The Essential

Happy March DDSD!

With the spring comes quite a few celebrations of culture and heritage! This month is Women's History Month and Disability Awareness month. We wish a very happy Ramadan and Holi to those who celebrate and we also recognize Trans Day of Visibility this month. See below to find classroom resources for each of these celebration. Additionally, West Powellhurst, Ron Russell, and Gilbert Park have provided our district with additional resources/a look into what their school is doing for Women's History Month, Disability Awareness Month, and Ramadan. Look out for an email from Superintendent Ken Richardson for those slideshows.

-DEI Team

The Oregon Association of Latinx Administrator and the Oregon Association for Bilingual Education are working together to hold the first Spanish Spelling Bee!

• Each school may send ONE top speller for EACH grade level 4th -8th. Schools should hold their own school-based Spanish Spelling Bee to determine school winners. A list of practice words will be provided to schools once they complete registration.

• Fee for participation: $100.00 per school (school will be invoiced after registration and can pay online with a credit card or with check).

• Transportation must be provided by school/district/parents. Students should bring a water bottle and sack lunch. Small snacks will be provided.

Here is the registration link if your school is interested.

Every month, we will highlight the cultural and identity based celebrations that are celebrated nationally within each month. However, it is important to state that people who hold the identities that we are celebrating should not only be celebrated one month out of the year. We choose to celebrate the diversity of often marginalized groups because their histories and stories historically have been left out. There are many people who hold these identities within our community, students and staff, who deserve to see themselves in the work we do. We move forward with these celebrations encouraging a continuing visibility, representation, and celebration of the groups we highlight.

Women's History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society

Disabilities Awareness Month is recognized annually in March, through presidential proclamation, as an opportunity to celebrate the inclusion of people with disabilities in civic and social life to create strong and diverse communities.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community.

Holi is a popular and significant Hindu festival celebrated as the Festival of Colours, Love, and Spring. It celebrates the eternal and divine love of the deities Radha and Krishna.

International Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual event occurring on March 31 dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide, as well as a celebration of their contributions to society.

When it comes to equity, we are all learners. As we become more intentional about this work in our schools, we may find the process challenging at times. It might be easier to be dismissive when we are uncomfortable. As educators in an extremely diverse district, we owe it to our students and the communities they come from to listen. We owe it to those students whom our data shows are consistently falling behind to seek to understand what exists beyond our own paradigms and experiences in order to better serve their needs.

Below are opportunities to listen, resources for teachers and/or students, to challenge ourselves, reflect, and gain new tools for practice.

Skye Nollkamper, district Occupational Therapist shares this poster Multicultural Zones of Regulation Poster. Thanks Skye! This is the same as most Zones of regulation, however, it includes people from many different racial backgrounds with the intent of students from many backgrounds feeling represented.

Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program has an ambitious goal: all 3 and 4 year old children in Multnomah County will have access to high quality preschool by 2030. To get there, the county is heavily investing in developing the early childhood workforce, which includes providing financial and navigation assistance to anyone interested in becoming an early childhood assistant or teacher, but especially BIPOC and multilingual candidates who represent the county’s diverse preschool population.

What does this have to do with our Grow Your Own program? GYO is all about increasing representation in our workforce and connecting our David Douglas students and employees with opportunities to advance their career in education, including early childhood education. This is especially true now that all of our district elementary schools house at least one preschool classroom. Additionally, our district holds the grant for the Multnomah Early Childhood Program, which provides early intervention and early childhood special education services to children from birth to age five in Multnomah County. Overall, David Douglas has a high need for employees with early childhood education expertise!

To that end, the GYO Pathway Navigator recently accompanied the Early Childhood Navigators at Mt. Hood Community College and Portland Community College on a visit to Ms. Dinca’s Early Childhood Development classes at the high school. Ms. Dinca’s class is unique in that students not only learn about early childhood development in theory. They also put their learning into practice by teaching 4 year olds registered in the high school’s Double D preschool (follow them @ddhs_doubledpreschool). The Early Childhood Development class offers students dual credits through Eastern Oregon University and is part of our high school’s robust Career and Technical Education department.

During the GYO and Early Childhood navigator visit, high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors learned about how they could apply the credits they earn in Ms. Dinca’s class towards an early learning certificate or associate's degree upon graduation. They also learned about how our GYO program can support them with finding employment in our district preschool classrooms and with tuition assistance once they transfer from community college to one of our partner universities. You can learn more about Mt. Hood’s CC’s Early Childhood offerings here and PCC’s here.

If you are or you know a David Douglas student, family, or community member of color who is interested in pursuing a career in education, please contact Andreina Velasco (andreina_velasco@ddsd40.org), Grow Your Own Pathway Navigator.

This beautiful bulletin board at North Powellhurst includes students from toddlers all the way though high school expressing their dreams for their futures.

"I saw that there was disproportionate data with our Black boys, and I thought that instead of having assumptions, I would start a conversation," said Principal at Mill Park Elementary, Heather Craig.

This is how Mill Park's Anti Bullying Club started last year. Anti Bullying Club is a space where students who have the tendency to get caught up in drama, fighting, or (as the kids would call it) "beef", can come together and self reflect about their role in conflicts. "The students who are invited all have leaderships qualities," Craig stated. It is an optional group for the students once they are invited and invitations are strategic. It started with a boys group and this year, it has blossomed into two different groups, one for boys and another for girls. When asked how effective the club was for the students who participated last year, Craig exclaimed "Oh night and day! The boys who participated last year are now some of our top leaders in the school. It's kind of remarkable." The anti bullying club is run by Craig herself and occurs during 5th grade lunch, as the group is made up of mostly fifth graders.

During the meetings, students are asked to rate how conflict has been for them and around them on a scale of 0-10. Then they go over a prompt that encourages reflection around bullying. "This week is a 4 for me," one student stated, but then after some self reflection with the group she said, "You know what, it's a little bit closer to a 9." Another student shared, "I'm not really noticing much this week, so I guess a 0?" Craig expertly listened and allowed the students to share their experiences without fear of being told that their experiences were not valid. It was apparent that the students enjoyed the experience of being heard, being able to express their feelings, and having the scaffolding they needed to be able to reflect on their experiences.

It was such a pleasure to be able to see this group in action! We are excited to see what comes next out of this group! We want to give a shout out the Principal Heather Craig for trying this new process that centers student voice, restorative practices, and empowers students to be the leaders that they are. Wonderful job!

On February 2nd we had our district annual Lunar New Year event! Thank you to all the staff, students, and community members who volunteered and/or participated in the festivities.

One February 16th, our district hosted a Black Excellence Event at Floyd Light Middle School in order to honor Black History Month. There were about 270 people in attendance and students, community members, families, and staff members were a part making it happened. We visited a BSU meeting at the high school to see how students felt about the event.

"It was fun," said a student named Amir. "I like seeing all the parts of black culture that I haven't been exposed to in my area of Portland."

Hayze, a senior who MC'd the event said "I had a really good time. It was cool to see everyone's performances. Everyone did so well! I was MCing and that was really wonderful. I felt empowered to hold the energy of the room, it was really great. I've been given this opportunity a few times and something that want to do in my future."

Overwhelmingly, the students shared that they were grateful that for this type of celebration. Thank you to everyone who was a part of making it happen!

Are you doing something wonderful in your classroom, building, or in the wider community that has to do with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? Are you super proud of an engagement strategy, a lesson, or a community bulletin board that you’ve created? Do you see someone else doing something wonderful and want to shout them out? The equity departments want to hear from you! Every month, we’ll be highlighting a few educators and staff members who are doing wonderful work. We know that there is wonderful work being done out there, and we would love to hear from you and share! To submit something, or invite one of us to your classroom or space, please email gabie_mbenza-ngoma@ddsd40.org.