hreusa

The Black Lives Matter at School guiding principle for May of Black Villages invites us to consider how extended families, collective villages, and intergenerational relationships play a role in community care and justice.

These books celebrating Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Jewish, and Haitian heritage (May heritage months) focus on community strength and revolution, with lessons that teach us true history and help us to imagine into the future. Booklist

Our Jewish Identity and History list includes stories of cultural traditions, people of note, and collective resistance to oppression. Booklist

Find ideas for teaching about Haiti at the Teach Pluralism blog and Teaching for Change. Booklist

To defend children’s right to read and learn, join us on June 7 for the 5th annual Teach Truth Day of Action.

Learn More and Sign Up

Join Teaching Palestine: Lessons, Stories, Voices co-editors to launch the new Rethinking Schools book. Palestine has long been one of the great silences in the official curriculum. Teaching Palestine: Lessons, Stories, Voices provides educators with powerful tools to uncover the history and current context of Palestine-Israel in the classroom — poetry, personal narratives, interviews, role plays, critical reading and writing activities, and more. Teaching Palestine offers a defense of Palestinian humanity centering Palestinian lives, uplifting and celebrating Palestinians’ struggle for justice, and critiquing racism and inequality.

The editors will be joined by musician and activist Macklemore.

Participants will need access to Zoom. Register for the Zoom link.

ASL Interpretation will be available.

The event is free. To make events like this available to more educators and activists, we would greatly appreciate your solidarity donation.

May 8, 2025, 4pm (PT)/6pm (CT)/7pm (ET), virtual

>> Register

This workshop will focus on providing middle school ELA teachers with an overview of Asian American literature including memoirs, novels, and short stories. Several AAPI authors will be highlighted, and ways to introduce these authors and their work in an age-appropriate way will be presented. Points of consideration on how to choose appropriate literature with respectful AAPI representation will be offered. Educators will leave with lesson activities based on these AAPI literature that they can use for their own classrooms and a list of AAPI authors.

May 6, 2025, 1:30pm (PT), virtual

>> Register

On Monday, May 5, 2025, historians Jarvis Givens and Imani Perry, in conversation with Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian and Rethinking Schools executive director Cierra Kaler-Jones, will discuss the Black Teacher Archive, a digital portal centralizing materials created by professional organizations of African American educators, historically referred to as Colored Teachers Associations (CTAs).

May 5, 2025, 4pm (PT)/7pm (ET), virtual

>> Register

Know a group or individual – youth or adult – who is making a real difference in human rights? Nominate them for one of the annual awards of Human Rights Educators USA!

The 2025 O’Brien Awards recognize an individual and an organizations that has made a significant contribution to human rights education in the United States.  

Nomination deadline: October 1, 2025.

>> For further information and nomination forms see: https://hreusa.org/awards-and-grant-opportunities/edward-obrien-award

To encourage a new generation of human rights activists, the 2025 Youth in Action for Human Rights Awards recognize youth leaders, one individual and one group, whose work explicitly or implicitly reflects and promotes human rights values. Because young activists must nominate themselves for the awards, HRE USA urges adults familiar with their work to urge them to apply.

Nomination deadline: October 1, 2025.

For further information and nomination forms see:
>>  English: hre-usa-youth-in-action-award.my.canva.site/en
>>  Español: hre-usa-youth-in-action-award.my.canva.site/es

In the face of the unprecedented attacks on our public schools and our democratic institutions, workers, students, parents and community members across the country are planning to take coordinated action on May Day.  If you care about public education,  join in to make the fight for public schools front and center this May Day! 

Join us to build a vision that works for the many instead of the billionaires and their corporations.

Sign up below to get resources to help you take action, including beautiful posters you can print!

>> Learn more

Join Re-Imagining Migration and Woven Teaching on Wednesday, April 30 for a dynamic webinar for educators! In a period of rapid change and upheaval, join us to receive resources for supporting students in taking action to uphold inclusive, democratic values. Help students overcome feelings of apathy and disengagement with strategies and resources from two organizations committed to educating young people about their human rights, their responsibility to each other, and fostering communities where everyone belongs. 

Fighting Apathy With Action: Civic Education Today will be an interactive webinar for high school educators. Participants will receive free lessons and materials for teaching some of the most critical issues of the moment: protecting democracy, understanding stories of migration, building civic agency, and creating classroom environments where all students experience a sense of belonging. We will be sharing powerful examples of civic action to fight intolerance, including examples of civically engaged immigrant youth standing up in society and at school, demonstrating how belonging is built through meaningful participation.

Wednesday, April 30, 2025
4:00-5:30pm PT  /  7:00-8:30pm ET
Register >

Monday, May 19, 7:00 – 8:00 pm CT
In 2022, the US acknowledged its history of boarding schools designed to erase Native identities and seize land. Similar systems existed in Canada, Australia, and China to control Indigenous peoples and resources. This webinar examines these policies and efforts for legal justice.

Registration is required by Monday, May 19, 5:00 pm CT: www.worldwithoutgenocide.org/culturalgenocides

Date: Wednesday, May 7th, at 2pm PT / 5pm ET

Event #2: Participatory Storytelling Exhibitions

What does oral history look like in practice? What goes into community-rooted storytelling projects and what are the outcomes? Voice of Witness is hosting a series of intimate conversations with practitioners who have developed and activated dynamic oral history projects.

We’ll explore the connections between storytelling and community building, liberation, ethics, civic engagement, public art, narrative change, and more. Sharing reflections and challenges, VOW staff and guest speakers will offer insights into planning, conducting, and presenting oral history projects and their potential impact.

➡ Participatory Storytelling Exhibitions (with Mark Menjívar) on 5/7

➡ Documenting Refugee Stories (with Diya Abdo) on 5/21

>> Learn more