Sessions

Makerspace 101 - Grades K-3

Spark curiosity, encourage creativity, teach tinkering, and let your students discover the wonderful world of makerspaces. Makerspaces can take many forms: the corner of a classroom, a cabinet full of materials, or a full-blown makerspace filled with all kinds of tools, resources, and equipment students need to move learning from consuming to creating. Learn how you can use the maker mindset to use what’s available to you and design a makerspace that can encourage students to take their imagination and make it a reality.

Makerspace 101 - Grades 4-8

Spark curiosity, encourage creativity, teach tinkering, and let your students discover the wonderful world of makerspaces. Makerspaces can take many forms: the corner of a classroom, a cabinet full of materials, or a full-blown makerspace filled with all kinds of tools, resources, and equipment students need to move learning from consuming to creating. Learn how you can use the maker mindset to use what’s available to you and design a makerspace that can encourage students to take their imagination and make it a reality.

Creating a Culture of Collaboration - Elementary

Collaborative learning doesn't have to be chaotic! Come and experience structured ways to foster effective cooperative and collaborative student learning. Experience first-hand the benefits of various strategies, tools, and protocols that go beyond students “working together” and help create a culture of collaboration. Walk away from this session with a plan for how to begin improving the way students plan, create, and work together.

Creating a Culture of Collaboration - Middle Grades

Collaborative learning doesn't have to be chaotic! Come and experience structured ways to foster effective cooperative and collaborative student learning. Experience first-hand the benefits of various collaboration strategies, tools, and protocols that go beyond students “working together” and help create a culture of collaboration. Walk away from this session with a plan for how to begin improving the way students plan, create, and work together.

Bookmaking: The Ultimate Assessment Tool

This session will share with teachers why the visual arts are the most authentic assessment tool, specifically via the art of bookmaking! Summative Assessments never looked so good with this engaging and exciting lesson! The objective of this workshop is to share how bookmaking can act as a performance final. Participants will make an 8 page summative assessment accordion style book using their own theme for inspiration, utilizing 4-8 lessons learned throughout the semester. The title, table of contents and back of the book will be artistically rendered as well. Drawing, coloring, collaging and text will act as key ingredients in creating these sample books while language arts and math skills will be reiterated.

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

5-8: Starting the School Year Off with English Learners’ in Mind

Look ahead to the new school year with an eye for making your Grades 5-8 classroom as accessible and as language-rich as possible! In this interactive workshop, we will explore and share ways to learn about our langauge learners' assets and needs. We will consider classroom layout, instructional materials, and curriculum goals through the lens of language. Come ready to learn, share and plan for the upcoming school year.

K-4: Starting the School Year Off with English Learners’ in Mind

Look ahead to the new school year with an eye for making your K-4 classroom as accessible and as language-rich as possible! In this interactive workshop, we will explore and share ways to learn about our language learners' assets and needs. We will consider classroom layout, instructional materials, and curriculum goals through the lens of language. Come ready to learn, share and plan for the upcoming school year.

38 Great Academic Language Builders

More Information is coming soon!

Transforming Your Classroom Community Through Morning Meetings

In this presentation, you will learn the four parts of the Morning Meeting. Each part is used to build your classroom community while also using spiral review and team building to transform the culture in your classroom.

How to Think Like an Engineer: Use Design Thinking!

If you are curious about how to help your students act as engineers to identify problems, design, test, and iterate those solutions, design thinking can help. Come learn how this flexible process can help students get more out of the creative work while still working within content standards and bring out the engineer in every student!

Maker Mindsets: Small Steps, Big Shift

In an ideal world, all students would have opportunities to learn in authentic, student-driven classrooms. But as teachers, making the shift from “assigners” to “designers,” and helping our students become “creators” instead of just “consumers” can be more challenging than it sounds. This session will explore specific ways we can make small steps to shift the mindsets of both teachers and students to engage in more student-centered project or problem based learning without sacrificing academic learning and growth.

Launching Student-Led Learning - Elementary

How to Provoke Student Inquiry? How can educators shift away from providing students information to provoking student curiosity, questions, and out-of-the-box thinking? This session will focus specifically on the importance of launching learning experiences that will promote student inquiry, critical thinking, and deeper learning. There will be opportunities to explore different ways to validate, keep track of, and leverage students’ questions about the world around them.

Weaving Literacy into Makerspaces - Elementary

Do books belong in makerspaces? Absolutely! Stories such as Rosie Revere, Engineer and Ada Twist, Scientist allow students to view themselves as makers and creators. These books can serve as a launching point for student makerspace projects and will inspire wonder for students as you begin their own work. Bring your imagination and your own ideas to experience a literacy-infused makerspace.

FUSE from the Student Perspective

FUSE is a component of makerspace that allows students to interact with multiple STEAM standards, while solving leveled challenges. Experience FUSE as a student by completing challenges such as Selfie Sticker, Just Beat It, and Coaster Boss. Teachers will experience the facilitation model through active participation!

Who Am I Hand Story Portraits…Math, ELA and Science Fun

This workshop geared for K-3 teachers, will combine history, science, math, language arts, cultures, music and advocacy into a personal and unique art lesson. Participants will be creating their very own personal “Hand Story Portraits"! Humans have been leaving their mark using the hand print symbol for over 35, 000 years! We will dive into art history and move into learning about the lines in finger prints as participants become "art detectives", to the contour lines of hands, to measuring, story telling and learning about the Ndebele tribal designs! This lesson will be the perfect learning tool as teachers begin to understand the value and importance of arts integration. The final part of this lesson will be a collaborative brainstorming session considering the ways that teachers and their students can use art and music to teach service learning, reiterating the importance of our own unique hands.

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

10 Ways to Curate Resources to Support all Students

Selecting “just right” resources for students is an essential practice for educators to help make sure the needs of all students are addressed. In this session, we’ll explore how to pull together resources that connect to curriculum goals while supporting the needs of all students. Learn tech-friendly strategies for thoughtfully curating content throughout the school year, and how to differentiate the resources shared with students to meet every child’s needs. In this session, we will examine strategies to help you select, organize, and distribute online resources with students.

Create Opportunities for Students to Explore the World

In this session, we will look at exploration and the role it plays in building empathy, piquing student curiosity, and helping students think critically and deeply about the world around them. We’ll examine how online experiences can strengthen connections and help students learn about the lives of others whom they may never encounter in the town or city where they live. This interactive session will include an introduction to free virtual reality resources and a connection to social-emotional learning.

Coming Soon!

38 Great Academic Language Builders

More Information is coming soon!

Alter Accountability - Middle School

Using Authentic Assessments Standardized assessment helps teachers determine content proficiency, but what if we reimagined how we administer tests? Make the shift to using authentic methods of assessment and help students show what they know by using a variety of methods which are engaging, accurate, and suit the kind of “career-ready” skills students need for the future. Explore the tools, methods, and design philosophies you’ll need to begin and begin planning how you can create your own authentic assessments and how you can give students meaningful feedback

Launching Student-Led Learning - Middle School

How to Provoke Student Inquiry? How can educators shift away from providing students information to provoking student curiosity, questions, and out-of-the-box thinking? This session will focus specifically on the importance of launching learning experiences that will promote student inquiry, critical thinking, and deeper learning. There will be opportunities to explore different ways to validate, keep track of, and leverage students’ questions about the world around them.

How to Think Like an Engineer: Use Design Thinking!

If you are curious about how to help your students act as engineers to identify problems, design, test, and iterate those solutions, design thinking can help. Come learn how this flexible process can help students get more out of the creative work while still working within content standards and bring out the engineer in every student! Objectives for this session include:

Alter Accountability - Elementary

Using Authentic Assessments Standardized assessment helps teachers determine content proficiency, but what if we reimagined how we administer tests? Make the shift to using authentic methods of assessment and help students show what they know by using a variety of methods which are engaging, accurate, and suit the kind of “career-ready” skills students need for the future. Explore the tools, methods, and design philosophies you’ll need to begin and begin planning how you can create your own authentic assessments and how you can give students meaningful feedback

Interactive Student Journaling in Digital Spaces

Providing support for students during uncertain times can take many forms. Digital spaces give students ways to share their thoughts and feelings through a variety of media. With voice, video, narration and images, students can create interactive journals to document their experiences. In this session, Dr. Monica Burns will take you through strategies for setting expectations, creating digital spaces, and establishing a workflow for students. You’ll explore activity ideas, journal prompts, and more!

Creativity in Action: Strategies to Help Students Make Authentic Learning Artifacts

Students create in both big and small ways throughout the school year. In this session, we will examine how to support students as creators of content. We will look at how to develop the supporting resources necessary for everyday artifacts of student learning as well as for larger independent and collaborative projects. This session will provide an overview and hands-on opportunities for exploring open-ended creation tools.

K-8: Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in Your Classroom

What do we mean when we say "equity"? Why do all educators need to honor diversity and focus on inclusion for ALL learners? Most importantly, how do we bring equity, diversity and inclusion into our classrooms? We will dive into these questions and more in this hands-on workshop. Participants will be guided, through examples, to define their "look for's" for equitable instruction so that they can be sure they are designing learning with those historically on the margins in the center including representation in curricular materials and activities. Participants will also analyze and practice responding to common beliefs about diversity through an asset-based mindset and toolbox so that all learners (and their families!) feel included in classrooms and can learn to their potential.

K-8: Boosting Student Discourse in EL and ALL Learners!

If discourse means "written or spoken communication", as educators, we want students to use discourse as a part of their learning, not just one word answers or phrases! Together we will reflect on what systems and conditions need to be set up in one's classroom for discourse to happen between students. Participants will leave at least one next step to implement in their classroom to boost student-to-student discourse.