Teachers participating in Facing History and Ourselves’s “Holocaust and Human Behavior” seminar spent a day at USC last week learning how to use IWitness to teach about the Holocaust, genocide, tolerance and other topics.

Educators are invited to participate in a free IWitness webinar Thurs., Aug. 20 at 4 p.m. PST, to learn more about integrating IWitness into their curriculum.

USC Shoah Foundation Australia Regional Consultant Sarah Warby will speak about the power of teaching with testimony at Knox Grammar School’s Practicing Positive Education conference in Sydney, Aug. 28-29.

With the first day of school already behind many students and teachers, USC Shoah Foundation is debuting several new educational materials that can help educators teach about genocide, civil rights, tolerance and other topics.

As I start a new school year in a new school teaching a new grade level, I find it slightly ironic that the first theme that my textbook series addresses is courage. As I start another school year, I have thought deeply about courage and mix of emotions that come into play that very first day of school. Many may not readily admit it, but the first day of the school year for both teachers and students is filled nervousness and unease. A first impression is extremely important, and a good first day can set the tone for a very productive school year.

A Modern Germany history course taught by Longwood University Professor Melissa Kravetz received an honorable mention for “Interesting Assignment” from the H-German online network for its IWitness-based final assignment.

Educators have two opportunities to learn about IWitness along with fellow teachers over the next two weeks: a webinar and first-ever Twitter chat.

While guests of the 2015 Ambassadors for Humanity Gala on Sept. 10 trickled into the Henry Ford Museum and enjoyed a cocktail reception before dinner began, a small group of high school students was hard at work.

As Hannah, in the novel The Devil's Arithmetic, needed to have a first-hand experience to fully understand the Holocaust; my students must be equipped with first-hand information, too. While they cannot "time travel" as Hannah does, they can hear from survivors to have a greater understanding of the Holocaust.

Students can now get even more creative with their IWitness Information Quests.

In an effort to create a deeper engagement with educators online, USC Shoah Foundation’s educational website IWitness hosts monthly Twitter chats.

Forty-eight testimony clips have been added to the popular “Watch” page on IWitness.

USC Shoah Foundation and Facing History and Ourselves have established a partnership in order to develop meaningful and engaging learning resources centered on Holocaust survivor testimonies.

Laura Pritchard Dobrin, an IWitness Teaching Fellow and educator who participated in Auschwitz: The Past is Present, gave a presentation about IWitness at the Virginia Association of Teachers of English (VATE) 2015 Annual Conference last weekend.

IWitness has published a new activity about Kristallnacht just in time for its 77th anniversary this November.

Educators looking for strategies and best practices for teaching using testimonies from the Visual History Archive can refer to a new guide published on the IWitness website.

Members of the USC Shoah Foundation Board of Councilors got creative during the annual board meeting in New York, Oct. 14-15.

I teach at an Islamic school, and I am in awe of how testimony has opened the eyes and hearts of my students and inspired them to fight injustice. This is particularly amazing considering the Shoah is not even part of the curriculum in many Arab countries. When I asked my class why testimony has affected them so deeply, their response was: “Testimony teaches us that the world isn’t about us vs. them. It is about how WE can make the world a better place by not being bystanders.”

The IWitness Watch page has been redesigned in order to enhance user experience for educators.

Special education teacher Tony Cole introduced teachers to IWitness at an orientation for University College London (UCL)’s Beacon School in Holocaust Education program on Oct. 27.

Through a partnership with the National Jewish Theater Foundation, IWitness has added a brand-new activity that guides secondary students to develop historical narrative monologues using testimonies of Holocaust survivors, witnesses and liberators.

I found as a teacher that the most challenging task when teaching about the Holocaust and genocide, is how to do it not using material that shocks the students to the point that they do not want to look at the content, study the history or listen to present day issues due to the emotional shut down that can occur.

The IWitness team has added 52 new clips to the Watch page. These clips cover a wide range of topics, from the Armenian Genocide to the Nanjing Massacre.

As 2015 comes to an end our education team takes a look at the 10 IWitness activities most assigned by educators.