Connecting Classrooms

As I sit here on this Independence Day weekend one thought crosses my mind: I hope that aliens don't land and Jeff Daniels has to save us! But seriously this is a good weekend to think about primary sources and their importance. It is a wonderful time to remember that we have a national library that had dedicated itself to the preservation of EVERYTHING imaginable, from books, to documents to historic objects and that many of them are line in places like American Memory..
This summer we will be kicking off a new grant project together with Waynesburg University who is the
Eastern Regional Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Partnership representative

Waynesburg University, as the Eastern Regional TPS Partner, is responsible for disseminating TPS methods and materials to Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia.

Teaching with Primary Sources is funded through the Library of Congress and is administered through the University. The TPS program has only five regional partnerships, each responsible for dissemination of TPS techniques and materials throughout states within the region.

These fine folks and the LOC have provided us with a grant that will allow us to offer a series of Workshops, beginning on July 8th, that will train teachers to use the LOC web resources, demonstrate how to integrate them into multiple disciplines, and we will be offering $300 mini grants to teachers who want to use LOC resources and New York State History Day staff to implement National History Day in their classrooms and schools.
This will give teachers dollars and training to implement the National History Day program, and use the natural on-line resource that is the Library of congress as a source for History Day research.
The grant is geared towards teachers in the Catskill region and much of the training will take place at the DCMO BOCES. Despite that teachers throughout the state are welcome to join with us and apply for the grant applications.
Information and grant applications can be found at The New York State History Day site after July 8th or email me at j.buchinger@nysha.oeg. Happy 4th of July!