PowerTools has been reflecting on the past month as the state of the world has continued to unfold in unimaginable and yet perhaps unsurprising ways. To courageously open our eyes each day is to witness violence beget violence, trauma compounding trauma, oppression and racism in their myriad disguises. We are left with layers of questions as to how to begin to metabolize what we are witnessing as educators, and from that place begin to support ourselves and our students in taking appropriate action.

As educators working with youth in the United States, where do we locate ourselves in the midst of this time? What is the history we want our students to know? What is the history we want our students to inherit? As educators, how are we complicit? And where is our power? How do we support our students in finding their own power and claiming their agency as global citizens, becoming upstanders in their communities here and across oceans?

We offer these questions so we may collectively and individually begin to discover the answers by doing what we know how to do, educating ourselves and teaching each other. This compilation of resources is shared as a starting point to delve deeper into our learning.