Free Digital Webinar Series Features Teaching Techniques and Resources for Celebrating America at 250

This school year, the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology launches a series to explore strategies for using digital museum resources at a milestone moment in American history

Starting this September, the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology launched a series to explore strategies for using digital museum resources to support student learning of the 250th anniversary of the United States, a milestone moment in American history. The professional development series features educators from across the Smithsonian.

“Reading” a Portrait of George Washington

What does it mean to “read” portraits? Just as you might read a book or article, portraits can also be read to connect visual observations with interpretations and historical context. At the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, museum educators often explore portraiture through three lenses: visual arts, biography, and history. These lenses allow viewers to better understand the story the portrait aims to tell. This approach was the inaugural topic of a new webinar series, “Cultivating Learning: Celebrating America at 250” this past September.

Perhaps one of the most iconic presidential portraits in the National Portrait Gallery’s collections is Gilbert Stuart’s Portrait of George Washington, currently in the museum’s America’s Presidents gallery. In this portrait, also known as the Lansdowne Portrait, the artist made a number of direct references to the newly formed United States. The pose he chose for the president is believed to allude to Washington’s annual address in front of Congress in December 1795.

In the now-archived session “Unpacking Symbols and Stories in Gilbert Stuart’s Portrait of George Washington,” the educator facilitator walks viewers through some key teaching techniques, including a “Thirty-Second Looking Activity,” taking in as many details as they can and recalling those visual details from memory. The session also introduced the “Elements of Portrayal,” which are the visual clues that are found in portraits that help us tell the story of the image—including pose, expression, clothing, setting, and more.

This hour-long session allows educators to practice close-looking strategies that help students uncover meaningful details and symbols within the painting. The session highlights how portraits can serve as a window to the past, with techniques that can spark rich conversations about early American identity and leadership.  

At the end of the session, the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology also introduced a free web-based collection of resources to support teachers, via the Smithsonian Learning Lab platform. Through the Smithsonian Learning Lab, educators can revisit the activity and teaching techniques, as well as view additional related Smithsonian resources, such as videos, blog posts, and other teaching supports.

Celebrating America at 250

The session featuring the National Portrait Gallery is the first in the series that celebrates well-known people, events, and accomplishments of our nation and provides opportunities to discuss lesser-told histories that together form our national narrative. In addition to the opportunity to connect with Smithsonian expert educators modeling facilitation techniques transferrable for the classroom, viewers leave with a Smithsonian Learning Lab collection of practical tools and ideas to help students think critically, recognize their own value, appreciate others’ perspectives, and gain confidence to be engaged learners.

The monthly webinar series includes a session line-up through June 2026 featuring Smithsonian educators from:

(in order of appearance throughout the series)

• National Portrait Gallery,
• National Museum of American History,
• Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center,
• Smithsonian American Art Museum,
• National Museum of African American History and Culture,
• National Air and Space Museum,
• National Museum of the American Indian,
• National Postal Museum,
• Lemelson Center’s Spark!Lab,
• Smithsonian Science Education Center, and
• Smithsonian’s Rural Initiative. 

These sessions are each an hour in length and focus on techniques leveraging objects and artworks in the Smithsonian collections, inquiry-based learning approaches, innovative design challenges, historical case studies, and sample student projects.

Free online registration is required and open to all educators. These sessions are offered as Zoom webinars with automatic captioning. Educators will be able to participate using the chat and Q&A, though camera and microphones will be disabled. Can’t make the live session? The Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology also records and posts the webinars on the Smithsonian Learning Lab’s Educator Programs page approximately 72 hours after a session ends. Visit https://learninglab.si.edu/about/programs for more information and to register for free.

Philippa Rappoport | Read More

Philippa Rappoport, Head of Education and Engagement at Smithsonian’s Office of Educational Technology and also working with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, produces professional development and digital engagement projects locally, nationally, and internationally. She manages strategic projects and partnerships, produces digital assets for educators, schools, families, and multilingual learners, and aids platform development, to support educators and learners alike, and to foster deep learning and improve practices in museum and PK-16 education and engagement. She has a Ph.D. in Slavic Folklore and Linguistics and has taught comparative East Slavic/American Folklore, Russian, French, and ESOL at the high school and college levels. She is a co-editor, along with Antonia Liguori and Daniela Gachago, of a forthcoming book from Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, "Story Work for a Just Future."