Dear Morningside Center friends,

Only one month into the year 2025, much is happening around the world—and we are here to help you celebrate and study with Black History Month, support your students through complicated days, and much more. 

Below you'll find a lesson collection for Black History Month—18 lessons spanning history, John Lewis, Dr. King, Ella Baker and Toni Morrison to Black farmers and more; a new lesson on school lunch; videos on starting listening exchanges; and guidelines for discussing upsetting stories in the news.

Also, scroll down for information about a Rainforest Retreat for educators with Tom Roderick, Morningside Center’s founding executive director!

And please share this email with friends, family, educators and others who would benefit from our community and resources.

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Lesson Collection: Teaching Black History

The true story of Black people in the U.S. must be integrated into the curriculum throughout the year. But Black History Month offers an annual reminder to lift up and share stories that have been suppressed or ignored, and to challenge mythologies and false narratives that are embedded in the long dominate accounts of U.S. history.

Responding to Upsetting Stories in the News

Young people are exposed to more troubling, tragic, and controversial events than ever before, often starting at a young age. Here are steps we can take to address upsetting events in ways that support our students.

Can School Lunch Be Both Tasty and Healthy?

This two-part lesson consists of two readings on the effort to improve the quality of food in school meals programs across the United States. Questions for discussion follow each reading.

Listening Exchanges to Nourish Community

Being listened to helps human beings in profound ways. When we absorb someone else’s relaxed attention, we can process and regulate our emotions, think our way through challenges and engage in areas where we are inclined to disengage.

These videos will get you started with listening exchanges!

Rainforest Retreat for Educators!

Join Tom Roderick, Morningside Center’s founding executive director, for a Climate Justice Retreat for Educators in the rainforest of Costa Rica!



The retreat will take place April 13-19 (spring break for NYC public schools). It will be limited to ten participants on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tom is partnering with Matt Cook of Latin American Service Expeditions to design the retreat. Tom’s book, Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education will be the anchor text for the retreat. Through virtual follow-up sessions, participants will get ongoing support to make climate justice come alive for their students. 

The American Library Association’s Choice Magazine recently selected Teach for Climate Justice as “A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2024.”

Visit the Teach for Climate Justice website for more information about the retreat, the book, the Choice Award, and Tom’s Teach for Climate Justice Project, and more. If you have questions about the retreat, contact Tom and/or Matthew Cook.

What We're Reading

‘Everyone is scared’: Deportation fears keep immigrant students home from NYC schools

"It’s difficult to know how many families across the five boroughs are keeping their kids out of school because of deportation fears. An estimated 48,000 newcomers have enrolled in city schools since summer 2022." By Michael Elsen-Rooney, Gwynne Hogan, and Alex Zimmerman at Chalkbeat 

Elementary Students Can’t Manage Their Emotions. What Schools Can Do to Help

"What is particularly troubling to Touchet is that this lack of self-regulation is now not only a problem for the youngest elementary students. She’s been noticing that older elementary students in grades 3-5 are also struggling with self-regulation—the ability to understand and manage behaviors and reactions to their feelings or events happening around them." By Lauraine Langreo at Education Week

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘what are you doing for others?’”

—Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.