week of 2/27/02
 
 
 

Area teachers participate in information access project
SMN
Thirty-eight teachers from North Carolina’s seven westernmost counties are participating in “An Adventure of the American Mind,” a federally funded project being adminstered in those counties by Western Carolina University’s College of Education and Allied Professions.

U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor secured federal funding in 1999 to bring the multi-year pilot project to Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. The “Adventure of the American Mind” provides participating teachers from public, private and charter schools with laptop computers and free Internet access. During a free graduate-level course, the teachers are taught to use the computers in accessing the digitized records of the Library of Congress National Digital Library in Washington, D.C., and in applying those skills and resources in their classroom teaching, said Beth Rodgers Leftwich, project director at WCU.

The Library of Congress has online more than 7 million digitized historical sources, including documents, films, manuscripts, photographs and sound recordings, Leftwich said.

Teachers participating in this year’s “American Mind” project are

° Haywood County: Marcia Reid of Bethel Christian School; Pam Brillisour and Jan Nesbitt of Central Elementary School; and Jane Cooke and Tammy Lanning of Thickety Christian School.

° Jackson County: Lana Bryson and Patricia Daniel of Blue Ridge School; and Carolyn Colton and Linda Potter of Scotts Creek Elementary School.

° Macon County: Shelly Bell and Eugenia Crawford of Cartoogechaye Elementary School; Lindy Blanton and Mary Lynn Duncan of Cowee Elementary School; Tracy Hedden and Noel McJunkin of Highlands School; and Judy Lightner and Cathy Tippett of South Macon County Elementary School.

° Swain County: Sandra English, Linda Hogue and Patti Mathis of Swain East Elementary School; Bernita Jones and Joe Livingston of Swain Middle School; and Pat Dunford and Renee Peoples of Swain West Elementary School.

For more information about the project or the Library of Congress National Digital Library, call 828.227.7111, or e-mail Leftwich@wcu.edu.