Our July Conversation Focus
Immigration
In light of the DACA decision, we decided to host a dialogue around the topic of immigration. Here are some of the highlights…
In light of the DACA decision, we decided to host a dialogue around the topic of immigration. Here are some of the highlights…
The Faces of America
FFT Fellow Leah Juelke‘s passion for teaching immigrant students stems from her childhood friendship with a refugee from Sudan; teaching in Taiwan, Costa Rice, China and Ecuador; and experiences serving refugee communities as an Army National Guard medic. Watch this inspiring video of Leah’s students at Fargo South High School and their learning inspired by her fellowship: exploring the culture, education system and socio-economic structures of East Africa by volunteering in a Tanzanian community and participating in a workshop with local educators to facilitate a narrative writing project and better serve the school’s growing African refugee population.
Interpreting Immigration on the US/Mexico Border
Were you one of the millions of viewers who didn’t give away their shot at watching the “Hamilton” premiere? Billed as “the ultimate immigrant success story,” Alexander’s path to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is a far cry from the experiences of those held on the US/Mexico border. FFT Fellow Tim Leone-Getten is using his grant to go there as an interpreter with a nonprofit helping asylum seekers and then on to Guatemala to film interviews about the issues behind mass emigration.
FFT Fellow: The Ships That Came In
Before Kristen Reyes (Shawnee, KS) was a 2020 FFT Fellow, she was a 2015 FFT Fellow, when she researched major European emigration ports and experiences of American immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries to encourage students’ exploration of their heritage. Her new grant will build on that experience by researching in Peru the impact of colonization to build culturally-responsive lessons for all students at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School.
The Immigrant Stories Project
The Immigrant Stories Project contains lessons for grades 8 to adult audiences that help students learn about aspects of United States immigration, past and present, through the personal experiences of immigrants and refugees. This curriculum is a partnership between the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota and The Advocates for HumanRights.
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Immigration Lesson Plans & Resources: Understanding A Crisis
Share My Lesson curated these immigration lesson plans & resources raise awareness about the crisis on the border, and the need to foster awareness, cooperation and mutual understanding. In this collection, you will find dozens of rich, engaging resources from partners like Colorín Colorado, Re-imagining Migration, and the Global Oneness Project.
Read All About It
Books are a great opportunity to teach all children empathy and kindness towards new immigrants. And for children who have gone or are going through the difficult experience of immigration, these books can be helpful in talking about it and processing their feelings.
FFT Fellows: Revisiting Her Past to Model Perseverance
Kim DeMarco empathizes with her newcomer students. She’s been there. And with her FFT grant, she went back – to the orphanage in Vietnam and the nuns who found her under debris in a bombed village. Now, Kim teaches her fifth graders how personal histories can draw us together, not push us apart.
FFT Fellows: Mending Fences
Last summer, Jenn Nekolny and Christine Halblander (Jefferson Junior High School – Naperville, IL) used their Fund for Teachers grant to explore physical and societal divisions in historical and contemporary Poland, Czechia, Austria and Germany to supplement Social Studies and Language Arts curricula and enhance students’ interest in human rights, migration and refugees. To wind up our monthly focus on immigration, we checked back in with “Team Mending Fences” to see how their fellowship impacted students.
FFT Fellows: Welcoming Newcomers
2020 FFT Fellow Tina Vasquez is a first generation American and so are her students. But their experiences as immigrants are vastly different. Learn about her work with Newcomer students at Charlottesville High School, her fellowship to International Colloquium on Languages, Cultures, Identity, in Schools & Society, and plans for supporting her refugee and immigrant English Language Learners.
FFT Fellows: Helping Through Humanitarianism
Joel Hinrichs and Pete Bouley documented the Syrian refugee crisis in Germany, Austria, Serbia and Greece to expose students to complex issues surrounding migration and create a school-wide service-learning project benefiting local refugees.
FFT Fellows: Sketching Out Her Escape
Thi Bui used her grant to return to South Vietnam, with her mother as her guide, to sketch scenes from the country they fled when Thi was three years old. Those sketches informed a project for her students at Oakland International High School and eventually her national best seller “The Best We Could Do.”
FFT Fellows: If These Walls Could Speak
Alice Laramore & Kat Atkins-Pattenson explored language arts & immigration on the US/Mexico border to create a unit that reflects the identities & experiences of current students. Their images, learning & impact are equally beautiful & significant.
FFT Fellows: Colonialism, Post-Colonialism and Refugees
In response to the 2016 presidential election and her students’ fears regarding deportation, Fakhra Shah created this curriculum for teachers in San Francisco. Earlier that year, she used her grant to explore colonialism, post-colonial civic unrest and the refugee crisis in Uganda and France alongside a UC Berkeley professor to deepen empathy towards students who have passed through these places and create relevant social justice and world history curriculum contributing to stronger academic and interpersonal connections within the classroom.
Exploring Young Immigrant Stories
This Teaching Tolerance lesson for grades 3-5 helps students appreciate diversity among their peers and the diversity of immigrants all over the world. Through hands-on exercises, students will discover similarities and differences they share with other children.
We Are America Project
What does it mean to be American? What started as a student project in Lowell, MA, sparked a new national conversation in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves, Re-imagining Migration, and the Tenement Museum.
FFT Fellows: Sew You Can Know About My Heritage
“I realized a key component of the American immigration story was missing from my curriculum,” said Kate. “My students interacted with the Hmong community due to the large number of families relocated here, so I knew it was a group of people I could create interest around. I designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to create a narrative around push/pull immigration that affirmed the fact that, despite our differences, most immigrants to the United States and their descendants share similarities with us, as well.”