Margot Stern Strom Teaching Award: 2011 Recipients
Chicago
Alison Eichhorn – Peace and Education Coalition Alternative High Schools – Second Chance Campus, Chicago, IL
“In my classroom, Facing History is an investigative journey that allows students to question their previous understandings of history. In doing this, they also critically analyze the assumptions made by the historians of the past in order to come to a better understanding and non-bias account of our past through the lens of an humanitarian.”
Alison’s project will further her Ethnic Studies curriculum, a senior level social sciences elective that uses a variety of Facing History resources and examines the relationships and interactions between the diverse ethnicities found in American society. The award will allow her to develop resources for two essential pieces of this curriculum: Moot Court reenactments and Socratic Seminars. The goal of both techniques is to provide students a safe and tolerant space in which to discuss difficult yet important issues, through which they will move beyond examinations of identity and membership and take responsibility for their participation in society.
Darryl Einhorn – Proviso Math & Science Academy High School, Forest Park, IL
“From the moment I participated in Facing History’s Holocaust and Human Behavior seminar three years ago, I found a language, culture and intellectual framework for inquiry that deepened my own way of thinking with respect to connecting the past with the present and influenced the curricular and pedagogical practices, which have become the foundation for my own inquiry-based classroom.”
Darryl’s project is a culminating activity for her sophomore classes’ examination of the dilemma of religious freedom within secular societies. This grant will facilitate students’ planning of and participation in a public forum that explores the intersections of history, religion, and culture, addressing the ways in which migration, globalization, and religiously motivated terrorism have reshaped the public debate about differences. This forum will have student facilitators focus on exploring what religious freedom looks like in a society made up of increasingly diverse religious beliefs and cultural practices.
Rory Muchow & Caryl Reinhardt – Oscar Mayer Magnet School, Chicago, IL
“Students [in our Facing History classes] have a stronger sense of history and its impact on their current lives and situations, which helps them to evaluate their choices in an impactful way. The Socratic seminars bring about rich conversations in order to give them the basis to apply the lessons they have learned.”
Rory and Caryl’s award will support an interdisciplinary “memory and legacy” project that will embed Facing History in their middle school’s curriculum and take their work to a deeper level. This fine arts school will create a memorial art project using Choices in Little Rock, a powerful unit of study for these students. Memoirs of the Little Rock Nine will also be purchased, increasing their school’s Civil Rights library and serving as part of the memorial project.
Cleveland
Anne Hribar – Our Lady of the Lake School, Euclid, OH
“One of my primary goals is that education becomes something much more than that of a literal school classroom. I believe learning should encompass the community. I want my students to experience history from different voices making personal connections to their own lives while having the opportunity to involve a community beyond their classroom through their own community conversation.”
Funds will be used to create community conversations, with a focus on issues of civic participation, moral decision-making, and bystander and upstander behaviors, with survivors Loung Ung, Cambodia and Betty Gold, Holocaust. Ung’s memoir will be purchased along with a local author’s story that tells of Gold’s Holocaust experience. This will be community read by both staff and students.
Lisa Lefstein-Berusch – Cleveland Heights High School (REAL School), Cleveland Heights, OH
“In my classroom, we speak the language of Facing History, speaking of people as perpetrators or bystanders; we read and write about themes of identity, self and others, community, and choices. Discussions in class now connect literature to our own experiences and choices—and over time I see some students question long-held beliefs that have allowed fighting and bullying to occur at our school. Students are finally asking themselves if “minding their own business” is always the best solution, and if they might indeed have some responsibility to people outside their Universe of Obligation after all. I have witnessed a dramatic improvement in the level of my students’ motivation, willingness to read and write, an improvement in their skills because of their increased engagement, and growth in the communication among them and between them and me.”
The award will support a student investigation, using digital media (flip cameras), into community issues. This is based on their work with Reporter and will allow the students to use journalism to investigate injustice and suffering in their own community. The REAL School, one of five small schools at Cleveland Heights High School, has a school population of 2,000 students, over 80% of whom are African American. More than half of the students are economically disadvantaged. A large proportion of the students struggle academically because of below grade level reading and writing skills. This project will motivate students by giving them a purpose for their reading and an audience for their writing.
Denver
R. Shane Atkinson – East High School in Cheyenne, WY
“This year marked the introduction of Facing History and Ourselves to our school. We are offering a yearlong elective course based on the Facing History curriculum and specifically focusing on the Holocaust and Human Behaviorwork. The students in my classes are always on their toes. The discussions I have heard in the first half of this year have been mind-blowing. Sometimes I question who is really doing the teaching in my room!”
Shane currently teaches four sections of a year-long elective course rooted in the Holocaust and Human Behavior curriculum from Facing History. The award will allow him to purchase copies of The Sunflower to explore the theme of forgiveness and start literary study groups with students to deepen their human connection to the Holocaust and its impact on world history.
Michael Schneider – Castle View High School, Castle Rock, CO
“Our students, while highly skilled in most academic areas, often lack an understanding and appreciation for those marginalized in their community and in the world. But they thrive when given the opportunity to explore these issues. As we move from The American Civil War to Vietnam and The Reagan Years, we explore marginalized citizens from each era—slaves, immigrants, migrant workers, minorities fighting for Civil Rights and soldiers (not just American). Facing History has provided insight and materials that allow us to explore ourselves as we explore History, making it easier for our students to appreciate the past, while impacting their presents and futures.”
The award will allow Michael and his teaching partner to develop curriculum that will enhance their Choosing to Participate unit for 100 sophomore students. They will investigate identity as community members, through interviews with upstanders, and create documentaries using flip cameras. The work will be shared with the community at large in an exhibition.
Tom Thorpe – St. Anne's Episcopal School, Denver, CO
“Students can learn more and herald new ways to choose to participate with digital media. Learning and discussions continue for many students beyond the class period through the use of digital media. …In this way, digital media complements the Facing History pedagogical framework and deepens the work of Facing History and Ourselves.”
Tom’s award will ignite in-depth educational engagement of his eighth grade History and English students through digital media. Tom is developing lesson plans for his students to work with and create various iPad applications for promoting the use of modern technology. He will use the award to create a pedagogical framework that incorporates best practices in digital media into existing Facing History units with the eighth grade students. “Students can learn more and herald new ways to choose to participate with digital media.”
International
Philippa Bleach – Connaught School, Hampshire, UK
“I started at the Connaught School in September 2010 (after many years as a Facing History teacher in Reading) as the new head of history. I was invited to completely re-launch the department as it had been faced with an inordinate number of challenges. My key aim is to use Facing History as a tool to improve the community cohesion of the school.”
The award will allow her to bring the Forgiveness Project Exhibition to visit the Connaught School, a new school within a mixed ethnic community where many students have little knowledge of each others’ cultures and the challenges that they face. The project details people's experiences with trauma and how they came to find peace of mind to move forward through forgiveness. Through this project students will wrestle with issues of justice and judgment as well as support creative conflict resolution within school communities. Students take an active role in making their school an accepting and forgiving place.
Suzanne Penderis – Townley Grammar School, Bexley, UK
“My intention is to build a foundation upon which Holocaust and Genocide studies could be expanded within the school, across schools and into the wider community. I will use art and personal experiences to make the issues accessible and stimulate further interest and discussion. Students will explore the Facing History themes of identity, race and membership and participation.”
The exhibition will harness the strength of Suzanne’s work in the arts and to create a series of interdisciplinary Facing History experiences in the form of alternative curriculum days. Students will explore each of the three units through the lens of identity expressed in the arts. The curriculum development that she will organize is important for the growth of Facing History in Townley Grammar School. It will reach colleagues across all disciplines.
Miriam Wertlieb – Vanguard Primary School, Gulu, N Uganda
“My love affair with Facing History dates back to 2001, when as a high school freshmen I enrolled in the highly “buzzed about” Facing history course elective…The idea that each one of us, as an individual, has a role to play in the creation of history inspired, invigorated, and empowered me. I was determined to live as an upstander.”
Students at the Vanguard School have been working with paper text only and have limited or no access to internet and multi-media based learning. The award will provide a DVD player and Facing History literature, texts, and DVDs to enhance the knowledge of teachers and improve the learning experience of the students. The resources that the award funds will not only strengthen the curriculum, but introduce alternative teaching methods and encourage further introduction to learning technologies.
Yves Solis – Prepa Ibero School, Mexico City
“In a context of increasing violence, a fragile rule of law and scarce opportunities to learn and practice participation, Mexican students will explore connections between the History of Weimar, the Holocaust, and themselves, particularly in relation to those forms of civic action that can strengthen our weak Mexican democracy.”
Prepa Ibero, a Jesuit High School located in Mexico City, is a pioneer educational project that combines academic excellence with a philosophy of educating youth to become social agents of change. Yves’ goal and challenge is to create a model that will incorporate Holocaust education into the Mexican Schools. As Academic coordinator, Yves’ award will support collaboration with a Jewish Day School to develop a traveling exhibit that expresses what the students want to share about their knowledge of the Holocaust. The team at Prepo Ibero will travel this museum-quality exhibit to other schools with their students.
Los Angeles
Maritza Salazar – Social Justice Leadership Academy, Los Angeles, CA
“When I was a first year teacher and I wanted to do a Darfur unit, my first stop was the Facing History and Ourselves website where I found great material to create lesson plans. My students’ final project was to create a "Toolbox of Change." After the summer break a student came back and told me "Do you know what I did this summer?" I responded that I did not. The student told me, "I sold newspapers subscriptions by telling people about the atrocities in Darfur that I learned in your class. Thank you for making me good at my job."
Social Justice Leadership Academy is part of the small schools network that opened in September. Maritza is part of the teacher leadership team at Facing History. Her award supports the school’s development as they struggle to deal with the dominant issues of gangs and bullying. The theme this year is transformative and transitional justice. The project, Transitional Justice, deepens the Facing History journey of 10th graders, who have already had Facing History in 9th grade, as well as studied the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. The award will provide a class set of Black Dogs of Fate and support a visit to the LA Museum of the Holocaust and The Armenian Genocide memorial in Montebello.
Jay Quincy – Animo Ralph Bunche, Los Angeles, CA
“My students have begun to see history not just as something that happened in the past that didn’t involve them, but rather something that is happening now and involves them. I have seen students become more tolerant of the “other.” I have seen an increase in the number of upstanders at my school. Students see that they can make a difference if they choose to participate.”
Jay, a leader in the Animo Ralph Bunche Charter High School, a member of the small schools network, is deepening his work with Facing History by developing a 4-week comparative genocide unit on the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide. His award will allow him to purchase a class set of The Road from Home: A True Story of Courage, Hope & Survival, and poster boards for students to create memorials to victims of genocide.
Julian De La O – Miguel Contreras School, Los Angeles, CA
“After working with resources from Facing History and working with my students I have realized that family history is vital to the story of a person. Some of the most important stories we have read in the program are personal stories of individuals that have dealt with discrimination similar to the discrimination my students have faced.”
The Miguel Contreras Learning Project is 98% Latino. Most students do not know their family histories, and discriminate within the Latino group based on country of origin. Julian will use his award to creating an Oral History Family Project using Facing History resources on race, membership, and immigration. Students will use digital cameras and voice recorders to interview recent immigrants in their family, and share their stories with each other.
Memphis
Michael Robinson – Houston High School, Germanton, TN
“Facing History has provided me with ideas and strategies to help make my teaching engaging, more interesting, and meaningful for my students. It has helped me find ways to get my students to think critically and express their thoughts and opinions in thoughtful ways.”
Michael teaches the first Facing History elective at Houston High School. This award will allow him to take a professional development study tour to Vienna and Prague to supplement his teaching about the Kindertransport and Terezin. He will develop five lessons which will be shared on his website. The goal for Michael is to create a series of connected lessons that follow the path traveled by the Children of Willesden Lane and Sir Nicholas Winton.
Dr. Precious Boyle – Ridgeway Middle School, Memphis, TN
“My ultimate goal in teaching has been to touch the lives of children making them reflective in their decision making, honest about who they are and what they believe, and progressive in their thinking. This class and this project help me to bring these goals to fruition. I am deeply grateful to the entire Facing History and Ourselves family for providing this opportunity for my students and me to grow together.”
Precious’ project “Be Seated in Your Identity” was developed in conjunction with the Identity and Community lessons in Decision Making in Times of Injustice, Facing History and Ourselves’ grade 6 curriculum. This project is designed to assist 6th grade students with their transition into middle school by helping them to understand their identity and feel more secure in who they are as they enter the middle school setting. Each student will engage in a series of interdisciplinary activities that will culminate in the design, creation, and exhibition of a small wooden “identity chair.”
North America Project
Cynthia Hartman – Harribsurg High School, Harrisburg, PA
“Facing History has been a crucial part of my classroom since I began using the curriculum three years ago. The school district in which I teach is dealing with racial tensions and violence. In order to address and help combat these issues I incorporate themes from Facing History. When my students and I engage in discussions about the negative activities of their peers I relate it back to bystanders and upstanders and ask the students what they are doing to stop the violence and create a better future.”
Cynthia will use this award to bring the Harrisburg High School student council to DC to visit Choosing to Participate. After the trip, the students will create activities based on the theme of Choosing to Participate for the rest of the school. These activities will be geared toward combating the "racism, violence and gang activity" at Harrisburg High School.
New England
Karen Langlais – Ipswich middle School, Ipswich, MA
“Stories imprint themselves on our thinking. When we need to choose how to behave or how to participate, the stories we have heard can guide our actions. As a result of stories, acceptance of others and engagement within our community in positive ways are the next building steps, a progression which is demonstrated by the Facing History and Ourselves cycle of membership, history, and choosing to participate.”
Karen’s challenge is to make a Holocaust memoir relevant to her middle school student body which is economically but not ethnically diverse. They share space with Ipswich High School so “Sharing Our Stories,” an 8th grade team project, was designed to help students ask the essential questions, “How do stories change us?” and “How can stories change our behavior?” Students will read about and hear a variety of stories, including Holocaust Legacy Partner Mary Kiley telling the story of survivor Sonia Weitz, and Ipswich High School graduate Adolfo Perez sharing his immigration story from El Salvador. They will read the words of Jesus Colon, Arn Chorn Pond and others. They will experience the Facing History case study on bullying and ostracism and see the video discussion with Elie Wiesel and Chicago students on the topic of hatred. Writing prompts will follow several of these stories, asking students to “share a journey or decision that changed you” or “tell about a time when you chose to be an upstander.” The written accounts of how stories have impacted student behavior and their choices will be an invitation to “choose to participate” in positive ways throughout the high school years and beyond.
Kate Carter – Notre Dame Academy, Hingham, Ma
“My favorite thing about using the Facing History curriculum is that it calls on both the student’s analytical and empathic intelligence. Central to any Catholic social justice course is the notion that empathy is the heart of moral formation. To have a rigorous curriculum that challenges the students to engage emotionally as well as intellectually is a dream for me. The Facing History curriculum further sharpens the intellectual, ethical and empathic capacities that students develop throughout the year.”
Notre Dame Academy is an all girls school. Kate will develop a teaching unit that will help the young women develop an understanding of the social justice issues involved in immigration as well as critical viewing and thinking skills with regards to the media. Using selected readings from Facing History’s Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement and Stories of Identity: Religion, Migration, and Belonging in a Changing World, as well as Catholic social teaching documents on immigration, the students will develop a historical perspective and a conceptual framework of the complexity of social justice issues connected with immigration. The award will allow them to participate in a one day workshop—Newspaper Theatre from Emerson College—which teaches several techniques that help participants explore the stories behind the images and details given in any media report. Students will choose one Newspaper Theatre technique in order to bring awareness to an aspect of immigration that is commonly misrepresented, or they might create a public service announcement (PSA) that helps people become more aware of how to critically view media on immigration and other social issues.
Sandy Simpson – Another Course to College, Boston, MA
“Facing History keeps me honest; it keeps me focused on the issues that face these kids. Facing History has helped me shape my moral guidepost as a classroom teacher in an urban high school and with the support I’ve received in my classroom, I’m able to teach a rigorous, academic curriculum that deals with issues of fear, hatred, ostracism, war and the choices that we all face.”
Sandy, a fifteen year veteran Facing History teacher, will use her award to incorporate digital media to explore the roles of historians and types of reporting that communicate and shape people’s understanding of their world. Technology is power in her high school. Students will take on the role of journalists, artists and other media creators. They will develop their ability to feel compassion, take action, and offer solutions on issues that concern them in their community. Digital cameras and flip video cameras will allow them to create media that demonstrates their learning, research, and plan of action.
New York
Rosemary Chinnock – Forsyth Satellite Academy, New York, NY
"Our students become deeply engaged in the Facing History themes such as making moral choices in times of crisis, civil and human rights and becoming an upstander. I have found that the curriculum resonates with the students even more as I have added, with help from Facing History, lessons on the civil rights movement and other related topics. Most of our students are African American and Latino. These units help students connect the Holocaust and its universal themes to their own histories and identities. Even students who voiced anti-Semitic beliefs have left the course with a newfound respect for and connection to the Jewish experience."
Rosemary’s award contributes to her senior seminar course by giving her students the ability to make documentary films with a Mac pro that explore examples of injustice throughout United States history and highlights upstanders who have challenged such inequality. She will be utilizing selections on identity from Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior and Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement. Students will then make short documentary films about upstanders they have encountered in Rosemary’s class, using historical photos, documents, student-created images, and films of themselves as ‘talking heads’ or actors. In preparation for their films, students will write essays and create storyboards and scripts. These films will then be screened for the school community.
Crystal Gifford – The Facing History School, New York City, NY
"I have been at the Facing History School for the past 5 years and I have seen our students go full circle—understand self and identity in their freshmen year to taking action and Choosing to Participate as seniors. This is what drives my teaching and gives me hope for my students."
Crystal will focus on the concept of upstanders in all three of her classes—a mixed-grade War and Peace course; an eleventh-grade AP United States History course; and a tenth-grade Human Rights course. Crystal’s classes will examine upstanders in history, reading case studies in Holocaust and Human Behavior, Choices in Little Rock, Choosing to Participate, and other Facing History resources. Students will then discover contemporary examples of civic actors who have chosen to make a difference in their school or local communities. Crystal’s award will provide flip cameras and art supplies to conduct an oral history project and create an accompanying piece of art that explores the identity of a community upstander. These projects will be shared with the entire Facing History School during their annual Ubuntu celebration in the spring.
San Francisco
David Cohen – Palo Alto High School, San Francsico, CA
“Here was a program that tied everything together, and in the years since then, I’ve been on a continual learning journey with Facing History and Ourselves. I have attended week-long institutes, workshops, seminars, talks and performances, and even had the opportunity to help the organization in its early forays on the internet, and to present some of my work to fellow teachers. Every year brings new learning and new opportunities for me and my students.”
David teaches a full year English Facing History class that, beginning with the reading and writing of memoirs, conducts a deep historical study of eugenics and the Holocaust, and ends with analysis of the meanings of reconciliation for individuals and societies that seek to heal wounds and fulfill the promises of democracy. The award will support a culminating “teach-in” where students will share their learning with their community, leading an educational event with invited guests, teens and adults. They will facilitate a multi-generational public dialogue centered around the Holocaust and Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night. Each student must become a “scholar” on a theme related to the book. Some will become experts on related poetry or art. Some will examine issues of justice and judgment that are prompted by the questions raised by the book. Some will explore questions about faith or challenges to faith that arise during such study. Drawing lessons from Wiesel’s life and writing, students will explore the idea that there are no neutral bystanders in history.
Stacey Wickware – Dozier-Libbey Medical High School, Antioch Unified School District, San Francisco, CA
“Facing History offers so much in the way of teaching strategies and subject matter, and also in the opportunity to “go deeper” into areas of American history that we rarely have the luxury to explore in depth. As teaching is a second career for me and a much sought after, lifelong dream, the chance to dig into those tough topics made me want to bring history alive for my students all the more.”
The Margot Stern Strom Teaching Award will support a deep exploration of the Civil Rights Movement for all levels of the 11th grade. In addition to reading key literature and historical case studies, students will be able to hear Terence Roberts of the Little Rock Nine and Awele Makeba, teacher/storyteller. The Advanced Placement U.S. History project involves reading civil rights-related literature including Warriors Don't Cry and a deep case study of Choices in Little Rock, with attention also to Eyes on the Prize and multiple other resources. Students will develop their own interactive, traveling museum show-casing their understanding of the movement, including its legacies in their own lives, their own community, and their own educations. Students will bring the museum to the community via the public library as part of the school's "service learning" component of the project.
Toronto
Desiree Harvey – Humberside Collegiate Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
Desiree is using Facing History material to design her English class at Humberside. She will develop an essay writing unit on “Issues of Social Justice” called “Who are We, and What are We For?” The students will read and respond to essays as well as write essays about personal identity, Canadian identity, challenges facing Canada or the world today, and how youth can take action to improve their own lives, or the lives of others. They will discuss in and out groups and the creation of the other, historical moments of significance, and what people have done to make a difference.
