The National History Day (NHD) organization announced on June 7 that Andrew Ivy, international studies (history) teacher at International Community School was one of eight finalists for the 2005 Richard T. Farrell Teacher of Merit Award for outstanding success in teaching history. On June 16, at the NHD awards ceremony, they announced that he had won the award!
They described the award as being one that is given annually to a teacher who develops and uses creative methods to make history interesting for students. They said that Andrew Ivy had designed curricula for all different history departments, an achievement that had given him a base from which to develop successful NHD school programs.
He incorporated NHD into his school curriculum and found great success in using NHD to develop student writing, research, and reading skills. The students became very engaged in using primary source documents and exploring history.
Ivy was first recognized as a finalist at the NHD welcome ceremony on June 12 at the University of Maryland. As the winner, he will now receive $1,000, a commemorative plaque and a collection of historical documentaries from PBS Video, the largest video archive ever assembled specifically for educators.
ICS also sent Anastasia Shabalin, a ninth grader, to the national competition. She placed 12th nationally in the senior individual performance category for her piece "Why Books Don't Burn: A History of Literary Censorship" for which she also received the outstanding state entry award.[[In-content Ad]]
