Professional Development

Professional Development

OCLRE provides a variety of Professional Development (PD) opportunities throughout the year including program specific trainings, conferences, workshops on civic education, and authentic instruction methods across curricula! Updates about our offerings can be found on this page, or on our individual program pages.

Looking for a more customized PD experience for your PD day? OCLRE can provide customized PD sessions at your location on topics of your choosing as a benefit of membership or as a service to districts and curriculum partners. Past offerings have included how to discuss controversy in the classroom, creating C3 inquiry lesson plans, literacy and the law, and more! OCLRE members can book a custom PD session for free provided that at least five teachers will be present for the training. Non-members can book custom PD for a $150 honorarium. Pricing is also flexible. If you are interested in creating a PD session, contact Ryan Suskey at rsuskey@oclre.org.

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Mock Trial Conference

2026 Mock Trial Conference

The 2026 Mock Trial Conference will be held on September 14-15 at the Ohio Supreme Court Building in Columbus!

Conference attendees will learn the basics of Mock Trial, discuss upcoming rule changes, and be the first to watch next year's Case Topic video. This year, the first day of the conference will be entirely dedicated to the intro track with the deep dive sessions and case reveal happening on Tuesday, September 15th. Click on the button below to register, and see below for pricing along with the tentative 2026 agenda.

2026 Mock Trial Conference Registration

Mock Trial Conference Cost

*Recordings only does NOT include early access to the Mock Trial case file*

2026 Agenda

Mock Trial Conference

Monday, September 14th, 2026

The Supreme Court of Ohio

*This schedule is tentative and subject to change*

Tuesday, September 15th, 2026

The Supreme Court of Ohio

*This schedule is tentative and subject to change*

If you are interested in learning more about Ohio Mock Trial, please contact Jordan Willis at jwillis@oclre.org or call (614) 485-3515

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Ohio Government in Action

Ohio Government in Action (OGIA) is a two-day interactive program that provides educators with effective teaching tools and a renewed enthusiasm they can take back to the classroom. Go be­hind the scenes of our gov­ern­ment in Ohio’s state cap­i­tal where ed­u­ca­tors will in­ter­act with the movers and shak­ers in the ex­ec­u­tive, ju­di­cial and leg­isla­tive branches!

See the Ohio Constitution come to life

This an­nual work­shop gives teach­ers an in­sider’s view of state gov­ern­ment via the following:

• Meet with Supreme Court jus­tices, state leg­is­la­tors, and cit­i­zen groups
• Tour the award-win­ning Supreme Court Vis­i­tor Ed­u­ca­tion Cen­ter and the Ohio State­house
• Ob­serve leg­isla­tive and court­room sim­u­la­tions
• And more!

Practical classroom application

After you ex­pe­ri­ence first-hand how in­di­vid­u­als and groups work to­gether to make, in­ter­pret and en­force the Ohio Con­sti­tu­tion, head back to the class­room with ready-to-use les­son plans, class­room ac­tiv­i­ties and re­sources.

Conference Pricing

Hotel Accommodations

Testimonials

Teachers share their feedback about OGIA: 

“High energy, exciting, and engaging! Valuable data and content for the classroom!”

“Inspiring and pragmatic -- ideas to implement immediately!”

“Speakers were engaging, subject matters were relevant, and sessions were interesting!”

“I net­worked, learned a great deal, and left with solid ma­te­r­ial I can use. Quite the tri­fecta!” 

“[OGIA]def­i­nitely in­spired some new teach­ing strate­gies and fur­ther knowl­edge in the con­tent area.” 

“I was to­tally im­pressed with the con­fer­ence. I have raved about it all day with both my stu­dents and my col­leagues.” 

 “…a great time and very re­ward­ing pro­fes­sional de­vel­op­ment op­por­tu­nity…”

For more information about OGIA contact Ryan Suskey, rsuskey@oclre.org, 614-485-3506.

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We the People Institute

2026 Summer Institute - Washington, D.C.

On July 6-9, OCLRE welcomed teachers to the We the People Summer Institute in Washington, D.C.! Attendees got to hear about various topics in pedagogy, including using AI in the social studies classroom and literacy skills for We the People; traveled to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian; and heard from guest speaker Dr. Gautham Rao of American University. The weeklong professional development event culminated in the teachers participating in the simulated legislative hearings that are the heart of the We the People program. 

Congratulations to all the teachers who participated in this year’s event, and special thanks to our guest speaker and the Westin staff who helped make this event possible.

Teacher Grant Opportunity: Civics That Empowers All Students (CEAS)

About CEAS

This project is funded by a Supporting Effective Educator Development Grant from the USDOE with the following goals: 

• To increase undeserved grades 4-8 students' attainment of state civics standards, related literacy standards, and social and emotional learning competencies, 
• to create inclusive and identity-safe learning environments for underserved students in grades 4-8, 
• to support high-quality development for diverse teachers, and 
• to study the effectiveness of the updated and enhanced We the People blended-learning professional development program at improving teacher and student outcomes. 

Benefits

• Free professional development! A total of 52 hours of professional development in a learning community with mentors and other teachers from Ohio and neighboring states, including a 36-hour in-person summer institute and 16 hours of online academic-year follow up.
• Engaging pedagogy and academic content, centered on the highly effective We the People curriculum
• A network of support and resources for engaging diverse student populations in the history, principles, and current application of the U.S. Constitution
• Scholar guest speakers
• Access to a library of professional development videos with noted scholars and practitioners cued to the curriculum
• Free set of We the People textbooks and teacher's guide
• A stipend for completing program requirements

Program Requirements

For Ohio's participation in this grant, this program is for teachers in grades 7 or 8 who work with 30% or more underserved students, including:

• Students living in poverty (Title I Schools)
• Students of color
• Students with disabilities
• English learners
• Migrant students
• Students in foster care
• Students performing below grade level
• Other

*The Federal definition of high-need students includes qualifiers such as: students in poverty counted in the most recent census date; students eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch; students in families receiving assistance under the State program funded under part A of Title IV of the Social Security Act; students eligible to receive medical assistance under the Medicaid program

Commitments

• Participate in 52 hours of professional development
  • 36-hour summer institute; 16 hours of in-service professional development
• A total of 40 hours of classroom instruction using the We the People curriculum
• Involve students in the simulated congressional hearing instructional activity
• Participate in a teacher pre- and post-test
• Administer student pre- and post-tests

Questions? Please contact Danny Rains at drains@oclre.org or call (614) 485-3514.

Constitution Camp

2026 Constitution Camp

The 2026 Constitution Camp will be held virtually over Zoom on October 5, 2026! Stay tuned for more information related to this year's event.

What is Constitution Camp?

Constitution Camp is an opportunity to join legal experts for insightful and contemporary discussions surrounding the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Appellate Process— all with a distinct Ohio perspective. The conference directly ties in with We the People and Moot Court, in which several forms of content, teaching strategies and classroom applications related to both programs are introduced & analyzed.

Constitution Camp Cost

2025 Constitution Camp Agenda

2025 Agenda (PDF)

If you have any questions, please contact Danny Rains at drains@oclre.org or call (614) 485-3514.

Moot Court Webinars

One of the most challenging parts of the High School Moot Court process is writing the brief, but it is also one of the most important steps to prepare for competition. To help teachers and students tackle the process, OCLRE has created a series of webinars to overview the brief writing process step by step. This series began on November 3, 2025 with a video every Monday afterwards. The videos may be viewed below along with a link to the full playlist on YouTube.

Moot Court Webinar Playlist

Moot Court Brief Writing One: Introduction to Brief Writing

Moot Court Brief Writing Webinar Two: Overview of a Written Brief

Moot Court Brief Writing Webinar Three: Tools of Argument

Moot Court Brief Writing Webinar Four: Mining the Record

Download this speaker's slide deck here.

Moot Court Brief Writing Webinar Five: Building the Argument Roadmap

Download this speaker's slide deck here.

Moot Court Brief Writing Webinar Six: Avoiding Citation Headaches

Download this speaker's slide deck here.

Moot Court Brief Writing Webinar Seven: Writing the Statement of Facts

Download this speaker's slide deck here.

Moot Court Brief Writing Webinar Eight: Proofreading and Revising

Download this speaker's slide deck here.