Schools
Region 15 Staff Accepted to International Teachers’ Institute
Sharon Wlodarczyk and Michelle Szmajlo have been accepted into "Post-Conflict Reconstruction in the US, South Africa, and Sierra Leone".
From Pomperaug Regional School District 15: Region 15 is pleased to announce that Sharon Wlodarczyk, coordinator of the National History Day program for Rochambeau Middle School (RMS), Memorial Middle School (MMS), and Pomperaug High School (PHS), and Michelle Szmajlo, Social Studies teacher at PHS, have been accepted into “Post-Conflict Reconstruction in the US, South Africa, and Sierra Leone,” an international teachers’ institute created and funded by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. The goals of the project are to understand the unique cultures and attitudes that contribute to racial issues in the respective countries.
Sharon and Michelle are two of only 20 US teachers to be accepted. They will partner with 20 teachers from Johannesburg, South Africa and Freetown, Sierra Leone, and will begin this three-year effort this school year by studying the culture, politics and language of South Africa at Yale. In July, 2018, they will travel to South Africa, and throughout the project they will partner with the other teachers from the US, South Africa, and Sierra Leone to develop projects for classroom use
“We are particularly excited to participate in this program which so directly contributes to Region 15’s goal in the area of global citizenship. We see value in this partnership throughout the district, with particular application to our high school courses in World History, Global Problem Solving and Conversations on Race. Congratulations to Sharon and Michelle, and we certainly look forward to hearing more about this project as it gets underway,” said Regina Lemerich Botsford, Superintendent of Region 15 Schools.
