It was a perfect evening. There was a palpable glow on the faces of my students. They were the faces of students who had been given something they didn’t know they had. The faces that say, “I did it…I delivered and I rocked!” The sense that they left the confines of their world and did something special…they accomplished something bigger than themselves. They shone as individuals. They lit up the room. While the Leafs and the Jays played, our students spoke. They spoke of the injustice, of hate, of isolation with the fresh eyes and raw passion that only youth can deliver.

Students from four schools speaking about things that touched them the most, issues that moved them. The "Stand Up, Speak Out" night put on by Facing History Toronto last month illustrated the power of youth and the spoken word. The night was a culmination of weeks of practice and mentoring by inspiring spoken word artists like Testament, Lishai Peel, and Shoolie. When they took to the stage and spoke their pieces, an auditorium of snapping fingers and applause rewarded them. Parents were proud, if not bewildered by the depth of their child’s thoughts and the weight of their words. Facing History’s “dynamic duo” Jasmine Wong and Leora Schaefer coordinated this event, its lead up, and the reception that followed. These two amazing educators created a seamless evening that left the audience inspired.

At the reception, our students met Nate Leipciger, a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. When I told Ben, one of Waterdown’s student presenters that evening, he decided to introduce himself. Ben went over to pay his respects. When he returned from speaking with Mr. Leipciger, he couldn’t believe what he had told him. “That man survived the Holocaust and he said I inspired him,” Ben said.

When it was time to go, my students seemed to want to linger just a moment more. They were relieved and proud. They boarded the bus glowing and triumphant. The tests they will study for and the notes they take will pass into history. But this night will stay with them always. For what is education if not to give our young people a voice?

Find out more about the "Stand Up, Speak Out" project.

Bring it to your classroom: Five Facing History Resources That Use Poetry to Build Skills.

The Facing History resource “Pigeon” demonstrates the impact a short film can have. Set amid the tension of occupied Europe during World War II, it is an example of the power an individual has to make a difference, if they choose to do so. A viral video is a video that results from online distribution and sharing, an excellent route to engaging our students. Finding short videos online is, therefore, a powerful teaching strategy.

Video clips are accessible to many learning styles, and of particular value when teaching the applied and essential level student. As ‘clips’, they are brief, thus benefiting shorter attention spans and working well in the structure of the 3-part lesson for the 75 minute classroom. They are easily shared if a student is absent (unlike a film) and easily re-watched (either individually or collectively) without generating a great burden on classroom time, which is so precious. And they play to the sensibilities of the digital generation (which in turn allows us as teachers to create the pretense to a shared sense thereof).

In this interview, we asked Rob Simon, Assistant Professor of Multiliteracies in Education at OISE/University of Toronto (Dept of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning), to tell us more about the Teaching to Learn Project so we could better understand how and why collaborative (teacher-adolescent) curriculum planning worked, why he chose Elie Wiesel's Night as the study text, and where he got the idea to ask project participants to paint on the pages of the text as a form of reading response.

The images below are the culmination of those responses, which were mounted in an exhibition titled After Night.

I am often asked why I would want to teach about genocide. What would possess me to spend so much time reading, talking, and thinking about some of the worst events in human history? My answer to this question has always been inspired by Wangari Maathai’s Story of the Hummingbird. Like many good stories, the way it is told varies. My delivery tends to be the following:

As mentioned in my previous post, doing professional development with Facing History has been a very transformative experience for me as an educator. Many teachers attend PDs, seminars and workshops, and quite often, there is not much follow-up afterward, but with Facing History, the staff ensures that they provide resources and follow-up with teachers attending their seminars.

I’m not sure if it’s fate, or the fact that I’m a news junkie, but it seems as though I can always find a connection between what I’m studying in my classes and the news. This past term was no different.

In our studies of 20th century genocides, we explore the rights and roles of leaders in a sovereign state, and the cardinal rule of state sovereignty that has prohibited intervention: the right to independent authority over a territory. But how should sovereignty be exercised? How do we engage students meaningfully in this question?

Have you ever wondered what other educators love about our library? Take a look and see what has been flying off our shelves. If you have a great way of using one of these resources in your classroom, tell us about it!