Author Terry Lee Marzell and her husband Hal visited Royal Lazienki Park in Warsaw, {plans, where a monument has been erected to honor the brilliant composer Frederik Chopin. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

Summer is prime time for teachers—and students—to incorporate travel into their vacation plans. Many people, both young and mature, know that travel, in addition to being fun and intellectually stimulating, is one of the most meaningful learning opportunities available. That’s why last month, my husband Hal and I planned a tour of the countries of Eastern Europe.

While my husband Hal and I were touring Warsaw in Poland, we were offered an optional excursion to attend a piano recital of selected works by celebrated composer Frederic Chopin. To be honest, neither Hal nor I are big classical music fans, but as we told each other, how could we go to the city that loves her native son so devotedly and not sample the good man’s music?

Earlier in the day, our tour group visited Royal Lazienki Park where a monument has been erected to honor the brilliant composer. There Chopin is depicted sitting beneath a windswept weeping willow, his eyes closed and his hand extended, as if he were playing an invisible piano. The pose is said to symbolize his connection to nature.

The statue was originally erected in 1926, but when the German Army rolled in to occupy Warsaw in 1940, the monument was blown up. A local legend says that the next day a handwritten placard was found among the rubble bearing the message, “I don’t know who destroyed me, but I know why: So that I won’t play the funeral march for your leader.” Fortunately, a cast of the original statue had been made, so when WWII was over, a duplicate was constructed and erected in 1946. Today, the memorial is graced by a placid reflecting pool, impeccably manicured lawns, and a field of profusely flowering rose bushes. The scene was lovely.

And also educational. Our local tour guide led us to a park bench and pressed a button embedded in the bench. “Well, there’s something you don’t see every day,” I commented to Hal in an aside. Yolante explained that in Warsaw, there are fifteen of these Chopin Benches located at various sites that were significant to the composer’s life, each featuring a button that when pressed plays a short excerpt of his music. Each bench plays a different Chopin composition.

Yolante told us that Chopin, who’d been sickly all his life, passed away in Paris, in 1849. He was only 39 years old. He is buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Hal and I remember stumbling upon his grave there when we visited France in 2015. On a macabre note, per his deathbed request, after Chopin’s passing, his heart was removed by his doctor, preserved in alcohol, and returned to Poland in 1850, where today it is enshrined in Warsaw’s Holy Cross Church.

On the night of the concert, we made our way to Warsaw’s Fryderyk Concert Hall. This elegant space was comparatively small, with chairs for only about 100 people. We were fortunate enough to be seated in the front row.

Our pianist for the evening was a well-known Polish chamber musician, recording artist, and music educator. He’s played at festivals and concerts all over Europe, and he’s a regular guest of the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw.

The audience was filled with anticipation as the pianist entered the concert hall and took his seat at the Steinway. For about an hour he regaled us with skillful renditions of Chopin’s compositions. The composer’s work is well-known for being technically complex—very difficult to master—and for evoking strong emotional responses with his music. Neither Hal nor I are Chopin experts, but we agreed that the pianist appeared to perform the pieces with great technical skill—I had a close, clear view of the keyboard and watched with awe at the speed and dexterity with which his hands dashed across the keys. When the recital was concluded, we came away feeling it was certainly worth the effort and expense.

Certainly it may be very rare that a public school music educator in the United States would be able to escort his or her students to Warsaw to explore Chopin’s memorial and attend a concert there, but it might be possible to attend a recital in your home town. Why not see if you can provide such an excursion for the young people in your classroom?

Author Terry Lee Marzell appears in front of the Bundestag, the German Parliament Building, located in Berlin. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

Many educators agree that travel, in addition to being fun and intellectually stimulating, is one of the most meaningful learning opportunities available. That’s one of the reasons why last month, my husband Hal and I enjoyed our tour of several countries in Eastern Europe, including Germany.

While in Berlin, we were able to visit the Bundestag, which is the official name of the Parliament of Germany. A tour of a parliament building in a foreign country offers students unique opportunities to compare and contrast governmental processes with those of our own country. This is especially valuable for young people who are considering a future career in law or government. Furthermore, these visits are interesting to those who are interested in history.

Hal Marzell examines plenary chamber of the German Parliament building in Berlin, Germany. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

Of the many parliament buildings Hal and I have toured all over the world, the Bundestag is particularly interesting. I was intrigued by the architecture, which features the blending of a modern design fitted inside a historical structure. This blend signifies both Germany’s tumultuous past and the democracy of the present day. The exterior of the building, built between 1884 and 1894, was constructed in a solid Neo-Classical style. The old-fashioned style pays homage to the building’s historical origins. The modern features, fitted inside these original walls. consist of a glass structure which provides a light and airy feel to the interior space, not to mention plenty of natural light. The interior decor of the plenary chamber accentuates this atmosphere with light, neutral colors for wall and carpet materials and cool blue upholstered furniture pieces. I also particularly appreciated the contemporary metal sculpture of Germany’s Federal Eagle erected at the front of the chamber.

Author Terry Lee Marzell examines the mirrored column that supports the glass dome which crowns the Bundestag building.in Berlin, Germany. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

The entire edifice is crowned with a gigantic glass dome that allows for sky-high panoramic views of the entire city. This dome is supported by a mirrored tornado-shaped column that once again suggests Germany’s tumultuous past. The ring around the base of the support column allows for viewing into the plenary chamber situated below. The dome allows for a clear view both outside of and inside of the structure. Thus, the dome symbolizes the present-day goal of transparency and openness in Germany’s government.

We all know it is difficult to organize a field trip for your class to visit important sites overseas, no matter how valuable such a trip would be. But your students could learn more about this unique building online by examining the online site here. Happy travels, whether in person or virtual.

Author Terry Lee Marzell and her husband, Hal, toured Auschwitz, the most notorious of the World War II Nazi concentration camps, on their tour of Eastern Europe in 2025. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

Many Social Studies teachers, and also some Language Arts teachers, include Holocaust education as part of their classroom curriculum. Last month, my husband Hal and I traveled to Eastern Europe, where we were able to visit Auschwitz, the most notorious of the World War II Nazi concentration camps. This famous historic site is located outside of Krakow, Poland. Here is a brief description of our visit there and some links to some online Holocaust educational materials which teachers can incorporate into their lessons.

The guided tour, which lasted 90 minutes, was as sobering as you might expect. Our guide related a great deal of information, including graphic stories about the arrival of the prisoners, the disposition of their belongings, the medial experiments conducted by Dr. Josef Mengele, the meager food rations, the role of the Kapos, the daily roll calls, and the hospital ward. Our guide also talked about the selections, the executions, and the desperate  suicides when some prisoners threw themselves on the barbed wire fences, giving the German guards a good excuse to shoot them. Then our tour leaders showed us the gas chambers and the crematorium. All of it very disturbing, as you can imagine, but important for understanding the depth of the terror prisoners experienced while imprisoned there.

Through the entire tour, haunting passages from Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, replayed in my head. I taught the book for many years in my sophomore classes before my retirement in 2017.

Since escorting a group of students on a field trip to this historic site is not feasible for most teachers, I thought I would share some resources that are available online for teachers to access. To access classroom lessons available online through the official website for Auschwitz click here. Additional resources provided by the Auschwitz are available here. These are aimed at students age 14 and older. Teachers can also consult the website for the United States Holocaust Museum here.