Dear friend,
It’s January already, and the school year is flying by. We began programming on September 9 and have already impacted 1,800 students with over 300 lessons and field experiences. This critical work is possible because of your generous support as friends, partners, and donors. Thank you for helping us to exceed our End of Year fundraising goal by nearly $40,000!
I am excited to share the Quarterly Update with you, which highlights new staff members, new curriculum changes, and new partnerships in the community. We have already begun 2020 with great excitement and growth as an organization! As we continue to celebrate our 15th year of programming, we hope to engage more deeply with you!
Sincerely,
Michelle N. Edwards, Ed.D
Executive Director
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PROGRAMMING UPDATES
By the Numbers— Since the start of the school year, LILI has conducted 306 lessons and field experiences for over 1,800 students from DCPS. Fourth-grader Zoe reflected on her first LILI lesson saying, “I have never done anything like this before so it's a good experience!”
Welcome Back to LILI— We are excited to welcome back Malcolm X ES (Ward 8) to the Live It Learn It family! They will explore the Amazonia house at the National Zoo as well as become sculptors at National Gallery of Art.
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ORGANIZATIONAL UPDATES
New Year, New Team Members— Live It Learn It welcomes three new colleagues to our team. Our new experiential learning educator, Delema Johnson, is an avid historian, curious learner, and published author. Takayla Ankrom and La’hyniah Phillips are Urban Alliance interns and have jumped right in to assisting in the classroom and supporting other operational needs.
Experiential Learning Fellowship— Our Fellows are preparing their second and final LILI-style field experiences to places such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Geographic Museum, while expanding their leadership and advocacy skills with one another at monthly meetings.
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THANK YOU
Won’t You Be Our Neighbor?— Live It Learn It hit the streets to meet our Barracks Row neighbors, and two have already demonstrated their support. Frame of Mine, a family-owned business, held an in-store fundraiser in December. uBreakiFix Eastern Market has partnered with LILI to get connected to our community and offer experiential learning opportunities for our students.
End of Year Giving Campaign— Your generosity this giving season allowed us to exceed our goal of $150,000 to continue our programming in DCPS. A special thanks to all our new donors who gave on Giving Tuesday.
Capitol Hill Community Foundation— We would like to give a special shout out to our fellow neighbors in Capitol Hill for their continued support over the past 7 years!
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Digging Deeper in Curricula
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Smithsonian's National Zoo
Are those really whiskers on the catfish, and how do they help it find food? Why is the roseate spoonbill’s beak shaped like that? Students answer these questions and more as they explore the Amazonia House with a new focus on the amazing world of adaptations. Our updated zoo unit focuses on adaptations and the ways they help animals survive in different habitats, specifically in the Amazon rainforest. Students are asked to think critically and decipher what adaptations can tell us about what an animal might eat, where it lives, how it protects itself, and more. Students apply their new knowledge to animals who have adapted for a life in the tropical rainforest.
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George Washington's Mount Vernon
Everyone has heard the name George Washington and knows he was our first president. However, many do not realize that George Washington was also a slave owner and that there were 317 enslaved people living and laboring at Mount Vernon. In our revised unit, the spotlight is shifted to the enslaved population at Mount Vernon — what it meant to be enslaved, how not having freedom impacted every aspect of an enslaved person’s life, and ways that enslaved people resisted and retained humanity. We are striving to teach hard history so we can better understand the world we live in today and recognize important individuals whose names do not often get a place in history textbooks.
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