Professional Development

Ford’s Theater teaching artist Stephen F. Schmidt plans with D.C. teachers as part of the 2009 Civil War Washington Teacher Fellows summer institute.

Civil War Washington Teacher Fellowship

Join up to 25 teachers to learn about Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Washington during the Civil War!

This week long program is a collaboration between Ford's Theater, Lincoln's Cottage, Tudor Place, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, and several other local historic sites and groups. The program seeks to pair content about the Civil War Washington with a variety of techniques for teaching the history.

• Walk in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, his "Team of Rivals," and Confederate spies who plotted against him at Ford's Theatre;
• Experience the home of a southern sympathizer in historic Georgetown, and learn how she saved her beloved estate from the Union army;
• Learn about the contraband camps and Emancipation Day as you follow Lincoln's commute to and from the Old Soldier's Home on a hill north of the city; and
• Visit historic Anacostia and the beautiful home of Frederick Douglass as he helped raise up the formerly enslaved during and after Reconstruction.

Come away from your week in Washington familiar with: an array of virtual tours, the oratory skills to get your students on their feet performing speeches by Lincoln and Douglass; comfortable taking students on content-driven experiential learning adventures; and excited about using classroom drama to help historic characters come alive!

Session I, (grades 3-12, Local Area) June 23-28
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Session II, (National Teachers) July 14-19
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