Professional Development for teachers
Online PD Year-Round with OER Project
Our virtual events are expert-led and always free. We’ve lined up professional development sessions with the topics you’ll be teaching throughout the year so you can find the learning you want when you need it. From teaching historical thinking skills to fresh takes on familiar content, our live webinars feed your purpose and fill your toolbox. You bring the curiosity—we’ll bring the tools, community, and inspiration. Plus, certificates of attendance are available upon request, making it easy to track your PD hours.
If you’re looking for professional learning to jump into right now, check out Teacher Resources focused on instructional strategies, our Community forums where teachers ask questions and share ideas, and Blogs with historical content and teaching tips.
Summer Professional Development
Looking for an energizing start to the school year?
Each summer, OER Project offers a fresh lineup of timely, engaging professional learning experiences designed to spark ideas and strengthen your practice.
Launching a Year of Critical Thinking
August 5, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Get your classroom ready with OER Project’s historical thinking skills resources and take a deep dive into continuity and change over time with Bridgette Byrd O’Connor.
Grow Student Writers in Social Studies
August 19, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Start the year with the tools you need to engage student writers, guide a rubric-based writing process, and focus on feedback to help students grow.
Fall Professional Development
Ready to dive deeper once the school year is underway?
Our fall sessions offer timely support, fresh strategies, and inspiring conversations to help you meet the moment in your classroom. Whether you’re tackling new content or fine-tuning your approach, there’s something here for you.
Zoom In, Zoom Out: Contextualization in History
September 10, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Zoom in on teacher-tested moves for contextualization and zoom out to the bigger thinking you want students doing all year.
Teach Climate Solutions Through Adaptation Stories
September 22, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Teach climate solutions through stories of human adaptation with Nat Geo Explorer Alizé Carrère—and help students see possibility in a changing world.
Chart a Course with Maps: Geography in Social Studies
October 21, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Teaching with maps can take students places. Get classroom-ready resources to bring geography skills into your social studies lessons.
Contemporary Conflict: Historical Analysis for Hard Questions
November 4, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Get a practice approach to help you navigate student questions about current and historical conflicts by strengthening their historical analysis, and move beyond quick-takes and surface-level answers.
Deeper Discussions in Social Studies
November 19, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Join Dr. Abby Reisman, who is lead academic for Deeper Discussions and a former classroom teacher, to dig into a discussion toolkit you can use to deepen discourse in social studies.
Winter Professional Development
Need a midyear boost?
Our winter sessions are designed to reenergize your practice with new ideas, practical tools, and thought-provoking conversations. It’s the perfect time to reflect, reconnect, and refresh your approach for the second half of the school year.
Design Your Own Escape Room
January 27, 2027, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Learn how to design your own classroom escape room—and you’ll even leave with an OER Project escape room on predicting the next threshold of increasing complexity.
Student-Driven Inquiry
February 9, 2027, from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. PT
See how student-driven inquiry takes shape in an OER Project lesson—and leave with practical ideas you can bring into your own teaching.
Teaching the Cold War in Latin America
March 11, 2027, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Widen students’ view of the Cold War with films, lessons, and interactive maps that reveal its reach across Latin America and its broader global impact.
Spring Professional Development
Looking to finish the year strong?
Our spring sessions are built to support the content you’re tackling right now and help you get ready to start next year at your best.
Framing Better Climate Change Discussions
April 7, 2027, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Learn how to design your own classroom escape room—and you’ll even leave with an OER Project escape room on predicting the next threshold of increasing complexity.
Past Professional Development Sessions
You'll get the most out of our PD sessions by attending live, but we also put together highlight packages from each event to help you get a taste of the discussions!
History in the Age of AI: Teaching Critical Thinkers
April 22, 2026
Learn how to use AI in the history classroom to strengthen—not shortcut—student thinking in historical inquiry, source analysis, and argumentation. (Video coming soon!)
Origin of Human Rights: Ideas that Shape Our Freedom
May 20, 2026
Uncover the origins of human rights with Samuel Moyn: Trace the evolution of this powerful idea and its impact on law, society, and our world today. (Video coming soon!)
From Numbers to Narratives: Data in History
May 27, 2026
Transform your social studies classroom and make history “click” with data visualizations. Join Neil Halloran and Professor Tamara Schriener for game-changing strategies. (Video coming soon!)
World War II’s Legacy: How the War Transformed the World
March 4, 2026
How did World War II reshape the world? The National WWII Museum shares the American experience of the war that defined the modern era—and ways to bring it to life in the classroom! (Video coming soon!)
Industrial Revolution: How We Made the Modern World
February 11, 2026
Discover how industrialization shaped our lives! The National Museum of Industrial History brings you the stories of people, machines, and ideas that changed the world.
The Explorers Club: The Society of Forgotten Explorers
January 21, 2026
Three accomplished modern explorers introduce us to three of the greatest (and most comparatively underdiscussed) explorers of history.
Teaching Hidden Histories with Graphic Bios
January 13, 2026
Make history come alive! Explore OER Project’s graphic biographies and learn how to teach powerful visual stories of people underrepresented in history.
Rediscovering Ancient Ways: West Asia and North Africa
December 10, 2025
Join us to explore object-based learning with the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, and discover the connection between past and present human experiences.
Bringing the Past Forward: Breakthroughs in History
December 3, 2025
Build your innovator mindset with the Henry Ford Museum—explore inspiring stories of invention, and dig into the museum’s collections as you learn what it takes to change the world!
Deep History: Exploring Slave Trade Shipwrecks
November 12, 2025
Join National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts as she shares uncovered shipwrecks from the transatlantic slave trade and reveals previously untold stories of enslaved Africans.
De-Extinction: Are Extinct Species History?
October 16, 2025
Join Dr. Beth Shapiro, a pioneer in de-extinction, as she reveals how cutting-edge science could bring extinct species back—and what it might mean for our future!
Primary-Source Power
September 9, 2025
How can we better connect our students with individuals, groups, and events from times and places that may feel distant? Primary sources!
Teach the Future: Climate Ed in Every Classroom!
September 3, 2025
Discover OER Project: Climate—a flexible, semester-long curriculum that empowers students with knowledge and skills to tackle climate change and shape our future.
AI-Powered Minds: Spark Students’ Critical Thinking
August 19, 2025
Discover how teachers use AI to spark critical thinking! Learn real strategies for guiding students to use—not misuse—LLMs in the classroom.
History: Your Secret Weapon for Tomorrow
August 6, 2025
Does history still matter today? Historians, teachers, and students debate why social sciences are vital to our society’s future. Watch the highlights now!
Pick your favorites, mark your calendar, and we’ll save you a virtual seat. See the full list of online professional development events.