Malvern teacher celebrates Black History Month with door decorations
In February, Black History Month is celebrated to honor and remember all of the important people in the history of the African diaspora that had an impact in an extraordinary way on life and society.
To celebrate the significance of Black History Month, a display of information about several historic people, events and materials are displayed at the Malvern Middle School.
Ashley Easterling, an English Teacher at MMS has her classroom door decorated with a variety of significant Black History material, in honor to highlight important black leaders and memorable events that occurred.
She feels this display is important, and helps to celebrate and honor many historic people and events that made a tremendous difference that is a inspiration to everyday life.
“My hope in putting together this door display for Black History Month is that students and faculty, staff, and admin will see it and maybe learn something they didn’t know or come to further appreciate the diversity both within our very own community and in the world.”
Easterling mentioned, the display is interactive. She noted, students can read the front of the information cards and if they are intrigued, they can lift the flap and learn more.
She added, students are reading Warriors Don’t Cry in some of their English classes and have already connected the information about the Little Rock Nine that is included in the display to what
they are reading about in English class.
“The display covers a range of topics and subjects from Henrietta Lacks to the Divine Nine to who Shirley Chisholm was,” she noted.
She added, “It’s definitely not an exhaustive history but it opens the door to further researching, which only prompts learning on a myriad of topics.”
In the display on the door, Easterling used a quote from Maya Angelou, who is a famous black poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. The quote states,”Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
Easterling mentioned she loves that quote and thinks it can be used so perfectly in a school environment, but also in life. “I think at the end of the day, that’s the biggest thing I want my students to take away from my class is to heed that advice from Ms. Angelou,” she added.
Angelou, published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years, according to biographical information.
Easterling also said she was not the creator of the materials used in the display. But she noted, she colored the display and put it together, The Sassy Math Teacher did all the work compiling information displayed and putting the artwork together.