2006 Dorothy Howard
and Robinson-Roeder-Ward winners
This year's Dorothy Howard Award recipient, The Iowa Arts Council, spearheaded by Riki Saltzman, received an award of $100 for its project entitled "Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions." This is an online learning guide available at http://www.uni.edu/iowaonline/folklife/intro/index.htm
"Iowa Folklife" provides teachers and students with a variety of resources to explore folklife and community traditions in Iowa. These materials offer K-12 educators resources for teaching folklife in the classroom and for comparing and contrasting their own traditions with those in Iowa.
Included in this online resource are content-related connections, video and audio recordings, suggestions for student projects (cultural festival, museum exhibition, musical recording, community archive, etc.) and suggestions for engaging senior citizens in documenting their traditions. It is an online learning guide which is comprehensive, inclusive, and easy for teachers and students to access and use at no cost.
This project serves as a model for folklore and education workers, students, and senior citizens who wish to document time-honored folk traditions in their communities.
An honorable mention was awarded to Bermuda Connections: A Cultural Resource Guide for Classrooms created by the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and spearheaded by Diana N'Diaye.
The 2006 Robinson-Roeder-Ward fellowship was awarded to Mark Wagler, a 4th and 5th-grade teacher at Randall School in Madison, WI. Unfortunately, due to a death in the family, he was unable to attend the AFS and present on the local-culture fieldwork he has done with his students. The fellowship was then awarded to Kristin Larsen, coordinator of gifted and talented education at Northwoods Community Secondary School in Rhinelander, WI. Details of Kristin's folklore and education work can be found in the article on last year's AFS workshop.
If you are interested in serving on the committee to award the 2007 Robinson-Roeder-Ward fellowship, please contact section convener Sean Galvin at seanga@lagcc.cuny.edu.
Folklore and Education is the newsletter of the Folklore and Education section of the American Folklore Society.
Individuals may join the Folklore and Education Section without joining the American Folklore Society. Annual dues at $10. See the Online Membership Form at www.afsnet.org/membership/service/.
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