Two lucky, local high school social studies teachers attended an all-expenses-paid two-day teachers conference in Washington D.C.
C-SPAN, a group of channels providing public affairs programing on national government, invited teachers Jamila Baldes-Sumner of Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics and Victor Cristiano of Mount St. Michael Academy to attend C-SPAN Classroom’s 2016 Educators Conference.
The conference for a select group of teachers took place on Thursday, July 14 and Friday, July 15 in the nation’s capital. Travel, hotel accommodations and meals were provided free-of-charge.
The educators’ conference gave Blades-Sumner and Cristiano an opportunity to learn how C-SPAN programing and resources could be incorporated into their lesson plans to engage their students. They also gained more knowledge about the programming they produce.
Blades-Sumner said that her students have participated for the past four years in a C-SPAN video documentary contest called StudentCam.
She learned about the educator’s conference from the television channels education department, she said.
At the conference, Blades-Sumner learned to edit footage better, she said.
“I learned how to clip (edit) the videos,” said Blades-Sumner. “It was really cool to have someone walk you through that process.”
She said C-SPAN provided the lesson plans and classroom ideas.
The organization is funded by a monthly six-cent contribution per each cable TV subscriber.
“Everyone I spoke to at the conference told us how much they admired teachers and the work that they do,” said Blades-Sumner after the conference. “It was a wonderful experience.”
Cristiano, who will be entering his fourth year of teaching, said that he first learned of the conference from a Mount St. Michael administrator.
The teacher, who instructs students in freshman and sophomore Global Studies and Advanced Placement World History, said that he uses C-SPAN educational materials with his classes and that he is a strong proponent of this material.
“One of the things that we are going to be working on is really integrating the kinds of programming and resources that C-SPAN offers into our everyday lessons,” said Cristiano before the conference.
“I am really looking to bring C-SPAN not only to my classroom, but my colleagues classroom’s as well,” he said.
C-SPAN materials on the web at c-spa
The all-expenses paid C-SPAN Classroom’s 2016 Educators Conference for teachers is a nice way for the organization to give back and say ‘thank you’ for the work teachers do, he said.
“I think it is very generous of C-SPAN to pay for the 30 of us, not just for myself, but the 29 other educators who are going (to Washington D.C.),” said Cristiano.
