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HRE USA

A network dedicated to building a culture of human rights

Category: Education

unMASKing: The Pandemic Curriculum Project

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All around the world, we have put on masks to protect ourselves and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Yet the pandemic has also taken masks off so many human rights issues. Our free, open-sourced unMASKing: The Pandemic Curriculum Project provides educators with a roadmap to guide students, in a supportive and inclusive way, as they process these difficult and complex issues, explore the local and global impacts of COVID-19, and share their experiences.

This free, open-sourced curriculum created by HRE USA partners Generation Human Rights and Human Rights Education Associates is more than an academic program. It’s a resiliency program that empowers students to break free from the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic and reflect on their own life experiences, make tangible connections with their peers around the world, and create ways to be actively involved in their local communities.  The curriculum includes four modules: 

  • Understanding the Pandemic and Human Rights
  • Sharing Stories
  • Media Resources
  • Taking Action

>> Learn more and access the lesson plans

Teach the Black Freedom Struggle

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Teachers around the United States face the challenge of how to prepare to teach in the midst of the pandemic and a rebellion in defense of Black lives.

Students are turning to teachers to help them make sense of this new reality. Textbooks and the traditional curriculum are of no help as they hide the long history of white supremacy and the Black Freedom Struggle.

The Teach the Black Freedom Struggle campaign of the Zinn Education Project (coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change) supports teachers with free lessons for teaching about racism and anti-racist struggles, distribution to school districts of the book Teaching for Black Lives, teacher study groups, a podcast, online classes for teachers, and more.

The campaign is made possible through the generous support of Doug and Tara Baldwin, the Carroll Family Fund, Tricia Davis and Ben Haggerty (aka Macklemore), Zach Quillen, the Seahawks Players Equality & Justice for All Action Fund, and Bobby Wagner.

>> Learn more

Pedagogies for Human Rights Education and Intercultural Competence

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EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Time: 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. Eastern
Where: Live Stream
Cost:  Free

Please join the University of Connecticut’s’ Human Rights Institute for a lunchtime seminar with Sandra Sirota and Manuela Wagner entitled: “Pedagogies for Human Rights Education and Intercultural Competence.”

Sirota and Wagner will share how they planned and implemented a collaborative course on human rights education and intercultural citizenship in which students created educational projects for implementation in formal and non-formal settings. Topics will include main themes, examples of students’ projects, opportunities for collaboration and online course design, and challenges of online course design and implementation.

>> Learn more
>> Register

This event is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Institute and the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education. 

Human Rights Classrooms & Elections: Teaching the Day After

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Date: Friday, October 16, 2020
Time: 1:00 pm EST
Where: Zoom Call
Cost: Free

Description:
During this event, human rights educators will discuss how they plan to address anticipated challenges and opportunities with respect to teaching after the 2020 U.S. elections. They will also share techniques for ensuring an inclusive and respectful environment around teaching and discussing contentious issues.

Panelists:

  • Moderator: Sandra Sirota, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut.
  • Natalie Hudson, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Dayton
  • Rachel Wahl, Associate Professor in the Social Foundations Program, Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Policy at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia
  • Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Study of Law & Culture, Columbia University in the City of New York

>> Register

Organized by the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education.

Defenders of Human Rights and Democracy in Your Community

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The AFT has partnered with RFK Human Rights to create new resources for classroom teachers  on how to bring social justice, racial equity and democratic participation into the classroom. This new project, Defenders of Human Rights and Democracy in Your Community, provides classroom teachers with five new lessons that connect students with both historic and contemporary figures who have fought for civil rights, democracy and racial justice. Featured human rights defenders include Fannie Lou Hamer, Benjamin Hooks, and Dolores Huerta. These new lesson plans show students how to use political advocacy in their own communities to highlight their rights and their place in our democracy. As a result, students will more easily build the bridge between the past and what is going on in their communities today. The project makes civic activism a reality for today’s students and less removed from history.

>> Learn more and download lessons

60-Second Civics Series to Encourage Voting

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The Center for Civic Education has launched a nationwide initiative to focus its signature daily program, 60-Second Civics, on the right to vote in the weeks leading up to the November 3 national elections. Each day, 60-Second Civics will feature a podcast focused on voting, elections and representation and how those rights are protected under the Constitution.

“At the Center for Civic Education, we believe it is critical to ensure that all people have access to civics lessons that speak to our moment and bring to life constitutional principles like the power of voting,” said President Christopher R. Riano. “The ballot box is the cornerstone of our democracy, and I encourage every American to exercise our most fundamental right this year.”

60-Second Civics is a daily podcast that provides a quick and convenient way for listeners to learn about our nations government, the Constitution and our history. The podcast explores themes related to civics and government, the constitutional issues behind the headlines and the people and ideas that formed our nations history.

Each 60-Second Civics podcast episode will be accompanied by a Daily Civics Quiz, which teachers can use with the podcast as a warmup activity at the start of their history, government or social studies classes. The podcast will also include an audiogram, which is a captioned video animation of each episode. You can find the entire 60-Second Civics playlist on YouTube and a playlist devoted to this special series. You can also follow @60SecondCivics on Twitter, where we will be posting audiograms daily.

Quick Links:

The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors

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When: Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Time: 3:30 pm
Where: Live Stream Webinar
Cost: FREE

Our upcoming classroom film The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors offers a critical contribution to the unfolding conversation about what our children need to learn about American history. The 12-minute film for grades 6-12 introduces students to the history of Indigenous enslavement on land that is now the United States.

As historians featured in the film explain, the enslavement of Indigenous peoples stretched from Alaska into South America. It predated and helped shape the system of African enslavement in New England, and it lasted throughout the 19th century in the West. As award-winning historian Andrés Resendez says in the film, “This is our shared history.”

The film will be available to stream Monday, October 5 on tolerance.org.

To celebrate this new resource, we’re hosting a panel and Q&A with the filmmakers at Wednesday, October 7, at 3:30 p.m. The panel with be moderated by Teaching Hard History Advisory Board member Meredith McCoy and will feature the film’s director and editor Howdice Brown III and producers Marie Acemah and Alice Qannik Glenn.

>> Register here

Teaching Human Rights in Classrooms & Communities

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EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Thursday, October 7, 14, 21, 28
Time: 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Where: Live Stream
Cost:  Regular rate is $395. Early Bird rate of  $345 (Register by September 25th). Fellowships are available by application. 

Description:
In this online workshop for educators and practitioners, participants will develop or strengthen their capacity to engage in human rights education – to foster knowledge, skills, attitudes, and action for the protection and promotion of human rights among students using rights-based teaching methods. The workshop will include participatory learning activities and active discussions that draw on participants’ own knowledge and perspectives. The workshop will focus on both in-person and online teaching modalities. Participants will have the opportunity to receive feedback on activities they pilot within their own classrooms and communities.

>> Learn more and register

Power to the People Webinar Series

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EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Various dates and times in October
Where: Live Stream
Cost: FREE

Description:
The Center for Civic Education announces a free webinar series, “Power to the People,” featured throughout September and October. These webinars are designed for teachers and those interested in civics, government and U.S. history and in learning the different ways people participate in our government. The series launches with a review of recent Supreme Court cases by U.S. District Judge Mae Avila D’Agostino and Center for Civic Education President Christopher R. Riano. Subsequent webinars will feature scholars addressing Native American sovereignty, the Nineteenth Amendment and social movements, controversies surrounding monuments and flags, the criminal justice system, free speech, and voting rights. 

>> Learn more

Webinar Series: Engaging Students in Civics Education

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EVENT DETAILS: 
When: Thursdays throughout October
Time: Evening
Where: Live Stream
Cost: FREE

Description:
Join this new professional development webinar series on civic education every Thursday throughout October from AFT’s Share My Lesson with Facing History & Ourselves, iCivics, RFK Human Rights and more. You can see all of the webinars being offered in the new Civic Education and the 2020 Election collection on Share My Lesson and watch previously recorded webinars on-demand. More will be added as they become available.

>> Learn more and register

Webinar series on civic education:

Police in Schools: What the Data and Research Say and What You Need to Know
Defenders of Human Rights and Democracy in Your Community
PBS Teacher Planning Kits for New School Routines, Including Civics Lessons
Movie Screening and Conversation – All In: The Fight for Democracy
Webinar – Teaching ‘All In: The Fight for Democracy’
Lifting Up Parent and Educator Voices in Your Community During Times of Crisis
Understanding Immigration: The 2020 Election and Beyond
Election 2020: Teaching in Unpredictable Times
Learning to Speak Across Political Divides: Using PURPLE in the Classroom
Power to the Students: A Nonpartisan Guide for Empowering Youth to Engage in Elections
Election 2020: Are Your Students Ready to Take Informed Action?
Fundamental: Teaching Racial and Gender Justice Amid COVID-19
Civics in Real Life: Resources for Virtual Instruction
Tips for Remote Teaching in a Time of Controversy

We are grateful for the generous support of our members, individual donors, and The Puffin Foundation Ltd
The core values of HRE USA and its partner organizations include transparency and critical thinking skills. We believe that human rights--and human rights education--belong to everyone, and that the full realization of human rights means that access to human rights education materials must never be conditioned upon the subscription to any particular religious faith, ideology, political affiliation, or membership in any particular organization and that any organizational connections should be openly acknowledged.