Dark History: True and Terrible History

Students will expand their knowledge of history, even the gruesome aspects of it and have a chance to learn the context in which these stories took place. 

I have a very diverse background but have always been interested in and moved by the plights of marginalized groups and have worked and volunteered extensively within those communities for the past 30+ years. My degrees are in Psychology, Criminology, Sociology, Philosophy, and Women's studies and all of those things do show up in this class. I have been involved with journalism since I was in the 7th grade and have written for 7 newspapers. 

Some expertise areas that are utilized in this class are: 
25 years of research skills.
Sociology and psychology degrees to understand individual behavior, development, and cultural phenomena. 
SART responder (Sexual Assault Response Training-I did hospital visits to ensure that criminal evidence was properly documented in rape cases). I also photographed victims of domestic violence and documented injuries for court cases. Additionally, I manned the phone banks for emergency calls and did outreach work and trainings on college campuses.
I have taught classes on consent and safety. 
I have my Common Sense Media teacher certification for teaching students Internet Safety. 
I have raised 19 foster children and have extensive training. Many of my children are from traditionally marginalized groups. 
I ran a group home.
I ran a sexual assault shelter. 
I have written about diversity for over 25 years. 
I have run, organized, and fundraised for diversity issues for over 22 years. 
I am currently on the board of a local hospital to ensure equal access to medical treatment for minority groups and that research studies actively work to include under represented minorities. 
I am a member of the Black Collegiates and have received rewards for my work. Yes, I am white I am a firm believer that black lives matter and both spoke and protested last year. 
I am currently enrolled to get my master's degree in Education. 
I have training in issues of indigenous peoples and have also worked to help create a history book detailing the discrimination and outright destruction of indigenous culture.

55 minutes per week in class, and maybe some time outside of class.

I use many sources for this class and research. In the past year alone I have done over 800 hours of history based research and actually discovered that 2 historical ideas were actually not true based on primary source documentation. In addition, I have been doing research and writing for over 25 years including interviewing Pulitzer and Nobel prize winners, and writing detailed articles about their work. I spend between 6-10 hours a week on every history class I run. I watch news programs, documentaries, read diary entries, read historical accounts, look at academic writings. While this class uses a lot of video documentation I also narrow that down to try to take complex issues and make them digestible and understandable in a short amount of time.