Teacher’s Workshop: Social Emotional Intelligence Through the Anne Frank Story

Teachers may earn inservice credit for participating in this professional development workshop.

This important workshop was designed to assist teachers with ideas for in-class activities to help students understand the cultural and emotional impacts of the Holocaust and how we can relate it to current society.

Topics include:

• Nazi Worldview and Vision for Europe: Bringing Context for the Anne Frank Experience
• Guided walk-through of Anne Frank Center’s Traveling Exhibition-Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank
• Student and Educator Responses to Anne Frank’s Words
• Student and Educator Responses to Visuals From Anne Frank’s Time
• Emotional Intelligence Through the Story of Anne Frank

Instructor Biographies:

Maureen McNeil, Director of Education, Anne Frank Center

Maureen McNeil is a nonprofit professional, author, educator, and social justice advocate, working with arts and cultural organizations to help strengthen underserved communities. Maureen has created writing programs at the Woodstock Day School; assisted the publisher at Galison Books; oversaw summer programs at Red Hook Arts; became a mentor and co-curriculum advisor at Girls Write Now; and served in development and education at the South Street Seaport Museum. Her leadership positions include Director of The Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, Executive Director of the Josephine Herrick Project, and Director of Education at the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect from 2006 to 2012, now returning to lend her guidance in 2019. She earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and an MS in Nonprofit Management at The New School.

Dr. James McLaughlin, Professor and Richard James Mertz Chair of Education, Rollins College

Dr. McLaughlin holds the Richard James Mertz Endowed Chair of Education at Rollins College. At previous institutions, Professor McLaughlin conducted qualitative research about education in Mexican one-room schools and about teachers’ views of Mexican immigrant students in the USA. Since coming to Rollins College in 2012, he has led groups of college students on field studies to Amsterdam, with a special focus on the Anne Frank House, the Jewish Cultural Quarter, and current social issues. In 2017 he developed an ongoing project to study schools named for Anne Frank in 4 European nations, to determine how they try to live their mission of teaching for social justice. At Rollins College, he teaches courses on the history and socio-politics of American education, on comparative global education, on the Holocaust (with a field trip to Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau), and on topics related to immigrants and refugees.

Mitchell Bloomer, Resource Teacher, Holocaust Center

Mitchell Bloomer has been the Resource Teacher at the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida since 1995. His position is a joint venture between Orange County Public Schools and the Center. He helps teachers and schools to implement the Florida mandate for Holocaust Education (F.S. 1003.42) through teacher training, direct student instruction, and curriculum design. Mitch believes that Holocaust education should help all learners to strengthen their commitment to civil rights, democratic values, and human dignity.