2025 Summit Features Inspiring Keynotes, Deep-Dive Sessions and Hands-On Workshops for Educators

The Smithsonian returns with its 5th annual National Education Summit, a free three-day conference for educators preparing to teach the 250th anniversary of the nation

At the fifth annual Smithsonian National Education Summit (July 15-17, 2025), a community of over one hundred Smithsonian educators, classroom teachers, researchers, and partners are leading sessions exploring relevant topics that will prepare attendees from classrooms, libraries, museums and other learning spaces for teaching the Semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence in 2026. 

Free registration is now available for this one-of-a-kind professional learning experience. This year's theme, "Together We Thrive: One Nation, Indivisible," is designed to provide a crucial learning roadmap that empowers educators across all subjects and grade levels to spotlight key historical moments in U.S. history and their contemporary impact. 

On Tuesday, July 15, educators can join online sessions that provide transferrable ideas for engaging learners. These sessions leverage programs that can serve as an impetus for discussion, such as the National Museum of American History's National Youth Summit or PBS documentarian Ken Burns's forthcoming film "The American Revolution," as well as key tools for engagement such as digital storytelling, music integration, and professional learning communities. Online session presenters will also share programs that tie historical narratives to contemporary actions, for example, detailing the arc of the often untold stories of 18th and 19th century women astronomers who studied the skies via telescope images captured on glass plates to today's innovative technologies that allow learners anywhere to conduct similar investigations, or finding inspiration from wartime Victory Gardens of the past to community and school gardens of today. 

On Wednesday, July 16, educators are invited to join livestreamed keynotes or shift their participation to in-person workshop opportunities, hosted at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in the heart of Washington, D.C. Sessions cover a wide range of topics, from understanding the American experience through children's literature to gleaning new insights from oral histories of women’s economic power in financial literacy courses. These sessions will feature Smithsonian educators and offer the opportunity to learn together alongside fellow Summit attendees. A networking reception will follow at the nearby Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.

Finally, on Thursday, July 17, educators can experience Summit-exclusive tours and workshops across the Smithsonian's museums, demonstrating powerful learning opportunities through our collections and exhibitions including: Preamble, Bridge, and Electronic Superhighway at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States at the National Museum of the American Latino, Shifting Boundaries: Perspectives on American Landscapes at the National Museum of Asian Art,  Cellphone: Unseen Connections at the National Museum of Natural History, and a variety of portraits of individuals who have shaped our democracy at the National Portrait Gallery. 

The Smithsonian National Education Summit is an opportunity for educators to come together this summer. Best of all, this high quality professional learning experience is offered free of charge. Join us in Washington, D.C. or online for three days of insightful dialogues across past, present, and future. 

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For more details on the 2025 Smithsonian National Education Summit session line-up and to register for free, visit the Summit website at https://s.si.edu/EducationSummit2025.

Ashley Naranjo | | Read More

Ashley Naranjo is a museum educator, specializing in the use of digital resources for teaching and learning. She currently manages education partnerships in the Smithsonian’s Office of the Under Secretary for Education. She has developed and implemented professional development opportunities for teachers, librarians and fellow museum educators since 2011. She holds a B.A. in Human Development from the Lynch School of Education at Boston College and a M.Ed. in Learning Design and Technology from the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. She is a 2019 graduate of the Getty Leadership Institute’s NextGen of Museum Leaders program.