Cultural Educator of the Year
Jacqui Dexter - Va. Outstanding Cultural Educator
“Since joining the VIF program, I have been committed to one of the central aims: bringing the world to America. As well as my classroom teaching duties, I have therefore aimed to provide many opportunities for my students to experience the world from a different perspective.”

Jacquelyn Dexter • United Kingdom United Kingdom
Virginia Outstanding Cultural Educator

French and Spanish teacher
Battlefield High ▪ Prince William County Schools, Virginia

This second-term VIF teacher’s classroom is decorated with cultural displays, and Jacqui Dexter’s lesson plans regularly contain activities to broaden her students’ knowledge of European countries. For example, students in her French 3 class produce weekly bulletins on news from France, incorporating technology such as PowerPoint. She also works with teachers from different departments to share her cultural background. For instance, she visits English classes, lending her British accent to the reading of Shakespearean plays.

Dexter, whose husband, David, is a VIF teacher at Godwin Middle School (and this year’s Virginia Cultural Educator of the Year), has established a partnership between Battlefield and a school in the United Kingdom to create cultural learning opportunities for students. The schools will be linked via video-conferencing, so students and teachers can share ideas and materials. Dexter is also working with a colleague to bring a group of 18 British students at The Ridings to Gar-Field High School in Virginia, a trip that will give both British and American students an opportunity explore the political and cultural similarities between the two countries.

Assistant Principal Christopher McMillan, Battlefield High:

“As a VIF teacher from the United Kingdom, teaching French and Spanish, Mrs. Dexter has incorporated many aspects of the different cultures of Europe into her lessons, and shared them with the faculty.”