WILLIAMSBURG, Va., July 9, 2009 – Twenty four elementary and middle school instructors from across Virginia will participate in the 2009 Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Summer Teacher Institute July 12-17. The Foundation is a Virginia state agency that administers Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center history museums.
The weeklong program correlates with the Virginia Standards of Learning and emphasizes interactive, inquiry-based methods of teaching American history. A major component of the institute is the opportunity for participants to work in period costume alongside historical interpreters at Jamestown Settlement’s re-created Powhatan Indian village, 1607 English ships and 1610-14 colonial fort and riverfront discovery area, and the Yorktown Victory Center’s re-created Continental Army encampment and 1780s farm.
Included on the schedule are tours of the two museums’ exhibition galleries and living-history areas as well as of Historic Jamestowne, site of America’s first permanent English settlement administered by the National Park Service and Preservation Virginia, and Yorktown National Battlefield, site of the decisive military engagement of the American Revolution. Participants will attend presentations and workshops on various historical topics and instructional methods and a Colonial Williamsburg evening program. They will develop lesson plans during the week and will take away kits of reproduction artifacts to use in their classrooms.
The teacher institute is provided at no cost to the participants or their school districts through grants from a private family foundation and The Ukrop Foundation.
The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation offers structured educational programs for students at Jamestown Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center and in outreach settings, partners with Virginia school districts to train educators in hands-on teaching methodology, and supports the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute in Early American History with historical content, teaching strategies and on-site instruction.
The 24 participants in the 2009 Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Summer Teacher Institute were selected from 83 Virginia applicants.