More DEI at Rohan Woods

Links to sources and resources that are shared with our Rohan Woods School faculty and staff

As we work towards improving our knowledge of the world’s beautiful diversity, here is a link that you can share. It has a December calendar with upcoming holidays and observances. Consider incorporating an upcoming holiday or two during calendar time in younger grades, sharing as an interesting “fact of the day” in an older grade, or posting on your Google classroom.

Here is a link to a Diversity Resources page with a December 2022 Calendar

Updated Maps

Maps can be a great source of information about the world, but that’s only true if our maps are accurate. The world has changed a lot in recent memory. Take a look at the maps you use in your classroom or in your books and handouts. When were they printed? The last new country was added in 2011 (South Sudan), and there have been two name changes since then (Eswatini and North Macedonia). These changes often reflect independence movements or a way to better recognize the local culture.

This might be a good time to do a quick map update. For printables, I’ve found the maps at nationsonline.org to be fairly well updated with a large variety of maps. Or, consider using more dynamic maps (like Google Maps or Google Earth) to share geographic information with your students when possible.

Have you ever considered Color Blindness as part of DEI

Our classrooms look amazing this year! All the decorations and artwork make the rooms feel vibrant and bright. Given that around 8% of the population has some form of color blindness, have you considered the color schemes and patterns used in class materials?

The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) has some information here about color blindness in the classroom. The quick and easy thing to do – when possible, make sure that a lesson that isn’t explicitly about colors is able to be completed without needing to see colors. Combine colors with shapes, shading patterns, or labels if different parts of an assignment need to be identified, or use grayscale/black and white. The most commonly affected colors are red/green and blue/yellow, so those are some specific color pairings to avoid in your presentations and handouts.

Thinking about the colors you use can make a big difference in all students and families being able to read and see all the hard work we put into our classroom’s visuals. 

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