In the cold November rain, over 3000 social studies teachers from around the country gathered in Boston for the annual National Council for Social Studies conference. The LMEC Education team welcomed educators to the Leventhal Center for three days of workshops and open houses.
The conference kicked off with a half day clinic co-hosted with our ARGO partners at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon. Teachers considered how they could use maps to highlight multiple perspectives on the American Revolution, with a special focus on the erasure of indigenous people.
The Center was joined GBH’s Open House for teachers in Newsfeed cafe on Thursday afternoon. Learning Resource Specialist Claire Tratnyek spoke with educators from across the country about what they need while sharing our current work at the LMEC. Claire also shared LMEC swag including QR coded packages of Fig Newtons pointing to Atlascope where you can trace the history of this local confection. In addition, Claire created an Atlascope tour of Boylston Street for conference attendees to take while they journeyed from Central library back to Hynes Convention Center.
On Friday, Kiana Harriel, Experiential Learning and Programs Educator, shared the popular programs and effective strategies she has developed this fall for visiting elementary school students in a workshop for K-3 teachers. We also hosted a special social studies focused From the Vault that included maps and guiding questions of special interest to teachers.
This map, Neely’s new reversible historical chart, political map and United states map combined, was featured in the special From the Vault
Our jam-packed conference concluded on Saturday afternoon with Nicole Claris, Director of Education, nerding out with middle grade educators about maps of the ancient world. It was a special group of people who ooh and ahh when Ptolemy appeared in a PowerPoint.
While we appreciated the excitement about the collection and work of the Leventhal, it was equally important for our team to have echoed what we have heard often from teachers in Greater Boston: Teachers need resources and program that they can readily adapt to their classrooms. This buoyed our efforts to create resources for educators that are formatted for immediate classroom use and the support of well-crafted guiding questions.
We look forward to updating you (and attending future conferences) about our ongoing efforts to support classroom educators and their students!
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