2010 Awards of Recognition for Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities

Each year, Humanities Tennessee provides up to six Tennessee teachers with an Award of Recognition for Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities. The award includes a $2000 professional development fellowship for the teacher and a $1500 grant to the teacher's school for humanities materials or projects. Since 1985, Humanities Tennessee has awarded over $356,000 to 153 Tennessee teachers and schools. This year's recipients are:

Elisa Brock — Craigmont High School, Memphis (West TN)
Elisa teaches Honors Humanities and is a veteran social studies teacher with twenty-four years of experience. Her proposed Fellowship will allow her to undertake an independent study in Chicago with the goal of developing a curriculum which utilizes works of art to teach modern and regional history. She will spend significant time at the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Museum of Mexico, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and numerous regional and neighborhood cultural centers. She will also undergo a formal course in Bridging World History provided by Annenberg Media. Her School Award will go toward the purchase of humanities materials for her classroom.
Liz Shugart — Greenway School, Knoxville (East TN)
Liz teaches 6-8 grade social studies and art and has taught in Knoxville for fourteen years. Her proposed Fellowship will allow her to attend the annual meeting of the Oral History Association in Atlanta, Georgia. Liz has a strong track record in utilizing oral history in the classroom to incorporate community memory in the context of U.S. and world history. For the School Award, Liz will bring a professional oral historian to her classroom to work with students in the methodology of oral history. Students will then apply their skills to an oral history project in their own community focusing on times of crisis and change during the Depression, The New Deal Era, and the second World War.
Laura Young — Algood Middle School, Algood (Middle TN)
Laura teaches 7th Grade Language Arts. She has taught Language Arts at the middle school level for thirteen years. Her proposed Fellowship will allow her to undertake an internship at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb, Maine under the direction of the renowned educational specialist Nancy Atwell. She will use her School Award to bring a noted author to her school to work with students. Though the author has yet to be determined, some possibilities include Todd Strasser, Cynthia Letiche Smith, Nancy Werlin, and Alan Gratz.
Virginia (Gina) Halliburton — Germantown High School, Germantown (West TN)
Gina teaches Latin, German, and AP History and has twenty-one years of classroom experience. Her Fellowship plans will allow her to journey to Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. During her travels, she plans to develop an archive of ancient works of art and literature for her students' use. Her School Award will provide humanities materials for her classroom.
Suzi Constantine — Fred Page Middle School, Franklin (Middle TN)
Suzi has thirteen years in the classroom and teaches 8th Grade US History. For her Fellowship, she proposes an ambitious retracing of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Though the frontier is somewhat less dangerous now than it was 200 years ago, it will be no less eventful. Suzi presents a thorough itinerary which includes a multitude of historic sites and museums. Her School Award will be used to found a history field trip club at Page Middle School. As many of you know, severe budget cuts have limited, or eliminated, museum visits and other field trips from schools. Through the proposed history club, students will be allowed to visit surrounding historic sites and museums at no cost.
Lynn Brasfield — Dresden Middle School, Martin (West TN)
Lynn has ten years in the classroom and teaches 7th and 8th grade Language Arts. Her proposed Fellowship will provide her with additional training in educational strategies and research through a series of workshops. Her School Award will go toward the purchase of humanities materials for her classroom and library.

Congratulations to all of this year's award recipients. If you would like to see a list of past winners, click here.

- back to top -