Congress website to improve the quality of social studies instruction. Potential session topics include using Pathfinders to manage the Library of Congress web site and teach about local communities, Chicago, Illinois, U.S. history and world history; developing document-based questions; developing primary source-based instruction for students with special needs and English language learners; and developing webquests to build content understanding and enhance technology skills.

The conference's theme is "Our Sense of Place."

The conference's them is "Chart a New Course for Social Studies," and it will be followed by an additional Teaching American History Grant Symposium.

This year's conference has a new format including three conference sessions, a brunch, and a no-host social event following the sessions at a local brew pub. Also new at this conference is a "Learning Walk" that offers teachers an opportunity to share their successes with colleagues.

The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. As part of the Lincoln Bicentennial celebrations, Harvard University's Houghton Library will cosponsor with the Lincoln Forum and the Lincoln Group of Boston a symposium on "Abraham Lincoln at 200: New Perspectives on His Life and Legacy." The symposium, to be held at Houghton Library and other Harvard University venues will coincide with a major exhibition featuring books, manuscripts, ephemera, and artifacts from Houghton Library's Abraham Lincoln Collection. The symposium will examine or reexamine several aspects of Lincoln's career, such as his views on race and slavery, his role as Commander-in-Chief, his use of the press to shape public opinion, his relationship with Congress and his influence on the legislative process, and his role as a politician and as a party leader. Several prominent Lincoln and Civil War scholars have agreed to participate, including Jean H. Baker, Michael Beschloss, Gabor Boritt, Brian Dirck, David Herbert Donald, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Drew Gilpin Faust, Richard W. Fox, Harold Holzer, John Marszalek, James McPherson, Edna Greene Medford, Matthew Pinsker, Gerald J. Prokopowicz, Craig Symonds, Thomas Turner, Michael Vorenberg, and Frank J. Williams.

The U.S. Department of Education and the Teaching American History program presents this Project Directors Conference for Teaching American History grantees who received grants from 2005 through 2008.