LOCAL TEACHER ATTENDS COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG TEACHER INSTITUTE

Katrina Kloess, 5th grade teacher at Trinity Lutheran School in Tinley Park, recently completed an intense, six-day immersion in American history at the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute in Virginia. Her trip was generously funded by The Davee Foundation. Kloess describes her experience in Williamsburg as every teachers dream!

The Teacher Institute was created to encourage history education and make it engaging for students. Now in its 26th year, the Teacher Institute helps prepare teachers to help students meet national and state history standards through hands-on immersion experiences in colonial history.

During six-day sessions on location in Colonial Williamsburg and the surrounding area, participants engage in an interdisciplinary approach to teaching social studies with American history as the focus. Teachers have the opportunity to exchange ideas with historians, meet character interpreters and become part of the story in The Revolutionary City. Throughout each day, teachers work collaboratively with Colonial Williamsburg staff and Master Teachers to examine interactive teaching techniques and develop instructional materials that improve instruction, raise literacy levels, enhance thinking skills, and bring history to life in the classroom. Participating teachers agree to conduct in-service training sessions following their attendance at Teacher Institute in order to share their experience with other teachers. Teachers also are required to develop lesson plans to implement in the classroom.

Teacher Institute was developed to improve the quality of American history education in the nations’ schools and insure that every student gains an understanding of the principles behind our system of government. The program began in 1990 with 44 fifth-grade teachers from two southern California school districts. Today, more than 8,100 teachers from all 50 states and three foreign countries have participated since the inception of the Teacher Institute. To learn more about Teacher Institute, visit www.history.org/history/teaching/tchsti.cfm.