WASHINGTON, D.C. and PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — National History Day® (NHD) is pleased to announce the selection of Ms. Samantha Hedden, a teacher at Saint Philomena School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, as one of only 15 educators who will create a valuable new classroom resource. These student guides will be the newest addition to the wealth of materials provided by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Consortium for educators in the United States and around the world.
Over the next several months, Ms. Hedden and the cohort of contributors will work directly with NHD and Library of Congress staff to write and test a series of five student guides based on the five NHD project categories: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, and website. The guides will help students find, analyze, and integrate primary sources from the Library of Congress into their NHD projects. Ms. Hedden’s experience will include advanced virtual training with the Library of Congress and its TPS partners. Upon the guides’ completion, NHD will distribute the series online.
“Ms. Hedden and her fellow contributors bring many years of classroom and project-based teaching experience to this endeavor,” said Dr. Cathy Gorn, National History Day Executive Director. “Through this new series, these teachers will showcase the Library’s primary source collections for the benefit of National History Day students for many years to come. We are grateful for this opportunity to work with the Library of Congress as creation partners for this important project.”
The cohort of 15 teachers will begin its work with National History Day and Library of Congress staff immediately. The educators chosen for the program represent Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
