sarah dean

Sarah Dean is a senior at Millersville University. She is a dual early education and special education major with a minor in integrative STEM. The process of creating this project began in her Social Studies for the Young Learner class with Dr. Jennifer Burke. Dr. Burke introduced the class to a project called a Journey Box, where teachers would collect pictures, articles, and other artifacts about a place or time period. The project was meant to be interactive, meaningful, and created as a teachable unit. Sarah decided upon Black History Month because it was something she had never learned about in school, other than a few days in February, and something she was sure many other students were not exposed to very often. Her end product was a five-day unit including important people, dates, places, and events all based around the topic question, Why Do We Celebrate Black History Month? Students are able to conduct their own research, break past herofication and its myths, talk about race and injustice, and complete interactive simulations. Sarah wanted to open up the conversation about race and provide students with the opportunity to see more than just old white men in their history lessons. She wants to have passionate, well-informed students that are comfortable talking about the tough stuff. In the future, she plans to modify her Journey Box to fit her classroom and better serve her students' learning.