Happy December! In this issue, trainer Dionne Grayman breaks down for us why self-care is part of building a stronger community. Plus, we share a new lesson on efforts to ban Toni Morrison's acclaimed novels, and, as always, we offer up some good stuff to read.

We also want to send our heartfelt gratitude to all those who have given to our #BrooklynGives, #GivingTuesday campaign. We blew past our target! But the campaign is still on, so if you haven't given yet there still time. Here's where to give!

"Self-care isn’t just an essential part of communal care, it is what makes community possible," writes Morningside Center trainer Dionne Grayman in her latest See and Be Seen post. 

For the Holidays: Handle Feelings by ‘Naming to Tame Them’ 

Simple social and emotional learning activities for welcoming, engaging, and closing our gatherings with the youngest students. By Lainie Rowell, Naomi Toland at Edutopia.

“It’s so hard and so challenging”: An oral history of year three of pandemic schooling. "Teachers, parents and administrators from across the country told us what it’s like to be in school this year and how completely not normal it’s already become." From Hechinger Report.

The Invention of Thanksgiving: Massacres, Myths, and the Making of the Great November Holiday. We are revisiting this article by Philip Deloria, published in the New Yorker magazine in November 2019.