The Holocaust

Every year I teach about the Holocaust for 2 - 3 weeks using lectures, movies, documentaries, comic books, primary sources, and discussions. I realize more gruesome events have happened through history but kids seem really stuck on this being the most terrible so they are most interested in it.


It drains me. I got home everyday feeling beat. It's just so sad. I mean I have kids cry during these classes - not my favorite thing ever. The day where I spend 55 minutes lecturing is the worst. I am not used to speaking for that long and my throat is shot at the end of the day. 

This year we are doing something called The Butterfly Project where the kids make a butterfly that represents a child who was killed in the Holocaust. The Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. is sponsoring it and will put all of the 1.5 million butterflies on display in its museum in Spring of 2014. I'd love to go see the display. I got 80+ kids to do it and the rest of the department is doing it as well.