>> Hello, everyone.
I'm Kalena, and I work in the Learning and
Innovation Office at the Library of Congress.
Welcome to today's online office
hours from the Library of Congress.
Today we're going to be hearing from the
Library's teacher in residence, Jen Seidel,
and the Library's Albert Einstein fellow,
Amara Alexander about their reflection
on their past year at and
with the team at [inaudible].
Just so you know, this event will
be recorded and any questions
or other participant contributions
may be made publicly available
as part of the Library's archive.
We're so glad that you can join
us live today or by recording.
If this is your first time joining us, welcome.
Just so you know, the office hours
are short, informal sessions.
There's going to be a 20-minute presentation
followed by some Q and A and conversation,
so please feel free to use the chat box.
You'll have a chance to talk to each
other and the presenters via that chat.
So just to get things started, we'd love if you
could use the chat box to tell us your name,
where you're joining us from, the grade
level that you teach, and what you teach.
Just pop that into the chat box
just so we can know who's here,
and might help direct our conversation later.
As I mentioned, today's episode,
we'll be hearing from Jen and Amara,
two teachers that have been on our
Learning and Innovation team and will talk
about their experience of the past year.
If you have questions or comments at any time,
feel free to put those in the chat box as well.
We'll be posting links Jen and Amara are
speaking, things that they reference,
and any questions that come up, either
I or my colleagues who are in the room
with us today can answer them or will
pose them Jen and Amara during QA.
So with that, I'm going to pass
things over to Jen and Amara.
>> Thank you, Kalena, so much.
We're -- guess I'm excited to be here, but
I'm also sad, because it means it's the end.
My name is Jen Reidel, and I have been
the civics teacher in residence this year
at the Library of Congress, and when I don't
get to work there and live in DC Metro,
I live in Bellingham, Washington
two hours north of Seattle,
and teach in the Bellingham school
district at Options High School,
which is a public alternative high school.
>> Awesome, Jen.
I am Amara Alexander, a K-5 STEM
teacher out of Chattanooga, Tennessee,
and I've been an educator for 13 years, with
experience teaching English language arts
and science at the elementary
and middle school level.
I am a Milken Educator, and this year,
I had the honor of being the Albert
Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow
at the Library of Congress.
It's been a phenomenal year, and Jen and I
will take this time to share with you some
of the things that we've done
throughout this time together.
So here's a typical day for us.
It's definitely changed now that we're in the
season of COVID and we're now teleworking,
but our objectives have not changed.
So both of us search the Library's collections
for digital and copyright-free items that help
to engage students and teachers to learn more
about civic principles, US
history, and STEM education.
>> A lot of our job is also to work
with our really dynamic Learning
and Innovation team members to create materials
for and help create onsite learning workshops
for educators and then most recently,
a lot of webinars, and I just --
I can't shout out enough how much these
people work and are very dedicated
to make sure educators can get quality
resources to teach and use primary sources.
>> Jen and I have both written blog posts that
are on the Library of Congress teacher site,
as well as we've written journal
articles that have been published
in national magazines highlighting
and engaging primary resources
for teachers and students to use alike.
>> And we've also had the opportunity to
really be the mouthpiece of the library
to promote the Library of Congress
resources for classroom use in regional
and national teacher groups
at different conferences.
>> All right.
So I'm going to start off and
share a little bit about my story
and journey here at the Library of Congress.
It has been a phenomenal year and
more than I could have envisioned.
It has been great.
So from the beginning, I was asked to
explore, and I did so, going through tours
of the Great Hall in the Library of
Congress, visiting various reading rooms,
reading historical documents, and I even
attended a few briefings on Capitol Hill.
I have definitely explored the Library and DC.
So as I began to get into a routine.
I browsed the digital collections
to locate primary sources
that teachers could potentially use in
their classrooms, and I wrote blogs on them.
Today I want to highlight two of my favorites.
One is the Gasoline Alley comic.
In that, I introduced the -- I used the comic
to introduce the engineering design process.
[Inaudible] about the roller coaster is
one of my favorite because I collaborated
with another Einstein Fellow, Matt,
to talk about how you could use gravitational
potential energy and kinetic energy and relate
to that to the roller coaster -- something that
students might actually have ridden on before.
During my time here, I really
wanted to highlight the stories
of African-American scientists and inventors.
However, I did not find what I was looking for.
I did stumble across the
collection of the Tuskegee Airmen,
and not only did I stumble,
I fell into the collection.
I was able to look at the Tuskegee Airmen
primary sources, and as I was looking at them,
some STEM principles pointed out
to me, particularly the four CS.
The four CS are collaboration, creativity,
communication, and critical thinking.
I began to see how you could use the images
of the Tuskegee Airmen and
apply that STEM principle.
I wrote a blog that was published in NSTA.
I've also had the opportunity to curate
primary sources and post them on the Teaching
with Primary Sources Network, a grant that's
funded through the Library of Congress.
I found primary sources and paired
them with some picture books.
Below, you can see Benjamin Franklin,
and I really enjoyed doing this
particular primary source kind
of collection that I created.
I didn't really know a lot of Benjamin
Franklin, and so it was amazing to me to find
out that not only was he a statesman,
he was a writer, he was inventor,
and I paired that with a picture book.
During my time, after I kind of
explored and did a lot of research,
I had the opportunity to
go out into the classroom.
Sitting in the office was fun, but it was,
you know, something that I was not used to
or accustomed to, and so I found different
schools within the DMZ area and went out
and shared the resources that I had already
curated dealing with the Tuskegee airmen
and shared them at some STEM conferences.
You can go, Jen.
>> So at the Library, when we were
creating this, Kalena really asked us,
"What are three things that you will
take away from this experience?"
And so for one, I highlighted Toni Frissell.
Tony Frissell was the photographer
of the Tuskegee Airmen collection,
but I found out that she was just
-- she had photographed more --
other individuals, such as the Kennedys for
the weddings as well as Winston Churchill,
but not only did I learn about Toni Frissell,
I learned about other individuals whose stories
were hitting from -- in American history.
I learned about Ethel Payne, who was the first
black woman for the press, Lucean Headen,
who was an African-American inventor
who constructed his own automobile,
and I began to read the papers
of the Wright brothers as well.
As I return to Hamilton County in
Tennessee, I will definitely tell educators
about the Library of Congress website.
Before my placement here, I
did not know all the resources
that teachers have from the Library of Congress.
One of my favorites, as you
can see, is the free to use.
Our colleague Danna recently
did a free to use on weddings.
So after our session today, please go
to the Library of Congress home page
and slide all the way down to the bottom, and
you will notice her curated set on weddings.
And so as I was creating a blog on ice cream,
I did use the free-to-use and re-use sets.
So those are some of my things that I will
take back to the classroom and to my community
as well as to other teachers as I
encounter them at national conferences.
And so the fun things that I did --
let's go start with the Tuskegee Airmen.
So as I stated before, I did a lot of research
on the Tuskegee Airmen, and being from Alabama,
it really was a joy to be able to find
those stories at the Library of Congress.
In February.
I went with another fellow, Steve, who was
at NASA, and we both had the opportunity
to see Tuskegee Airman -- he's to the left
-- Honorary Brigadier General Charles McGee.
That was a treat.
As stated before, I went to a
couple of briefings on Capitol Hill,
and through the fellowship, they
really encouraged us to meet
with our congressmen, our members of Congress.
I had the opportunity to see Nancy Pelosi
as well as Congresswoman Terri Sewell,
who represents Alabama, and I taught
her nephew in sixth grade in Alabama.
Below, you can see a picture of
me at the Cherry Blossom Festival.
That was a lot of fun to
be able to experience that.
I know it was during the season of COVID,
but it's kind of like one of those one things
that you do when you're here in DC.
I went, had a lot of fun, and my
friends know I'm definitely a fan
of the national baseball team, so that was
something else that I had an opportunity to do.
This experience was not shared alone.
I'm so happy to have the fellows that are on
today as well as our project manager Jill,
and we are a group that have -- that has bonded
forever, for life, and so it's been a joy
to be able to not only share this experience
with Jen and the LIO staff but be able
to share it with eight other people.
So that's a little bit about my experience.
Jen, let's hear about yours.
>> Okay. Well, I did a lot of things, like Amara
did, and then did them in a little different way
since my lens is civics and social studies.
You can see there on the images there's three
publications that I was given the opportunity
to research for and write articles for,
and while I've always thought of myself
as a pretty good writer, I definitely
was stretched, and in a good way.
I was able to write an article for
social education for the National Council
for Social Studies on how to use progressive-era
cartoons to teach economic concepts.
Shout out to my dad, who's on this, who helped
me with the definition for that article.
I also was able to write an article for The
Science Teacher, and this is one of the things
that I think has stretched me the most --
that the Learning and Innovation team
really does a good job pushing us to think
about how primary sources can be used beyond
the traditional social studies in history
and civics, and so they write
a little piece for --
on right to the source of how to use a
primary source within the science realm,
and for this social studies/humanities
girl, that was a bit of a stretch.
And so I'm proud to say I was able to
write an article about the first instance
where the federal government
got involved with air pollution
and actually initiated a conference that
brought attention to this as an issue,
and we're talking this is as early as 1950,
and it was something that surprised me.
The third publication that I had the opportunity
to write for was Insights on Law and Society,
and this is put out for history, government, and
law teachers for the American Bar Association,
and my passion, for anyone that knows
me, is I love a good court case.
I love the stories they tell, and working
at the Library this year has pushed me
to consider how can we use
court cases themselves.
They are primary sources, but how can we use
additional primary sources to tell the stories
and situate those court cases in
their historical moment in time?
So I wrote an article focused on how you could
use court cases as a form of storytelling
or narrative along with primary
sources in classrooms.
And then that -- underneath that, you'll notice
a screenshot of a good old-fashioned PowerPoint.
I had done presentations before.
I felt very comfortable with that.
I hadn't done it Library style, and so I
feel like I got a great training on how
to do effective professional
development, and we got --
I got the opportunity to assist with
our suffrage teacher training this fall
and then our Rosa Parks teacher training before
everything turned upside-down in the world known
as COVID, and now, thanks to
my staff that gently pushed me,
and sometimes a little more
forcefully, I learned how to do webinars,
and hopefully effectively and usefully
for the teachers that were involved.
Up on the top right, you'll see there kind of
a document, and I had the opportunity to go
to some of the reading rooms
that the Library of Congress has.
While we work really hard to get items
available for teachers that they can research
and access just sitting on their couch drinking
a cup of coffee, there are also some gems
that you really can only see
when you're in the Library,
and so I got the opportunity a couple times
to go to the manuscript reading room and read
through various documents connected to
Supreme Court justices, and I was really drawn
to William O. Douglas, who happens to
be from my great state of Washington,
and read some of the papers that had been
collected, particularly dealing with Brown
versus Board of Education, and this happens
to be an image of a article or a letter
that was written to him by
a self-described minister
that was advising him to
keep segregation in place.
Beneath that, if you're seeing the emblem
there for the Advisory Committee of the Records
of Congress and you don't know what they
are or who they are, I didn't either.
So I was given a really gracious invitation to
attend with one of our colleagues, Danna Bell,
and she represents the Library
of Congress on this committee,
and these were basically the people
that are from various institutions,
such as the National Archives, the
Historian of the House and the Senate,
and the United States Archivist, and they think
about how do we tell the stories of our nation
and how do we make those stories
accessible to the country.
So I was able to share with them what a
teacher in residence position can look
like at the Library, and what
I was really excited to share
with them was what does the 21st
century classroom look like,
because it's pretty good chance that
most of the people sitting at that table,
they did pretty well in school, and
sometimes not everyone has that experience,
and so when we think about making stories and
collections and primary sources available,
I'm really hoping we're doing that
with all types of learners in mind.
Speaking of learners, on the
upper right-hand corner there,
you'll see the headshot of some students.
We had a great interaction with some student
group that was visiting from out of state,
and they wanted to get an
up-close and personal understanding
of Rosa Parks beyond the traditional and
wrong narrative of her as the quiet seamstress
that was meek, because she was a
lion, and we had the opportunity
to expand those narratives for those kids.
On the lower right-hand corner is -- I spent --
I came here to learn a lot
about civics, and I did.
I also realized there's a lot I don't know,
and I fell in love with learning about
and just reading all of the digitized papers
from Rosa Parks' collection and really trying
to understand who she was as a --
as much broader than limiting
her solely to the bus boycott.
Also, what I really had a great time interacting
with while here and sharing with teachers,
and I'll continue to do so, are the primary
source sets, and these are basically gathered,
curated sets that have been put together for
teachers on topics that we have collections on,
because believe it or not, the Library has 168
million digitized items in their collections,
but we don't have everything, but we have a lot.
So what we do have, a lot of it's with topics
that teachers are often likely
going to broach in their classrooms.
They can access these teachers'
primary source sets.
You'll see there that you can
-- there's links to click on.
You can access the document in its entirety.
There's a PDF, and there's also some
assistance for teachers, like a teacher's guide
with some background knowledge and some tips of
how you I might use these items with students.
So that's been really exciting to learn about
and then also share with fellow educators.
I had a chance to do that about a week and a
half ago back home in Bellingham on a webinar
with teachers back home, and it was neat
to show them what's out there to help them.
In the middle there, you'll see Chronicling
America, and this is a database of newspapers
and Chronicling America has
amazing reach and range of topics.
You can search it just for
a name or a topic or a date.
You can search it for an event, and you
can see here I just grabbed a headline.
I love headlines because
they're fun to teach with.
So I grabbed one from Andrew
Johnson's impeachment trial in 1868.
Another collection and something
I stumbled on is Warren Leffler.
He was a photographer for
US News and World Report,
and he covered several presidential
administrations and the civil rights movement,
and sometimes it's hard to find
things because of copyright
in what we would call modern-day
history, at least post World War Two
through the civil rights era, beyond into
the '70s and '80, but much of his photos --
not all, but most of them -- are actually
available without any copyright restrictions.
So you don't have to be at the Library
to see them, and I've really --
I got caught many, many hours just going
photo by photo by photo looking at them,
and I mentioned earlier my
newfound love for Rosa Parks.
I just -- I'll keep digging through her papers.
She wrote on everything.
She wrote on the back of receipts.
She wrote on envelopes.
She wrote on the back of pharmacy
medicine bags, and she just poured her soul
as though she needed us to know
whether she realized what the posterity
that she would arrive at.
She needed us to know what she'd
experienced, and that has been a gift --
to be able to have the time
and space to investigate that.
The experiences I've gotten
have -- there's just a few.
You can see my kids and I in
the upper left-hand corner.
We are with none other than
young-adult author Sharon Robinson,
who happens to be the daughter
of Jackie Robinson.
She's written several books, and at the National
Book Festival, five days after we landed here
in DC, we had the chance to -- I had
the chance to work at the festival
and then also meet people like
her, which was phenomenal.
You can see in the lower left-hand
corner, I've got a fun shot
with a gentleman named Norman Mineta, who
had been both secretary of transportation
for George W. Bush, and he was the only
Democrat that served in the Bush administration
in the cabinet, and then secretary of commerce
-- he served as that for President Clinton.
He also himself was a child in a Japanese
concentration camp here and told that story
as well, and I had the opportunity, because of
the Library's position, at the National Council
on Social Studies Conference in
Austin this year to meet him,
shake his hand, and also hear his story.
You'll see there I'm holding
-- there's two pictures
of me holding tickets on the left-hand side.
That is the path into the United States
Senate Gallery, where Amara and I got to go,
and we saw history, and we were able to listen
to a portion of the Senate impeachment trial,
which I won't forget that
time in -- that anytime soon.
Also, on the right-hand side, you can
see I'm holding a pink piece of paper,
and this is the ticket that the Supreme
Court issues 50 public tickets a day.
I happened to be there in December at a very
cold and Zero Dark 30 morning to stand in line.
I was number 42, so it was close, but I got
in to hear the fairly controversial case
out of New York on guns and pistols.
The lower corner there, you'll see
a picture not from DC or DC Metro,
but this is at Independence Hall.
My family, and I got the chance to
take a quick trip to Philadelphia,
and for this girl who's taught about
the Constitution her whole life,
it was somewhat of a sacred
experience to see the room,
to quote Hamilton, where it all happened.
And then in the upper right, I did this a couple
of weeks ago, and it was on my bucket list.
I had always wanted to walk from the Library
of Congress to the Lincoln Memorial and take
in each memorial along the way and the sites,
and it really was an amazing experience.
So Amara and I have had a
lot of experiences together,
but we'd like to show you some of them.
>> All right.
So --
>> That's okay.
No, you jump in, my friend.
>> Okay. [Laughing] So as Jen stated, when
we initially arrived here at the Library
of Congress, the National Book
Festival was in full swing.
Jen and I was invited by our mentor,
Leanne, and we had the opportunity to go
to the book gala, which was a lot of fun.
We have stories.
We had a meeting today with each other and
just reminisced on the gala and just laughed
at each other of things that we
experienced while we were there.
We had the opportunity to be
in the room with library staff,
congressional members, as well as a few authors.
Jen, you want to share anything
about that experience?
>> Yeah. I just -- I don't
know if -- I'll say it, Amara.
I felt like a little kid there sitting at the
kid table at Thanksgiving meal because it was --
I don't know about you, but I don't
run in circles that go to galas,
and so I was pretty darn excited
to have a ticket that said
that that was actually given to me.
So that was really fun to go.
It was very much an upscale event.
The Jefferson Building was transformed.
It was beautiful, but it was really
neat to see and hear all these authors
that we were also going to
get the chance to maybe see
from a distance the next
day, but we were kind of --
>> Yeah.
>> -- up close and personal, and I
might've stopped R. J. Palacio on behalf
of my daughter Claire to just say, "We love you.
You've changed our live."
Yeah, I'll be honest.
I did do that, didn't I?
I did.
>> You did, but --
>> I did. [Laughter] One time.
>> We also had the ready to meet the Librarian
of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, which for me,
for her to be the first African-American
Librarian of Congress,
that was really a surreal experience.
Dr. Hayden was very gracious, very open.
She allowed us to tour her
office and showed us a letter.
Jen, do you remember who the letter was by?
It was a young boy [inaudible] age.
>> Young boy, yeah.
>> Their reading card?
>> Yeah. He was really fired up that you
have to be 16 years old to get a reading card
to be admitted and use any of the
reading rooms, and he very appropriately
but very clearly let her know
that she needs to work on this.
>> Yes, and I think that that really is her
mission, her passion as the Library begins
to become more of a community place, and she
said she doesn't want the Library of Congress
to become a museum, but more as a --
you know, as a place where
everybody is welcome in the Library.
So we really enjoyed our meeting of
the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Hayden.
>> I -- and I'm just going to add I was
shocked, and I shouldn't have been now
that I've heard more about her and been
around her -- just shocked at how gracious,
like Amara said, she was and gave us -- I think,
Amara, we were there like 45 minutes or longer.
>> Yeah.
>> And genuinely wanted to
know what do educators need,
how can the library be responsive,
and I really value
that you have a governmental institution
that's working hard to hear the voices
of the people that will be using it.
>> Most definitely.
>> Okay.
>> I love that we do.
>> Oh, our favorite.
>> Yes, the tunnels!
I don't know why that is so exciting
to us, but it kind of felt like --
I know for me, like I was in a movie.
Like there really is an -- a world up under a
world, and so walking the tunnels of the Library
of Congress, it's always fun to
go to Madison or go to Jefferson.
I often snuck over to the House
Building to meet with other fellows,
as well as we walked over to the Capitol.
Jen and I had the opportunity to go
see Elijah Cummings lie in state.
So we had a lot of fun in the
tunnels at the Library of Congress.
>> Jen, what about you?
Well, I think everyone thinks that we
never were apart because we were --
wherever we got spotted, it was
always in the tunnels, and I --
>> It was!
>> I love -- I'm with I'm with Tamara.
I think the tunnels is like a
metaphor of the Library of Congress.
It's a whole new -- it's a world full of
energy where people are zipping here and there,
and they're kind of -- it's the quickest way,
especially in weather, to get to where you need
to go, and you see a lot of people, and you
really get your steps in during the day.
>> Definitely so, and as you
can see to the right of that,
there's a picture of the main reading room, in
which think both of us had the opportunity to go
to during the Summer Teacher Institute just
to walk on the floor with no one in there,
and so that was a phenomenal experience, as well
as tour the main reading room with Ms. Connie
and our docent, Ahuru [phonetic].
>> That was an amazing experience last summer.
>> Yeah, it was.
>> Okay, here we go.
We're on the home stretch, Amara.
Take it away.
>> [Laughter] All right.
>> We're doing this.
>> So many more adventures we had on --
in December, we had the opportunity to go to the
Hidden Figures congressional medal reception.
That was, I don't know, kind of like an
out-of-body experience, like, "Am I really here?
Am I not here?
Am I really here?"
And so it really was honoring
those NASA women who inspired --
who was inspired by the Hidden Figures.
I think it was Dr. Bildern [phonetic].
Is that correct, Jen?
>> I think it's Dr. Christine Darden.
Yeah.
>> Darden?
She was --
>> We got it.
We got it.
>> Yeah, she was there sharing her story,
so we had the opportunity to meet her,
to hear her share her story as well
as the other congressional members,
and I know Jen brought her daughter, Hannah.
Is that correct?
No, Claire.
>> Claire.
Claire was with us, and Claire,
she immediately got interact --
she got talked to, and the hand was shake
was short -- did I say that correctly?
-- by Senator Tim Kaine.
>> Yeah.
>> And Claire had -- we had fun meeting
the author of Hidden Figures, --
>> Yeah.
>> -- Margot Lee Shetterly,
and then she also like --
we met some other pretty powerful women
at NASA who were present at that event.
It was an amazing event, and I
-- it's because of you, Amara,
that you even told me about it, so thank you.
>> Yes, we enjoyed ourselves.
>> So what about the one
on the far right, Amara?
Why don't you tell us?
>> Oh, okay.
[Laughter] Well, we had the opportunity --
there's a lottery, and so I
think all of the fellows put
in for the lottery, and none of us got it.
However, Jen got tickets, and so it was
really nice, and she invited me to go
with her family, and was that November?
No. I'm not really sure when that was.
November or December, we had the opportunity
to go to the National Christmas Tree Lighting.
It was cold out there.
It was really interesting.
At the Library, you always
have to go through security,
but going to the National Christmas Tree
was like a different type of security,
which was an interesting experience, and
we just had fun out there being there
at the National Christmas Tree Lighting.
We met some other families that had came from
around the world as well just to be there.
So that was fun.
What do you think, Jen?
>> It was a lot of fun.
It was just, emphasis, very cold, but, you
know, we were in Rome, and we did it all,
and so we felt really fortunate that my
husband actually won the lottery tickets
through the National Park Service, to go
and he graciously shared them with us, so.
And that brings us to our
most recent event that I'm
so thankful COVID didn't take this
away from us -- that we got to go --
>> Yeah.
>> -- to the Gershwin Award
Concert, and each year --
>> Yeah.
>> -- the Library of Congress identifies
some type of musical artists, and this year,
it was Garth Brooks, and I think the library
just did it for me, because I don't know songs
or names of songs of any other artist
other than Garth Brooks, so it was --
yeah, it was another holy experience.
I won't say it's the same as the other
historical ones, but it was right there.
So what about you?
>> No, I loved the Gershwin concert.
It was -- I went, like I said, with
another fellow, and I was jamming along.
I really enjoy Chris Stapleton.
Garth Brooks -- I mean just the place lit up
and started [singing] "I got
friends" and [inaudible].
Yeah, we was all friends in there.
So it was a lot of fun.
I enjoyed it, and as you can see, Jen
and I have really enjoyed our
time at the Library of Congress.
As she said, it's kind of bittersweet to
say goodbye, but there's a lot of things
that we learned working with each
other through this experience.
So one of them: just the needs and realities
of elementary and secondary classrooms
and just the need of, one, STEM
education as well as civics,
and we presented together the combination
of using a STEM picture book and related
that to some civic -- excuse me --
to some history and STEM components.
So that was a lot of fun.
What else did we learn, Jen?
>> We really talked a lot about -- because I
had never been to the South and I think it --
I think I'm correct on this -- Amara's never
been to the Pacific Northwest, Washington,
Oregon area, and so we talked a lot --
>> Yeah.
>> -- about just, I think,
regional differences, and both --
>> Yeah.
>> -- in education, culturally,
and, you know, it's nice.
I've got my friend in Tennessee now that I'm
going to go see in some shape or form somehow,
and I think we both really --
through being on the other end
of providing the professional development
for teachers, we really saw the importance.
We know it -- I know it firsthand
-- that quality materials --
>> Yeah.
>> -- make the difference to an
educator and ultimately what we care
about for kids' learning, but I know I saw it,
being on the end of creating those materials
and really thinking through how
can we make whatever we do useful
and meaningful now and in
the future for teachers.
>> Most definitely.
>> Okay.
>> I think we have to share --
>> No, we didn't have our
really awesome Bitmojis.
>> That's right.
If you're on Twitter, please follow us.
We're kind of -- that's how we connect
with each other and to other educators.
I guess we'll open it up for
-- anybody have any questions
about our experiences at
the Library of Congress?
>> Let's do a podcast.
>> Yes, thank you.
>> Thank you for [inaudible].
>> I also agree with that.
I think you should definitely do a podcast.
You are really magnetic together,
and I also [inaudible].
>> I told you guys you guys
need a podcast for LIO.
Amara, we can be like --
>> We can bring you back.
>> -- the first maiden voyage.
>> Definitely so.
>> Yeah, I'll think of a [inaudible] it out it.
>> [Inaudible] and tell me.
[Laughter]
>> I also really --
>> Any --
>> -- appreciate your Bitmojis.
>> Yes. Yes.
Definitely so.
>> Thank you so much, both of you, for just --
well, it's just great to hear about your
experiences and to see it through your eyes,
and thank you, Amara, yeah,
for that musical interlude.
I believe that was [inaudible].
>> And that's only for church.
[Laughter]
>> That's great.
[Laughter] But I'm also just glad that -- I
know that, you know, everything with that,
so now it's, thanks to COVID, that, you know,
your year was cut short, so it's great to see
that you were able to have
some really thought-provoking
and compelling experiences
while you were with us in DC.
I had a question, actually.
So in your last slide, you mentioned sort of
what you brought to each other in terms of STEM
and civics, and I was just really curious about
kind of the influences that you haven't done.
Like obviously you have a great chemistry
already, but what influenced [inaudible]
about related to your study areas and like
how you sort of [inaudible] thinking maybe
like the other back to the your classrooms, and
what new lenses do you think you've developed
as a result of hearing each other's perspective?
>> Okay.
[ Multiple Speakers ]
>> Okay.
>> Okay. Jump in.
>> Okay. I think for both of us,
we realized that the contents
that we teach are not always mainstream.
And so I know in the elementary classrooms,
science and social studies just, you know,
are kind of left at wayside, and so I think
we -- when we got together at the library,
we really saw that there was a need for,
in my case, in history and STEM education,
and then Jen, being secondary, really
thinking about civics and US history,
and so when we worked together, and
especially on the Share My Lesson webinar,
we really wanted to combine
those two contents together.
So, for one, in elementary, make it a
little bit easier for teachers to be able
to connect the content together, but also see
that there is a connection
between STEM and history.
Jen?
>> Well, I'm going to shout out to you, Amara.
Early on, when you would look at a primary
source and I'm looking at it thinking,
"I have no idea how this will support
elementary," you would say, "Oh, well, Jen,
we -- you know, elementary kid could look at
the prices here, and then they could do this,"
and I thought, "Oh, of course," but what was
neat about that was Amara brought her K-5 lens
into things, and I brought my grades, really,
nine through 12 and also middle school,
and I think, together, I really see the -- I
see how I can be on the lookout now for ways
to potentially infuse science within
my social studies, and I think Amara --
I don't want to speak for you, but
I think you're doing the same thing,
and I'm really excited to go back
to my district, and I just --
just spending a year with you
reaffirmed what I already thought.
These elementary teachers are working
so hard spinning their wheels,
and they just need some examples and
support to just kind of run with it on how
to use primary sources to teach a whole lot of
things -- not just social studies, but science
and math and technology, and I shared
your Gasoline Alley cartoon with teachers.
I shared the rollercoaster one.
I just thought that was so brilliant.
So I'm excited to keep this
multidisciplinary focus going.
>> Yeah, definitely.
Yeah. I'm glad that you sort of mentioned
the note that the differences in grade level
between you [inaudible] how that will inform
your teaching, and kind of along those lines,
Kathy asked, "What will it be like
to return to class in the fall?"
I'm guessing if your staff go, that'd be like --
>> That's making a big assumption
that there's a classroom to return to.
[Laughter]
>> Yeah, that's an ask.
>> I mean, and this is worth it.
There is a classroom.
I have a job, and I'm excited --
>> Yeah.
>> -- to go back to my people and my kids, but
we really don't know yet if there will be --
if my district will opt to keep us home
a bit longer and what that will look
like if there's a hybrid program.
So for me, it's already -- like I've already
been spinning my wheels of how can I take all
of these resources and flip them and make
them accessible, particularly for a variety
of learning styles, in a digital platform,
and so I'm already thinking that right now,
and I don't even have the answer.
So Amara, when you figure that out, let me know.
>> I don't know if I'll figure it out, but I
think, transitioning back to the classroom,
I've told myself there's going to
have to be a moment of adjustment.
I talked with Leanne earlier this week, and it's
like I get to go to the restroom when I want to.
I can have a lunch break
and it not be 30 minutes.
I can, you know, walk or run around the Library
or, you know, go sit in front of the steps
of the Supreme Court and, you know, enjoy
those freedoms that I had in this position
versus going back to the classroom.
So I think for me, it really will be the
adjustment of knowing that now I am back
in that sort of and not having the
freedoms which I had during this fellowship,
but I'm excited to return
back and continue the work not
that I have these new tools and experiences.
I'm happy to share those with my
students who have not had the experience
and the experiences and exposures
that I have had.
Any other questions?
>> Yeah. Jill had a question.
She said, "This opportunity is a great platform.
What one opportunity do you
want to share with all?"
>> The last part was just what
opportunity would share with all?
>> Yeah, with all educators.
I guess the -- what opportunities
you had from this year.
>> I think I'll go with mine.
I hope that was to both of us, Jill.
If it wasn't, I'm sorry if
I'm stepping on Tamara.
>> It was for both of you.
>> Okay. I think for me, I always thought I
was really a broad thinker, and the reality is
when you're in -- I'd been in the classroom
for 23 years before taking this pause.
You -- the -- like any system in
any job, systems have requirements,
and sometimes you don't even realize that you
can squash out creativity and thinking bigger,
and all year, I've been saying, "I don't know.
I really don't know what I don't know,"
but this year has also forced me into a lot
of research dead ends that initially felt
not productive because in the classroom,
all your time in your 51 minutes to
get everything done is all scripted,
and there's a lot of time here to
just research and go to dead ends,
but all of that builds upon
wonder and curiosity.
And so I would tell teachers not everybody
can leave their home and come to the Library
of Congress, but everybody can push
themselves to think about learning a new topic
or pushing themselves to investigate
something that they'd never considered before,
because I think those skills and experiences
have transformed how I hope to go back
to my classroom and to my community.
>> For me, I think that I've learned and
still continue to learn that educators
and teachers have a voice and using your voice
to elevate things that you are passionate about,
it gets other people to kind of see where
you're coming from, and it's like, "Okay,
let's do something to fix the problem," and
so I think my new voice has been in the form
of writing, and the office knows that
writing was not something that I enjoy doing,
but it has become a growth for me, and I do
understand, through the pen or through writing,
you have a different voice, and it's able
to elevate whatever you're trying
to convey in a different way.
>> Amara, that was brilliant.
I wish I had said that answer.
That was really good.
That's --
>> I learned from a few people.
>> I'm glad you both talked
about how you developed and grew,
Jenny saying as like a learned, as a
researcher, Amara as a writer, as a --
>> Yeah.
>> -- thinker and developing your own
voice, and yeah, I think that's --
I mean having worked with both of you, I mean
I learned so much from both of you as well.
Mike is saying he's looking forward
to your upcoming book, Amara.
>> I see that.
[Laughter]
>> I hope you -- I hope both of you
have a -- are able to read the chat,
because there's a lot of things on it.
>> I don't know if I can.
I'm trying to, because I'm really
missing out on a lot of fun.
>> I'll show you.
>> Yeah, there's --
>> Yeah. We'll share that [inaudible].
>> Yeah, a lot going on.
You want us to address --
>> Yeah.
>> -- Danna's question before we --
>> Yeah.
>> -- check out?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
Any advice for the next Einstein
Fellow or teacher in residence?
>> I would say, as it was told to me, explore.
I mean really do not put yourself in one
particular lane, because when you find
that lane, you're missing
out on some other things.
So really take the opportunity
to explore all things
at the library and things that are within DC.
I mean I grew up in rural Alabama,
taught in Alabama, taught in Tennessee,
and living in the city is
very different than Alabama.
[Laughing] I see cows when I'm in [inaudible].
That's not what you see here in DC, and the
culture is very different from, you know,
being a classroom teacher to
being at the -- in the office.
So I would definitely say explore,
explore, explore and enjoy the journey.
It's a wonderful -- it's a phenomenal
experience, and being on this side
of the fellowship, I can see and hear the
excitement when other fellows talk about it,
and so go into this with an open mind.
Explore and enjoy the ride, because it
is going to end, in our case quicker
than when we thought, but it will
end, and then your new journey starts.
So what do you think, Jen?
What's your advice?
>> Oh, you took the really good stuff, but I
think I'd echo a little and just add to it.
I think it is about the journey.
I mean I'm a creature of habit.
We had never lived in a different house until
we moved here, drove across the country.
The mere act of taking this adventure has been
transformational, but I would tell someone,
like Amara said, get out of your
comfort zone and subject area.
On one hand, you were brought in because
you hold expertise and you hold advice
that will really help anyone you interact with
at the Library as they craft their mission
to the public, but on the other
hand, you actually don't know a lot,
and there's a lot of people and a lot of
human capital and also just actual knowledge
of the collections of the Library that you
can learn from, and I think to just understand
and broaden your view of what
the library is and also can be.
You can be part of writing that story.
>> Thank you both.
>> And Kalena as well [inaudible].
>> Yeah, well said.
Well said.
>> Yeah, well said.
>> Well, we -- I'll drop her next.
Not just --
>> Yeah.
>> -- not just prospective
applicants, but yeah, [inaudible].
>> Anyway, yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Thank you both again so much.
I know that our [inaudible] loved
working with you and will miss you
and definitely will keeping in touch, and
it's so great to hear about your experience.
Please do -- those of you out there,
please do feel free to leave more comments,
and Jen and Amara will have a chance to
read through what everyone has written,
because there's lots of congratulations, lots
of kudos, and lots of great messages here.
Thanks so much, everyone, for joining us today.
Great to spend this time with you.
Just to give you a sense of what's coming
up, next Tuesday for online office hours,
we will be joined by Sarah Duke from the
Photographs division of the Library of Congress,
and she'll be talking to us about a 20th-century
political cartoons in the Library collection.
So we hope that you'll be able to join us.
Thanks again so much for being here with
us today, and I hope we'll see you soon.
>> Thanks, everyone, for coming.
>> Thank you for joining.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Bye.