Cut 1: Tukes Valley Middle School teacher Linda Korum, right, was recently recognized for her creative thinking in regards to U.S. history in the classroom.
Before schools were shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak, Linda Korum, a teacher at Tukes Valley Middle School, and John Zingale, a Vancouver iTech Preparatory School teacher, were honored for their innovation and excellence in teaching United States history in the classroom.
Both teachers were awarded the “Dr. Tom and Betty Lawrence History Teacher of the Year Award” by the local Fort Vancouver Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). Each teacher received a $200 award and a special History Teacher of the Year certificate. Along with this, Korum and Zingale were selected by the national SAR as the top middle and primary school history teachers in the U.S.
Each year, the SAR recognizes three top teachers across the country for their outside-of-the-box approaches in the classroom. Teachers from nearly every state apply and compete for national honor by illustrating how their nontraditional methods challenge students to appreciate our nation’s rich history.
As national winners, Korum and Zingale received a scholarship valued at $3,000 to cover tuition and expenses to attend a teacher workshop or seminar on the American Revolution. They will be able to choose between seminars that include the Freedoms Foundation Summer Teacher Graduate Workshop at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; the Colonial Williamsburg Summer Teacher Workshop in Williamsburg, Virginia; the Jefferson Symposium at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, and other similar programs.
Korum teaches fifth-graders in Battle Ground while Zingale teaches U.S. history to seventh- and eighth-graders at iTech. Both teachers have received recognition for their innovative accomplishments. The duo relies on much more than lectures and textbook learning about the American Revolution and other key historic occasions.
Korum has developed a variety of interactive classroom activities where students receive much more than a lecture on U.S. history, but rather experience it first hand. They are challenged to experience everyday life during the 1700s when colonists struggled to win their freedom. At the end of each school year, Korum’s students host a Congressional Congress where invited VIPs from throughout the state visit the school to participate in a lively discussion on the U.S. Constitution. Guests have included the Washington state superintendent of education, state legislators, Clark County officials, judges, the Battle Ground mayor, school board members, the police chief and many more officials.
“We are very honored to have two of the three national winners of this award right here in our own backyard,” Jeff Lightburn, president of the Fort Vancouver SAR Chapter, said in a news release. “Both of these teachers have raised the bar in what it takes to engage their students and truly excite them about the accomplishments of our forefathers during the American Revolution. Rather than rely on textbook learning, they’ve challenged their students to be historians.”
