“…[We] want to share our resources with the American people, who, through their elected representative in Congress, have created the world’s largest repository of knowledge”.

- Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
In 1999, Congressman Charles Taylor of the 11th Congressional District in western North Carolina obtained funding to start a local project to bring the resources of the Library of Congress (LOC) to K12 classrooms in Western North Carolina. The Adventure of the American Mind (AAM) project would conduct teacher training through local colleges (Mars Hill College, Brevard College, Montreat College, Western Carolina University, and Furman University) to use LOC primary digital resources in the classroom. Participating K12 teachers prepared lesson plans using primary resources.

Through the efforts of far-sighted Senators and Congressman, AAM continues to change and grow as it develops new programs throughout the United States, becoming a pioneer in helping teachers to integrate digital resources into the classroom.

In January 2004, AAM at Mars Hill implemented Phase II – workshop-based training of classroom teachers. Dr. Ed Shearin and AnneMarie Walter developed the workshop series: Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: “Telling Your Classroom Story”. The program is a 40-hour professional learning series divided into two levels of 20 hours each.

In Level I, teachers combine photographs from the LOC, digital photographs of their own, and a voice soundtrack to create digital stories that they can use in their classrooms. Skills learned are: visual literacy, digital photography, classroom connections, storyboarding, and digital editing.

Level II adds digital video that participating teachers have taken with images and music from the LOC to create digital stories. Skills learned are: interviewing techniques, story writing, and digital video editing.

Digital stories, based on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, are used in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning. Teachers use them in a number of ways, including:

• Introduction or supplement to units in content areas;
• Introduction or extension of books that students are assigned to read;
• Classroom or learning center activities;
  Content such as math and science in everyday life;
• Understanding disabilities and diversity; and
• Health and safety instruction.

This digital story is a photo documentary comparing a day in the life of a modern child and a historical Native American child. The teachers combined pictures that they took with images from the Library of Congress. They will use this story to enrich a study of Native American cultures and the celebration of Thanksgiving. It will help the students better understand the lifestyle of the Native Americans and how vastly different it was from our own.

Co-creators Laura Branch and Kellye Slate teach first grade at Riverbend Elementary School in Haywood County, NC. They were members of a digital storytelling workshop that took place at their school during the fall of 2004.

Since 2004, MHC/AAM has trained over 250 teachers to enhance their teaching and classroom learning by using digital storytelling techniques.

If you would like to view a teacher-created digital story, click on the digital story on this page. To learn more about “Telling Your Classroom Story”, contact:

Dr. Ed Shearin, Director, at 828-689-1301 and/or email Ed Shearin

AnneMarie Walter, Associate Director, at 828-689-1181 and/or email AnneMarie Walter