Telling Their Stories

My dad sure could tell some "stories"... you might know the ones... walking to school in the snow... uphill... both ways... It didn't occur to me until much later in life, that my dad lived in Mobile, Alabama... where there are no real hills to speak of, and I'm not sure he ever even saw snow before he moved to Virginia!

And truth be told, I guess I told a few "stories" in my day... The "big parties" that I went to in high school... well, you might think I was going to listen to music and flirt with girls while someone's parents were out of town... but the sad reality for me was that I was sitting around a friend's house talking about comic books, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and drinking an insane amount of Dr. Pepper!

But aside from my lame high school "parties" and my dad's "terrible" walk to school, there are people that have great stories to tell. Stories of bravery... Stories of overcoming adversity... Stories of witnessing great atrocities.... These are stories from which our students can gain great perspective and insight.

Telling Their Stories is a website that shares some of these great stories. Stories from Holocaust survivors, World War II veterans, participants in the Civil Rights movement, and Japanese-Americans who had been placed in Internment camps. These are stories that are sometimes hard to hear, but they help us to understand the importance and gravity of these events.

This collection of videos can also inspire you and your students to create your own interviews with family members, and local men and women who also have important stories to tell!

Check it out:
http://www.tellingstories.org/