Teacher Institute Programs

Our Virtual Teacher Chats will resume in September. Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know about these upcoming opportunities.

By participating in this program, participants will:

• Engage with Colonial Williamsburg experts and gain content knowledge on various eighteenth-century topics.
• Connect with Colonial Williamsburg Master Teachers and each other to create a resource sharing network.
• Become more familiar with the Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute of Colonial Williamsburg's programming and resources.
  
  
  
  

Format:

• 1-hour chats via Zoom
• 7:00 p.m. on Thursdays
• 15-20 minutes of content and a special guest
• 40-45 minutes of open forum

Our Virtual Teacher Chats will resume in September. Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know about these upcoming opportunities.

• July 17–21, 2023

As a result of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Utilize strategies that integrate diverse narratives into lessons and units on civics and social studies.
• Engage with Colonial Williamsburg content and resources that provide a framework for connecting history and civics in a way that is relevant and charged in today’s world.
• Foster discussion of social studies and civics that acknowledges the value of tension in a conversation.

This series will occur in two-hour daily synchronous Zoom meetings to be held Monday-Friday from 4:00–6:00 p.m. EDT. There is no asynchronous work.

Each two-hour session will feature a Colonial Williamsburg presentation or interpretation, processing time, a group activity, and resource sharing.

Day 1: Introducing the Great Debate
Americans share deeply held values but engage in constant debate over the proper balance between them. How does tension between values shape our nation?

Day 2: Law and Ethics
To preserve justice, the United States is governed according to the rule of law. Yet people make choices based on personal and moral codes of right and wrong. Under what circumstances is it just to act based on one’s own moral code?

Day 3: Private Wealth and Common Wealth
People accumulate individual wealth and property when contributing labor and skills to the economy, but communities also share certain resources for the good of the whole nation: e.g., infrastructure, public education, or national security. In what ways do Americans do both?

Day 4: Freedom and Equality
Humans thirst for individual rights and privileges, but also want to be treated equally under the law of the land. How do we find a balance?

Day 5: Unity and Diversity
Americans celebrate unity as one nation, but also cherish the fact that individuals come from numerous cultures, ethnicities, religions, and regions. How do these values sometimes clash?

Register Now for The Great Debate: Balancing Values in Tension

• June 12–16, 2023

As a result of this online course, participants will be able to:

• Integrate primary sources, secondary sources, and technological resources focused on teaching slavery and race during the colonial and American Revolutionary periods.
• Express greater confidence in teaching sensitive and controversial subjects, with a primary, but not exclusive, focus on teaching about slavery and race.
• Analyze the appropriateness of a variety of strategies and resources to teach about slavery and race during the colonial and American Revolutionary periods.
• Use new strategies to teach about slavery and race during the colonial and American Revolutionary periods.
• Create opportunities for continued professional development in social studies education with fellow teachers and Colonial Williamsburg educators.
  
  
  
  

In addition to the two-hour daily synchronous class meetings to be held Monday through Friday from 4:00–6:00 p.m. EDT, participants should expect at least 2–3 hours of asynchronous reading, activities, and discussion board participation prior to each day of the course. The total time commitment, including asynchronous coursework and synchronous class meetings, is approximately 20–25 hours.

Day 1: Topic Introduction and Background Knowledge

Day 2: Finding and Using Primary Sources to Teach About Freedom and Slavery

Day 3: Agency and Resistance

Day 4: Ongoing Research

Day 5: Teaching Sensitive and Controversial Issues 

Register Now for Teaching About Race and Slavery in the Colonial and American Revolutionary Periods

• June 26–30, 2023

As a result of this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify the different types of primary sources, including documents, images, maps, objects, and physical structures, and evaluate their uses in the classroom.
• Promote inquiry and analysis skills in the classroom by creatively utilizing primary sources to encourage critical thinking.
• Express greater confidence in integrating diverse primary sources that allow for a more comprehensive narrative.
• Navigate with greater ability the various online archives that provide primary sources, including Colonial Williamsburg online repositories and those of other reputable institutions.
• Comprehend how to evaluate and use secondary sources in the classroom.
• Design lessons with differentiation of sources in mind, to meet learners where they are and create a more accessible classroom experience.

In addition to the two-hour daily synchronous class meetings to be held Monday through Friday from 4:00–6:00 p.m. EDT, participants should expect at least 2–3 hours of asynchronous reading, activities, and discussion board participation prior to each day of the course. The total time commitment, including asynchronous coursework and synchronous class meetings, is approximately 20–25 hours.

Day 1: The Good Stuff: Objects

Day 2: Now You See It: Visuals

Day 3: Writing it on the Page: Documents

Day 4: Writing it on the Wall: Buildings/Architecture

Day 5: After the Fact: Secondary Sources

Register Now for Building Inquiry and Analysis Skills by Engaging with Primary Sources

Teachers who wish to pay their own tuition, or whose school districts wish to pay for them, to attend the summer 2023 program should contact teacherdevelopment@cwf.org.

Week-Long Institute Sessions: $2,400
Includes: A double-occupancy room [for an additional charge ($550 for a week-long sessions), private rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis], most meals, admission to all Historic Area sites and program activities, and access to the Education Resource Library. (Does not include airfare.)

Matching Grants
Matching grants are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. If the school/district will fund one teacher, Colonial Williamsburg will provide the tuition and transportation for another teacher from the same school or district. Both teachers must: 1) apply separately and list each other on their applications, and 2) work through the process with and confirm matching funding from the school/district.

Contact Maiah Rovegno at mrovegno@cwf.org for more information.

Individual Scholarships
Individual scholarships are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. These scholarships are the result of the generosity of many Colonial Williamsburg Foundation friends, their deep commitment to and respect for teachers, and their understanding of the teacher’s role in educating the citizens and leaders of tomorrow.

If you would like to stay informed about Colonial Williamsburg instructional resources and other teacher professional development opportunities, subscribe below to receive email updates.

As a result of this session, teachers will be able to:

• Describe how American Indians, Europeans, and Africans interacted with one another during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in ways that continue to shape and define America’s economic, cultural, and political heritage.
• Examine the rights, roles, influence, and agency of different populations within eighteenth-century Virginia based on social level, gender, and ethnicity.
• Identify and analyze significant seventeenth- and eighteenth-century economic, political, and social events that led to American independence from Great Britain.
• Use techniques that develop students' abilities to apply higher level critical thinking skills by using primary and secondary sources, artifacts, and digital resources

Click Here to download a sample schedule

Teachers who wish to pay their own tuition, or whose school districts wish to pay for them, to attend the summer 2023 program should contact teacherdevelopment@cwf.org.

Week-Long Institute Sessions: $2,400
Includes: A double-occupancy room [for an additional charge ($550 for a week-long sessions), private rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis], most meals, admission to all Historic Area sites and program activities, and access to the Education Resource Library. (Does not include airfare.)

Matching Grants
Matching grants are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. If the school/district will fund one teacher, Colonial Williamsburg will provide the tuition and transportation for another teacher from the same school or district. Both teachers must: 1) apply separately and list each other on their applications, and 2) work through the process with and confirm matching funding from the school/district.

Contact Maiah Rovegno at mrovegno@cwf.org for more information.

Individual Scholarships
Individual scholarships are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. These scholarships are the result of the generosity of many Colonial Williamsburg Foundation friends, their deep commitment to and respect for teachers, and their understanding of the teacher’s role in educating the citizens and leaders of tomorrow.

If you would like to stay informed about Colonial Williamsburg instructional resources and other teacher professional development opportunities, subscribe below to receive email updates.

As a result of this session, teachers will be able to:

• Chart the evolution of American identity from British colonization to the Revolutionary War and through the U.S. Civil War and the Fifteenth Amendment to make connections to the present-day United States.
• Evaluate how historical events from 1607 to 1870 have impacted American identity.
• Encourage civil discourse utilizing the diverse and multiple perspectives of those impacted by the creation of the American nation.
• Effectively apply instructional strategies using primary and secondary sources to reach diverse learners.

Click Here to download a sample schedule.

Teachers who wish to pay their own tuition, or whose school districts wish to pay for them, to attend the summer 2023 program should contact teacherdevelopment@cwf.org.

Three-Day Seminars: $1,500
Includes: A double-occupancy room [for an additional charge ($400 for a three-day seminars), private rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis], most meals, admission to all Historic Area sites and program activities, and access to the Education Resource Library. (Does not include airfare.)

Matching Grants
Matching grants are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. If the school/district will fund one teacher, Colonial Williamsburg will provide the tuition and transportation for another teacher from the same school or district. Both teachers must: 1) apply separately and list each other on their applications, and 2) work through the process with and confirm matching funding from the school/district.

Contact Maiah Rovegno at mrovegno@cwf.org for more information.

Individual Scholarships
Individual scholarships are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. These scholarships are the result of the generosity of many Colonial Williamsburg Foundation friends, their deep commitment to and respect for teachers, and their understanding of the teacher’s role in educating the citizens and leaders of tomorrow.

If you would like to stay informed about Colonial Williamsburg instructional resources and other teacher professional development opportunities, subscribe below to receive email updates.

As a result of this seminar, teachers will be able to:

• Integrate primary, secondary, and technological resources into culturally responsive lessons focused on the lives of free and enslaved Black individuals during the period of British Colonization through the American Revolution.
• Contextualize slavery in the European North American colonies temporally, geographically, and economically.
• Compare and contrast the experiences of free and enslaved Black individuals in different colonies, and in a variety of settings.
• Explore strategies to effectively integrate these topics into the curriculum, including effective communicative strategies for challenging classroom discussions.
• Create connections from the past to the present that allow students to explore the legacy of the institution of slavery in a culturally responsive way.

Click Here to download a sample schedule.

Teachers who wish to pay their own tuition, or whose school districts wish to pay for them, to attend the summer 2023 program should contact teacherdevelopment@cwf.org.

Three-Day Seminars: $1,500
Includes: A double-occupancy room [for an additional charge ($400 for a three-day seminars), private rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis], most meals, admission to all Historic Area sites and program activities, and access to the Education Resource Library. (Does not include airfare.)

Matching Grants
Matching grants are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. If the school/district will fund one teacher, Colonial Williamsburg will provide the tuition and transportation for another teacher from the same school or district. Both teachers must: 1) apply separately and list each other on their applications, and 2) work through the process with and confirm matching funding from the school/district.

Contact Maiah Rovegno at mrovegno@cwf.org for more information.

Individual Scholarships
Individual scholarships are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. These scholarships are the result of the generosity of many Colonial Williamsburg Foundation friends, their deep commitment to and respect for teachers, and their understanding of the teacher’s role in educating the citizens and leaders of tomorrow.

If you would like to stay informed about Colonial Williamsburg instructional resources and other teacher professional development opportunities, subscribe below to receive email updates.

As a result of this session, teachers will be able to:

• Identify scientific processes and theories that were necessary for eighteenth-century people to solve everyday problems. 
• Incorporate primary sources and next-generation science standards into interdisciplinary lessons that connect history content to science, technology, engineering, and math content standards. 
• Connect the past to the present by allowing students to explore how historical STEAM contributions affect our world today.  
• Explore how modern tradespeople use experimental archaeology and reverse engineering to better understand the science, technology, engineering, art, and math strategies of past.  

Click Here to download a sample schedule.

Teachers who wish to pay their own tuition, or whose school districts wish to pay for them, to attend the summer 2023 program should contact teacherdevelopment@cwf.org.

Three-Day Seminars: $1,500
Includes: A double-occupancy room [for an additional charge ($400 for a three-day seminars), private rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis], most meals, admission to all Historic Area sites and program activities, and access to the Education Resource Library. (Does not include airfare.)

Matching Grants
Matching grants are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. If the school/district will fund one teacher, Colonial Williamsburg will provide the tuition and transportation for another teacher from the same school or district. Both teachers must: 1) apply separately and list each other on their applications, and 2) work through the process with and confirm matching funding from the school/district.

Contact Maiah Rovegno at mrovegno@cwf.org for more information.

Individual Scholarships
Individual scholarships are available each year for American history teachers who work at the elementary or secondary school level in any public school in the United States. These scholarships are the result of the generosity of many Colonial Williamsburg Foundation friends, their deep commitment to and respect for teachers, and their understanding of the teacher’s role in educating the citizens and leaders of tomorrow.

If you would like to stay informed about Colonial Williamsburg instructional resources and other teacher professional development opportunities, subscribe below to receive email updates.

As a result of this session, teachers will be able to:

• Understand stories of civic leaders, civic participation, and civil disobedience across diverse perspectives in eighteenth-century Virginia and incorporate them into lesson plans.
• Plan and implement civics-based lessons that connect the past to the present and lead students to informed action and civic participation.
• Effectively utilize Colonial Williamsburg resources including primary sources, its YouTube channel, website, and Education Resource Library.

Click Here to download a sample schedule.