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Educator PD Workshops
Levine Museum of the New South offers free literacy and standards-based professional development workshops on cohesive topics designed to increase student engagement, develop critical thinking skills, and center students in the classroom.
Educator Professional
Development Workshops
Professional Development workshops are designed to target specific groups, including middle and high school Social Studies and ELA teachers, Curriculum Facilitators, Multi-Classroom Leaders, and Department Chairs. Educators of all grade levels are welcome to attend.
Each workshop will:
- Provide a clear rationale for why these instructional approaches are a worthwhile investment of educator and student time.
- Model strategies and best practices for instructional approaches.
- Give a sneak peek of Levine Museum’s new NC/US History Case Studies project.
- Offer takeaways that educators can immediately implement in their classrooms.
All workshops are created and facilitated by educators on Levine Museum’s Educator Advisory Group. Workshops are in-person experiences designed to model a classroom with a max of 30 participants per session. Each free workshop is 4 hours and includes lunch.
Participants will receive certificates so they can request professional development credit for their participation.
Fall 2023 Workshops
Please come back soon for updates on workshop dates for the fall of 2023 and contact Lindsay Fairbrother-Henige with questions.
Facilitating Effective
Classroom Discussions
Presenters:
- Stephanie Griffin, MS Academic Dean & Social Studies Teacher, Trinity Episcopal School
- Kathleen McMillan, Social Studies Teacher, Community School of Davidson
Engaging civil classroom discussions, especially in an increasingly polarized nation and world, has become a critical skill for teachers and students alike. In this workshop, participants will learn how to curate and design relevant discussion goals, prompts, and resources as tools to support student thinking and standards-based instruction. Additionally, participants will examine best practices to facilitate classroom discussions and leave the workshop understanding ways to analyze and formatively assess student learning during discussions. With these tools and strategies, participants will be able to cultivate classroom communities rich with meaningful discussion and civil discourse.
Inquiry? Creating Opportunities for Student Questioning in the Classroom
Presenters:
- Ben Runkel, Social Studies Teacher, Jay M. Robinson Middle School
- Katie Willett, IB MYP and DP Coordinator, Myers Park High School
- Yvonne Wolf, Social Studies Teacher, James Martin Middle School
We’ve all heard that our lessons should be based on “inquiry” – but what exactly does that mean? Educators who participate in the Inquiry Workshop will explore the different levels of inquiry, how the strategy is relevant to a K-12 classroom, and tools and resources to develop their own lessons designed around student questioning. Participants will have time to collaborate and create standards-aligned inquiry resources to use in their classroom.
Teaching with
Primary Sources
Presenters:
- Martha Gwinn, Former Social Studies Teacher, CMS and Gaston County Schools
- Amanda Styles, Social Studies Teacher, Piedmont Open IB Middle School
Co-creator:
- Kiara Eden, Social Studies Teacher, Ridge Road Middle School
Are you tired of annotating and DBQ booklets? Do you want to turn your classroom into an investigative environment that is accessible to all students? Look no further! In this session, participants will explore the meaning of ‘text’ and its link to primary sources. Educators will learn about several engaging new tools and strategies to add to their teacher toolbox that we have used in our own classroom. Participants will also have the opportunity to work on recreating an old lesson with one of their new tools, as well as reflect on their professional experience with primary sources thus far. Accessible for the digital native or the digital novice, we believe there is something here for everyone.
