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 Our interactive webinars for educators feature historical documents, images, maps, posters, and other primary sources — as well as resources and strategies for bringing primary sources into your classroom.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. 

Webinars Available By Request

Please email distancelearning@nara.gov to request your program for the 2021-2022 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

Available Programs:

An Introduction to DocsTeach

Discover 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 

Join 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

Contact us to schedule your NHD webinar.

Questions? Contact DistanceLearning@nara.gov

Recorded Webinars

DocsTeach Mini-Webinars

Our self-serve mini-webinars cover DocsTeach basics and tips for online teaching. Each webinar is approximately 20 minutes.

• Getting Started with DocsTeach – Each session highlights a different aspect of DocsTeach to show you how you can help your students make sense of the stories, events, and ideas of the past by working with primary sources.
  • Finding and Sharing Activities
  • Finding and Sharing Primary Source Documents
  • Assigning and Viewing Student Work
  • Choosing an Activity
  • Modifying Existing Activities
  • Creating Your Own Activity

• DocsTeach for Virtual Learning – This series is specifically geared to support educators teaching virtually. Each session highlights a different way to use DocsTeach with students who are learning from home.
  • How to Create and Share Primary Source Sets
  • How to Pair and Share DocsTeach Activity Sets
  • How to Lead a DocsTeach Activity Remotely
  • How to Analyze Primary Sources Online with DocsTeach

Professional Development for Educators