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National Performance for Education is excited to partner with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to offer educators rich professional development opportunities—both in-person and online, self-paced formats. Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, the Institute has become the nation’s leading nonprofit dedicated to K–12 history education, while also engaging the broader public. With a mission to deepen knowledge and spark curiosity about America’s past, the Gilder Lehrman Institute provides teachers and students with innovative programs and resources that bring history to life.
Gilder Lehrman Institute Teacher Symposium at Gettysburg College
The Teacher Institute takes place in historic Gettysburg on the Gettysburg College campus July 12th-15th. Participants choose a particular strand of interest that will be led by renowned historians and master teachers that includes lectures, teaching strategies, in-depth conversations, and networking with ~300 other educators from across the country. Opportunities to explore local historical sites and engage in focused book talks/films are a part of the experience as well.
As a part of the United Project, we have dedicated spots for participation, but space is limited. Participation includes project hours earned, as well as a stipend. You may learn more via the link below, with the dedicated United enrollment link immediately following. We recommend registering early to try to secure a spot.
Information: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/professional-development/summer/teacher-symposium
Dedicated WEP/NPE Registration form: https://forms.gle/Tp8V4uoSVbjwavNa7
One of our National Performance for Education colleagues, Keith Lyons, participated last year, claiming it to be one of the “most intense, enlightening, and enthralling education experiences” in his lifetime.
SEMINAR SERIES
This year’s programming brings history to life with three in-person seminars at Klawock School. Each seminar dives deep into a defining era of American history. In the mornings, a university historian will guide participants through rich historical content, while the afternoons shift to hands-on learning as Master Teachers share powerful, research-based teaching strategies to bring that history into the classroom. The workshop will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will feature lectures and a Q&A with an eminent scholar and a pedagogy session.
February 28th, 2026
Seminar #1: Colonial America
Pedagogy Topics:
Elementary school cohort: Pilgrims, the Mayflower Compact, and Thanksgiving
Secondary school cohort: “A City Upon a Hill” from John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity,” 1630
Presenter: Dr. Jared Ross Hardesty
Presenter: Dr. Jared Ross Hardesty
Western Washington University
Dr. Hardesty is professor and a scholar of colonial America, the Atlantic world, and the histories of labor and slavery. He is the author of three books, Unfreedom: Slavery and Dependence in Eighteenth-Century Boston (New York: NYU Press, 2016), Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England (Amherst & Boston: Bright Leaf, 2019) and Mutiny on the Rising Sun: A Tragic Tale of Smuggling, Slavery, and Chocolate (New York: NYU Press, 2021). He is also the editor of The Suriname Writings of John Gabriel Stedman (Hackett Press, 2024) and his essays and reviews have appeared in journals such as Early American Studies, Slavery & Abolition, the New England Quarterly, and the William & Mary Quarterly.
April 11, 2026
Seminar #2: The American Revolution
Pedagogy Topics:
Elementary school cohort: Midnight Ride of Paul Revere: Literature v. History
Secondary school cohort: Black Women and the American Revolution
Presenter: Dr. Hunter Price
Presenter: Dr. Hunter Price
Dr. Price is Associate Professor of History and has worked at Western Washington University since 2014. His areas of expertise are the American Revolutionary and Civil War eras and early American religious history. His book Sacred Capital: Methodism and Settler Colonialism in the Empire of Liberty was published by University of Virginia Press in 2024 as part of their Jeffersonian America series. He is at work on a second book, which examines the prominent 19th-century scientists John and Joseph LeConte, the people they enslaved, and the legacies of both groups in the development of science, environmentalism, and slavery.
April 25, 2026
Seminar #3: The New Nation
Pedagogy Topics:
Elementary school cohort: The US Constitution: The Preamble and Bill of Rights
Secondary school cohort: Ratifying the Constitution: Federalists v. Anti-Federalists and the State Debates, 1787–1788
Presenter: Dr. David Silverman
Presenter: Dr. David Silverman
Columbian College of Arts & Sciences
Dr. Silverman has taught Native American, Colonial American, and American racial history at George Washington University since 2003. He is the author of six books: The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States (New York: Bloomsbury, 2026); This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving (New York: Bloomsbury, 2019); Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016); co-author with Julie A. Fisher, Ninigret, Sachem of the Niantics and Narragansetts: Diplomacy, War, and the Balance of Power in Seventeenth-Century New England and Indian Country (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014); Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010); and Faith and Boundaries: Colonists, Christianity, and Community among the Wampanoag Indians of Martha’s Vineyard, 1600-1871 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). He is also the co-editor of two volumes with GW’s Denver Brunsman: Colonial America: Essays on Politics and Social Development (New York: Routledge, 2010), and The American Revolution Reader (New York: Routledge, 2014); and co-editor, with Ignacio Gallup-Diaz and Andrew Shankman, of Anglicizing America: Anglicizing America: Empire, Revolution, Republic (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. His scholarship, and his undergraduate and graduate advisees, have received multiple honors. He is active as a public historian in giving lectures, authoring opinion pieces, consulting on museum exhibits and legal briefs, and appearing in media. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2000.
Gilder Lerhman Master Teachers
Lois MacMillan, Elementary
Lois MacMillan, Elementary
Lois MacMillan teaches AP Government and U.S. and World History at Grants Pass High School. In her 31 years in education, she has taught across grade levels, earned National Board Certification in Early Adolescence–Social Studies, and was Oregon’s 2006 Gilder Lehrman Teacher of the Year. She received the Grammy Museum’s Jane Ortner Award in 2018 for her innovative use of music in the classroom, which led to a sabbatical as the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s first Senior Education Fellow for the Hamilton Education Program, serving more than 750 Title I schools. For over fifteen years, she has also worked as a Gilder Lehrman master teacher. Earlier in her career, she participated in the first Iditarod teacher workshop, bringing its lessons to her elementary students.
Tyler Nice
Tyler Nice has been teaching in Springfield, Oregon for twenty-four years. he currently teachers seeral college-level Government, US History, and Ethnic Studies courses at Thurston High School. Mr. Nice was named the 2022 Oregon History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehman Institute. he lives a few miles from the University of Oregon and is a big fan of the Ducks
SELF-PACED COURSES
Depending on the grade level you teach, you have access to two self-paced courses that concentrates on this year's content and have been selected by the program. You also have access to one course you choose yourself (not listed below). Self-Paced Courses offer graduate-level instruction in American history led by the nation’s top historians. Once you have turned in your paperwork, a GLI representative will contact you to provide you with the information to access your courses.
Each Self-Paced Course includes:
Video lectures by a leading historian
Primary sources and in-depth readings
Short quizzes to review your knowledge
3 to 15 professional development contact hours
A certificate of completion
You will not be required to complete any written assignments. Short quizzes are the only required assessment activities.s.
Once you complete a course, you will receive a certificate. Download this certificate, click the certificate upload button, and store your certificate to the Google file. These courses will be available until September 1, 2026.
Elementary Cohort Courses
Elementary Cohort Courses
Middle and Secondary Courses
Summer Excursion to Washington, DC
Summer Seminar
Summer Seminar
July 12-17, 2026
Registration February 1, 2025-March 1, 2026
Educators will attend a weeklong summer seminar.
Topic: Colonial America and the American Revolution
Scholar:Dr. David Silverman
This is a walking-heavy seminar with daily historic site visits.
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