Learn more by visiting the event page.

Subscribe to the PA Civics Google Calendar to stay up to date with civics conferences in Pennsylvania as well as national events.

• Sphere Summit: Foundations of Civic Culture (June/July 2025) - Sphere is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and member of the Civics Renewal Network. Sphere provides educators with viewpoint diverse resources to bring conversations to the classroom and equip students to engage in civil discourse.

• Registration for the Rendell Center’s Summer Teacher Workshops at Lafayette College (July 18-19) and Reading Area Community College (July 24-25) are now open.

• Through a partnership with PCSS, there are 5 slots available for PA teachers in the newest cohort for We The People: Civics that Empowers All Students (CEAS). CEAS is a federally funded project of the Center for Civic Education that supports effective educator development through the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution curriculum. Learn more and register here.

Jack Miller Center

APPLY HERE (Deadline: March 8)

The American Political Tradition Fellowship is the Jack Miller Center’s yearlong professional development fellowship for middle and high school social studies educators. The Fellowship consists of a weeklong in-person institute in the summer and monthly virtual meetings during the following academic year.

This July, the APT Fellowship will kick off with a summer institute at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The institute will feature five leading scholars from the JMC network and include sessions on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Lincoln and the Civil War, civil discourse, and America in the world.

Following the in-person institute, participants will continue meeting with these scholars at six virtual sessions throughout the 2024-25 academic year.

In addition to in-depth discussions of primary texts, teachers will develop lesson plans and curricular materials for the classroom.

Most expenses related to attending the institute will be paid for by the Jack Miller Center, including travel, lodging, and most meals. Participants will receive a $1,000 stipend.

If you have any questions about this program, contact Lauren Altobelli at laltobelli@gojmc.org.

National Constitution Center

Deepen your knowledge of the First Amendment, engage with the Center’s nonpartisan educational materials, and collaborate with your peers from around the country during a First Amendment Weekend Workshop this fall. Weekend Workshops are held at the National Constitution Center, and take advantage of the Center’s exhibits and the surrounding history in Old City, Philadelphia. Apply now!

During the weekend, participants can expect to:

• Engage with leading constitutional, legal, and historical scholars on First Amendment topics.

• Discover historical content through guided tours of the Center’s exhibitions.

• Learn about the Center’s nonpartisan educational resources, such as the Interactive Constitution and the Constitution 101 curriculum.

• Explore the Center’s educational framework, which includes historical foundations through storytelling, constitutional thinking skills, and civil dialogue and reflection.

• Develop a sense of community and collaboration that will be fostered through quarterly check-ins after the weekend concludes.

The Center covers the costs of all travel, lodging, and meals for those selected to participate, but space is limited to no more than 15 educators. After the workshop, participants have the opportunity to schedule professional learning sessions for their school or district during the 2024-2025 school year at no cost to them. These workshops are open to teachers who work in rural and underserved communities.

Applications are open from May 1–31, with notifications sent no later than June 30.

The Center is offering three Weekend Workshops during Fall 2024. Applicants can only attend one weekend.

• September 20 - September 22, 2024: First Amendment Overview

• October 25 - October 27, 2024: Speech and Press

• November 8 - November 10, 2024: Religion

Please send any questions about the workshops or application process to teacherprograms@constitutioncenter.org

R.A.F.T. for America, a project of Team Democracy, is part of a coordinated series of events taking place on dozens of whitewater rivers all across the country, where seemingly unlikely red/blue pairs of participants will find kinship, connection and fun by working together, regardless of their differences, to successfully meet the challenges of the day. R.A.F.T. supports the partnership between the National Governors Association's Disagree Better Campaign and the consortium of nonprofits that is represented by BMAC (the Bridging Movement Alignment Council) and LFC (the Listen First Coalition). Together, these coalitions represent more than 500 robust nonprofits working in the bridging space.

These media-friendly whitewater experiences will provide compelling audio and video content to support a steady drumbeat of positive counter-programming to offset the divisive messaging that too often dominates our airwaves.

There are two Pennsylvania trips scheduled for June 2024:

• Lehigh River (June 9)

• Youghiogheny River (June 21)

Learn more from this one-pager and use this link to register to attend.

Committee of Seventy

C70 is an approved provider of Act 48 professional development for educators from the PA Department of Education.

You can request a session by emailing Justin Villere, Director of Education at C70, at jvillere@seventy.org, or click to register for an upcoming Classroom Resources for American Democracy training session!