Post by title1parent on Jun 29, 2011 7:28:17 GMT -5
Aurora and Naperville teachers learn about Civil Rights movement
By Angela Bender For The Sun June 28, 2011
Local teachers who participated in the Teaching American History Civil Rights Field Study Trip:
District 204
Karen McCann
Louisa Papa
Debra Roerig
Lisa Ryder
Kristen Victor
District 203
Candace Bachar
Cheryl DeGan
Brian Hunger
Noor Khan
Michael Manolakes
Editor’s note: Ever wonder what teachers really do during summer vacation? The Sun is beginning an occasional series of stories about what educators do to better themselves during the summer break.
For some teachers, summer allows them time to learn more so they can continue to be effective with their students. But, that learning does not always take place in a classroom.
To kick off the summer, 18 teachers, 10 of whom were from school districts 203 and 204, took a Civil Rights Field Study Trip to explore the events that took place in Alabama in the 1960s.
“The field study trip ... was like a visit into a scrapbook. It was colorful, personal, and we got to touch it,” said Donna Sack who is the Teaching American History project director.
TAH is a million-dollar grant project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Awarded in 2007, the four-year grant provides professional development for history teachers. It is a partnership between the school districts, North Central College and Naper Settlement. The idea for the grant is to improve teaching of United States history in the classrooms by creating links between local schools, universities and museums.
For the first three years of the grant, the field trips focused on the Civil War, the Progressive Era and the Civil Rights/Environmental Movement, respectively. The Civil Rights Field Study Trip that was taken by the teachers a couple of weeks ago is the last major activity before the grant ends.
According to Sack, during this trip, the teachers visited the places where historic events occurred and talked to the people who lived during the movement. Guided by a descendent of the people buried there, the teachers walked through a 19th century slave cemetery and saw the cabins the enslaved lived and worked in. They also walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., where marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday in 1965. The teachers also spent time with Amelia Boynton Robinson and Solomon Seay Jr., both key figures in the fight for equality in Alabama.
Karen McCann, a geography teacher at Still Middle School, is one teacher who benefited from the grant.
“I think this last trip to the south had the greatest impact on me personally,” McCann said. “I teach the story of Emmett Till and the Civil Rights movement to my current seventh-graders, and this year, I have a wealth of information to pass on to them.”
By Angela Bender For The Sun June 28, 2011
Local teachers who participated in the Teaching American History Civil Rights Field Study Trip:
District 204
Karen McCann
Louisa Papa
Debra Roerig
Lisa Ryder
Kristen Victor
District 203
Candace Bachar
Cheryl DeGan
Brian Hunger
Noor Khan
Michael Manolakes
Editor’s note: Ever wonder what teachers really do during summer vacation? The Sun is beginning an occasional series of stories about what educators do to better themselves during the summer break.
For some teachers, summer allows them time to learn more so they can continue to be effective with their students. But, that learning does not always take place in a classroom.
To kick off the summer, 18 teachers, 10 of whom were from school districts 203 and 204, took a Civil Rights Field Study Trip to explore the events that took place in Alabama in the 1960s.
“The field study trip ... was like a visit into a scrapbook. It was colorful, personal, and we got to touch it,” said Donna Sack who is the Teaching American History project director.
TAH is a million-dollar grant project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Awarded in 2007, the four-year grant provides professional development for history teachers. It is a partnership between the school districts, North Central College and Naper Settlement. The idea for the grant is to improve teaching of United States history in the classrooms by creating links between local schools, universities and museums.
For the first three years of the grant, the field trips focused on the Civil War, the Progressive Era and the Civil Rights/Environmental Movement, respectively. The Civil Rights Field Study Trip that was taken by the teachers a couple of weeks ago is the last major activity before the grant ends.
According to Sack, during this trip, the teachers visited the places where historic events occurred and talked to the people who lived during the movement. Guided by a descendent of the people buried there, the teachers walked through a 19th century slave cemetery and saw the cabins the enslaved lived and worked in. They also walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., where marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday in 1965. The teachers also spent time with Amelia Boynton Robinson and Solomon Seay Jr., both key figures in the fight for equality in Alabama.
Karen McCann, a geography teacher at Still Middle School, is one teacher who benefited from the grant.
“I think this last trip to the south had the greatest impact on me personally,” McCann said. “I teach the story of Emmett Till and the Civil Rights movement to my current seventh-graders, and this year, I have a wealth of information to pass on to them.”