Today I had the opportunity to attend a training session that should be required by every educator in the world. The Tolerance.org organization provides training for educators to help them rethink their personal biases that they are bringing into the classroom and evaluate their curriculum to ensure the approach is inclusive of all learners.
They have developed a set of Social Justice Standards for K-12 to support schools with integrating an anti-bias framework. It is a well orchestrated resource that integrates the importance of Classroom Culture, Family and Community Engagement, and Teacher Leadership to support the implementations of the standards and domains.
Anchor Standards
- Identity
- Diversity
- Justice
- Action
Essential Questions
The learning session then guided us through developing essential questions that would support students to think through each of these areas highlighted above. The goal with the questions is to engage students in taking on perspectives from the various standards.
- Identity – How am I impacted by the weather patterns around me?
- Diversity – How are others in the world affected by weather?
- Justice – How does access to resources help others recover from the impacts of weather?
- Action – What can I do to help those who have suffered from the impact of weather?
The program they have developed is very approachable and needs to be implemented as a lens to applied to all curriculum development. I am embarrassed that I had not engaged with this professional development resource sooner. Our children deserve better.
