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18 Educators return to the Institute for a 3-day follow-up professional development workshop

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 12:00am

Participants from the 2010 Master Teacher Workshop meet a year later to share their testimony-based projects and discuss the progress of piloting them in the classroom.  They also receive continuing education credits.

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute hosted a three-day follow-up workshop for 18 educators who attended the 2010 Master Teacher Workshop, which is the centerpiece of the “Teaching With Testimony” certification program.

With Sherry Bard, Institute Project Director of Educational Programs (left) and Sheila Hansen, Institute Senior Trainer and Content Specialist (right), Jonathan Owens, a teacher at Valhalla High School in San Diego, proudly displays his award. (2010) (Ph
During the follow-up workshop, educators presented their testimony-based projects that they piloted in their own classrooms to their peers and workshop facilitators. Participants also had the opportunity to learn about the progress the Institute is making with IWitness, an online resource for educators and their students that makes over 1,000 full-length testimonies available over the Internet. They got a hands-on test run of IWitness, slated for a beta release later in 2011, and have been invited to beta-test the application in their classrooms in the Fall.

The follow-up workshop also featured two guest presentations. Dr. Dan Leshem, Associate Director of Academic Outreach at the Institute, spoke on “Crucial Reading, Critical Thinking: Holocaust Denial, Multimedia, and the Internet,” that offered insight into ways of preparing students who may be confronted with instances of Holocaust denial on the Internet.

Dr. Kosal Path, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia and lecturer in the USC School of International Relations, shared his own story and spoke as an educator about the challenges of teaching about genocide.

Graduates of the program received continuing education credits from the USC Rossier School of Education.

About the Teacher Innovation Network

The Institute initiated the Teacher Innovation Network in 2009 to advance the use of testimony to develop media literacy, global awareness, and other 21st-century skills. The Network comprises primarily secondary school educators and designed to empower them to use the Institute’s testimonies to engage students in the examination of pressing contemporary issues of prejudice, racism, and personal responsibility.

Learn more about the Teacher Innovation Network

About the Master Teacher Workshop

Some members of the Network apply to become USC Shoah Foundation Institute Master Teachers. Master Teachers are committed to learning the Institute’s methodology for integrating testimony into classroom projects, creating their own testimony-based lessons, and sharing these resources with their colleagues. Master Teachers must complete the Teaching with Testimony workshop and develop a testimony-based project for their particular subject area and grade level. To date, the Institute has trained over 40 graduates.