Dear Teach Palestine Project family,
Although this has been a rough fall to be a teacher—all the pedagogical, emotional, and physical stresses of teaching while still in the midst of a pandemic—we hope you’re finding joy in being back in the classroom with students and that you’re staying healthy.
The right-wing attacks on teaching Palestine, Ethnic Studies, Black Lives Matter, and Critical Race Theory have been horrifying. We’re working with educator activists across the country to organize a more united approach, and we’ll keep you posted as that develops. Let us know what’s happening in your area! We’d love to talk and connect you with organizing efforts in your area if that would be helpful.
We just added new curriculum to the website based on Jody’s recently published book, Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village. Determined to Stay builds on an understanding of settler colonialism in the US and Palestine, with the goal of helping educators bring Palestine into their classrooms and make connections to issues that youth face here in the United States. Here’s a link to Nina Shoman-Dajani’s review of the book in the new issue of Rethinking Schools magazine.
We’re excited to see educators starting to use the book in their classrooms—and we’d like to support any way we can. We may be able to get you a class set—just let us know what you need!
We created two lessons based on the book. “Determined to Stay: A Case Study” is a stand-alone lesson—designed for a day or two of teaching. It uses narratives from the book for a jigsaw activity that introduces students to the connections between ongoing colonial conquest in Palestinian and the United States.
“Determined to Stay: An Introduction” is designed as an introductory activity to teaching the book itself. It includes more voices to create interest and questions about reading the book. Both lessons include an energizer, background information and essential vocabulary.
Determined to Stay centers on the Palestinian village of Silwan, just south of Jerusalem’s Old City. To learn more about Silwan, join us for a virtual brunch featuring Silwani community leader Jawad Siyam and Jody, December 5 at 10 am PST/1 pm EST. Hope to see you there!
We’ve also added new resources, so check out the rest of the Teach Palestine website. And, if you can, support the Teach Palestine Project!
In solidarity,
Samia and Jody