The Facing History School Newsletter

This year, FHS was able to cement a number of exciting traditions that continue to strengthen our community and highlight the values we all share. These included our 2nd annual ice skating trip to Chelsea Piers, the continuation of our fabulous speaker series (with planning and support from Facing History and Ourselves), and two step-up trips for students who have completed the requirements to pass to the next grade. Once again, our 9th graders traveled to Washington, D. C., where they visited a number of U.S. monuments and memorials, and also stayed at American University, where they experienced a glimpse of college life. For the first time, 10th graders took a trip to Boston, MA. They explored some museums and historical sights in Boston, visited some area colleges, and also came to visit the Facing History and Ourselves Headquarters and meet the excited staff there.
The students visited the Boston Holocaust Memorial:

The opportunity for rising Juniors to see a variety of different colleges in the Boston area helped them to understand better what they want in a college, and to continue to set their sights on college as a goal.

A group of students at Northeastern University:

The students really loved the Facing History and Ourselves office, where they were made to feel so special—and I felt like a proud mother introducing the kids to the staff there.

This year also marked many firsts: members of the 10th grade took the math regents exam in January (and achieved an amazing 70% pass rate!), the school held it's first GLBTQ Awareness Day, and we held our 1st annual Ubuntu, a closing celebration and art exhibit that showcased the hard work and talents of all the students in a way that highlighted the themes of FHS. The celebration was built on the themes of the Facing History and Ourselves class for 10th grade, which focused on the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa. I would like to send out a very special thank you to Working Playground and our artist-in-residence Fabian Saucedo, whose partnership enabled this celebration to be a true success. Working Playground continues to bring professional artists into our classrooms, offering courses that expand their art skills (in poetry, graphic arts, dance, drama, drumming, and photography) as well as incorporating art into humanities and Facing History classes. The kids were so excited and proud of themselves as they presented the fantastic work to the staff, parents, and other visitors. The celebration also highlighted something else for me: at FHS, our staff and students are really happy. They feel proud of the school and their part in shaping it, and they want to be a part of the community.

Another milestone for FHS was our first School Quality Review, one of the evaluation mechanisms the school district uses to track school performance and progress. In a result exceptional for new schools, FHS was rated proficient. In addition to being delighted with the result, the evaluation process gave the staff a chance to reflect on our practice and focus once again on our goals for the school.

In terms of student assessment, we held our fourth semester-end portfolio review session last month, where students assess and present their own work, describing their achievements, growth areas, and challenges to a panel of teachers and visitors—including a number of parents. This year we were delighted to see real growth in the skills of our 10th graders, and were able to refine the process in order to make the experience more effective for 9th graders. The students were clearly proud of their accomplishments, and finished the year able to clearly articulate their strengths and weaknesses, and to describe what they had learned over the course of the year. I am so proud of how much they have progressed!

Finally, we ended the year with a community service day, where groups of students went to different sights around the city to take part in community service activities.
Students cleaning up a park:

Everyone—students and staff alike—came back excited to have shared the experience. The activity introduced a number of the students to what community service really means. One 9th grade student, Nicholas M., told me, “I never realized what it really meant to give back to the community—what community service meant.” He’s now getting more involved, and started by volunteering at FHS’s Summerbridge program for incoming students. He wants to help next year’s 9th graders get ready for high school and adjust to the new environment. Other students are also doing exciting projects this summer. A number of our students are participating in a competitive summer RAPP program for girls, which educates teens about relationships and develops teen leaders who can educate others about this issue, and two FHS students are part of Sadie Nash, a program that helps young women value their experience and turn it into leadership skills that they can use to make change.

This is a great segue into the coming year. We started hiring staff for year three in April. All of our positions are filled except for a science and special education position, and we are very excited about the incoming class of teachers. In addition to the new teaching staff, FHS also hired a parent coordinator and business manager to help coordinate an increasingly complex administrative office.

As I mentioned above, we are in the midst of a Summerbridge program, led by FHS teachers and ably supported by seven pre-service teachers from the Department of Education, plus other volunteers. Twenty of our incoming 9th graders have opted to participate. Their summer task is to design their “dream school,” and it includes three academic components, plus a complementary art course. In the English portion, students are tackling issues of individual and group identity through writing. Through a humanities course, they are learning about the history of schooling, and are focusing in particular on the issue of segregated schools in the South through Facing History’s Choices in Little Rock curriculum. The Math project is to create a blueprint of a dream school. The students will present final portfolios on July 27. Following the end of this program, we will be running a summer session for upperclassmen who need additional credits in order to complete their credit requirements, and new teachers will be participating in a seminar led by Facing History and Ourselves. It is a busy summer indeed!

Next year, I will be focused on a few key elements of the school’s curriculum: building up a robust, progressive community service program, introducing a new Facing History and Ourselves course on Race and Membership in the 9th grade, continuing to refine the advisory class that is at the center of our positive school culture, and starting the official college application process with our 11th graders. All of these are major pieces of the FHS experience, and will help us to make our students’ experiences truly unique, and will help them prepare for a bright future after graduation. In addition to these projects, we will also begin the year focused on welcoming our new staff and students to the school community.

Before I go, I want to thank you all for your continued support of FHS through funding, school visits, and tireless volunteer support. The resources, expertise, and time you have given the school make it what it is, and remind the staff, students and me that we have an amazing network of people who share our dream for education. Thank you so much.

-- Gillian