This event webpage is the main starting-point for sharing information about the schedule, updates, and all things unconference: bitly.com/tps21unconf
NOTES FROM TPS UNCONFERENCE 2021 – SESSION TOPICS
Notes from all sessions are in one large google doc.
Links below take you directly to each session’s notes on the topic.
Current and Post-Pandemic Practices
1B: What are some challenges and opportunities afforded by the pandemic?
2B: How do we incorporate digital collections — from our home institutions and other institutions — into instruction?
3B: What are best practices in TPS lesson design, both in-person and remotely?
4B: How do we promote active learning and engagement with digital collections?
5B: How do we re-establish our relationships (with faculty, community, etc.) as the pandemic evolves?
5D: How do we prevent burnout as people transition to working on site after working remotely for so long?
6B: What are some digital teaching tools that we’ve been using, both before and since the start of the pandemic?
Invisible Labor in Teaching with Primary Sources
1C: What are some approaches to teaching sensitive and difficult topics?
1F [BIPOC-only Session]: What are some approaches to teaching sensitive and difficult topics?
2C: How do we balance teaching work with our other responsibilities?
2E: What are some social justice and diversity issues that the TPS profession faces, and what are some ways to mitigate them?
2F [BIPOC-only Session]: What are some social justice and diversity issues that the TPS profession faces, and what are some ways to mitigate them?
3C: How can we better assess our outreach efforts to students, educators, donors, administrators, and others?
4C: What are some assessment strategies for student understanding that we’ve found effective, both in-person and remotely?
4E: How do we address social justice and diversity issues in teaching and learning with primary sources?
5E: How do we teach effectively about the biases and silences of our collections?
5F [BIPOC-only Session]: How do we teach effectively about the biases and silences of our collections?
6C: What kinds of TPS work easily gets overlooked and what are some best practices to help us work more sustainably?
Teaching Outside the Classroom
1D: How do we help new TPS colleagues acclimate to our institutions?
2D: What are best practices, tips, and tools for creating student-curated exhibitions?
3D: How can we preserve institutional knowledge and make it more accessible, apart from writing it down?
4D: How can we advocate for ourselves and our communities?
6D: How do we leverage TPS work into outreach and marketing?
Toward Better Collaboration
1A: What are best practices in collaborating with educators on one-shot instructional situations?
1E: What are effective TPS practices and collaboration in and with cultural institutions?
2A: What are some best practices for building community partnerships with equity and integrity?
3A: What are some teaching practices that work better for students from disciplines outside the humanities?
3E: What are some best practices for embedded librarianship and co-instruction with faculty?
3F: How can we develop more equitable teaching practices?
4A: What are effective TPS practices and collaboration in and with K-12?
5A: How can we make our institutions relevant and available to K-12 educators?
6A: What are some best practices for embedded librarianship and co-instruction with faculty?
6E: What is an experiment in teaching you’ve tried or seen lately?
6F: How do we build assignments which are relevant to students’ experiences?
July 20 & 21, 2021 — Come one and all!
The 2021 Teaching with Primary Sources Virtual Unconference will happen on Tuesday, July 20th and Wednesday, July 21st. On each day, sessions will run for four hours, 1-5pm Eastern / 10-2pm Pacific, with social meetups following. Like last year, it will be an all-virtual event and as always it will be drop-in/drop-out as you please and no-cost! (Updated July 2, 2021)
Free Registration is Open! Spread the word. bitly.com/REGISTER21TPS
“Wait, how do I actually get into the sessions I want?” — Info on finding your Zoom details
When you registered for the unconference (link above), you should have received an email with subject “TPS Unconference – Next steps for registering.” In that email there was a link to a Unconference Program page — note that this will be a handy page to keep open during the unconference. On this Program page, you should have registered for all the sessions your want to attend — for each of the sessions you registered for, you should get a separate email with the zoom-joining-link for each session — these email subject lines include the session name and end with the words “Confirmation – TPS Unconference.”
If you seem to be missing emails, check your junk mail.
What is the TPS Unconference?
Do you Teach with Primary Sources, or want share and learn with other like-minded people with all levels and types of experience? Join your colleagues for an informative and fun event, with a variety of attendee-driven conversations, covering all aspects of Teaching with Primary Sources!
Why should you be excited?
This is our 7th annual unconference! See what happened in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.
To get a feel for the event and what we learned:
• Read the 2019 Event Recaps in the RBMS Instruction & Outreach Newsletter and SAA Archival Outlook
• Check out the Zine 2018 for the TPS Unconference »
Volunteering! Want to be more involved? Please come in! We welcome volunteers and need a lot of folks working together to make a successful event. Email us (unconference-AT-tpscollective.org) to express interest in volunteering and be added to the Slack channel and meeting announcements.
The 2021 TPS Unconference is generously co-supported the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ALA-ACRL, the Society of American Archivists, and many volunteers from the thriving TPS Community.
Interested in More TPS?
- Monday July 19 at 11amPacific / 2pmEastern: the SAA TPS Committee is hosting an Assessment Open Discussion — info here
- Thursday July 22 at 1pmPacific / 4pmEastern: there will be a TPS Community Call and Unconference After-Party for a Cool-Down & Reflection session — info will be shared on the TPS Listserv (see just below if you’re not yet on the listserv)
Watch the TPS Listserv for more information (sign up for the Listserv here).
EVENT DETAILS
Who: You! If you Teach with Primary Sources, this is an active-learning experience for teachers, archivists, museum educators, librarians, and like-minded people to come together.
Accessibility: We want to make this an inclusive, accessible event that enables all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. Please contact us unconference@tpscollective.org if you have questions or concerns.
Where: This will be a virtual event, probably using multiple Zoom rooms and breakout rooms
Cost: FREE!
Attendance: The TPS Unconference is always a drop-in/drop-out event and you are encouraged to pick and choose sessions.
K-12 Teachers!: Depending on your state requirements, we may be able to help with PD/CE credit. Please contact us (see below)!
CONTACT: Email unconference@tpscollective.org with any questions, concerns, ideas, etc.
Hashtag: #tpscollective or #teachwithstuff
Event Style, Partial Recordings & Session Notes:
Find more information on format, timings, sessions topics, etc after you register. The bulk of the event is made up of concurrent discussion sessions, with room for spontaneity of course – this is an Unconference after all.
Since the UN in the UNconference is about peer-to-peer discussions (and presentations aren’t allowed), and discussions become something else with more than 12-15 people (particularly on Zoom), the unconference organizers have decided that any Zoom session with more than 20-ish people will be split into Zoom Breakout Rooms. If you end up in a session with over 150 people, you’ll then be put into one of 10 breakout rooms. You’ll be talking with 14 other people, while there will be 9 other groups having different versions of the same conversation you’re having. These Breakout Rooms will not be recorded, but every room will have access to a group note-taking google doc and we strongly encourage room members to take live notes so that others can benefit from your discussion, as a resource in the future, and also to help with accessibility (which is a challenge with this event, one we can all help out with).
We want to acknowledge that “Unconference Style” is not everyone’s cup of tea. If that’s the case, we encourage you to pick out the parts of the program that fit your style and just tune in for them.
The TPS Unconference is always a drop-in/drop-out event and you don’t need to attend the whole thing.
Kids? Pets? Need to eat or drink? We welcome all to do what you need to do! Just do it muted, except when you’re talking!
Can’t get enough TPS?
Check out some other events & opportunities and excellent resources on the TPS Collective website.