From the Continuing Education Options website:

"The Twin Cities is blessed by having various outstanding organizations and institutions willing to share their facilities, information and talents with the community. While participating in this class you will visit a number of organizations throughout the area and have an opportunity to meet with education directors and be given extensive tours of their facilities. You will visit The Hubbard Broadcasting Company (KSTP TV and radio) and the Star Tribune. You will tour the various facilities of MNDOT and see the communication and technology systems that are involved in monitoring and maintaining our roadways. On the U of M campus you will tour the Bell Museum of Natural History where children and adults can explore wolves, loons, moose and other Minnesota wildlife. We will also visit the Weisman Art Institute. In St. Paul you will be given a tour of the State Capitol and see government come alive. Finally, the past will be tied with the present when you visit historic Fort Snelling, which was once a symbol of American ambition in the wilderness."

This workshop will consider the myths and realities of four themes central to the figure of Abraham Lincoln. First, participants will examine Lincoln and American Nationalism. To more fully understand this theme, they will examine how historians have portrayed Lincoln over time. A starting point for this examination will be reading from primary sources including Lincoln's Message to Congress in Special Session (July 4, 1861), followed by selected sections from secondary sources: James McPherson's Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, and Barry Schwartz's Lincoln at the Millennium. Central to this examination is the question of how Lincoln used history, especially the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers, to develop his rhetorical defense of the Union and justification for action. Second, participants will consider Lincoln and power. The examination of this theme centers on the dilemma of how to fight a civil war and preserve civil liberties. Lincoln scholars will provide participants with opportunities to discuss how Lincoln attempted to preserve the Union without sacrificing the Constitution. The investigation begins with required reading of selections from David Donald's Lincoln and David Potter's Jefferson Davis and the Political Factors in Confederate Defeat. Participants will probe critical issues such as suspension of habeas corpus, censorship of the press, and declaration of martial law through reading Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. Third, participants will consider Lincoln and freedom. It has been argued that Lincoln changed the meaning of the Constitution. Participants will investigate this theme by first reading the Gettysburg Address and selected letters in which Lincoln describes his vision of equality. Then, they will analyze selections from Garry Wills's 1992 The Words that Remade America, which suggests that the change went beyond the relationship between the federal government and the states to the relationship between the federal government and the individual. How might Lincoln's words, "a new birth of freedom" suggest change in the vision of equality? Finally, participants will consider Lincoln and race. They will examine the Emancipation Proclamation and the complex issue of race in America. Readings for this theme draw on selections from the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the Emancipation Proclamation and selected Lincoln letters, and readings from Lerone Bennet's Was Abe Lincoln a White Supremacist? and Philip Shaw Paludan's Emancipating the Republic: Lincoln and the Means and Ends of Antislavery. Much of Lincoln's position of honor in American history rests upon his action to free the slaves. Yet, some view the proclamation as an empty gesture or even a conservative attempt to forestall more radical action. These discussions will provide participants with an opportunity to explore the evolution of Lincoln's attitude toward emancipation that culminated in his support for the 13th Amendment.

During this one-week workshop, workshop fellows will walk the streets and alleys that Benjamin Franklin walked, step through the doorways that he knew, sit in the churches where he worshiped, and stroll around the houses and public buildings where he helped to found the United States. Fellows will also explore the many rooms of Benjamin Franklin's mind: writer, printer, civic leader, politician, diplomat, scientist, revolutionary, founder. They will read Franklin's words—published and personal—and those of other men and women who lived in the era. They will examine the key aspects of gender, of race, of social class, and diverse other topics.

From the North Carolina Museum of History website:

"Was Blackbeard really so bad? What became of Virginia Dare? Explore the fascinating history of these and fourteen other North Carolina legends and learn how and why their stories have changed over time."

Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America is the best study of America to be written by a foreigner. It examines government, religion, the races, private associations, literature, the family, and much else, all the while contrasting democratic America with old aristocratic Europe. This course will examine as much of the book as possible, focusing especially on Tocqueville's account of the love of equality (and its dangers) and his prescriptions for the preservation of liberty.

One way citizens of large republics are educated in the principles of government is through novels. With this in mind, this course examines selections from the work of Mark Twain. Not only is Twain America's most enduringly popular author, but his novels depict important aspects of the American character and have much to say about such themes as equality, slavery, freedom, modern science, Christianity, and democratic leadership, all of which are crucial for understanding American history and politics. The main texts will be Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; if time permits, participants will also consider The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson.

This workshop offers academic content about place-based western history and women's suffrage on the western frontier, juxtaposed with myths of the West and contemporary women's issues in the West. It affords opportunities to engage in study and conversation with leading scholars; an introduction to four forms of primary historical sources—the built environment, artifacts, government records, and private papers—all of which have application in all history classrooms; and networking with other social studies, history, English, and other subject matter teachers, librarians, and media specialists, from grades K–12, representing a variety of states.

During this one-week workshop, workshop fellows will walk the streets and alleys that Benjamin Franklin walked, step through the doorways that he knew, sit in the churches where he worshiped, and stroll around the houses and public buildings where he helped to found the United States. Fellows will also explore the many rooms of Benjamin Franklin's mind: writer, printer, civic leader, politician, diplomat, scientist, revolutionary, founder. They will read Franklin's words—published and personal—and those of other men and women who lived in the era. They will examine the key aspects of gender, of race, of social class, and diverse other topics.

The workshop features the presentations of several preeminent Twain and Gilded Age scholars. The combined expertise of this distinguished faculty affords teachers an outstanding opportunity to enhance their understanding of Mark Twain's legacy. The culmination of participants' work with this exceptional slate of scholars will be their creation of Twain-related lesson plans that they can use in their classrooms.

During this workshop, participants will consider three major topics. First, they will examine Dickinson the writer. Emily Dickinson is now considered one of the greatest poets in the English language, yet her work was not known outside of a small circle of family and friends until after her death. Because Dickinson herself gave few explicit clues about her attitude toward publication, scholars debate reasons that she did not share her poetry with a wider audience. Ongoing discussion about the authenticity of Dickinson's manuscripts versus the printed poems, which were edited by others, lies at the heart of that debate. Second, they will consider Dickinson, a woman in 19th-century America. Because Dickinson's poems resonate in style and content with the 21st-century reader, her work is often described as "ahead of its time." Critics are often tempted to read her work out of its historical context, to focus on its universal connections to the exclusion of its 19th-century origins. Yet, as recent scholarship asserts, Dickinson's poetry is inseparable from the times in which it was written. Several new essay collections about the poet are devoted to questions of Dickinson's experience of the Civil War, her political opinions, her response to religious movements, and her interest in and connections to her literary contemporaries. Finally, participants will consdier Dickinson, resident of rural New England. Dickinson ended a poem with "I see New Englandly." Dickinson's ancestors settled in western New England in the 1600s. Her world was defined by its character and landscape, and the imagery and diction of her poetry reveal her deep connections to place. This aspect of Dickinson's poetry has long attracted the attention of readers and scholars, yet it has sometimes limited their appreciation for her artistic achievements, marking her as a quaint New England poetess. By modeling different approaches to inquiry-based and object-based learning, the workshop will equip educators with new pedagogical tools and will help them address national standards in English and social studies. They will explore their own interests in Dickinson's life and work through a series of meetings with mentor teachers that will culminate in an outline for a new or revised curriculum unit or a plan for new classroom resources.