Professional Development Opportunities

IEFA PD

We'll be having OPI's Indian Education Unit's own Mike Jetty at our November 14 online PD (4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.) and I hope you can come (and earn 1 OPI Renewal Unit)! Of course, there's only so much you can do in an hour, so I wanted to highlight some opportunities for more in-depth study.

The Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative has a number of in-depth, self-paced IEFA courses. They charge for these, but they also reward 30 OPI renewal units or 2 graduate UM graduate credits--and they look really good.

OPI has several online PDs. The newest one is a seven-part look at tribal sovereignty. You can earn credits by participating in the live sessions or watching the recordings on YouTube. Earlier series cover such topics as boarding schools, ethnobotany, contemporary topics in Indian country, and implementing The Framework (A practical guide for implementing IEFA). You can find links to all of these and more on their website. 

The Rural Experience in America: Community Civics Through Historical Inquiry

The National Council for History Education, in conjunction with the Library of Congress, is offering a series of free, professional development opportunities designed to support K-12 teachers focusing on this year's theme, Rural Lives in Context.

Self-paced course - From December 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023, registered teachers will self-pace through two online courses:  the Library of Congress 6-week module course, Teaching with Primary Sources Basics, and the Right Question Institute 4-week module course, Teaching Students to Ask their Own Primary Source Questions.  If you do not have a lot of experience using primary sources in your classroom, want to learn about the Library of Congress’s collection of sources, and/or want to add to your toolbox of strategies using primary sources, this professional learning opportunity is highly recommended!  

Online Colloquia - Registered teachers will participate in three online synchronous Saturday professional development sessions led by historians, educational specialists, and master teachers. These sessions will be held on February 25, 2023, April 15, 2023, and May 6, 2023 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm (EST) and will focus on a variety of topics related to Rural Lives in Context.  During this time, teachers also applying for the onsite colloquium will identify a community partner to assist them with their public history project (NCHE is happy to assist if needed.) 

Onsite Colloquium -  15 teachers (preference will be given to K-12 teachers in rural schools) will be selected to travel to the University of Oklahoma along with their community partners on July 15 – 16, 2023.  During this two-day learning experience, teachers and community partners will build civic connections and develop a plan for their students to create a public history project in their own community. In addition, there will also be some planned tours for seeing firsthand public history in action. Teachers will receive a $750 stipend to defray travel costs and up to $750 to support their community project. The application deadline is March 17, 2023. 

More information here and links to register for one or all here.