Truman Presidential Library
My visit to the website of the Truman Presidential Library was surprising. I did not expect to find the wealth of lesson plans and digitized primary sources that I did.
What I found most exciting, at first, was Truman’s 1947 Diary digitized and available online. As I read through it, I found numerous references, by Truman, to things that I teach about. I could use this one source in so many ways including having students search the diary themselves.
Another thing I found incredible about the Truman Library’s site was the numerous audio collection they have made available online. The choices range from announcing the surrender of Germany in WWII to Truman’s farewell address to the nation. All of these will be useful when teaching about Korea, the Cold War, presidential campaigns and about Truman himself.
The games on the site were great as well. The Crack the Code game and The Spy’s Dilemma are games my students would enjoy (although I was not able to crack the code myself).
Ultimately, it was the student research section that is absolutely the most valuable part of the Truman Presidential Library site. This section includes oral histories, primary documents, correspondence, photographs, audio recordings, etc. I LOVE the fact that my students can do primary research on a topic and go to one place. So often, students waste time trying to sort through information on the web and you have to teach them about the validity of web-sites. Although that is necessary to teach, knowing that I can send them to one place and they can get everything they will ever need is awesome! I wish more presidential libraries would do this.
Overall, I was quite surprised at everything the Truman Library’s website had to offer. I will definitely look at other Presidential libraries when looking for primary documents and lessons for other times in American History.
What I found most exciting, at first, was Truman’s 1947 Diary digitized and available online. As I read through it, I found numerous references, by Truman, to things that I teach about. I could use this one source in so many ways including having students search the diary themselves.
Another thing I found incredible about the Truman Library’s site was the numerous audio collection they have made available online. The choices range from announcing the surrender of Germany in WWII to Truman’s farewell address to the nation. All of these will be useful when teaching about Korea, the Cold War, presidential campaigns and about Truman himself.
The games on the site were great as well. The Crack the Code game and The Spy’s Dilemma are games my students would enjoy (although I was not able to crack the code myself).
Ultimately, it was the student research section that is absolutely the most valuable part of the Truman Presidential Library site. This section includes oral histories, primary documents, correspondence, photographs, audio recordings, etc. I LOVE the fact that my students can do primary research on a topic and go to one place. So often, students waste time trying to sort through information on the web and you have to teach them about the validity of web-sites. Although that is necessary to teach, knowing that I can send them to one place and they can get everything they will ever need is awesome! I wish more presidential libraries would do this.
Overall, I was quite surprised at everything the Truman Library’s website had to offer. I will definitely look at other Presidential libraries when looking for primary documents and lessons for other times in American History.
posted by huttont | 2:47 PM
1 Comments:
good job on this entry - as always - Mrs. Hutton ;-)
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