Thursday 23 August 2012

The Slave Trade, Then and Now

This post is not just about teaching strategies or resources. Instead, it offers an opportunity to reflect on a disturbing chapter in our country's past, to share that reflection with your students, and to learn about a similar tragic situation that exists in 2012.

Today is the 10th annual International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. UNESCO's Director-General included this paragraph in his statement marking this year's August 23rd remembrance:

"While we should never forget the atrocities committed in the past, we should be equally vigilant in seeking to abolish the contemporary forms of slavery that affect millions of men, women and children around the world. Despite the arsenal of international instruments created to combat the exploitation of human beings, as well as the growing awareness of the forced labour and the sale and prostitution of children, the disturbing truth is that such flagrant violations of human rights continue. They are a scourge undermining the social fabric of many societies, which UNESCO is working with determination to end."


To share this remembrance of slavery in the United States with your students (sorry I couldn't give you advance notice, but one day soon will also be good) Anita Silvey recommends reading Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly.

If you want to educate yourself about human trafficking and one organizations's work in the fight against it in Nepal, go to the website of the Red Thread Movement.

Nerdy Book Club - Picture Books for the Secondary Classroom

Good Morning, blog friends! Just time for a quick post before a busy day.

You know how I love picture books, and that I think they are great for us older folks as well as our kiddos. 

I want you to click over to Nerdy Book Club, where you'll find "Top 10 Picture Books for the Secondary Classroom" by Kim McCollum-Clark. Kim includes books by some of my favorite authors (Cynthia Rylant, Maurice Sendak, Judith Byron Schachner), and briefly describes how you might use them as instructional tools.


From NBC, here are Kim's creds: "Kim McCollum-Clark teaches English and English Education at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, where her collection of young adult literature, graphic novels, and picture books are on constant loan to her teacher-babies. You can find her on Twitter as @KimMcCollum."

I'm impressed, and I'll be following her from now on on Twitter!