History teacher on the road this summer

Barry Porterfield |, Pauls Valley Daily Democrat, Okla.
·2 min read

May 8—By Barry Porterfield — bporterfield@pvdemocrat.com

It's going to be a summertime road trip for a Pauls Valley history teacher after he was chosen for not one but two big-time honors.

Nolan Pullen spends most of the year working at PV High School, but this summer, he will be heading to Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia after he was selected to take part in workshops at both places.

In both cases, Pullen wrote essays as part of his applications to the White House History Teacher Institute and the National Constitution Center.

"These two are pretty well known," Pullen said. "I threw my hat in the ring and didn't think I would get it.

"Now I can learn more and bring that back to the classroom and be a better teacher."

With the White House Institute, Pullen was one of the 30 teachers from across the country selected for the week-long series of workshops at the White House.

"We'll learn how to use the White House more in the classroom, learn how to help you be a better teacher," he said, adding this one is scheduled for early July.

The actual White House building is the focus here as Pullen said they will look closer at the various remodels of the structure, the year 1812 when it burned down and how presidents like Lyndon Johnson used the White House to intimidate others.

"We'll learn more information that we can incorporate into lessons in the classroom."

Another trip is to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia the last week in June.

Workshops here will examine Constitutional amendments that came during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War in the 1860s.

There's a trip this month to New York City as Pullen will accompany three Pauls Valley students who earned a worldwide honor for a song.

The students, all sophomores at PV High School this year — Jaspur Davis, Maggie Warren and Elijah Gamble — teamed up to earn the prestigious honor of being selected in the international Hamilton Education Competition.

The three put together a song and skit on America's first-ever spy, Nathan Hale, which was one of 20 schools in the entire world selected as winners in the competition, earning them a trip to NYC.