As an educator, I see Black History Month as a chance to show our students that Black history didn’t happen only in the past, but it’s happening every day – and they can connect to it every day. That’s why two years ago, I created a Black History “Concurrent Series” with my students.

When students study someone who has shaped our history and culture, it’s easy for them to feel like there is so much distance between that person’s life and their own lives. But we educators know that if we can get students to identify with world-changers, we can get them to see themselves as world-changers. I love to share this message with my students – but I also know it’s not enough just to say it:

To get students to believe in themselves, we have to do more than share this message; we have to show them that it’s true. This goes even deeper for our BIPOC and immigrant students: Because they face systemic barriers to success, they need us educators to reflect their identities and abilities back to them in a light that’s not only positive but powerful. That’s why I love this project: It gives students a way to connect personally with leaders and creators of Black descent who are living in our era, doing amazing things: breaking records, creating worlds, leading change and diversifying their fields. But I also love this project because it’s so sustainable to build it into lesson plans and get students invested. It just takes four steps – and I’m excited to share them with you:

1. Finding today’s Black history-makers

To get started, I researched notable living leaders and creators of Black descent under the age of 35 – and I suggest trying especially hard to find leaders and creators who are in their teens and early twenties. For example, I included Tony Weaver, Jr., who’s a writer, a comic book creator and a contributor to the world of anime. I also included Jacque Aye, another comic book artist who also created a manga series featuring African characters who have different hair textures and who wear different fabrics. She brings so much intentionality and inspiration to honoring diverse African cultures while staying true to the style and traditions of manga. When I shared these two creatives with my kids, it blew their minds! There’s so much personal empowerment for students in seeing comic book and manga characters drawn with the same hair textures they or their teachers have, reflecting cultural traditions they’ve experienced at home or in their friends’ homes.

I was also intentional about incorporating not only individuals who are Black, but individuals who are Black and disabled and individuals who have faced other significant challenges – all of whom exemplify resilience. Even though we educators promote resilience for students in class, it’s not always something they can picture using to achieve life goals or to make powerful changes in the world. But when we showcase a young achiever like Amanda Gorman, after celebrating her voice and work as a nation, and we talk about how much she’s overcome to pursue her goals, we show students real-world resilience that they can get excited about – and aspire to.

2. Starting with daily warm-ups

I wanted this series to provide personal, interactive inspiration for my students – so I didn’t want to come in one day and present them with a big, completed project. Instead, I needed to get them invested gradually. That’s why I recommend starting with daily warm-up activities, introducing one or two figures each morning. I set these activities up in Canvas so I could build in a lot of student choice: First, we’d watch a video clip together and then students would choose to explore in more depth by watching another video clip or reading one of several articles. They wrote brief reflections in Canvas, and then we might wrap up by sharing a few favorite insights out loud. 

Here’s one example I will never forget: the day I introduced my students to Lewis Hamilton. He’s a Formula One racing driver of Black descent who struggled with dyslexia as a student, and he’s also an activist for anti-racism and inclusion in the global racing industry. His brother, Nicolas Hamilton, is also a British racing driver who has cerebral palsy and drives a specialized car. We started with some video clips in which he talks about their different experiences in the racing world. It was a longer warm-up, but it was worth it: Many of the students had never been exposed to individuals with mobility impairments or met adults who had experienced a learning disability at their age. It was a beautiful experience for the kids to see Lewis Hamilton share the determination he and his brother brought to their journeys and the joys they experienced through perseverance. It opened their eyes to what resilience looks like in action: not just a basic idea of not giving up, but a developed understanding that no matter how challenging the adversities may appear, you can still achieve. Your journey might not always look the same as everyone else’s, but it is still yours to achieve.

3. Expanding into core content

The next step I recommend is connecting warm-ups to lessons. This just means adding activities that invite students to explore the figure of the day on their own, using their academic skills. Instead of a short written reflection, I might ask them to do some independent research and summarize their key findings. To keep building in student choice, I might give them an essay assignment with a few prompts to choose from. I also folded in challenges like “Implement a set of vocabulary terms from this week’s Achieve 3000 article” or “Utilize at least three sentence stems from this list.” These simple exercises allowed students to grow their cultural knowledge and their command of ELA skills at the same time. 

I also suggest collaborating with colleagues to create chances for kids to share their cultural learnings – and show off their research and writing skills, too. My partner teacher and I brought our kids together for read-alouds from Kwame Alexander’s book “The Undefeated” and Vashti Harrison’s two books “Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History” and “Little Legends, Exceptional Men in Black History.” Then, we invited them to choose someone from the texts, write about why that person stood out to them and share their work with both classes. I highly recommend trying some of these core learning activities – or adapting some of your own! – to create space for students to learn more deeply about featured Black leaders. It’s a way to connect the Black History Concurrent Series with students’ year-round experience and growth.

4. Leveling up to independent learning

During the last week of February, I invited students to create independent research projects. You could do this later in the spring, too; the goal is to put students completely in charge of growing the series. First, I gave students some classroom time to research African American figures, find someone whose work felt significant to them and look for connections to the work of other creators and leaders. Next, students developed informative posters based on their discoveries, highlighting what inspired them personally. 

For example, some students started following the creative career and activism of painter Tyler Gordon. At 14, Gordon recorded himself painting a portrait of Kamala Harris, shared it on Twitter and connected with the vice president. Through Gordon’s social posts and videos, students saw other young artists sharing their processes. When our art-minded students watch artists close to their age experimenting and inventing, they start realizing that’s exactly what they do, too – and there’s no reason why they can’t be artists themselves. Every time a student says, “Look, their style is similar to mine here,” they’re expanding their identity from consumer to creator. They’re starting to think, “If I wanted to, I could take these doodles I always do in my journal and make my own comic or my own video.” By encouraging students to follow their hearts and figure out what they want to learn, I can create pathways for them to keep following new figures, finding new inspirations and growing new ambitions long past Black History Month.

I know it can be challenging to find ways to keep Black History learning alive for students past the month of February, so I want to offer some quick encouragement. First and foremost, I recommend continuing to build BIPOC leaders, diverse activists and resilient creators into warm-up activities and lesson plans. It doesn’t need to be every day, just a regular practice all year long – because that will show students that those leaders and creators matter all year long. On a bigger scale, my next plan is to collaborate with my colleagues to create a similar series for Hispanic Heritage Month – and then to create connections between those communities, and beyond, throughout the year.

Working as an educator means bringing together so many skills, passions and priorities – but in a nutshell, our work is really all about building students up. No matter who our students are or what our roles are, I believe that promoting mastery for our students depends on creating meaningful connections between our lessons and their lives. When we create a series like this with our students and colleagues, we’re affirming our kids so deeply for who they are and all they can achieve. This is how we can get students to look beyond limitations they may have accepted – and imagine greater for themselves, greater for their families and greater for their community.