Professional Development Webinars
Visit the National Archives without leaving your school or 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 Our interactive webinars for educators feature historical documents, images, maps, posters, and other primary sources — as well as resources and strategies for bringing primary sources into your classroom.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.
By Request
DocsTeach On Demand
Register and select your preferred dates
Connect your school or district with the National Archives for an on-demand webinar exploring DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives. Prior to the webinar, a National Archives educator will work with you to determine what the webinar will cover. Topics may include:
- An introduction to DocsTeach
- Finding primary sources for the classroom
- Creating DocsTeach activities
- And more depending on your preferences!
Additional program details:
- Minimum of 10 participants
- Maximum of 99 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
Upcoming Webinars
Native American Stories about the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Thursday, October 18, 2018, Offered at both 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. EDT
Join us for this program focusing upon specific curriculum approaches from Honoring Tribal Legacies (from the University of Oregon, National Park Service Lewis and Clark Trail, and the National Archives) using primary sources, stories, songs, theater, video, and classroom experiments. Incorporate these and other National Archives resources into your own classroom materials to teach the Native side of the Lewis and Clark experience. Included will be new material designed to help relate the Native American experience to your own area of the United States. (Live Native storyteller to be announced.)
This webinar is part of our Native American professional development series. Each program features new resources for locating and using Federal records related to American Indians and Alaska Natives.
The Making of American Indian Treaties
Thursday, November 1, 2018, Offered at both 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. EDT
The National Archives holds all original American Indian treaties and their associated materials. Many of these materials are now being digitized for the first time as part of an ongoing scanning project. Some of the most fascinating material will include documents, maps, and even drawings of flora and fauna produced by surveyors and other Government employees who nearly always accompanied officials in the negotiating parties.
Just imagine your students producing a play, video, or reenactment using the actual materials produced by treaty negotiators at the time – and focused on the area your students know best, their very own community. Our new or soon-to-be-published online materials are designed to make such a project both possible and easy.
This webinar is part of our Native American professional development series. Each program features new resources for locating and using Federal records related to American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Teaching the Indian Removal Act of 1830
Thursday, November 15, 2018, Offered at both 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. EDT
Many people associate the term “Trail of Tears” with the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from the southeastern U.S. to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). However, there were hundreds of other forced removals of tribes to various locations across the United States, some of which might have been from (or crossed through) your very own area of the country.
New online lessons and resources provide perspectives from Native American community members, documents, maps, images, and classroom activities to help teach an important and difficult chapter in the history – both of Native communities and of the United States. Coupled with historical U.S. Government records, these resources provide a fuller picture of the scope of removal and its impact on Native people. Join us to learn what resources are available so you can incorporate them into your own curriculum. Suitable for secondary grade levels.
This webinar is part of our Native American professional development series. Each program features new resources for locating and using Federal records related to American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Penpals from the Past: American Indian Schools in the United States
Thursday, December 13, 2018, Offered at both 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. EDT
Is there anything more compelling than a letter from a penpal? What if you and your students could read letters, or even see Christmas lists, from American Indian students living in boarding schools in the past – or see images of students in their classrooms? Join us for a look at some examples. Learn a little about their experiences; and engage in the formerly complex process of accessing American Indian boarding and day school records, now made easier through our Native Communities Program.
This webinar is part of our Native American professional development series. Each program features new resources for locating and using Federal records related to American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Professional Development for Educators YouTube Channel
View previously recorded webinars and National History Day Workshops featuring primary sources and teaching strategies.
Recently added:
- WWI Resources for the Classroom: The Remembering WWI App and DocsTeach.org
- Remembering Vietnam: the Road to War-Webinar for Educators
- Remembering Vietnam: The Road Through War-Webinar for Educators
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.
Request a program today!
Register online using the registration link for the particular program you are interested in above. If you prefer, fill out and return our PDF form to distancelearning@nara.gov.