Past Teacher Workshops

CREECA programs place particular emphasis on curriculum development and ongoing training of teachers at the K-12 and post-secondary level. For the past decade, CREECA has offered intensive, weeklong workshops on the UW-Madison campus that allow elementary and secondary school teachers to study international topics in depth while developing standards-based lessons for their classrooms.

Participants who complete all seminar requirements (attendance and participation in all sessions and the completion of a curriculum development project) are eligible to receive UW-Madison graduate credit from a department in the School of Letters and Science (the credit-granting department will depend on the topic of the workshop).

The workshops are held annually in late June and space is limited. Applications for the workshop are made available in the spring. For more information about these programs, please contact Nancy Heingartner, CREECA's outreach coordinator. Brief descriptions of our recent summer programs are below.

Year	Workshop Title and Description
2011	"Exploring Afghanistan's History and Culture" Co-sponsored with the Center for South Asia
2010	The 2010 CREECA/Global Studies teacher workshop was canceled.
2009	"Looking Forward, Looking Back: Causes and Consequences of the Fall of the Berlin Wall" Co-sponsored with the Center for European Studies To commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, CES and CREECA offered a weeklong K-12 teacher workshop focusing on the fall of the Berlin Wall. The workshop covered the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, identified the themes and events that led to the dismantling of the Iron Curtain, evaluated the monumental changes in Europe in the last twenty years and highlighted both their regional and global significance. For more information about this workshop, check out the 2009 Teacher Workshop web page.
2008	"Islam in Russia and the NIS" Check out our Fall 2008 newsletter (2.05 MB) for more information and photos from this workshop. Page 6 has a feature focusing on the '08 Summer Teacher Workshop!
2007	"Children in Conflict: War, Work, and Human Rights" Our 2007 summer teacher workshop was titled "Children in Conflict: War, Work, and Human Rights." For more information, please click here.
2006	"Outside Looking In: Citizenship in the New Europe" Co-sponsored with the Center for European Studies This workshop, intended for teachers of grades 7-12, will focus on issues of inclusion and exclusion in the New Europe. Who is a citizen? What does it mean to be European when the boundaries of Europe are expanding? Who is a minority? What types of discrimination occur and to whom? How have identities been realigned and redefined in the region? Further topics include: sex trafficking, cultural minority groups, ethnic conflict, borders and boundaries, gender discrimination, religion in Europe, language minorities, racism, youth issues, poverty, and teaching about the former Yugoslavia through comic books.
2005	"Environmental Problems and Politics in Europe and Asia" Co-sponsored with the Center for European Studies and the Global Studies Program This workshop, intended for teachers of grades 7-12, will focus on key cross-border environmental challenges facing Russia, Central Asia, and the European Union. Because pollution crosses political boundaries, many problems-ranging from the protection of wildlife to the use and conservation of water-cannot be solved by domestic policy alone. In this workshop, teachers will identify and study key environmental issues in Europe and Eurasia and learn about the steps being taken to address these problems on a domestic, regional, and international scale. The workshop will also include presentations on an EU simulation model and the WEBB middle school curriculum: World Ecosystems Beyond Borders: an Environmental Curriculum for Wisconsin Students
2004	"International Cooperation in the 21st Century" Co-sponsored with the Center for European Studies and the Global Studies Program The profound expansion of governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations of the last decade has changed the landscape of politics and society in Europe and Central Asia. This course focused on government institutions, NGOs, and their involvement with issues that have a global and regional impact, including: the expansion of the European Union; NATO enlargement and issues of defense, peacekeeping, and terrorism; international law and human rights; civil society and democratization; and health and the environment. At the end of the week, participants presented their own Curriculum Modules, incorporating content from the sessions.
2003	"Religious Institutions & Religiosity in the Post-Socialist World" The role of religion in Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia has been playing an increasingly important role in the development of people's worldviews. Participants worked with lead teachers, fellow educators, and professors to create lesson plans..
2002	"Looking East, Looking West: Education & Society in Contemporary Europe" This workshop explored the dynamics of change in educational systems from the former Soviet bloc countries to the shores of the Atlantic. Participants in the workshop investigated the ways in which an examination of Russian, East European, and West European educational systems can be used to enrich library instruction, the teaching of core curriculum subjects, including reading, geography, history, and social studies, and in broadening students' and teachers' understanding of different cultures through a comparative study of education in European countries. Throughout the week participants worked with lead teachers, other educators, and professors to transform ideas and materials into lesson plans.
2001	"Folklore of Homelands & Diasporas: The Slavic and East European World" This workshop explored the main genres of folklore as they exist and are practiced in both the past and the present not only in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also in Wisconsin where immigrants from these countries keep these traditions alive. Participants in the workshop studied the ways in which folklore can be used to enrich the teaching of core curriculum subjects at the elementary level, including reading, geography, history and social studies. Mornings were devoted to sessions with experts in the field of folklore, while afternoons were comprised of hands-on demonstrations of a variety of genres of folk practice including: music, arts and crafts, and storytelling. Throughout the week participants worked with one another, lead teachers, folklorists, and professors to transform ideas and materials from both morning and afternoon sessions into lesson plans.
1999	"Chernobyl: A Theme to Integrate the Natural and Social Sciences" Co-sponsored with the Wisconsin Teacher Education Program (WISTep) and the Friends of Chernobyl Centers, US (FOCCUS)
1998	"Focus on Chernobyl" Together with the Teacher Enhancement Program in Biology Summer Institute, CREECA held a workshop from June 15-19, 1998 for high school social studies and science teachers, using the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster as a unifying theme for curricular development. Workshop sessions were run by UW faculty and guest experts, and explored the social, political, geographical, scientific, and ecological ramifications of Chernobyl.
1997	"A Shifting Target: The Challenge of Teaching About Global Ethnicity in the College Classroom" Co-sponsored by the Wisconsin International Outreach Consortium (WIOC) This workshop was tailored toward post-secondary level teachers. In 1997-98, CREECA participated in another WIOC seminar, a workshop for media representatives called "Local Reporting on Global Issues."
1995-96	"The Slavic and East European World" In the past these have included the Graduate Student Association Speaker's Bureau and two workshops for K-12 teachers: "The Changing Political and Physical Maps of Post-Soviet Russia, East Europe and Central Asia" (1995), and "The World Through Film: Russia, East Europe and Central Asia" (1996).