The Smithsonian Summer Sessions: Teaching with Museum Objects

Teachers, don't miss this special opportunity to learn with four Smithsonian museums from home! Register for this 14-week course and join an online community of educators for an immersive exploration of teaching with museum objects and works of art. Museum educators will explore connections among their collections and model teaching strategies that participants can implement with their students, whether online or in the classroom. Participants will discover how to teach with museum resources to engage students in deeper thinking and support content learning across disciplines. They'll learn to use the Smithsonian Learning Lab to curate digital resource collections, and share lesson ideas among a new network of colleagues.

Which Smithsonian Museums Will You Learn From?

• National Museum of African American History and Culture

• National Museum of American History

• National Portrait Gallery

• Smithsonian American Art Museum

Who Should Enroll?

Teachers of all subjects and grades are welcome to register. The program content will be most readily applicable to humanities teachers.

What is Required of Participants?

The course is self-paced, designed to be taken over the course of 14 weeks, with one to two hours of content assigned per week. Participants are expected to view all recorded video sessions and respond to reflection prompts using a discussion board.

Participants will also be expected to create a digital resource collection using the Smithsonian Learning Lab.

In this course, you’ll discover how museum objects and works of art can broaden our perspectives, reveal silenced stories, and make relevant connections to our world today. Museum educators will explore connections among their collections and model teaching strategies that participants can implement with their students, whether online or in the classroom.

Teachers, join six Smithsonian museums for 14-weeks of teacher professional development from home. We’ll introduce the Smithsonian Learning Lab, a free, online platform for accessing digital museum resources and creating interactive learning experiences with them. Participants will discover how to teach with museum resources to engage students in deeper thinking and support content learning across disciplines.

Over the duration of the course, you will reflect on what you have learned and workshop ideas to create a learning experience for your classroom.