Services
EPS Founder Eric Salmonsen is a Social Studies specialist, and will provide unique, engaging professional development and student enrichment opportunities which meet the challenges facing the modern humanities classroom.
The teacher shortage is real, and the new teacher pipelines are drying up. Many indicators are pointing to a significant change in how education will look in the coming years. The Everything is a Primary Source approach addresses these issues with a modern, exciting, versatile system which allows teachers and their students to practice the several social sciences within each of their humanities courses.
Working with EPS, teachers will be able to
Develop an efficient, effective curriculum for every social studies course
Hone primary and secondary source curation skills
Build meaningful formative and summative assessments
Have direct guidance for student interaction with the Everything is a Primary Source Project
Learn about new teaching techniques, such as audio creation in the classroom.
Receive on-call troubleshooting services (especially helpful for new teachers)
See an increase in student performance on standardized social studies tests, including AP exams
Have access to EPS’s network of content-area experts
Coming Soon Schools in New Hampshire, Southern Maine and North Shore Massachusetts will be able to visit and interact with the Everything is a Primary Source Your History Through Pop Culture exhibit and audio lab.
Why choose me over a big education company?
Large educational companies can provide teacher training complete with access to an extensive array of tools and a long list of consultants to administer PD sessions. Unfortunately, many of these trainings are impersonal, one-size-fits-all, and can result in the served school getting lost on a long list of other clients. While I cannot offer the breadth of services that the large corporations can, I am able to offer depth to professional development and provide the genuine, personalized training teachers deserve.
Contact Me today for a free consultation regarding your school’s needs.
What will a day with EPS look like?
As a veteran teacher of over 18 years, I am acutely aware of the wide spectrum of professional development presentations. The Everything is a Primary Source approach demands student collaboration, critical thinking, and dialogue, therefore the half or full day of professional development for educators will mirror that. Do not expect hours of reading from projected slideshows or recycled ice breaker activities which produce little results. I am devoted to doing my part to bring the social back to social studies, with conversation and hands-on participation as the tone of the day.
Training sessions are made up of any combination of the following, depending on your needs (Choose six for a full day presentation or three for a half day):
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The EPS method allows teachers to cover any social studies subject using just three forms; the Homework form, Secondary Source Evaluation form and, of course, the Primary Source Analysis form. This session is an overview of all three and how they relate to each other.
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Teachers are asked to come to this session with a specific course and unit they wish to improve upon in mind.
The unit guide is a miniature syllabus which will help keep you and your students on track. This session will help teachers create a Terms and People to Know list and plan out when to administer assessments. It will also include an overview of the Homework form and best practices when it comes to creating inquiries. -
Teachers are asked to come to this session with a specific course and unit they wish to improve upon in mind.
Proper evaluation of secondary sources is essential for humanities students as they navigate through the ever-growing supply of content all around them. This session walks their instructors through how and when to complete an SSE, its elements, and the form’s role in collection primary sources. -
Teachers are asked to come to this session with a specific course and unit they wish to improve upon in mind.
This portion is highly recommended as the entire pedagogy revolves around understanding and using the PSA form.
Teachers will learn the parts of the PSA by doing. I will curate some “irregular” primary sources associated with the school’s local heritage and, as a group, go through the analysis questions and possible answers.
Then, using a primary source connected to the course and unit they are improving on, participants will work through the form on their own, with me on hand to assist. -
Teachers are asked to come to this session with a specific course and unit they wish to improve upon in mind.
This session ties the other segments together just as a quiz or test brings the learning experiences to a culmination.
Teachers will use their selected topics to begin building quizzes and tests in the EPS fashion: A multiple choice question quiz using Terms and People to Know, a short answer quiz using a primary or secondary source stimulus, and a test comprised of 20 multiple choice questions, 2/5 short answer questions and one extended response question.
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From Google Maps to Atlas Obscura, LOC.gov to Archive.org, thrift store outlets to just taking a walk around town; the places where we can obtain genuine, usable teaching materials are seemingly endless.
In this session I will share these and other treasure troves of primary and secondary sources, and what to do with what you and your students uncover. -
Teachers will learn by doing in this presentation where parts of the EPS method are turned into classroom activities and review games.
Primary sources of all varieties lend themselves nicely to student-made artwork, creative writing activities and even flashcard creation. Games to be used as class starters or for review will also be presented and played (!) during this session. -
I’ve been incorporating audio creation in my classroom long before starting the Everything is a Primary Source Podcast, but my time working on my own program has only underscored to me the benefits of having students use podcasting as a way to convey their understanding of material. This session will make teachers more comfortable with introducing microphones, mixers and editing software to their classrooms. I will also point to other project options which reach similar heights of authenticity and student creativity.
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Perfect for during or after lunchtime, I will host a multi-round “pub-style” team trivia contest with workshop attendees. Each round will focus on a different area of pop culture (music, movies, TV, etc.) and involve different kinds of media to challenge the teams of teachers.
This is a great team-building activity which doubles as a way for educators to test their knowledge and collaborate. Plus there are prizes! -
Participants will have a hand in creating teaching resources by becoming on-the-spot guests of theEverything is a Primary Source Podcast. Interested teachers will select a pop culture artifact with which they connect, and I will select a question from the PSA form to start a conversation about the object or media of their choice. Together, and before the rest of the group, we will create an oral history which will turn into a podcast episode and be made the centerpiece of an EPS Project entry.
Smaller and virtual training sessions can record these as a group conversation.
