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
Smithsonian Summer Sessions: Inspiring Civic Engagement
Monday, June 27 - Friday, July 1, 2022
How can educators of all disciplines prepare students to be active and informed participants in a democracy? Join us this summer to explore this question through the lens of six Smithsonian collections!
Online via Zoom
Interrogating the Stories We Tell
How can museum objects and works of art can broaden our perspectives, reveal silenced stories, and make relevant connections to our world today? Explore these questions in a self-paced course led by educators at six Smithsonian museums.
Register today for this self-paced course
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.
Register today for this self-paced course
2021-2022 Workshop Archive
Pairing Art and Text (ELA)
Saturday, April 9, 2022
Develop strategies for identifying artworks that can help build and extend student comprehension of texts.
Visible Data: Making Meaning Through Art (STEAM)
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
How do artists convey complex interconnections clearly and compellingly?
Big Art, Big Systems (Civics)
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Uncover how the interdependence of elements of an artwork helps us consider interdependencies in society.
Neighborhood Historians (Continuity and Change Over Time)
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
How can photographs challenge students to gauge what has changed and what has stayed the same?
Heart and Head: A Call to Action (Global Competencies)
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
What lessons can artists teach students, our future global leaders, about inspiring action?
Memorials and Memory (SEL)
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
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).
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.
Past Programs
A Woman’s Place Is in the Curriculum: Women’s History through American Art and Portraiture
Learn how American art and portraiture can bring diverse women’s stories into your classroom.
2020-2021 Archived Workshop Recordings
Look into our archive to find even more interactive, web-based workshops.
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