Creating Meaningful Responses to Memoir and Engaging in Reciprocity

Posted by Alysha Groff on June 21, 2019

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.

Read More

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

Balancing the Responsibility to Disrupt and Decolonize with the Reality of my own Whiteness

Posted by Dr. Debbie Donsky on April 23, 2019

A Response to: Leading Disruption & Decolonizing Our Institutions: Facing History & Ourselves

Read More

Topics: Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous History, Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy, Indigenous, difficult conversations, trc, stolen lives, settler eucators, Treaty, Sacred Circle Teachings, Decolonizing Schools, Facing Canada

Get Ready for Orange Shirt Day With Us

Posted by Alysha Groff on September 21, 2018

Join us as we have a conversation with Lorrie Gallant, the Education Program Coordinator for the Woodland Cultural Centre (formerly the Mohawk Institute Residential School) about how survivors experience Orange Shirt Day, and what true engagement on this day can look like from education and beyond.  
This  interactive online video conversation is intended for Facing History and Ourselves educators to listen, to learn, and to share ideas and questions.
Date: Monday, Sep 24th.
Time: 3:30 - 4:15 PM EST

To join from your computer, tablet or phone, go to https://facinghistory.zoom.us/j/668270809 (you will need to download a Zoom app or program so give yourself 2 minutes to do so)
Or Dial in by phone:  +1 647 558 0588
Meeting ID: 668 270 809
No RSVP is required.
We hope you can all join us!
Read More

Topics: Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy, Community Event, Grade 10 History, CHC, trc, stolen lives, settler educators, Equity in Education, Decolonizing Schools, Orange Shirt Day

Taking Steps Together: One Year after the Decolonizing Schools Project

Posted by Jasmine Wong on June 14, 2018

In spring of 2017, five high schools from across the GTA participated in “Decolonizing Schools Together,” a project started by Facing History and Ourselves’ Canadian office in consultation with Traditional Ojibway Grandmother, Kim Wheatley, Shkoden Neegan Waawaaskonen,of Shawanaga First Nation. Recently, we spoke to Kim and to the teachers who supported students through the Decolonizing Schools Together Project to share their reflections and progress. 

Read More

Topics: Grade 10 History, HSB, CHC, trc, stolen lives, settler educators, Equity in Education, Decolonizing Schools

Helping Teachers to Be Conscious Allies: Honouring and helping heal Indigenous (and non-Indigenous) students

Posted by Dr. Pamela Rose Toulouse on March 23, 2018

Dr. Pamela Rose Toulouse, associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Laurentian University, 3M National Teaching Excellence Fellow and author of Achieving Indigenous Student Success, and Truth and Reconciliation in Canadian Schools frames the role educators can play as allies to Indigenous (and non-Indigenous) students and shares with us several key resources for how to do so.

Read More

Topics: Teaching Strategies, Residential Schools, HSB, CHC, difficult conversations, trc, stolen lives, facing history pedagogy, settler educators, Treaty, Sacred Circle Teachings

Introducing Indian Horse with the Tracks of My Life Project

Posted by Luke Bramer on February 27, 2018

Students love music so, when I tell my grade 11 College English classes that they are going to be creating CDs as their first project, students get excited. Inspired by Facing History’s approach to teaching about genocide, I started the “Tracks Of My Life Project” to engage students in exploring the concept of identity that is foundational to our first novel, Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese.

Read More

Topics: Identity, Music, Residential Schools, Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous History, English Classroom, trc, stolen lives

Joseph Boyden - a teachable moment in identity

Posted by Leah Mauer on February 22, 2018

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.

Read More

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

Grappling with Stories of Violence from Canada's Indian Residential Schools: Educator Workshop and Film Screening

Posted by Jasmine Wong on February 5, 2018

 Join us on Sunday February 25th for an educator workshop and special film screening with Director Susan G Enberg and Louis Knapaysweet, an elder and survivor of St. Anne's Residential School.

Read More

Topics: Film, Survivor Testimony, Residential Schools, workshop, CHC, difficult conversations, trc, stolen lives, facing history pedagogy, settler educators

Let's Play Ball: Recognizing Indigenous Territory at Blue Jays Games

Posted by Cheryl Payne-Stevens on October 14, 2016

It’s playoff time! Toronto is welcoming the Cleveland Indians for the American League Championship Series, and things are stirring on social media. Why hasn’t Cleveland changed their name? For years, they’ve been using culturally insensitive names; and as Canadians, we can no longer stand by the degradation of Indigenous culture and beliefs.

Read More

Topics: News, Canada, Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous History, Indigenous, trc

Teaching About Residential Schools

Posted by Brenda Ohngemach on October 12, 2016

Introduction: My Residential School unit was largely based on the Residential School Lessons for the Genocide Elective set out by Cheryl Payne. I simply tweaked them a little bit to suit my classes. I taught this unit last year in April. The main areas of change were primarily how I prepared and debriefed the students to see the NFB movie We Were Children. The other change was including a summative assignment based on the questions found in Facing History and Ourselves’ book Stolen Lives. Creating this summative assignment was a great experience in professional collaboration as  all of the history teachers at my school collectively designed it.    

Read More

Topics: Teaching Strategies, Teaching Resources, Residential Schools, CHG, CHC, trc

WELCOME

This is where Canadian Facing History and Ourselves teachers and community members meet to share reflections, scholarship and teaching practices that will inspire, challenge and improve teaching and student learning. Our stories provide a window into diverse Facing History classrooms in Canada, and invite you into the discussion.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Recent Posts

Posts by Topic

see all