Mount Vernon Awards Teacher Fellowships to Outstanding Educators

Six Educators Chosen to Conduct Research, Build Curricula at Mount Vernon

MOUNT VERNON, VA — George Washington’s Mount Vernon has selected six educators to participate in an incredible opportunity to enhance their 18^th-century knowledge, explore different teaching techniques, and create new curricula for Mount Vernon during their residential fellowship at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. Five teachers have been selected for The Life Guard Teacher Fellowship, which enables classroom teachers and educators to work on projects in a variety of themes inspired by the life, leadership, and legacy of George Washington. 

One teacher has been selected for the Reese Teacher Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to a teacher whose project will connect high school students with text-based primary sources to increase student engagement with the history of the 18th century.

The Life Guard Teacher Fellows Program and The Reese Teacher Fellowship are facilitated by The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, which opened September 27, 2013. Located just outside the main entrance to Washington’s Virginia estate, the Library safeguards original Washington documents and serves as a center for scholarly research and leadership training.

The Life Guard Teacher Fellows Program is made possible by the generous support of The Life Guard Society, a select group of donors to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association who frequently champion education-based causes and initiatives. The Reese Teacher Fellowship is made possible by the William Reese Company. 

By offering funded residential study opportunities for classroom teachers and educators through its Library, Mount Vernon is taking an important step to improve the quality of history education, drawing renewed focus and interest on the founding era and on the remarkable traits and accomplishments of George Washington.  Applying the research they conduct at the estate, fellowship recipients will create and design curriculum materials, lesson plans, electronic media, and other educational materials that Mount Vernon produces and publishes digitally to support educators around the country. The 2018-2019 fellows will conduct on-site research on an array of topics, beginning this fall and continuing through summer 2018.  

The program is available to classroom teachers (grades K-12), curriculum specialists, media specialists, and to others with expertise in creating classroom materials. The next round of proposals for consideration are due February 28, 2019.

For more information about the Life Guard Teacher Fellows Program, please visit

www.mountvernon.org/teacherfellowship.

Fellowship recipients include:

Lindsey Charron – Reese Teacher Fellow

• Charron has taught U.S. history at the middle school level for the past 14 years. She currently teaches U.S. history and student leadership and government at Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Beach, CA, where she is also the activity director. Charron will create educational materials to support Mount Vernon’s online Virtual Tour to help encourage deeper student analysis of the objects at Mount Vernon and the role they played in George Washington’s life. Materials will also support students in learning more about Washington’s role as general, president, and farmer.

Kim Greer – Life Guard Teacher Fellow

• Greer teaches 7th and 8th grade at Nevada Middle School in Nevada, Missouri. She will create an inquiry driven lesson that asks students to answer the question “Did Martha Washington Influence the Revolutionary War?”  In this lesson, students will explore multiple supporting questions to help them prepare for a class debate.

Robin Pulido – Life Guard Teacher Fellow

• Pulido currently teaches eighth grade U.S. history, K-8 technology, and coaches the grades 6-8 Academic Decathlon at St. Rose of Lima School in Chula Vista, California.  She plans to utilize digital resources and tools to create interactive activities for students to explore, analyze, and understand the relationship between religion, slavery, and abolition during Washington’s time

Sara Olds – Life Guard Teacher Fellow

• Olds teaches U.S. History and Geography at Syracuse Arts Academy in Syracuse, Utah. She will create a lesson plan with supporting materials investigating Washington’s surveys for use in the middle school and high school history and geography classrooms. Encouraging primary source assessment, students will compare and contrast the surveys with modern maps and satellite imagery. Olds will be examining all layers of the Washington’s surveys from purpose of creation to audience.

Shannon Lubold – Life Guard Teacher Fellow

• Lubold teaches 9^th grade American Government, 10^th grade AP World History, and Juvenile Justice at Owings Mills High School in Owings Mills Maryland. She will create a mini-unit for high school classrooms that compares slavery in 18^th century Virginia with serfdom during the rules of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. Through the use of inquiry-based and critical thinking lessons students will be able to evaluate the political economies of slavery and serfdom.

Valerie Shull – Life Guard Teacher Fellow

• Shull is a 23 year veteran of the Douglas School District in Box Elder, South Dakota. She will create a lesson plan to help students understand the values of George Washington’s leadership, the values the Lakota people live by, and the connections between the two. Students will then be able to identify how they mirror those values and traits within themselves.

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