The African Studies Association (ASA) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first annual meeting in historic Chicago, IL. As part of the larger program, the event will feature scholars, artists, and community activists from the Chicago area who will facilitate panels, workshops, and discussions tailored especially to educators.

Essex LINCs is a professional development program for Essex County's elementary school teachers. This series of American history workshops is aimed at helping educators teach local history within a national context. Participating teachers complete four monthly seminars and a one-week summer institute. ESSEX LINCs centers around four core themes in American history with direct correlation to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for elementary grades: Local History in National Context, Governing in America, Working in America, and Populating the United States. The program combines visits to local historical sites with historian-led content sessions. Hands-on training in how to use primary sources and sites from Essex County in the classroom will help educators meet Frameworks objectives while also enlivening their social studies curriculum.

This workshop will go over 15 lesson plans covering the desert environment, Native American culture, Mexican culture, ranch life, World War II, and more. Supplementary literature books are included in the registration fee.

Participants in this workshop will cover content and instructional-based themes introduced during the previous summer institute. Other teachers from the regions will be invited to attend this workshop and learn about content, resource, and instructional themes covered during the year. Core participants will also share their lesson plans, work products, and best practice strategies with the other teachers.

Participants in this workshop will cover content and instructional-based themes introduced during the previous summer institute. Other teachers from the regions will be invited to attend this workshop and learn about content, resource, and instructional themes covered during the year. Core participants will also share their lesson plans, work products, and best practice strategies with the other teachers.

This workshop will consist of three morning breakout sessions, an early afternoon plenary session by University of Wisconsin Oshkosh history professor Michelle Kuhl, and time for teachers to break into smaller groups to share and exchange ideas. The morning breakout sessions will include Menasha Middle School teacher Troy Wittmann facilitating discussions on additional history teaching strategies; Wisconsin Historical Society's Michael Edmonds discussing how "Turning Points" and other online historical collections can be used for history instruction; and a history content presentation (to be determined).