This year’s International Women’s Day theme was #ChooseToChallenge. Here at PowerTools, we #ChoosetoToChallenge the bias that trans, nonbinary, and cisgender women and girls continue to face. In the school setting, particularly for Black girls, this can look like adultification (perceiving Black girls to be older than they are), sexualization, lack of attention, and being overlooked for advanced classes, among other forms of pervasive racism and stereotyping.
Join us as we educate ourselves and our students about these issues while celebrating the incredible leadership among women and girls this Women’s History Month—and always!
Read up on these recent studies about race-based bias in the classroom and this Georgetown University study about the adultification bias that black girls routinely experience. In addition to becoming more aware of our own biases as educators, equity practices can be as simple as utilizing rubrics when grading papers, and using protocols (like Rotating Facilitation or a PickerWheel) to ensure equity of voices during classroom discussions.
Get to know these two great organizations doing work around gender equity: the Audre Lorde Project and Girls for Gender Equity.
Check out our latest resource, 10 Rad Women You Need to Know About and share it with your students. Here’s one way to do that: After selecting one or more of the history makers on the chart, students can
share prior knowledge (if any) about the person and their impact
dissect and respond to at least one of the history maker’s quotes
watch one of the short videos to gain background knowledge
read one of the articles (as a class, in small groups, or individually)
respond, reflect, and connect to their lives
Then use one of the PowerTools provided follow-up activities to help students reflect on and creatively share their knowledge of women making history RIGHT NOW. Click on the image below to read the activities and to follow a link to a detailed chart of 10 Women-identified history-makers with related videos, quotes and other resources.
It is our pleasure to offer this free resource for you, your students, and/or families.
