This Reflection on Public Presentations and Performances was shown at the Vermont State House on May 13th by Alice Leeds as part of the award ceremony for receiving the 2010 Governor’s Heritage Award for Outstanding Educator.

The Governor’s Heritage Award Program was established by the Vermont Folklife Center and Vermont Life Magazine to recognize exemplary Vermonters whose work as artists or educators perpetuates the mix of cultural traditions that make up Vermont’s distinctive cultural heritage.

Alice Leeds of Bristol, this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award, is a fifth/sixth grade teacher at the Lincoln Community School in Lincoln.

As colleague Nancy McClaran observes, “Alice uses place-based teaching to root students in their immediate surroundings by engaging their hearts and minds.” In 2008, Alice and her teaching partner, Donna Wood, undertook a three-month historical study of Franco American culture and child millworkers in Vermont; their 2010 study focused on Vermont dairy farmers and Mexican farm workers, with a special emphasis on Addison County.