A few weeks ago, we highlighted a couple of inspiring stories from U.S. educators and mentioned that we’d highlight an educator and their story here on Inspire.

Read this story from Angie Hill, a language arts teacher from Cottonwood Middle School and see why she was selected as one of the Intel Inspiring Educators contest winners. Please go here to read about all of the other amazing teachers. 

Intel Teach Story
Angie Hillman, Language Arts Resource Specialist
Cottonwood Middle School

For several years I taught bits and pieces of the Holocaust in my high school literature classes. However, it was not until I began teaching my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade learning disabled students these lessons in history through my project based learning unit that I created at an Intel class that my life and theirs began to change. Through my Intel unit my enthusiasm for teaching has been reborn. In this day and age with all the state testing and other things weighing heavy on educators I had lost my focus on how to make learning fun. Through the creation of my Intel unit I have been able to bring that fun back into my classroom with the highest level of instruction possible for my students.

At times my students have struggled to enjoy school and to feel like a real part of the school itself. My Intel unit entitled “The Strength of the Human Spirit” has made it possible for them to attend amazing Holocaust survivor events, travel to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, do service work in the community, be featured in the newspaper, and become leaders among their peers as Holocaust educators themselves. My students and I hosted a two-day ‘Days of Remembrance’ event last year. During our day and evening activities over 750 students and community members attended. As I am becoming a leader in Holocaust education and technology, I am also creating passionate leaders in my classroom. The stories of the Holocaust have inspired many of my students to persevere in their own rather difficult lives and insure people do not forget about the Holocaust and current day genocides. Again this year we are preparing to host this great event with my students doing all of the planning and work. Read the rest of Angie’s story.

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