ISSUED: 8 December 2021
MEDIA CONTACT: Dana Costa
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Update: The Appalachian Studies conference is now scheduled for July 11-22, 2022.
Shepherd University has received two grants from the West Virginia Humanities Council totaling $31,000 to support two programs that offer continuing education to West Virginia K-12 schoolteachers.
Appalachian Studies Institute
The Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities received $13,303 for an institute titled “Voices from the Misty Mountains, Reclaiming Our Story for a New Appalachia” that will bring 20 K-12 teachers, librarians, and teacher education graduate students from across the state to Shepherd July 11-22, 2022, to explore the Appalachian story and take it back to their students.
The institute will be offered both virtually and in-person, in a synchronous format. Graduate credit through Shepherd’s Graduate and Professional Studies program will be available for teachers and graduate students. The deadline to apply is February 15.
“This West Virginia teacher institute is designed to bring teachers instructional tools, resources, professional development opportunities, as well as a body of knowledge to enable them to carry West Virginia’s rich cultural history and story to children across the state,” said Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt, director, Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities.
Participants will receive $500 individual stipends to cover institute expenses, individual professional development goals, and/or classroom resources and materials.
“The institute will provide access to inspiring literary artists and scholars, bring enriching experiences for the classroom, give teachers the tools and means to re-envision their curricula, dispel stereotypes about the region, and bring positive self-image to students across the state,” Shurbutt said.
Weatherford Award winner authors Silas House and Gretchen Moran Laskas and storyteller Adam Booth will participate. Scholars who will contribute are Dr. James Broomall, director, George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War; Rachael Meads, adjunct Appalachian studies professor; and Shurbutt, who will also serve as institute director. Aside from the historical and cultural discussions and inspiring artists, the teachers will be provided with two enriching fieldtrips to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and Antietam National Battlefield.
For more information, visit the Appalachian Studies Teacher Institutes webpage at https://www.shepherd.edu/apst-teacher-institute or contact Shurbutt at sshurbutt@shepherd.edu.
Robert C. Byrd Center Teacher Institute
The Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education received a $17,700 grant to continue its successful Teacher Institute program for West Virginia educators with a series of four in-person and additional virtual workshops in 2022. This will be the seventh annual Teacher Institute and the theme will be “Congress, Citizenship, and the World: Teaching about Congress and Foreign Policy in American History.”
The workshops, conducted in partnership with the Center for Legislative Archives (CLA) at the National Archives and Shepherd University’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies, will train West Virginia social studies, history, and civics educators to teach their students about Congress’ role in foreign policy. The workshops provide curriculum material that teachers can use in their classrooms.
This is the first Byrd Center institute that will focus on foreign affairs. The Center will work with 110 teachers in 2022 and hopes to resume in-person workshops around the state as well as continuing the virtual workshops which have been conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The workshops will engage teachers in inquiry-based learning lesson plans developed by the CLA and Byrd Center utilizing congressional archives to teach critical thinking, information analysis, and deliberative discourse skills. Educators who complete the workshop and assignments successfully will receive three professional development education credits (EDPD) from Shepherd.
For more information, visit the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education webpage at https://www.byrdcenter.org/.
About the West Virginia Humanities Council
The West Virginia Humanities Council offers a variety of matching grants to nonprofit organizations that provide public humanities programming for West Virginia audiences.
The Council gets its funding from three main sources—the federal government through the National Endowment for the Humanities, an annual appropriation from the State of West Virginia, and from corporate and individual donors throughout the state.
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