During the summer of 2006, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will continue its new series of professional development programs, Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for School Teachers. These week-long, residence-based programs provide the opportunity for K-12 educators to engage in intensive study and discussion of important topics in the story of America at major historical sites around the nation. Teachers in American K-12 schools, whether public, public charter, private, or religiously-affiliated are eligible to participate, as are home-schooling parents. Other K-12 school personnel, including administrators, substitute teachers, classroom paraprofessionals, and librarians are also eligible to participate, subject to available space. Teachers selected to participate will receive a stipend of $500. Stipends are intended to help cover living expenses, books, and travel expenses to and from the Workshop location. Travel supplements for those traveling long distances will be available and will be allocated after participants are selected.

Landmarks Workshops are designed to give participants direct experiences in the interpretation of significant historical sites and the use of archival and other primary historical evidence. They include the best scholarship on a specific landmark or related cluster of landmarks, enabling participants to gain a sense of the importance of historical places, to make connections between what they learn in the Workshop and what they teach, and to develop teaching materials for their classrooms. Landmarks Workshops for the summer of 2006 include Pearl Harbor; America’s Industrial Revolution; James Madison and Constitutional Citizenship; Andrew Jackson; Mark Twain in the Gilded Age; Mt. Vernon and the Shaping of the U.S. Constitution; the United States Capitol; Fort Snelling; Ellis Island, Public Health, and Immigration; Black Artisans and Entrepreneurs of Antebellum North Carolina; the Underground Railroad; Spanish St. Augustine; the Miami Beach Art Deco District; Old Fort Niagara; Silver Mining in the West; Lowell, Massachusetts, and the Industrial Revolution; Women’s Suffrage on the Western Frontier; Philadelphia, American Independence, and the Constitution; and Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America.

For full listings, eligibility requirements, and application instructions, please see http://www.neh.gov/projects/landmarks-school.html

These listings contain project titles and the means to contact each Landmarks Workshop director. In response to a request for information, workshop directors will provide information about the content, logistics, and expectations of that project. Requests for information and completed applications should NOT be directed to the National Endowment for the Humanities; they should be addressed to the individual projects as found in the listings. General questions concerning the Landmarks of American History and Culture program may be directed to the NEH Division of Education Programs. (202-606-8463 or e-mail sem-inst@neh.gov).

The deadline for applications is March 15, 2006.