This past summer, Mrs. Miriam Klein and Ms. Amy Kerr applied to, were accepted, and took part in the Barringer Research Fellowship that took place at Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, in Virginia. There they studied the history of Thomas Jefferson and created lesson plans that they could implement in the classroom that would be put on the Monticello website. While there, they had access to the Jefferson library and other primary resources about Thomas Jefferson. There was a lot of time for research on this week long trip, but there was also time for tours, meeting with different departments and to go through the museum. Tours of the plantation included a three hour specialized tour about slavery in Monticello. They also met with archeologist and were able to look at things that were dug up from the site. Kerr’s lesson plan ended up being a comparison chart that would have students comparing Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson.

Then right after Monticello, Kerr hopped on a plane to Scotland to learn even more about Thomas Jefferson from expert Frank Cogliano at Edinburgh University. There she did research and created another lesson plan about Thomas Jefferson; this one focusing on comparing his  point of view on the Haitian revolution and the French revolution which she said goes hand in hand with the other lesson plan she created while at Monticello. While in Scotland,  Kerr also had some time to do sight-seeing; during which she was able to see the castle used in the filming of the first two Harry Potter movies. She was glad to have completed both of these trips together and is very excited to implement these lesson plans in her AP U.S. History class this year.