Expectations for CWI 2017

I was selected as one of a handful of teachers to receive the Robert Glass Endowment Teacher Scholarship to attend the 2017 Civil War Institute Summer Conference held at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA. I am honored and humbled to have been selected for this and look forward to learning from some of the best in the field.

I cannot wait to collaborate with the other Teacher Scholars that are attending from around the country and talking about how they teach the American Civil War and learning from all of their years of experience and the professional connections that will come from that. I also am excited to learn new content to improve the way I teach my 8th grade US History students. Battlefield visits to Antietam and Gettysburg will allow me to use my 360 camera to create virtual field trips for my students and bring these historic locations to them and help them connect to history in real life.

Overall, the thing I am looking forward to the most is actually being a student again. Sure I'll have time to talk with others and present to them my work in virtual reality, investigations, and document work with students, but it's been awhile since I have been able to sit down and learn new things from some of the brightest minds in the field of history. I think spending the time learning as a student will give me some good observations about how my students feel and class and will help to improve my instruction in the coming years as I am always looking to improve my instruction and the way I connect to students.

I want to thank the CWI for accepting me as a teacher scholar and for my amazing school district for allowing me to attend at the end of the year!