Eastern Middle School

(Baltimore, MD) – Dr. Jermaine Ellerbe, who teaches at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, is one of 58 teachers selected for a National History Day® (NHD) fall professional development program. The virtual program focuses on using online Library of Congress primary and secondary sources to develop and support student research skills. In this program—a feature of NHD's membership in the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Consortium—participating teachers will collaborate for several months with each other and National History Day staff to build knowledge for teaching with primary sources. Upon completing the course, Dr. Ellerbe and his peers will have demonstrated the ability to pair Library of Congress resources with active learning strategies.

Dr. Ellerbe participates in Maryland Humanities’ Maryland History Day program, an affiliate of National History Day. For Maryland History Day, students create original documentary films, exhibits, performances, research papers, or websites exploring a historical topic of their choice on an annual theme. Affiliates of National History Day include all 50 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and international school programs in China, South Asia, and South Korea. The 58 teachers selected for the professional development opportunity represent 40 of National History Day’s affiliates across the country and around the world.

“I am looking forward to gaining skills and the experience searching the Library’s website for primary sources and utilizing them to convey National History Day source support to students,” says Dr. Ellerbe. “Additionally, I hope to demonstrate the ability to pair Library of Congress resources with pedagogy to inspire, engage, and support my young scholars.”

National History Day Executive Director, Dr. Cathy Gorn, says: “This course has particular value now as teachers and students continue to address challenges of non-traditional learning settings required by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The crucial skills Dr. Ellerbe is learning and honing over the course of this series will benefit his students for many years to come,” she adds. “As a Library of Congress TPS Consortium member, we are incredibly fortunate to be able to offer this opportunity for teachers.”

Along with NHD, Maryland Humanities is also a member of the Library of Congress TPS Consortium through a partnership with Maryland Public Television and Maryland State Department of Education, funded by the Library of Congress. Through this membership, Maryland History Day at Maryland Humanities has created 190 online history inquiry kits for use by educators and students engaged with research. The kits examine social studies/history themes and allow for students to select a research topic of interest and analyze themed primary sources from the Library of Congress and other online resources. Our TPS Consortium funding also supports two week-long professional development workshops for Maryland educators held each July in partnership with Salisbury University and the National Archives. The inquiry kits, a dozen interactive learning modules, and other resources can be found at thinkport.org/tps.

Maryland Humanities is a statewide nonprofit organization that creates and supports educational experiences in the humanities that inspire all Marylanders to embrace lifelong learning, exchange ideas openly, and enrich their communities. For more information, visit www.mdhumanities.org. Maryland Humanities is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities; the State of Maryland; the Citizens of Baltimore County; private foundations such as the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Portfolios, www.BakerArtist.org; corporations; small businesses; and individual donors. Connect with Maryland Humanities on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Maryland History Day is an affiliate of National History Day and a year-long educational program of Maryland Humanities. More than 25,000 middle and high school students create original projects that explore a historical topic of their choice on an annual theme. Professional development for teachers is offered through online courses and platforms, summer teacher institutes, workshops, and classroom outreach. Maryland Humanities produces Maryland History Day. For more information, visit www.mdhistoryday.org. Connect with Maryland History Day on Facebook and Twitter.

NHD is a non-profit organization based in College Park, Maryland, which seeks to improve the teaching and learning of history. The National History Day Contest was established in 1974 and currently engages more than half a million students every year in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. Students present their research as a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Projects compete first at the local and affiliate levels, where the top entries are invited to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park. NHD is sponsored in part by HISTORY®, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Park Service, Southwest Airlines, The Better Angels Society, Jacqueline B. Mars, and BBVA. For more information, visit nhd.org.