Category Archives: Education

Expanding the ability to teach the Holocaust through a visit to the Verzets Resistance Museum

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Verzets Museum

Author Terry Lee Marzell visits the Verzets Resistance Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to learn more about Dutch resistance to the Nazis during World War II.

My most recent post discussed how visiting a historical site or museum can immeasurably improve the teacher’s ability to teach a topic. Specifically, I was talking about how a visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam would be invaluable to instruction about the Holocaust. In my opinion, any study of the victims of the Holocaust is greatly improved when paired with a discussion about resistance movements and rescuers. Therefore, if you get the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands, I  recommend pairing your visit to the Franks’ hiding place with a visit to the Verzets Resistance Museum, a museum entirely devoted to describing the various ways the Dutch people resisted the Nazi occupiers.

The connection between Jewish asylum-seekers such as the Frank family and Dutch resistance workers is a strong one. On the day that Anne Frank and her family were arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz, two of the ten individuals that were deported from the secret annex were resistance workers who had been aiding the Frank family over the two-year period they had been in hiding.

Verzets Museum

The Verzets Museum displays a printing press used by Dutch resistance workers to create underground newspapers.

The Verzets Museum offers a wealth of information about the German Occupation and Nazi domination in the Netherlands during World War II, and how the Dutch people collectively responded to their occupation. During the years of 1940 to 1945, nearly every Dutch citizen faced moral dilemmas which required difficult and dangerous choices. The museum explores covert or more open strategies used by those who chose to resist. Most often these strategies included hiding Jewish neighbors or aiding those in hiding, forging documents, publishing underground newspapers, or conducting counter-intelligence. But a few chose to become involved in strikes, armed resistance, or domestic sabotage. All of them faced the possibility of deportation to the death camps or immediate execution if caught.

The Verzets Resistance Museum is housed in the handsome Plancius building, a structure originally constructed in 1876. The house previously served as a Jewish music hall, a Jewish cultural center, and a synagogue. The space was converted into the Verzets, also known as the Museum of Dutch Resistance, in 1999.

The Verzets Museum is open seven days a week. Tickets cost 11 Euros per adult, and come with a free audio tour in English. For more information, check out their website at Verzets Resistance Museum.

 

Dee Green: Teacher and Hollywood “Three Stooges” actress

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Dee Green appeared with the Three Stooges in the comedy short Brideless Groom (1947).

Many talented teachers achieve success in fields other than education. One such teacher was Delores Mae Green, who is better known as Dee Green.

Dee was a beloved music and choir teacher who was also an acclaimed actress in Hollywood. Her claim to fame is that she worked with the Three Stooges. She is well-known for playing the part of one of Shemp’s potential brides as the plain, tall, and fawning Miss Fanny Dinkelmeyer in the comedy short Brideless Groom. She also portrayed the homely and unattractive fiance in I’m a Monkey’s Uncle and the daughter of King Rootintootin’ in Mummy’s Dummies.

Dee was born on November 16, 1916, in Peoria, Illinois. After she concluded her career in show business, she earned her Master’s degree in music. She taught music and choir classes at Peoria Heights Grade School in Peoria Heights, Illinois, in the 1960’s. Throughout the late 1970’s and early 1980’s she taught Language Arts and Drama at Roosevelt Junior High, which is now known as Rockford Alternative Middle School, in Rockford, Illinois. She produced many annual events, including a production of Babes in Toyland and numerous elaborate Christmas pageants that included every student in the school.

Dee inspired more than one of her students to pursue a career in theater. Some of them eventually earned success on Broadway in New York. She was often described by her students as kind and generous, and a woman of great courage, talent, and vision.

This amazing chalkboard champion passed away from cancer on April 24, 1985.

Jeremy Anderson asks, “What keeps Educators Going?”

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Every teacher knows that the job can often be exhausting. The work load is enormous. The pressure is huge. Sometimes our students forget that we are human, too. That we have problems and challenges, just like they do. That we sometimes make mistakes. What keeps educators going, in spite of all this? Here’s a wonderful inspirational video that answers the question. It was created by motivational speaker Jeremy Anderson and  published on YouTube on 2/14/2018.

Learn more about Jeremy by visiting his website at 

https://youtu.be/fLDp2OePLzM

The valuable contributions of school libraries

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Most educators would agree that school library programs are extremely valuable to students. But did you know that, according to recent studies, strong school libraries help to increase standardized test scores? Statistics show that public schools with strong school library programs outperform those without such programs on high-stakes standardized tests. This is true regardless of parent education, poverty levels, ethnicity, or the percentage of English language learners found in the population of the school. Increases in library program elements correspond to standardized test scores at all grade levels, including elementary, middle school, and high school.

Library elements that contribute to increased test scores include the total number of hours the library is open, the total amount of technology available in the library, the total services provided by trained library staff, the presence of a program of curriculum-integrated information with literacy instruction, the informal instruction of students in the use of resources, providing teachers with information about new resources, and providing reference assistance to both teachers and students.

A strong school library program is described as one that provides a full-time teacher/librarian, a full-time paraprofessional, a robust and up-to-date collection of digital, print, and media resources with a budget to support it, and abundant access to the library’s facilities, technology, and resources. How well does your school’s library program meet the criteria?

To learn more, read the report, Remodeling Literacy Learning: Making Room for What Works, which details key findings from a nationwide survey of more than 2,400 educators representing all grade levels and subject areas. The report investigates the connection between professional learning, educator collaboration, and student learning.

The heroic Charlotte Forten Grimke: She taught newly emancipated slaves

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Charlotte Forten Grimke

Charlotte Forten Grimke, the teacher who established a school for emancipated slaves in South Carolina during the Civil War.

There are many classroom educators who demonstrate extraordinary acts of courage. One of these is a nineteenth-century African American woman named Charlotte Forten Grimke, a teacher who established a school in South Carolina just behind the battle lines during the Civil War.

Charlotte was born a free Black in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 17, 1837, the daughter of Robert and Mary (Wood) Forten. Her parents were members of the prominent Black Forten-Purvis family of Philadelphia, and several of her family members were involved in anti-slavery causes.

As a youngster, Charlotte enjoyed freedoms and privileges not usually experienced by African Americans in the United States. She was educated in Salem, Massachusetts, at the Higginson Grammar School, a private academy for young women. She was the only student of color in a class of 200. Known for emphasis in critical thinking, the school offered courses in history, geography, drawing, and cartography, and placed an emphasis on critical thinking skills. After graduating from Higginson, Charlotte studied literature and instructional pedagogy at the Salem Normal School, an institution opened to train educators.

During the Civil War, Charlotte answered the call to teach newly-emancipated slaves in the South. The US government recognized that these newest American citizens desperately needed assistance in basic literacy skills and training on how to take care of themselves. Charlotte agreed to travel to South Carolina, despite the high risk to her own personal freedom and her precarious health, to establish a school there. While the war raged on around them, she set up the school and diligently held classes for students who ranged in age from kinders to grandparents. When the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, an all-black regiment, suffered high casualties in the battle at Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863, Charlotte left her classroom with a substitute teacher and went to the soldiers’ aid as a nurse and letter writer at the nearby hospital where the injured had been taken.

You can read her fascinating story in her own words through her personal writings, The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke, or you can read a shorter chapter about her life in my book, Chalkboard Champions. Either way, the story is a good read.