Events | Book | Guides | Magazine | Add’l Resources
This resource page is for Teaching for Black Lives Study Group members only.
Events
As a Teaching for Black Lives study group, you are invited to attend monthly classes and workshops hosted by the Zinn Education Project.
All study group members are encouraged to attend at least three Teaching for Black Lives Campaign events, including the national welcoming and closing celebrations. Generally, there is one special event, workshop, class, or training per month.
All of these events are online, at 4:00 pm PT/ 7:00 pm ET, and last for 60 to 90 minutes unless otherwise noted.
ASL Interpretation will be available upon request. Please email Julia (jsalcedo@zinnedproject.org) at least four days in advance to give our team time to schedule interpreters.
♦ Current and Alumni Study Group Members Only
2026
Monday, September 14
Coordinator Orientation (1st Option)
This participatory orientation is for Teaching for Black Lives study group coordinators to plan for the 2026–2027 school year. You’ll meet study group coordinators across the country in small groups to exchange ideas. Jesse Hagopian, Rethinking Schools editor, will facilitate the session.
Thursday, September 17
Teach Truth on Constitution Day
Studying the Constitution is essential — especially now, as constitutional rights are increasingly under attack. Each September, schools across the country celebrate Constitution Day — students create posters praising the document, watch patriotic videos, or recite the Preamble — rather than engage in critical inquiry.
Today, powerful figures wield the Constitution — and undermine it — in ways that intensify profound harms across the country. It is essential that students know their rights: not just to pass a test, but to protect themselves.
Sign up to show that you are committed to teach truthfully about the Constitution on Constitution Day and all year long.
Monday, September 21
Coordinator Orientation (2nd Option)
This participatory orientation is for Teaching for Black Lives study group coordinators to plan for the 2026–2027 school year. You’ll meet study group coordinators across the country in small groups to exchange ideas. Jesse Hagopian, Rethinking Schools editor, will facilitate the session.
Monday, September 28
One Hundred Years of High School Student Organizing
Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian will be in conversation with historians Aaron G. Fountain Jr. and Jon N. Hale about student organizing and state repression. Fountain is the author of High School Students Unite!: Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America and Hale wrote A New Kind of Youth: Historically Black High Schools and Southern Student Activism, 1920–1975.
Tuesday, October 6
Voting Rights Curriculum Workshop
Wednesday, October 14
Welcome Event with Teaching for Black Lives Editors
This participatory and engaging session will welcome study group members and coordinators into their year-long inquiry into Teaching for Black Lives. You will hear from the book’s editors (Dyan Watson, Jesse Hagopian, and Wayne Au), learn about resources available, and meet like-minded educators in study groups across the country.
Monday, October 19
Racial Autobiography Coordinator Orientation
This participatory orientation is for Teaching for Black Lives study group coordinators. We are hosting this session at the request of coordinators who noted it would be helpful to consider racial identity as part of group facilitation. We will introduce you to an activity you can host for your study group members. There will be time for small group discussion with fellow Teaching for Black Lives study group coordinators.
Monday, October 26
Robeson, Robinson, and Resistance: Athletes, Artists, and the Struggle for Liberation
Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian will be in conversation with author Howard Bryant about his book Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America, which tells the the untold story of sports and fame, Black life in the United States, and the promise of integration during the Cold War.
Saturday, November 7
Native Knowledge 360° Teach-In (12:00 pm – 3:00pm ET)
The annual Native Knowledge 360° Teach-In, hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in collaboration with Teaching for Change, is an opportunity for educators to convene and strategize on uplifting Native voices directly into the classroom. Recommended for grades K–12.
This event will be hosted ONLINE through Zoom Events.
Monday, November 9
Surviving Angola Prison: Mass Incarceration and the Legacy of Slavery
Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian will be in conversation with author Gary Tyler about his book Stitching Freedom: A True Story of Injustice, Defiance, and Hope in Angola Prison. In the tradition of books by Albert Woodfox and Angela Davis, this memoir of a wrongful conviction and time spent on death row in Angola prison shows how incarcerated people care for each other and fight for justice.
Tuesday, December 8
Idea Exchange Session for Teaching for Black Lives Study Group Members (Current and Alumni)
2027
Monday, January 11
Racist By Design: Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration Control
Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian will be in conversation with historian Kelly Lytle Hernández about her book, Racist by Design: Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration Control. Lytle Hernández calls Racist by Design “an act of sabotage,” a book that will expose the blueprints of the system, so it can be dismantled.
Wednesday, January 13
Black Lives Matter at School Planning Workshop
Participants will hear from Black Lives Matter at School Coordinating Committee Member and Teaching for Black Lives co-editor, Jesse Hagopian, about the origins of the movement. We will provide ideas for the annual Week of Action in your school and you’ll hear teaching stories. Attendees will have time in breakout groups to connect with other study groups members.
Monday through Friday, February 1–5
Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action
The week of action is held during the first full week of February to promote a set of national demands based in the Black Lives Matter guiding principles that focus on liberation and racial justice in education for Black youth, educators, and all youth of color. Check out our additional resources page for ideas.
Tuesday, February 23
Idea Exchange Session for Teaching for Black Lives Study Group Members (Current and Alumni)
Tuesday, April 6
Idea Exchange Session for Teaching for Black Lives Study Group Members (Current and Alumni)
Monday, April 19
The Life and Politics of Coretta Scott King
Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian will be in conversation with historians Jeanne Theoharis and Traci Parker about the life and politics of Coretta Scott King and Theoharis’ forthcoming book about this often overlooked civil rights icon.
Guides
Guides
Study Guide
This guide, for teachers who are reading Teaching for Black Lives, includes thought-provoking questions for discussion, ideas for action, and resources for groups and individuals. Written by Cierra Kaler-Jones and Jesse Hagopian. Download the Teaching for Black Lives Study Guide.
Facilitation Guide
This month-to-month guide includes prompts and suggestions for study group meetings plus best practices for communication and engagement. Feel free to adapt and build off of to fit your own setting and your group’s particular needs.
Book
The heart of the study groups is collectively reading, discussing, and applying what you learn from the Teaching for Black Lives book. You’ll find a compilation of essays, teaching activities, role plays, poems, and artwork, designed to illuminate the movement for Black students’ lives, the school-to-prison-pipeline, Black history, gentrification, intersectional Black identities, and more. The book is edited by Wayne Au, Jesse Hagopian, and Dyan Watson.
Rethinking
Rethinking Schools
Each study group member receives a complimentary one-year Rethinking Schools subscription (digital and print). If you haven’t subscribed, please do so TODAY by following these instructions:
- Visit this dedicated page for your one-year subscription.
- Use code ZEPSTUDYSUB26
Beyond your study group members, do not share the code — there is only one subscription per study group member. For questions about the subscription, extending a current subscription, or if you don’t receive a printed issue, email orders@rethinkingschools.org.
Additional Resources
Over the years, study groups have requested additional support to expand on topics found in an article or chapter of the book. Below, you’ll find resources that have been requested the most.
As you implement or adapt Zinn Education Project lessons and resources, please take photos and share your teaching stories via this link or email Julia Salcedo at jsalcedo@zinnedproject.org.