Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute
Oklahoma’s Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute program is designed for fifth-grade social studies/history teachers and resource teachers, such as librarians, who plan to teach U.S. history in their schools. Fellowship recipients will receive all-expense paid trips to Williamsburg, as well as $300 for classroom materials.
While at Colonial Williamsburg -- the world’s largest living history museum -- Oklahoma teachers will have the opportunity to meet character interpreters of 18th-century people and be immersed in early American history through hands-on activities and reenactments of historic events.
Participants will visit nearby Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English colony in America, and spend a day at Yorktown visiting the battlefields where the Continental Army forced the British to surrender. They also will meet daily with a peer facilitator to discuss interactive teaching techniques and develop creative lesson plans based on their experiences. Participants are asked to share materials, skills and experiences with fellow teachers through two workshops upon their return from the institute.
Click here for more details on program requirements.
“No textbook can replace the inspiration and knowledge gained by walking in the footsteps of early Americans, both famous and ordinary,” said Teacher Institute alumna Linda Goodnight of Wewoka. “Visualizing George Washington and his troops at Surrender Field, debating in the very courtroom where Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry pled the cause of liberty, learning to make rope in Jamestown colony will ignite my teaching – and my students – forever.
“The Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute is by far the finest, most comprehensive teacher training I have ever attended,” Goodnight added. “I am a better American and a better teacher because of it.”
The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence has coordinated Oklahoma’s participation in the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute since 1993, thanks to the leadership and support of the late Oklahoma City businessman Edward C. Joullian III, who was an active supporter and former board member of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Joullian was also a trustee of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, a nonprofit organization that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools.
For more information, contact the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence at (405)
236-0006.
Designed for fifth-grade elementary school teachers who teach U.S. history and resource teachers serving this grade, this intensive weeklong workshop immerses participants in early American history "on location" in Williamsburg, the restored capital city of 18th-century Virginia, as well as nearby Jamestown and Yorktown sites.
Institute participants are involved in an interdisciplinary approach to teaching social studies with early American history as the focus. They meet with noted historians and character interpreters, take part in re-enactments of 18th-century events, and learn new teaching techniques from mentor teachers as well as from each other. Together with Colonial Williamsburg staff, they prepare new instructional materials for use in their own classrooms.
Participating teachers become members of the Oklahoma Colonial Williamsburg network, linked to Colonial Williamsburg and to their colleagues in the field through various media.
Note: This participatory, interactive, interdisciplinary Institute requires the mental and physical endurance for 13 - 14 hour days in a hot, humid climate.
Participants are expected to:
- Present two training sessions for fellow teachers in the upcoming school year.
- Provide Colonial Williamsburg with two lesson plans using techniques learned at Williamsburg.
- Work together as a team at Williamsburg and participate fully in all activities, including an end-of-session lesson plan presentation.
The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence acts as administrator for the project and accepts applications on behalf of the Colonial Williamsburg Selection Committee.
Institute fellowships cover:
- All program activities.
- Round-trip airfare and room and board.
- $300 stipend for purchasing materials.
- Teacher resource packet.
The following criteria will be considered by the Selection Committee:
- Demonstrated proficiency in classroom teaching.
- Evidence that the Institute will relate to the teaching needs and skills of the applicant.
- Evidence that the applicant can work well as part of a team.
- Evidence of the ability and willingness to plan, organize and participate in teacher in-service programs to share materials and techniques with others in and out of the applicant's district.
- Geographic diversity.