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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.
2024 Workshops
For questions on our professional development, please contact Lindsay Fairbrother-Henige.
Facilitating Effective
Classroom Discussion and Debate
Engaging civil classroom discussions, especially in an increasingly polarized nation and world, has become a critical skill for teachers and students alike. In these workshops, participants will learn how to curate and design relevant discussion and debate 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 debates 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.
Presenters:
- Kathleen McMillan, Community School of Davidson
- Arianna Sherrill, Cannon School
Teaching with
Primary Sources
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.
Presenters:
- Laura Bauer, Providence High School
- Martha Gwinn, Former CMS and Gaston County Schools
- Amanda Styles, Piedmont Open IB Middle School
Inquiry? Creating Opportunities for Student Questioning in the Classroom
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.
Presenters:
- David Harris, Providence Day School
- Ben Runkel, Jay M. Robinson Middle School
- Yvonne Wolf, James Martin Middle School
Accessing Writing in the Social Studies Classroom (and Beyond)
What is the value of getting students to write? Why is this necessary in what we do for our students? Why is writing considered a 21st century skill? Through this workshop, we explore academic language needed for argumentative and informational writing in social studies by exploring the writing process, the development and use of rubrics, and strategies to manage the workload to assess student writing.
Presenters:
- Kiara Eden, Mallard Creek High School
- Katie Willett, Ballantyne Ridge High School
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.
- 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.
