Where do the best lessons in life come from? From experience!

    Poplar Springs Elementary School teacher Patti Edwards was one of 100 social studies educators selected from the United States to travel to Germany on a two-week, all-expenses-paid study/travel seminar through Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP).

     TOP seeks the best and most qualified K-12 social studies educators in the United States and provides them the opportunity to experience Modern Germany in the most dramatic way possible: In person.

    Between June 12 and Aug. 8, Edwards went from Frankfurt to Berlin to Hamburg and cities in between to sample Germany through sight, sound, touch and taste.

    “I love to teach about cultural geography, and my experience in Germany gave me true hands-on experience that I will be able to share with my students,” Edwards said.

    “History became real as I walked in the footsteps of many historical people; sat on benches where prisoners of war sat in their concentration camp; and touched remnants of the Berlin Wall,” she said.

    Highlights of the summer study/travel seminar include: question-and-answer sessions with executives of the Federal Foreign office, German curriculum developers, authors, and German teachers; visits to German schools; a personal tour of the Reichstag; visits to various museums; and visits to examples of Modern German industries.

    “It is a teacher’s job is to bring the world to life for students, so I was thrilled when Mrs. Edwards was selected to participate in TOP,” said Poplar Springs Elementary Principal LaVonda Germany.

     “As a teacher, Mrs. Edwards has always shared her expertise and love of learning with all the students of Poplar Springs Elementary, and this experience will help her to bring the world a little closer to PSE,” Germany added.

     In an era when transatlantic understanding is more important than ever, TOP was founded to foster such understanding by providing K-12 social studies educators, social studies curriculum developers, and social studies methods professors with lessons on how to comparatively teach about a foreign country in depth, using Modern Germany as the primary example. 

    The Transatlantic Outreach Program was founded in 2002 and is sponsored by the Foreign Office of Germany, the Goethe-Institut, Deutsche Bank AG, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung. In addition to coordinating the summer study/travel seminars, TOP supports educators throughout the United States by supplying textbook and wall maps, and by sponsoring district, state, regional and national workshops. TOP is directed by Klaus Brodersen at the Goethe-Institute in Washington, D.C.

    • Social studies educators interested in the Transatlantic Outreach Program should visit the Website www.goethe.de/top or request a copy of the Modern Germany Update newsletter by sending an e-mail to top@washington.goethe.org.