Professional Development just got better. By leaps & bounds.
Welcome to the new era of PD for teachers, where online courses are divided into bite-sized chunks, chock-full of research-based strategies that you can implement in your classroom today.
Practical, personal professional development.
Access online courses and resources custom-made to deepen your craft – when and where they actually work for you.
Micro-courses built to fit real-life
Reflections integrated into learning
Recertification ready documentation
Building Evidence Based Arguments
Argumentation is a science and an art that hinges on evidence. Evidence makes or breaks an argument, but for many students, knowing when or how to use evidence doesn’t come naturally. We can’t expect them to just figure it out. This course gives you a toolkit of carefully curated classroom strategies that teach students to build logical, sequenced, evidence-based arguments from the ground up– equipping them with transferable skills for better essays, projects, and discussions, and clearer thinking, and stronger arguments for life.
Exhibits in the Classroom
Learn how to use museum exhibits as argumentative texts that support content instruction, student-driven inquiry, and project-based learning. Whether you want to make a field trip more meaningful, strengthen students’ primary source and argument-analysis skills, or guide students as they create exhibit projects for National History Day, Exhibits in the Classroom provides practical strategies, ready-to-use resources, and real-life examples to help you bring the work of museums—and curators—into your classroom.
The Horizon of Independence
As the first course in our three-part series on the American Revolution, the Horizon of Independence helps educators deepen their understanding of early America and the build up to the American Revolution (1607-1776) by exploring inquiry-driven, primary source-based strategies for teaching the complexities and enduring significance of the founding of the United States of America.
Artifact Analysis
Transform your classroom into a site of active, inquiry-driven discovery with this course on artifact analysis. Use artifacts as dynamic evidence that empowers students to question, interpret, and debate history. Through a focus on culturally responsive teaching and practical sourcing—including museum digital collections and 3D printing—you will gain the tools to make history feel tangible and engaging for every learner.
Civil Discourse in the Classroom
Transform your classroom into a microcosm of democracy with this course which positions civil discourse as a foundational teaching tool, proven to enhance content knowledge and literacy skills for all students. You will develop a diverse toolkit of strategies to guide students through complex conversations with academic rigor and emotional safety. In the processes, you will equip them with lifelong skills: the ability to listen deeply, reason together, and disagree constructively and respectfully.
Podcasting for Educators
You don’t need to be a technical wizard to run excellent podcast projects with your students. This course covers the basics — from using podcasts to deepen learning, to guiding students through creating their own — enhancing engagement, deepening learning, and developing your students’ listening skills along the way.
Historical Inquiry in the Classroom
This course provides social studies educators with the practical tools and structures needed to shift from delivering a set of information to facilitating deep, student-led investigation. You will walk away with a comprehensive plan and ready-to-use resources that make meaningful research a daily reality in your classroom, ensuring every student has the skills to analyze information and thoughtfully develop their own conclusions.
Nonfiction Reading Strategies
Pull back the curtain on the reading process by equipping your students with a permanent toolbox of practical strategies to navigate any text with purpose, confidence, and clarity. By turning invisible mental work into visible, repeatable routines, you will empower your students to move beyond literal retelling and start making real meaning from everything they read.
Recertification
Grow your skills, know it counts.
We make it easy to form a habit of professional growth with progression tracking, fun challenges, and gentle reminders when new courses drop. With digital professional development certificates backed by the W&M School of Education, you can have confidence that your learning will be valued.
Classroom-ready resources.
We’re not just here to change PD, we also want to help you in the classroom. Built to be quick grabs and easy follows, we want to empower you to find content that meets your teaching needs.
Developed by teachers
Grab-n-go with ease
Save for later when you need it
Annotated Mentor Texts for Writing About Place (Write Out 2026)
Course:
Building Evidence Based Arguments
Engaging our Historical Imagination in Place-Based Writing (Write Out 2026)
Course:
Building Evidence Based Arguments
Field Note: Exploring the Language of Place (Write Out 2026)
Course:
Building Evidence Based Arguments
Civil Discourse Sentence Stems and Discussion Support for Multilingual Learners
Course:
Civil Discourse in the Classroom
Powerful pedagogy, made joyful.
Our online courses and resources are built with cutting-edge, research-backed learning techniques. But it’s not just for the course content’s benefit. They’re built to improve the desired skills while also introducing new habits of the mind that make learning exponentially easier and more meaningful.
The Learner Journey
The structured, continuous process within our courses that will guide you from initial curiosity to a state of mastery.
Moments of Reflection
We hold space for ‘pause’ within our courses, designed to analyze and reflect on a learning theory that is being used within.
W.A.G.O.L.L.
(What A Good One Looks Like) We present high-quality examples during learning to help contextualize desired outcomes and build lasting understanding.
“lilyPD is easy to access, navigate, and provides practical resources educators can implement the next day!”
April Wills
Junior High History Teacher
Culbertson
Montana
“I took lilyPD as part of my time with the We the Teachers Congress of Educators, and it helped me prepare for the program through a user-friendly platform that was both informational and easy to use.”
Jessica Culver
High School Civics/Economics & College Credit History Teacher
Ozark High School, Ozark
Arkansas
“lilyPD offers practical solutions without talking down to its audience. It’s very accessible to the veteran teacher. ”
Chris Johnson
K-12 Social Studies Supervisor
Central Bucks School District
Pennsylvania
“lilyPD’s courses were well organized, easy to navigate, and gave me meaningful, inquiry-based strategies that I could implement right away.”
Julie Anderson
5th Grade Social Studies Teacher
Millcreek Elementary School, Fayette County Public Schools, Lexington
Kentucky
“lilyPD offers engaging, high-quality professional learning that is practical, relevant, and immediately applicable. Time spent learning with lilyPD is time well invested.”
Kristin Conklin
K-12 Social Studies Coordinator
Tahoma School District
Washington
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Nothing great is ever done alone. And nothing fun is either. Get the latest on classroom strategies, course reviews, and resource context. Because here, teachers empower teachers, and in turn, empower their students.
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Mining Mentor Moves to Write About a Place
This is our final post in partnership with the National Writing Project’s Write Out 2026, providing new resources and materials for place-based writing with your students! You can catch up on our previous posts: Exploring the Language of Place and Engaging the Historical Imagination in Place-Based Writing. I don’t know how to write or how […]
Engaging our Historical Imagination in Place-Based Writing
As part of our partnership with the National Writing Project’s Write Out 2026, we are sharing a few original resources and place-based writing activities to support student writers! You can check out our post on exploring the specific language of a place here. Ways to Use this Resource Want more resources? Check out the Write […]
Exploring the Language of Place
lilyPD professional development powered by William & Mary is excited to be a partner of the National Writing Project’s Write Out 2026! This annual partnership between the National Writing Project and the National Park Service encourages people to get outside and write! As we celebrate this year’s Write Out (October 11 – 25), we’ll be […]
Teaching Takeaway: Using Numbers as a Launchpad for Reading Comprehension
In Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies, researchers Kylene Beers and Bob Probst present five signposts — moments in a text that act like a flashing neon sign to the reader saying, “Slow down! Pay attention! Something important is happening!” One of these five most important signals in nonfiction is “numbers and […]
Strategy Spotlight: Supporting Multilingual Learners in Civil Discourse
There is a lot happening in a classroom discussion. Students are listening to someone else’s ideas, deciding whether they agree or disagree, connecting those ideas to what they already know, looking for evidence, and figuring out what they want to say next, all while the conversation keeps moving. For multilingual learners (MLs), there may be […]
4 Tools to Transform Your School’s PD Culture
Over this course of his blog series, Dr. Derek Porter shared four tools that can change how school leaders create a school culture that prevents burnout and encourages meaningful professional growth! If you missed any of, you can find all four posts here. You can also grab each of the tools Derek provides for school […]
How Healthy Schools Protect People’s Capacity
This is the final installment of our four-part leadership series with Dr. Derek Porter. You can get caught up on the rest of the series here: post 1, post 2, post 3. How Healthy Schools Protect People’s Capacity The Seven Institutional Commitments of Sustainable Leadership “Culture is not built by what leaders believe. It is […]
The Decisions Exhausting Every School
This is the third installment in our lilyPD X leadership series! Check out post 1, post 2, and post 4! The Decisions Exhausting Every School “The quality of a school is often determined not by its biggest decisions, but by the thousands of smaller ones that quietly shape people’s days.” Professional learning asks educators to […]
Why Good Professional Learning Doesn’t Change Practice
This is the second installment in a four-part leadership series! Get caught up on post 1, post 3, and post 4! Why Good Professional Learning Doesn’t Change Practice Professional learning is designed to help teachers grow. Every year, school leaders, like you, invest countless hours selecting meaningful topics, organizing coaching cycles, planning PLCs, and creating […]
Before You Plan Your Next PD Day, Ask This
Before You Plan Your Next PD Day, Ask This This post is the first installment of a four-part leadership series. Check out part 2, part 3, and part 4! “People don’t rise or fall to the level of their motivation. They rise or fall to the level of the systems they work within.” Professional development […]
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