Educators across subject matters who want to incorporate visual storytelling into their curriculum are invited to participate in a free one-day professional development workshop. The workshop blends together teaching demonstrations and artist talks, and culminates in a hands-on lesson planning session in collaboration with a photographer. We explore strategies to teach photography across disciplines such as language arts, social studies, literacy and critical thinking.

Practice tools for using photography in the classroom
Learn strategies to use photography for students to practice literacy, analysis, and critical thinking skills.

Collaborate with photographers and journalists
Work directly with the photographer to develop documentary photo-based lesson plans, featuring UPI & Photoville exhibitions.

Network with teachers across disciplines
Brainstorm and collaborate with teachers across the city and across disciplines. Enjoy a meal and happy hour with your colleagues!

Our pilot PD Day in October 2017 featured Photoville exhibitions Contact High, Finding Home, Living in the City, Newest Americans, and ReSisters: Behind the Scenes of the Women’s March. A lesson plan for each exhibition can be downloaded from the Teacher Resources page. The Professional Development Day initiative is produced by United Photo Industries, in partnership with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

Here’s what participants have said:

“We saw people who were doing thrilling work outside the classroom, but it only made me more excited to go back to my classroom because I feel that connection and it feels like a more authentic way to bridge that gap than probably anything I’ve ever done before.”
— Anna Knutson, MS 839

“I’m a social worker in a special ed school, using a lot of creative stuff to do social and emotional work. It’s often me doing my own thing. This is exactly the environment of people doing the things that I want to do.”
— Carla Rice, The New LIFE School

“I feel it’s so incredible that the work that I’ve done has just been turned into a workshop for middle school and high school kids. That’s everything I ever do my work for. If we are not teaching our youth to stand up for their own rights, and the rights of marginalized people around them, then this work is for naught. So to watch teachers do their thing with my work, it was so impressive to see this lesson come to fruition.”
— Kisha Bari, Photographer, ReSisters: Behind the Scenes of the Women’s March