Every year, we acknowledge the impact of Facing History and Ourselves through our annual Benefit Dinner. It is a beautiful opportunity to recognize the work of educators, community members, and Facing History Advisory Board members in making our world a better place. Here is a small taste...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByUTEOmDrIU
Over the last several years we’ve concentrated our efforts on building a connected community of teachers. We bring teachers from private and public schools throughout Los Angeles together as a network—both in person and on our blog—so that many of the most passionate, talented and skilled teachers in Los Angeles are in community together—collaborating with and inspiring each other.
Our Los Angeles Partnership Schools Network, where we work intensively bringing training and resources to all the teachers and classrooms in the school, has grown from 5 schools to 25 in four years, and we have ambitious plans to expand. This network includes Jewish Day Schools in the mix with highly impacted urban public and charter schools.
The video above features one of these schools, Greendot’s Animo Jackie Robinson Charter High School. The school was started by Kristin Botello, who came to her first Facing History seminar as a young teacher in 1994. By 2006 Kristin, along with Lori Pawinski and the Greendot team, was ready to open Animo Jackie Robinson, with Facing History as the lead partner. That first summer their entire faculty came to our Holocaust and Human Behavior seminar, and we have been working with them ever since, adding more courses and content.
The night's honoree, Karen Sulzberger, who founded the Los Angeles Advisory Board twenty years ago, spoke well when she said that Facing History is not just professional development, it's personal development. Each person who engages with Facing History is changed--from Kristin and her students to Karen herself.
Have you been changed by Facing History? Share your story below.
- To continue reading about our LA partnership schools, click here.
- To find out more about how you can support the work of Facing History, click here.
- To find out how your school could become a partnership school, please email me at mary_hendra@facing.org.