(New York, New York) - Robert Lingenfelter, an American history and social studies teacher at Skyline Middle School in Wilmington, has been named Delaware History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Preserve America.  Lingenfelter has been teaching for thirteen years, all of them at Skyline Middle School, in the Red Clay Consolidated School District.

“This award gives us the chance to recognize great history teachers across the country,” said Lesley Herrmann, Executive Director of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. “It puts exceptional educators front and center.”

Lingenfelter, a Middletown resident, will receive a $1,000 honorarium and will now be in the running for the National History Teacher of the Year Award to be selected this fall.  Skyline Middle School’s library will also receive a core archive of history books and materials from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 

“The reason the selection committee selected Bob was due to his high quality teaching practices,” said Preston Shockley, Education Associate for Delaware’s Department of Education and state coordinator for the History Teacher of the Year program.  “Bob’s students participate in simulations and hands on performance tasks that help them envision the impact they can have on the world.  Individual student needs are met through the use of pre-assessment, differentiated instructional strategies, student choice, and post-assessment data analysis.”

Regarding his approach to teaching, Lingenfelter stated, ‘My philosophy is creating an environment where my students can relive America’s past, understand her journey, and learn that this great country is theirs to keep too. They must take a stand for what they believe in, defend that position, and make their contributions to help those less fortunate.” Added Lingenfelter, “My students are my energy, my future, my heroes.”

Now in its fifth year, the History Teacher of the Year Award is designed to promote and celebrate the teaching of American history in classrooms across the United States. It honors one exceptional K-12 teacher of American history from each state and U.S. territory. This year, only middle and high school teachers were eligible for nomination.

The selection of the state winner is based upon several criteria, including: at least three years of classroom experience in teaching American history; a deep career commitment to teaching American history, which includes local and state history; evidence of creativity and imagination in the classroom that address literacy and content beyond state standards; close attention to primary documents, artifacts, historic sites, and other primary materials of history, including oral history; and evidence of thoughtful assessment of student achievement.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. The Institute serves teachers, students, scholars, and the general public. It helps create history-centered schools, organizes seminars and programs for educators, produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions, sponsors lectures by eminent historians, and administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state through its partnership with Preserve America.  The Institute also awards the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and George Washington Book Prizes, and offers fellowships for scholars to work in the Gilder Lehrman Collection.  The Institute maintains two websites, http://www.gilderlehrman.org/ and the quarterly online journal http://www.historynow.org/.

Preserve America is a White House initiative that encourages greater shared knowledge about the nation’s past and increased local participation in preserving the country’s cultural and natural heritage assets. For more information, visit http://www.preserveamerica.gov/.

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