The Life Guard Teacher Fellowship Program supports the creation of classroom materials and teacher resources about the life, legacy, and leadership of George Washington. Fellows live and study at the Washington Library on the grounds of Mount Vernon as they work to create educational resources that meet 21st-century classroom needs.
Learn More About Our Teacher Fellowship Program
Kevin Casey
Pitman High School, Pitman, New Jersey
Creating the President: George Washington in the First White House, Philadelphia 1790-1797
Kevin will use the Presidential mansion in Philadelphia as the backdrop for student learning about the social history of America’s first president. Special focus will be brought to the layout of rooms in the house including additions made by the President, Washington’s role as the face of the new government, and the lives of the individuals working throughout the house including those enslaved.
Dr. Lynn Miller
Jackson Preparatory School, Jackson, Mississippi
Any Tolerably Fashionable Color: Painting in George Washington’s World
Lynn developed resources that use color as an entry point to explore George Washington’s 18th century world. This cross-disciplinary project designed for high school art students will use the new scholarship at Mount Vernon about paint colors and material culture objects.
Joanne Howard
Summer Creek Middle School, Fort Worth, Texas
Dearly Bought Experience: What George Washington Learned From His Failures
Joanne's project will use examples and sources from George Washington’s life that students can use to transform school culture. Her resources will share life lessons about Washington’s ability to overcome failure with students, so they can learn to believe in their own ability to grow intellectually and emotionally while overcoming obstacles.
Don Stancavish
Rocky Mount Academy, Rocky Mount, North Carolina
The Business of Being George Washington
Don will explore George Washington’s biography and source material for lessons covered in economics classrooms today. Individual worksheets can highlight and define finance terms such as diversification, opportunity costs, and the pitfalls of lending money.
Mike Ellis
Notre Dame Preparatory School, Towson, Maryland
From Marble to Man: Getting to Know George Washington through Primary and Secondary Sources
Mike created activities that will prompt students to use investigative skills to discover a more knowable and instructive George Washington. He created these lessons using the sources and experts at Mount Vernon as well as through conversations with visitors to our historic site and museum.
You can find his projects below
Jennifer Connolly
Preston High School, Bronx, New York
Lesson Plans for study of Early America on Race, Class and Gender
Jennifer will research and develop lessons that will help students gain a better understanding of important concepts like freedom, liberty, and equality by looking directly at people who struggled with obtaining or were important in preserving these ideas. She will explore the writings of and sources from George Washington, Nellie Custis, and a yet to be determined enslaved individual to create materials that explore race, class, and gender in the 18th century.
Back to Teacher Fellowships
Click the link to go back to the Teacher Fellowships Page
Teacher Fellowships