We’re so excited you’re coming to the BHP Professional Learning Consortium in Phoenix, AZ! Here’s everything you need to know for the meeting.

Who: Presenter Kathy Hays, (veteran BHP Arizona teacher), you, and other teachers from your area who teach the Big History Project

When: Thursday, July 25, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.; Happy Hour to follow.

Where: West Phoenix High School, 3835 W Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85019

What: Summer Professional Learning Consortium Meeting, which includes:

  • BHP course overview, including shiny new updates and improvements to content this year. Yes, even you veterans will discover something new.
  • Concrete understanding for the classroom—a deep dive into the skills, practices, and concepts of the course, and how they can be differentiated for students:
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Claim testing
    • Determining causation
    • Thinking across scales
    • Integrating multiple disciplines
  • Hands-on, new activities for each skill, practice, and concept (yep, you get to be the student). Bonus: Need to build an initial course plan? Check! This is when we’ll make it happen.
  • Connections—meaningful ones, with peers in your area, and the chance to find out how to stay connected and supported throughout the year via the online BHP Teacher Community on Yammer.

LOGISTICS

  • Happy hour will follow after the meeting.
  • What to bring: a laptop
  • Directions: Enter off Thomas Road. Parking is in front of the school. Go through the doors marked Administration, and you will be directed to the PLC meeting room.

Your pre-meeting homework (oh, yes we did)

  • Check out Teaching Big History, our free, online professional development course, before attending the PLC. If you’re a new-to-BHP teacher, you’ll be light-years ahead. If you’re a veteran, you’ll get a helpful refresher.
  • We’ll be covering a lot of ground (um, like 13.8 billion years). Check out and download the specific materials in advance (scroll to the bottom of this post), so you can follow along at the PLC.

Questions? Contact BHP Outreach Coordinator Mike Weisensel at michaelw@bighistoryproject.com.

PLC RESOURCES AND DOWNLOADS

Practice Progressions

Claim Testing

Causation

Claim Testing

Disciplines

Narrative and Thresholds

Writing

Reading