Cross Case Features: Teachers

Evans High School: Social Studies

Vivian Coleman, World History, U.S. History, Comparative Government

Vivian Coleman, a social studies teacher, recruited Ginny Cross, a language arts teacher, to take the seminar with her. Their enthusiasm for what they learned motivated two other teachers to take it and now a few more are expressing interest in the seminar.

When Vivian Coleman attended the seminar, she was teaching World History. Now she teaches U.S. History. “I will probably not be teaching[World History] again for a long time. They have me focused on U.S. History because of state-mandated tests. That is my strength and they want me there.”

Nonetheless, Vivian tries to incorporate Asia into her class whenever possible. “I do more background now about China when I start teaching about the Imperialist moves of the United States and the whole Open Door Policy, which I probably would have just glossed over had it not been for the background in class.” She also has her Comparative Government class do an exercise comparing the Chinese Constitution with the U.S. Constitution. Asia-related posters are displayed in her classroom. She says, “I am a little more conscious about trying to find things related to Asia to put up.”

The most useful aspect of the seminars for Vivian Coleman are the lesson plans she wrote for U.S. History and the Asian content she gleaned for use in other classes. She says, “Debra is so enthusiastic and excited about this. She inspires enthusiasm.” Vivian recently published an article derived from one of her NCTA lesson plans in Education About Asia. Her article was developed for her U.S. History class.