A part of the application process to Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute, applicants are asked to describe at least three ways students will benefit when their teacher attends the institute.  Not only did I want to list as many benefits as I could, I also wanted to make sure I included some specific plans that are already in my mind. The toughest part was organizing my thoughts.  In a previous question I was asked about my reasons for wanting to be selected for the 2020 institute, and some of those reasons seemed to bleed into the ideas that my students would benefit from my experience.  Here is my final list:

1.  My students will benefit from my own discovery and understanding of primary sources at Colonial Williamsburg.  I will bring these into my class for students to consider and study.
 
2.  I seek to curate ideas for lessons that go beyond the printed page.  As an educator, I thrive on keeping my students engaged by creating nontraditional projects for my students.
 
3.  The more we learn about our history, the more we understand about the present.  The more we apply our knowledge, the easier it is to make wiser decisions.
 
4.  American history and civic understanding is greatly lacking in schools in my area.  While focusing on standardized tests in Reading and Mathematics, administrators and legislators have allowed Science and History to be shoved to the back of the line.  Many teachers, lacking a distinct script and textbook, have ignored it.  They find worksheets and art projects on the internet, rather than seeking knowledge for themselves and creating their own methods for engaging students with rich content; I prefer creating my own materials and relevant lessons, curating ideas from a variety of sources and tying it all to other areas of the curricula.  My lessons connect with students' current and future lives.
 
5.  Students who have an excited and motivated teacher are apt to learn more information.  This teacher's attitude is contagious.
 
6.  Upon completion of the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute, I will more accurately include actual sites, real characters, and relevant events in my cognitively rigorous classroom.
 
7.  My experience will allow me to quickly integrate materials and lessons from Colonial Williamsburg.
 
8.  I want to create an archaeology unit for the beginning of the school year, but I also want it to be deeply memorable for my students.  I have tried to do this before, but have seriously lacked the resources to make the lesson more than a flat experience.  In short, it was a waste of time.  The idea is still a good one, but the Colonial Williamsburg experience promises to help me revive it and make it worth our while.
 
9.  I need to do a better job of presenting the story of the first enslaved people.  I feel confident with most of the African American experience, including the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, but I need more background in the 17th and 18th centuries.
 
10.  I have started to learn more about the Native Americans who lived in and around the colonies, but I will appreciate any help in this area to make my lessons better.
 
11.  I have already made room in my schedule to accommodate some type of "trader faire" project that will include some of the historic trades and crafts I will witness at Colonial Williamsburg.
 
12.  I seek a better understanding of the geography of the area that played host to so many Revolutionary activities.
 
13.  I love to tell stories.  The details of early American history add seasoning to the stories.  Students are captivated by the tales.  The greater my own understanding, the more I keep them interested.
 
14.  I strive to be that "different" teacher, a rebel educator, the maverick who doesn't play by the rules of tradition.  Yes, I am that elementary teacher who puts in the extra effort to make meaningful connections with my students and the things they are learning.  I've had enough of two-dimensional history and science.  The teacher institute at Colonial Williamsburg can only animate our studies even more.
 
15.  My students will anticipate my involvement with Colonial Williamsburg as much as I will.  I included them in this application process, and I shared the writing process with them so they can see that adults have writing responsibilities, and that serious applicants take their responses seriously.  I plan to wear out this year's class, talking about the upcoming teacher institute, until they anticipate it with as much excitement as I do.

...And to All a Good Night!

Photo Credit: Fort Ticonderoga

At the Fort Ticonderoga Teacher Institute, mysteries are solved.  Shortly after being selected for the institute, you will receive a message to give you a schedule.  You will also receive a list of the speakers and facilitators for your week at the property.
 
But that’s about all you’re going to be given ahead of time.
 
The titles in your schedule will fascinate you and intrigue you, but they will only add to the questions you may still hold in the back of your mind:
 
How do I get there?
 
Will I get to touch things?
 
What is a “bateau experience”?
 
How much homework will there be?
 
Is this for real?
 
That’s where I come along.  As a 2019 graduate of the Fort Ticonderoga Teacher Institute, I am now considered the world’s foremost expert on the subject.  I know from experience that you still have questions, and for three months, you will watch all the online videos, make all the keyword searches on the internet, and you will find and read all of the blog posts made by former participants (Good luck with all of that, by the way!).  Perhaps that builds your anticipation for the actual visit:  if so, ignore everything below this paragraph.  Turn back now, because I may be about to blow the lid off of the FTTI mystery.
 
Or maybe gently peel back a layer or two.
 
You may be fortunate enough to arrive a day early or stay a day late.  I highly recommend that you do, but keep in mind:  that extra day will be at your own expense.  You’ll gain entry into the fort by dropping names, but you will need to find your own affordable lodging, which can be tricky.  Many of the hotel or B&B choices in the area can be quite costly, and if you don’t get your booking in early, you may have to look at options that lie a couple of hours away.
 
Then there is the issue of driving.  Rental cars in this part of the country are ridiculously expensive from what I was used to, and satellite navigation for the week adds to the price.  Keep in mind, this is the mountains and forests of Vermont and New York, and you may not always have a phone connection for directions.  That said, if you are like me, you will certainly appreciate the beauty of our nation along your drive.  You may even find some roadside markers or, in my case, a lovely old cemetery with Revolutionary and Civil War graves along your route.  Don’t hesitate to turn around and visit these if you have the time.  Of course, if you’re taking the train, please don’t ask the engineer to stop so you can sightsee.
 
The extra day option will allow you to leisurely visit the artifact and hands-on exhibits at the fort, and not be at the mercy of trying to do everything during the a restroom break from your classroom sessions.  On this day, as well as others throughout the week, be sure to plan for the weather.  It could be sunny in July, and especially if you are going to watch a reenactment, the day could call for sunblock.  In the event of rain, pack yourself an umbrella or poncho.  During my own week, we experienced a variety of weather patterns, and some even felt the need for a light jacket.  All of this is on the packing list you will be sent, but it bears repeating.
 
You are likely to enjoy an early morning atop Mount Defiance.  A little low cloud cover might add to the ambiance of looking down on Lake Champlain and the La Chute River.  Get yourself a "bird's eye" view of the fort on the other side of the water and imagine the importance of this water to the travels of 17th, 18th, and 19th century explorers, pioneers, and soldiers.  Get your bearings while you’re up there.  It’s a great way to start your week.
 
Get another point of view (a "duck's eye" view) of the situation by taking a cruise of this part of the lake aboard the Carillon, a 1920s replica canal boat.  There is not a bad seat on this cruise, but if you want to see the sonar of wreckage and artifacts on the lake bottom, you’ll need to sit up front.  Sit in the back, and you’ll be able to appreciate a 360-degree view.  Like your visit to Mount Defiance, you’re getting a better idea of the topography of this important setting.  You’ll hear all kinds of information about the shoreline, landing and launching areas, and the locations of historical events.  You’ll hear those familiar names of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold.  You’ll see the remains of a Revolutionary bridge, sunken railroad cars, and maybe even a shipwreck.  I will warn you, though, that even if you take pictures of all of these places, you won’t remember which picture is which place or who was in that spot 250 years ago.  Still, don’t spend a lot of your time taking notes, or you will miss the moments of awe that accompany this cruise.
 
One of the greatest indoor experiences will take place in a secret location, in a great underground bunker of security.  After signing the necessary waiver…OK, so maybe none of that is true, but then again maybe it is.  At any rate, you, the history-loving educator of tomorrow, will love getting to reach in elbow-deep with some artifacts and documents.  These items change from year to year and are chosen to coordinate with the topic of the year’s institute theme, so I’m afraid what you will see, what you will hold, and what you touch will remain a mystery until you enter the room with the curator.  You will be told the rules, and you will be able to pick things up.  We were even allowed to turn the pages of some of Ticonderoga’s extensive collection pieces.  Savor the moment, and be sure to give someone your camera so you can prove all of this to your friends and students when you get back to the real world and the 21st century.
 
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, there may be a day when your crew gets to have an even closer look at the lake’s surface.  Return to the dock and take your seat on the bateau (Remember to grab a life jacket!).  There’s just enough for our 12 educators along with two costumed interpreters.  Maybe you will be fortunate enough to operate one of the four sweeps (long oars) to propel your crew onto Lake Champlain and around the Ticonderoga peninsula.  You may be surprised to see how quickly the boat will make it’s way to the La Chute River, which connects Lake Champlain with the higher-elevated Lake George on the other side of Mount Defiance.  You may also be surprised to see that the weather can change and forecasts are not always accurate.  You may round the corner and row through the reeds and moss of the river’s mouth to see lightning in the distance and rain streaks up ahead.  I tell you this to help you understand that you need to pack some shoes and clothes that you don’t mind getting a little more than a little bit damp.
 
Another set of activities may include time with the historic trades.  Here are moments when you will rotate through and try your hand at some of the daily activities of the soldiers inhabiting the fort during the year of your institute’s focus.  We sat with interpreters as they aided us in stitching uniform material, as they helped us bind shoe leather, as they allowed us to drive the yoked cattle, and as they helped us hand-saw one of the rockers for a new bateau.
 
Take a walk up the road apiece to see the battlefield at the Heights of Carillon.  Stand atop the earthen ridges and envision the trenchwork as it would have been in the days of Montcalm, Rogers, Arnold, Allen, and Knox.  Wonder at the trees that stand on the ground.  Imagine the artifacts not yet excavated.  Appreciate the lives and sacrifices of soldiers on both sides of the line.
 
Even walks from place to place can offer rich moments.  You will appreciate some of the everyday offerings of Fort Ticonderoga.  You can get some beautiful photos in the King’s Garden.  You will see some prime examples of artillery.  With a little imagination, you will find yourself emotionally connecting with a moment of history.
 
Of course, in between artillery and musket demonstrations (day and night), your time in the air-conditioned classroom, and the activities, you’re going to want to stop for lunch.  Lunches are provided in the café, and there are some surprisingly unique and tasty selections from which to choose.
 
Finally, you can expect the Fort Ticonderoga Teacher Institute to fill you with knowledge inside the classroom every day.  Experts and scholars will lead you through presentations, lectures, and conversations that will really get your gears turning.  You will have something to add, but there will be times when your brain will be lit up with information and details you never knew about before your visit.  You may even get all kinds of ideas for how to present the information in your classroom back home.  Unfortunately, you will have to wait for the appropriate spot in your curricular timeline to actually deliver the lessons you create (or “borrow” from the other 11 teachers who feel the same anxiety).
 
Fort Ticonderoga might be a little off of the beaten path for many tourists, but you must be impressed with the extensive collection of militaria and personal artifacts in the collection.  I suggest you view the “Speed Dating” videos offered on the fort’s YouTube channel and social media pages.  Some of the items you will see are described in those videos, but are not part of the things shown to you during the institute.
 
That should do it.  I’ve attempted to share some tips and answer some questions you may have regarding FTTI.  I hope you’ll consider applying for this valuable experience if you haven’t already, I hope you’ll consider accepting the offer if you are been selected, and I pray you treasure the experience as much I do.

I am currently applying to attend the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute in the summer of 2020.  The first question on the application asks to describe at least three reasons I would like to attend.  My approach to the answer was to give as many honest reasons as I could.  I wanted to think of every aspect of the teacher institute, every experience that would be a part of a week spent at Williamsburg. I took a gander at the sample schedule posted on the CWTI webpage, and I realized that the institute is broad and detailed:  broad in that it includes a variety of character presentations, collaborative sessions, and "field trips" to Jamestowne and Yorktown, each of which fascinate the armchair history buff in me. Here are the reasons I submitted:

1.  I would like to attend the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute to experience a part America's story has fascinated me as a child, and I can't get enough of it today.

2.  Missouri's newest Social Studies standards have placed the founding era into the fourth grade for the first time, and I have since sought to nurture and satisfy my own interests in the material.  My students and I spend the entire school year in the second half of the 18th century.

3.  There are holes in my history programming that will be filled with the knowledge and strategies acquired at the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute.

4.  As a teacher in the Midwest, I have no local options for experiencing the Colonial and Revolutionary Era.  To fully comprehend this pivotal era, I must explore the streets and alleys of Colonial Williamsburg, cast my gaze upon the waters at Jamestown, and transport back in time to the pivotal battle at Yorktown.

5.  Students and members of the community have lost civil discourse and direction.  I desperately wish to resurrect history - especially American history - in our classrooms.  The same has occurred with Government and Economics at the elementary level.

6.  I long to meet and collaborate with dedicated educators from different regions of our nation.

7.  I look forward to being in the presence of authentic objects and primary documents and to be allowed to interact with them and appreciate them in person.

8.  It is difficult to imagine the hardships of the founding era by scanning photos online.

9.  Speaking of photos, I want to take about a thousand of them to share with my peers, students, family, and friends.

10.  I am awed by history scholars who can communicate well and relate to people who are not history scholars, but who still have a rich interest in the subject.

11.  Mount Vernon introduced me to the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and I met French soldiers at Fort Ticonderoga, but at Colonial Williamsburg I will walk with regular people.  Non-gentrified folks, and people from varying cultures called the area home.  I need to sweat alongside those people, look into their tired eyes, and wonder at how they survived the tumultuous birth of our free nation.  What a rich opportunity - to walk in the footsteps of our founders, to stand in the presence of the common person, and to envision the lifestyles of the natives and the enslaved!  As I understand the sample schedule, the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute includes more than just a history of warfare, but will also focus on the typical lives of real, everyday people.

12.  I am prepared to be surprised and awed by anything the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute throws at me.
​
13.  I am already packed and eager to "get my hands dirty", and I am ready to partner with Colonial Williamsburg for this quest.

Since I am spending time at the dentist, today, experiencing another extraction, I thought I should revisit what I wrote after the last one. Bad idea. I mean, there are some really good thoughts here, but I had successfully forgotten about the recovery period, just figuring I could come back to school tomorrow as if nothing had happened.  Let's hope today's procedure goes smoother and with less pain (Take care of your teeth, kids!). ​At least today's is not a wisdom tooth.

I didn't want to do it, but I had to have that tooth removed.  It had been bothering me for a few weeks, and it was time to take care of it for good.

It's that wisdom tooth.  You know the one.  The one on the left, farthest back.  Only the second one I've ever had removed.  But the first one was different; I was unconscious for the procedure.  It was easy.  This one should have been similar, but the sedative (or what I thought was to be a sedative) had zero effect on me.  Zilch.  And the procedure was, let's say, unpleasant.

The experience in the dentist's chair was not the favorite thing I've ever done in my life.  As the doctor did whatever he needed to do to extract the wisdom tooth, my own hands were clenched into fists in front of my chest, and my legs contracted up in a concertedly uncomfortable position.  It took all I had to keep from yelling out in pain and discomfort as the dentist told me, "You're doin' great."

But I started thinking, as I am inclined to do, that my denticular amputation has similarities with teaching.  Yeah, I know what you're thinking...but it's not the hydrocodone speaking.  Hear me out.

• One bad apple can ruin the whole basket.  ​A week after my extraction, I still have a great deal of pain.  My energy level has drained with a lack of sleep and the constant thoughts of pain as I continue to pop ibuprofen every four to six hours.  It amazes me that such a small, localized area of my body can affect the rest so profoundly.  And the same is true in the classroom.  It is equally astounding how much one student or one action from a student can affect the rest of the classroom.  When it happens, I see other students rolling their eyes in frustration.  Some even clench their fists from time to time because of the "pain" that one student causes for the student body.  They do a number of things in self defense.  Just as I responded to the dentist's pressure, students may respond physically.  Others contract and suppress the discomfort that is caused by one unruly student.

Combine these things with the seasonal allergies and sinus pressure, and we might imagine a classroom with multiple disruptive pupils.  To put it lightly, I have been physically miserable for at least a week.  After four days, I returned to the dentist's office for a review of my condition.  I expressed to him my sensitivity and discomfort, to which he responded that everything looked to be healing nicely.  He then broke me the news that it could take 21 days to completely heal and up to a full year before the bone fills in.

• Expecting to dread something is worse than the true results.  As I thought about having this pain for 21 days, I wondered how miserable I would be after two more weeks of piercing pain in my jaw.  I know it takes time to heal, but I felt like this was going to do me in.  In the classroom, one disruptive student can be a "pain" to deal with in a classroom, if the teacher fails to see the student's potential to change and improve, the teacher can doom himself for the entire school year.  For a fact, it drains the energy levels to the level of a teacher burning out or breaking down.  That type of negativity can be avoided with a new mindset.

I'm thankful, in this occasion, that I have a student-teacher to fill in some of the gaps while my physical pain is radiated to the rest of my body.  I would have missed more days if it weren't for some breaks from the classroom. 

• In space, nobody can hear you scream.  Consider the teacher who doesn't have a support system to fall back on.  Consider the agony s/he may be experiencing, all because s/he doesn't want to leave the classroom to somebody else.  Teachers tend to work in a vacuum.  Of course, I often value my own vacuum, where I am free to do what I want to do, but at the same time, I need contact with people who can answer my questions, help me solve my struggles, and bring me back up from my lows.

Finally, I am thankful that the doctor told me my tooth hole (as Junie B. Jones calls it) will heal.  We tend to be impatient when we are awaiting improvement.  We do not want to wait it out.

• Patience is a virtue.  We want that kid to behave better, to improve academically, but we are often unwilling to put in the time it takes to heal.  It's not a magic show:  those improvements don't always happen before your very eyes.  And it doesn't happen without effort from both the teacher and the student.  Again, it is a mindset.  With my molar, I have already failed this test of my mindset; I have felt like this pain will never leave.  Can you imagine a teacher convinced that nothing she does will ever have a positive effect on a child?  I pray, first, that I can always look at students with the idea that s/he is hopeless, and second, that I can possess the patience to make it happen.

 

• No pain, no gain.  Don't forget that effort piece.  We hear all the time that there is no silver bullet or magic words that solve your educational woes as an educator.  As cliché as those things may sound, they are true.  As an educator with woes of my own, I understand that I need to keep an open mind, that I need to make mistakes, and that I need to find solutions rather than whine about the problems.  My response to the pain I feel in my tooth hole is analogous to this.  Yes, I have done my share of whining, but I have also expressed to people that the pain is a sign that I am still alive.

In my post-operative visit, the doctor said I was healing on schedule.  Thanks, Doc, but it still hurts.  Then he gave me a new directive:  rinse often with salt water.

• Be the salt of the earth.  I had already started rinsing with salt water, because I know that salt has antiseptic qualities. The doctor explained that using salt water would keep the "surgical" area cleaner and help it heal properly.  Any individual in our class community can also be like the salt.  Just as one student can negatively affect the dynamic of an entire classroom, a student or a teacher can influence the entire system for the better, as well.  We, like the salt, can add flavor to the conversation and preserve the positive family atmosphere we strive to maintain.  Any student - even one that seems unlikely - can be that kid who leads a classroom into greatness.

I think we all know that tooth extraction is really not the same thing as teaching fourth graders in Southwest Missouri.  But then again...if I'm doing the same job as a dentist, shouldn't my paycheck be a little bit larger?