Pepperell Middle teacher invited to summer workshops on Asia

Media release: Life can be our best teacher.  This is a concept that is being put into practice in the classroom by Christy Davis, a 7th grade teacher at Pepperell Middle School.  She teaches about Asia, the Asian people, and World War II from her experiences in summer workshops.  For the past five years, Davis has studied about East Asia in workshops sponsored by various groups, including the National Endowment for the Humanities.  She has studied at the University of Hawaii twice, the University of Colorado, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.  

This summer, she will be on the road to learning again as she will participate in workshops in Ohio and California.  Davis will participate in a workshop sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities at Ohio State University.  The N.E.H. workshop will study Central Asia's role in world history.  These N.E.H. workshops are limited to approximately 30 teachers from across the United States. She will also attend a workshop on Korean culture located in Koreatown in Los Angeles, California.  This workshop is sponsored by the Korea Academy for Educators.  The workshop was limited to only 25 teachers from across the country.  "I'm excited about both," stated Davis. "I'm invited to these workshops because of the amount of work I've done in studying and creating lesson plans about East Asia."

It is an honor for a teacher to be invited and selected to participate in these all- expense paid workshops.  Participants get to work with experts in these selected fields, published authors, and people who have lived through major world events.  Davis said, "I love learning the stories of these areas and hearing the accounts from those who lived major world events because it appeals to the storyteller in me."  She added, "I don't teach my class with a textbook; instead I've been able to teach using the stories I have learned in my weeks of study during the summer breaks."

Davis was one of 30 teachers from across the country to be selected to participate in a workshop about Southeast Asia last summer.  The three-week workshop, "Southeast Asia:  At the Crossroads of World War II," was held at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii and was also sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities