Program:
Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute
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Education, General/Other
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Adults
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Program Description:
<div>All of our outreach programs, designed in cooperation with K-12 educators and school administrators nationwide, use case studies to help teachers, many of whom have not taken a history course since high school, to enliven their history curriculum. National educational standards for history, civics, English, literacy, geography, and technology are addressed, and the strategies that Colonial Williamsburg educators employ are not only useful for conveying historical concepts—they can apply to any aspect of the curriculum. Graduates of Colonial Williamsburg’s programs are not better <em>history</em> teachers; they are better teachers.</div>
<p>The <strong>Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute</strong> is central to our outreach efforts. The week-long intensive seminar onsite in Williamsburg gives teachers an opportunity to work directly with museum staff and interpreters to experience museum techniques for actively engaging students in history. Educators consistently cite the Institute as an experience that has transformed not only their appreciation of America’s story but also their teaching methods and their enthusiasm for integrating history into their curriculum. </p>
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Program:
Teaching American History Conferences
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Program Description:
<p ><strong>Teaching American History
Conferences</strong> are one- or two-day
conferences around the country that immerse educators in early American
history, life, and culture and inspire them to become more effective
teachers. Teachers meet a person
from the past, debate the pros and cons of the American Revolution, try on
period clothing, construct biographies from primary sources, and more. Through these experiences, they learn
to create dynamic learning experiences for their students by using primary
documents, artifacts, and technology resources. </p>
<p >Teachers leave the
conference with rich resources and educational materials for their classrooms
including books; posters; a CD-ROM containing more than 1,200 pages of lesson
plan and primary source materials; and an <em>Electronic Field Trip</em>. In
addition, each teacher becomes part of the Colonial Williamsburg education
network with access to teaching resources designed to help their students grow
and become the new generation of America’s well-educated citizenry, including
our e-newsletter, <strong>Colonial Williamsburg </strong><strong><em>Teacher Gazette.</em></strong></p>
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Program:
Electronic Field Trips
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Program Description:
<p >Colonial Williamsburg’s
Emmy Award-winning <strong><em>Electronic Field Trips</em></strong> are interactive classroom events that integrate
history and technology education into a dynamic history experience for
students. Teachers in registered
schools have access to a downloadable teacher’s guide filled with primary
source materials, graphic organizers, pictures, and a transcript of the
broadcast. Students can take
advantage of the online activities associated with each field trip and can post
questions and comments on the Internet bulletin board throughout the school
year. </p>
<p >On the day of the field
trip, students travel back in time to experience events of early America.
Colonial Williamsburg interpreters—many of them young people themselves—host
each program, introducing students to life in 18th-century America. Each program presents two or three
historical dramatizations that enliven early American history topics. After each dramatic vignette, students
from registered schools speak directly to the Colonial Williamsburg historians
and interpreters live in our television studio, asking questions and expressing
opinions about the issues presented in the program. </p>
<p ></p>
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Program:
Idea of America
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Program Description:
<p ><strong><em>The Idea of America</em></strong><strong><em>™</em></strong>, Colonial Williamsburg’s
newest and most innovative scholastic program, engages our nation’s high school
students in vital lessons of American citizenship. Each generation since America’s founding has wrestled with
the values that Americans hold sacred: unity, diversity, freedom, equality, private
wealth, common wealth, law, and ethics, expressing and balancing these values
according to the social, political, and economic climate of its times. <em>The Idea of America</em><em>™</em><em> </em>uses this enduring
debate as its conceptual and organizational framework. </p>
<p >This
distinctive program is not a textbook but a new generation basal classroom
product. Students will investigate
a series of 65 case studies—or chapters—across the whole range of American
history from colonization to the 21st century. Each case study includes interactive living history media,
classroom activities and digital resources including text, primary sources,
video, audio, and gaming applications. </p>
<p >As students work their way through the case
studies, they discover that certain key issues have been with us for a long
time. What is the best way to use
our natural resources? What role
does religion play in our republic? Does immigration strengthen or weaken our country? Students begin to realize that these
and scores of other questions are still being debated today. Understanding how previous generations
of Americans addressed these issues—sometimes well, sometimes poorly—provides
critical insights into how they might address these issues today.</p>
<p >We
expect to have the program in classrooms across the nation beginning in January
2011. Meanwhile, the current
events and Virtual Republic components can be seen at
<a href="http://www.ideaofamerica.org">www.ideaofamerica.org</a>.</p>
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