George C. Marshall International Center - Learn - Education Programs


	Overview

	Marshall Immersion Workshop

	Field Trips to Dodona Manor

	School Presentations

	Docent Program

2009's Marshall Immersion Workshop

The seventh annual week-long Marshall Immersion Workshop began on July 27th, 2009. The workshop is held annualy and is the Center's signature learning experience and is open to secondary-level US and world history teachers.

"It was, frankly, the best workshop I have ever taken part in."
- Michael Brabaender, Main-Taunus Kreis, Germany

This year's focus, "A Visionary Adventure across Continents", emphasized the far-reaching impact of the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan). For the first half of the course, teachers experienced the rare and special privilege of meeting in Marshall's home to learn more about his contributions to twentieth century history. In the second half of the course teachers will traveled to Lexington, Virginia and spent two days at the Marshall Museum and Library. There they studied original documents that relate to and reveal the background of some of Marshall's most important decisions. One such historic treasure is Marshall's personal copy of the June 5 Harvard speech outlining the key concepts of the ERP.

A significant aspect of the workshop emphasized Marshall's use of diplomacy as a tool for rebuilding Europe after the war. Through a partnership developed in recent years with the U.S. Diplomacy Center at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., participants spent an afternoon of study there, and received instructional materials related to the Diplomacy Center's 2005 exhibit: "The Marshall Plan: A Vision of the Family of Nations."

In addition to activities established in previous summers, participants also took part in a simulation specifically developed for this year's focus by workshop director Rachel Thompson. Using a series of primary documents from the Truman Presidential Library and the Marshall Foundation Library, the simulation was designed to help participants better understand Marshall's specific and significant role in securing the passage of the ERP. Participants will also engaged in a discussion with Linda Christenson, co-producer of PBS film "The Marshall Plan: Against the Odds". A recently released series of delightful vintage films produced for European audiences from 1948-1951 to promote the benefits of the Marshall Plan emphasized the concerted effort made across continents to garner support for a program that became known as an economic miracle.

This summer we also welcomee participants from Germany, Austria, and Norway, all countries that received funding through the ERP. Like always, from these guests we gained valuable insights and perspectives on how our summer workshop content and materials might benefit classroom instruction on the other side of the Atlantic.

Teachers from the 2008 Marshall Immersion Workshop standing on the steps of Dodona Manor, the home of General George C. Marshall in
Leesburg, Virginia.

"Please make sure other teachers find out about it so they don't miss the opportunity."
- Prince Georges County participant, Tenika Holden

"This workshop was uplifting. At a time when news reports focus almost obsessively on celebrities of minimal consequence, it was very bracing to spend five days assessing the life and work of a man of such towering character and integrity as George Marshall."
- Fairfax County public school teacher, David Green

Corresponding Standards of Learning

The Marshall Immersion Workshop was developed to help teachers satisfy Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOLs), which are constructed around national standards.

Using materials developed especially for Marshall Immersion Workshop, students will:

1) Demonstrate skills for historical analysis, including the ability to analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in the U.S. from 1877 to the present; and

2) Learn to interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives.

SOLs that are satisfied through the Marshall Immersion Workshop address the period in American history dealing with "Turmoil and Change: 1890s to 1945, and the United States since World War II," and are outlined below.

SOLs: WHII.9a, WHII.b, VUS.9b, VUS.9b Students explain the reason for the United States' involvement in World War I and its leadership role at the conclusion of the war.

SOLs: VUS.10a, WHII.11a, USII.6a
Students demonstrate knowledge of the major causes and effects of American involvement in World War II by describing the major events and turning points of the war in Europe and the Pacific.

SOLs: WHII.11c, USII.6b, USII.6c, VUS.12a
Students demonstrate knowledge of the economic, social, and political transformation of the United States and the world between the end of World War Two and the present day by describing the rebuilding of Europe and Japan after World War Two; the emergence of the United States as a superpower; and the establishment of the United Nations.

SOLs: USII.7a
Students describe the conversion from a wartime to a peacetime economy.

SOLs: WHII.12a, VUS.12b, USII.7a, USII.b
Students identify the role of America's military in defending freedom during the Cold War, including the war in Korea.

"They found in Marshall one of those rare teachers who made a difference, who opened minds in such a way that they never afterwards quite closed again or forgot the excitement of a new idea."

- Forrest Pogue
Marshall's official biographer


	Current Exhibit: "Katherine Marshall - First Lady of the Army" Saturdays 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sundays 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Featuring photos and memorabilia never before displayed at Dodona Manor this exhibit chronicles the life of Katherine Marshall.