The Smyrna School District has been awarded part of a $1 million grant to be shared by four other school districts in the state.
   

The Historical Literacy Project (HLP) hopes school districts reach their five goals during the two-to-five-year program. The goals are to increase student achievement in America history, increase teacher knowledge of content and standards, improve instruction, improve American history curriculum, and improve American history resources (quantity and quality).
   

HLP is funded by a Teaching American History Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
   

The other districts given the grant include: Appoquinimink, Caesar Rodney, Lake Forest, and Woodbridge.
   

The teachers from the Smyrna School District who were accepted into the Historical Literacy Program are:
   

• Shannon Huff, a fourth grade history teacher at Clayton Elementary;
  

  • Jenyfer Casterline and Crystal Graham, who both teach the fourth grade at Smyrna Elementary;
   

• Kimberly Carlson, who teaches fourth grade at North Smyrna Elementary;
   

• Catherine M. Wilson, a fifth grade history teacher at John Bassett Moore Intermediate School;
   

 • Amy Jagielski, Tracy Bledsoe and Michelle Freidel who all teach the eighth grade at Smyrna Middle School;
  

  • Melissa Buchanan and Whitney Reed-Pierson, 10th grade teachers at Smyrna High School.
   

Todd Seelhorst, Social Studies Specialist for the Smyrna School District, said these teachers are remarkable for their dedication and enthusiasm to this program.
   

“These ten highly motivated, extremely dedicated teachers are typical of the teachers in the Smyrna School District who continue to grow through engagement in long-term, ongoing professional development opportunities,” he said. “The Historical Literacy program will allow these teachers to become scholarly leaders in the area of U.S. history in order to impact and affect not only the children in our classroom today, but also in the classrooms of Smyrna’s students in the years to come. We are very excited about Social Studies Education in the Smyrna School District.”
   

In each district, 10 teachers can apply for the program which provides training and resources.
   

Missy Buchanan, 10th grade history teacher, who participated in the program last year but not through the school district, said it provides great information to teach the students.
 

“I did it on my own last year,” she said. “It really gives you working content knowledge.”
    

Buchanan said the program shows the teachers how to educate the kids in different ways than the traditional lessons.
   

“The information gives us units more aligned to standards that are more kid-friendly,” she said.

The program asks each teacher to commit for five years. After a two-year assessment is completed, the grant could be expanded to as long as five years.
   

The training doesn’t take away from classroom time. The training is two weekends a year and one weekend over the summer.
   

The seminars are given by history professors, some of whom from the University of Delaware’s History Department. Attendance at seminars is mandatory and some unit writing is required.
   

The program provides supplies and resources for the teachers. Teachers in the program receive $550 every year in classroom resources, and they can earn up to $1,350 in annual stipends.
   

Initially, the program picks districts based on need, whether it is to have more teachers highly qualified, to raise DSTP scores, or other reasons.
   

“We hope there’s long-term impact,” Seelhorst said. “Educate and graduate.”
   

He said the program is literacy based, so the children are reading about U.S. history.
   

“The students are using literature to uncover history,” he said. “Sometimes there is no right answer. We want to have them see the importance of U.S. history.”
   

Whitney Reed-Pierson, a 10th grade history teacher who has never participated in the program before, said she’s looking forward to learning the new approaches to teaching history.
   

“I want to see growth with lessons and the curriculum,” she said. “I want to do anything that helps out with helping kids.”