For Educators
We support education initiatives throughout the New York and New Jersey area, with special emphasis on assisting teachers in the use of primary source documents in the classroom. Our mission is to promote civic literacy by making every student aware of the National Archives and Records Administration before they graduate from high school. We also offer classes for college and university students.
We offer FREE workshops to teachers, host classroom visits, and participate in national programs such as National History Day. We also provide free educational materials, including a CD linking both New York's and New Jersey's State U.S. History curriculum standards to primary source documents in NARA's holdings.
- Visit Us for Free Workshops for Educators and Students
- Documents and History Standards
- Use Our Resources
- Have You Heard of National History Day?
- National History Day 2009
- College and University Professors
- Additional Resources for Educators
Visit Us for Free Workshops for Educators and Students
We currently offer workshops.
Informational Sessions for educators, administrators, principals, and parents include:
- Educational Resources at the National Archives
- Educator Professional Development Sessions:
- Teaching with Documents: Archival Research and Document Analysis
- Teaching with Documents: Using the U.S. Constitution
- Teaching with Documents: Using Maritime Records
- Teaching with Documents: Using Court Records
- Teaching with Documents: Using Immigration Records
- Primary Source Research at National Archives (Full-day program)
We can also modify our workshops based on educator needs. Contact us to schedule a workshop for your educators' group with a focus on your topic of interest.
We also offer workshops for students. Contact us to determine what workshop meets your curriculum needs. Learn more about how our resources can be used by students.
We offer these workshops for free upon request. Each workshop is 90 minutes and includes a tour of the entire facility including our archival stacks!
We also have partnership programs with:
- Department of Education
- Retired Teacher Organizations
- Parent/Teacher Facilitators
- Federal Agencies in New York City
Learn more about Getting Started at the archives.
Documents and History Standards
We have created CD-ROMs linking history curriculum guidelines for New Jersey and New York to "Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents", a cooperative effort using selections from the National Archives' nationwide holdings chronicling U.S. history to 1965 (www.ourdocuments.gov). These CD-ROMs are free to anyone, but are designed especially for educators from New Jersey and New York.
To receive your FREE copy of one of these CD-ROMs, please contact us at newyork.archives@nara.gov or toll free at 866-840-1752, and indicate which state you are interested in. Please provide your mailing address.
Learn more about using our Resources.
Have You Heard of National History Day?
National History Day is a nationwide history competition for students in grades 6-12. Each state holds contests to determine which students will compete in the finals, held at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. Often, a teacher can combine his or her regularly scheduled lesson plans with the contest.
We provide "Getting Ready for National History Day" workshops to educate participants about researching archival records in person and online, the importance of primary source use, and finding materials from our holdings to match the current theme. We also help judge student contests throughout New York and New Jersey. Additionally, we award certificates for "Best Use of Primary Sources" to students in each contest.
See our brochure Getting Ready for National History Day - 2009, Using Resources From the National Archives - New York for information on the workshops and student research assistance we offer. The brochure also lists sample topics and records available for use at our facility related to the theme for National History Day 2009 -- The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies.
Please also see the section in the National Archives' online Archival Research Catalog (ARC), listing National History Day Topics in ARC. The site lists further information about ARC and National History Day, including past years' contests.
For more information on National History Day, see the National History Day web site or contact National History Day's New Jersey State Coordinator or New York State Coordinator.
College and University Professors
We welcome visits from professors who want to learn more about our resources. Professors can bring their whole class along, too. National Archives staff can also visit your classroom.
Our college and university programs include:
- Introduction to Archival Research and Document Analysis
This workshop provides instruction on how to conduct research in an archive, as well as what sort of information is found in various Federal records and how to access that information, covering a variety of historical subjects. We offer this program upon request.
Additional Resources for Educators
If you want to request a topic that isn't listed, or to schedule a class visit, please contact the Teacher Liaison at newyork.archives@nara.gov or call us at (212) 401-1620, or toll-free at 1-866-840-1752. There are no admission or speaker fees.
Visit NARA's Digital Classroom for lesson plans on a variety of topics.
PDF files require the free Adobe Reader.
More information on Adobe Acrobat PDF files is available on our Accessibility page.
