Troy High teacher selected for C-SPAN fellowship

TROY — Ryan Werenka, a teacher at Troy High School, has been selected as one of six educators in C-SPAN’s 2023 Teacher Fellowship program.

For the second year, Werenka will collaborate with C-SPAN’s education relations team this summer to create content for C-SPAN Classroom, the network’s free online resource for teachers, students and the public.

“C-SPAN’s educator community represents some of the finest teachers in the country,” Craig McAndrew, director of C-SPAN education relations, said in an email. “We’re excited to work closely with Ryan again this summer, during our 30th annual teacher fellowship, to expand and improve our digital educational offerings for teachers and students across the country.”

Werenka said he is glad to once again be working in the program and making a difference in classrooms all over the country.

“I was really, really excited,” he remarked. “It is such an opportunity to work with C-SPAN and network with teachers from around the country. I was one of five last year and one of six this year. The people you’re with are the cream of the crop, so to be counted among them is a real blessing.”

Werenka said he is focusing on creating preparation materials for students as they study for Advanced Placement exams.

“The classes I teach, half the exam score is on four written free-response questions,” he said. “I’ve noticed that a lot of students struggle with this written part of the exam. Since the College Board has rewritten the exam so many times … they don’t have many (available) prep questions. I have gone through it so many times, I know how to prepare students for the test, and I want to provide that insight and preparation material to other educators. … This year I am doing more quantitative analysis, which is looking at things like graphs and maps and answering questions based on that. Those are some of the prompts the written questions are usually based off of.”

His projects are based on the same test prep resources he provides for his own students.

“I teach AP U.S. government and AP comparative government, and I am working with another teacher from California to create some of these new resources,” Werenka explained. “My students scored higher than all the averages for the state and country, so I think those practice questions really come in handy.”

The group is working virtually throughout July to complete these materials.

“We had our first meeting on July 5. So far, it is going well. We’ve already completed one project already. We hope to create eight or nine by the end of July,” Werenka said. “I’m working as one of six fellows.”

He added that he applied for the program after enjoying being part of it last year.

“I got the same fellowship last year, and it was so much fun working with C-SPAN that I applied again,” said Werenka. “They must have enjoyed working with me too. I also have had friends who have done it. They posted about it on Twitter last year, which is what inspired me to apply the first time.”

The classroom resources they are creating will be online prior to the start of the next school year.

“If you go to www.cspan.org/classroom, on the far right of the page is a tab that says ‘featured resources,’ and find some of the resources from last year,” said Werenka. “That way, you can see some of the things I created.”