We are excited to bring you this month's edition of our newsletter, "Equitable Classrooms!" Each month, these newsletters are dedicated to sharing and celebrating teaching practices that foster Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within our classrooms at Rye Neck.

Our monthly newsletter is dedicated towards a commitment to celebrate, explore, and amplify the richness that diversity brings to our Rye Neck community.

We invite your feedback and suggestions to make this a valuable resource for your classroom!

Best,

Tara Goldberg & Meegan Lawlor

DEI Coordinators

We aim to share ways you incorporate the big ideas of a culturally responsive education. It might be something within your environment, a lesson you're teaching, a task students are engaging in...this Spotlight of Practice is dedicated towards sharing in-district connections.

We invite you to share with us!

Walking through the halls at DW and FEB- we are welcoming students and learning about what makes them special. Students are learning more about one another, making connections and feeling part of the community.

As we continue to build our learning communities and make connections, Dana Murphy's article, Fresh Starts Through Community Building, shares four types of team-building activities you can use to strengthen relationships in your classroom as needed throughout the school year.

National Hispanic American Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15 to October 15. It is a time to honor the contributions Hispanic and Latino Americans have made to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. It is celebrated between September 15th and October 15th to include the independence days of Mexico and several Central and South American countries. This month recognizes the contributions of individuals who trace their roots to South America, Central America, Mexico, Spain, and Spanish-speaking nations of the Caribbean.

Consider exploring Hispanic/Latinx culture.

If you’d like to explore this further, check out these websites:

National Hispanic Heritage Month Website

Top 8 Reasons Why and How We Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (si.edu)

This website is from the NYCDOE and has many suggestions for not only Hispanic Heritage Month, but also many of the other month long celebrations celebrated throughout the year. While not everything in this article is applicable to each grade and our school community, it has some interesting ideas:

https://www.boces.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/holidays_heritage_months.pdf

Diwali, or Dipawali, is India's biggest and most important holiday of the year. The festival gets its name from the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness.

Learn more HERE.

10 Fabulous Facts About Diwali

Britannica Kids

This year, we have created a collection of tools that can help you on your DEI journey, Feel free to examine the links in this "workshop" slide. Throughout the year, we will add resources to this slide. When you come across resources you think may help others on their DEI journey, please forward them to one of us so we can add them.

ADL Education

Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

Learning for Justice

NYSED DEI Resources

We welcome feedback to help make this publication as resourceful and inspiring as possible, and tailored to your interests. We invite you to reach out to us if you have resources to share and/or questions to ask. 😊

DEI Page RNWebsite

RN DEI "Workshop" RN DEI "Workshop"

Tara Goldberg: tgoldberg@ryeneck.org

Meegan Lawlor: mlawlor@ryeneck.org