From economically challenged rural areas to crime-ridden urban neighborhoods, SCHOOLS THAT CHANGE COMMUNITIES profiles a diverse range of K-12 public schools in five states – Massachusetts, Maryland, South Dakota, Oregon and California – that are tackling educational reform at the local level. Principals, teachers, students, residents and others discuss place- and community-based education, an interdisciplinary approach which emphasizes hands-on, curiosity-based investigation using the surrounding community and neighborhoods as “living” classrooms. Proponents say this creates not only a different type of learning environment, but a different kind of student. In confronting and solving real-world issues in their own hometowns, the students develop a sense of civic responsibility and pride. The community feels the impact too, whether students are delivering baked goods to neighbors, planting vegetables in a community garden, testing drinking water and air quality, helping restore natural habitats, shining a light on important social
Monthly Archives: November 2019
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A Zulu community in rural South Africa had no school and enlisted Nomusa Zikhali to create one, with only four trees to shelter the children as they begin their studies. UNDER FOUR TREES is also the story of Thuli and Siyabonga who share their dreams and how Mrs. Zikhali and the Nkomo Primary School influenced their lives. Mrs. Zikhali has successfully built an educational complex for 960 children that created a powerful and sustainable change in her Zulu community. This story shows the transformative power of education. airs 11/11 at 3:30-4 a.m.
Shots Fired is a short documentary about courage, communications and resilience in the face of a school shooting. Just before school started on an April morning a student with a .357 Magnum walked into the Commons, an area teaming with North Thurston High School (NTHS) students, raised the gun and fired into the ceiling. Chaos erupted. The student fired a second shot. What happened next is the best-case scenario in the face of such terror. No one died. Rather than taking sides in the gun control/rights debate, Shots Fired offers a rare look at a school shooting. Even with no fatalities, the residual trauma is palpable. Students, teachers, school administrators and staff along with first responders reflect on what happened, what went well and what could have worked better. School shootings often end in unbearable tragedy. In Shots Fired, tragedy is upended by unforgettable courage and resilience. airs 11/11 3-3:30 a.m.
Do you ever happen to see something on FRONTLINE that would work perfectly with your students?
FRONTLINE films are investigative, journalistic documentaries that often air on PBS. These films cover current events, and uncover stories that are often untold. They’ve won 91 Emmy awards and 22 Peabody awards. They have also posted over 200 of their films online for you to watch FOR FREE whenever you want.
Find them at: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/
A few of their listed titles are:
- Fire in Paradise
- In the Age of AI
- Flint’s Deadly Water
- Documenting Hate: Charlottesville
- Documenting Hate: New American Nazis
- The Trouble with Chicken
… And So Much More!!!
FRONTLINE investigates the promise and perils of AI; from fears about work and privacy to rivalry between the U.S. and China. This film looks at a new industrial revolution that will reshape and disrupt our lives, our jobs and our world, and allow the emergence of the surveillance society. airs 11/5 at 9 p.m. Also on WXXI-World 11/8 at 8 p.m., 11/9 at 1 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
One-hour south of the wealthy Silicon Valley, and 20 minutes east of the affluent Carmel area, sits the city of Salinas. The city is located at the head of a fertile valley – an area brought into public consciousness through the stories of John Steinbeck. On the east side of Salinas, in the predominantly Latino neighborhood known as Alisal, poverty, deplorable housing conditions and gang violence are a part of daily life. THE SALINAS PROJECT profiles several children of migrant farm workers living in Alisal. Without resources, and sometimes undocumented, their future looks uncertain yet they cling to the hope of a better life. The film goes beyond the mainstream media representations to shine a light on the problems in East Salinas and highlight the successes of this often marginalized community. In the face of adversity, the young people of Salinas strive to improve their social and economic realities by educating themselves and changing their lives, one generation at a time.
airs 11/4 at 3-4 a.m.
The 2 Sides Project is a feature documentary that follows the unforgettable journey of six U.S. sons and daughters as they discover a country and a people with a shared history. Over 11 days in December 2015, American and Vietnamese sons and daughters—who had all lost fathers fighting on opposite sides of the war — met for the first time. The film captures the entire story, not just the transformative two sides encounters, but the profoundly moving experiences these Americans had while visiting the sites where their fathers died, and the powerful encounters they had with the country itself. airs 11/13 at 4 a.m.
Veterans Day is coming up on Monday. Originally called, Armistice Day, it commemorated the end of the fighting of World War I, when the Allies and Germany put an armistice into effect on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”. It was a day to honor veterans of World War I. However, World War II happened, and then the Korean War after that. In 1954, it was renamed Veterans Day to honor American veterans of all wars.
Since World War I was an international conflict, this is a day that our allies also celebrate. Britain, Canada, and Australia all celebrate “Remembrance Day” on or around November 11.
Lange, Katie. “5 Facts to Know About Veterans Day.” U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, 5 Nov. 2018,
www.defense.gov/explore/story/article/1675470/5-facts-to-know-about-veterans-day/.
We have lots of resources for you and your students about Veterans Day.
Videos:
Armistice Day and Veteran’s Day
Woodrow Wilson declared November 11th Armistice Day to honor the veterans of World War I. Later Dwight D Eisenhower changed the name to Veteran’s Day to honor all veterans.
What is Veterans Day?
A time machine accidentally takes most of the Sharp Wits back in time to 1918 to help them understand what Veterans Day is. They learn the Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, the day that World War I ended.
There are many more videos available in Safari Montage and Learn360 on this topic.
Ebooks:
Veterans talk about their experiences in Vietnam as well as coming home and the pain that followed on the occasion of the “Travelling Wall” exhibit coming to Blythewood, South Carolina in May 2016. airs 11/13 at 1:30-2 a.m
Learn the heartbreaking, inspiring and largely untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. This film relates the stories of Native American warriors from their own points of view stories of service, pain, courage and fear. airs 11/11 at 8 p.m.