Get ready to amp up your history lessons! The Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) and TeachRock are cranking up the volume on a jamming professional development session. Tune in to master strategies for teaching with primary sources with a major key focus on using musical sources to explore history. This session is guaranteed to be a hit!

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!

ICS and Thinking Nation Celebrate America 250 with Evaluating Perspectives in Early America: Jewish Voices and the Fight for Civic Liberty.

In this interactive professional development session, educators will learn to pair critical skill development from Thinking Nation with rich historical content from Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS). Discover how to teach Thinking Nation’s Evaluating Perspectives strategy, equipping students with the critical inquiry skills to analyze how identity and context influence historical narrative. Through ICS's Jewish Voices in Early America source collection, participants will put this strategy into practice using late colonial primary sources and 1776-era state constitutions. Educators will walk away with a high-leverage Thinking Nation inquiry skill and rich ICS content to immediately elevate and enrich their instruction on America250 topics.

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!

A Special Event for Educators in CA, OR, & WA

How do we foster and manage productive classroom discourse when a topic feels deeply personal to some students, while others lack basic context or seem indifferent? Designed specifically for West Coast educators across California, Oregon, and Washington, this collaborative workshop from Sphere Education Initiatives and ICS tackles that exact challenge - equipping teachers with practical tools to navigate high-stakes classroom dynamics while delivering rigorous, source-based history.

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!

Teaching the Arab-Israeli conflict is a required instructional standard, yet it is often complicated by the unpredictable nature of what students encounter online. Join the Institute for Curriculum Services and the Or Initiative for a professional development event that provides a practical roadmap for educators to address social media’s influence on student perception while maintaining a rigorous, inquiry-based approach to the history itself.

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!

Teaching about religion is essential for a comprehensive understanding of history, culture, and global society, yet many educators find the subject daunting. This collaborative workshop, featuring the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and the Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS), provides teachers with a clear, constitutionally sound framework for bringing religious literacy into the classroom with confidence.

Whether you are navigating real-world classroom challenges or looking for high-quality primary sources, this session empowers you to move past the tension of religious topics. You will leave equipped to foster a learning environment that is rooted in historical accuracy, pedagogical best practices, and mutual respect.

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!

Delve into the history of the American Revolution, going beyond the Declaration of Independence to look at the early United States from multiple perspectives.

First, explore "Declaring America: Revolutionary City,” highlighting the experiences of Indigenous people, African Americans, and women in the Revolution, using a resource guide from the New York Public Library. Then, investigate the evolution of religious liberty through early Jewish American experiences, using resources from the Institute for Curriculum Services.

Eligible New York State Educators can earn 1.5 hours of CTLE credit.

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!

Where does antisemitism come from? This is a question that students often ask when learning about the Holocaust. The phenomenon of antisemitism is over 2,000 years old, yet social studies curricula often do not consider pre-20th century history.

In this collaborative workshop, featuring the Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) and the Maltz Museum, teachers will explore primary sources and historical tropes that outline the larger context of antisemitism. We will bridge the gap between museum exhibits and the classroom, offering the content and tools educators need to help students understand the origins, persistence, and modern expressions of this hatred.

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!

As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, how can we help students explore the relationship between the founding ideals of liberty and the ways those principles have been understood and applied over time?

This session, featuring the Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) and the National Constitution Center (NCC), invites educators to move beyond a surface-level study of the Founding Era and engage students in a deeper examination of how religious freedom has developed through both constitutional interpretation and the actions of individuals and communities.

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!

Presented by the Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, this workshop invites participants to trace the journey of the Andrew Doria to St. Eustatius to uncover the story of the "First Salute", the first official foreign recognition of the United States, and examine how Caribbean Jewish merchants risked everything to supply the Continental Army. Crossing back to the mainland, educators will analyze restrictive 1776 state constitutions to uncover how early religious minorities fought to tear down civic barriers.

This is an open workshop, but registration is required to attend. Register Here!