Cultural heritage in teaching

Cultural Heritage

This interactive course includes on-site visits and experiential workshops based on museums’ collections, important artifacts, and historical facts. How can History be related to our contemporary life, our relationships with other cultures and peoples, and affect our future as world citizens? How can we – teachers – take advantage of our cultural heritage and incorporate it in our everyday teaching, multidisciplinary projects, and collaborations such as eTwinning and STEAM projects?

The proposed course includes focused organized visits to museums in Thessaloniki and in the wider area, i.e. history-preserving sites such as the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, the Byzantine Cultural Heritage Museum, the Museum of Royal Macedonian Tombs in Vergina (a UNESCO world heritage site), the Archaeological site at Dion, modern museums such as the Museum of Photography, the Modern Arts Museum, and important monuments in the city such as the Rotonda (another UNESCO world heritage site), Ano Poli, Eptapyrgio Castle, the Roman Forum etc.

The course is dynamic: the visits and thematic content are especially tailored to the needs of the participants and agreed upon in advance. The workshops take place on-site and are connected to the museum(s) or monument(s) visited.

The rich history of Thessaloniki spans continuously from 315 BC until today. It was founded by Macedonian King Cassandros who named the new city after his wife Thessaloniki, sister of Alexander the Great, commemorating a vital victory (niki in Greek) of her father King Philip II of Macedonia in Thessaly. Its long history through the Ancient Greek times, the Roman times, the Byzantine Era, the Turkish Occupation, the Liberation struggles, the WWII era, and the modern times, offers many opportunities to deepen our experience and connection with ourselves and the world cultural heritage conveyed to the next generations.