Session #1
10:45 – 11:45 am
Teacher Organizing 101
Kristin Luebbert, PFT Building Representative and TAG member; Ron Whitehorn, TAG member and Retired Teacher
How can we work WITH the union at the building level to increase teacher voice and power, develop alliances with parents, students and the community. Strengthening the union at the building level can be an important way to increase teacher voice and power, develop alliances with parents, students and the community, and help create a culture and politics that over the long haul could transform the union.
Students Organize for Nonviolent Schools: Looking at Bias Violence
Asian Students Association of Philadelphia
This interactive workshop’s objective is to provide a broader and deeper look at the vision of nonviolent school. Youth from Asian Student Association of Philadelphia [ASAP] will facilitate the workshop based on their experience of working to improve public neighborhood schools’ environment, based on their work at South Philadelphia High School.
Using Theater to Tackle Bullying: Theater of the Oppressed
Lisa Jo Epstein, Gas & Electric Arts Theater
This education curriculum trains youth, teens and adults in Theatre of the Oppressed-based techniques–using image-making, movement and improvisation– along with process-based social change strategies. This multifaceted approach enlivens bodies, voices, hearts and minds, empathy, understanding and new awareness of yourself and your community. Participants use this mesh of techniques to explore real life stories and concerns about social injustice then devise interactive performances to create theatre-based civic dialogue with their peers around pressing conflicts in their lives.
Teaching Math for Social Justice
Rico Gutstein, Teachers for Social Justice-Chicago
This workshop is a chance to engage with an experienced teacher from Chicago who frequently and explicitly weaves topics involving community struggles and social justice into his math instruction. Using detailed examples, he will talk about the challenges and points to consider when doing this work. You’ll walk away with ideas for your own classroom and an idea of how to think about implementing them.
Beyond Tolerance: LGBTQ Students in our Schools
Elana Eisen-Markowits and Wazina Zondon NYC teachers, NYQueer
How do we move beyond tolerance of LGBTQ students and teachers in our schools, classrooms, and curricula? Come explore some specific resources featured in the Beyond Tolerance Resource Guide and discuss the implications and complications of using these resources in classrooms. This workshop is for K-12 educators and any youth interested in providing insights on what might work for them in their
schools.
Justice in the Classroom: Restorative Practices 101
Mia King, teacher, West Philadelphia High School; Dana Barnett, Conflict Mediator, TAG Restorative Justice Committee; Naomi Leapheart, Teacher, E3 Center
Get support & share challenges to and strategies for non-punitive classroom management and institutional change. Hear from Philadelphia public school teachers and students about concrete and successful peer mediation and restorative practices. Brainstorm ideas for advocacy and implementation.
Using the Arts to Explore Social Justice Themes
Melanie Manuel and Josh Block, teachers, Science Leadership Academy
Participants will be introduced to new ways to utilize the arts to enrich inquiry and facilitate discussions about social justice themes. A Language teacher and a History teacher will model how they use the arts in their own units, and will help participants develop their own ideas for units. Very hands-on!
Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Youth Arts Self-Empowerment Project
YASP organizers will lead a workshop on the criminalization of young people, with a particularly focus on the school-to-prison pipeline and the impact of trying young people as adults. The workshop will include a clip of YASP’s recently released documentary, “Stolen Dreams”, and discussions about related issues of violence, young people in the criminal justice system, and the challenges young people face upon release. This workshop will provide an opportunity for educators to think about how they can address these topics in their own classrooms, as well as suggested activities to get students thinking critically about the prison industrial complex and its impact on their lives.
Session #2
1:00 – 2:00pm
Interrupting Islamophobia
Wazina Zondon, Teacher, New York City
The Interrupting Islamophobia workshop will share best practices and skills to address Islamophobia in school communities (in the classroom; as well as 1-on-1 with colleagues/students/administrators). It will also provide resources to assist in shifting the cultural narrative that impacts the lives of Muslims, allies to the Muslim community, and perceived Muslims as we approach the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.
It Takes A Village: A Community Based Approach to Education
Parents in Action Council, Enterprise Center
Join these committed parents of children in the school district as they help educators understand the importance of knowing their school community. Learn how to map and become active members of your school community, and how to build parent and community engagement. Above all, teachers will learn what parents want them to know, as they partner to help their children develop and learn.
Making It Count: Building Self-Esteem and Teaching Alternatives to Violence
Aeesha Phillips and Dorothy Brown, teachers, Fitzsimons High School
As teachers, how do we decrease violence in urban schools through mentoring, anger management, and positive self-esteem courses? Join two Philadelphia High School teachers as they explore how to bring cultural pride and self-awareness into the core curriculum.
Lifting our Communities and Families
Ted Enoch, Spiral Q Puppet Theater
Spiral Q has been teaching a dynamic, project-based curriculum at several Philadelphia public schools during the past three years. The Lifting Our Cultures and Families curriculum puts students’ stories at the foundation of long-term collaborative art making projects. It allows students to learn about each others’ families and cultures and then in group work, students turn elements of the stories into giant puppets that get paraded through through their communities. The curriculum is challenging and inclusive. It allows students to connect through multiple learning modalities and have fun while learning. The workshop is interactive, will include story telling and art-making.
A Community Concern: Forming Active Partnerships with Parents and Students in Our Schools
Leah Sapin, film maker and activist
A Community Concern is a documentary showing the powerful changes that can happen when organizers, parents and youth work with educators to improve urban public schools. This is a workshop focused on building relationships between students, families and schools. Our session offers a model that can be used by youth and educators for future events, integrating sections of the film to increase community involvement and collaboration.
Servant Leadership: The Freedom Schools Approach
Bunmi Samuel, Philadelphia Freedom Schools
Students, Rights, and School Climate: An exploration of the rights of students and families in the education process
ACLU
The goal of this workshop is to create win-win situations that improve the overall climate of schools, including improving the conditions for teaching and learning. We are interested in helping develop collaborative relationships between concerned educators, parents and guardians, students and youth, and community advocates for the purpose of building a movement for progressive and democratic school reform in Philly.
What more can we do than everything? / Supporting students to take responsibility for their own learning
Peter Appelbaum, Max Arnosky, Paul Boyle, Ted Duboc, Maria Gill, Meg Goettner, Nelson Hall, Nicole Kooker, Charles Morantz, and Julie Swope, professors, Arcadia University
This session will identify underlying reasons for what looks like students’ “lack of motivation” in school and engagement in school activities, and to help participants support our students’ efforts to take responsibility for their own learning, become more engaged, and/or to see learning experiences as valuably contributing to their lives.
