Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP)
TOP—a partnership between the German Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, Deutsche Bank, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung—seeks to encourage cross-cultural dialogue and to provide Social Studies educators from the United States and Canada with information about modern Germany. TOP produces teaching materials, disseminates these materials through hundreds of in-service teacher-training workshops every year, and sends educators to Germany every summer on all-expenses-paid study tours.
Pillar I: Materials Production
The foundation of TOP lies in its teaching materials. These materials include textbooks, lesson plans, videos, web-based content, wall maps, posters, and more. The TOP teaching materials support traditional Social Studies curriculum topics, provide the teacher with ready-to-use lesson plans, and provide students with practice related to Social Studies skills in the context of a comparative United States to Germany approach. They model effective teaching strategies as well as Social Studies content and process skills.
Pillar II: Workshops
The TOP staff attends over a dozen Social Studies educator conferences every year at the state, regional, and national levels. Typically, three workshops are held per conference. Additionally, hundreds of educators in the “TOP teacher-trainer network” lead workshops of their own at the school and district levels every year. Educators who attend such workshops receive TOP materials at no charge in exchange for attendance information.
Pillar III: Study Tours
Where do the best lessons in life come from? From Experience! Thanks to the generosity of its program partners, TOP is able to offer all-expenses-paid study tours to Social Studies educators. All expenses, including domestic and transatlantic airfares, hotel, and meal costs, are paid for by TOP. The study tours are designed to expose participants to many aspects of modern Germany, focusing on German politics, business, education, and culture. TOP works hand-in-hand with the International Visitors Program (Besucherdienst) to ensure an engaging, learning-intensive, two-weeks abroad. The study tours take place during the summer.
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