Facing History and Ourselves - Los Angeles Feed

Author, Luis Rodriguez, to Speak at Facing History and Ourselves Carson Schools Network Celebration about Building and Transforming Communities in Los Angeles, May 14, 2012

EmilyBlackie — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:39:39 +0000

press_type:

Press Release

May 11, 2012

Press Contact: Marti Tippens Murphy
Facing History and Ourselves
213-202-2811
Marti_Tippens_Murphy@facing.org

Los Angeles, CA (May 14, 2012)- International educational nonprofit Facing History and Ourselves will host their Carson Schools Network for a year-end celebration on May 14, 2012, at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Building in Downtown Los Angeles. Luis Rodriguez, author of the book Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams: How the Arts Are Transforming a Community, will speak to the audience of teachers, students, and Facing History Advisory Board Members about the work of transforming southland communities. Attendance at the event is by invitation only and is not open to the public.

Each of the eight schools in the Carson Network will display examples of how they have used Facing History and Ourselves curriculum to transform their school community. Luis Rodriguez will highlight their hard work and discuss his book which focuses on twenty years of arts development in the Northeast San Fernando Valley and featuring essays, poems, photos, art pieces, interviews, and more. Seventeen Los Angeles schools, their representatives and teachers, will be in attendance to learn from each other about how to use history, art and culture to enhance high school education, and to allow kids to make the vital connection between their own communities’ history and the world today.

Luis J. Rodriguez has emerged as one of the leading Chicano writers in the country with fifteen published books in memoir, fiction, nonfiction, children's literature, and poetry. Luis' poetry has won a Poetry Center Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, and a Paterson Poetry Book Prize, among others. Luis is best known for the 1993 memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.

Tia Chucha Press—the publishing wing of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural and Bookstore—has published Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams: How the Arts are Transforming a Community, edited by Denise Chavez, Ph.D. and Luis J. Rodriguez. Beautifully designed by Jane Brunette, Tia Chucha Press’s long-time designer, this book is TCP’s first non-poetry publication, focusing on twenty years of arts development in the Northeast San Fernando Valley and featuring essays, poems, photos, art pieces, interviews, and more.

The Carson Downtown Schools Network launched in 2010 as a unique partnership between Facing History and Ourselves and a cohort of schools in downtown Los Angeles. These schools face broad challenges: a combined need for significant support for their students, and for innovative tools to nurture and educate those students. Facing History helps teachers and students recognize that their voices matter—their choices matter—in big and small ways every day. These schools show what a difference these lessons can make with deeper learning of content and skills, impact on school culture, stronger connections to the community, and application to interdisciplinary and extracurricular activities.

The network has been created with support from the John W. Carson Foundation, which in 2010 awarded Facing History a three-year grant to do work with schools in downtown Los Angeles that need significant support to serve city students. Additional help comes from the McAllister Family Foundation. This support has enabled Facing History to develop a connected, sustainable network providing intensive professional development and support so that teams at the schools are able to build on what they create from one academic year to the next.

Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development and lessons of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives. Facing History reaches nearly two million students each year through a network of more than 29,000 trained educators. To learn more about Facing History visit facinghistory.org.

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Twilight: Los Angeles, A Community Conversation Featuring Anna Deavere Smith

Nicky Enriquez — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:52:50 +0000

April 25, 2012

For everyone to view

Celebrity

To honor the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles Race Riots, Facing History and Ourselves in partnership with The Allstate Foundation hosted “Twilight: Los Angeles,” a free and open event featuring the actress, playwright, and social critic Anna Deavere Smith. On April 25, 400 community members, teachers, and students gathered at the Robert F. Kennedy Community High School to watch Deavere Smith perform excerpts from her play Twilight: Los Angeles, which she wrote in the aftermath of the 1992 riots. Facing History’s Twilight, Los Angeles Study Guide is a resource for educators interested in exploring this difficult history in their classrooms.

Deavere Smith’s play, which weaves together personal testimonies and commentary, is based upon interviews she conducted with people who witnessed the riots. At the April 2012 event, Deavere Smith performed excerpts from the play and paused between scenes to explain the history of the events and her personal experiences researching the riots.

The evening kicked off with a question. As guests entered the theater, they were asked “What event or person from history has had the greatest impact on you?” Guests text messaged responses, which were then projected on an on-stage screen in a “wordle” image that served as a visual representation of both the variety of perspectives and the common themes among responses.

Marti Tippens Murphy, director of the Facing History L.A. office, introduced Deavere Smith and discussed the importance of remembering this particular chapter of the city’s history. Following the performance, history teacher Stephanie Carrillo, a member of the Facing History Teacher Leadership Team, kicked off a Q&A session by sharing how she uses Facing History and Twilight to look at questions of choices and history. “We kept talking about how we can build community among our students, and finally just said, let's do it," said Carrillo, who this year had her students explore monologues from the play. Carrillo’s class finished the unit with a performance of the monologues, which Facing History students from the nearby Social Justice Leadership Academy attended. Afterwards, the two groups of students from different schools discussed the play and how it is still important and relevant today.

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Learn more about Facing History in Los Angeles.

Find a Facing History event in your community.

Remembering the Los Angeles Riots with Anna Deavere Smith

EmilyBlackie — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:16:49 +0000

press_type:

In the News

April 25, 2012

Ahead of her appearance at a Facing History and Ourselves Community Conversation, actor, playwright, and social critic Anna Deavere Smith sat down with the Los Angeles Times to discuss her play Twilight: Los Angeles. The event, which honored the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles Riots, was held in Los Angeles on April 25 in partnership with The Allstate Foundation.

Nearly 300 students, teachers, and Los Angeles-area community members turned out to hear Smith talk about the events of April 29, 1992, when Los Angeles erupted into three days of violence.

“I’m very grateful to all of those people who gave me an extraordinary opportunity to try to make sense of the tale by going from great distances across the Los Angeles area to get the story,” Smith told the Los Angeles Times. “So it still holds a real place in my heart.” During the event, Smith thanked Facing History for getting the play where it needs to be.

Written and performed by Smith, Twilight: Los Angeles weaves together personal testimonies—which she acts out—with documentary footage and commentary into a unique tapestry of perspectives, emotions, and reactions. The Facing History resource, Twilight, Los Angeles Study Guide, helps educators discuss this history in the classroom.

Read "Anna Deavere Smith Revisits 'Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992'" by Reed Johnson, in the Los Angeles Times.

Learn more about our work in Los Angeles.

Learn more about Twilight, Los Angeles Study Guide.

The Community Conversation series of community-wide dialogues across the U.S. is presented by Facing History and Ourselves and The Allstate Foundation. Prominent scholars, authors, filmmakers, and policy leaders will speak and participate in discussions about civic engagement, individual and collective responsibility, and tolerance. Click here to learn more.

Poet, Scholar Reflects on Legacy of Armenian Genocide

Nicky Enriquez — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:18:41 +0000

April 23, 2012

For everyone to view

Celebrity

balakian.jpg

History classes have come a long way since poet, writer, and academic Peter Balakian was in middle school in 1960s New Jersey.

The grandson of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, Balakian, a member of the Facing History and Ourselves Board of Scholars and professor at Colgate University, knew little of his family heritage while growing up in suburban Tenafly. In the 8th grade, he was assigned a social studies project: write about a Near Eastern culture. When his father suggested he research Armenia, Balakian turned to his family’s copy of the World Book. He recounts the tale in his 1997 memoir, Black Dog of Fate:

“About 200 words and a picture of an Armenian girl in a checked dress sitting at a schoolroom desk with an open textbook,” he writes. “Knowing that Armenia was once in what was now Turkey, I decided to see what there was on Turkey: a sizable entry with colored pictures, maps, a list of export products. I checked the sources in the bibliography at the end of the entry and went to find them in the stacks of the Tenafly Public Library. I kept reading and reading and reading…Two weeks went by and I found that I had read several books on Turkey without ever once coming across a reference to Armenia.”

At the time, Balakian did not know much about the systematic murder of the Armenians during World War I. He wasn’t taught about this persecution at school and his history books didn’t cover it. Balakian’s parents did not discuss their Armenian heritage and his grandmother, who he later learned fled Armenia to escape the genocide, didn’t talk about her experiences. Nearly everyone in her family was murdered.

“This history was kept in the closet,” Balakian said during a recent telephone conversation, shortly before the April 24 anniversary of the outbreak of the Armenian Genocide.

Today, the chances that middle- and high school students will learn about the Armenian Genocide are much greater, thanks in part to Balakian’s work. Much of Balakian’s poetry is inspired by his Armenian identity, his family history, and the sense of responsibility he feels for ensuring that the memory of that history is passed on. Balakian is also a writer of memoir and history – his 2003 bestselling book The Burning Tigris is an account of the Armenian Genocide – and he served as an advisor on the 2004 Facing History resource Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians. It’s a publication, Balakian said, that marked a change in genocide education at the secondary school level.

“It has had a huge impact on how this history is taught and how it can be conceptualized by teachers,” he said. “It made a big difference. It’s been a breakthrough kind of a book.”

Elana Goldbaum, a 10th grade history teacher at Gertz-Ressler High School in Los Angeles, agrees. For the past two years, Goldbaum has included a unit on the Armenian Genocide in her World History class. She added the unit to her syllabus after attending a Facing History educator workshop on the resource.

“I was drawn to incorporating it because it’s a history that is not normally covered,” Goldbaum said. “Growing up in a Jewish family, I had always heard about the Holocaust. I wanted to know more about other genocides in history.” One of Goldbaum’s favorite exercises in the book is a reading of the poem “Diaspora” that explores one writer’s relationship to her Armenian-American identity and her father’s homeland. “Discussing the concept of identity through the study of the Armenian Genocide brings out a lot of personal feelings for myself and for my students,” said Goldbaum, who teaches at a school whose student body is predominantly Latino and includes many first and second generation immigrants. “They understand what it feels like to be living in one place and maybe have your heart in another place.”

Goldbaum, a 2012 Margot Stern Strom Teaching Award Winner, completes the unit with a memorial art project in which students create a piece of art inspired by their reactions to Armenian history and the genocide of the Armenian people. “What I see is these students taking their own identity and connecting it to this broader history,” she said. “I find they connect with it more that way.”

It’s a sentiment Balakian shares. He was a graduate student when he started writing poetry informed by his Armenian identity and family history. “I was a young writer seeking knowledge of important matters. Some of these had an impact on my own family, which made it all the more powerful,” he said.

“I’ve learned a lot from Facing History’s pedagogical approach about the value of engaging students in personal ways and challenging those students to personalize their own sense of potential involvement in scary ethical dilemmas,” he continued. “[Facing History’s work] asks students to see how deeply history becomes part of the present – that history is continually a dynamic process. Students need to see themselves as participants in that process. Whether that history is from 1915, or 1940, or 1965, we as individuals need to see ourselves as civically connected to such ethical events.”

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Learn more about Facing History’s resources and lesson plans on the Armenian Genocide.

Find a workshop on the Armenian Genocide in your area.

Facing History's Julia Rappaport wrote this article. For questions or tips on what Facing History is doing in your community, email her at Julia_Rappaport@facing.org.

Facing History Students Respond to BULLY in Los Angeles

EmilyBlackie — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:47:20 +0000

press_type:

In the News

April 18, 2012

Nearly 7,000 students from 49 different Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) schools gathered this week at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles for a screening of the new documentary film BULLY, directed by Lee Hirsch.

Among those in attendance were Facing History and Ourselves students, teachers, and staff, who participated in a post-screening discussion of the film. Four Facing History students gave their reactions to the film—what had the most impact and what they thought students could do to create safer schools. Dan Alba, Senior Program Associate at Facing History in Los Angeles, was a moderator of the student panel. Alba also joined Mayor Villaraigosa and Superintendent of LAUSD John Deasy on the stage to introduce Facing History student Jasmine B., who spoke about the importance of the message of the film.

Read the article “Thousands of LAUSD Students Gather to Discuss Bullying,” by Teresa Watanabe, in the Los Angeles Times.

Learn more about our work in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Times: Facing History Helps Schools Teach 1992 Riots

EmilyBlackie — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:52:55 +0000

press_type:

In the News

April 15, 2012

This April marks the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Many teachers in Los Angeles struggle to fit lessons about the riots into their lesson plans, as the Los Angeles Unified School District does not formally include the events in its history curriculum and standardized tests rarely cover dates after the 1970s.

That is where Facing History and Ourselves comes in. Facing History aims to present history not as an inevitable chain of events, but as a series of choices by ordinary people that can produce great evil or tremendous good, Associate Program Director Mary Hendra recently told the Los Angeles Times.

Facing History has also created a guide to accompany Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles. The guide is designed to help teachers and students discuss the complexities of Los Angeles’ history, or that of any other community in crisis.

Stephanie Carrillo teaches an elective class on cultural diversity at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, where she uses materials from Facing History. This month, seniors in her class will act out the roles from Deavere Smith’s play and will put up an exhibit about the riots around their school.

“I’m so excited that the students see the potential of inspiring other people to think about this idea of personal choice and this particular history,” Carrillo told Facing History during a recent interview. “This is the whole point of teaching history. This is your history. This is your city. It involves people like you. It’s the perfect thing to do.”

Read the article “When Time Allows, 1992 Riots are Poignant Lesson in L.A. Schools,” by Teresa Watanabe, in the Los Angeles Times.

Learn more about our upcoming Community Conversation, presented in partnership with The Allstate Foundation, “Twilight Los Angeles: A Community Conversation Featuring Anna Deavere Smith,” on April 25.

Educators Tour East Los Angeles During 3-Day Conference

EmilyBlackie — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:57:30 +0000

press_type:

In the News

March 1, 2012

As part of a three-day conference, Facing History and Ourselves educators and principals from around the country and abroad recently gathered in Los Angeles, California. In addition to networking - sharing resources and teaching ideas - the group also participated in a heritage trail tour of East Los Angeles.

“A tour like this has never been done in East L.A”, said Manuel Huerta, a filmmaker and educator who presented to the group. “There is a lot of history of activism and resistance that is particular to East L.A. There is also a huge artistic movement that has to do with music, muralism.”

One participant, Dr. Yves Solis Nicot, the academic coordinator of the Prepa Ibero school in Mexico City, said, “By doing academic projects, such projects also become agents of change, that is, by promoting life stories, cultural stories, we are doing social work while being part of the community, which is the most important thing.”

The gathering brought together educators who work in school environments where Facing History resources and teaching methods are integrated across disciplines and throughout school culture.

Read the article “Touring Teachers Learn about East L.A. History,” by Marvelia Alpizar on EGPnews.

Learn more about Facing History’s Innovated School Network.

Learn about our work in Los Angeles.

Building Community after the Los Angeles Riots of 1992: A Student Project Contest

Nicky Enriquez — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:14:48 +0000

Presented by Facing History and Ourselves
in partnership with The Allstate Foundation

Los Angeles Riots of 1992

April 2012, marks the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots. On April 29th, 1992, a jury acquitted four L.A. police officers accused in the videotaped beating of Rodney King following a high-speed pursuit. Following the verdict, the people of L.A. took to the streets and people across the country and around the world watched the ensuing violence. All who did became witnesses to one of the worst moments in the city’s history. This "urban explosion" resulted in 51 deaths - 26 African Americans, 14 Latinos, eight Whites, two Asians, and one unknown - and property losses of nearly one billion dollars. "It was the first moment, I think, when most people in L.A. realized that they were part of the whole,” journalist Richard Rodriguez said. “The city that the world mocked for not being a city, for lacking a center, having only separate suburbs, separate freeway exits - L.A. realized that it was ‘interconnected.’"

Bringing this History to the Classroom

Facing History and Ourselves helps teachers, students and community members connect the complexities of the past to the choices they face today. Through our publications, events, online resources and professional development for teachers, we offer tools to help guide students through challenging explorations of their roles and responsibilities as global citizens.

Anna Deavere Smith's one-woman play, Twilight: Los Angeles examines the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 from a variety of perspectives. She has collected fragments of monologues that both invite and provoke conversation. Together they raise questions about race, power, truth, and justice.

Facing History’s study guide on Twilight: Los Angeles is designed to help teachers and students discuss the difficult and controversial issues raised by the film. It suggests the complexities of Los Angeles's history or that of any other community in crisis. It also reveals the importance to a democracy of the kind of education that equips students to negotiate those complexities.

Teachers are invited to introduce the history and legacies of the L.A. Riots of 1992 to their students through at least one the following materials, lessons, or resources:

Facing History Study Guide to Twilight Los Angeles (también es disponible en Español)
Video of Twilight Los Angeles (performed by Anna Deavere Smith)
The book: Twilight Los Angeles

Student Competition

Students are then invited to use their artistic skills to create a project based on what they learned about the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 and Twilight: Los Angeles with this prompt in mind, and via the following media:

Poetry
- Individual
- Small group of 2 to 4 students
Essay
- Individual
- Small group of 2 to 4 students
Performance
- Individual
- Small group of 2 to 4 students
- Whole class
Short Film
- Individual
- Small group of 2 to 4 students
Artwork
- Individual
- Small group of 2 to 4 students

How to Participate

Students must be in high school (9th to 12th Grade) to participate.
Submissions can be from be an individual, a small group (2 to 4 people), or a whole class, depending on the category.
Submissions must correlate with the prompt set forth by Facing History and Ourselves to the students.
Entries must be submitted through the classroom teacher. Teachers should then submit the entries to Facing History and Ourselves.
Each student is limited to only one entry.
Each teacher is limited to 10 submissions for the competition.
Facing History and Ourselves must receive all entries by Wednesday, April 11, 2012.

Guidelines for each Category:

Poetry

Entries must be at least 3 lines but no more than 25 lines
Must have a title
All types of poetry are accepted
Must be typed and electronically submitted through the teacher to Facing History and Ourselves.
Optional: Voice recording or video recording of the poetry’s delivery to be included with the word document. Must be electronically submitted.

Essay

Entries must be 500-1000 words in length.
Must have a title
Must be typed and electronically submitted through the teacher to Facing History and Ourselves.

Performance

Performances must be no longer than 3 minutes (5 minutes is acceptable for the whole class) minutes in length.
Must have a title
Must be video recorded and submitted electronically through the teacher to Facing History and Ourselves.

Short Film

Short films must be no longer than 3 minutes in length
Must have a title
Must be video recorded and submitted electronically through the teacher to Facing History and Ourselves.

Artwork

Must be a 2-dimensional art piece.
May be submitted as a: Painting, Drawing, Photography, Photoshop, or Collage
Size must be no larger than 2 x 2 feet.
Must be electronically submitted through the teacher to Facing History and Ourselves.

Selection and Recognition

A select group of judges will review each entry. Selections will be based on project’s relevance to the history of the L.A. Riots of 1992, the project’s portrayal of how the riots could help us make a better community today, and artistic merit. *Review the rubric for student projects.

One winner from each of the single, small groups of 2 to 4 students, and whole class selections will be chosen from each category.

All winners will be announced by April 25, 2012.

Students whose work is chosen will be invited, along with their families and teachers, to a special event highlighting the 20th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. Winning students will also receive a certificate of recognition from Facing History and Ourselves and become a part of an online gallery of student work on the Facing History and Ourselves website. In addition, the winner from each of the categories will be put into a raffle wherein one will be chosen to receive a grand prize of $500.

All entries become property of Facing History and Ourselves for one year unless special arrangements are made. Facing History reserves the right to reproduce the artwork for publications and other print and electronic media.

CONTINUE TO CONTEST SUBMISSION FORM >>

Join the Conversation

If you would like to know how other teachers are using Twilight: Los Angeles in their classrooms, or if you are interested in sharing your approach, please visit the LA Network Discussion Page.
Join the 12,000+ that like us on Facebook, and connect with Facing History on Twitter!

Innovative Educators on West Coast Gather for Three-Day Facing History Conference

Nicky Enriquez — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:55:04 +0000

press_type:

In the News

February 17, 2012

LOS ANGELES – Facing History and Ourselves is kicking off a three-day conference in Los Angeles today that brings together principals and teachers in the organization’s Innovative School Network. The conference, geared to connect Facing History educators in schools where the organization’s resources and teaching methods are integrated across disciplines and throughout school culture, is the first of its kind on the West Coast.

“A gathering like this focuses and reenergizes people. It helps them to appreciate the good work they have been doing while at the same time inspiring them to kick it up a notch in other areas,” said Molly Schen, Facing History’s director of program growth and operations.

Thirty-five educators are attending the conference, representing 14 schools from across Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Denver, New Mexico, and Mexico. All of the schools represented at the conference are part of Facing History’s small schools network, a strand of the Innovative School Network that began in 2008 with support from the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust. The network allows educators from across the globe to share resources and ideas for teaching Facing History and creating a school climate that promotes tolerance, learning, and civic engagement. The small schools strand of the network began with 12 schools and now has 32 schools from around the world.

Seven Facing History staff members from across the country are also attending the conference. The weekend will include classroom visits at area small schools and a keynote address from Dr. George Lipsitz, an expert in social movements, urban culture, and inequality. The conference ends Monday. Workshops include “Awareness into Action: Empowering Students to Make a Difference” and “English Language Learners + Facing History = Challenge + Opportunity.”

While Facing History is taught at schools of all sizes, small schools – which Facing History defines as having no more than 500 students – allow for individual attention and innovative approaches. “At Facing History, we care about each child’s moral development. A small school is able to know each student well and understand that student’s own journey,” Schen said. “If you care about personalization, small schools are a magical place to work. And if you’re trying to impact school culture, having a smaller school provides many inroads.”

The network has previously hosted conferences for educators in these settings on the East Coast. In 2011, small school educators from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C. This year marks the first time the organization will host one gathering specifically for West Coast educators and a second one, scheduled to take place in New York City in April, for East Coast educators.

The conference provides educators with the opportunity to attend workshops, meet students, tour schools, and work with Facing History staff. It also allows attendees to showcase and share the work they are doing in their own schools. This weekend, attending educators will show short films they’ve made about their schools and share examples of student work. The impact of gathering together educators from similar regions is significant. Attendees will address geographic needs and concerns and discuss region-specific histories, like the L.A. riots of 1992.

“Facing History got started in individual classrooms with pretty amazing teachers,” Schen said. “We learned early on that those conversations and behavior were spilling out into hallways. This project embraces the spillover and makes it into a well-traveled stream. We really want the rivers to be running through corridors and into staff rooms and parent conversations. This is about how these kids are growing up.”

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Learn more about Facing History’s Innovative School Network.

Facing History's Julia Rappaport wrote this article. For questions or tips on what Facing History is doing in your community, email her at Julia_Rappaport@facing.org.

Meredith Louria: California Teacher Makes Connections with Russian Classroom Using Conversation, Digital Tools

Nicky Enriquez — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:39:12 +0000

February 1, 2012

For everyone to view

MSS Award Winner

Teacher

nadya.jpg

This month, Facing History and Ourselves will present $40,000 to educators around the world as part of its annual Margot Stern Strom Teaching Awards. Facing History board members David and Nina Fialkow founded the awards in 2006. “The crux of it for us is the teachers,” Mrs. Fialkow said recently. “Teachers really are unsung heroes too often.”

The awards put funds directly into the hands of teachers and administrators, allowing them to further incorporate Facing History themes into – and outside of – the classroom. Last year 22 awards allowed for a range of initiatives from a teach-in in San Francisco to a memorial art project in Chicago. An educator in the UK used the money to bring a traveling exhibit called the Forgiveness Project to her school and a teacher in New York bought digital media tools for an oral history unit.

As Facing History prepares to announce the 2012 Margot Stern Strom Teaching Awards later this month, we checked in with four educators who won in 2007, the first year the awards were available organization-wide.

What could a kid from Santa Monica, California, have in common with a kid from Russia?

A lot, it turns out.

In 2004, Facing History teacher Meredith Louria signed up to participate in a State Department program that paired her with Nadya Strueva, an English teacher from Russia. What could have been a simple pen pal relationship blossomed into a true learning experience for the two educators after Meredith travelled to Russia in 2007 with the money from a Margot Stern Strom Teaching Award.

“It just started as I was telling Nadya about the Facing History materials and resources I was using in the classroom,” Meredith said by telephone recently. An English teacher for 30 years, Meredith helped launch a yearlong Facing History freshman seminar at Santa Monica High School in 2005. “What is so great about Facing History is that the content is so powerful and moving. It is what 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds are craving to talk about – their identities, the ways in which individuals can make a difference,” she said. “And for teachers it is a blend of what they need and crave, and what they don’t get in other disciplines. What teachers need and crave is deep, meaningful content.”

In Russia, Nadya had nothing like Facing History, and she, too, connected with the program. “It gave her hope that other people shared her interest in human rights and not just looking at the facts, but discussing why actions matter and that there are choices,” Meredith said. The two wanted to find a way to bring their students together to begin a conversation on issues of identity, difference, and community using the Facing History lens.

Meredith applied for the teaching award and used the funds to travel to Russia armed with Facing History resources. She and Nadya developed a unit that would allow their students to come together on a Wiki blog space. They shared their impressions of the other country and posted various assignments, like interviews with friends and family about events like the Cold War. “It’s kids in Santa Monica and a small town in Russia communicating with each other over the internet,” Meredith said. “That’s amazing.”

In the five years since Meredith won the award, she and Nadya have continued their partnership. In 2009, Nadya traveled to the United States to attend her first Facing History seminar. This past summer, Meredith returned to Russia. They dream about one day attending Facing History’s annual international seminar together.

“Everybody talks about world peace and understanding and seeing beyond your own little life,” Meredith said. “Well, this is a way to do it.”

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Learn more about our work in the Los Angeles area.

This is the third in a series of profiles on the Margot Stern Strom Teaching Award winners. Check our homepage often to learn more about other past recipients, and look for the announcement of this year’s winners.

Facing History's Julia Rappaport wrote this article. For questions or tips on what Facing History is doing in your community, email her at Julia_Rappaport@facing.org.