
SPOTLIGHT ON DEI
A monthly newsletter around equity in education

SPOTLIGHT ON DEI - ISSUE 4
This Issue's Theme: Be A Changemaker (Women's History Month)
In this issue of Spotlight on DEI, in spirit of Women's History Month, we will celebrate the Change Makers, and help you identify the changemaker in you and empower your students too!
Read Resolution #34/2023-2024 Recognizing March as Women's History Month here...
International Women's Day & Women's History Month
International Women's Day (March 8, 2024) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
Women's History Month (March 1 - March 31, 2024) is the entire month of March celebrating the courageous women who have helped to build the United States to become a more equitable, and more just society.
Intersectionality and Gender Equality
The two terms go hand in hand and should be at the forefront of our celebrations for Women's History Month. Acknowledging and applying the lens of Intersectionality as a key function in the movement for Gender Equality opens the space for an inclusive space & equitable movement.
We are able to better understand one another and work towards a common goal - a bright opportunistic, and equitable future for all.
Kimberlé Crenshaw, is an American law professor who coined the term in 1989, explained Intersectional feminism as, “a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other,” in a recent interview with TIME.
Video provided by El Rincon's Diversity & Equity Committee, thank you!
Notable Figures - who are they?
Click on the person of interest to learn more about their background and achievements
Bella Abzug
Bella Abzug, was a Jewish, feminist and civil rights advocate, embodied many Americans’ discontent with the political establishment in the tumultuous Vietnam War era.
LaDonna Harris
Comanche activist LaDonna Harris is the founder and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity.
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson is often credited with kickstarting the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, which helped launch the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Curriculum Library
✨ Lesson Plan from the Library of Congress:
Suffrage Strategies: Voices for Votes
✨ Online Exhibits From the National Women's History Museum
✨ Activity from Teaching Tolerance
Think Outside the Box: Brainstorming About Gender Stereotypes (Grades K-5)
✨ Activity from Center for Healthy Teen Relationships
Editor's Selection for Women's History Month for your Libraries
Justice Rising - 12 Amazing Black Women
Grade Level: 1st - Fourth
You've heard the names Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, but what about the many other women who were crucial to the civil rights movement?
Told through twelve short biographies, this book celebrates just some of the many Black women--each of whom has been largely underrepresented until now--who were instrumental to the nation's fight for civil rights and the contributions they made in driving the Movement forward.
An empowering, eye-opening look at how one person can impact greater change, this book is both a conversation starter and much-needed history lesson for our modern world.
Sharice's Big Voice
Grade Level: Preschool - Third
This acclaimed picture book autobiography tells the triumphant story of Sharice Davids, one of the first Native American women elected to Congress, and the first LGBTQ congressperson to represent Kansas.
When Sharice Davids was young, she never thought she’d be in Congress. And she never thought she’d be one of the first Native American women in Congress. During her campaign, she heard from a lot of doubters. They said she couldn’t win because of how she looked, who she loved, and where she came from.
Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpre'
Grade Level: Preschool - Third
An inspiring picture book biography of storyteller, puppeteer, and New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian, who championed bilingual literature. When she came to America in 1921, Pura Belpré carried the cuentos folklóricos of her Puerto Rican homeland. Finding a new home at the New York Public Library as a bilingual assistant, she turned her popular retellings into libros and spread story seeds across the land. Today, these seeds have grown into a lush landscape as generations of children and storytellers continue to share her tales and celebrate Pura’s legacy.
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World
Grade Level: Fourth - Seventh
Throughout history and across the globe, one characteristic connects the daring women of Brazen: their indomitable spirit.
With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Pénélope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison or Josephine Baker to Naziq al-Abid, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies.
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood up for Education and Changed the World
Grade Level: Five & Up
Malala Yousafzai was only ten years old when the Taliban took control of her region. They said music was a crime. They said women weren't allowed to go to the market. They said girls couldn't go to school.
Raised in a once-peaceful area of Pakistan transformed by terrorism, Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes. So she fought for her right to be educated. And on October 9, 2012, she nearly lost her life for the cause: She was shot point-blank while riding the bus on her way home from school. No one expected her to survive. Now Malala is an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The Lightning Dreamer : Cuba's greatest abolitionist
By Engle, Margarita
Grade Level: 7-9
“I find it so easy to forget / that I’m just a girl who is expected / to live / without thoughts.”
Opposing slavery in Cuba in the nineteenth century was dangerous. The most daring abolitionists were poets who veiled their work in metaphor. Of these, the boldest was Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, nicknamed Tula. In passionate, accessible verses of her own, Engle evokes the voice of this book-loving feminist and abolitionist who bravely resisted an arranged marriage at the age of fourteen, and was ultimately courageous enough to fight against injustice. Historical notes, excerpts, and source notes round out this exceptional tribute.
Girl's Health Resources
For more than 30 years, FUTURES has been providing groundbreaking programs, policies, and campaigns that empower individuals and organizations working to end violence against women and children around the world.
Striving to reach new audiences and transform social norms, we train professionals such as doctors, nurses, judges, and athletic coaches on improving responses to violence and abuse. We also work with advocates, policymakers, and others to build sustainable community leadership and educate people everywhere about the importance of respect and healthy relationships.
Our vision is a future without violence that provides education, safety, justice, and hope.
The Center for Young Women’s Health (CYWH) is a partnership between the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine and the Division of Gynecology, at Boston Children’s Hospital. The Center is an educational entity that is committed to providing adolescents and young people with carefully researched health information, educational programs, and community spaces. The mission of our website is to help girls, young women, transgender and nonbinary young people, intersex young people, caregivers, educators, and health care providers to improve their understanding of health and development, as well as specific diseases and conditions. We want to empower young people around the world to take an active role in their own health care.
Offers girls reliable, useful information on health and well-being. We cover hundreds of topics, from getting your period to stopping bullies, and from getting fit to preventing sexually transmitted infections. We make our pages clear and fun, and we make sure to answer key questions girls ask. Girlshealth.gov is committed to empowering girls to create strong, positive relationships and happy, healthy futures.
CDC: Elevating Girls’ Health, Worldwide
Many girls around the world face challenges to their health and well-being. In many places, girls are disadvantaged by discrimination rooted in cultural beliefs and ideas about gender. Gender inequality puts girls’ health and well-being at risk by causing girls to face barriers to getting health information and services and placing them at increased risk for health and safety issues.
Read on to learn about some of the challenges girls across the world face and how CDC is helping to improve the health and wellbeing of girls.
March 19th - the First Day of the Persian New Year, Nowruz
Ramadan Kareem to our CCUSD Community!
Submissions
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