Joe Schmidt (Social Studies Specialist) is happy to announce that for the 2021-2022 school year he has partnered with national organizations to develop professional development learning cohorts. Each cohort will combine training from the organizations, as well interactive workshops led by Maine educators, where participants will work to implement what they have learned in their classrooms.

Registration is now open for the next two cohorts featuring the National Archives and the OER Project. Learn more about each cohort and register below. Keep your eye open for registration for the next round of cohorts later this year, which will feature Echoes & Reflections and the Bill of Rights Institute.

Teachers! Ever want to have a say in your Professional Development? The National Archives Foundation, in partnership with the National Archives, the Maine Department of Education, and some expert teachers from around the state are pairing up to create some curriculum about how to teach students to analyze documents (including photos, paintings, newspaper articles, speeches and more) at all grade levels with a connection to Civil Rights. It will start with a presentation from the National Archives called Civil Rights -The Impact of Racial Discrimination on Black American Lives in the Jim Crow Era (Summary: Students analyze documents from the holdings of the National Archives to assess the impact of legalized racial segregation on the lives of Black Americans from 1944 – 1960.) Then you will help guide the professional development to meet your needs, with support from Maine teachers and staff at the National Archives. If interested, please complete this form. We are so excited to start working with you!

Using resources from the OER Project’s teacher track talks, Maine Social Studies Teacher Leaders Melanie Brown and Derek Carroll will be creating bi-monthly web sessions centered around the topics of designing inquiry, designing arguments with evidence, young citizens, and assessing historical thinking. These sessions will begin in November, and continue through the end of the school year. Prior to each session participants will watch 3 track talks sourced from OER’s existing library on the topic for that month. During each session, participants will have the opportunity to debrief with other educators about the topic for that month, share any thoughts and questions that they may have on the topic, and most importantly leave with a classroom activity/strategy that they can immediately implement with little hassle or stress. If interested, please complete this form.

For questions, please contact Joe Schmidt at joe.schmidt@maine.gov.