New Program Offers Paid Professional Development for Humboldt and Del Norte Teachers

Nov 21, 2023

The Cal Poly Humboldt School of Education and History department—in collaboration with the Del Norte and Humboldt County offices of education and Minnesota State University, Mankato—are excited to announce a new one-year program in U.S. history and civics for K-12 teachers and student teachers in Humboldt, Del Norte, and San Diego counties.

It is offered by The Four Freedoms, a professional development program for educators.

Participants will receive training through workshops that foster civic engagement with students and their communities, and travel to conferences to collaborate with and learn from other teachers from across the country.

Participants will receive a $1,000 stipend per semester ($2,000 for a full year), and free curriculum materials. Those who host a student teacher will get an additional $750 stipend per semester. The Four Freedoms will cover travel expenses to and from select conferences.

This year-long opportunity will be offered over the course of eight Saturdays, and a three-day long summer workshop in June. The project will extend for three years; the first year will focus on the revolutionary and constitutional history of the Civil War. Workshops will provide historical content, teaching methods, and classroom strategies for engaging modern learners.

Participants will hear from leading scholars on subjects such as women's roles in the American Revolution; Native Americans' influence on early U.S. political economy; free and enslaved Black Americans; LGBTQ+ experiences and struggles for civil rights; Asian-American struggles for inclusion; and the Hispanic, Latinx, and Chicano experience.

Cal Poly Humboldt faculty, including professors Robert Cliver (History), Noah Zerbe (Politics) and Ryder Dschida (History Education) will help run workshops.

The program offers cutting-edge curriculum and pedagogy for a student audience that demands new interpretations and methods of understanding complex histories and modern society, Dschida says. It aims to decrease school dropout rates, build classroom communities, and foster civic engagement and volunteerism in local communities.

“In short, we seek to explore the history of our “composite nation,” as Frederick Douglass put it, and foster a sense of responsibility and ownership in our youth in the American experiment,” says Dschida.

To apply, visit https://forms.gle/7F4Fd5UWjQAojLBT8

To learn more, contact Ryder Dschida at ryder.dschida@humboldt.edu, Heather Ballinger at heather.ballinger@humboldt.edu, or Jack Bareilles at jbareilles@nohum.k12.ca.us.