Four local educators spent their summer break in virtual residence at the UWM American Geographical Society Library (AGSL). National Resource Center-funded fellowships supported these teachers, who used the Library’s vast collections of maps and other primary sources to develop globally-focused curriculum for use in K-12 classrooms. The fellowships were created to foster global competence among participating educators through an intensive hands-on professional development experience. This summer, all the projects explored how global history and boundaries continue to impact contemporary societies. The projects developed ways for the teachers to more effectively teach about the histories of American Sign Language (ASL) & Sign Languages, a broad history of Afro-Latinos, a look at colonialism’s effect on modern day events, and geographic vocabulary highlighting “Who I Am, Where I’m From” for students who are refugees.
The participating teachers serve students in diverse Milwaukee Public Schools settings and will be implementing their curriculum during the 2020-2021 school year. With the shift to virtual teaching due to the pandemic, the teachers also benefited from the experience of working with digital collections and using ArcGIS StoryMaps, a tool for building unique, dynamic narratives. The teachers loved learning the new skill as part of their fellowship and all thought their students would like the change in lesson format.
To learn more about the teachers’ projects and read their blog posts about the experience, check out the AGSL’s blog: https://agslibraryblog.wordpress.com/.
Stay tuned for information about the 2021 AGSL Summer Teacher Fellowships!