Living lesson

Oberlin teacher brings famous black women to life for students

Every Friday this month, third-grade teacher JaNiece Whitehead transforms into a new woman. In an effort to shed light on Black History Month, Whitehead, who teaches at Prospect Elementary School, 36 S. Prospect St. in Oberlin, dresses up as a different famous African American woman to teach her class about underrepresented parts of history. “My goal was to start with Black History Month simply because I feel like it doesn’t get as much recognition as it should, and I wanted to make it memorable for my students in hopes that this (lesson) will then transfer throughout the year,” Whitehead said. So far, she has dressed up as NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, civil rights activist Ruby Bridges and ballet dancer Misty Copeland. On Feb. 22, Whitehead dressed up as NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson. For the entire day, Whitehead’s students address her by her new persona and name and have become so involved with the lesson series, that they have been sharing it with students in other classrooms. “They’re engaged with everybody that we’ve learned about, but they take such pride in telling other classmates and even students in other schools, to say, ‘That’s not Mrs. Whitehead today, that’s Mrs. Copeland’ or whoever,” she said. The day starts with a read aloud, where Whitehead reads a story to the class while they take down facts about the featured person. Students then research additional facts about the person to bring to Whitehead, which then are added to a poster each week. Additionally, students conduct their own Black History Month research project, and for extra credit, they too, can dress up as the person they researched. “With a lot of our population made of minorities, I don’t feel like they see a lot of strong people that look like them and are represented in a positive light,” Whitehead said, adding the lessons provide students a chance to celebrate everyone in the classroom. Additionally, Whitehead is hoping to integrate a survey into her classroom every year to better understand her students’ ethnicities, nationalities and cultures and to involve parents in the process. Whitehead said that although some subject matter brought to light during Black History Month can be difficult to talk about, the benefits are worth it. “It’s tough to talk about oppression,” she said. “It’s tough to talk about certain ethnicity’s roles in our history. “So what I wanted to do was to not just shine light on the oppressed, but to just help students understand that we’re powerful. Everybody is powerful.”

JORDANA JOY — THE MORNING JOURNAL JaNiece Whitehead, a third-grade teacher at Prospect Elementary School in Oberlin, reads the story of Katherine Johnson. As a part of her Black History Month lesson every Friday, Whitehead reads a story to the students.