Supplemental Curriculum: Who Gets to Choose?

Hosted by Teachers Pay Teachers
Time: 10:05 AM - 11:05 AM ET
Location: Convention Center 204C
Description: After several disrupted school years, teachers are supplementing curriculum now more than ever to address unfinished learning. But who gets to choose these materials? This conversation among teachers, administrators, and curriculum experts in social studies will provide insightful tips on how to identify quality supplemental materials and explore a framework that provides teachers with agency in the process. Leave with greater confidence in selecting effective instructional materials. 

"Call Him Jack"

Speakers: Yohuru Williams and Mike Long
Time: 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM ET
Location: Convention Center 204C
Description: Martin Luther King, Jr. said Jackie Robinson was “a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the Freedom Rides.” Hank Aaron called Robinson a leader of the Black Power movement before there was a Black Power movement. His wife, Rachel Robinson, has said he was always Jack, not Jackie—the diminutive form of his name bestowed on him in college by white sports writers. And throughout his whole life, Jack Robinson was a fighter for justice, an advocate for equality, and an inspiration beyond just baseball. Two prominent Robinson scholars recover the real person behind the legend, reanimating this famed figure’s legacy for new generations, widening our focus from the sportsman to the man as a whole, and deepening our appreciation for his achievements on the playing field.

A Conversation on Navigating the Landscape of Teaching “Divisive Concepts”

Speakers: NCSS President Shannon Pugh, NCSS Executive Director Lawrence Paska, and AHA Executive Director James Grossman
Time: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM ET
Location: Convention Center Ballroom A
Description: Join the leadership of the American Historical Association and the National Council for the Social Studies for a conversation on how to understand the current or proposed restrictions on teaching “divisive concepts” in K-12 classrooms. The discussants will share examples of their advocacy and support for educators in the past year to protect social studies teaching and learning, while advocating for increased social studies instructional time, and continued instructional focus on critical social studies issues. Resources to address current advocacy issues shared by both associations will be discussed.

America 250 Panel Discussion

Speakers: Frank Giordano, Jane Kamensky, and Sylvia Cyrus
Time: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM ET
Location: Conv Ctr 204C
Description: In 2026, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence and the founding of our American experiment in Democracy. The US Semiquincentennial Commission is planning to commemorate this milestone with inclusive programs that ignite our imaginations, elevate our diverse stories, inspire service in our communities, and demonstrate the lasting durability of the American project. Join us as we explore with America 250 staff and advisors what it means to celebrate America in such a politically polarized time, how teachers and students can get involved, and what will happen in the next three years of preparation.

Why Didn’t I Know? The Colored Conventions Movement

Speakers: P. Gabrielle Foreman and Jim Casey
Time: 9:50 AM - 10:50 AM ET
Location: Convention Center 204C
Description: During the nineteenth century, Black community leaders held hundreds of state and national meetings called Colored Conventions. These conventions brought together delegates from all over North America to talk about the best ways to achieve (and then secure) their citizenship, civil rights, voting rights, access to education, labor rights, and much more. ColoredConventions.org is the first time that these histories have been gathered and made freely available online. The website and its expanding community of teachers, students, researchers, and librarians endeavor to transform teaching and learning about this historic collective organizing effort.

The Ongoing Repercussions and Relevance of 9/11

Speakers: Regina Wilson, Bridget Gormely, and Cliff Chanin
Time: 11:10 AM - 12:10 PM ET
Location: Convention Center 204C
Description: When Regina Wilson joined the FDNY in 1999, she was one of just seven Black candidates and the only woman in a class of more than 300. On 9/11, she and fellow firefighters attempted to control the multiple blazes caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center. In the years since, she has worked to honor her fallen colleagues and advocate for a more diverse fire department. After Bridget Gormely’s father passed away in 2017 from 9/11-related cancer, she directed “Dust: The Lingering Legacy of 9/11,” telling the story of those who continue to suffer from 9/11-related illnesses. They'll speak about the ongoing repercussions and relevance of 9/11 for future generations.

Covering Education Amid COVID and Controversy

Speakers: Erica Green, Moriah Balingit, Hannah Covington, and Matt Barnum
Time: 2:15 PM - 3:15 PM ET
Location: Convention Center 204C
Description: COVID-19 has required school districts to balance the educational and social needs of students with the health and safety of school staff and children. As education policy in the U.S. becomes a more potent issue in state and local elections, new laws are being passed to restrict what educators can teach, and keeping track of these debates is increasingly difficult. That’s where education reporters come in. This panel will delve into the role reporters play in helping the public understand the impact of disparate pandemic policies and keeping people informed about what is – and isn’t – working in the classroom.

The U.S. and the Holocaust

Speakers: Lynn Novick, Sarah Botstein, Gretchen Skidmore, and Mary Kate Lonergan
Time: 3:35 PM - 4:35 PM ET
Location: Convention Center 204C
Description: The new three-part series, The U.S. and the Holocaust, tells the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century, and how this struggle tested the ideals of our democracy. By examining events leading up and during the Holocaust with fresh eyes, the film dispels the competing myths that Americans either were ignorant of what was happening to Jews in Europe, or that they merely looked on with callous indifference. As the filmmakers share, the truth is much more nuanced and complicated, and the challenges that the American people confronted raise questions that remain essential to our society today.