The first Summer School for History Teachers organized by the Bulgarian HTA took place in the end of July near
Razlog, a town and ski resort in South-Western Bulgaria (26-29 July 2021). The topic was “How to
make and use resources for history teaching in and online and offline environment”.
23 history educators from all across the country gathered together in person for the first time since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic to reconnect, network, and discuss:
- Modern trends in history teaching;
- The ready-made teaching materials created within the project “Transition Dialogue 2019-2021. Dealing with change in democratic ways”, which promote a participatory approach to dealing with transition in post ‘89 Germany and Eastern Europe, with a clear focus on European Civic Education;
- what is Historiana (www.historiana.eu) and how it can be used to develop (online) history lessons – including sessions on how to create one’s own online resource using the e-Activity Builder.
Bridget Martin, a history teacher and member of the Historiana Teaching and Learning Team, joined the Summer school 2021. She hosted the training for Historiana. Teachers became familiar with the historical resources on Historiana, both in English and Bulgarian languages. Bridget presented the e-Activity Builder and guided educators in creating their own teaching materials in Historiana based on the use of images (photographs and posters). Bistra Stoimenova dealt with the highlighting tool of e-Activity Builder for written sources.
In the last day of the Summer school educators presented their e-learning activities on Bulgarian history of the Transition after 1989.
The event gave to participants a common space of dialogue where they could share their ideas, problems and solutions. An additional social and cultural program was a nice touch for participants to be more open and creative in their work.
History teachers evaluated very highly the organization of the Summer school in their feedback. They expressed how the event was very useful for their professional development, as well as a great opportunity to network with colleagues from the country.
They expressed also a desire to make the Summer School in Bulgarian a regular appointment for local teachers and educators.
This article was written by Bistra Stoimenova, Bulgarian HTA
