Page 8 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • September 29, 2010 Waldwick Several area school districts have been named the recipients of the U.S. Department of Education’s Teaching American History Grant. Those districts include Ramsey, Franklin Lakes, Ramapo Indian Hills, Waldwick, Mahwah, Ridgewood, and Wyckoff. The Teaching American History Grant, Profiles & Perspectives in American History was one of 124 grants awarded out of approximately 500 applications. There were seven awards to school districts in New Jersey. The 15 school districts that are part of The History Consortium Local schools receive Teaching American History Grant at The Hermitage received $999,947 for the next three years for high quality professional development of 30 history teachers each year. The TAH Grant comes with the option for an additional $500,000 for an extension of two years. The grant is open to American history teachers serving grades five through 12. The partners in the grant include The Hermitage, The Gilder Lerhman Institute of American History, Deep Well Data Services, and Spectrum Consulting. The Ridgewood Board of Education is the L.E.A. responsible for the finan- cial management of the grant, Dr. Barbara Oberg of Princeton University is the lead historian, and Hank Bitten of Ramapo Indian Hills is the project director. Each year, the group will meet with three historians from universities. The historians and professional authors Alan Brinkley and Eric Foner of Columbia University, Maxine Lurie of Seton Hall, Allida Black of George Washington University, Perry Leavell of Drew University, John Murrin of Princeton University, Ann Gordon of Rutgers University, Richard Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation, and Hermitage Historian Dr. Henry Bischoff will share current research with the teachers, introduce profiles of ordinary and famous Americans, and teach the perspectives on issues. The first year of the project will focus on the Colonial period, the U.S. Constitution, and the Early Republic. The second year will focus on slavery, expansion, and the industrialization of America, and the third year will feature the twentieth century. The fourth and fifth years will emphasize American foreign policy and critical domestic and constitutional issues. The need for the TAH Grant was based on the results of a pre-test of 40 items taken by 60 teachers with a failing score of 51 percent. The weakest area was on the teaching of the American Revolution and Early Republic (1763-1815) with an average score of 42 percent. It was determined that the reason for these scores was that 67 percent of the teachers in the participating districts did not major in American history in college and the fact that 39 percent of the teachers have not taken a college level course in over five years, and an additional 31 percent have not had professional development in the past 10 years. The TAH Grant includes 13 days of seminars and workshops where teachers will read and discuss books, participate in seminars with historians, and conduct research. There are planned opportunities for teachers to research at The Hermitage (local history), Princeton University (Jefferson Papers), Rutgers University (Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers), the FDR Library, and expectations for independent research at the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library, and presidential libraries and museums. Teachers will collaborate in teams to develop best practice lessons engaging students in problem-solving, decision-making, writing, simulations, historiography, (continued on page 18) Hard-working pooch 9-29-10 janine WaldCofCAirForceBand4x1(9-29-10) 4 x 10” Sugar, a local Pomeranian, works in film, TV, and print adver�sing. She has appeared in print ads for Macy’s, Ralph Lauren, and Mighty Dog, and par�cipated in Pet Fashion Week in Manha�an, which raised money for animal charity. Sugar can also be seen the “Bark off” commercial on cable TV. Sugar’s agent recently submitted her for a Hollywood movie so next she will soon be off to sunny California. Her most recent ac�ng job will be an appearance on Animal Planet’s “The Haunted,” premiering Oct. 3 at 10 p.m. Sugar is owned, trained, and handled by Heidi Wise, president of Coddled Creatures, LLC.