Dutchess BOCES is celebrating Black History Month by teaching students about the contributions African Americans have made to the world in a variety of areas.
At Salt Point Center, students learned about famous musicians, artists and historical figures including the Jackson 5 and artist Alma Thomas. Students read and watched videos, sang spirituals and created mosaic art like Thomas’ using colored tape.
Resilience Academy classes decorated doors with information about famous inventors and leaders (current and past) including Rosalind Brewer, the CEO of Walgreens and Sam’s Club, and Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history. The decorations are part of a scavenger hunt in which students will visit each class to learn about their person.
Each Wednesday, Career and Technical Institute Principal Nick Millas reads a short profile of an African American educator who helped transform career and technical education in the U.S. They include Nannie Helen Burroughs who founded the National Training School for Women and Girls with the motto “We specialize in the wholly impossible,” and Booker T. Washington who founded the Tuskegee Institute, which became a model for vocational education.
