This month we get to continue celebrating Lunar New Year, which began on January 29th, and continues through February 12th. Many countries celebrate Lunar New Year around the world and many students and families in our district also celebrate it. Below you will find resources for celebrating Lunar New Year and other February celebrations including DDSD events.

*The link above says 2023 but it is updated with 2025 events.

• February 4 – Rosa Parks Day

• February 10 – International Epilepsy Day

• February 11 – International Day of Women & Girls in Science

• February 14 – Valentine’s Day

• February 15 – International Childhood Cancer Day

• February 20 – World Day of Social Justice

• February 26 – Maha Shivarati (Hindu)

• February 28 – Ramadan begins (Islam)

Please bear in mind that this time is very challenging for our migrant families and students. People are scared and on edge. Our job is always to provide a safe space for all our students. Do your best to reassure students that we want to keep them safe. Maintain as much routine and normalcy as you can and utilize your counselors and social workers to support students showing signs of distress. Please share or this resource.

So many cool things happen in our schools every day! It's nice to get to share some highlights. If you have something you'd like to share that exemplifies the efforts of diversity and inclusion in your school or classroom, please reach out to us at equity_department@ddsd40.org

How cool is it when a school takes initiative to provide a safe, (albeit wet) opportunity to gather community members to walk home together? Mill Park recently began their Walking School Bus Friday afternoons. Doug Withrow from Mill was inspired to start the walking school bus at Mill after observing similar activities in his own neighborhood. Check out the pictures below and some literature on how you can start a walking school bus!

http://www.walkingschoolbus.org/

Cultivating Our Future Educator Genius!

After a semester of preparation and a busy finals week, Ms. Wood’s Introduction to Education students are ready to embark on their second semester classroom internship. For their internship, they will be working alongside mentor teachers at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels on a weekly basis. They will start by observing and learning from their mentor teachers, then move onto lesson planning and teaching students. Throughout their internship, they will be reading Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s seminal text, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. Ms. Wood selected this text to introduce students to best practices for planning and teaching lessons that center and uplifts student identities and genius. What does Dr. Muhammad mean by cultivating genius? In a February 2020 interview with Education Week, she proclaimed: “We must disrupt deficit ways of thinking and being. Our youths are genius. They are not all those things that systemic oppression has created. And young people deserve to be taught by geniuses, those who seek knowledge and deeply love the students in their classes.” That is precisely who Ms. Wood’s students are: educator geniuses embarking on the next chapter of their teaching pathway!