Events
Black Teacher Leadership & Sustainability Institute
Thursday–Saturday, June 6–8 | Waterfront Hotel, Oakland, CA
- Frameworks and protocols that foster equity-centered teaching, learning, and leadership
- The implicit and explicit work of Black teachers in the United States
- How to navigate individual and organizational dynamics that impede the development and sustainability of Black teachers
- Deepened understanding of socio-political contexts and how racial oppression affects education policies and practice. We believe working toward liberation means understanding how oppression plays out!
- The importance of emotional intelligence and wellness for Black teachers in schools
- Concrete skills for health, wellness, and leadership in challenging contexts
- Research, strategies, and tools to support the leadership and sustainability of Black teachers in an oppressive system
Who should attend?
Black teachers and educators working in district, charter, private and independent TK-12 schools who are able to attend the full course.
BTP Bay Area Meetup: The Joy In Our Existence Is Resistance
Saturday, April 20, 2024 | Kinfolx, Oakland, CA | 7:00 to 10:00pm PT
The Black Teacher Project proudly invites you to our Bay Area meetup in Oakland, CA! This event is a joyous convening where you can break bread build, share libations, and build community with other Black school-based educators in the area. Come through! We’ll have games, good food and great people.
What You Can Expect:
Participants will experience an evening of Black joy that includes food, fellowship, music, dancing, games, and prizes!
Participants will have lightly-facilitated opportunities to connect with other Bay Area-based Black educators.
Participants will walk away nourished spiritually from all the Black joy. They will also get to meet educators across other schools and districts, learning from others’ challenges and successes.
Meet Your Host: Spencer Pritchard is currently a teacher and Co-Chair of the African American Studies Department at Berkeley High School. He has taught various social science courses within the department – African American History, Black Economics, Black Psychology and more. He has participated in many BTP events and programs, even facilitating a Book Club session where they read Shawn Ginwright’s Hope & Healing in Urban Education. Along with being a passionate community organizer, he also advises the BHS Black Student Union and is a facilitator for his union’s Teacher of Color Network.
Who should attend? Black teachers and educators working in district, charter, private and independent TK-12 schools who are able to attend the full event.
Date and Time: Saturday, March 16, 2024 from 7:00pm –10:00 pm. Light snacks will be provided and the first 50 registrants will receive one free Kinfolx drink ticket.
Location: Kinfolx, 1951 Telegraph Ave Suite 4, Oakland, CA 94612. Click to view the space.
Black Teacher Project Virtual Meetup: Mental Health is Wealth
Saturday, May 4, 2024 | Virtual (Zoom) | 12:00 to 1:30pm ET
As Black educators working to provide quality educational experiences to our young people, it’s important to remember to tend to our own wellness in the midst of the fast-paced nature of our work. Mental health is wealth, especially in our profession in these turbulent times. This free workshop is an opportunity for Black teachers and educators to tap into some simple strategies to support getting grounded and centered when stress is high and on the rise.
We will engage in mindful breathing and chair yoga together while sharing strategies that have helped us find balance and creating a container of accountability to prioritize our mental health. Participants can expect to release tension in a safe Black racial affinity space and practice letting go of that which hinders our mental well being.
The first 20 people to sign up and attend the event will receive a gift of the The Nap Ministry’s Rest Deck: 50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture!
What You Can Expect:
- Participants will learn and practice different strategies that support mental health and wellbeing.
- Participants will reflect on ways to prioritize self care in their contexts as Black educators.
- Participants will have an opportunity to connect with other Black educators to learn with and from this affinity community.
Meet Your Host: Dr. LaTesa Brown is a Black Teacher Project Advisory Board Member and participated in Cohort 3 of the BTP Fellowship program. In her current role as an 8th grade science teacher, she serves a special population on an all boys team in Durham, North Carolina. Though Dr. Brown’s current core subject content is science, she also teaches her students writing skills, critical thinking, and citing scientific evidence. LaTesa is currently a National Board Candidate, as well as a graduate student at Duke University aiming to receive a degree/certification in Academically and Intellectually Gifted Studies. Dr. Brown is an active part of the community at large and has licenses and certifications in Ministry, Education, and YOGA. She is led to cultivate positivity in her school’s environment for children, teachers, and staff alike. LaTesa has been set apart to be a catalyst for change in her school building and does not take the charge lightly.
Dr. Brown has over 20 years of experience as a teacher of children in general educational settings, alternative educational settings and as a teacher of children with exceptionalities. Over her years within this teacher calling/activism, she has been blessed to grow many “first loves of learning” by building trusting relationships with marginalized students that were flowers in concrete cracks.
LaTesa lives for empowerment and advocacy in her community and nation. She believes in raising the bar of her students; ancestral greatness already lives within them! Dr. Brown is proud to be a positive disruptor. She cares about the future generations that have been unseen for far too long. As an educational conference speaker/presenter, LaTesa works on the front lines to create and share ways to affect change against the adverse societal conditions caused by cultural-biased practices. She is compassionate about the power of learning, and does not believe in square pegs being thrown to the side because they do not fit into the round holes of society. Dr. Brown is a strong beliver that demographics and environmental complexities that are beyond childhood controls should not drive trajectories, nor produce life-time labels.
Who should attend? All Black educators who are looking for a space to recalibrate and center care in their practice and personal lives.
Date and Time: Saturday, May 4, 2024 from 12:00 – 1:30pm ET
Location: Virtual (Zoom)