Melissa Thibault
Melissa joined LEARN NC as Education Resource Coordinator in August 2000 and, shortly thereafter, assumed the role of Director of Media Services. In her current position as Associate Director, Melissa oversees all areas of the LEARN NC program, including publications, professional development, online learning, and instructional technology.
Before joining LEARN, Melissa was a Media Coordinator at W. G. Enloe Gifted and Talented International Baccalaureate High School in Raleigh, N.C. Her experience as a librarian has included university, public, literacy and school programs. Her master’s degree in Library and Information Science is from the University of South Florida, Tampa, and her undergraduate degree in Economics is from Colby College, Waterville, Maine.
When not working at LEARN NC, you may find Melissa on the sidelines of her daughter’s soccer games or creating scrapbooks of her extensive extended family’s photos and memorabilia.
Resources created by Melissa Thibault
Records 1–20 of 47 displayed: go to page 1, 2, 3
- Accessing the American Memory collection: Browse by subject, chronology, and geography
- Browsing the collections gives anyone new to American Memory a chance to get a sense of the scope and variety of its materials. For the experienced user, browsing allows you to unearth previously undiscovered resources—with...
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Accessing the American Memory collection: Multimedia formats and offline-use tips
- The American Memory collection contains a wide variety of formats including motion pictures, sound recordings, sheet music, maps, and photos. First, learn how to find them, then explore options for use in your classroom.
- Format: article
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Accessing the American Memory collection: Searching
- Take a look at the second installment in the American Memory: North Carolina educator's guide and find out how to search the collections with success. You'll learn all kinds of tricks and techniques, and even explore the Library of Congress's latest search tool.
- Format: article
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Alternatives to the animal report
- In Rethinking Reports, page 2.1
- Year after year, students are assigned an animal report, a factual report on a species of their choice. My son chose the Harpy Eagle for his third-grade animal report — and proceeded to re-submit that report with only slight modifications for years thereafter!...
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Alternatives to the famous person report
- In Rethinking Reports, page 3.1
- This "rethinking reports" series of articles provides alternative research assignments that challenge students to think critically about historical actors.
- By David Walbert and Melissa Thibault.
- Alternatives to the President Report
- In Rethinking Reports, page 1.1
- The "President Report" is a common assignment in social studies classes from second grade, where biography is first introduced, through high school U.S. History. You know what we mean: students are asked to pick a U.S. president and write a biographical...
- By Melissa Thibault and David Walbert.
- Animal folktales: Legends, superheroes, and pourquoi tales
- By writing a narrative about an animal rather than a traditional report, students can learn about literature, develop writing skills, and still fulfill science and research objectives.
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Beaufort Burying Ground
- A view of some of the markers and graves in the Beaufort Burying Ground. Taken from inside the cemetery, this image includes many stone markers and plot borders dating from the 1700s. The cemetery is shaded by many live oak trees and the white wooden outer...
- Format: image/photograph
- Beaufort Burying Ground historic marker
- Beaufort Burying Ground historic marker reads "Old Burying Ground, deeded to town, 1731, by Nathanael Taylor. Captain Otway Burns of the War of 1812, Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers are buried here." Marker is further identified as C43 by the North Carolina...
- Format: image/photograph
- Believe it or not! Reporting on amazing animals
- A visual and oral presentation of an "animal report" can engage students' interest and develop their artistic and visual literacy skills.
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Bring history to life with a Living History Day!
- A Living History Day turns students into teachers and challenges them to think historically.
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Canning for country and community
- In this lesson plan, students will use primary source documents to evaluate the technological challenges of food preservation in the 30s and 40s, compare food preservation in the first half of the twentieth century with today, and consider the political role of food in the community.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 10–12 Social Studies)
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Celebrating the freedom to read
- Banned Books Week teaches the importance of our First Amendment rights and draws attention to the danger of restricting information in a free society.
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Children's literature promotes understanding
- Bibliotherapy and critical literacy are two ways to use books to help children better understand themselves, others, and the world around them. This article explains both strategies and provides resources for selecting appropriate books.
- Format: article
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Citing sources
- A guide for high school students to citing sources from print and the web.
- Format: article
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Collection Connections
- In this installment of the American Memory Guide, learn to find teaching resources associated with the Library of Congress's primary source collections.
- Format: article
- By Melissa Thibault.
- Comparative anatomy: A continuum
- In groups, students will design a presentation that will trace the development of an organ system through the major phyla of the animal kingdom looking for the relationships between structure and function by documenting adaptations.
- Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Development, Information Skills, and Science)
- By Joan Warner and Melissa Thibault.
- Crissie Wright grave marker
- A grave marker in the Beaufort Burying Ground indicates the mass grave of men who died in the January 11, 1886 shipwreck of the Crissie Wright. Shield-shaped grave marker reads "Chrissie Wright, common grave, January 11 1886" under an outline of a fish. Next...
- Format: image/photograph
- Facial Studies Through Creation of a Face Jug
- Students study the anatomy of a face and use what they have learned about rendering faces and three dimensional objects to create thumbnail sketches of expressive faces on jugs.
They learn to blend values to create the illusion of volume in both facial features and clay jugs. Three dimensional understanding is reinforced by adding expressive facial features to coiled clay jugs. Earth Science is integrated through the study of clay. Social Studies in integrated through the study of face jugs found as far back in history as Pre-Columbian times. Artistic meaning is explored through facial expression and the psychological implications of color.
They look at examples of face jugs. They learn about types of clay. They learn to roll clay coils and create a jug using coil construction. They score, slip and blend facial features to the jug. They choose either underglaze decoration followed by a clear glaze coating or colored glaze decoration applied after bisque firing as a finish. - Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 Visual Arts Education and Social Studies)
- By Lori Shepley, Melissa Thibault, and Nelle Hayes.
- Finding and using literary criticism
- A guide for high school students to finding and using literary criticism, in print and on the web.
- By Melissa Thibault.
