Curriculum Boot Camp: 2-Day Intensive

2 Day Workshop

I spend 12 hours with your teachers, coaching them to build a new unit with equity and justice at the core. These two days are a hyper-focused, intensive or "design sprint." Different from your typical workshop, there’s less "talking at,” more "building with," and there's a finished ready-to-use product at the end. The result? Equitable, inclusive units grounded in intersectional justice. Units that challenge, affirm, and inspire 100% of students. Dr. Christopher Emdin has said, "[A good learning experience] makes you want to dance." By the end of this session, your teachers will have units so good the students and the teachers will dance. 

OBJECTIVES 
I help each teacher design a unit personalized for their students that has: 

• A compelling driving question
• An activist project—students apply what they know to advance racial, gender, ability, and linguistic justice in their communities
• Lesson-level protocols—students talk and grapple for 75% of each class
• Specific resources that center (hi)stories and voices that are often excluded from traditional curricula

How to Talk About High-Emotion Topics
with Students and Staff 

Breakout Session /1-Day Workshop

Participants will begin by confronting 3 common myths that often hold us back from engaging in conversations that generate strong emotions at school. We’ll then look at the foundational culture of belonging that’s required to engage in these conversations and the strategies that help us build a culture where generative conversation is possible. Finally, we’ll talk about ways to plan ahead for student and staff discussions of high-emotion topics.  

In the full-day version of this session, we will also practice using discussion protocols and talking about high emotion topics, the specific of which we can collaboratively determine based on the needs of your staff.

OBJECTIVES

• I can co-create class agreements with students or staff, setting the foundation for discussing issues of injustice.
• I can create an engaging discussion question that does not put dignity or settled facts up for debate. 
• I can prepare to respond to challenging situations before, during, and after a group discussion. 
• I can identify ways to practice and build my own critical discussion skills.

From Research to Action:
Co-Create Student-Led Civic Action Projects 

Breakout Session /1-Day Workshop

Once students have learned about a topic of interest, we can help them use that knowledge to take action on a related problem or injustice. Drawing from the work on student-led civics projects, this type of action project can enable students to develop an increased sense of self-efficacy, practice social-emotional skills, develop cultural competence and socio-political awareness, and become more academically engaged and connected to their communities.

This session helps teachers identify the parameters and supports for co-creating a summative action project.

OBJECTIVES

• Select and define your justice-centered competencies that will make up your assessment rubric
• Identify the project publishing opportunity and possible formats of student projects
• Brainstorm opportunities for co-creating the project and unit with students
• Develop a personalized unit arc aligned to the six stages of action civics

Foundational Workshop:
Values-Based Community Building and Engaging with Circles 

Breakout Session /1-Day Workshop

This is the foundational culture-building workshop that sets the stage for deeper conversations. Staff identify shared values and co-create discussion agreements using Circle protocol. These shared values and agreements act as points of connection amidst disagreement or if harm is caused during a discussion.

This session grounds us in what we agree on and enables us to treat each other with dignity at all times.

OBJECTIVES

• Learn the components of a Circle
• Experience a community-building Circle that you can use with students
• Plan a Circle lesson for your students (or other stakeholders) using a Circle lesson template