More than 55 years since its publication, Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird still resonates. Filmmaker Sandra Jaffe grew up in Alabama, where the 1960 best-selling novel is set. In 2006, Jaffe set out to find out why the book remains so popular today.
Topics: To Kill a Mockingbird, Classrooms, Civil Rights Movement, Film, Student Voices, Choosing to Participate, Facing History Resources, Identity, Civil Rights
Teaching after mass violence, including acts of terrorism, is incredibly challenging.
Topics: Antisemitism, Democracy, Choosing to Participate, Human Rights, Immigration, Religious Tolerance, Teaching, Schools, News, Identity, Genocide/Collective Violence
As we look back at 2014, we thought we'd share some of our favorite posts—and yours.
Topics: Books, Choosing to Participate, Students, Schools, Identity, Memoir, Facing History and Ourselves, Teachers
I remember sitting on my parents' bed one evening after dinner when I was seven years old, squeezing into a spot next to my older brother, Marc. In the coziness and safety of their room—walls clad in purple fabric and a white shag rug underfoot—my parents began to share their stories.
Topics: Choosing to Participate, New York, Identity, Facing History Together, Holocaust, Memoir, Facing History and Ourselves, Survivor Testimony
As I prepared to write this post, I had to confront the most difficult, yet most important, person that I would be in conversation with: myself.
Topics: Classrooms, Teaching Strategies, Democracy, Students, Human Rights, Safe Schools, Teaching, Schools, News, Identity, Teaching Resources, Teachers
As a teacher, you carefully prepare for your students, plan your lessons, develop curriculum that will meet expectations of administrators, engage students, and build critical skills for academic success. And then, there are the news items – local or global – that capture students’ hearts and minds
Topics: Classrooms, Facing History Resources, Safe Schools, Teaching, News, Identity, Race and Membership, Teachers, Civil Rights
From over 400 nominations, we selected 20 finalists from around the world for the 2014 Facing History Together Teacher Recognition Contest. Then you voted for the educator whose story and work inspired you most.
Today we are so thrilled to introduce you to our 2014 Facing History Together Teacher Recognition Contest winner Hayden Frederick-Clarke, the founding math teacher at Diploma Plus, a small learning community at Charlestown High School in Boston, Massachusetts. Frederick-Clarke will receive a $5,000 teaching grant to benefit his school and community, and to further his work as a great educator.
Topics: Classrooms, Boston, Contests, Choosing to Participate, Teaching, Schools, Identity, Facing History Together, Upstanders, Facing History and Ourselves, Teachers
To Kill a Mockingbird is set in a small town in Alabama in the 1930s, a town much like the one in which author Harper Lee came of age. Although I grew up a generation later, I see much of myself in Scout, the young white girl who narrates the book.
Topics: To Kill a Mockingbird, Classrooms, Books, English Language Arts, Margot Stern Strom, Human Rights, Facing History Resources, Teaching, Identity, Teaching Resources, Teachers, History
Teachers have to create this emotional space where it’s safe, but challenging. Where people can be themselves. Where people can take chances and fail. Where people can tell stories about themselves and reveal things about themselves without risk of derision, without fear of being marginalized. Without safety there is nothing, there is no learning.”
Topics: Classrooms, Choosing to Participate, Events, Safe Schools, Schools, Memphis, Identity, Facing History Together, Upstanders, Facing History and Ourselves, Teachers, Video
National Anti-Bullying Week takes place in the United Kingdom 17th to 21st of November. This year's theme is "let's stop bullying for all."
Topics: Classrooms, United Kingdom, Webinar, Online Tools, Professional Development, Film, Teaching Strategies, Bullying and Ostracism, Choosing to Participate, Human Behavior, Human Rights, Facing History Resources, Safe Schools, Teaching, Schools, Identity, Facing History and Ourselves, Teaching Resources