Ditching the Textbook

I just want to recognize the good people that are digitizing so many primary source documents. For social studies teachers, having increasing access to these letters, patents, maps, photos, recordings, etc., allows us to ditch the boring textbooks (because let's face it, textbooks are inherently boring for kids...and adults) and gives us the opportunity to help make this stuff interesting for kids (and for us as teachers). Here are just a few of the fantastic resources:

• Library of Congress

• National Archives

• National Archives Digital Vaults
  

• History Matters

• Oregon Digital Newspaper Project
  

• The New York Times (Education Section)
  

On a side note, these are not all just social studies sites (esp. the NY Times site).