Smithsonian National Education Summit 2026, Part 2

This week is the Smithsonian National Education Summit 2026, which takes place online and in Washington, DC. The theme of this year’s summit is “Together We Thrive: Towards a More Perfect Union” as part of the 250^th anniversary celebration for the United States. During this Summit, I’ll be watching sessions across multiple tracks from the comfort of my home office and sharing a quick summary of each. This conference is free! Anyone can sign up if they wish to hear these talks. In Part 1, I discussed sessions on poetry, digital tools and games, and storybooks. In Part 2, I will cover oral histories, storytelling, and civic engagement for the next generation.

Unlocking the Potential in Every Student

Leon Smith won CCSSO National Teacher of the Year 2026, having taught in Pennsylvania for 25 years and currently specializing in AP History and AP African American Studies, along with coaching the basketball team. Smith’s highly engaging talk described his early memoires of school, including his teacher Ms. Mason who would bring a star student to Baskin-Robbins or McDonalds for a treat during lunch in 1985. Other uplifting anecdotes included the Maasai greeting, “And how are your children?”, which they traditionally use as an American might say, “And how are you?”, along with his favorite song “Optimistic” by The Sounds of Blackness, which reminds him of why he became a teacher.

Why Local Stories Matter in a 250-Year Journey

Ali McKersie, Sheeba Rashada, and Jared Morris from the Smithsonian Office of the Under Secretary for Education described the “Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange Program (DiDVE)”. This initiative connects students to cultural storytelling, encouraging them to explore multiple narratives and interpretations of history through the lens of their own cultures. Over 4,000 students across 43 states have been reached to date! The mix of asynchronous and synchronous learning allows students from different parts of United States to meet each other. For me, most interesting connection described by the presenters was between students from Wyoming and Hawai’i.

Stories That Hold Us Together: Cultivating Civic Action Through Community and Storytelling

Anne Taylor-Brittingham of Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology introduced the delightful session. The talked focused on the collaboration between the all-girls Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart led by Jaime Chao Mignano and kindergartners from the Janney Elementary School within District of Columbia Public School led by Georgina Ardalan. After Ardalan read the picture book Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story to her kindergartners, they wanted to learn more about breads from different cultures. They brought in breads they ate at home, and the grandparents showed children how to make different breads. Later in the project, the children divided into “Gator groups” where an eleventh grader (Gator) works with a group of kindergartners (Rainbow Reefs) to write stories, make “breads”, create movies, and eat popcorn. If you thought this was all silliness and fun, the project was actually highly supported by well-known pedagogy produced by internationally recognized organizations, including Project Zero (especially Agency by Design, Children Are Citizens, Visible Thinking, and Cultures of Thinking), Washington International School Institute for Teachers (WISIT), and Reggio Emilia. This list alone could have been its own session!

Inventor Stories to Inspire the Next Generation

Stephany Fry and Maya Oliver at Lemelson Center’s Inspiring STEM Pathways (ISP) within the National Museum of American History (NMAH) shared their modular educational resource, Athletes Turned Inventors. Besides great information about how sports have become more high tech, the presentation include fun facts about the Lemelson family. In 1995, Jerome and Dolly Lemelson founded the Center, as they also had a nonprofit organization, Lemelson Foundation, which funds the Spark!Lab at NMAH. Jerome had invented the hot wheels track and the propeller beanie, both crucial inventions. For me, the most interesting takeaway was a study on eight inventive habits of mind: curiosity, empathy, passion, creativity, resourcefulness, calculated risk-taking, tolerance of ambiguity, and resilience. Also interesting was the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI), a somewhat complicated looking graph that essentially how ones personality, expertise, culture, and wider society all intersect.

Stories 4-History: Fostering Civic Voice and Community Engagement through Film

This hopeful presentation featured David Hafner of UF IFAS Extension Martin County, Alyssa Glynn and Kylene Stewart of New Jersey 4-H, and Mariya Skurko-Chan from the Office of the Under Secretary for Education as the moderator. They discussed the six-month Stories 4-History program, which is designed for children ages ten through nineteen who participate in a research and interview project through their 4-H club and create a short video about their discoveries. It is intended to get kids more involved in their communities and grow their confidence. Because of its straightforward format, the program structure is easy to replicate! Recent project topics have included mental health in the agriculture industry, environmental conservation through land preservation, and bike paths in the United States.

Keynote with Hahrie Han

The final event of the day, and the last virtual event for the Summit, was Dr. Hahrie Han, who has already done it all! She leads SNF Agora Institute and P3 Research Lab at John Hopkins University, has written five books, and won a MacArthur Fellows Genius Grant in 2025. Han told the harrowing story of her North Korean grandfather walking across the border as the north and south of his country separated and joked about her family visiting many national parks. My favorite part of her talk was about her most recent book, Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church (2024). She described the mission of a megachurch in Cincinnati to raise taxes in order to fund free public preschool for all children in the city. The quotes used by the church “Belonging Comes Before Belief” and “We Do Life Together” exemplified what it meant to be a part of a civically engaged community.