Did you know that there are fourteen blogs published by various divisions of the Library of Congress? These blogs are full of useful insights and can direct you to primary sources or other information that you can make use of in your classroom.
Here are a sampling of some of the blog posts that have gotten us talking, stirred up ideas, or encouraged blog posts of our own:
In “What’s the Story?”: Solving Mystery Photos from Picture This, the blog from the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, Kristi Finefield focuses on using details to identify the story behind a particular image. Her suggestions on what patrons used to identify the story behind a particular photograph will help students build their visual literacy skills.
During the celebrations of National Poetry Month we spend a lot of time looking out From the Catbird Seat, the blog of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. The Library’s current Teacher in Residence, Rebecca Newland, has written a series of posts for From the Catbird Seat. Her most recent post, Reading Poetry in the Classroom: Bell Ringers provides lesson ideas that help bring poetry into students’ lives. Also we’ve been talking about the two webinars that the Poetry and Literature Center will have this month as part of their poetry month celebrations.
We also found ourselves re-reading Jennifer Harbster’s post from Inside Adams “What’s Happening in Science Education” . Her post shows how primary sources from the Library of Congress can help with STEM education activities as well as help students achieve success working with the Next Generation Science Standards.
Since a number of the staff in Educational Outreach are crafters, we were excited to read Julie Miller’s post in the Library of Congress blog. George Washington and the Weaving of American History focuses on Thomas Davis, the head of the weaving workshop at Mount Vernon. In addition to learning about the kinds of cloth created in the weaving workshop, teachers can use the weaving workshop record book or Washington’s ledger to develop mathematics word problems.
We hope you will explore all of the Library of Congress blogs for information you can use in the classroom or with your family and friends. Let us know about any posts you have enjoyed in the comments.