Services

  • Monique has designed and led hundreds of community learning experiences, from professional development workshops and trainings for Grades PreK-12 educators, to meetings with leadership teams, trustees, parent groups, and community members. Her work is rooted in professional and personal experience, research, and evidence-based practices. The educational material she speaks about has been tested in classrooms – with highly favorable, inspiring feedback from teachers and school leaders.

    Example Workshops:

    “How Do We Tell the Human Story? Culturally Expansive Ways to Teach Grades PreK-8 Social Studies”

    • Many educators are storytellers. From projects that explore “All About Me” to units that unearth ancient civilizations and the Founding of the United States, social studies educators are shaping the story of personal identity, community, and history for young children. It’s important that we reflect on our choices to ensure that the content we teach is age-appropriate, rooted in facts, and has many “windows and mirrors” for our students. The resources we use, the questions we ask, and the activities students engage in not only support academic growth, but can also unfortunately create a sense of exclusion or — with intention — can cultivate inclusion. 

    • In this workshop, we’ll examine culturally expansive ways to design and teach Grades Pre-K-8 Social Studies curriculum. Driving questions will guide our learning such as: 1) What are the ways social studies and history are typically taught to Grades PreK-8 students — what are the strengths of such programming and what are areas that may be in need of student-centered change?  2) Why is culturally expansive content important for all students? — what are concrete examples of culturally rich and expansive content and pedagogical approaches that can be incorporated into existing social studies and history topics so we better support our students? 3) How can we begin auditing our own curricular materials — text and visual based — to ensure that we are creating a culturally responsive environment, one that embraces truth, academic rigor, and joy? And 4) How can other subjects, including STEAM, connect to the objectives and content of social studies programming?

    • Our primary goal is for social studies educators to understand that what we teach, though it can be challenging, provides essential knowledge and skills for our students, and simultaneously provides vital opportunities to share the human experience in ways that can also foster connection and cultivate belonging. We can start by asking ourselves: How do we tell the human story?

    “What Is and Is Not Race? The What, Why, and How of Developing our Racial Literacy.”

    • The objectives of this workshop are: 1) to enhance awareness of what race is and what it’s not, such as how it’s both a biological fallacy and a powerful social reality; 2) why racial literacy matters, and 3) how to apply racial literacy frameworks to expand our practices & curricula, and cultivate belonging.

    Reach out for a full list of workshops.

  • Monique absolutely loves meeting with teachers to review, revise, and co-develop curriculum – whether it's a single lesson, a unit, or a year's worth of content. While Monique works with Grades PreK-12, most of her curriculum develop centers around teaching elementary-aged humanities (social studies, history, language arts, and the visual arts), as well as ways to connect lessons to STEAM content. When we zoom out to realize that elementary school teachers have both the responsibility and opportunity to teach history to children for the first time (including "challenging history," like slavery), it makes sense that more support is warranted. Reach out to learn more about how Monique ensures that curriculum is culturally expansive, age-appropriate, humanizing, facts-based, and rooted in inquiry.

    • A recent highlight of Monique’s curricular work includes working with a team of scholars and educators to co-develop Social Studies State Standards for the public schools of Washington, D.C.  – the country’s first “antiracist” standards. Ask her about the curriculum she designed to teach ancient civilizations to second graders. The curriculum is accessible, academic (utilizing inquiry and a wealth of primary sources), engaging, and representative across race, ethnicity, and culture.

  • In the education space, Monique has provided one-on-one strategic support to numerous Heads of Schools, Division Heads, Directors of Curriculum & Instruction, Directors of Inclusion & Community, grade level leaders, and other school professionals. She has also worked with law firms, non-profit organizations, and companies to enhance their cultural competency, or awareness and skills. If you have a question about ways to repair harm, cultivate inclusion and belonging, better support educators, draft communication around a challenging topic, lead staff through anti-racist training, etc. please reach out. All coaching is led with sensitivity and aligned with the school's and organization's mission.

    • When partnering with a school leader, Monique’s consulting support often extends to leading or sharing information and strategies during administrative meetings, meetings with trustees, etc.

    • When working with organizations and companies, Monique often leads all staff trainings in conjunction with coaching sessions to provide ongoing support to stakeholders.

  • An engaging, empathetic public speaker, Monique is available to lead conference keynotes, student assemblies, and model teaching (Grades PreK-12). Her keynote engagements often address how culturally expansive approaches can cultivate belonging and academic success. Her student-facing assemblies and model teaching regularly include her personal story of developing a multiracial identity, and content that is designed to expand and humanize history for young audiences.

    • A recent keynote, delivered by Monique for the ISAS Dean’s Conference, was titled “Unpacking Our Lenses: Enhancing Our Culturally Responsive Practices.” In this talk, Monique led participants through an inquiry exercise to consider the power of their own lenses and perspectives, reviewed the role educational leaders have in cultivating belonging, examined how the brain is wired for social connection which impacts not only belonging but also academic success, and shared strategies to cultivate inclusion and connection.

    • For a Grades K-8 assembly – to honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Monique created an age-appropriate presentation that utilized themes such as community, inspiration, and multiracial alliances to highlight the contributions countless individuals made to the Long Civil Rights Movement.