We’re so excited you’re coming to the BHP Professional Learning Community in Phoenix, AZ! Here’s everything you need to know.
P.S. – Still need to register for the event? Take care of that here!
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 Community, 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.
PRE-PLC PREP
- 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 (below), 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
Activities
- Lesson 1.1: Scale – History of Me
- Lesson 1.1: Threshold Name Game
- Lesson 2.0: Narrative and Thresholds – The Big Bang
- Lesson 2.0: Causation – Natural Disasters
- Lesson 2.2: Disciplines – Who Knows What?
- BHP Resource: Disciplines Chart
- Lesson 1.3: Claim Testing – What Are the Claim Testers?
- Lesson 1.1: Big History: An Overview leveled texts
- Three Close Reads Worksheet
- Lesson 2.2: Analyzing Investigation Writing – Use of Evidence