| Smithsonian
Opens Its Doors to America’s Teachers
Haven’t
you always wanted to wander through a museum after closing
time? On Friday, September 19, from 7:00
to 9:30 p.m., thousands of teachers around the Washington,
D.C., area will get this opportunity at the eleventh annual
Smithsonian Teachers’ Night.
This
year’s event celebrates the centennial of the Wright brothers’ historic
flight at Kitty Hawk and is being held at the National Air
and Space Museum. At the event, teachers will pick up free
educational resources for their classrooms, watch an IMAX® film
and planetarium show, preview The Wright Brothers & the
Invention of the Aerial Age exhibition, and enjoy light refreshments
as they mingle with their colleagues and meet museum educators.
Admission is free and all attendees can register in advance
or at the door. Online registration is available at www.TeachersNight.org.
For
the second year in a row the Smithsonian is also taking this
event to a national audience. Simultaneous Smithsonian Teachers’ Night
celebrations will occur at the Challenger Space Center of Arizona
in Peoria, Arizona, and The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center
in Hutchinson, Kansas.
“Smithsonian
Teachers’ Night is a wonderful opportunity for educators nationwide
to learn about the Smithsonian and celebrate the power of museums
to enhance learning,” says Stephanie Norby, executive director
of the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies. “Teachers
are one of our country’s greatest resources, and each year
we host this event to show how museums can help teach our nation’s
students.”
Last
year, 2,000 teachers from 23 states attended the event. This
year, thousands of educators across the nation are expected
to participate, along with the U.S. Department of Education
and education organizations including the National Association
of Elementary School Principals, the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards, the National Writing Project and The College
Board’s Advanced Placement Program.
“On
this eleventh anniversary, we’re reaching more teachers and
more students than ever before, nationally as well as locally,” says
Norby. “Smithsonian Teachers’ Night is building community ties,
providing services to thousands of educators and their students,
and showing teachers how museums can make a difference in learning.”
Smithsonian
Teachers’ Night is hosted by the Smithsonian Center for Education
and Museum Studies, the central education office of the Smithsonian
Institution, the world’s largest museum and research complex.
For
more information about Smithsonian Teachers’ Night and to register
for the event, log onto www.teachersnight.org or
e-mail TeachersNight@si.edu.
The
display will remain on view in the central section of the “American
Treasures” exhibition, Southwest Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson
Building, through April 24, 2004.
Hours for the exhibition are 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m., Monday-Saturday.
Education
Update, Inc., P.O. Box 1588, New York, NY 10159.
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the publisher. © 2003.
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