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About Sphere on the Road

Sphere offers engaging interdisciplinary professional development opportunities and content to bring to your classrooms at no cost to you. Gain practical civil discourse skills for your classroom and school community while learning about today’s pressing issues.

We will work with you to create an immersive learning experience that aligns with your goals, vision, and standards. You can expect interactive discussions, engaging activities, and practical adult‐​centered learning. Sessions are designed to leave you with actionable strategies you can implement right away, renewed inspiration to support civil discourse across disciplines, and tools to navigate classroom challenges confidently. This ultimately leads to deeper engagement, stronger critical thinking skills, and increased academic success for students across diverse learning contexts.

Sphere’s professional development is best suited for 5th – 12th grade educators and leaders. With full design flexibility, our programming can be tailored to meet specific grade level audiences, content strands, or tailored for cross‐​curricular audiences. Contact us and we can start planning for your school or district.

Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions to learn more about our programming.

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Sample Professional Development Programming

Sample: Two‐​Hour Workshop

Welcome

1st Hour Options:
What is Civil Discourse and why does it matter?

  • Focus on civil discourse, student free speech, and viewpoint diversity

  • Outline pedagogical strategies to implement civil discourse including building a toolkit for fostering and managing conversations

  • Audience participation: modeling discourse through the lens of complex issues; tabletop scenarios: managing challenging conversations

2nd Hour:

  • Collaborative group breakouts

  • Topic or subject deep dive

  • Developing a lesson plan implementing civil discourse based on local, state, or national issue

  • Putting it all together

Sample: Half‐​Day Event

Welcome

1st Hour Options:
What is Civil Discourse and why does it matter?

  • Focus on civil discourse, student free speech, and viewpoint diversity

  • Option to open with a plenary address

2nd Hour:

  • Outline pedagogical strategies to implement civil discourse including building a toolkit for fostering and managing conversations

  • Audience participation: modeling discourse through the lens of complex issues; tabletop scenarios: managing challenging conversations

3rd Hour:

  • Content or topic specific presentation

  • Collaborative group breakouts, lesson plan development

  • Putting it all together

Sample: Full‐​Day Workshop

Welcome

1st Hour Options:
What is Civil Discourse and why does it matter?

  • Welcome and optional plenary address

  • Focus on civil discourse, student free speech, and viewpoint diversity

2nd and 3rd Hours:

  • Pedagogy, implementation of civil discourse strategies, and building a toolkit for fostering and managing conversations, especially in unrehearsed moments or when things go awry

  • Audience participation: modeling discourse through the lens of complex issues; tabletop scenarios: managing challenging situations and contentious conversations

5th and 6th Hour Options:

  • Content or topic specific presentation

  • Collaborative group breakouts, lesson plan development

  • Putting it all together

Frequently Asked Questions

About Sphere

Who We Work With

Structure

Costs