The Leventhal Education team’s work is centered on supporting K-12 educators. The team strives to offer professional development that relates to and enhances your essential work in the classroom. Whether you’re looking for a map to spark curiosity or a question to bring students in closer, we hope you’ll find tools that support your work.
Can’t attend virtual sessions live? No problem. All registrants will receive access to the session recording and materials. (Just a heads up—these are only available to registered participants and won’t be shared publicly.)
Wednesday, September 17 at 6:30 PM
Maps are everywhere in textbooks about the American Revolution—troops on the move, shifting borders, colonies becoming states. But how can we help students really read these maps instead of skipping over them?
In this session, we’ll break down foundational map-reading skills and explore strategies to get students beyond “this is here, that is there.” We’ll also introduce the ARGO database and items from the Leventhal Center map collection to support your curriculum development. You’ll leave with classroom-ready ideas that center student inquiry and recognize whose stories maps include—and exclude.
Saturday, September 27 from 11 AM - 2 PM
Join us for a special open house for educators. Enjoy guided tours of our current exhibition and participate in short sessions on using the LMEC collection and digital tools in your teaching. This is a great opportunity to participate in a sample field trip to experience first hand what students do when they visit the Leventhal Center.
Refreshments will be served.
Wednesday, October 8 at 6:30 PM
Maps can foster curiosity and help young learners make sense of the world around them. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to use both historic maps and hands-on mapping activities to build spatial thinking and support cross-curricular learning in elementary classrooms.
Wednesday, November 5 at 6:30 PM
Will we always have Paris? Maybe—but maybe not. Place names change over time. But why do they change? And what can those changes tell us about the values and priorities of a society?
In this session we’ll look at historic and contemporary shifts to place names and offer classroom-ready strategies for exploring this topic with middle and high school students.
Wednesday, December 3 at 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
Limited Attendance (16). Please note, priority will be given to teachers currently working in the classroom.
Fire insurance maps might sound boring at first. But our experience at the Leventhal Center is that students—from third grade to high school—light up when we dig into the rich histories of their neighborhoods these maps provide. What was here before? Why did our school have a different name? What remains the same?
In this hands-on session, we’ll introduce Atlascope, our interactive map tool, and show you how to bring it into your classroom. You’ll also get a sneak peek at our new classroom kits, designed to help students explore local history through maps.
Refreshments will be served. Attendees will also be mailed copies of maps showing the location of their school over time following the workshop.
Wednesday, February 4 at 6:30 PM
Boston’s coastline has changed dramatically over the centuries—the original peninsula has more than doubled in size through landmaking projects that added over 500 acres.
In this session, we’ll explore the reasons behind these transformations and share approachable ways to weave this history into your teaching about Boston and its neighborhoods.
Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30 PM
Many great picture books take us on a journey. Some even take us on a journey we can map.
Learn how to use picture books to teach elementary students about the basics of geography, mapping and spatial awareness. Leave this session with a recommended book list and strategies for your classroom.
See a list of past workshops here, with links to workshop materials.