Crawling, crawling to the finish! I know you are all busy and probably won't have time to read this until school is out, but I wanted to share some information about the Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP) with you. Normally, I don't post about events or sites until I experience it for myself and personally give it a thumbs up, but since this involved travel I thought you would like to look at it now so you can think about it for next year. This is a program for social studies educators K-12 (you need to teach social studies in some capacity to participate) to learn about Germany. I first learned about this program about six years ago from another teacher in West Virginia who had attended and shared her experience. In July (there are groups of teachers attending from June to August), I will be learning about Germany's school system, culture, and history for two weeks. I'm a little hesitant to be so far from home, but I have high hopes that I am going to bring back some amazing experiences for the teachers and students in my area. We will be touring much of Germany, beginning in Frankfurt and ending in Berlin. To participate, there is an application process involving letters of recommendation, a resume, and essay questions. About 100 teachers are selected to go each year (last year I was on the wait list - but I reapplied this year). While I am in Germany, you can follow my experience on my new blog "A Mountaineer in Germany." I will try to post throughout my travels, but if I can't due to lack of Internet connection, I will post starting July 20th. I feel silly posting this when it's not even the end of May, but things can get busy lightning quick. I hope you'll read about my experiences and it ends up being something you consider doing next year!
http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/prj/top/enindex.htm?wt_sc=top
www.amountaineeringermany.blogspot.com
