The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This past Friday, our class along with some senior English students traveled to Washington D.C. to visit the Holocaust Museum.  This trip was planned to be in early December, but due to weather and other problems, it was postponed several times until we were finally able to go.

Because I really did not know what I would encounter on the trip, my expectations were somewhat limited.  I figured there would be a lot of information and some exhibits, but I really did not expect to see all that I did there.  The museum had so many artifacts, displays, and records that it was hard to focus for a long period of time on one display without wanting to look at another.

The entire experience was pretty valuable.  There is so much information about the Holocaust that most people really do not hear about.  The museum gives you a first hand look at what was happening during that time period and provides you with so many mediums of information such as videos, newspapers, and ads.  And while I enjoyed soaking up all this new information, it did flood me with sad feelings, too.  Seeing just how bad these people were treated and how horribly they died.  It was quite upsetting.

Probably the part I found the most fascinating was a scale model a gas chamber and crematory.  The model had quite a bit of detail and explained exactly how the people were fooled into thinking they were going to take a shower.

When I think about what I have taken away from this trip, I can think of two things.  The first being knowledge, and the second being and improved understanding.  What I mean by improved understanding is simply this: before the trip, I had a less involved knowledge of the holocaust; but now, through this experience, I have more knowledge and and a better understanding of what the many people went through.

Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, the long journey to Washington D.C. was actually not quite as bad as I had imagined.  In fact, the journey was quite nice considering that we left behind the horrible cold, strong winds, and nasty thunderstorms of New Jersey to encounter a warm and sunny city with a perfect temperature.

Concluding Our Studies of Hope, Humanity, and the Human Spirit

We just finished our midterm exams and this marks the conclusion of this Hope, Humanity, and The Human Spirit unit.  Our midterm consisted of us creating some kind of presentation concerning a topic of our choice related to hope, humanity, or the human spirit.  My presentation talked about the death and destruction that our species causes and how it could potentially ruin and/or be the end of humanity.  Also, I compared this to how the Earth could be a better place if we would all stop being violent.

The projects that my classmates created were  very well done.  Many of the groups created movies that were extremely well constructed.  One group, in fact, interviewed students and teachers and asked them how they would define humanity.  Another group created a virtual time line based on possible dates of future events that would improve our planet.  There were many other interesting presentations, such as one defining humanity using psychology and another that contained an interview by a classmate with a Gifted and Talented teacher who lost his voice.

Ultimately, our class would like to create a collective video that will contain elements of all our presentations that would concern a wide variety of our unit.  Based on that talent that my classmates have exhibited with their own presentations, I believe that we will be successful.  The only thing that I am wondering about, is what our new unit will be.