Updates
Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week!
On Monday, May 2, the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (the team behind the Smithsonian Learning Lab) as well as educators from across the Institution, hosted the 56 Teachers of the Year in an all-day professional development event as part of their "Washington Week." This annual event, now in its 10th year, has become a favorite of the museum educators I collaborate with here at the Smithsonian. This year, we were ...
Celebrating 10 Years with the Teachers of the Year!
Next Monday, the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (SCLDA) will host the 56 State Teachers of the Year for a day of professional learning focused on using digital museum resources in the classroom.For ten years now, this collaboration has allowed the Smithsonian and the Council of Chief State School Officers to accomplish two major goals: (1) continued training and professional development for Teachers of the Year and (2) making Smithsonian learning...
Creating an Urgent Desire: Marketing the Learning Lab
A couple of weeks ago, we welcomed Kristen Plemon and Ileana Rowe of Plemon Communications to DC to kick off a yearlong marketing and public relations project to launch the Learning Lab. I jotted down a couple of goals at the two-day meeting (in which we were also very lucky to have with us Erika Ferrin and Gabe Kosowitz who work in the Smithsonian's internal communications team): Create an urgent desire to use the Smithsonian f...
Growing Our Team: Fellows, Interns, and New Staff
The Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (SCLDA) sponsors interns, scholar-researchers and visiting professionals who utilize SCLDA as a springboard to the Smithsonian's resources and research opportunities. They also have become our colleagues in thinking about engagement strategies for the Learning Lab. Currently, we are hosting Dr. Kathy Mackey, the 2015 Smithsonian Queensland Fellow and SCLDA Fellow in Museum...
Understanding Biodiversity with Smithsonian Collections
A few weeks ago, educators from the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access were invited to join the Smithsonian Science Education Center in their summer workshop on the topic of Biodiversity. The workshop included fifteen teachers from around the country, including California, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Washington DC, who teach science subject areas from the elementary level through Adv...
