In year three, we will deepen our skill, will, knowledge, capacity and courage as Anti-Racist Educators working to create Anti-Racist Classrooms. Like previous years, this course is designed to be an interactive and adaptive experience and includes guests, storytelling, and resources for personal and professional development. The course is offered in two cohorts: Prek-5th and 6-12th. Participants of each cohort will engage in six monthly synchronous sessions, readings, reflections and assignments.  

All sessions meet from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. on Zoom. Clock hours, EA In-Service hours, and BOSA CEUs are available (dependent on bargaining unit and licensure) for those who attend sessions and complete post-session coursework. Sessions are synchronous and virtual. An asynchronous missed/make-up option is offered between sessions for cohort participants. Completion of Year One and Year Two is not required to join Year Three. All interested are encouraged to participate!

In year two, we will deepen our skill, will, knowledge and capacity as Anti-Racist Educators working to create Anti-Racist Classrooms. Utilizing the book Raising Race Questions: Whiteness and Inquiry in Education as a guiding text, the course is designed to be an interactive and adaptive experience and will include special guests, storytelling, and digital resources for personal and professional development. Participants will engage in eight monthly synchronous sessions facilitated by Dr. Ali Michael and special guests.

This year's course will also offer 5 in-service credit hours for licensed staff who complete the full course. Those working toward in-service credit will engage in additional inquiry group learning as a model for self-discovery and collective reflection - exploring race and intersectional identities, educational and facilitation practice, and social justice awareness and action. Inquiry groups will meet monthly to review and discuss their individual process using research strategies for gathering data identified in the course.

Participants will also engage in additional monthly readings, review of resources, course assignments, and portfolio development. Educators completing this course will have a final digital portfolio highlighting their key learning from the synchronous sessions, Inquiry Group process, artifacts of implementation of practice, and vignettes of personal reflections throughout the course of study.

Learning about race and Whiteness can be confusing, contentious, and frightening, par­ticularly for White people. Even just asking questions about race can be scary due to fear around what our questions might reveal about our ignorance or bias.  Dr. Ali Michael invites us into this conversation with a vision that is worth working for: a healthy multiracial community. In this course we will explore how a strong positive racial identity in students has been linked to social and academic success in school. We will discuss educators' need to be as mindful of racial identity development as they are of child and brain development. We will address the necessity for educators to have a strong personal racial identity, as well as why race matters in schools and school districts, and how and why the teacher's understanding of race matters in the classroom. Finally, we will consider how creating racially equitable schools requires educators, administrators, and school district staff to do personal work. We engage in racial equity education and practice at SPPS because we long for a healthy multiracial community--in our city and in our schools. We will look at how race matters on the systemic level, in terms of achievement and opportunity, and will serve as a think tank for exploring ways in which educators, administrators, and school district staff can take the lead in making change.

Course faciliated by Dr. Ali Michael, with additional guests, Wendy Thompson, Dr. Samuel Torres, and Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr.