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GEAR UP,
which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness
for Undergraduate Programs, is a federally-funded grant
designed to:
Demonstrate the
importance of education in
today's world. Encourage all middle & high school
students to set high educational and career
goals. Help students
learn how to prepare,
enter, and succeed in college, or other
post-secondary training. Provide parents with the
information and resources they
need to stay involved in their students' education and
to help them lay out plans for the future. Provide
teachers with the tools and training needed to raise
both academic expectations and
student achievement in
the classroom.
The 9 teachers
selected for this section of the Roads to Appalachia
through Italy are:
Sheila
Kay Bennett- Robert Bland Middle School, Lewis County
Barbara
Conway- Mannington Middle, Marion County
Heather
Horne Holbert- WI Middle, Harrison County
Marry Arlene
Iaquinta- WI Middle, Harrison County
Donna Marie
Knotts- Pickens School, Randolph County
Amy Renae
Moore- Tucker County Middle School
Charles D.
Phillips- Westwood Middle, Monongalia County
Misty
Skarzinski- Rivesville Middle, Marion County
Debra M.
Wyman- Robert Bland Middle School, Lewis County
Expectations
Each teacher will be expected to constantly use the
experiences of this intense study abroad time to
heighten his/her own historical understandings, to seek
out specific information in order to formulate
curricular application to his/her classroom based on
these understandings, secure teaching aids (maps, books,
photographs, artifacts, ect.), make contacts to be
continued through internet connects that will be primary
resources for student and teacher (this could be used to
create cultural comparisons, exchanges, “pen pals”, or
any first hand learning), and much more. An open
dialogue will be maintained and emphasized throughout
the travel experience between teachers, directors,
scholars, museum personnel, tour guides, and most
importantly the general populations that we will be
encountering. All participants will be expected to keep
a daily detailed travel journal and portfolios of
pertinent travel and cultural memorabilia which will
become the basis for future curriculum and research
projects. (A rubric guide for journal and portfolio
development will be distributed and discussed as part of
the pre-travel meeting.)
Teachers will also be expected to prepare their
materials for publication, such as in Traditions,
Hillchild, or GEARUP Teacher’s Resource Guide.
Follow
Up Gatherings
As in previous Teacher Study Abroad Programs, a general,
wrap-up session will be held in the fall, allowing the
participants to further exchange working educational
ideas. At this meeting, teachers will present a
curriculum prospectus that will contain the teaching
unit goals and objectives, procedures, content,
assessment plan, and resources. This presentation will
be made by PowerPoint and shared with the entire teacher
group. A one to two page overview of your curriculum
project should be shared with each participant.
The participants will share their created units,
programs, their writings, and other activities with a
wider audience of educators and folklore enthusiasts by
being published in Traditions and Hillchild
as well as other regional journals. Participants will be
encouraged to create, document, and share their various
programs, projects, and folkloric/cultural ideas with
the wider West Virginia educational audience.
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