"Life Stories of Displaced Montrealers: Ethics, History and Contemporary World!" 

In 2011 I had the pleasure of presenting  the CURA Life Stories project at a workshop for teachers during the anglophone sector's annual teachers' convention.   Here is the workshop description :

"With a focus on oral history methodologies and sources, and while making connections to various Québec programs, this workshop explores the recorded experiences of hundreds of survivors of mass atrocities and displacement – Rwandans, Haitians, Jews, Cambodians and others – and considers oral history and its place in the classroom. It proposes the use of life stories as a means to interpret contemporary issues, as a more human way to make local and global connections."

Essentially the workshop ran through three points of entry.  It started with the resources available through the Life Stories project, or as I put it, those stories gathered "around the microphone".   Then we focussed on how these materials might appear to students and be used by teachers, how they might fit "in the classroom".  We discussed teaching strategies, but also where in the Quebec Education Program these materials would fit.  Finally, after having been recently impressed by the wonderful work coming out of one of the Life Stories working groups, namely the Experiences of Refugee Youth in Montreal working group, I invited Michel Luchs to speak about their Mapping Memories website and book.  For me theirs was not only an inspiring site full of ideas and resources for the classroom, but it also represented a way the project's members, ethos and experience could impact on youth outside the classroom.  This notion I referred to as "beyond" the classroom.

PowerPoint used during the presentation (PDF)

(Every effort was made to find and use free-to-use images.  Click to report copyrighted materials.)

References to websites or sources

Introduction:

Around the microphone

More resources to come.....