Educator Resources

Professional Development Webinars

Visit the National Archives from home! Our interactive webinars for educators feature historical documents, images, maps, posters, and other primary sources — as well as resources and strategies for bringing primary sources into your classroom. All webinars are free of charge.

Advance registration required. Questions? Please contact us at distancelearning@nara.gov.

Live captioning is available by request. Please include a request for live captioning services in your registration for the event and submit your registration at least two weeks in advance of the webinar. 

Upcoming Webinars

Civics for All of US

Free, regularly scheduled professional development workshops for educators explore how to use primary sources to delve into the big ideas of the founding documents of the United States. During each interactive program, participants will engage with primary sources and partake in collaborative group work and discussion to discover how to use National Archives resources and programs to teach civic knowledge and skills.

  • June 27, 2023 - Interrrogating Presidential Photos
  • July 11, 2023 - We the People: Teaching the Constitution Workshop for Elementary Educators
  • August 1, 2023 - The Bill of Rights Workshop for Elementary Educators
  • August 2, 2023 - The Bill of Rights Workshop for Secondary Educators

Learn more

 

Webinars Available By Request

Please email distancelearning@nara.gov to request your program for the 2022-2023 school year.

 

Connect your school or district with the National Archives for one of our by-request professional development webinars!

  • Minimum of 10 participants 
  • Maximum of 250 individual connections per webinar
  • Available by request Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM-6:00 PM ET
  • Program duration is flexible — we recommend 20-60 minutes, depending on the preferred content
  • Please submit requests at least one month in advance of desired date
  • All requests subject to availability

 

An Introduction to DocsTeach

DocsTeach Home PageDiscover DocsTeach.org, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives. Learn how to find primary sources for teaching history and civics topics. Explore the 12 different document-based activity tools and find out how, with a free DocsTeach account, you can create your own activities or modify existing activities to share with your students online. Already familiar with DocsTeach? Request an in-depth training on creating activities or finding DocsTeach resources for teaching a particular topic. 

 

Teaching the Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights 

Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of RightsJoin the National Archives for a hands-on session and discover resources for teaching the founding documents of the United States. Discover a model you can use to introduce your students to these documents, take a look at the Declaration of Independence through different lenses, and access primary sources that can help students connect the big ideas of the Constitution and Bill of Rights to their own lives.

 

National History Day Webinars

Find high-quality online sources for National History Day and tips for how to access them. Schedule a free webinar – customizable by location and grade level – for NHD educators anytime of the year.

Participants will:

  • learn about online student resources from the National Archives
  • discover methods for searching NHD topics on DocsTeach.org
  • explore historical documents from their region of the country

 

Recorded Webinars

DocsTeach Mini-Webinars

DocsTeach Mini-Webinars, Self-serve 20-minute webinars, Learn DocsTeach basics and how to use DocsTeach for virtual learning!Our self-serve mini-webinars cover DocsTeach basics and tips for online teaching. Each webinar is approximately 20 minutes.

 

Professional Development for Educators

Our previously recorded webinars feature primary sources and teaching strategies. Access our full Professional Development for Educators playlist on YouTube.

 

National History Day Workshops

Learn about resources for projects and primary source research from the National Archives and our partner organizations, the theme and categories, using primary and secondary sources effectively, and teaching tools for NHD.

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