Professional Development Programs for Educators

Designed for classroom teachers, SAAM's interactive web-based workshops feature engaging "Monday-ready" activities that provoke deep thinking and invite students to apply content knowledge across the curriculum and in the world. Get certificates of completion for seat hours and join a community of practice that stretches across the US!

In addition to our scheduled workshops, we are able to create customized, interactive digital workshops for in-service days. For more information, send an email to AmericanArtEducation@si.edu.

2021-22 Programs

Interdisciplinary Teaching with Museum Objects

Co-facilitated by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access.

Neighborhood Historians (Continuity and Change Over Time)

Wednesday, December 15, 2021, 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. (EST)

How can photographs challenge students to gauge what has changed and what has stayed the same?

Online via Zoom

Big Art, Big Systems (Civics)

Saturday, January 22, 2022, 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Uncover how the interdependence of elements of an artwork helps us consider interdependencies in society.

Online via Zoom

Visible Data: Making Meaning Through Art (STEAM)

Wednesday, February 16, 2022, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. (EST)

How do artists convey complex interconnections clearly and compellingly?

Online via Zoom

A Tall Glass of... Glass? (Art)

Saturday, March 5, 2022, 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Teachers, take an art break in the galleries Luxuriate in the sparkly, over-the-top glory of Venetian glass.

Smithsonian American Art Museum (G Street Entrance)

Pairing Art and Text (ELA)

Saturday, April 9, 2022, 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Develop strategies for identifying artworks that can help build and extend student comprehension of texts.

Smithsonian American Art Museum (G Street Entrance)

2021-2022 Workshop Archive

Alma Thomas: Teacher, Artist, Trailblazer, Inspiration

September 17, 2021

Join museum educators and art conservators from the Smithsonian American Art Museum for a "behind the scenes" look at the trailblazing artist Alma Thomas and the unique way she created her exuberant abstract paintings.

This online workshop was part of the Smithsonian’s First Annual Educator’s Day.

Memorials and Memory (SEL)

Wednesday, October 20

Some artists are also veterans. How might their artworks give us and our students a way to feel loss and also connection? Presented with the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).

Watch the Recorded Workshop