Applications are now available for Oklahoma fifth-grade teachers interested in receiving a fellowship to attend the 2015 Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute June 8 through 14 in the restored capital city of 18th-century Virginia.
The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence coordinates the selection of Oklahoma teachers to participate in the renowned teacher institute. Applications are available on the foundation's website at www.ofe.org. Completed applications must be postmarked by March 2, 2015.
Oklahoma teachers dress up in Colonial period costumes during their visit to the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute. The 2015 Institute is scheduled June 8-14.
Each participant will receive an all-expense-paid fellowship to Williamsburg, as well as a $300 stipend 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. Participants also will meet daily with a peer facilitator to discuss interactive teaching techniques and develop creative lesson plans based on their experiences.
"No textbook can replace the inspiration and knowledge gained by walking in the footsteps of early Americans, both famous and ordinary," said Teacher Institute Fellow 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, and learning to make rope by hand 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," she added. "I am a better American and a better teacher because of it."
Oklahoma's teacher institute program is designed for fifth-grade social studies/history teachers and resource teachers, such as librarians or gifted-talented teachers, who plan to teach U.S. history in their schools in 2015-2016. The fellowships are available to public and private school teachers. Participants are asked to share materials, skills and experiences with fellow teachers through two workshops or in-service programs upon their return from the institute.
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. The Joullian family continues to support the program.
For more information, visit the Oklahoma Foundation website at www.ofe.org or call Brenda Wheelock at (405) 236-0006.
