To honor Pride month and to continue Microsoft’s commitment to lifting up LGBTQI+ voices throughout the year, Microsoft Education is excited to highlight the great work of Flipgrid partner Hope in a Box.
With a mission to help rural public schools cultivate empathy and fight prejudice by representing LGBTQI+ people, stories, and history in schools, Hope in a Box believes that every student deserves to feel safe, welcome, and included.
Hope in a Box also reflects and delivers on Microsoft Education’s commitments to diversity and inclusion.
“At Microsoft, we believe in the transformative power of engaging many different perspectives, and that’s especially true for young learners,” says Barbara Holzapfel (she/her), Vice President of Microsoft Education. “Offering tools like Hope in a Box that promote diversity and inclusion to school leaders, educators, and students is one important way we can help reinforce the importance of empathy in social-emotional learning to help every student achieve more—now and in future generations.”
To cultivate empathy and fight prejudice by representing LGBTQI+ people, stories, and history in schools, Flipgrid partner Hope in a Box is equipping educators with inclusive books, curriculum, training, and mentorship.
With 90 topics in the Flipgrid Discovery Library, Hope in a Box has activities for every age group. This specially curated content gives students the opportunity to see themselves in stories and characters, and just as important, promotes empathy and open-mindedness.
To make these stories even easier to access, the content is organized in collections that you can share with your students:
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (High School)
- Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender (Middle School)
- George by Alex Gino (Middle School)
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (All ages)
- LGBTQI+ books and stories (Middle School/High School)
For Kirsten Nelson (she/her), a Kansas-based educator who has worked with Hope in a Box since 2018, the curriculum guides provide an invaluable resource.
“The discussion questions, writing prompts, and in-class activities really reduce the time and effort for educators to cover a new book in class,” she shares. “The guides are also helpful for free reading assignments and book discussions in student clubs. I was particularly impressed by the quality of the close reading questions. In more than 20 years of teaching, these are some of the best resources I’ve seen.”
Together, Hope in a Box and Flipgrid make perfect sense.
“It’s always been Flipgrid’s mission to empower every voice in our community, which now has more than 100 million members worldwide,” says Flipgrid’s Head of Educator Innovation Jornea Armant (she/her). “Hope in a Box helps us deliver on that commitment with powerful content that makes inclusion a natural part of the curriculum.”
Hope in a Box founder Joe English (he/him) was recently featured on the Flipgrid Community Conversation: Honor PRIDE with Hope in a Box where he shared the content launch with enthusiastic educators around the world.
Get started right away in the Flipgrid Discovery Library. To learn more about Hope in a Box, visit their website, and learn everything that Microsoft is doing for Pride and beyond.
