Westfield Teacher Wins Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award

WESTFIELD, NJ — Kimberly Leegan, Westfield High School Social Studies teacher, has been selected for the 2016 Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award.

The award will be presented by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the organization which in 1986 established the award to help classroom teachers “reach for the stars” and achieve a dream that under ordinary circumstances would not be fulfilled.

The purpose of the fund is to support research and classroom application projects which improve social studies education, foster enlightened citizenship, and promote civic competence.

“Kim is being recognized for her 'Adopt a Country Project' that she uses in her 9th grade Global Perspectives course,” stated Andrea Brennan, Westfield’s Supervisor of Social Studies, who together with Leegan submitted the grant proposal last spring.

As the grant recipient, Leegan will receive a check for $2,500 for classroom materials. She also has been invited to be a presenter at the 97th Annual NCSS Conference in San Francisco, CA, Nov. 17 to 19, 2017, when she will discuss the implementation of her project.

“The Adopt a Country project allows students to learn more about the countries we hear so much about in the news today,” explained Leegan. “I want my students to learn more than just the sound bites. Every country, every culture is made of many stories, not just one. This project affords students an opportunity to learn about the rich history, culture, and people of these countries and to educate, not only themselves, but their classmates.”

As part of last year’s project, Westfield High School Global Perspective students used their research to create Weebly Sites to showcase what they had learned. In addition, students created web quests, which were exchanged and completed by classmates, so that other students could benefit from their knowledge.

Leegan emphasized that the most important part of the project is the informed action component. After learning about their adopted country, students identify a problem that the country faces and propose a service project to address that problem. Proposals are vetted and selected by the students.

According to Leegan, “We start the year with the question: What does it mean to be a global citizen? We end our year with the realization that citizenship takes action.”

Upon notification of the award, Leegan responded, “We are so fortunate to be able to obtain this grant because it will allow us to expand this project by incorporating the use of Google expedition goggles in the classroom. This device enables students to take virtual tours of some of these countries. We also intend to use the grant money for guest speakers who will address the issue of global citizenship.”

“We are very excited and proud of Kim's efforts,” stated Brennan.

“This award is well deserved and demonstrates the importance of social studies education and good citizenship,” added Superintendent of Schools, Margaret Dolan. “It remains a core of our school district’s mission statement to ‘educate all students to reach their highest potential as productive, well-balanced and responsible citizens who respect individual differences and diversity in an ever changing world’,” added Dr. Dolan.

— By Lorre Korecky

(Photos provided)

Photo 1: Kimberly Leegan, winner of the 2016 Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award,launches a discussion in her first few weeks of 9th Grade Global Perspectives at Westfield High School by asking students to consider these questions: What is culture? What does it mean to be “civilized”? What does it mean to be human? How do indigenous peoples change when encountering the rest of the world and how does the rest of world change from encountering indigenous peoples?

Photo 2: Westfield High School Social Studies teacher, Kimberly Leegan (at right), and Supervisor of K-12 Social Studies, Andrea Brennan, co-authored a grant to supplement materials in Leegan’s 'Adopt a Country Project. Leegan is the recipient of the grant, entitled the2016 Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award, which supports classroom application projects that improve social studies education, foster enlightened citizenship, and promote civic competence.

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