A Visit to Hmongtown Marketplace and the Hmong Cultural Center Musuem and Library  

This experience provides an opportunity to learn about Hmong history and experience Hmong culture.  We will take a trip to Hmongtown Marketplace in St. Paul to meet the founder Toua Xiong and hear the incredible story of his childhood in Laos and Thailand and his journey to becoming the “King of Hmongtown” in Minnesota.  We will have lunch and explore the marketplace before we travel to the Hmong Cultural Center Museum and Library to learn more about Hmong history and culture.

Climate Grief and Storytelling Workshop

Through a supported process led by Dakota Elder and poet, Strong Buffalo and musician and poet Ben Weaver, we will discover, discuss, and process the spectrum of emotions that arise when dealing with climate change. This interactive workshop will be outside and incorporate music, poetry reflective writing and conversation.

Shakopee Mdewakanton

Would you like to know more about whose land we are on? Would you like to learn about leaders in economic development and sustainable living? Take a trip down the road to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community to learn more!

This workshop is an opportunity to deepen your learning about the Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul through the lens of history and personal stories and to understand Rondo in the context of serial racial displacement. 

Native American Cultural Cooridor

Learn about Dakota and Ojibwe (and other) communities on whose land our school sit and we live. This is a field trip out into an urban community that celebrates local Indigenous artists and community members. 

Owning Up: Racism & Housing in Minneapolis at Sabathani Community Center

We will visit Sabathani Community Center in Mpls to experience the Owning Up Exhibit, investigate and discuss how racial covenants in property deeds shaped neighborhoods of Mpls and how communities responded. We will drive through some neighborhoods and make some connections to our classrooms.

Identity Portraits

You’ll begin this experience by reflecting on and discussing your personal, social, and cultural identities, and then deepen your self-study by creating a personal identity portrait (no experience necessary!). The day will end with a facilitated gallery walk where you and other participants will share and discuss your portraits.

Alight and Somali Culture 101

We will experience human-centered design activities at Alight that we can then apply to action plans to address community needs.  We will also experience Somali cultural objects, art, history, and information in a setting created by the local Somali community to keep the culture and traditions of Somalia alive in Minnesota. This experience can deepen our understanding of the experience of traumatized displaced peoples and the culture of our Somali neighbors.  It will encourage us to seek and find abundance in all people, ourselves included, across our differences.

Creating Gender-Inclusive Learning Communities

This experience requires reflection and acknowledgement of gender identities that go beyond the binary traditional construct, and urges deeper knowledge and understanding for participants to better accommodate and educate ALL of our students, including those whose identities fall outside of traditional expectations of binary gender identity and/or expression, and connect across those differences as well.   

Orange Circles: Pathways & Practices for Chalelnging Conversations Across Differences

This interactive workshop will provide the framework and experience for teachers to grow as a facilitators of difficult conversations.  We will build a sense of belonging, use mindfulness and conscious movement to help us explore our own social identities, expand our classroom practices, and practice facing challenging situations with honesty and compassion.