Concordia professor Dr. Shanna Opfer attends Library of Congress workshop

Concordia University, Nebraska associate professor of education Dr. Shanna Opfer recently attended the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Workshop in Washington D.C. earlier this month.

Thirty K-12 teachers and librarians participated in a three-day workshop in the James Madison Building at the Library of Congress. The group participated in several activities during the workshop. They examined digital primary sources available on the Library of Congress website. They also were able to work with original documents and images.

Dr. Opfer said, “The hands-on, interactive and collaborative professional development equipped me with strategies to utilize primary sources to increase inquiry, raise student engagement and activate higher order thinking with students in the K-12 and Higher Education classroom.” 

Opfer was also able to visit multiple Smithsonian museums and the Museum of the Bible. She said that these experiences “allowed for increased learning, context and perspective that will bless my future teaching and overall understanding of the world I live in.”

The Library of Congress hosts three-day summer institutes for educators. Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., this free professional development opportunity provides educators of all disciplines with resources and strategies to effectively integrate primary sources into K–12 classroom teaching. Each session will focus on pedagogy, with an emphasis on supporting student engagement, critical thinking and construction of knowledge