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Acknowledgments As finishing touches are put on this book, I can look back at one pivotal moment in the journey. I had just started to see great learning coming from using primary sources. After telling stories to a Meg Steele, who was working at the Library of Congress, and swiping through pictures of students’ work on my phone, her response was, “You need to think about sharing this with people!” That day I made a decision to start sharing beyond my library. That journey of speaking, writing, and working with amazing educators has also had many supporters along the way. Many thanks go to the rest of the Educational Outreach staff at the Library of Congress who welcomed me for a year as a Teacher in Residence and encouraged my ideas as well as my growth. Special thanks to Cheryl Lederle, my unofficial mentor during my time there, and Lee Ann Potter, who believed I had something to offer and brought me in for the most amazing year of professional growth I’ve ever experienced. Thanks also to Mary Johnson and the Teaching with Primary Sources Teachers Network Mentors. You give me a supported place to continue that growth that I appreciate every day. My appreciation also goes to my administration in my school and district as well as my classroom teachers. When I want to try something new, something I am unsure will work, you have the opportunity to tell me no and yet continue to say yes. I hope it is the student growth and engaged learning that keep you letting me take risks and see awesome rewards. A special thanks to Sean Doherty, my for- mer principal and current superintendent, who sees the benefit my professional growth has on student learning, and to Jennifer Martin, my principal, who appre- ciates the gains that my reaching out and working with educators outside of the district have on my own growth as well as student learning in the school. xiii