Co-sponsored by:

Winning Proposal: The Traveler’s Trunk: A Never Ending Journey

Project Team:

Charlene D. Bustos, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, San Angelo University, San Angelo, TX
R. Gary Pumphrey, Associate Professor of Geography, San Angelo University, San Angelo, TX
Linda Stevens, Instructional Specialist - Social Studies, Education Service Center Region 15, San Angelo, TX
Torrey Clay, Instructional Specialist, Grades 3-5 Science/Social Studies, Education Service Center Region 15, San Angelo, TX

In ‘The Traveler’s Trunk: A Never Ending Journey’ proposal, Charlene Bustos and Gary Pumphrey (San Angelo University) in partnership with Linda Stevens and Torrey Clay (Education Service Center Region 15, San Angelo, TX), envision engaging elementary school teachers in a professional learning experience that will focus on providing them with the knowledge, skills and tools to integrate cross-curricular connections between geography, math, and reading in order to enhance student understanding of how the world is connected across content disciplines and thus provide a more meaningful academic foundation to students.  

The project, which will align the Texas State Curriculum, the 18 National Standards, and the six essential elements/five themes of geography, will host a one-day staff development workshop for 30 attendees (including 5 pre-service teacher candidates) focusing on two essential elements/themes of geography. Classroom resources will be provided to attendees. An e-mail forum will be provided, a Facebook page, two webinars, and classroom observations. The goal is to enhance the geographic knowledge of the teachers so they will have confidence to integrate geography into their current curriculum. The proposers anticipate that as many as 500 students (grades 3-6) will be served in the first year. For the second year, proposers plan to host a summer session selecting 30 new participants while including the first attendees as mentors.