Presidential Library hosting teaching workshops

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library will host the final series of workshops in conjunction with the three-year Teaching American History grant.

Beginning on Monday, teachers from Alleghany, Bath, Bedford, Craig, Giles, Highland, and Pulaski County Public Schools will begin their week-long program of presentations, discussions, and workshops. Keynote presentations by Dr. Jennifer Keene, professor of history at Chapman University, and Dr. David Kirkham, Senior Fellow for Comparative Law and International Policy at Brigham Young University, will highlight the last residential course. Teachers will also attend sessions about research techniques, teaching with primary sources, and using technology to meet Virginia’s Standards of Learning.

On Wednesday, they will visit the George C. Marshall Foundation in Lexington for research sessions and on Friday they will give presentations on lesson plan projects they prepared throughout the week.

The program is designed to improve the teachers’ knowledge and appreciation of American history by focusing on significant connections in America’s past and introducing them to available resources and new pedagogical practices. The teachers participated in one-day preparatory sessions earlier in the year and later this month, they will visit historic sites in New York City including Wall Street, the United Nations, and other iconic institutions.

They will return to the Presidential Library for a final one-day capstone session this fall.