THE charlie baker legacy award

Heath and Driscoll School educators Jen Doubilet, Amy Neale, Jen Thompson, and Marcy Prager, recipients of the 2008 Charlie Baker Legacy Award.

The Charlie Baker Legacy Award is a specially named teacher grant award to encourage professional development activities in the areas of US History and World Geography. Initial funding for the award was provided by a generous gift of an anonymous donor.

Recipients of the award are selected from among teacher grant proposals in the areas of US History and/or World Geography. The purposes of the award are twofold: to encourage the study of the United States’ economic, environmental, ethnic, racial, or cultural past with a view toward improving one’s knowledge of the history of the United States, and to encourage the study of World Geography with a view toward promoting and increasing geographic literacy in the classroom. The award consists of a $1,000 stipend (in addition to the Foundation’s funding of the teacher grant). The award may be used to pay for travel to research sites, stipends, course tuition, and supplies directly related to the teacher grant.

The following criteria are considered in selecting the recipient(s) of the Charlie Baker Legacy Award:

•  merit of the proposed project
•  clarity of expression in describing the project
•  how the educator(s) will use the project to improve the quality of instruction
•  how outcomes will be evaluated and disseminated

The first annual Charlie Baker Legacy Award was presented in May 2008 to Heath and Driscoll School educators Jen Doubilet, Amy Neale, Jen Thompson, and Marcy Prager, who will gain first-hand knowledge of the Native American Hopi culture by visiting the Oraibi village in Arizona. They will focus on how the high desert geography influenced Hopi life and will compile an “oral history” of the culture to share with second grade students in the Social Studies Hopi unit.