Like many of our students, I’m not just a Latina during Hispanic Heritage Month – I’m a Latina 12 months a year, and representative curricula is important to me all school year long.

Currently, I work with a teacher who is leading a really cool project for Hispanic Heritage Month. She’s teaching the students about public Latinx figures they might have seen on TV, and she’s connecting these figures to an individual in our own community. For example, she might highlight Lin-Manuel Miranda and also introduce students to a member of their own local community, who looks like them and does amazing things with arts and music, right here.

I love this project because it deepens students’ pride in who they are as members of their community – and because it has so much potential for yearlong impact. We celebrate during Hispanic Heritage Month, and introduce a lot of community members, but then we continue partnerships with those community members beyond this month.

When we do the work to learn about our students, connect with our communities and collaborate with families, we can create an affirming environment that extends beyond the walls of the classroom. All year long, we can center the question: How can we bring all these pieces of our students’ lives together and provide experiences that encourage them to be proud of who they are?