The Folger Shakespeare Library congratulates the 25 middle and high school teachers who participated in the Folger’s 19th Teaching Shakespeare Institute (TSI) — an intensive, hands-on, three-week course for secondary school English teachers — from June 28-July 17, 2026, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in the nation’s capital.

“This is my first Teaching Shakespeare Institute, and I have been blown away by the power of this longstanding Folger Education program,” shared David Kilpatrick, director of learning and education programs at the Folger. “TSI gives teachers extraordinary opportunities to deepen their classroom practice and the chance to be learners themselves—to engage deeply with scholarship, performance, collections, and one another. Most of all, I have been moved by the community that forms here, led by the care and expertise of our extraordinary faculty and staff and embraced by the teachers who come together to collaborate on three intensive weeks of learning.”

Jim Grayson of Montgomery County High School and Alicia Wilson of Daviess County High School were selected from Kentucky.

For more than four decades, the Folger has invited teachers nationwide to apply for the Teaching Shakespeare Institute, which combines the best of scholarship, performance, and classroom pedagogy. The 2026 program continued this tradition, bringing participants into conversation at the Folger Shakespeare Library for an exploration of two of Shakespeare’s tragedies: “Romeo and Juliet” and “Antony and Cleopatra.”

During the three weeks of TSI, participants engaged with the Folger’s unparalleled collection of Shakespeare materials and documents, manuscripts, and books from the early modern era; attended seminars and workshops with leading scholars, mentor teachers, and Folger staff; and developed their own classroom-ready materials rooted in the Folger Method, which emphasizes active, language-centered learning that helps students make discoveries through close reading, collaboration, and performance.

Kilpatrick added, “These 25 remarkable teachers will return home and have an impact far beyond their own classrooms, reaching fellow educators, schools, students, and communities across the country, while remaining a network that will continue to support and uplift one another’s work.”

Twenty-five teachers from 20 states and the District of Columbia were selected from a large and competitive pool of national applicants. The National Endowment for the Humanities has long supported TSI and provides a stipend for travel, lodging, and expenses for all participants. Participants also can earn graduate credits from Trinity Washington University.