This interactive workshop invites educators to explore the profound social, historical, and political meanings behind the names attached to places. Far from simple labels, place names, or toponyms, are power-laden expressions of a community’s identity, values, and ongoing struggles for recognition. Participants will learn how to map and critically interpret place names, using primary sources of geographical and historical data, and gain tools to engage students in critical inquiry about the past and present. Together, we will examine how naming practices function as forms of public storytelling, shaping our understanding of who belongs, whose histories are remembered, and how communities claim and contest space through names.

This project will train a cohort of Knox County Schools educators as they prepare for new Tennessee state standards implementation through inquiry-based instruction. Additionally, the cohort will train other teachers through system-wide professional development opportunities as the district prepares for social studies instruction in Fall 2027. The training days will consist of new learning led by district social studies facilitators and will also include time for participants to create lessons using Library of Congress sources for the new standards training and execution. District facilitators will model best practices and provide feedback for cohort members and lesson refinement between each group training. At the conclusion of the project, revised and completed standards-aligned, inquiry-based lessons to use in third, fourth, and fifth grade social studies classrooms will be available for future district level trainings and standards implementation.