Teaching with Primary Sources Events

The Teaching with Primary Sources program at Mars Hill University provides free professional development to K-12 teachers with primary source analysis at its core. On campus or at your school, we can design a workshop series that meets your needs.

In-school Workshops

The TPS-Mars Hill staff travels to schools throughout North Carolina to provide free professional development to educators in public, private and charter schools.  Contact Bridget Morton and we can discuss how to best meet your needs.

Free Professional Development Workshops

Can we bring a TPS workshop to your school? As you know, the Teaching with Primary Sources program at Mars Hill University offers free professional development to teachers in public, private and charters schools. If you’ve been to one of our short presentations or a longer workshop, you already know that the interactive strategies that we share can fit into classroom practice across the curriculum and grade levels. Whether it’s a half-day, full day or multi-day workshop, we are happy to find the time, place and format that meets your needs. We are booking now for late spring, summer and the fall semester. Contact Bridget for more information at bmorton@mhu.edu.

TPS Online

Here is an opportunity to take a fully online TPS Level I workshop. The class allows you to work at home or in your classroom – any time of night or day. We’ll cover the same content as a face-to face workshop as you read, watch videos, do a bit of research and engage in online discussions. You’ll complete the course by creating a learning activity for your classroom. We start after the first of the year and stay on track with bi-weekly activities so that you can end the course and start using your new ideas and strategies this school year.

Hybrid TPS Workshops

If totally online classes aren’t for you, we get that! With a minimum of 6 teachers we can create a hybrid class (Face-to-Face meetings at the beginning, middle and end of the class with online work in between) on campus or off. Contact me at awalter@mhu.edu and we can work together to develop professional development that works for you. In between our meetings, you’ll read, watch videos, do a bit of research and engage in online discussions. You’ll complete the course by creating a learning activity for your classroom.

Both courses are free of charge. All materials will be available via our Moodle course management system at http://marshilltps.org/. Contact Bridget at bmorton@mhu.edu to register.

Conference Presentations 

The Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program at Mars Hill University is frequently represented at state and regional conferences.

Special Topics Workshops – National History Day

National History Day is an exciting academic enrichment program that helps students to learn about historical issues, ideas, people, and events and always includes a strong emphasis on using primary sources. The program will help students develop skills in historical research, analysis, critical thinking, organization, and presentation. The Western NC competition will be held in March with state and national competitions following for those who qualify.  For more information about North Carolina’s History Day Program, please contact Jeff Futch – jeff.futch@ncdcr.gov or Lorraine Norwood – lorraine.norwood@ncdcr.govwith any questions or to schedule an on-site visit. They are glad to help.

If you and your colleagues would like to strengthen your skills for using primary sources with your students, contact Bridget at bmorton@mhu.edu to set up a TPS workshop for your school focused on the NHD theme.

Workshops Available for Booking

In addition to the workshops listed below, we can customize a workshop for your school, grade level or content area. Workshops can be face-to-face, on-line or blended.  We will happily travel to your school for a minimum of 6 teachers.  Contact Bridget to discuss what works best for you.

Introducing the Library of Congress

Take a guided tour of the Library’s site, www.loc.gov with emphasis on the needs of busy teachers.   We can schedule this one-hour overview at your convenience, even during a planning block.

Introducing Primary Sources

A hands-on, minds-on workshop where we don’t just talk about primary sources, we use them, handle them, think about them.  As the new standards move primary source analysis to the younger  and younger grades, you’ll learn some strategies that fit your curriculum. You’ll work with primary sources in many formats for every grade level.  With as few as 6 teachers, this workshop is a perfect follow up to Introducing the Library of Congress. From 3 to 6 hours, this is ideal professional development for a ‘Teacher Workday.’

Primary Sources in your Classroom

Much like our Level I Summer Institute, this workshop series is broken into blocks to meet your needs.  We’ll look at primary sources in several formats and model strategies that cross the curriculum.  Two days, three days, or a series of shorter workshops, we can develop the professional development that works for you!

Primary Sources and the North Carolina Learning Standards

With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the changes to the NC Standard Course of Study, younger and younger students are analyzing Primary Sources.  Learn how the free resources of the Library of Congress can help you and your students develop critical thinking skills.

Creating your Own Primary Source Sets

Pull together a topical collection of images, documents, maps, music and more. With your classroom needs in mind, you can collect the artifacts, then print and laminate them as you create classroom activities. This workshop works well when teachers of the same grade level pool their ideas to build coordinated collections.  Prerequisites:  Introducing Primary Sources or Primary Sources in your Classroom.

Book Backdrops

Based on a work of fiction or non-fiction that your students are reading, create a primary source set of images, documents, maps, music and more that helps your students better understand the context behind their reading.  Prerequisites:  Introducing Primary Sources or Primary Sources in your Classroom.

Free Professional Development Opportunities!

The TPS program at Mars Hill University serves K-12 educators in Western North Carolina and beyond. Although workshops can be held on the Mars Hill campus, we are happy to come to a computer lab or library near you! Call or email to schedule a time and place.

Bridget Morton
Email: bmorton@mhu.edu
Phone: 828-689-1181