Geoff often reminds me that this blog's title has all 3 of our names in it, not just Liam's, and that I should post things about what he and I are up to. It's a good point, and one I have taken, so here is a little bit about what I was doing all last week. Warning--this post has several active links.
This year, after several past attempts, I was finally accepted to the Library of Congress's Summer Teacher Institute. Not to toot my own horn (too much), but this institute selects only 150 teachers from across the nation each summer, so needless to say it was an amazing opportunity and privilege to attend. The purpose of this week was to learn more about how to incorporate primary sources (
definition here) into lessons, thus creating a more inquiry based approach to learning (
definition here). I enjoyed my week and learned a lot. I cannot wait to take what I have learned back to the teachers in my building. I truly think this could liven up so many lessons. I know I certainly would have enjoyed this kind of exploration and learning over traditional teaching!
While there, the LOC staff built in some really nice things for us--we got to tour the
Jefferson building (the pretty main building people think of when they hear Library of Congress) and see some of the exhibits.
I got to see the oldest known handwritten Bible, along with one of two known copies of a complete Gutenberg Bible. I also got to see
Thomas Jefferson's personal library, which he sold to Congress after the British burned the original Library of Congress in the War of 1812 (and yes, you CAN check-out these books if you have a library card and a genuine need for the information within these books! The books just can't leave the building.).
But by far the coolest exhibit involved the rough drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. One very awesome thing about the LOC, is that they have digitized many of their holdings. You can see an impressive interactive showing of these
founding documents, along with the contents of
Lincoln's pockets the night he was killed, and photos of child laborers at Avondale Mill in my hometown of Pell City, AL. My mom (who came up to keep Liam while I participated in this) and I spent some time looking at those photos in particular, trying to determine if any of
these young boys were my great-grandfather, Howard Brown, who quit school after 8th grade to go to work there.
All in all, it was an awesome week: Liam got some quality time with his Mims, and I got to play around in one of the COOLEST places in DC while improving my teaching habits. It was a win-win for everyone!
