April 24th is annually honored as a day of recognition for the Armenian genocide - the date on which Armenian leaders, writers, and intellectuals were taken from their homes in a meticulously organized beginning to what would become the genocide itself.

In our resource book, Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: the Genocide of the Armenians, we include several poems written by Diana Der-Hovanessian, which explore the diasporan identity that resulted - the pull of belonging to both Armenia and the United States and the legacy of the genocide on her own identity.  "Two Voices" is one of those poems and includes this series of questions:

...do I think of my grandmother
at Ellis Island,

or as an orphan in an Armenian village?

Or at a black stove in Worcester...

This year, we honor the commemoration by sharing student poetry written in response to Diana's poem which highlights the connections students made to that pull of multiple identities.  These come to us from Sasha Guzman at Social Justice Humanitas Academy. In respect for student identities, we present both without the author names.

We hope this reminder to find common experiences in the human condition can both build compassion and curiosity in honoring and learning about the histories of others.

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.

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.

We were honored to have Dr. Richard Hovannisian join us at our seminar on Armenian Genocide and International Justice this week.

I love teaching.

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.

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

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!

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: