Annual Judicial Teachers’ Institute educates 23 Wisconsin teachers about the courts and judicial system

March 1, 2007 – Twenty-three middle school and high school teachers from around Wisconsin have been chosen to participate in the state’s eighth annual From the courtroom to the classroom: the Judicial Teachers’ Institute from March 1 to 3, in Madison.

The intensive, two and a half day program gives educators a variety of new tools for teaching about the courts and the judicial system in a way that is relevant and interesting to their students.

Presenters include: Wisconsin Supreme Court justices N. Patrick Crooks and Louis B. Butler Jr.; Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Ralph M. Ramirez; Municipal Court judges Derek Mosley, Milwaukee, and Thomas J. Alisankus, Evansville; U.W. Professor Diana Hess, who regularly teaches at a similar institute at the U.S. Supreme Court; Lee Arbetman, a national expert on civic education from Washington, D.C. and director of U.S. programs for Street Law, Inc.; Appellate Public Defender Ellen Henak, Milwaukee; and staff attorneys from the supreme court and court of appeals.

Members of the supreme court, representatives of the State Bar, and U.W. faculty members will welcome the teachers to Madison at a reception this evening.

The Institute is a joint effort of the State Bar Law-Related Education Committee, the U.W. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the Wisconsin Law Foundation, and the Wisconsin Municipal Judges Association, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The Judicial Teachers’ Institute is funded in part by the Municipal Judges Association, the State Bar, and the Wisconsin Law Foundation.