top of page

professional development

SF Haas Lilienthal Event 2.jpg

Practical, honest, and actually fun professional development for social studies teachers, available virtually or in person. Every session comes from 12 years in the classroom and has already been field-tested with real teachers.

​

Any session below can run as a short workshop or be combined into a half-day, full-day, or series. Topics can be customized based on your needs. Email zach@antisocialstudies.org for details and rates.

past pd topics

Screenshot 2026-10-28 at 1.25.26 PM.png

Teaching History with Documents and Case Studies

Students can learn to analyze primary sources without it turning into a reading-comprehension slog. This session gives teachers a simple routine, Read → Apply → Evaluate, that works for 8th graders and AP students alike.

​

Participants will:

  • Practice skimming and "hunting for evidence" instead of reading every word

  • Learn what "use the document as evidence" actually looks like on student work

  • Try 2–3 interactive DBQ activities, like the DBQ Block Party and an annotated Gallery Walk

  • Leave with a ready-to-teach DBQ and Emily's list of 10 DBQ activities

Shifting to a Skills-Based Curriculum

History class doesn't have to be "take notes and regurgitate." This session shows teachers how to organize a unit from the top down so students build media literacy, critical thinking, and research skills while still learning the content.

​

Participants will:

  • Look at where traditional history education came from and what's worth keeping

  • Map one of their own units with Emily's four-layer approach: Big Idea → Key Developments → Illustrative Examples → Basic Facts

  • Plan lessons with a simple four-step flow: contextualize, dive into documents, discuss findings, zoom out

  • Decide what students don't need to memorize, so there's time for the skills that matter

Simplifying Historical Writing

Students already spend hours on YouTube, podcasts, TikTok, and Instagram, so put that to work. Drawing on Emily's experience building an audience of ~800K, this session shows how to use digital media as both a source and a project format without giving up rigor.

​

Participants will:

  • Pick strong YouTube videos and history podcasts and use them as "secondary sources" (e.g., Reverse Essay Outline notes)

  • Analyze music, video, and short-form content as primary sources

  • Try project templates like Colonial Dating Profiles (Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, William Penn) and the Gilded Age Social Media Project

  • Keep it rigorous: require historical evidence, real quotes, and source citations in every "post"

  • Get a starter guide of history and news creators worth following (and sharing with students)

Teaching "Controversial" Topics

Teachers don't have to avoid hard conversations, and they don't have to turn them into debates. This session gives a step-by-step way to root current events in historical context, lean on primary sources, and run discussions aimed at understanding, not winning.

​

Participants will:

  • Set their boundaries: what their admin, district rules, and community expect, plus their own comfort level

  • Build a classroom where evidence-based discussion is normal and harmful behavior is shut down consistently

  • Practice discussion structures: journaling first, timed responses, small moderated groups, Four Corners, and "Exploding Atom"

  • Walk through a 7-step sample lesson (Colin Kaepernick and the "right" way to protest)

  • Get ready-made examples connecting history to current issues, like birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment

Diversifying Your Course Year-Round

Adding more voices to a history course doesn't mean rewriting it from scratch or waiting for Black History Month. This session gives teachers a realistic, cumulative approach: add something to every unit, not everything at once.

​

Participants will:

  • "Take inventory" of the people in a unit and spot easy swaps and additions

  • Use stand-in figures well (e.g., Phillis Wheatley or Anne Hutchinson in colonial America) while naming the many stories we don't know

  • Refresh slides and activities with more representative images without changing the lesson's purpose

  • Turn gaps into student research ("Why don't the reformer lists include Latino or Indigenous leaders?")

  • Leave with Emily's free Resource Guide to Diversify Your U.S. History Curriculum

Going Beyond the Textbook: YouTube, Podcasts, and Social Media in the Classroom

Students already spend hours on YouTube, podcasts, TikTok, and Instagram, so put that to work. Drawing on Emily's experience building an audience of ~800K, this session shows how to use digital media as both a source and a project format without giving up rigor.

​

Participants will:

  • Pick strong YouTube videos and history podcasts and use them as "secondary sources" (e.g., Reverse Essay Outline notes)

  • Analyze music, video, and short-form content as primary sources

  • Try project templates like Colonial Dating Profiles (Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, William Penn) and the Gilded Age Social Media Project

  • Keep it rigorous: require historical evidence, real quotes, and source citations in every "post"

  • Get a starter guide of history and news creators worth following (and sharing with students)

Teaching Immigration Through Primary Sources

Immigration is one of the most personal and most charged topics in any classroom. This session pairs discussion strategies with a deep bench of primary sources, so teachers can cover it honestly and with care.

​

Participants will:

  • Plan around students' own experiences, including when (and when not) to bring in family history

  • Weave documents through a lesson: a modern hook, a DBQ main activity, and a student-created "document" as the assessment

  • Analyze sources from the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and Chinese Exclusion to Mexican "Repatriation," the National Origins Formula, and the 1965 Immigration Act

  • Add global context (Jewish migration from the Russian Empire, the Indian diaspora, "White Australia") and internal migrations like the Exodusters

  • Leave with ready-to-teach DBQs, including Chinese immigration (1848–1920) and the U.S.–Mexico border

AP U.S. History: Getting Started (and Staying Sane)

New to APUSH? This session walks teachers through the course from 1491 to the present and focuses on what actually shows up on the exam, so they can plan with confidence instead of trying to cover everything.

​

Participants will:

  • Get a big-picture tour of the course periods and the key ideas tying each one together

  • Learn what to emphasize and what to skim, so pacing doesn’t fall apart by February

  • Review the exam format and scoring (multiple choice, SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ) with the rubrics, explained in plain language

  • Practice scoring sample essays together

  • Leave with strategies for building exam skills all year, not just in April

  • Get Emily’s APUSH Student Review Packet and essay resources to share with students

AP World History: Getting Started (and Staying Sane)

AP World covers 1200 CE to the present across every continent, which can feel impossible at first. This session gives new teachers a manageable way in: start with the big picture, then the major developments, then just enough detail.

​

Participants will:

  • Get an overview of the course eras and the major developments that connect them

  • Learn how to teach global history without it turning into a list of empires (and how to bring in stories from the Global South that textbooks skip)

  • Review the exam format and scoring (multiple choice, SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ) with the rubrics, explained in plain language

  • Build students’ historical reasoning skills (comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time) into regular lessons

  • Leave with Emily’s AP World Student Review Bundle and her approach for helping students review

AP History Exam Bootcamps for Students (APUSH or AP World)

A high-energy, fast-paced review session that gets students ready for exam day. Emily runs the bootcamp directly with students, mixing quick content reviews with hands-on test prep, so they walk out knowing what to expect and how to earn points.

​

Participants will:

  • Review the whole course with “big picture first” content reviews built around the eras and key developments

  • Break down each part of the exam and how it’s scored

  • Practice writing a thesis, using evidence, and contextualization with the A.P.E. method

  • Try timed SAQ and DBQ practice and score their own work with the rubric

  • Get study strategies and free review resources (Emily’s AP videos on YouTube and TikTok) to keep going on their own

Contact us
bottom of page