Our organization is deeply indebted to Indigenous people, on whose land we live, and whose practices are core to our work. Below, see the blog and land acknowledgement statement just issued by our Indigenous Peoples and Cultures Workgroup.

Also: A new lesson on the relationship of Indigenous people to water and their struggles for clean water, and an activity that engages students in issues in the 2020 election. Plus, a new article on Edutopia on how to focus on students' well-being this year - and other good stuff to read and watch.

"We at Morningside Center offer our gratitude for the practices of Indigenous peoples. We acknowledge and pay our respect to Native and Indigenous cultures that have taught us many of the practices we use in our work every day. Our offering of gratitude itself is an essential part of our learning from Indigenous practices that have existed for centuries, and in some instances, for millennia." See our statement and land acknowledgement.

School this year won't be business as usual. And it shouldn’t be. Instead, writes Morningside Center senior trainer Marieke van Woerkom in her current article for Edutopia, "care and healing must be a central focus as we welcome students back to class this month.”

This lesson by Adriana Guzman allows students grades 6-12 to deepen their understanding of Indigenous peoples' relationship with the earth. Students engage with two short films about peoples’ resistance to the privatization and loss of access to clean drinking water.

Voting rights, climate change, Black Lives Matter, Covid, immigration... In this activity, students reflect on the issues they care about in the 2020 presidential election, research those issues, and discuss what it's like to talk with those who disagree with us.

In this 30-page pdf, we've collected 19 classroom activities and guidelines to help you and your students get this challenging school year off to a good start. They'll help you connect and create a community with each other – even if it must be online. Most activities can be adapted for students from grades 3-12; some are designed specifically for younger grades.

Morningside staff developer Marisa Zalabak is giving a TEDx talk this Saturday, October 10. This is a free, livestreamed event. Talks start at 10am. Watch the livestream here: http://tedxfarmingdale.com

Educators Pablo Muriel and Alan Singer share four approaches for engaging secondary school students in understanding and acting on issues in the 2020 election: as policy wonks, fact-checkers, democratic dialoguers, and civic activists. At the Daily Kos.

Educators for Justice Instagram: How Can We Incorporate Latinx history and culture into the curriculum and classroom? Morningside Center's Sully Diaz joined an Educators for Justice Instagram forum with Dr. Angel Jones, Stephanie Castillo-León, and Dra Cathy Duarte Gastelum over on the @educatorsforjustice Instagram. (See Sully at at 38:00!)

-Morningside’s Land Acknowledgement Statement