Going the extra mile for their students - quite literally.
Through Northern Arizona University's Martin-Springer Institute, teachers from across Arizona recently got the chance to travel to Europe and tour key sites of the Holocaust.
ABC15 spoke with Bjorn Krondorfer, the director of the institute, who says 20 Arizona middle and high school teachers traveled with him over the summer to Poland and Germany for the 17-day trip.
The group toured concentration camps, met with survivors, and learned valuable lessons Bjorn hopes they will pass down to their students this year.
"Every teacher teaches the Holocaust differently," Bjorn explains. "Everyone processes information differently. But certainly, most people were at one point or the other deeply emotionally touched. Sometimes in places they didn't expect. It takes the teacher out of just reading a text and makes it come alive and our hope is that teachers can now go back to their classrooms and give their students a much fuller picture."
The Martin-Springer Institute was able to fundraise to offset the costs for the teachers (they ended up paying roughly one-seventh of the costs, according to NAU).
The school plans to host another trip in the near future, but no official date has been set.
