Joy B. Penney
Gifted Education, Social Studies/Science, Neptune Middle School
Kissimmee, Florida
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> Almost everyone has to work. I'm very fortunate because my work is a profession that I love. I am a teacher of social studies and science working with gifted students in grades 6-8 at Neptune Middle School.

Neptune is a wonderful place to teach. Our school has received national awards and recognition. I am proud to help to contribute to Neptune's reputation as I have received seven awards and minigrants for projects ranging from an archeological dig, role playing the constitutional convention, an internet "artifact" exchange,to hands on laser labs. I am a peer teacher, cosponser the junior national honor society, and I have conducted several inservices for the staff.

My personal talents and interests are diverse. I use the wood working tools of my great grandfather to create my own works of sculpture and art. I mix my own photographs of places I have traveled to with old photographs taken by my own family and sometimes strangers 50 years earlier. My home is a curious blending of antique and modern. (Almost everything I own comes with a story attached!) My pastimes include travel, camping, photography, scuba diving, rollerblading, silversmithing and welding, and mixed media printing. My interests in history and art come directly from my father who is an accomplished artist and taught art history and graphics at Wichita State University.

I love the triva, humor, and unusual aspects of history and culture past and present. In my classroom and in my own life I seek out the "untold" aspects of history and seek meaningful ways to weave this knowledge into the larger fabric of history. My home and classroom have taken on the look of a rather disorganized museum as I enjoy history and artifacts which you can touch and hold (and even taste, I enjoy cooking colonial and ethnic recipes and make my own homebrew.)

The students I work with are a delight and a challenge (but I also enjoy being a student myself) so I am a "perpetual student", always seeking new insights to history and new methods in science,taking courses and inservices when the chance arrives.I am greatly looking forward to participating in the American Memory Fellows!


Laura Wakefield
Teacher, Neptune Middle School
Kissimmee, Florida
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Laura Wakefield has had a passion for history since childhood. She began collecting ancestral photographs as a teenager and compiling family stories. These experiences have become a part of her approach to teaching history. She believes that if students can relate historical events or people to themselves they will ask the searching questions that will help them understand the past. She has participated in National History Day for the past six years with her middle school students and has thrilled to her student's successes at the district, state, and national level.

Prior to her teaching career, she worked on several political campaigns and then served for four years as a US Army Captain stationed in Germany. She believes that travel is an essential pastime for any teacher and has shared her love of distant places with her geography students. In 1993 she was selected by National Geographic to take a small group of students to Italy, Malta, and Tunisia to study they Mediterranean geography, culture and history on Project Marco Polo. A strong believer in teacher collaboration and sharing of ideas, Laura has been a frequent presenter at state and national geography and history conferences. She was named National Middle Level Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the National Council for the Social Studies in 1995. Her teaching ideas and lessons have been published in a variety of educational publications. When she is not teaching, she and her husband find their four children (aged seven to fifteen) keep them on the go.


Deborah Pendleton
Media Coordinator, Ligon Middle School
Raleigh, North Carolina
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As an undergraduate English major and history minor, I developed a love for research that I incorporated into my teaching throughout the twenty years I served as a middle school language arts teacher. Research permitted me as a student to go beyond the limitations on learning imposed by textbooks, and it allowed me as a teacher to expand the boundaries of curriculum to accommodate the interests and needs of my students. During my last few years in the classroom, I began to feel left behind by the quickly-changing world of electronic information, and decided to catch up by pursuing a Masters of Library Science. One of my most exciting moments in my career change was my first encounter with Netscape two years ago. After taking a virtual tour of museums around the world and viewing a document actually penned by Christopher Columbus, I realized the limitless possibilities the Internet offers to teachers and students. In my role as media specialist at Ligon Middle School, my preliminary Internet research has permitted students in an inner city school to tour the Battleship U.S.S. North Carolina, go inside a nuclear power plant, view letters written by Confederate spy Rosa O'Neal Greenhow, and to e-mail favorite authors. My new position has not only opened up the world of electronic information for me, but it has also given me more opportunities to incorporate my favorite hobby, reading, into my work.


Jackie D. Brooks
Social Studies Teacher, Ligon Middle School
Raleigh, North Carolina
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For the last 20 years I have pursued and conducted research in American History. My Masters thesis was and extensive investigation into economic trends of entrepreneurial history of the late Nineteenth Century with focus on economic and social determiners of success. Most of my research was conducted at depositories of personal and business records. My teaching has included and emphasized an appreciation for primary research that I discovered during my thesis work. For example, my eighth grade students complete a research unit on the effects of the Civil War in North Carolina every year. From them I have expanded my knowledge of the numerous locations of local and state archives available to anyone who can appreciate their worth. That appreciation is what I stress with the assignment. Upon completion of their research my students are required to display their knowledge using some form of electronic medium in a teaching manner on my window of our school's Internet magazine, Midlink . When I was chosen to serve as a panelist to evaluate the effectiveness of a national social studies test in St. Louis for the National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP)project two years ago, I came to realize in discussions with educators from around the nation that the use of technology can be a key to how we raise national historical expectations. I am impacting my profession and , hopefully, the way we use resources.


Agnes Dunn
Coord. Teacher for Social Studies, Stafford Co. Schools Instructional Annex
Stafford, VA
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The American Memory Fellows Program addresses several areas of professional interests and personal strengths. As the Coordinating Teacher for Social Studies for Stafford County Schools I teach one section of American History in a high school and then travel to the central office for the remainder of my day. There, I am the content specialist for social studies, K-12. My professional goals combine those of a regular classroom teacher with a broader division-wide perspective. Within this framework, interdisciplinary instruction, providing a multicultural approach within all disciplines and the increased use of technology in instruction are among my chief professional aims. To this I must add a personal passion for my subject.

I strongly support an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Building on the connections between subject areas enriches the study of each. This is particularly true of American history. An understanding of literature, music, and art in America provides insight into our culture. As such, from 1994-1996 I was part of an eleventh grade English/History team which had a humanities focus for learning. My graduate degree, a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, provided a rich variety of interdisciplinary experiences in adolescent literature, writing, philosophy and history which I include in my teaching. Additional work in creativity helped me identify areas of instruction where active and less traditional strategies were appropriate. My own experience with an interdisciplinary approach to my graduate work furnished first-hand experience on the value of interdisciplinary scholarship.

Another of my concerns deals with diversity. Last year I served on the Superintendents Multicultural Advisory Committee. It was composed of parents, community leaders and school personnel. Each of us brought a special focus to the committee. I arrived in the United States from Germany when I was five years old and I spoke no English. As a former ESL student, I felt I could empathize with those racial and ethnic groups whowanted to belong, yet, did not want to give up all that they were. Nonetheless, I was unprepared for the depth of feeling and isolation felt by some families of color in ourcommunity.

As a committee we studied Multicultural approaches to education, we shared experiences and sometimes, members even cried together at these meetings. We ultimately helped draft the policy and regulations for implementing multicultural education which were later adopted by the School Board. My interest in multicultural education became a deep concern.

My professional goal for this school year concerns the use of technology in instruction. As a classroom teacher I am concerned with identifying appropriate materials and sharpening my skills in the use of various technologies. As a division coordinator I model demonstration lessons and provide inservice for teachers. I also, served on a county level committee which recently explored and identified a core list of technology resources for each school. I evaluate new resources and have had five product reviews published in MultiMedia Schools Magazine. Perhaps, my most important strength is my willingness to take risks. If a teacher waits to try a new technology until they are completely comfortable with it, the right time will never arrive. I tell my students that they will have to be life-long learners in the twenty-first century and technology is what I am learning now.

The personal quality which I feel would be most important for the American Fellows project is a deep love of history. I not only majored in history in college and teach American history in a high school, but I continue to engage in historical investigation.

The most comprehensive of my historical investigations involved primary source research concerning the Quantico Marine Base. On October 7, 1942, the U S government announced it was condemning 50,00 acres of land in three counties to enlarge Quantico. Residents were told to leave their property within twenty-one days; most received no compensation for months, and in some cases years. In the course of this project I took oral histories, culled the records in the National Archives and visited the map room at the Marine Base.

In addition, I searched county records, deeds and cemetery locations. I have shared my research with my students, the History Club, and my written account was the basis of one scene in a school play.

In July, 1995 I was a member of the National Digital Library Educators Forum at the Library of Congress. We were asked to share ways teachers use primary source materials in their classes and to develop an awareness of the collections owned by the Digital Library

The Library of Congress was the first bookmark I set when I got my internet access. The wealth of resources available through the American Memories collection helps me achieve my professional goals of a multicultural, interdisciplinary approach to education and a personal goal of a rich, first-hand study of history.


Eric Powell
Teacher, Stafford High School
Falmouth, Virginia
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For the majority of my day, I teach US/VA History. It is my strongest subject and I continue to expand my interest daily. I also teach a Global Issues class; which is an elective with about 20 students. It focuses on current events, with a look at the role the US is and will be playing in these events. In all of my classes I look for oppurtunites to incorporate new ideas and strageties; with technology being a key resource. Today in my Global Issues class the students will be looking at the environment using a program I designed using hypercard. My history students will be in the computer lab researching the programs of the New Deal. It is the combination of these interests that brought me to the Library of Congress and the American Memory Fellows Program.

Over the past several years, two of my key interests have been Civil War reenacting and multiculturalism. The interest in the Civil War stems back to my childhood. It was rekindled when a student introduced me to the hobby and I have enjoyed it for the past five years. I am currently First Sergeant of the 47th Virginia, Company I, The Stafford Guard; and helped to move the unit into the Information Age. With the aid of computers, I have produced phone-trees, fliers, and training manuals. Many of the members are also online. We use the Internet to keep in contact, recruit new members, search genealogies, and learn more about the period. I find the hobby to be an educational experience beyond the classroom and it affords me great opportunities to bring many new ideas into my teaching.

Through researching the 47th Virginia, I discovered there was a soldier buried, along with his parents, on Stafford High School property. The Stafford High School Historical Society, which I founded and sponsor, decided to refurbish this family cemetery. First, we cleared and landscaped the area; then we researched the history of the Green family and school grounds; and finally, we placed an historical marker on the site. We concluded the project on April 28, 1996, with a dedication ceremony, which the Green family, school community, and public officials attended. The 47th Virginia fired a salute and played Amazing Grace at the event. It was one of the most exciting moments of my career. The club also visits local historical sites, hosts speakers at the school, makes monthly visits to a local retirement community and we just took our annual spring camping trip.

In my efforts to completely understand the Civil War era, and teach its diversity to my students, I study all aspects and views of the period. The African-American experience, during this part of our history, especially fascinates me. My students first noticed my interest, and a group of them and I founded the Student Alliance for Ethnic Unity. Next, I was recognized by my colleagues and named chairman of the high school Multicultural Committee. Both of these responsibilities give me the chance to add much to the environment and curriculum at Stafford High School. We have brought a new awareness to the school and assisted in the improvement of instruction. The multicultural committee was responsible for the purchasing of materials for our school library this past year. Not only did we purchase reference materials, we also bought videos, laser discs, computer software, and placed a multicultural program on our school-wide network. Our latest project was a living history program on Ellis Island for our junior class. We recreated Ellis Island in our cafeteria and I made passports and inspection papers for the students. With the help of teachers and parents we process them through the legal, medical, and psychological exams. They concluded with an assembly on immigration that included a discussion by a colleague and myself, first-person monologues by the advanced drama class, and a video by the ESL students at Stafford. It was a big success and a program about it will air on our local cable station next week.

This past summer, I attended the Virginia Historical Society Teacher1s Institute. The Reconstruction was the topic of study and the use of primary sources was emphasized. I used their library of seven million original documents to develop a three day lesson and to write a paper for graduate credit through Virginia Commonwealth University. It was a very enriching experience.

It is because of these ambitious projects and my desire to be a lifelong learner, that my colleagues named me Stafford High School Teacher of the Year. I have since moved on to become the Washington Post Outstanding Teacher for Stafford County and will soon apply for Virginia State Teacher of the Year. Wish me luck.