We want to take a moment to welcome Dr. Daly as the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. We are thrilled to have her leading this important work!

Click here to sign up for Office Hours with her. This is a great opportunity to ask questions, look for support, find advice, and/or having a thought partner.

• November 11th: Veterans Day
• November 12th: Diwali
• November 23rd: Thanksgiving Day
• November 24th: Native American Heritage Day

*If we miss or incorrectly communicate a holiday, please don't hesitate to reach out**

• STEM Night: November 16th: 6:30-7:30 @Hosmer
  

• Youth In Unity: Tuesday, January 9th from 6:00-7:00 @ Lowell in the Learning Commons | Theme: listen, learn, grow, act | This is the pre-event that will be student led before the Unity Breakfast

• JOINT Diversity Council Meeting: January 11th | Cunniff Hosting

• Lowell CultureFest: January 23rd
  

CLICK HERE: Reflecting on Anti-racist Education In Action: The Early Years

This video is long on the longer side, but it is so powerful to see anti-racist education in action in the younger grades, along with teacher reflections.

DO

• Get the story right. If you need a refresher, here is a good article.
• Address inaccurate historical facts. This is where we interrupt and disrupt false narratives.
• Lift Native Voices and Honor Their History
• Design/create lessons that include Native voices/knowledge and do not perpetuate stereotypes or misrepresent Native American traditions. The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian has a curated list of culturally responsive lesson plans and activities.
• When speaking about Indigenous Peoples, make sure to send the message that although we may be speaking of history, Native Americans still live in America and have rich cultures.
• Have students find the land that they live on and write an age-appropriate land acknowledgment
• A crucial part of learning history is modeling how our thinking can shift when we learn more information. Use these sentence starters with your students. “I used to believe ____, but now I believe ____.” “I used to think ____, but now I ____.”

  
  

WHY?

It is our social responsibility to provide students with accurate information and reject traditions that sustain harmful stereotypes about Indigenous peoples.

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DO NOT...

• have students create feather-adorned headbands or headdresses of any sort
• decorate turkeys as the one activity of the day

WHY?

Using stereotypical imagery contributes to teaching the next generation a false narrative about Indigenous people.

How should we remember the Pilgrim and Wampanoag Thanksgiving? (From Open Social Studies)

Tell the students that today they will be “history detectives” trying to figure out what

actually happened at the first thanksgiving. Like historians, their job will be to help us

better understand what happened in the past based on the evidence we have.

What do you notice in the painting?

Who do you think created this painting?

What was their purpose? What did they want to show?

Do you think it is accurate?

We have no paintings from the time of the Pilgrims and Wampanoag’s thanksgiving. Below is a painting done in 1914 (almost 300 years later). Notice that it only shows a few Wampanoag men off in the right corner.

This image below was created recently to show a more accurate picture of what the Pilgrim and Wampanoag thanksgiving was like.

Writing your own class land acknowledgement:

Land Acknowledgment Notes

Directions: Add your ideas to the blank spaces below to create a land acknowledgment.

We would like to acknowledge that we ______ on land that is borrowed from the ______ nation. They are the people ______.

This land is special because of ______, and ______, and ______.

Over thousands of years, this land provided ______ people with materials to make ______, ______ to travel on water, and ______ from the ocean to make wampum. This land also provided good earth for growing ______.

We benefit from this land because we ______.

To the ______ and their land, we say thank you.

We will show our gratitude to the land by ______.