Twenty-nine educators and staff will venture into "the State of Superior” as Wisconsin Teachers of Local Culture offers the next in its ongoing series of cultural tours of Wisconsin. Annually since 2006, WTLC has taken teachers to meet unsung community heroes and visit little known cultural enclaves while modeling ways to study local culture as curriculum. The approach is interdisciplinary; the pace is lively; the discoveries are extraordinary.

This year’s tour explores Wisconsin’s northwestern sector. The tour will search out what sets this area apart culturally, economically, politically, historically and geographically. We plan to:

• visit several Ojibwe reservations;
• explore mining practice and policy in the Penokee-Gogebic Range;
• learn on-site about the Lake Superior watershed and shoreline;
• stay overnight at a former CCC camp in the Chequamegon National Forest;
• meet traditional artists whose work derives from their cultural heritage and physical surroundings;
• examine the dynamics and damage of severe weather in Burnett County;
• exchange ideas with area teachers who have designed local culture projects;
• visit stronghold ethnic communities like Finns in Hurley;
• delight in local food traditions.

Graduate credits are available for a separate fee. For details, go to http://csumc.wisc.edu/WTLC.

WTLC Here at Home Cultural Tours are designed for the needs of K-12 educators who wish to incorporate local culture into their classrooms - especially teachers who want to create projects to study their local communities. Tour faculty and guest speakers include scholars, cultural and natural resource specialists, artists, musicians and local residents. Participants will reflect on and discuss curricular applications of the week's experiences. This tour is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. WTLC organizational partners include the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, Chippewa Valley Museum, and Wisconsin Arts Board.