Ms. Kristen Waterman, a teacher at the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach in Woodmere, New York, is one of only 120 teachers selected for a National History Day® (NHD) spring professional development program. This course focuses on using online Library of Congress resources to develop and support historical arguments, and is a feature of NHD’s membership in the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Consortium.
The teachers chosen for this honor represent NHD’s 58 affiliates across the country and around the world, and the National History Day program in New York selected Ms. Waterman. NHD affiliates include all 50 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and international school programs in China, South Asia, and South Korea.
“The skills and strategies that Ms. Waterman is developing through this series will benefit her students over the course of their academic and professional careers,” said National History Day Executive Director Dr. Cathy Gorn. “As a Library of Congress TPS Consortium member, NHD is incredibly fortunate to be able to offer this opportunity for teachers, especially now as teachers and students continue to address challenges of non-traditional learning settings required by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
For several months, Ms. Waterman works with her peers around the country and National History Day staff to build knowledge for teaching with online Library of Congress resources. Upon completion of the series, she will have demonstrated the ability to share with her students key strategies for researching, supporting, and presenting historical arguments bolstered by these primary sources.