Talking about Race: Disrupting Racism in Schools

This interactive workshop will engage participants in a discussion of how racism and white supremacy manifests within our classrooms and schools, and how educators can apply a race equity lens to address and disrupt it. We will reflect upon our racial identity, and how we can leverage this, along with our other identities, to talk about race and racism with students, and build educational environments grounded in racial justice and equity.

Presenters: Natalia Ortiz (and a Co-Presenter TBD), The Center for Racial Justice in Education
Room: Blegen 425

Manifesting Anti-Bias Dreams At School: Grant-writing tricks of the trade for educators

Learn about grant opportunities available for social justice educators of all stripes with Teaching Tolerance Grants Coordinator Jey Ehrenhalt. Get inspiration from successful school anti-bias projects of the past, brainstorm ideas for your own communities, and workshop those ideas with peers from the field. There will be time for a question and answer session about grant-writing for school-based projects with the Grants Coordinator, and participants will come away from the session with a completed grant application in hand and ready for submission. This workshop is designed for anyone who works in a K-12 primary educational setting.

Presenter: Jey Ehrenhalt (they/them pronouns), Teaching Tolerance, Southern Poverty Law Center
Room: Blegen 435

Pa’lante Restorative Justice: Youth-Led School Transformation

Schools across the country are using restorative justice as an alternative to exclusionary discipline practices that push students out of school. Pa’lante stands out as a youth-led RJ program where student leaders not only host circles for various purposes (accountability, grief, support, conflict etc.), but also engage in critical action research to fundamentally transform the conditions of their schooling. Workshop participants will experience Circle, learn about Pa’lante’s model, and apply learning to their school.

Presenters: Amy Bonilla, Thayna Garcia, Reylon Rivera, Jasmin Reyes, Jessica Pérez, Romeo Romero Sigle, and Dani O’Brien. Pa’lante Restorative Justice Program / Holyoke High School
Room: Blegen 445

It’s All in the Game: Cooperation in Our Play

Games! A fabulous way to bring people together and build understanding and community. Our games reflect the world we want to see: If we compete against each other, we find a handful of winners and a multitude of losers, frustration, egoism and disappointment. If we cooperate, we all get to make a contribution, co-create something whole that’s bigger than its parts, and support feelings of friendship, love and acceptance. Let’s play some cooperative games, and learn how to transform competitive games into cooperative ones.

Presenters: Shilpa Jain, YES!
Room: Social Sciences 278

From Deficit Discourse to Dreaming Desires: re(creating) possibilities for education

In this workshop, we will work with participants to briefly unpack the colonial legacies of education that haunt widespread deficit discourses in schools today. Then, we will re-write our own educational histories, focusing on the conflicts that arose when our desires were neglected or dismissed. Finally, we will use these counter-stories to envision possibilities for schooling that rejects deficit discourse and embraces desire-based education.

Presenters: Karen Zaino & Christina Chaise, CUNY Graduate Center
Room: Rarig 20