The mission of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program is to: build awareness of the Library's educational initiatives; provide content that promotes the effective educational use of the Library's resources; and offer access to and promote sustained use of the Library's educational resources. The Library achieves this mission through collaborations between the Library and the K-12 educational community across the United States. The program contributes to the quality of education by helping teachers use the Library's digitized primary sources to engage students, develop their critical thinking skills and construct knowledge. Learn more about the Library's TPS program and other resources available to teachers at www.loc.gov/teachers.
Funded by a grant from the Library of Congress, the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program at Middle Tennessee State University joined the national TPS Consortium in May 2008 and is administered by the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU. TPS-MTSU seeks to link current state-focused educational initiatives to larger national themes and to emphasize the student exploration of history, science, arts, and culture through the use of primary sources available from the Library of Congress.
TPS-MTSU reaches out to all Tennessee educators: K-12 teachers as well as undergraduate and graduate students in education, faculty and administrators of collegiate departments of education, school and institutional librarians and media specialists, and educators at museums and cultural institutions and heritage organizations. TPS-MTSU offers a wide variety of workshops, institutes, and presentations free of charge. We welcome invitations to partner with school districts, universities, museums, and cultural institutions across the state.
TPS-MTSU current focus is professional development. We offer educator workshops on two primary areas: the content theme - "Expanding Citizenship from Civil War to Civil Rights" and a strategy theme - supporting student research and improving critical thinking skills.
TPS-MTSU is also committed to creating educational materials such as lesson plans, primary source sets, and newsletters to support our program areas. The materials and resources found on our Web site were designed to meet Tennessee curriculum standards and were written by our staff and Tennessee educators.