The team at UCL Centre for Holocaust Education are delighted that so many of you have accessed our new online CPD, ‘6 things your students should know about the Holocaust’. Since the launch two weeks ago, in excess of 1,800 separate logins have been recorded. Many of you who completed the course sent us fantastic feedback too. One teacher wrote the following:
‘It was a really clear course, and I found the focus on common student misconceptions particularly applicable. In terms of delivery, as a geeky teacher I loved the review quizzes, and having the transcripts for all videos was helpful’.
Another wrote: ‘
Really useful and interesting course about how to address misconceptions about the Holocaust.’
And another: ‘
Worked through this today and found it really useful. Recommend!’
This is really important to us as we have wasted no time in responding to your needs and your suggestions as to how we can support you during the Covid-19 crisis. Moreover it gives us a clear indication that teachers are still keen to develop their professional practice in Holocaust education during lock-down. It also shows the very encouraging fact that teachers continue to teach the Holocaust to their students via online platforms (despite the subject’s cognitive and emotional challenges), in this current situation. Clearly, students, like all of us, are deeply concerned about the spread of the virus and the dangers to life and we know that a degree of concern exists among teachers as to how to teach a deeply disturbing subject such as the Holocaust during this situation. The student self-directed materials we are offering here do take account of the unprecedented context we are in, the challenges that teachers are facing in converting their mode of teaching to fully online and the disturbing nature of the Holocaust. Teachers will, of course, always want to make the final call on what material is suitable for their students and what are not. That is a given.
Authentic Encounters with the Holocaust: A starting point for teachers
This week we are offering you our second online CPD course entitled, Authentic Encounters with the Holocaust: A starting point for teachers. This course will guide you through core elements of UCL’s pedagogy and will offer you an approach to introduce the subject of the Holocaust to KS3 students. It is especially suitable for those teaching History, RE and Citizenship. Do log-on to the course – it shouldn’t take you longer than 3 minutes to get your password and 45 minutes to complete the course. You emerge with all that is needed to teach the associated Year 9 lesson which has been tried and tested in different types of schools across the country.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: exploring history, meaning and significance
Finally, we are offering you an educationally powerful, ready-to-go lesson for students to work through themselves (or with your guidance) on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Tomorrow (16th May) will mark the 77th anniversary of the end of this revolt which was led by the last remaining Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto. With few arms, mainly homemade, this relatively small band of men, women and some children – most of who had never handled a weapon before – took on the full force of the German troops who were ordered to crush the rebellion and burn the ghetto to the ground. Inevitably the ‘resistance fighters’ were defeated but surprisingly managed to hold out for nearly a month. By May 16th 1943 the ghetto was firmly under Nazi control and on that day in a symbolic move, the Germans blew up Warsaw’s Great Synagogue. The lesson offered to you today provides your students with activities that will invite them to consider the significance of the uprising despite its fatal outcome.
Stay well
Ruth-Anne Lenga
Programme Director
