Riverside Middle School teacher Jennifer Wike is picture on the front row, second from the right.
The Teacher Institute was created to encourage history education and make it engaging for students. Now in its 22nd year, the Teacher Institute helps prepare teachers to help students meet national and state history standards through hands-on immersion experiences in colonial history.
Wike is a teacher in Greenville County School District. She has taught for nine years at Riverside Middle School. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from Clemson University.
The Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute provides participants with interactive teaching techniques and skills to become mentor teachers who can assist their peers and other educators to develop active learning classrooms and make history exciting for their students. The Teacher Institute provides an extensive background in colonial history from the first English settlement at Jamestown to the American Revolution. Teachers participate in reenactments of 18th-century events and meet historians and interpreters portraying historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson, as well as the common citizens who helped shape a new nation.
Participants share teaching strategies to improve instruction, raise literacy levels and enhance thinking skills. Participating teachers agree to conduct in-service training sessions following their attendance at Teacher Institute in order to share their experience with other teachers. Teachers also are required to develop lesson plans that will be shared with future Teacher Institute participants.