How much do our students know about Persia/Iran? This program begins in the ancient period with Achaemenid Persia (550–330 B.C.E.), examining Persian ingenuity, political culture and history as we understand it through the historical and archaeological record. The second part of the program jumps forward in time to 20th- and 21st-century Iran, using the Harvard Peabody Museum’s “From Iran: A Visual Testimony” photographic exhibition as an entry point to more recent historical events and Iranian perspectives on them. We will then delve into Iran’s political history and international relations from the early 20th century forward, noting historical continuities with the past as well as ruptures. Bring your questions and curiosity, regardless of the grade level you teach — this will be a remarkable opportunity to engage with expert historians and curators!

The highways of the ancient world were its waterways, and they offer us a window into goods traded, how they traveled, and how culture spread. After introducing themes in maritime history and archaeology, we will look at three regions as case studies: East and Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean World, and the Mediterranean. Using primary sources — both texts and artifacts — we will consider nautical technology, the history of commerce, mapmaking, control of straits and sea lanes, and the role of port cities and inland waterways in facilitating cross-cultural exchange in each region. Teachers of both 6th and 7th grade will find topics of relevance to their curricula and to present-day maritime dilemmas, as well as new resources for sharing with students and one another.

Ancient China from the Bronze Age through the Tang Dynasty (c. 1600 BCE – 907 CE) left a legacy of contributions that shaped China’s later history, the cultures of the region, and, through trade and exchange, the world. This four-week online course introduces core geographical features of China and the rise of state-level society there; centralization projects and philosophies of governance; indigenous and imported belief systems and how they shaped the lives of different sectors of the population; and China’s influence across Asia and East Asia, through trade and exchange, arts, inventions, and Tang-era innovations. Teachers of elementary and middle grades may choose different pathways through course topics. All participants will gain an appreciation for the depth and richness of early Chinese culture and history, as preserved in artifacts, art, and writing dating back several millennia.

Note: This course retains the name of our former, 8-week Ancient China course, but is substantially revised and updated to meet the needs of today’s teachers.

Teaching students to become change-makers requires a strong foundation and meaningful interactions with global topics. This 4-week asynchronous online course explores critical global topics – human rights, educational access, and gender equity – through the lens of social action. Through readings, videos, interactive web-based activities, and discussion forums, you will become familiar with key issues related to these topics. You will examine case studies of how K-12 teachers have implemented curricular activities and projects to turn student learning into student action, and develop an action project to support students’ transformation from global learners to global citizens. You will then be able to use these cases as inspiration for integrating these themes into your own classroom teaching and school initiatives.

This online course provides a theoretical and practical foundation for culturally responsive teaching of English language learners in the elementary school setting. We will examine how young immigrant students experience school; the demographic and diversity profile of Massachusetts districts; cross-cultural communication and its implications for teaching and learning; and effective strategies for schools to engage immigrant and refugee families. You will have the opportunity to reflect on your own teaching practice, apply course skills and strategies, and receive feedback from peers and the instructor.

This online course provides a theoretical and practical foundation for culturally responsive teaching of English language learners in the elementary school setting. We will examine how young immigrant students experience school; the demographic and diversity profile of Massachusetts districts; cross-cultural communication and its implications for teaching and learning; and effective strategies for schools to engage immigrant and refugee families. You will have the opportunity to reflect on your own teaching practice, apply course skills and strategies, and receive feedback from peers and the instructor.

This is a moment when all of us could use a little magic! In this five-session book discussion series, we’ll explore contemporary novels in which curses and charms are more than supernatural forces—they are legacies handed down within families, shaping the characters’ relationships, choices, and sense of self. Together we’ll read stories that are tricky, energetic, and emotionally complex, where magic is both a burden and a gift. This five-session series is open to all educators in grades K–12 (space permitting). For each title, participants will receive supporting materials and classroom resources.

Reading list

• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
• Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
• An additional title chosen collaboratively by participants

Our identities, memories, and roots are so often tied to the food we eat, the food we were raised on, the food we long for. The books in this series explore the rich histories connected to flavors and cuisine from around the world. A fully virtual program, open to any educator in grades K–12. Resources and supporting materials will be offered for each session. Our proposed reading list includes The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee, Umami by Laia Jufresa, and Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. Participants will collaborate to choose the fourth title in the series!

How can all educators, regardless of grade level and subject, become sustainability educators? This online seminar, led by the EarthRise creative team at SUNY New Paltz, will share approaches used by teachers from the elementary to the high school grades, and the physical and biological sciences to the humanities and arts. The session will focus on ways to design transformative learning experiences and build cultures of action within schools and communities.

What changes when we teach 1898 not as the end of a story, but as the beginning of relationships that continue into the present? At a moment when questions about American power and expansion have returned to public debate, this program revisits the Spanish-American War and the growth of U.S. power overseas, asking how the relationships created during this period extended far beyond 1898.

Following these histories beyond the moment of expansion, we will look at the changing nature of U.S. rule and influence, as well as the responses and resistance of people and communities affected by it. In conversation with scholars and through primary sources, artistic expression, and contemporary perspectives, we will trace the enduring political and cultural consequences of these histories, including ongoing questions of sovereignty, citizenship, identity, and belonging.

This program will be especially relevant for teachers of U.S. and world history and Spanish language and culture.

Persistence, triumph, ingenuity, excellence, and joy are words that exemplify the African American historical experience, but in classroom settings they can be overshadowed by a narrow content focus, limited time, and lackluster textbook resources and primary sources. This course is designed to deepen content knowledge in African American history and represent the variety of lived experience. Each session asks: How did African Americans define and fight for their own freedom? How have these historical struggles, triumphs, and creative expressions shaped our world today?

We’ll begin with a framing of teaching the harder elements of history with sensitivity, before delving into a historical arc of events. Our first session looks at race and politics from Reconstruction to the Jim Crow era, with resources on the Black Codes, sharecropping contracts, economic organization, terror tactics, and art. Our second session explores the period 1900-1929, with resources on migration, cultural renaissance, and World War I through the eyes of Black soldiers and workers. The third session addresses 1930-1954, with core topics including African American experiences during the Depression, then contributions to the New Deal and the Double-V campaigns of World War II. Our final session investigates topics from 1954 to 1980, the Civil Rights and Black Power era. As the course proceeds, you’ll have opportunities to examine a diverse array of primary sources and explore pedagogical strategies for bringing them to life for your students using inquiry-centered approaches.

As a participant, you will receive practical guidance and historical insight to build confidence and support successful yearlong implementation. You will also receive access to Primary Source’s full online curricular resource Making Freedom: African Americans in U.S. History. Throughout the sessions, you’ll engage in reflection and guided course activities that provide ample opportunities to identify how to integrate course materials into your own classroom.

This four-week course forms Part II of our Latin American history and culture sequence, picking up the story in the late 19th century and examining what happened in this vast region after independence from European colonial powers and the abolition of slavery. The course opens with an introduction to the political and cultural landscape of this period, then addresses four main topics: “banana republics” and the rise of U.S. neo-imperialism (1875-1934); revolution and reaction in the Cold War (1950s-1970s); violence in Central America and its after-effects, and millennial transitions: free trade, resistance, and emigration. There are three core themes of this course: US intervention and interference in Latin America, Latin American resistance and revolution, and the region’s cultural diversity. These themes come together in important topics like nationalist movements, populism, literature, art and musical expression, Catholic peace movements and Liberation Theology, Indigenous rights, and emigration.

Above all, the history of this period invites reflection on how deeply entwined U.S. and Latin American histories and cultures have been for 150+ years. Looking at examples from over 11 countries in South and Central America as well as the Caribbean, we will investigate those connections and how they shape our world in the present-day.

The content of this course relates most directly to World History, US History, ELA, Spanish Language, and the Arts. Educators do not need to take Part I of our Latin America sequence to enroll in this course.

After the stormy Age of Revolutions, the nineteenth century is often thought of as an inward-looking century. But in fact it was engaged with the wider world in a myriad ways, from whaling voyages to territorial annexations, from cultural imports to forced and willing migrations, from missionaries and reformers to travelers and adventurers. As participants investigate U.S. connections to every settled continent, four key themes will structure the learning: culture and commodities, expansionism (westward and beyond) and national identity, slavery and freedom, and immigration/migration and travel. In other words, the course addresses core U.S. history content standards of the pre- and post-Civil War eras, viewed through a global lens. As new identities were forged in this period, we will consider how Americans of different backgrounds felt about internationalism and international connections, and how different cultural groups expressed what it meant to be American. The course offers several opportunities to choose differentiated pathways depending upon interests.

*formerly titled “Worldly Republic: The U.S. and the World in the Nineteenth Century”

Africa has a history of complex societies and rich cultures which has not, traditionally, been appreciated fully despite its deep and lasting contributions to humanity. This 4-week asynchronous online course will illuminate the longevity and dynamism of African civilizations, cultural developments, and connectedness to the world, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan regions. Each of four sessions will trace a different theme across a set of case studies and contexts: geography and environment; trade, exchange and cultural diffusion; knowledge and belief; and social structure and governance. Participants will explore a wealth of new websites and sources for the art, archaeology, technological achievements and literature of pre-modern African societies. Inquiry-centered approaches using interactive maps, material objects, and 3-D archaeological re-creations will also be featured. The course is highly relevant for teachers of geography, world history, ancient societies and world religions. All educators who seek a deeper understanding of Africa’s dynamic history are welcome

The 2018 Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework encourages even our youngest learners to explore the wider world through geography, stories, culture, and the experiences of diverse communities. This full-day workshop, run in collaboration with Boston University’s African Studies Center, charts a course for meeting these aims with regard to Africa, using engaging and developmentally appropriate approaches.

Participants will explore a wide range of classroom resources—including picture books, maps, photographs, and primary sources—and discover how these materials can foster inquiry and deepen young learners’ understanding of Africa. Whether you’re introducing continents and maps in kindergarten, exploring communities and diversity in Grade 1, or teaching people and their geographies in Grade 2, this workshop will provide meaningful, inquiry-based approaches for helping young learners explore the richness and diversity of Africa’s peoples, places, and cultures.

Indigenous literature, art, and music highlight the diversity and activism of Native peoples in the United States and emphasize their continued influence in the world today. This course brings together works by Indigenous authors, artists, and musicians—spanning literature, music, and visual art—to explore the contemporary issues and complex histories shaping their communities, including sovereignty and land rights, environmental justice, cultural preservation, media representation, and life on and beyond reservations. The course includes selections from the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Peabody Essex Museum, as well as works shaped by the lens of Indigenous Futurism. Throughout the course, participants engage in reflection and guided activities that support purposeful consideration of how these works can be used in classroom settings.

Imagine how a country’s story changes when one switches the narrative from a reliance on colonial sources to the voices of those native to the country. This course analyzes the impact of such a switch through its exploration of India’s history and the diverse voices that comprise it. The 4-week asynchronous online course will provide educators with ways to approach this daunting diversity and to use it as a lens to examine India’s political development from the movement for independence and Partition to the re-election of Narendra Modi in 2019. Participants in the course will also examine the development of India’s economy, paying particular attention to urbanization, the wealth gap, and environmental issues. Cultural factors, such as gender, education, Bollywood will round out the course in the final week. A rich collection of readings, maps, photographs, documents, video, literature, and art will inform our study throughout the course.

This online course provides a theoretical and practical foundation for culturally responsive teaching of English language learners in the elementary school setting. We will examine how young immigrant students experience school; the demographic and diversity profile of Massachusetts districts; cross-cultural communication and its implications for teaching and learning; and effective strategies for schools to engage immigrant and refugee families. You will have the opportunity to reflect on your own teaching practice, apply course skills and strategies, and receive feedback from peers and the instructor.

This course has been approved by the MA DESE to provide 15 PDPs addressing the needs of English language learners.

This online course provides a theoretical and practical foundation for culturally responsive teaching of English language learners in the elementary school setting. We will examine how young immigrant students experience school; the demographic and diversity profile of Massachusetts districts; cross-cultural communication and its implications for teaching and learning; and effective strategies for schools to engage immigrant and refugee families. You will have the opportunity to reflect on your own teaching practice, apply course skills and strategies, and receive feedback from peers and the instructor.

This course has been approved by the MA DESE to provide 15 PDPs addressing the needs of English language learners