Professional Development 

Include Latino voices in your curricula!

SAAM’s in-person workshop, which 

takes you on a tour of the new ¡del 

Corazón! Web site, will investigate 

stories Latino artists tell through their 

artworks. Join us in Washington, D.C.,

from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on September 19,

2006—then use this online resource in

your teaching. 

To register for the workshop, contact:

Education Staff 

Smithsonian American Art Museum, 

Education Office 

Phone: 202-275-2323

Email: SaamEdStaff@si.edu

Welcome to the inaugural issue of

Classroom Connections. This triannual e-newsletter tells you what’s 

new at the Smithsonian American 

Art Museum and suggests ways 

you can integrate our rich 

collections into your curriculum. 

Our goals are simple. We hope you 

will find the content relevant, that 

you will recommend Classroom

Connections to your colleagues, 

and that you will send us news of 

how you are using our resources. 

Each issue highlights programs and 

materials in three areas: Our Space, 

Your Space, and Cyberspace. 

Our Space showcases 

programs that take place in the 

museum. In Our Space, you and 

your students learn directly from

the actual artwork through tours, 

gallery games, in-service programs, 

workshops, and internships. 

OUR SPACE, YOUR SPACE, CYBERSPACE

Grand Opening festivities. Photo by Michael 

Mansfield.

Your Space spotlights programs

and materials that are used in classrooms. For example, in this issue 

we feature our outreach program

whereby Education staff or docents

make presentations in Washington, 

D.C.-area classrooms. Articles in

the Cyberspace section highlight

collaborations with your school or

classroom through real-time 

videoconference, online support, or

digital resources available on our 

Web site americanart.si.edu/

education. 

 Welcome to the Smithsonian American Art Museum Fall 2006

Classroom Connections

We at the Education Office of the 

Smithsonian American Art Museum

(SAAM) want to work with you and

your students. Our collection of

American art spans more than three

centuries and tells the stories of our 

nation and our people. SAAM

artworks offer wondrous opportunities 

for visual arts teachers—and teachers

of social studies, history, language arts,

even math and science. You’ll find it’s 

easy to integrate the collection into

your core subjects. 

We are in tune with the needs of

today’s classroom teacher. Our 

programs and materials focus on

critical-thinking skills with an 

emphasis on active learning, a

technique we have honed in the 

museum’s informal learning 

environment. Our school

programs are tailored to your 

curricular needs and can be 

delivered through videoconference, docent tours, or 

various materials we develop.

Art for All Classes 

SAAM education staff is 

available to work with you—the

teacher—to offer programs that 

put the nation’s treasured art in

the service of you and your 

students. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum americanart.si.edu/education
Our art, your classroom Fall 2006 

OUR SPACE

To schedule a tour in the museum, 

email SaamMuseumTours@si.edu 

Current Tour Themes

Young America 

Beating the Odds 

Lure of the West 

A House Divided 

Urbanized America 

Harlem Renaissance 

Reshaping American Life 

Our Mid-Century Crisis

We the People 

New Voices, New Visions 

To See Is to Think

Neighborhood and Nation

From Sea to Shining Sea 

In July, the Smithsonian American 

Art Museum welcomed visitors to 

see its collections reinstalled in the 

newly restored building in downtown Washington, D.C. The 

National Historic Landmark has 

undergone an extensive renovation 

that showcases its most dramatic 

architectural features, including 

skylights, a curving double

staircase, porticos, and vaulted 

galleries illuminated by natural 

light. The building is one of the 

finest examples of Greek Revival

public architecture in the United

States. We have a splendid space 

for learning. Why not schedule a 

tour and see SAAM’s artworks in

person?

For information on visiting our 

home, now named the Donald W. 

Reynolds Center for American Art and 

Portraiture, visit the Web site 

ReynoldsCenter.org. 

We are especially excited about the 

reinstallation and opening because, for 

the first time in six school years, we will 

be offering programs in Our Space. 

School tours, guided by one of our

knowledgeable docents, begin this fall. 

Teachers can work with staff members 

to create a custom tour or choose from

our list of topics.

SAAM’s Renwick Gallery of 

American Craft hosted visitors with 

a special assignment last spring. 

Teacher Brad Rathgeber brought 

his Advanced Placement Art 

History class from The HoltonArms School and Landon School in

Bethesda, Maryland, to study craft.

Their ultimate goal was to

demonstrate their new knowledge

by creating podcasts (audio features 

to post and download online). After 

touring the special exhibition Grant 

Wood’s Studio and the Renwick’s

permanent collection galleries, each 

student “adopted” a work of art.

Staff from the Education Office and 

docents helped students examine 

and discuss the objects. SAAM’s 

New Media Office also provided 

advice about creating podcasts. 

The fruits of the students’ 

labor are sixty- to ninety-second

podcasts, which act as substantive 

“teasers” to attract visitors to see 

the artworks described. Of course, 

each student brought a unique

Listen to the Artwork 

pers

n

nt 

pective to his or her chosen 

work. One narrated her podcast

in the imagined voice of the sitter

in a Grant Wood portrait. 

Another student added stormy

sound effects to the audio. A

artist whose work was featured in

a podcast told us he was 

impressed to hear that a stude

had come up with a new 

interpretation for his piece. 

SAAM staff listened to all 

the p ed six

level.si.edu/2006/05/a_s

Lunder Education Chair Susan Nichols discusses Dan Dailey’s Parkman 

Coupe with Holton-Arms students. Photo by Michael Mansfield.

odcasts and then select

to post on our Web site. You can

find and listen to them at 

http://eye

ound_take_on.html. We are 

excited to be continuing our

partnership with Holton-Arm

this school year. 

s

taffer 

— Cassandra Good 

SAAM New Media s

Smithsonian American Art Museum americanart.si.edu/education 
Our Art, Your Classroom

Our art, your classroom Fall 2006 

TEACHER FEATURE

Our Collection, Your Talent 

SAAM’s Educator Internships 

enable us to connect our 

collection and resources with 

school curricula. Jacqueline

Brzezowski, a seventh and eighth 

grade social studies and language

arts teacher at Nativity Catholic 

School in Burke, Virginia, is our 

second participant in the program. As part of her internship, 

Jackie developed a graphic 

organizer for teachers to use in 

their classrooms in preparation

for a visit to SAAM, whether 

they tour in-person or via

videoconference. 

The graphic organizer is

designed to correspond with each of 

our tour themes. It acts as an introduction to the content and skills that

will be used during the visit. 

Through a combination of

individual work and classroom

modeling, students learn to put

artwork into historical context and 

“read” each object as they would 

any other primary source. 

In addition, Jackie developed a 

number of suggestions for writing 

activities that assess the students’ 

understanding of the artworks. 

Jackie is currently a Masters of

Arts candidate at The Catholic

University of America for 

Secondary Education, Social 

Studies. Her resources will soon be

available on our Web site.

Jackie Brzezowski 

To apply for an Educator

Internship or to learn more about 

the program, please send an

email to SaamEdStaff@si.edu 

Our art, your classroom 

“Really? People from the 

Smithsonian are coming to show us

slides of artwork! Really? Wow!” 

That is the frequent reaction

when my students learn of an

upcoming visit to our space from

docents at the Smithsonian

American Art Museum. As an art 

therapist/art resource teacher for 

students of Fairfax County Public

Schools (Virginia), Interagency

Alternative Schools (IAS), I have

the delight, honor, and privilege of

working with a small corps of

SAAM outreach docents and 

witnessing the visible changes their 

presentations have on my students. 

The visits take place at our school 

because the students attend 

alternative schools for a variety 

reasons that require smaller, 

specialized classrooms and more

one-on-one instruction. Some

reasons a student goes to alternative 

schools include learning difficulties, 

emotional issues, or being courtordered into a program. The docent

visits give the students, some of

whom may have never been

exposed to museums, a wider 

glimpse into the wonderful world of

art. The students show a new level

of appreciation for visual art. They 

demonstrate personal feelings of

being considered special. 

YOUR SPACE

 Since the program launched in

2002, 150 alternative school

students, ages approximately 12 to

18, have participated. I have seen 

tremendous growth and improvement in the SAAM Outreach

Program. More of our schools 

participate. More is expected of the 

students. In the beginning, docents

showed slides of thematically linked

artworks and discussed with the 

students interesting and unique 

tidbits of information about the art 

or the artist. Today a PowerPoint

presentation replaces the slide show; 

the docent-student dialogue is very 

interactive; and a related art-making

activity is added. Some amazing artmaking tasks have been coupled 

with the images, including

bookmaking, Polaroid self-portraits, 

and self-portraits in other media. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum americanart.si.edu/education 

The SAAM Outreach Program

is an extremely valuable and

enriching experience for me as an 

art therapist/art resource teacher 

and, most important, for the

students. The students have unique 

opportunities with visual arts and

gain a deeper level of understanding

of the world of art. Often students 

who have neither heard of nor been

to a museum vehemently vow a 

future visit. That conclusion

captures a priceless gift the children 

receive from the Smithsonian 

American Art Museum Outreach 

Program and its docents—a driving 

curiosity about art and a strong 

desire to go to a museum to

experience the art in person. 

— Rebecca Bertram, M.A., A.T.R. 

Art Therapist/Art Resource Teacher 

Farifax County Public Schools - IAS 
Web LaunchOur art, your classroom Fall 2006 

CYBERSPACE

Art in the Heart of Texas 

Fall 2006 marks the launch of the 

new education section of the

SAAM Web site. We have 

compiled a library of our 

classroom resources, which are 

available online in full text. All 

materials are aligned with 

standards, and most correspond to 

core subject curriculum for easy

integration in any classroom

setting. 

This past summer nearly 200 teachers

from Edinburgh, Texas, switched sides

in the classroom to learn how SAAM’s

collection can augment and enliven 

their instruction of American history. 

Fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade

social studies teachers and took part in 

our in-service via real-time videoconference. Staff members from the 

SAAM Education Office developed 

and presented four lesson plans based

on two eras in American history. 

Beginning with the American

Revolution, teachers examined signs

and symbols relating the emerging

nation and the iconography of George 

Washington. They then explored the 

Civil War and Reconstruction. Lessons 

and activities were presented using 

Civil War photography in SAAM’s 

collection to teach about the period. 

Another activity used sculpture and 

painting to delve deeper into issues in

American life during Reconstruction.

Altogether, the program

introduced teachers to various ways 

that American art can help tell the 

story of the American experience. 

“The videoconference was very

interactive. ... I especially liked the 

hands-on opportunity and the ability 

for these (ideas) to be used in our 

classroom (to develop) criticalthinking skills,” said one teacher. 

 To schedule an in-service with

SAAM staff, email us at 

SaamEdStaff@si.edu. 

In-service programs are offered 

free of charge and can be tailored to

your specific needs. 

Check out our resources, 

which range from instructional 

materials developed for mediarich interactive sites to easy-toprint lesson ideas and teacher

guides. Get SAAM’s artwork—

the nation’s collection—working

for your students!

All materials are free and can 

be found on our Web site 

americanart.si.edu/education. 

SAAM Education’s new resource search page. 

Suzannah Niepold and Patrick Martin (bottom right inset) presented to teachers via videoconference.

This newsletter is designed to inform teachers of our programs and showcase activities that integrate our materials in

classrooms a ound the country. Please share this newsletter with teachers in you facul y lounge. To give feedback 

on this issue, ask questions about any of the programs highlighted, or pose questions about the Education Office 

self, email us at 

r r t

it SaamEdStaff@si.edu. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum americanart.si.edu/education