Teaching with Primary Sources at GSU

The College of Education at Governors State University (GSU) was awarded grants, Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS), in 2013 and 2016. The 2013-2016 grant focused on social studies materials; the focus for 2016-2019 is science curriculum. Teaching with Primary Sources is a funded project by the Library of Congress. It is designed to train in-service and pre-service classroom teachers and college teacher education faculty to access, use and produce curriculum utilizing the Internet and the digitized primary source materials from the collections of the Library of Congress. "...[We] want to share our resources with the American people, who, through their elected representation in Congress have created the world's largest repository of knowledge." ~Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress To help realize Billington's vision, Congressman Charles H. Taylor acquired the necessary funding to bring the pilot Adventure of the American (AAM) program to Western North Carolina. The program began in the fall of 1999, and now through the efforts of farsighted Senators and Congressman, has expanded to many states. Illinois was awarded this opportunity through the efforts and support of US Senator Richard J. "Dick" Durbin. In Senator Durbin's endorsement of An Adventure of the American Mind, now known as TEACHING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES, he states: "The Library of Congress has a vast wealth of resources - resources just waiting to be tapped by students not just in Washington, DC, but all across the country. Thanks to An Adventure of the American Mind, [Teaching With Primary Resources] teachers can receive the training necessary to harness the latest Internet technology and bring the Library's digital collections into their classrooms, enhancing their teaching and expanding the universe of knowledge available to all our students."