Workshops
Description
March 2023 Online Workshop: Teaching Philosophy in High School Classrooms
This two-day workshop is for high school educators looking to incorporate philosophical themes and discussions into their classrooms. Participants will leave this workshop with lessons and activities around two central texts: Allegory of the Cave and The Lottery. Any level of experience is welcome. The workshop will provide useful strategies and opportunities for individual feedback on designing and facilitating philosophical classroom sessions.
Space is limited. Registration closes at 5 pm PT February 24, 2023.
Saturday March 4 and Sunday March 5, from 12-4 pm ET | 9 am – 1 pm PT
Facilitators: Ariel Sykes and Wendy Way
Ariel is a member of PLATO’s Board of Directors and chairs the PLATO Academic Advisory Board. She is Assistant Director of the Ethics Institute at Kent Place School and works with teachers at the elementary, middle, and high school level to integrate ethics across the disciplines. Ariel has been a philosophy for children practitioner for over ten years, and has taught ethics at the college level.
Wendy is a social studies teacher at Bethpage High School, a public school on Long Island. She has taught world history at BHS for 27 years and has taught a philosophy elective for the last 20 years. Wendy is also the advisor for the philosophy club and is the coach for her school’s ethics bowl team. She is always looking for ways to expand the philosophy curriculum and find engaging ways to introduce philosophical concepts to students.
Please register for the online March workshop using the form on the right (or below on mobile) and see the Payment tab for fees.
“Your workshop was life changing.”
— 2021 Workshop Participant
“This was the best workshop I have ever attended. Thank you for a powerful experience.”
— 2018 Workshop Participant
Questions? Please contact us at info@plato-philosophy.org.
Payment
The registration fee for the March 2023 online workshop is $250 for non-members, or $210 for PLATO members (become a member here). Registration closes at 5 pm PT February 24, 2023.
No refunds will be given after February 24, 2023.
Financial assistance is available if needed. If you require financial assistance, please send an email to info@plato-philosophy.org indicating your reason(s) for the request and the extent of financial assistance you need.
Please register for the workshop using the form on the right (or below on mobile). Payment for the March 2023 Online Workshop can be made by visiting our payment portal.
Sample Format
This workshop is an intensive introduction to methods for bringing philosophy into preK-12 classrooms. Philosophy sessions use philosophical texts, children’s books, film and other art forms, and various activities to inspire discussions that emerge from young people’s own questions, based on the understanding that questioning is central to independent thinking. The workshop will focus on ways in which to establish philosophical “communities of inquiry” in classrooms, and will introduce a conception of what constitutes a philosophical discussion, basic reasoning and logic tools, and a general introduction to the discipline of philosophy, including ethics, epistemology, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, and logic.
The workshop emphasizes learning by doing. We will form our own community of philosophical inquiry, and will spend most of each day discussing questions such as: When do we know something? What is justice? What is the self? What is friendship?
Sample Workshop Schedule
Day 1
9:00am – 9:30am | Coffee/Tea and Pastries + Introduction |
9:30am – 10:15am | Community of Philosophical Inquiry |
10:30am – 11:15am | Are you a philosopher? Games and activities |
11:30am – 12:15pm | Personal Identity – “Double Trouble” and Ship of Theseus |
12:15pm – 12:45pm | LUNCH (provided) |
12:45pm – 1:30pm | Middle/High School Epistemology: Plato’s Cave Elementary School – Philosophy of Mind “Cookies” in Frog and Toad Together |
1:45pm – 2:30pm | Middle/High School – Ethics: The Bluest Eye Elementary – Ethics: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson |
2:45pm – 3:30pm | Social inequalities/race and racism: Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles |
Day 2
9:00am – 9:30am | Coffee/Tea and Pastries |
9:30am – 10:15am | Middle/High School – Metaphysics: A Wrinkle in Time Elementary – Metaphysics: Morris the Moose |
10:30am – 11:15am | Middle/High School Metaphisics & ethics: Nature of happiness Elementary – Metaphysics & epistemology: The Bear That Wasn’t |
11:30am – 12:15pm | Gender: The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch |
12:15pm – 12:45pm | LUNCH (provided) |
12:45pm – 1:30pm | Refugee politics: The Color of Home by Mary Hoffman |
1:45pm – 2:30pm | Thinking about animals: an activity |
2:30pm – 3:00pm | Final questions and concluding remarks |
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