NORRISTOWN — Providing digital resources and the know-how to utilize them has become increasingly important for teachers who want to prepare their students for the 21st-century workforce. Cathy Campbell, library media specialist at Whitemarsh Elementary School in the Colonial School District, will spend an entire week at the Library of Congress learning how to do just that.
Campbell was selected from a pool of 400 applicants that included teachers, librarians, and administrators to attend Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Summer Teacher Institute July 21-25.
During the weeklong institute, Campbell will have the opportunity to peruse the millions of primary sources available at the library, while working with library specialists and subject experts to learn how these primary sources can be used in the classroom.
“It is my job to make sure I learn as much as I can about all the resources available for my students and faculty and provide them access,” Campbell said, pointing to statewide changes in curriculum that target these types of skills. “Now, with the Common Core education standards’ focus on nonfiction, the access to the wealth of primary sources through the Library of Congress will be very helpful in achieving those standards — not to mention bringing history, literature and science to life,” she said.
For Campbell, teaching students the difference between primary and secondary sources is vital to a student’s understanding of a subject, and artifacts, newspaper articles, and journal entries can reveal aspects of an event that would not be captured by historians or authors writing after the fact. Even more important, Campbell said, is for students to be able to critically analyze things they find on the Internet to maximize the effect of their research.
“As a library media specialist, I work with students and faculty to help them access and understand authentic resources,” she said. “Especially in today’s digital age where many believe everything they see on the Internet. I hope that more people realize that even with knowledge at our fingertips through digital technology, we still have the need for our library and the specialists that work in them to make sure authentic information is available and accessible.”
Campbell said she was excited to share what she learns with other teachers and faculty members in the district. In the fall, she plans to report her findings at the district’s best practices fair in the fall, where she will give a presentation that details how to best use the Library of Congress’ resources in the classroom.
In particular, Campbell said, she sees opportunity to integrate the resources provided by the library’s website into projects already being implemented in Colonial schools.
“We have a project at Whitemarsh called ‘Bring a Veteran to School,’ where students get to learn firsthand from these people who talk about their experiences in the military or war,” she said. “The Library of Congress has an entire section of stories from veterans, including people in the armed forces, but also nurses. This is something that would connect with what we already do.”
Many of the library’s resources and treasures may also be accessed by the public through the library’s website at www.loc.gov.