“I think that’s one of the inspirations behind going big this month is to really be able to show those examples of Black Excellence and to inspire our Black and African American students – and, honestly, all of our students – to be able to do great and awesome things like some of the great leaders we have in our community,” says Rachel Deterding, Lake View Elementary Community School Resource Coordinator.
“We are going all out this month for Black History Month, so it’s super-exciting,” she adds. “The students seem very excited about it.”
Lake View, located on Madison’s north side, has been looking forward to February for quite some time with a planning team that has been working out an amazing lineup of Black History Month educational activities and events.
Lilada Gee has been the featured artist as Lake View Elementary kicked off Black History Month with a host of planned events this week. Many of Gee’s works are featured in the art exhibit that has been displayed in Lake View’s Library.
“Her artwork and her story are so inspiring. It’s a blessing to be able to meet another Black woman who inspires me, in general,” DeShala Walker, Lake View’s social worker, tells Madison365. Walker has taken on the leadership of helping to organize Lake View Elementary Black History Month including working on a lot of the behind-the-scenes work.
“Our team has been working on this for a while and we split up the work into four different categories for each week – art, music, literature and hair & fashion,” Walker says. “We did a lot of brainstorming and figuring out what the kids would be interested in as we organized this.”
Gee, who is well-known in Madison for creating art that tells the stories of Black women and girls, will be joining Lake View for morning announcements on Friday morning.
“I think it’s important for the kids to see a Black woman who is local in Madison who is doing this amazing artwork and it’s important to encourage them that not only do All Black Lives Matter, but Little Black Lives Matter, as well,” Deterding says. “Her display is so vivid and so colorful that it tells a story within itself and really brings the library to life.
“We love inviting community members into our school. With COVID it’s challenging because we have a lot of restrictions to keep kids safe,” she adds. ” But even having guests join virtually is very exciting and I believe it contributes to a positive narrative for our African American and Black students who may not see or hear from, in the media or TV, people who look like them doing awesome things.”
The students have been viewing slides of Black Lives Matter murals in downtown as Black art and Black artists have been the focus for this first week of Black History Month at the school. The following weeks will be focused on music, literature and hair & fashion, respectively.
“We have a variety of different educational activities planned. We have something in our morning announcements to set the tone for the day,” Deterding says. “We are trying to weave these activities throughout our day to make it feel like a part of what we do at Lake View and to increase the visibility of our Black and African American students.”
Teachers at Lake View have been encouraging kids to add a video on FlipGrid, a place where you can use short-form videos to share what you love.
“The kids are super pumped up about it. I’ve been pulling Black and African American first-graders from class to record a little video clip and they are super-jazzed about being featured on morning announcements … very proud,” Deterding says. “I think that there is a lot of great, positive momentum among staff and students.”
In the future throughout February, Lake View Elementary school kids will do things like watch Black History Month music slides, listen to Read Your Heart Out guest readers, and talk about the history of Black hairstyles.
“Our Black and African American staff put together a Black History Month trivia slide so there is a trivia question and a fact of the day that teachers can use flexibly this month whenever it works into their schedule,” Deterding says.
“We always say that Black history is our history and should be celebrated throughout the year, but it is really nice to go hard and make that a focus for school in February,” she adds. “I think there’s a lot of excitement and positive momentum and curiosity for what’s to come.”
