Molly Smith, an Upper School history teacher at Friends School of Baltimore, has been named the 2018 Maryland History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, an American history nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the knowledge and understanding of American history through K-12 educational programs and resources.
Ms. Smith, a Friends alumna, will receive $1,000 at a ceremony in her honor. With fellow Gilder Lehrman honorees – one from each state, the District of Columbia, U.S .Territories, and Department of Defense schools – she is now a candidate for the National History Teacher of the Year Award, which will be announced in September 2018.
Describing his longtime colleague as a “teacher-leader, whose reflective practice inspires others,” Friends Upper School Principal Steve McManus says, “Molly has shaped the History Department at Friends by laying out and modeling a vision of teaching that is inquiry-based, heavily reliant on student choice, and organized on themes and questions rather than a chronological march through content.”
Now in its 234th year, Friends School of Baltimore is a college preparatory Quaker school serving students in Pre-K – 12th grade. Friends’ commitment to coeducation is grounded in the School’s centuries’ old Quaker practice of seeking truth from many sources. Simply put, we believe students gain a deeper understanding of complex issues when dialogue is informed by the full range of human experience. For more information, visit friendsbalt.org.
