K-12
The Gotham Center is dedicated to supporting student achievement by providing quality professional learning for teachers. GothamEd K-12 develops and disseminates courses, institutes, and programs for the teaching and learning of New York City history through partnerships with various governmental and educational organizations, as well as local cultural institutions and neighborhood community groups. We aim to be the place where educators come to learn about New York City's history, get the resources they need, and develop successful pedagogy.
We offer
Programs using NYC history as a lens for teaching and learning about U.S. history, social studies, and English language arts
Exclusive lectures by scholars of NYC history, featuring new research
Innovative, evidence-based teaching strategies and inquiry-based instruction
Hands-on workshops using the arts and cultural experiences
Walking tours and field trips to historic places and sites
Primary sources from local and national archives
Teacher-created lessons and classroom resources
The Gotham Center is an NYSED-approved sponsor of Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE). Participation in workshops is applicable towards maintaining professional certification from the NYC Department of Education. All programs correspond with the NYC Social Studies Scope and Sequence K-12, NYS Social Studies Frameworks, Common Core Learning Standards and the C-3 Framework.
Current / Former Partners
Teachers, administrators, librarians, youth directors, and scholars looking for partners or to create a new program in K-12 curriculum-building or professional development should contact our K-12 Education Director, Julie Maurer.
Why Teach
New York City History?
Hear Mike Wallace’s answer
“Since its seventeenth century inception, Gotham has been increasingly crucial to the country’s economy, society, politics and culture, whether in its experiencing of common trends — democratization, immigration, industrialization, social movements, consumerism, corporatization, globalization — or in its serving as critical portal to the planet, funneling capital, labor, commodities, and ideas from the wider world to the developing continent. It is these interlinks that make New York City such a superb vantage point from which from which to examine the American experience.
There is not a single major chapter in U.S. history that cannot profitably be illuminated by exploring how it unfolded in Gotham, and how its outcome here shaped the contours of the larger national experience. And that’s what we’re doing with our Gotham Education programs: demonstrating how the study of New York City’s history can help students make sense of the history of America.”