Here you can find the reflections expressed and educational resources created by participants at the Making the West Side Teachers Institutes. Making the West Side partners hosted local educators at sites throughout the Chicago West Side. These experiences included historic walking tours, guest speakers, oral histories, art, archival collections, and mapping. The materials and reflections developed by participants in our Making the West Side Teachers Institute offer new opportunities and materials for educators to use as they explore the history of Chicago's West Side and neighborhood change with their own classroom. Enjoy!

Elizabeth Todd-Breland was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and began serving on June 26, 2019. Professor Todd-Breland is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research and teaching focus on U.S. urban history, African American history, and the history of education. Her work also explores interdisciplinary issues related to racial and economic inequality, urban public policy, neighborhood transformation, education policy, and civic engagement. Her book, A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago since the 1960s, analyzestransformations in Black politics, shifts in modes of education organizing, and the racial politics of education reform from the 1960s to the present.

Maximillian A. Cole, educator at Manley Career Academy High School in North Lawndale, teaches Algebra and Geometry to students in grades 9-12. He created a lesson plan that integrates Chicago West Side history and the was the neighborhoods and housing have changed into lessons on Algebra and Statistics.

Ellen Gradman, an artist and educatormost recentlyat Thomas Drummond MontessoriSchool,created a lesson plan that explores neighborhood change and mapping through mixed media and collage techniques.Thomas Drummond Montessori School serves students from pre-K to 8thgrade.

Molly Myers, educator atLindblom Math and Science Academy, teaches 9thgrade Human Geography. Her lesson plan that explores the history of the North Lawndale neighborhood by looking at how the presence (or lack) of industry on Chicago’s West Side has impacted neighborhood change. Thelesson plan utilizes a combination of textual and visual analysis, including maps and graphs.

Andrea Hart,Community Engagement Director and Co-Founder of City Bureau,works with youth ages 14-25 years old.

Elizabeth Copper, educator at Lindblom Mathand Science Academy, teaches AP Environmental Science and Forensics. Elizabeth works at the university level, as well, teaching Environmental Science at Northeastern Illinois University.

Dorothy Burge is the Program Director of the Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Social Justice Program and the Internship Coordinator for the Urban Studies Program at the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.
Tracy Navarro, most recently at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School, is a High School History and Economics Educator.

Lucila (Lucy) Saldana, educator at Telpochcalli, teaches art tostudents in grades K-8.