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Current Year: '25-'26 School Year
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- September: What is keeping us together, focused, and motivated to do this work in 2025?
- October: Revisiting the Helms White Identity Model
- November: Learning from White Anti-Racists of the Past
- December: How can we identify and challenge white supremacy culture in ourselves and our institutions?
- January: How can we create classroom culture that resists white supremacy and that nourishes Black joy?
- February: How can we co-create joy with students?
- March: How can we prepare our schools to support students in the face of ICE terror?
- April: How can we build lasting partnerships with co-conspirators?
- May: How can we develop a joyful anti-racist practice?
- June: How will your work this year move your BARWE group towards being more engaged locally and beyond to stand up for those fighting for justice?
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Current Year: '25-'26 School Year
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The May Staff Pick: Jenn on Joyful Accountability
Essential Question: How can we develop a joyful anti-racist practice?
If this is your first year doing this series, you might consider using our Inquiry Series 3 material for the year or hosting an orientation meeting using our September material before moving on to the current month.
Don't forget to talk back!
Overview:
If you are a classroom teacher, May is a wild month! Many of us are balancing standardized tests, preparation for end-of-year celebrations, and the sound of summer getting closer and closer each day. This is the kind of month in which it is easy to say “I can’t make the BARWE meeting, I’m just too swamped.”
We at BARWE core want to say: we feel you! And, the reason we created BARWE is that we want to help teachers develop an anti-racist practice that is joyful. Not a drag, not “another meeting.” We want you to build relationships with each other that will make you feel thrilled to lock arms together to face the devastating effects of white supremacy.
In that spirit, we want you to close out the year with some poetry. We hope that reading Clint Smith’s Poem “The Art of Unlearning” will lead to vibrant discussions, which make you feel more connected to each other and to the anti-racist work you are doing each day.
Discussion Guide:
Encourage your colleagues to read our primary resource this month, The Art of Unlearning by Clint Smith.
Guiding Questions:
Secondary Resources: If you would like to read more Clint Smith poetry, we suggest:
There is a Lake Here
What the Ocean Said to the Black Boy
What the Cathedral Said to the Black Boy
Facilitation Reference Guide:
Feedback Form:
Please check out our NEW talk back form! We are asking readers to respond to a SINGLE question based on your reading, reflecting, and discussion this month. Please talk back to us. We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you all for your feedback so far, please keep it coming!
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
This month, we recommend you consider donating to the Philly Student Union. The Philly Student Union is a youth-led organization dedicated to building young people's power to demand a high-quality education in the Philadelphia public school system. They use artist activism-driven training and leadership development to empower young people to become lifelong learners and leaders capable of addressing the challenges facing their communities.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.
Essential Question: How can we develop a joyful anti-racist practice?
If this is your first year doing this series, you might consider using our Inquiry Series 3 material for the year or hosting an orientation meeting using our September material before moving on to the current month.
Don't forget to talk back!
Overview:
If you are a classroom teacher, May is a wild month! Many of us are balancing standardized tests, preparation for end-of-year celebrations, and the sound of summer getting closer and closer each day. This is the kind of month in which it is easy to say “I can’t make the BARWE meeting, I’m just too swamped.”
We at BARWE core want to say: we feel you! And, the reason we created BARWE is that we want to help teachers develop an anti-racist practice that is joyful. Not a drag, not “another meeting.” We want you to build relationships with each other that will make you feel thrilled to lock arms together to face the devastating effects of white supremacy.
In that spirit, we want you to close out the year with some poetry. We hope that reading Clint Smith’s Poem “The Art of Unlearning” will lead to vibrant discussions, which make you feel more connected to each other and to the anti-racist work you are doing each day.
Discussion Guide:
Encourage your colleagues to read our primary resource this month, The Art of Unlearning by Clint Smith.
Guiding Questions:
- Who or what jumped to mind for you at the phrase “hope unhinged”?
- Pick a line from the poem that stood out to you. Talk about why it stood out.
- What feelings come up for you when you read this poem? Why do you think those feelings are coming up for you?
- In what ways is your classroom a “refuge,” a place of “[reclaimed] humanity” or a place where you “reimagined pedagogy to be the art of unlearning”? Who has helped you make it that way?
Secondary Resources: If you would like to read more Clint Smith poetry, we suggest:
There is a Lake Here
What the Ocean Said to the Black Boy
What the Cathedral Said to the Black Boy
Facilitation Reference Guide:
- Set a day and time for your group to meet - Make sure to send reminders. If you’re meeting in person, snacks are always a good idea!
- Prepare yourself to facilitate by reading through our Norms and Discussion Protocol.
- Prepare yourself for April by setting a date and time, inviting colleagues, and looking out for our next Discussion Guide on May 1st.
Feedback Form:
Please check out our NEW talk back form! We are asking readers to respond to a SINGLE question based on your reading, reflecting, and discussion this month. Please talk back to us. We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you all for your feedback so far, please keep it coming!
Pass The Hat:
In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.
This month, we recommend you consider donating to the Philly Student Union. The Philly Student Union is a youth-led organization dedicated to building young people's power to demand a high-quality education in the Philadelphia public school system. They use artist activism-driven training and leadership development to empower young people to become lifelong learners and leaders capable of addressing the challenges facing their communities.
At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.