COURSE OVERVIEW

The Black Teacher Project (BTP) invites you to join us this Spring for Thriving Black Teachers for Thriving Students: Embodying Wellness Mindsets & Practice, a four-session, Black affinity experience where teachers from across the country will tap into the power of healing, self-love, and community.

At the core of BTP’s mission is building the capacity of Black teachers so that they can leverage their inherent gifts to reimagine schools as communities of liberated learning where all students are able to thrive. With our current political climate rendering an attack on education, this course offers a brave space for Black teachers to learn and practice ways of tending to wellness so that they can show up with full capacity to support their young people. While traditional education emphasizes cognitive learning, relegating the body to a secondary role, research shows that knowledge is not solely an intellectual construct but also an embodied one. Engaging teachers in embodiment practice supports their reimagining of how learning is facilitated and what it means to attend to relationships, feelings, emotions, and physical and mental health. Through this course, we will hold each other together in an intentional, bold, and mindful space to:

1. Engage in connection, collective healing, and community building.

2. Explore wellness practices and approaches that support an embodiment of self-love, healing, and agency that are centered in Black identity development.

3. Learn about frameworks and tools that support practices for healing and thriving and ways these practices can enhance your teaching and student experiences. 

4. Experience an increased sense of possibility, creativity, and agency to transcend constraints and limitations. 

5. Deepen understanding about the relationship between adult wellness, teaching, and student mental health and wellness.

6. Design a practice that catalyzes wellness and thriving in your teaching context.

Participants are eligible to receive a stipend of up to $200 for their full participation in this offering.

SESSION DATES, LOCATION, TIME, & DRAFT CONTENT ARC:

Session 1: Thursday, April 9 – Building Our Community & Introduction to Healing-Centered Frameworks

Session 2: Thursday, April 16 – Levels of Healing Awareness; Supporting Complex Adaptive Internal Systems Change; Working Through Limiting Beliefs

Session 3: Thursday, April 23 – The Role of Vulnerability to Enhance Teaching & Well-being; Designing Practices to Catalyze Wellness & Thriving

Session 4: Thursday, May 7 – Sharing Your Wellness Practice

Location: All sessions will be hosted online via Zoom. Once applicants are selected, calendar invitations with the Zoom link will be shared.

Time: 4:00–6:30pm PT | 6:00–8:30pm CT | 7:00–9:30pm ET

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

1. Must be a full or part-time Black TK-12 teacher of record in a district, charter, independent, or private school.

2. Be able to attend all of the sessions for the full time.

3. Has helped organize healing &/or wellness activities for others (e.g. classroom; professional development; religious or local communities)

4. Have capacity to complete reading and assignments (about 1.5 hours per week, 15 minutes per day).

1. This will be a virtual Black teacher cohort experience with up to 40 participants.

2. Participants are expected to complete all assigned tasks/reading before each session (about 1.5 hours of homework in between sessions).

3. We expect that participants are fully present and engaged with cameras on during our sessions and will ask everyone in the community to make an effort to attend sessions from a stationary location with a strong internet connection and minimal distractions. 

4. Participants will engage in and design wellness activities that can be used by other Black teachers as part of the BTP resource archive.

5. Participants will be compensated with a stipend of $200 for their full participation in this offering. Final project presentation is required to receive a stipend.

• Monday, March 2, 2026: Application opens

• Thursday, March 26, 2026: APPLICATIONS ARE DUE

• Wednesday, April 1, 2026: BTP Team Responds to Applications

• Thursday, April 2, 2026: Deadline to Confirm Participation 

• Friday, April 3–Wednesday April, 8 2026: Complete Session 1 Pre-Work

• Thursday, April 9, 2026: Course Launches

• This opportunity has a limited capacity of 40 participants, so please ensure that you can be at all the sessions to maximize the time and resources offered.