The San Francisco Bay Area office opened in 1997 and works with a network of over 4,536 middle- and high-school educators in nine Bay Area counties. Our deep work with teachers reaches more than 308,500 students each year in over 683 public, independent, and religious schools.
Learn more about our work in our San Francisco Bay Area Profile
The San Francisco Bay Area salutes Facing History teacher Dana Pattison, a teacher at Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon. Dana is relatively new to Facing History but after taking one seminar back in 2013, she began teaching a semester-long Facing History elective at her school, and as she says, "the rest is history."
Last year, more than 50 students enrolled in the electives. Dana is particularly proud of the "world response conference" that she developed for the course. Each student represents a particular country during the 1930s, researches economic and political issues the country faced at the time, and then decides how he/she would respond to the refugee crisis. Students made connections to the modern refugee crisis in Syria and Central America.
In 2014, she was an Innovation Grant winner and helped us develop our first literacy-based Common Core-aligned lesson plans. The East Bay Yom Hashoah Committee recently honored Dana as its Educator of the Year, but Dana says, "I honor my kids every day!"
Facing History and Ourselves is actively used in history, literature, interdisciplinary, government and specially designed Facing History electives all over Northern California. In addition to being incorporated into K-12 schools, Facing History is also taught in colleges and universities.
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Brittany Redgate of San Mateo Middle College - San Mateo, CA A design challenge that requires students to listen to and define the needs of community members who hold diverse opinions around an issue. Students learn to invite everyone to be part of the solution. |
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Bayard Nielsen of Notre Dame High School - San Jose, CA Students speak with local Spanish-speaking day workers to hear first-person immigrant stories. They are given the chance to interact with people outside of their normal circles and see people as individuals and not as groups. |
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Standing Up to Racism: Kobi J. at the San Francisco Benefit Dinner. Student Kobi J. describes his successful effort to get his middle school renamed after learning it was originally named after a eugenicist. He delivers these remarks at the 2017 Facing History San Francisco benefit dinner. |
