Through the VA Teacher Ambassador Program, educators in three states are learning lessons about veterans and patriotism.

When Jennifer Reblin, a teacher at Clay-Chalkville Middle School near Birmingham, Ala., contacted the local VA medical center about how to start a Veterans Day program at her school, she had no idea she would be invited to a professional development opportunity. "She was in search of information and when I told her about the upcoming workshop, she asked me to hold the phone and ran to her principal's office to get permission to come," said Bertram Perry, staff assistant to the director at the Birmingham VA Medical Center (VAMC).

Dr. Lesa Woodby leads a group of teachers through an age sensitivity training exercise.

Reblin is one of about 100 teachers who attended workshops held last October at the Birmingham VAMC and the other medical centers in Veterans Integrated Service Network 7 (VISN 7, Atlanta) as part of the VA Teacher Ambassador Program, which offers lessons and resources on veterans and patriotism to K-12 educators. The workshops are designed to forge partnerships with local schools by providing a glimpse into the lives of American servicemen and women, their contributions to our nation's history and patriotism, and the role VA plays in the lives of the nation's veterans.

The VA Teacher Ambassador Program originated last year at the Birmingham VAMC after the director, Y C Parris, asked Perry to come up with a way to introduce the VA Kids Web site (www.va.gov/kids ) to the local education community. "Having formerly been a high school teacher, I knew that if we developed a workshop and helpful resources for educators, the schools would be excited to attend,” said Perry.

The first year's program proved so successful, it caught the attention of the network director, who asked the VISN 7 Communications and Customer Service Sub-Council to expand the program network-wide. Program facilitator Perry held a train-the-trainer session for representatives from medical centers throughout Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, who walked away with the tools to implement their own programs.

The "Heroes and Heroines: the Faces of Freedom" workshop provided many interactive activities, including age sensitivity training, lesson planning and lesson sharing. Each teacher in attendance received a binder with lesson ideas and resources, a CD containing video and Web site resources, photographs of veterans memorials and artifacts, and newsreel footage from World War I, World War II and the Korean War, and a two-disc DVD set highlighting the importance of Veterans Day, and focusing on the Korean War, POWs, Special Forces in Vietnam, nurses, and what it means to be a veteran.

Junior high teacher Barbara Estes talks with Bertram Perry, VA Teacher Ambassador Program coordinator.

Each facility took advantage of stakeholder relationships by asking local representatives of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Ex-Prisoners of War to participate as guest speakers. World War II and Vietnam era veterans shared their unique perspectives on veterans and war and the importance of educators using veterans as a primary resource when teaching children about war. "The teachers reported how pleased they were to hear personal stories from our speakers," said Damon Stevenson, public affairs officer for the Central Alabama Veterans Healthcare System and workshop facilitator.

Wayne Watts, World War II prisoner of war, speaks to teachers at the Birmingham VAMC.

Facilitators were not the only ones who participated in this effort. At the Columbia, S.C., VAMC, all services decided to pitch in by creating baskets of school supplies for the teachers. "All of our services took a very active role creating baskets for this program," said Xavier Teasley, one of the facilitators there. "The teachers were grateful for the supplies and the time and effort that went into them." In addition to the school resources, all participating teachers were educated on the unique mission and vision of the VA health care system. Each group was taken on an extensive tour of the facilities.

"We welcomed the teachers at the main entrance," said Alfred Williams, Voluntary Service program manager and workshop facilitator for the Dublin, Ga., VAMC. "At the end of the training, we took them on a tour of the facility, and all of the teachers commented that moving around kept their attention and they were excited about taking the learning tools we had given them back to the students."

Seeing the VA mission in action had a clear impact on the attendees. One teacher participant was so affected by what she saw, she later wrote asking if she could volunteer during her summer vacation.

Results from the workshops have been dramatic. Many schools are becoming involved with the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project after being introduced to the program at the workshops. One school has started a Valentines for Veterans initiative, in which students make valentines for patients and deliver them during the National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans the week of Valentine's Day.

Cards and letters poured in for Veterans Day and Christmas, and students and teachers are becoming more involved with activities for the patients. "The VA is lending a hand to schools and letting them know that Veterans Day is every day," Perry said.

One of the activities the teachers participated in was writing a brief reflective statement about what being a veteran meant to them. Kathy Kilpatrick, a fourth-grade teacher at Thompson Intermediate School near Birmingham, answered the question this way: "Today I know what a veteran is. He (or she) is a person who "put on hold" or gave up a huge portion of his life to serve, put his life on the line, fed hungry children, worked in 115-degree weather, lived in a hole he dug in the desert and missed his family. He is a man who returns not the same as when he left. He knows first hand the riches and value of educating our children. He has seen things in the world he can never share. The rest of his life will be different because of his service."

The Birmingham VAMC received first-place honors for this initiative in the Communications/ Special Events category in the 2005 Veterans Health Administration Excellence in Public Affairs Program. This effort will continue to impact local schools, with teachers sharing best practices. All of the medical centers in the VA Southeast Network will continue to offer this program to all educators in the region. For more information on the VA Teacher Ambassador Program, contact Perry at Bertram.Perry@med.va.gov or (205) 933-4385.

By Jeffrey Hester
January/February 2006 issue of VAnguard magazine

Most of the VISN 7 Medical Centers are offering this program again during October 2006. An additional workshop has been added for teachers that attended previously. The Birmingham VA is piloting a workshop entitled "Incorporating Veterans into the Curriculum through Technology." The focus of this workshop is to introduce teachers to free software programs that help them use digital photographs and videos to create stories. In turn, this helps teachers tap into one of America's best resources for living history: our veterans.