Distance learning tools and workshops for SY 20-21

Classroom Connections | Teacher Update

A Nationwide Community of Practice

August 2020

Nearly 400 teachers spent a week with the Smithsonian this summer. From living rooms and porches all over the US, China, and Central America, these educators created an online community of practice.

They sought and created connections, practical suggestions, hope, and beauty.

Every teacher I spoke with expressed trepidation about the coming year as well as a genuine desire to bring inspiration and hope to their classrooms, whether digital or online.

Their honesty and generous feedback was a gift to one another and to the Smithsonian American Art Museum; we better understand the needs of classroom teachers entering SY 20-21. As you move into this new school year, please call on me.

May the wind be at your back,
Elizabeth
DeinesE@si.edu

A painting of a political map of the United States, with dripping paint obscuring state lines.

Online Professional Learning

Promoting a Community of Practice

SAAM strives to support teachers with live, hour-long Zoom-based workshops, archived webinars, and an interdisciplinary MOOC (massive, open online course). Content includes social emotional learning, women’s history, analyzing systems of power, and stories of resilience.

Professional Development

A photograph of the back of an educator's head and the screens of videoconferencing equipment showing a distant classroom and students.

Interactive Videoconferences

Learning from Home

Promote collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication through free, curriculum-aligned videoconferences. Consider using these conversations as formative or summative assessments of your students' understanding of classroom content.

Ten Standards-Aligned Topics

K–12 Videoconferences

Video Archive: Artists Engage with the Environment

Science + Art

A collection of videos, each 5-minutes or less, invite viewers to consider how artworks can make visible thinking about natural phenomena. Consider how students might create artworks that demonstrate their understanding of complex systems while giving them windows to the wider world.

Watch Artist Videos

Equity in Education

Print and Play

Over the summer several Smithsonian museums banded together to print and distribute print materials through a variety of service outlets. The resulting, bilingual Look-Talk-Play brochures are intended to support at-home play-based learning:

We learned a handful of things, which might be of help to you, too:

Seemingly-ubiquitous arts supplies (pencil, blank paper, scissors, tape) are not as readily-available as we supposed. As a result, we learned to offer a short list of possible alternative materials (ex: “Cut or tear tinfoil, junk mail, a takeout bag, or other material into a rectangle.”)
Food items may not be appropriate “consumables” for all families, particularly those facing food insecurity
Older siblings may be serving as their family’s daytime caregiver. In an effort to make materials accessible for all, we wrote caregiver instructions at the 4th-5th grade reading level
With the need for both social distancing and connection, we avoided activities that required close proximity with people in other households (i.e. passing materials back and forth) but did invite conversation and imaginative play amongst generations.

How can I support equity in your school district?

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, State Names, 2000, oil, collage and mixed media on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Elizabeth Ann Dugan and museum purchase, 2004.28

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