The Teacher in Residence position was created by the Library of Congress in 2000 to give K-12 educators firsthand experience in learning how the Library’s vast electronic resources can be used in the classroom. To date, four educators have served in this capacity. The following is a first-person account from the 2005-2006 Teacher in Residence.
Teacher-in-Residence Sherrie Galloway - Michaela McNichol
The Library of Congress teacher-in-residence position gives an educator the opportunity of a lifetime. During the academic school year 2005-2006, I was that educator.
A practicing K-12 teacher or, as in my case, a school library media specialist is selected to come to the Library of Congress on a temporary school-year assignment to work with the Educational Outreach team. Duties include helping to create online content for classrooms, providing workshops and training in using the Library’s extraordinary primary sources to teachers who visit the Washington area and traveling to other parts of the country for workshop and conference presentations. Just like all interlibrary loans, the teachers-in-residence return to their home school to further spread the word about the Library’s resources available for use in classrooms.
My first introduction to the Library of Congress online materials was through the Colorado Adventure of the American Mind program. I was excited to share this goldmine with my staff at Mount Garfield Middle School, where I have been a library media specialist for the past 15 years, and with my other colleagues at Mesa County Valley School District in Grand Junction, Colo. When the teacher-in-residence position was advertised, I jumped at the chance to apply. It was a thrill and an honor to be selected.
For the past year, I have been fortunate to accompany the Library’s Educational Outreach team to national conferences such as the American Association of School Librarians, the American Society for Curriculum Development and the American Library Association. My assignments have included identifying educational standards for the online lesson plans created by the American Memory Fellows, compiling monthly primary source sets of themed resources to be used in the classroom, updating the Learning Page citation guide for teachers and students, assisting with many teacher institutes and various other special projects. Some of these projects included demonstrating our educational resources at the National Book Festival; presenting activities for the Take Your Child to Work Day; organizing and hosting tours of the Library for American, international and special visitors; collaborating with the U.S. Copyright Office on an educational project; and judging entries to the National History Day contest. I have also had the opportunity to make presentations at several Colorado conferences and offered a teacher institute in Washington for my home state colleagues.
It has been great to work with the Library’s very creative Educational Outreach team and with the knowledgeable specialists from the many reading rooms who have generously shared both their expertise and the riches of their respective divisions. My husband and I have enjoyed our temporary move to Washington from rural western Colorado, and we have taken full advantage of being in this wonderful city. I look forward to sharing my experience and continuing to spread the word about the treasures of the Library of Congress. The chance to work here has been amazing. It’s been a school librarian’s dream year.
