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focused on instructional strategies, our Community forums where teachers ask questions and share ideas, and Blogs with historical content and teaching tips.
PD Sessions By Season
Summer Professional Development
Fall Professional Development
Winter Professional Development
Spring Professional Development
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.
History: Your Secret Weapon for Tomorrow
August 6, 2025, from 7:00-8:15 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. PT
Does history still matter today? Join historians, teachers, and students as they debate why social sciences are vital to our society’s future.
AI-Powered Minds: Spark Students’ Critical Thinking
August 19, 2025, from 7:00 to 7:45 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 4:45 p.m. PT
Discover how teachers use AI to spark critical thinking! Learn real strategies for guiding students to use—not misuse—LLMs in the classroom.
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.
Teach the Future: Climate Ed in Every Classroom!
September 3, 2025, from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. PT
Discover OER Project: Climate—a flexible, semester-long curriculum that empowers students with knowledge and skills to tackle climate change and shape our future.
Primary-Source Power: Hands-On Teaching Clinic
September 9, 2025, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Explore OER Project’s approach to primary sources and practice strategies for supporting student contextualization of author purpose and perspective.
Fact-Check Like a Pro: A Claim-Testing Skills Clinic
September 24, 2025, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
How do you decide what’s true? Experience OER Project’s claim-testing method and help your students confidently evaluate which information to trust.
De-Extinction: Are Extinct Species History?
October 16, 2025, from 7:00 to 7:45 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 4:45 p.m. PT
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!
Unlock the Secrets of the Silk Roads
November 5, 2025, from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. PT
Discover how the Silk Roads spread technologies, cultures, and religions with Professor Peter Frankopan. Uncover the networks that shaped our connected world!
Deep History: Exploring Slave Trade Shipwrecks
November 12, 2025, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Join National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts as she shares uncovered shipwrecks from the transatlantic slave trade and reveals previously untold stories of enslaved Africans.
Bringing the Past Forward: Breakthroughs in History
December 3, 2025, from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. ET / 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. PT
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!
Rediscovering Ancient Ways: West Asia and North Africa
December 10, 2025, from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. PT
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.
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.
Teaching Hidden Histories with Graphic Bios
January 13, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Make history come alive! Explore OER Project’s graphic biographies and learn how to teach powerful visual stories of people underrepresented in history.
Industrial Revolution: How We Made the Modern World
February 11, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. PT
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.
World War II’s Legacy: How the War Transformed the World
March 4, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. PT
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!
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 strong.
Beyond the Iron Curtain: Teaching the Cold War
April 2, 2026, from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. ET / 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. PT
Explore the Cold War’s legacy with Francis Gary Powers, Jr.—hear stories, key moments, and classroom ideas to bring this pivotal era to life for your students.
Future Stories: What’s Next in Big History?
April 8, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. PT
Journey through time with historian David Christian, founder of OER Project: Big History, as he discusses past, present, and future in conversation with the OER Project team.
History in the Age of AI: Teaching Critical Thinkers
April 22, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. PT
Learn how to use AI in the history classroom to strengthen—not shortcut—student thinking in historical inquiry, source analysis, and argumentation.
Origin of Human Rights: Ideas that Shape Our Freedom
May 20, 2026, from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. ET / 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. PT
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.
From Numbers to Narratives: Data in History
May 27, 2026, from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. ET / 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. PT
Transform your social studies classroom and make history “click” with data visualizations. Join Neil Halloran and Professor Tamara Schriener for game-changing strategies.
Pick your favorites, mark your calendar, and we’ll save you a virtual seat. See the full list of online professional development events.