In 2022–2023, the Reimagining New England Histories K–12 Curriculum Committee (RNEHCC) worked with educators, community leaders, and scholars to plan and develop lessons that foreground the histories and experiences of Black and Indigenous communities throughout the Dawnland (New England). During the fall and spring, the committee met monthly for productive conversations about how best to structure, format, distribute, and implement the lessons we created. Many of our discussions built from our focus on educator experience to incorporate student experience, reflecting particularly on how to prepare educators to, in turn, prepare students for challenging and rewarding lessons that explored histories of dispossession, enslavement, resistance, and recovery. The RNEHCC evaluated, edited, and formatted curriculum materials that illuminate the experiences of Black and Indigenous mariners, created lessons that contextualized and recentered the Thanksgiving holiday and associated days of remembrance, and developed a podcast competition that challenged students to appraise and expand traditional colonial narratives. The committee has begun developing plans for addressing the social and emotional needs of students engaged in these lessons, both through materials that would accompany the lesson plans, and through professional development opportunities. 

During the summer of 2023, the committee continued its work and began to develop lessons that align with and complement the RNEH-sponsored Mystic Seaport Museum exhibit “Entwined: The Sea, Sovereignty and Freedom.” The RNEHCC will also expand its mission to support educators by offering a professional development session where teachers can further develop the knowledge, skills, and materials that will enable them to meaningfully incorporate the histories and experiences of Black and Indigenous peoples into their lessons.