Professional Development

Cultural Identity and Beyond Artists of Color Virtual Panel
2024-02-02 11:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York)
This event is FREE! The panel presents three artist/educators of color (Hanzi Han, Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta, and Jarrod Scott) as they discuss the challenges of creating culturally specific work, and reaching beyond it throughout their creative careers. You won’t want to miss this affirming and thought-provoking experience!
For more information, email Summer Dawn at summerdawn@yanjep.org.

Recent American History: Using the Jigsaw Approach to Implement Inclusive Curricula in the Humanities Classroom
2024-02-06 16:30 - 18:30
The Preamble of the United States Constitution states the will of the people to form “a more perfect union.” How have American individuals and groups strived to do so? In this presentation, we will investigate information on 20th century civil rights movements and collaborate in small groups to investigate the complexities and challenges faced by organizations and individuals. At the conclusion of this session, you will be positioned to engage in an inquiry on a person, organization, or issue pertaining to the long and diverse civil rights movements that continue to occur across the United States.

An Introduction to Indigenous Language, Growing Practices, & History
2024-02-27 16:30 - 18:30
During this session, Chief Mann of the Turtle Clan of the Ramapough Lenape Nation will share three modules for learning:

An Introduction to Indigenous Language with Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Tribe Member Karelle Hall,
Native Healing Gardens to Add Native Plants to Your School Gardens with Ramapough Lenape Tribe Knowledge Bearer Michaeline Picaro; and
A brief regional history of indigenous people with Kerry Hardy who is a researcher, eco-historian, and author.

Project Citizen
2024-03-05 08:30 - 15:00 | Livington Campus Center, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue Lucy Stone Hall, A352-354, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, United States
Presented by Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences New Jersey Center for Civic Education.
One of the essential but sometimes overlooked components of civic education is providing students with opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to assume the role of citizen. Project Citizen is a program proven as an effective option by independent studies. Project Citizen is available on two levels for middle school and high school students. The workshop will familiarize teachers with the components and process utilized by Project Citizen and provide the information necessary to implement the program in the classroom. It will also prepare teachers to enter their classes in the optional Project Citizen showcase should they choose to do so.

Teaching Slavery Using Primary Sources and Document Based Question (DBQ) Techniques
2024-03-05 19:00 - 20:30
Featuring: Maureen Costello — former director of Learning for Justice, Imani Hinson & Chuck Ullestad
In this webinar, learn from historians and classroom teachers about how to teach about slavery using primary sources and DBQ strategies.
The Education Department at Historic Hudson Valley will host a series of webinars in March in which teachers from across the country will share experiences and strategies for teaching the history of Northern Slavery. Educators will learn tangible skills to use with their students as well as receive flexible lesson plans for a variety of grade levels.
For more information, visit hudsonvalley.org/education.
The webinars are made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

Survivor Speaks & How to Bring them to your Classroom
2024-03-06 16:30 - 18:30
New Jersey is a pioneer in Holocaust Education and has one of the largest populations of Holocaust Survivors. One of the most meaningful and unique experiences a New Jersey student gets is having a Holocaust Survivor or a descendant of Survivors come to speak to their class. The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education and its 30 Holocaust Resource Centers throughout the state are available to assist teachers in giving this experience to their students. This program is designed to, not only give the experience of hearing a Survivor speak but also to give NJ teachers the tools they need in order to meaningfully and appropriately incorporate live testimony into their Holocaust lessons.

Teaching Slavery and Place Based Learning
2024-03-12 19:00 - 20:30
Featuring: Dr. Molly Mitchell — University of New Orleans, Max Commando & Alice DePina
In this webinar, learn best practices for discovering and teaching local history about slavery in your city and state.
The Education Department at Historic Hudson Valley will host a series of webinars in March in which teachers from across the country will share experiences and strategies for teaching the history of Northern Slavery. Educators will learn tangible skills to use with their students as well as receive flexible lesson plans for a variety of grade levels.
For more information, visit hudsonvalley.org/education.
The webinars are made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

Teacher Leadership & the Teacher Leader Academy
2024-03-13 16:30 - 18:30
A teacher leader is someone who maintains their role as a teacher outside of a supervisory role and provides instructional leadership in their school community. Teacher leaders go by various titles and roles: instructional coach, professional development expert, school-community liaison, mentor, lead teacher, and many others. Teacher leadership is an evolving field, and so new roles and titles are established by different schools and districts all the time. Join us for an overview of the Teacher Leader Academy and the benefits of being a teacher leader.

Journeys of Inclusion: Charting Compassion, Courage, and Community
2024-03-15 09:00 - 15:00 | Kean University, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, 07083, United States
Engage in vital dialogues, interactive workshops, and insightful panels as we discover lessons from history to inspire today’s inclusive classrooms. Connect with fellow educators, learn alongside Holocaust education experts, and explore ways to cultivate compassion and courage in teaching. Be a part of shaping an educational future filled with hope, heart, and impact — a future where every student is valued. Co-presented by the Holocaust Resource Center of Kean University, NJEA, and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.
For more information, please contact: Dr. Adara Goldberg at agoldber@kean.edu / (908) 737- 4633
Kean University 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ. 07083 www.kean.edu

Infusing Civics, New Jersey, and Economics into High School United States History
2024-03-19 08:30 - 15:00 | Livington Campus Center, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue Lucy Stone Hall, A352-354, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, United States
Presented by Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences New Jersey Center for Civic Education.
New Jersey law requires the infusing of civics, the study of New Jersey, and economics into the mandated high school United States History courses. This workshop will provide sample lessons and strategies to help teachers meet this requirement. The workshop will run from 9:00 – 3:00. Sign-in will begin at 8:30 a.m.

Teaching the Truth about Colonialism
2024-03-19 19:00 - 20:30
Featuring: Dr. Sarah Shear & Tamar LaSure-Owens
In this webinar, we’ll discuss simple strategies for including these narratives in your lessons while helping students engage with larger historical forces such as colonialism and land dispossession.
The Education Department at Historic Hudson Valley will host a series of webinars in March in which teachers from across the country will share experiences and strategies for teaching the history of Northern Slavery. Educators will learn tangible skills to use with their students as well as receive flexible lesson plans for a variety of grade levels.
For more information, visit hudsonvalley.org/education.
The webinars are made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

Teaching Controversial Issues and Media Literacy
2024-04-03 08:30 - 15:00 | Livington Campus Center, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue Lucy Stone Hall, A352-354, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, United States
Presented by Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences New Jersey Center for Civic Education.
We live in a highly partisan era and teachers are concerned about how to address controversial issues in a non-partisan manner that creates a safe classroom environment and promotes civil discourse. Media literacy is a key aspect of this. This workshop will provide content and strategies to help teachers address these issues.

Strangers in Their Own Land: Jewish Self-Awareness in Holocaust Memoirs -- Via Zoom
2024-04-03 16:30 - 17:30 | Virtual – Zoom
In this interactive session, participants will discuss short excerpts describing the painful realization of what it means to be oppressed. Professor Dorian Stuber will consider texts by Sarah Kofman and Nechama Tec. Despite their differences in national origin and living situations, each writer grappled with what it meant to be a stranger in her own land. Using Michael Rothberg’s idea of “multidirectional memory,” the session will conclude by using the African American sociologist W. E. B. DuBois’s articulation of “double consciousness” as an accessible conceptual language for understanding the self-awareness of persecuted minorities and placing the Holocaust in relation to other histories of oppression.
For more information, please contact: Dr. Adara Goldberg at agoldber@kean.edu / (908) 737-
University 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ. 07083 www.kean.edu

Nazism in America: The Front of Youth Camps
2024-04-03 16:30 - 17:30 | Kean Skylands, 243 Mount Paul Road, Oak Ridge, NJ, 07438
During the 1930s, the German-American Bund, a revived organization emerging from the disbanded Friends of New Germany under the leadership of immigrant Fritz Kuhn, established more than twenty youth camps across the country. To most outsiders, these camps appeared to be summer camps to give German-American youth opportunities to engage with sports and the land. But in reality, they were fronts of the Nazi movement. One camp in particular, Camp Nordland, operated in Sussex County, New Jersey, from 1937 until early 1941.
Barbara Krasner, a historian and prize winning poet, has written about Camp Nordland and how it unraveled a friendship between two Newark teens, one Jewish and one German-American. Dr. Krasner will present the history of the Bund in America, the establishment of these camps with a special emphasis on Nordland, and read selections from her novel in verse, Facing the Enemy: How a Nazi Youth Camp in America Tested a Friendship (Calkins Creek, 2023). She’ll also discuss the importance of upstanding to protect human rights then and now.
This event is free and open to the public. Professional development hours provided.
For more information, please contact: Erica V. Colace, Director, Kean Skylands
keanskylands@kean.edu | (908) 737-1612

The Vel d’Hiv Round-Up: The Largest Mass Arrest in Wartime French History -- Via Zoom
2024-04-04 16:30 - 17:30 | Virtual – Zoom
On July 16-17, 1942 in Occupied Paris, more than 13,000 French Jews were arrested by French Police. The victims were held in deplorable conditions at the Vélodrome d’Hiver or Vel d’Hiv, an indoor cycling stadium until they were sent to detainment camps outside of Paris where they either died or were deported to concentration camps. Dr. Eileen Angelini’s presentation will discuss how the Vichy Government planned this round-up and how the French government and people have since dealt with the pain and shame of this traumatic event.
For more information, please contact: Dr. Adara Goldberg at agoldber@kean.edu / (908) 737- 4633
Kean University 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ. 07083 www.kean.edu

From Generation to Generation: Author Michelle Weinfeld Shares Her Grandfather's Holocaust Survival Story -- Via Zoom
2024-04-09 16:30 - 17:30 | Virtual – Zoom
Michelle Weinfeld, author of From Generation to Generation: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Identity in the Aftermath of the Shoah, will share her grandfather’s story of surviving the Holocaust, the life lessons he taught her, and how being the grandchild of a survivor has influenced her life.
For more information, please contact: Dr. Adara Goldberg at agoldber@kean.edu / (908) 737- 4633
Kean University 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ. 07083 www.kean.edu

An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
2024-04-09 16:30 - 18:30
This two-hour workshop is a basic overview of artificial intelligence and its practical applications. We will explore text, image, and presentation generators such as ChatGPT. Throughout the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to ask questions, collaborate with their peers, and engage in hands-on activities to deepen their understanding of AI.

Getting to Know the Sex Education Standards
2024-04-10 16:30 - 18:30
Tazmine Weisgerber from Answer (Rutgers) will address the updates to the sexual health-related standards and the rationale behind the additions, backed up by research and data. We will also cover the standards revision process and the opt-out guidelines and discuss resources for implementing the new standards.

Infusing Civics Into K-5 Curriculum
2024-04-16 08:30 - 15:00 | Livington Campus Center, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue Lucy Stone Hall, A352-354, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, United States
Presented by Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences New Jersey Center for Civic Education.
The primary purpose of social studies is to help students become the citizens our democracy requires, and the foundation for effective citizenship is laid in elementary school. Young students can grasp many of the essential concepts of civic education if presented in an age-appropriate manner. This workshop will provide teachers with content and strategies that will help them provide essential civic literacy knowledge, skills, and dispositions in grades K-5.

Short Hair Detention: Channy Chhi Laux, survival of the Cambodian Genocide -- via Zoom
2024-04-17 11:00 - 12:30 | Virtual – Zoom
When the Khmer Rouge seized Cambodia in 1975, Channy Chhi Laux was thirteen years old. For the next four years she endured starvation, forced labor, disease, and tremendous loss. In June 1979, she arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska as a Cambodian refugee and enrolled at Lincoln High School. Despite speaking no English and having not attended school for four years, she managed to achieve academic success, thanks in part to the kindness and support of her teachers. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from Santa Clara University and undergraduate degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She then spent 30 years working in Silicon Valley as an engineer in the Aerospace and Biotech industries. She is now an award-winning author and chef. Join us for an intimate talk with Channy to learn more about surviving genocide and the importance of compassion.
For more information, please contact: Dr. Adara Goldberg at agoldber@kean.edu / (908) 737- 4633
Kean University 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ. 07083 www.kean.edu

Teaching the Cambodian Genocide Through Testimony -- Via Zoom
2024-04-17 16:30 - 17:30 | Virtual – Zoom
Short Hair Detention: A Memoir of a Thirteen-Year-Old-Girl Surviving the Cambodian Genocide offers an intimate view of the Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979) as experienced by survivor Channy Chhi Laux. Channy originally wrote her memoir to help communicate her experiences of genocide and survival to her children. Having completed her manuscript, however, she saw the value in sharing it more widely. Please join us for an intimate workshop with Dr.Alexis Herr, a comparative genocide scholar, to learn how to use survivor testimony to educate about genocide and human rights.
For more information, please contact: Zoey Guarino / zguarino@kean.edu / 908-737-4660
Kean University 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ. 07083 www.kean.edu

Asian American History IS United States History
2024-04-30 16:30 - 18:30
Often thought of as “forever foreigners,” Asian Americans, in fact, have played key roles at pivotal moments throughout U.S. history. Asian American stories illuminate the history of inclusion and exclusion in America on issues such as civil rights, immigration and citizenship. The presentation will give participants a better understanding of history (1700s to present), race relations today, and how they affect Asian American students and families. Educators will receive a curated list of resources (scholarly books and articles, podcasts and videos) and materials that can be incorporated into lesson and unit plans.

Exploring Asian American Literature - via Zoom
2024-05-01 16:30 - 17:30
This workshop will focus on providing K-5 teachers an overview of Asian American children literature including poetry and short stories. Several AAPI authors will be highlighted, and ways to introduce these authors and their work in an age-appropriate way will be presented. Points of consideration on how to choose appropriate literature with respectful AAPI representation will be offered. Educators will leave with lesson activities based on these AAPI literature that they can use for their own classrooms and a list of AAPI authors.

Free and open to all. Professional Development hours awarded.
This event is brought to you by Teach Asian American Stories and AAPI New Jersey.

Using Artificial Intelligence in your Classroom
2024-05-01 16:30 - 18:30
This workshop is designed to provide teachers with a basic understanding of AI and how it can be integrated into their teaching practices to benefit both themselves and their students. We’ll explore text, image, and even assessment generators and ways to use AI to help differentiate instruction. The workshop will also include a discussion of plagiarism detection, the potential future applications of AI in education, and the role of teachers in preparing students for a world increasingly shaped by AI.

The Colorful Roots of Labor Unions: How Black, Brown, & People of Color Became the Conscience of Labor Unions
2024-05-08 16:30 - 18:30
Do you know that the American Teachers Association (ATA) saved NEA? The ATA represented Black educators in segregated schools until its merger with NEA in 1966. Do you also know that contributions to the labor movement from Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Jewish people, Hispanic/Latin American people, LGBTQIA+ people, and the disabled have been erased? During this session, there will be no more erasure. We will center the unheralded and marginalized voices of the labor movement.

Engaging Students in Middle School Civics
2024-05-09 08:30 - 15:00 | Livington Campus Center, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue Lucy Stone Hall, A352-354, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, United States
The Laura Wooten Civics Bill requires that every middle school provide a course of study in civics, with the goal of engaging them in the civic life of their community, state, and nation. This workshop will provide content, suggested curriculum guides, and strategies to help teachers meet the mandate in a way that motivates students to become informed and active citizens.

A Brief Overview of Asian American History - via Zoom
2024-05-15 16:00 - 17:30
Teach Asian American Stories presents a virtual webinar with scholar and TAAS Fellow Christy Lee. This 1.5 hour, virtual webinar will focus on providing middle school and high school teachers an overview of Asian American history from 1700-2000s and highlight Asian American contributions to immigration and citizenship laws that shape the United States. Teachers will leave with practical resources, tools, and ideas on how to weave AAPI contributions into their existing curriculum.
Free and open to all. Professional Development hours awarded.
This event is brought to you by Teach Asian American Stories and AAPI New Jersey.

Harnessing the Power of Graphic Novels
2024-05-21 16:00 - 17:30
Graphic novels (memoirs and nonfiction) and comic books are an integral tool in increasing literacy and engagement in the classroom. Through this webinar, educators will learn the scholarship and research behind the benefits of using comics and graphic novels in the classroom while also gaining access to learning activities and materials to support this work. Participants will learn about the current research on literacy in social studies and how graphic novels improve literacy, reading comprehension, and engagement. The workshop ends with a walk-through of various activities and books that educators can use in their classrooms. Participants will receive a workshop folder, handouts, and slides at the end of the session.
This program is suitable for middle school and high school social studies and ELA educators.
Professional Development Hours awarded.
This event is brought to you by Teach Asian American Stories and AAPI New Jersey.

Windows & Mirrors: Creating Spaces for Identity & Belonging
2024-05-21 16:30 - 18:30
This is an exploration of the stories that shape our identities and foster a sense of belonging, or lack thereof, and an examination of how intersectionality empowers or hinders growth, learning and identity formation. A broad view of how policies have shaped the experiences of various people groups and individual communities will be surveyed. The latter part of the session will be tailored to your community and the people/students you serve directly. You will consider the data and demographics of your community. You will learn best practices to tell a better and more inclusive story for all students where all their stories matter and where they all belong. The session will be presented through an intersectional lens, particularly considering the needs of marginalized students. Resources for lessons and/or best practices will be offered. “Lowest hanging fruit” changes can be explored together for immediate implementation.

Ctrl+Alt+Teach: The Computer Science Endorsement in New Jersey
2024-06-04 17:00 - 18:00
Join us for an insightful webinar designed to inform educators about the new Computer Science Endorsement in New Jersey. This webinar, intended for anyone interested in learning more about the endorsement, will delve into the historical context and advocacy efforts that led to the creation of this endorsement, providing an example of member advocacy in support of student learning and professional growth. Participants will also gain valuable insights into the various pathways available for earning the endorsement including testing requirements. Information shared during this session will also guide participants through the NJEdCert system, offering valuable support and resources to streamline the endorsement application process.
