Micaela Zwick and Monique Crane Celebration of Excellence recognizes Connecticut Public school teachers who have developed exemplary classroon projects. The program aims to honor the dedicated, creative efforts of those working with young people, and increase public awareness of these efforts. This initiative requires teachers to share their work through publication, workshops, and the Internet.
Eligible projects have to be developed and successfully used for two years.
Application requires a large commitment to the project, the application itself, and to the follow up activities. This project was designed as an interdisciplinary unit incorporating the major disciplines of language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Science, and the student s choice of two special subject areas, i.e. art, music, etc. Lacking the electronic technology of today, people needed to rely on word of mouth and the printed word for their information about any topic that was newsworthy. Using the time period of the Revolutionary War, students were actively involved in seeking and applying information learned in academic and special area classes that could be expressed authentically in an article that might have been published in a newspaper of the times. Then the students assembled their articles using a 4-page format, which included advertisements, obituaries, recipes, games and puzzles for children, original lines of music, and classified ads, all authentic to the period.