HCC to Offer National Constitution Center Professional Development for Regional Educators

Hopkinsville Community College (HCC) will offer a free professional development opportunity for area educators with the National Constitution Center from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday, July 25 at Southside Church of Christ located at 529 Country Club Lane in Hopkinsville.

National Constitution Center Public Programs Trainer Mark Kehres will present the one-day workshop related to the upcoming Lincoln exhibit scheduled to be on the Hopkinsville Community College campus from September 21 through November 4. Mr. Kehres is the writer and host of Constitution Hall Pass. He holds a master's degree in history from Villanova University and a bachelor's degree in history from Ohio State University. In 2002, Mr. Kehres was the first runner-up on Jeopardys College Championship, as he represented Ohio State University. He has worked in museum education since 2006.

The training will be geared toward middle and high school grades. Teachers will be exposed to the resources developed by the National Constitution Center and accessible through the Center's website, as well as useful resources from other institutions such as the National Archives. Educators will receive resources and new methods that can be implemented in their classrooms. Six hours of professional development will be awarded by the National Constitution Center to participants. A free lunch for attendees will be provided by the Hopkinsville Community College Foundation, Inc.

Mondays professional development session is the first of many Lincoln-inspired activities that will be organized around the traveling exhibition, Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War. The HCC Library will be planning events over the next several months while the exhibit is on the Colleges campus.

In the fall of 2009, HCC administrators announced that the College had been selected as a host site for Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War, a traveling exhibition that examines how President Lincoln used the Constitution to confront three intertwined crises of the Civil Warthe secession of Southern states, slavery and wartime civil liberties. The exhibition is currently touring the country. Hopkinsville is the only host site in Kentucky.

The National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the traveling exhibition, which was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): great ideas brought to life. The traveling exhibition is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center and currently touring the United States.

Those interested in registering for Mondays professional development workshop should email Ann Nichols