Social+Justice+web+links

Social Justice Web Links
Please add your social justice themed web links to this page along with a title and an explanation of the site.



//Understanding Prejudice: Tips for Elementary Teachers// //[]// A website offering teachers ideas and references on integrating social justice themes into their teaching. Includes tips for elementary teachers on creating an inclusive environment, integrating student experiences, and dealing with behavior issues. Easy to navigate, the tabs on the left can take you to further readings and resources, exercises and demonstrations according to topic, multimedia suggestions, relevant organizations, and other links. Key topics of focus include: racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and genocide. May be particularly helpful to older grades. (EF)

Connexions Online [] "//**Connexions** works to connect individuals and organizations working for social change with each other, with information and ideas, and with the wider community."// This website is a great teacher resource to find out more on issues, organizations, and resources that could be brought into the classroom. I would use this as a starting place to expand my own background knowledge on social justice issues. Resources include articles, books, current events, and web links. This website is geared for a more general audience (not just limited to teachers), and the information is extensive. (EF)

//3PLUS-U// [] This site is awesome! It is kind of like a video game, but full of useful information about acceptance and cultural differences. The student uses the mouse to click on characters, books, etc. and it provides them with an array of information. For example, if you click on a book that Kaia has in her library, you are given 9 stories about kids who “have been affected by child labor, forced labor, freedom of association and discrimination.” This is a really fun, interactive, and integrated way to incorporate social justice and technology into your classroom. (KD)

// World Peace Tolerance Diversity International Kids Club //[] This site is a great resource for students and teachers alike! The focus is on peace and tolerance for diversity, and giving kids the tools to interact peacefully with others. Students can print of Peace Puzzles and complete them, send Peace Ribbons to friends, and play other fun peace-themed games as well. There is also a link to the International Kids Club, where students can find history about peace, and find quotes and a dictionary of peace-related terms. There is also a multitude of games and activities for kids to do on their own or with others. Students and teachers can also follow links to learn more about the Nobel Peace Prize, the peace symbol, International Peace Day, and all kinds of information surrounding peace and love. (EH)

//DiversityCouncil.Org// [] This website provides a wealth of ideas and activities for teachers of preschoolers and primary students. The activities may be a little young for some intermediate students. All of the activities center around tolerance and accepting one another. One example is a lesson plan surrounding Dr. Seuss’ __The Sneetches.__ Students work with the ideas of acceptance and stereotypes for several days, and connect their learning to their own lives in learning what they can do to be fair to each other and everyone else in the school. Each activity links to a lesson plan, activity materials, or site that provides more information and ideas for activities. Most of these activities provide connections to students’ lives and ways they can improve their world by tolerating and accepting others. (EH)

// Reach and Teach: Transforming the World through Teachable Moments // //[|[[http://www.reachandteach.com/content/index.phpThis|http://www.reachandteach.com/content/index.php]]]// This is a web page that is full of ideas, games, poster, books, music, and other resources to fill your classroom with. Absolutely everything that is made available on this web page is intended to help make the world a more loving place by creating “teachable moments”. The site was created by **Derrick Kikuchi and Craig Wiesner after they spent some time in countries that were torn apart by civil wars. They site states that “ **despite the damage inflicted on these people and the pain they endured, they welcomed their American friends into their homes, fed these guests their best food, gave up their own beds, and showered their guests with complete hospitality, kindness and love. These people who had so little gave so much to visiting strangers. In that community seeds were planted that began to grow inside Craig and Derrick, moving them deeper into a quest for a more peaceful and just planet.” //Reach and Teach// advertises it’s self as “a treasure hunter, searching the planet for that special something that mainstream bookstores won't promote.” In 2008, the creators of //Reach and Teach// were chosen to be two of the Palo Alto Media Centers Local Heroes. (KD)

Teaching Tolerance: [|www.tolerance.org] Teaching Tolerance is a magazine that is available for educators. The Teaching Tolerance website provides resources for teachers that include lessons or classroom activities having to deal with topics, such as, multicultural education, race, family values, and many others. The website is easy to follow and navigate through in finding thought provoking articles about social justice topics and appropriate lessons for many different grade levels. (ST)

 National Association for Multicultural Education: [|http://nameorg.org] NAME is an organization for people who are interested in multicultural education in all grade levels and different academic disciplines. Members of NAME include educators, parents, counselors, social workers, psychologists, librarians, and many others. Members of NAME also come from all over the United States and many other countries. The NAME website provides links to published articles about various multicultural education topics and social justice issues. There are also separate links identified for parents and educators where parents can find resources, such as, web links, and articles about multicultural education. Educators will find this site useful and helpful because of the lessons and activities that teachers could use in their classrooms. (ST)

//Women who changed history//. Retrieved from []

This website is dedicated to women and how they have effected and changed history. It is aimed to be a teacher resource but it would also be good for students to migrate through some of the pages. There is an article and interview with the first women and first African American women in space, information about Amelia Earhart as well as activities. There is also information about Melba Pallito, one of the first African American women to integrate in Little Rock, Arkansas. There is a page where you can explore the history of women’s suffrage. This includes a teacher guide and related booklist. There is also a section called More to Explore that will lead you to more sites connected to Scholastic that talk about related topics. JI

//WayBack, stand up for your rights//. Retrieved from []

This website deals with religious freedom, women and the right to vote, and school desegregation. It has articles about specific people that were involved in each of those three topics. There are also lots of real photos or drawings of the people and places they talk about in the articles. After students read the articles there is also a quiz page where they can test their “civil rights brainpower.” Another great thing about this website is there is an interactive like interview with Melba Patillo Beal, one of the first African American students to attend Little Rock Central High. A really great place to get discussion going and to view comments of other visitors to the site is on the Snap Shot page where there is a photo and the question, “What do you think of when you look at this photograph?” This website is really easy to use and fun too. JI

//Big Apple History: From New York to Your Town.// Retrieved from []

This is an interactive website that has information and activities about Ellis Island, and how people have immigrated to the United States over the centuries. Students can learn about New York City at different times in history, see how immigrants shaped the city and the country as waves of immigrants came from around the world, and learn about life in New York for immigrants. The website consists of information on different aspects of immigration and how immigration has affected the United States. There are activities where kids can write poetry, build virtual parks or businesses, and see what a day in the life of a New York resident was like. There are also a number of links to related websites, such as poetry and slavery. There are not many games on this site, but there is access to a wealth of great information for students who are looking to learn more about immigration and related topics. EH

//FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing//. Retrieved from: [] This site advocates for fair and unbiased standardized testing in the United States, and draws attention to current problems with cultural bias in standardized tests at all grade levels. FairTest offers information on how such test scores are utilized, and how to implement authentic assessment in classrooms at all grade levels. FairTest also produces a newsletter that is available online monitoring current events in the world of standardized testing. LL

//Teachers For Social Justice//. Retrieved from http://teachersforjustice.org/

This website was created by teachers, administrators, and other educators working in Chicago public, private, charter, and independent schools. They state that their goal is to work toward “classrooms and schools that are anti-racist, multicultural / multilingual, and grounded in the experiences of our students.” It contains a calendar for upcoming events (such as Curriculum Fairs), as well as a list of teacher activist groups such as NYCore, Education for liberation Network, Literacy for Social Justice in St. Louis, etc. It also contains a database for social justice curriculum, such as “Radical Math” and “Education for Liberation”. (Lauren Fortugno)

//Youth on Board.// Retrieved from http://www.youthonboard.org/site/c.ihLUJ7PLKsG/b.2039165/k.BE6D/Home.htm

Youth on Board is an organization whose goal is to allow youth and adults to work together to create a better society. They do this partly by offering coaching and consulting services whose goal is to allow youth “move from the margins of their communities into the center.” Youth on Board wants to get young people involved, and get their voices out there. Youth on Board can work with clients over a period of months or even years, however long it takes for them to accomplish their goals. They work with schools, non-profit organizations, cities, foundations and agencies. Their website contains information about: How they help, Examples, Clients, Resources and more. (Lauren Fortugno)

//Feeding America// Retrieved from http://feedingamerica.org/

Feeding America is actually a network "made up of individuals, local food banks, national offices, as well as corporate and government partners. " The website states the best way to work towards ending world hunger is to work together. Through government funding they support food banks across the nation. Their website contains information about how to donate, where to find a food bank, stories from people across the nation, their partners, and much more. It also contains many hunger facts, some categories include: Child Hunger Facts, Rural Hunger, Low Income Families and Hunger/Poverty Statistics. (Lauren Fortugno)

Rethinking Schools Online. Retrieved from []

Rethinking Schools Online is an non-profit organization started by a group of teachers from Milwaukee//, "They wanted not only to improve education in their own classrooms and schools, but to help shape reform throughout the public school system in the United States."// This website is an online educational journals that contains different varieties of articles and resources for teachers and social justices purposes, provided by teachers who want to share their stories and experiences. Rethinking Schools is not only just an online resource full of articles and journals, they also have several publications that focuses on critical topics in school reform and social studies related issues. (Vincy O'Dore)

Washington Educators for Social Justice []. This website contains many great resources for teachers interested in addressing social justice in the classroom. Their homepage includes a date for their next social justice teaching conference at PLU in the spring for any educator who would like to join the organization. Another great part of this website is the list of recommended books focused on social justice teaching and the list of links to professional organizations that support social justice. This organization brings social justice down to a local scale. (AM)

Teaching For Change. Retrieved from [] Teaching For Change is an organization that provides different varieties of educational resources and tools for parents and teachers. The organization provides professional development opportunities for teachers, workshops and trainings designed for parents. There is a link on this website that provides a catalog of variety of books and resources for K – 12 social justice curriculum. Teaching For Change is partner with Rethinking Schools in producing several educational publications for parents and teachers. (Vincy O’Dore)

[] Justice Learning A website that provides an exploration of the issues of affirmative action, civil liberties in war, death penalty, free speech, gun control, juvenile justice, and more. Also provides interactive quizzes, a guide to the constitution, and teaching materials focused on social justice themes. All materials are current through June 30, 2008, when Justice Learning's grant funding expired. There is a ton of useful information in this site-- well worth your time browsing. (KJF)

[] The Freechild Project “The Freechild Project provides tools and training to young people and adults that engage children and youth in social change.” This is an eight year old program dedicated to empowering children to make a difference in the world, making it a more “democratic, nonviolent, and engaging” place to live. The site itself presents the issues involved (why they exist), actions involved (how people are responding), and special resources available (tools for change). The site also has a blog section, bookmarks, wiki, and facebook link. The program is partnered with Soundout: student voice in schools, Youth on Board, and the NYRA. (KJF)

[] Teachable Moment Teachable Moment is a center for teaching social responsibility. The site provides links for teachers of elementary through high school grades. Teachable moment is a creation of Morningside Center, which is an organization devoted to educating young people for “hopeful and intelligent engagement with their world.” The link dedicated to the elementary grades specifically contains everything from lesson plans for teaching controversial issues to articles on dealing with anger in the classroom. The site collaborates information from a variety of authors/teachers. (KJF)

edHelper.com** [] This is a great resource for teachers because it has units organized by grade level for convenience under each category of social studies. What I really found useful as far as social justice issues were concerned was the “World Problems and Issues” category which takes different issues around the world from different months of the year (current events ideas) and details what category of social studies those problems fit into. Each week of the month there is a new issue, and usually there are grade level suggestions for the lesson plans/units, which of course can be tweaked, but a great resource to be aware of when looking for ideas regarding how the world handles the same issues we may be dealing with in America. //**Note: a $20/year subscription is required to access materials.// (Jen Hitt) Reach and Teach – transforming the world through teachable moments [] The Reach and Teach Mission reads, “the peace and social justice learning company, is helping to transform the world through teachable moments. We offer books, games, puzzles, toys, curriculum, music, posters, DVDs, maps, and other products for people of all ages.” An excellent resource if looking for children’s literature, professional development workshops and texts, or lesson plans. Through all the resources listed in their mission statement, this company’s goal is to provide all that is available for teachers in hopes to change the minds and attitudes of our youth to be better aware of the world around them, and to learn and grow with that knowledge. (Jen Hitt) Center for Anti-Oppressive Education [] “The Center for Anti-Oppressive Education (CAOE) recognizes that the quality of education cannot improve unless we commit to challenging the racism, classism, sexism, and other oppressions that permeate our schools and societies.” This website offers tremendous professional development resources – workshops, presentations and conferences – in hopes that we as teachers will be well informed about the social justice issues in our world, and in our classroom. By offering an annual conference that is nationally recognized, this organization truly is trying to move our schools towards being anti-oppressive. (Jen Hitt)