This blog post outlines resources to use throughout Black History Month in February and beyond. This is by no means a comprehensive list (we continue to add to it as we discover new resources), but a list of resources that can be part of a professional and classroom journey that excites us to learn more, unites us in our common humanity and empowers students to champion a more equitable, compassionate, and informed tomorrow.

Topics: Canadian History, Black History, Equity in Education, anti-racism, Black History Month

This video is the second part in a four part webinar series featuring Jasmine Wong in conversation with Lorrie Gallant. To access Part 1 click here.

Topics: Universe of Obligation, Canada, Canadian History, Indigenous History, Indigenous, stolen lives, Treaty, Facing Canada, Treaties Recognition Week

This blog post is the first in a multi-part series. Natalie Steele, an educator with Peel District School Board in Ontario, will be sharing additional resources and strategies for your classroom over the next few months on the topics of Black identities, humanizing stories, amplifying missing voices in the curriculum, and correcting the systemic abuses of history in schooling.

High School Students in Class, by Photo by Jeswin Thomas from Pexels

Topics: Diversity, Canadian History, Black History

This video is the first part in a four part webinar series featuring Jasmine Wong in conversation with Lorrie Gallant.

This series of blog posts explores stories and teachings that Lorrie Gallant shares about the purpose and importance of territorial acknowledgments and treaties. They are based on a recorded webinar from March 18 2020. Lorrie is a writer, illustrator, storyteller, visual artist, educator, Expressive Arts Practitioner, born and raised on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Ontario.

These posts and activities have been written for students to explore as part of a virtual learning community.

Topics: Identity, History, Canadian History, Indigenous History, Indigenous, Grade 10 History, stolen lives, Facing Canada, land acknowledgements, territorial acknowledgement

This spring, Facing History and Ourselves, in partnership with the Azrieli Foundation Holocaust Survivors Memoir Program, invited 175 students from 6 schools to layer onto their learning about the history and legacies of the Holocaust, or of Canada's Residential Schools by reading Survivor memoir. Students read Theodore Fontaine’s Memoir Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools, or excerpts of Nate Leipciger’s Memoir The Weight of Freedom, then created pieces that reflected their understanding and responses to these testimonies, which were gifted to each Survivor.

Topics: Toronto, Holocaust, Memoir, Facing History and Ourselves, Survivor Testimony, Canada, Residential Schools, Canadian History, Student Work, project, genocide, Holocaust and Human Behaviour, reflection, Connected Learning, Grade 10 History, HSB, CHC, difficult conversations, trc, stolen lives, facing history pedagogy, Azrieli Foundation Memoirs, Decolonizing Schools, Holocaust History in Canada, Facing Canada, cross curricular teaching and learning, collaborative inquiry

In my grade 10 Canadian history class, I often used excerpts from Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road to explore what life was like for soldiers during WWI. In this novel, protagonist Xavier Bird returns to Northern Ontario in 1919 after fighting in France and Belgium. He is met by his aunt Niska, an Oji-Cree woman, and the two travel back to their village. On this journey, the two recount traumatic experiences from their past - Xavier as a soldier returning from the front and Niska as a survivor of residential schools.

Topics: Canada, Canadian History, Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous History, Book, Indigenous, English Classroom, big paper, English, Grade 10 History, CHC, difficult conversations, trc, stolen lives, settler educators

 

We work with so many amazing educators who give their students exceptional learning experiences. For this blog, we sat down with history teacher and 2017 Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching History Award winner Rob Flosman to find out what he has learned about engaging students and communities in learning history through building a classroom museum, the Waterdown Museum of History.

Topics: Innovative Classrooms, Museum Studies, Holocaust Education, Margot Stern Strom Innovation Grants, Canadian History, Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy, classroom lesson, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanities Course, CHG

Why do troubled times so often bring out hatred in humanity?  In both Canada and the United States over the past few years there has been much xenophobic rhetoric spread around in light of numerous global crises. During the 2015 Canadian and 2016 American elections we saw candidates in both countries “other” identifiable or vulnerable members of society using hateful language and often using them as scapegoats for social and economic problems, all while claiming to speak for the will of those they purport to be the “silent majority”. Furthermore, we saw large groups joining the “unsilent majority” through the use of social media to spread hate, join xenophobic movements and rallies, commit hate crimes and even acts of violence. Those who criticized this movement drew many parallels between the social climate and dialogue of today to that of Nazi Germany. As educators we felt it necessary to attempt to address this recurring phenomenon.

Topics: Choosing to Participate, Holocaust and Human Behavior, Canada, American History, Canadian History, Bystander, current events, Upstander, big paper, CHG, HSP

Throughout my years of teaching I began to realize something that Facing History and Ourselves so adeptly addresses- that we tend to see ourselves as “us” vs. “them.” I think that’s one of the hardest issues I’ve come across in teaching WWII, as so many students see what happened as a problem solely with Germany. “They” were racist. That could never happen “here!” It’s “their” problem. But what I really wanted to address in my classroom is that the roots of anti-Semitism and racism that led to the Holocaust were not just found in Germany!

Topics: Antisemitism, Choosing to Participate, History, Canada, Canadian History, genocide, big paper

May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada.  The following are five resources that provide entry points that teachers can use to invite students to explore Canada’s history of immigration through identity and civic participation.  

Topics: Books, Film, History, Canada, Canadian History, Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy, CHG