United States Holocaust Memorial Museum-*Virtual Visit*

I had an idea of what I was going to expect when visiting this website. I really wanted to tie it in with my personal visit to the Holocaust Museum in Houston. I was able to see many things that I had never seen before but I know there is much more to learn that wasn’t at the actual museum in Houston. Some of the new things that I see here that I didn’t see at the museum or that museums website are:

·      The different language preferences

·      How to teach the Holocaust to students

·      Online Workshops

·      Sample Lessons

The only thing I wish it would explain better is describing the grade levels that we could teach this material to. I am a second grade teacher and I was able to come upon a project for an exhibit that is supposed to be released in the year 2013 for the Holocaust Museum in Houston. 1.5 million children died in the Holocaust so to honor them, they are asking for donations of 1.5 handcrafted butterflies from anyone. This is something I want to partake in but don’t know if second grade is an appropriate grade to teach about the Holocaust. 

I absolutely love how it gives a list of examples on why the Holocaust should be taught to our 21-century learners. Some of these examples include:

·      How the Holocaust provides a context for exploring the dangers of remaining silent, apathetic, and indifferent in the face of the oppression of others.

·       It describes how the Holocaust was not an accident in history, it occurred because individuals, organizations, and governments made choices that not only legalized discrimination but also allowed prejudice, hatred, and ultimately, mass murder, to occur.

·      The study of the Holocaust assists students in developing an understanding of the roots and ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any society.

            Something this website has to offer is it has online workshops for teachers who cannot physically attend a workshop at the museum itself. It provides a video of the actual workshop session, historical and artifact photos, text, and links to related sites within the museum’s website. This in turn will help us teach our students on the Holocaust and provide actual photos to them on how these were real people and how they suffered so very much and how we can make a different in the world to be against, racism, prejudice, and hatred. It actually offers many lesson plans but which need to be taught in order by date of occurrence. Things to use are lessons, activities stating who is responsible, what happened, and why no one ever did anything. I think this is something great to teach so students can see not just the history but what the outcome was based on the way one man thought on a different group of people.