When I received my copy of Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance ) magazine last month and read the cover article on the “Curb-Cut Effect,” a lightbulb went off.  This was such a clear and concise way to explain much of what we are trying to do through our DEIJ work.  You can read the article here , but this is the gist of what I took away: In the 1970s we started cutting curbs in cities and installing ramps to improve access to city spaces for people in wheelchairs.  It was a targeted intervention to help one group of people.   In the 50 years since then, curb-cuts and ramps have improved accessibility for people with strollers, delivery men and women, those with luggage, etc.  A targeted intervention for one group has improved conditions for many other groups .  Making changes to our teaching practice or school policy to improve access to our curriculum, the physical building, our extracurricular activities, or our school community and cultur...

Hi folks ... when you get a sec check out this article from the Granite States News Collaborative.  It takes you inside a semester-long project involving 101 students across Dennis and Kristina's English classes where three big things happened: --the learning experience centered on students' voices and the stories of people from a range of backgrounds --the curriculum was tuned to reflect evolving realities and big-picture school and district goals --the school partnered with community allies - in this case Exeter's Racial Unity Team and artist-mentors from both coasts.

The Blue Highways of SAU-16 Dan Provost  Just before Thanksgiving 2020 I was wrapping up a Module with my honors sophomore English class where we explored the tension between “home” and “the road” using William Least Heat Moon’s memoir Blue Highways . Least Heat Moon derives his title from the old gas station road maps, where the major interstate highways are designated in red, and the winding “backroads” are designated in blue. The author was determined to see the country through its backroads, the “blue highways,” and see what he could glean from stopping and chatting with the people whose lives the busy interstates had passed by. We were about to start our next book, extending our home/road theme with The Book of Unknown Americans , a fictional account that tracks the lives of a Latinx community in a Delaware housing project. I thought it would be cool if I could deliver the books to my students, to go on the road like William Least Heat Moon--so I got their permission, looked u...

 DEIJ at EHS Our first meeting will be Tuesday, September 28th at 2:40 in Dan Provost's room (F240).  We will meet monthly on the 4th Tuesday of each month.  ALL ARE WELCOME!