Angela Hartman’s genocide project receives AASL Roald Dahl’s Miss Honey Social Justice Award

CHICAGO – School Librarian Angela Hartman from Hutto High School in Hutto, Texas, is the recipient of the 2015 American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) Roald Dahl’s Miss Honey Social Justice Award. Sponsored by Penguin Random House, Hartman will receive $3,000 and Hutto High School will receive a $5,000 book donation. The Roald Dahl Social Justice Award recognizes and encourages collaboration and partnerships between school librarians and teachers in teaching social justice through joint planning of a program, unit or event in support of social justice using school library resources. The award is to acknowledge teaching by school librarians and the use of school library resources to convey a child’s sense of justice as exemplified by many of the characters in the works of Roald Dahl.

Angela Hartman started her award winning project, Teaching Tolerance and Building Empathy through Holocaust and Genocide Education, as a way to teach students at Hutto High School that genocide continues to occur in the world and that it is up to all to stand up to injustice. Hartman worked collaboratively with 11th grade English teachers to teach the students about the Holocaust using in-person survivor testimony, first-hand artifacts and primary source material from the school’s online subscription database and library book collection. Hartman also worked with the school’s art teacher to create a lesson based on Auschwitz called Art in the Face of Death. The project culminated in in an International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony hosted by the high school. Students’ art was displayed at the ceremony and Holocaust survivor, Max Glauben, spoke to the crowd of over 700 people.

“The project at Hutto High School under the leadership of school librarian Angela Hartman is a model of collaboration between multiple disciplines,” said Terry Young, award committee chair. “By collaborating with her colleagues and using school library resources, Angela helped students understand about genocide and foster a feeling of empathy about the impact genocide still has all over the world today.”

The AASL award winners will be honored at the AASL Awards Ceremony during the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. The ceremony will be held from 9 – 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 27. All are welcome to celebrate the accomplishments of their peers during this recognition event taking place prior to the AASL President’s Program.

The American Association of School Librarians www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.