MWM Education and Programs

On July 11th, the Military Women’s Memorial team had the opportunity to present at the Virginia War Memorial’s Teacher Institute: Virginia and the Great War. The MWM team, consisting of Jessie Henn (Programs and Education), Amy Poe (Collections Manager), and fellow Corinne Davenport, traveled to Richmond in the MWM van, raising awareness of the Memorial from the road. This trip was made possible thanks to the Loud and Clear: Amplifying HERstory in the Classroom grant MWM received through Virginia Humanities. Due in part to letters of support from the Virginia War Memorial, MWM was the proud recipient of this grant, so it was especially rewarding to present content from the grant there. 

The Loud and Clear grant provides MWM with funds to contract graphic design work for a series of lessons on the contributions of military women to American history, as well as to attend various events and conferences to raise awareness of our educational content and get educational resources into the hands of teachers. 

The presentation both informed the teachers about the history of the Military Women’s Memorial, as well as the wide variety of resources available to teachers, whether at the memorial or online. Teachers got the chance to experience our Color of Freedom Bingo activity that is based on our Color of Freedom: Honoring the Diversity of America’s Servicewomen exhibit.

As the focus of the Teacher Institute was on the Great War, a slightly abbreviated version of the upcoming lesson plan, Service and Suffrage: How Women’s WWI Service won them the Vote, was presented. This is one of the lesson plans that is set to undergo graphic design through the Loud and Clear grant. Teachers were able to see first-hand the materials that come with our lesson plans. All lessons come in three pieces – the lesson plan itself, a resource packet that includes primary sources and questions/ activities based on those primary sources, and a PowerPoint presentation. All teachers who attended the Teacher institute left with two completed lesson plans – And Still, They Served: Black Servicewomen in World War II, as well as One Small Step for Women: American Servicewomen in the Space Race, along with other print material detailing the educational resources MWM offers. 

MWM’s educational materials can be found at GoOpenVA.org, an open source educational aggregator site. The site will be updated as more lesson plans are completed thanks to the Loud and Clear grant. 

MWM has plans to attend further events in our efforts to get our educational resources into the hands of educators.  Come see us at the Virginia Association of School Librarians Conference November 1-3 in Chantilly, VA.