Having a Culturally Congruent Teacher
MLK Day of Action 2023: Black Joy!
At BxC we celebrated our 7th annual MLK Day of Action on Monday, January 16th, 2023. This year our theme was Black Joy. Our goal was to center Black Joy in all of our workshops, spoken word performances and activities. The day began with morning activities for families and students including creating affirmation mirrors and jars, making buttons that represent Black Joy, learning about the great poet, Aaron Douglas and creating collages inspired by his work, painting, and reading books about Black Joy. Everyone gathered around noon to listen to spoken word performances by our middle schoolers. They performed a dance piece and rounded up with a powerful drumming piece. The live performances unified everyone that was present and we shared a meal together. After lunch, students and families moved into their workshops organized by grades. In the workshop for Kindergarten and first grade, students read Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport. Then they thought about big words that bring them peace and joy. They created posters with their words and marched around the school with their posters. Families and other students joined them as they marched and sang together. After a 3 year long break because of the pandemic, we came back very strong with over 350 families and students in attendance, supported by 28 staff members.
Resources
Bias Isn’t Just A Police Problem, It’s A Preschool Problem – NPR podcast
Equity Research Action Coalition @ the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute
Exchange Essentials – free resources from Exchange Press
Derman-Sparks, L., Edwards, J.O., & Goins, C.M. (2020). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves, 2nd edition. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Hammond, Z.L. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students, 1st edition. Corwin Press. Thousand Oaks, CA.
Iruka, I., Curenton, S., & Durden, T. (2020). Don’t look away: Embracing anti-bias classrooms. Lewisville, NC: Gryphon House.
The High Quality Early Learning Project 