Free Resource: Newseum

Newseum is one of the rad resources which stood out to me at ISTE. Not just because they gave me an awesome poster...but because I can see many uses for this in my classroom and my colleague's classrooms!

Newseum has a physical museum space in Washington DC, but their online resources all work independently. I am attending a conference in Washington in October, so will hopefully be able to nip into Newseum at that time too!

Through Newseum you get access to great primary sources, as well as teaching support, including free PD and lesson plans. Of course there are many places to get access to free primary sources online, but Newseum makes it teacher and student friendly by curating their resources into different collections.

A collection which is very useful and relevant currently is the Civil Rights Movement collection:

The collection contains interactive maps, legal documents, newspaper articles, Government documents, photographs and more.  The lessons that go with each collection break up the information, but also focus on supporting students in developing different skills, like media literacy or research skills. For IB teachers this is a great way to support you teaching the Approaches to Learning (ATLs). The lessons also support students in creating resources and taking action!

If you don't want anything as structured as the lesson plans, you can also look at their Ed Ideas. These include everything from collection highlights through to classroom ideas. Lots of these ideas can fit into your existing units and also they focus on getting students to create or develop important skills (ATLs). Here are some examples:

Lastly, there are also Educational Classes and Training, but at the moment these seem to only take place at the center. What's really nice about this section is that the courses are made for professionals, educators and students, often with courses being aimed at all three groups. It's always great to model to your students that you are a life long learner and also to learn along side them, and this section helps facilitate this. 
Although I missed my chance this summer, they also offer free summer PD - I might take advantage of this next year! If you work in the Washington DC area they will even come to your school.

Do you use Newseum? What do you like the most about it? What resources do you use the most? Leave your answers in the comments below!


Update:
Newseum do offer two viritual classes!
Media Ethics and First Amendment and Tinker.
I reached out to them on Twitter and they said they will have more soon too!