Ms. Ariana Sanders joined the Edgewood High School Social Studies staff this year. She has a passion for history coupled with finding innovative ways to inspire students about our country’s history as well as other countries. Earlier this year, she applied to and was accepted to attend the George Washington Teachers Institute in Mount Vernon, Virginia. The purpose of the Institute is to rejuvenate educators’ practices and teaching methods in order to inspire students about George Washington and the founding of the United States government. Not only did she revolutionized her classroom when she returned to Edgewood, but she was able to share what she learned with other educators at the Ohio Council for the Social Studies in Columbus. Her presentation provided professional development for teachers on how to create an exciting and innovative classroom. She not only shared how she applied these new teaching methods with her students, but also shared her experience at Mount Vernon. Since her presentation, she has received an outpouring of feedback from colleagues who have used her techniques and the impact its made on their students’ interest in history.
As Ms. Sanders began preparing for the second half of the school year, she discovered minimal information was available for high school history classes on Latin America or the Middle East. For months, she had been searching for material to add to her course curriculum on either of these cultures. Fortunately, she saw information about the Qatar Foundation International. The program offered a 14-day cultural immersion trip to Oman for K-12 educators. Over 100 educators applied for the trip and less than 12 were selected; Ms. Sanders was one of them. She will have the opportunity to visit a variety of locations throughout Oman that tourists seldom, if ever, have the chance to visit. When she returns she plans to incorporate her experiences into her lesson plans. This includes the study of different government systems, comparing how historical events are viewed from our country’s perspective versus the county where it took place, as well as sharing information about the history and culture of the Arab world that is not currently available in any literature in the United States. Mr. Doug Geygan, Principal of Edgewood High School stated, “Ms. Sanders is a welcome addition to the social studies department. I am excited to hear more about her trip and how she will use her experiences to impact our students.”
There’s no doubt that Ms. Sanders’ thirst for knowledge and cultural experiences are far from being quenched. Edgewood is truly fortunate to have an educator who is dedicated to continuously learning and educating herself, but most of all, providing an impactful, memorable learning experience for our students.