June is undoubtedly a bittersweet month in the teaching world. Days are filled with grading, goodbyes, potential planning for the year ahead, but mainly putting those final touches on what was a rewarding and meaningful teaching year. However, it can also be a time for awards and recognition as it was this June for one group of teachers.

Topics: Armenian Genocide, Teaching, Los Angeles, workshop

I've been thinking about courage recently.

There is so much going on in the world that is challenging, disheartening, and complex. Sometimes we think of courage in big acts:

• Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. leading enormous, history-changing non-violent movements
• the heroism of a firefighter entering a burning building
• the choice to go in to the heart of a conflict, bringing the stories of others to the world through reporting or physically saving others' lives

I think that courage also comes on a daily and individual level just in making the commitment to stay engaged with the world, to learn about difficult moments and to be willing to question what we have grown up believing, assuming, or simply not knowing.

Topics: Choosing to Participate, Armenian Genocide, Critical Thinking, workshop, Judgement and Legacy

Topics: Armenian Genocide

I love teaching.

Topics: Armenian Genocide, Holocaust and Human Behavior, Critical Thinking, workshop, Race and Membership in American History: Eugenics

History shapes our identity. Our own history - of course. But, "our own history" is also the history of our family, our ethnic heritage, our country, and perhaps also our world. One of the histories I came to know as a Facing History teacher, and have come to love teaching as a staff member for Facing History, is that of the Armenian genocide. This incredibly difficult history has so many lessons for us today, and lingering legacies with which we must continue to grapple.

Topics: Armenian Genocide

What is "perplexity"? and what is its role in education?

Topics: Civil Rights Movement, Armenian Genocide, Holocaust and Human Behavior, Critical Thinking, Race and Membership in American History: Eugenics, Religion

Fifty years after the genocide of the Armenians, a memorial was established in our very own Southern California. I'd seen the sign off the 60 freeway many a time, and talked about it with fellow teachers in the context of our work on memory and memorials. But, many of us even in the LA Facing History office had not actually been to see it before. We decided to have an office field trip earlier this year!

Topics: Armenian Genocide, Los Angeles

In 2011, Elana Goldbaum (World History teacher at Gertz Ressler High School) opened her classroom to us by sharing how she uses Facing History to teach the Armenian Genocide. If I had to summarize it into key themes and practices, there were two:

Topics: Armenian Genocide, Common Core, Critical Thinking, A View from the Classroom

Topics: Choosing to Participate, Armenian Genocide, Los Angeles