Facing History and Ourselves looks like a fantastic tool both for my own professional development and as a librarian to encourage school staff to think deeply about engaging the uglier parts of American history. They incorporate how to help students relate past historical decisions with their own life decisions as well. They have free webinars and paid trainings that tackle difficult issues that have been previously whitewashed in American education.
As a family member of a diplomat and the mother of American expat kids living overseas, understanding and communicating about these issues with honesty, grace, and authenticity is paramount. Expat kids growing up outside of their passport country may not be exposed to some of the more culturally insensitive narratives in civics and history classes that shaped some of my educational experiences stateside, but there tends to be a bit of a gap in what understanding they do have of these hard truths.
Furthermore, third culture kids are making sense of their host country’s issues which inevitably include democracy, human rights, religious intolerance and many other issues that Facing History takes on.
The second tool I liked for expat kids growing up abroad to understand more about the diverse cultural heritage of America is the Smithsonian Center for Folklore and Culture Heritage’s Masters of Tradition interactive map. This map allows students to virtually “meet” artists who have been granted the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. Students can listen to their music or watch their performance and experience a new cultural expression. It’s really a quite beautiful way to expand our ideas of what is “American”.
A blog I’d like to follow is Renovated Learning written by librarian Diana Rendina who is a librarian at Tampa Prep. I actually grew up just across the bay and knew a few kids who went to Tampa Prep so this hits “home” for me. I am intrigued by makerspaces but anticipate a variety of levels of buy in and exposure to them in international schools abroad. Renovated Learning explores redesigning a library and starting a makerspace. I could see this being a resource I come back to throughout our transient career if I have to start over at new libraries every few years.
Thank you for sharing your perspective on the Facing History resource. It sounds helpful not only for students but for teachers to grow professionally and personally. Rendina’s blog is fantastic. So much information and ideas about implementing a makerspace. I stumbled upon it for our 608 class and it’s definitely a favorite.
Facing History looks like such a timely and important resource to keep in mind. It’s easy to want to glaze over those difficult topics and conversations, so having a resource to help guide discussions is incredibly helpful. I’ll also be keeping an eye on the blog you shared – we’re considering some changes in our library so this could be useful!