"Life, Liberty, and Opportunity: The Struggle for Freedom in Tidewater Maryland, 1634-1865"

June 19-24 and June 26-July 1, 2005

A National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks of American History Program

Evaluation

Participant groups of elementary, middle, and high school educators will compose a curriculum based on the week’s presentations. These lesson plans will be critiqued by the principal faculty, visiting scholars, and master teachers and posted on the web site of the Center for the Study of Democracy.

The Center’s mission, of exploring and teaching contemporary and historical issues in democracy by seeking an interdisciplinary understanding of early Maryland as “emerging democracy,” fits well with the workshop. Through the Center’s web site and periodic emails, participants will have the opportunity following the workshop to participate in lectures, receive the occasional paper series on themes in democracy, and work with students and faculty from SMCM and HSMC on how to improve the classroom experience. While much of the activity will take place at SMCM and HSMC, video conferencing may be used to help bring in participants who will not be able to able to easily reach southern Maryland.

            Participants will also be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshops by providing daily feedback to the principal faculty and master teachers. At the end of each day, short questionnaires probing the participant’s opinion will help the program become stronger and of greater use to educators.