Congress in the Classroom® is a national, award-winning education program now in its 16th year. Developed and sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center, the workshop is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information on teaching about Congress. The Center joins with the new Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service to conduct the workshop.

The 2008 program pays special attention to the upcoming congressional and presidential elections. Participants will gain experience with The Dirksen Center website which features online access to lesson plans, student activities, historical materials, related Web sites, and subject matter experts. The workshop consists of two types of sessions: those that focus on recent research and scholarship about Congress or elections and those geared to specific ways to teach students about Congress or elections.

Drawing upon practitioners, scholars, and educators, the Summer Institute will examine the sources of global conflict and different approaches to peacemaking and peacebuilding in the current global environment, which presents unique challenges and opportunities for teachers striving to ready young people to take their places in an increasingly complex world.

Primarily Teaching is designed to provide access to the rich resources of the National Archives for educators at the upper elementary, secondary, and college levels. Participants will learn how to research the historical records, create classroom materials based on the records, and present documents in ways that sharpen students’ skills and enthusiasm for history, government, and the other humanities. Each participant will search the holdings of the National Archives for documents suitable for classroom use and develop strategies for using these documents in the classroom or design professional development activities to help classroom teachers use primary source documents effectively.

Primarily Teaching is designed to provide access to the rich resources of the National Archives for educators at the upper elementary, secondary, and college levels. Participants will learn how to research the historical records, create classroom materials based on the records, and present documents in ways that sharpen students’ skills and enthusiasm for history, government, and the other humanities. Each participant will search the holdings of the National Archives for documents suitable for classroom use and develop strategies for using these documents in the classroom or design professional development activities to help classroom teachers use primary source documents effectively.

Primarily Teaching is designed to provide access to the rich resources of the National Archives for educators at the upper elementary, secondary, and college levels. Participants will learn how to research the historical records, create classroom materials based on the records, and present documents in ways that sharpen students’ skills and enthusiasm for history, government, and the other humanities. Each participant will search the holdings of the National Archives for documents suitable for classroom use and develop strategies for using these documents in the classroom or design professional development activities to
help classroom teachers use primary source documents effectively.

This workshop provides a varied program of lectures, demonstrations, analysis of documents, independent research, and group work that introduces teachers to the holdings and organization of the National Archives. Participants will learn how to do research in historical records, create classroom material from records, and present documents in ways that sharpen students' skills and enthusiasm for history, social studies, and the humanities. Each participant selects and prepares to research a specific topic, searches the topic in the records of the National Archives, and develops a teaching unit that can be presented in his or her own classroom.

"This workshop will introduce participants to the Native American cultures of the Ohio River Valley and the personalities that scouted, surveyed and established Ohio's first Euro-American settlement. Guest speakers will include Dr. James H. O'Donnell, Professor of History at Marietta College, and curators and archivists from the Ohio Historical Society and the Marietta College Archives."