Sunday 31 January 2016

Holocaust rememberance resources

Last week was Holocaust Memorial Day.
I wanted to put together a list of resources in French (because I mainly teach French this year) which could be used in the classroom with students.
However, I was incredibly busy and never got around to it.
I decided I'd write the post anyway and keep the links for next year but it turns out I could use them before then because Yom HaShoah 2016 (Holocaust Rememberance Day) is commemorated this year from the evening of the 4th to the evening of the 5th of May.

Remember, if you don't teach it, they will never know..

So here's my list:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has resources in different languages.

United Nations ressources pédagogiques

Links and resources from Projet Aladin

Shoah.de has resources and links in German

Canadian Government's holocaust resources page

Videos of interviews with survivors and witnesses in French

Enseigner l'histoire de la Shoah has a lot of information and resources for teachers

Mémoire d'Auschwitz resources, links and students work from rhone.fr

Lilly Osbert-Levy's L'évacuation d'Auschwitz

Resources from 1jour1actu here, on one Holocaust denial here, a video about Hitler and one about the Second World War

Resources and links from Café Pédagogique

dw.de's Der Holocaust im Unterricht



Sunday 10 January 2016

Staying positive.

Happy New Year!

Cast your mind back 12 months.

Do you remember your new year's resolution?

Did you keep it?

My resolution for 2015 was not to work at weekends.

You can read my  post about it here.

It wasn't 100% successful. I worked 4 weekends last year.

It was a little harder than I imagined, mainly because, since September, on Fridays I teach 3 classes which I also teach on Mondays.

I got around it by marking before I went home but this was not always possible.

For 2016 my resolution is similar but also includes a promise to myself to be as positive as possible.

This has meant leaving all MFL Facebook groups I'd signed up to.

Until recently I've been an avid reader of, and contributor to, these groups but things have changed.

Over the past few months these groups have changed from very supportive and collaborative fora to a place where many group members have just used them to complain, troll and breach copyright by sharing resources illegally.

My decision to leave them all was not taken lightly but rather than getting annoyed by the trolling and scrounging I just clicked "leave group".

It was easy.

So what else have I been doing?

Well, my time management is getting better all the time.

I don't leave school until the next day's work is prepared.

I mark books after every lesson. (You'd be amazed how quickly you can do this and it helps with planning!)

I'm happier and I like my job.

(I still regularly consider leaving teaching but I think everyone does that!)

So, my advice to everyone for 2016 is be positive.

Nobody likes moaner!