February is Black History Month, and although Black history should be included and celebrated year-round, it is worth recalling that the original celebration of Black history, championed by Carter G. Woodson was first recognized in 1926 and was only one week long. It took another fifty years for a declaration of Black History Month. While heritage months are helpful reminders of our national past, we have seen tremendous progress among social science and humanities educators working to include Black history not merely as the shaded pages of a US History textbook but as a bright thread running through the fabric of the human story. We teach Black history because of its centrality to US and world history.

This month's Oregon Open Learning newsletter is dedicated to celebrating K-12 Black History Open Educational Resources (OER) as well as listening to the voices of Oregon educators. There are over 70 Oregon Open Learning Black History OER, including many for elementary classrooms.

Elementary Educator Advisory Committee

The Japanese American Museum of Oregon seeks 3rd-5th grade teachers to join a project-based Educator Advisory Committee. Read below for more details and information about how to apply. Educator Advisory Committee Goals JAMO is assembling this committee to assist in developing classroom-ready, hands-on, standards-aligned resources for educators that will support teaching about Japanese American history in Oregon. Participant Commitment Educator Advisory Committee members will collaborate with the JAMO education department to advise, pilot, provide feedback, and promote the newly created resources. The committee will meet virtually three times in the spring of 2024. Participants will also complete various tasks between meetings, such as reading and providing input on newly created materials or piloting activities with students. We anticipate the total time commitment (committee meetings plus tasks completed between meetings) to be around 9 hours.

Important Dates

Application Deadline: Friday, February 12, 2024

Notifications Sent By: Friday, March 1, 2024

Online Meeting #1: Thursday, March 21, 2024

Online Meeting #2: Thursday, April 18, 2024

Online Meeting #3: Thursday, May 30, 2024

Please contact Elissa Dingus, Director of Education and Engagement (elissa@jamo.org) with any questions.

Geofest Educator Conference

The Center for Geography Education in Oregon’s (C-GEO) annual GeoFest conference registration is open! The C-GEO GeoFest for K-12 educators is on Saturday, March 9, 2024,at Western Oregon University.

Come join us for presentation topics, such as geo-tech sessions, bias in mapping, family geography night, urban geography, geography and economics, Tribal History/Shared History, and much more! Registration is FREE!!