As educators, when we go into teaching, we go in with what some might call ideological visions: This concept that we can and will make a difference; this idea that the children we teach will take the lessons we’ve taught and use them to become productive people long after they leave the four walls of our classroom. As we sit here now, reflecting on our most recent efforts to teach the Holocaust in a profound manner that gives justice and honor to the victims of this atrocity, we feel fortunate that such ideologies are being lived in our classroom.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.”

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

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.