Pre-Conference Workshops

Pre-Conference Sessions on Tuesday, June 25, 2019

The Pre-Conference Sessions on June 25 will include ½ day workshops as well as a site visit to the Museum Lab. Attendees can select (1) morning option and (1) afternoon option. A form to select your workshop choices will be available soon.


MORNING SESSIONS:

Instructional Innovation - Building Capacity for Personalized Learning (Session #AM1)

Join this session for a preview of the SWPA Personalized Learning Network and KnowledgeWorks Instructional Innovation Series. Designed as a series of 4 convenings and supports throughout 2019-20, district teams will have a personalized experienced in content and strategies for implementation as they explore the conditions needed to move their visions for Personalized Learning forward. From getting started to operationalizing and scaling PL, the cohort convenings will be designed as high energy, collaborative design labs, full of content, strategies, and explicit approaches for growing PL in your classrooms, schools, and districts.

Establishing a culture of growth mindset aligned to the vision or “why”, student agency at the heart of learner-centered practices, flexible learning environments and learning pathways where learners have voice and choice in achieving mastery of the targets – all critical elements to be considered and investigated. This 3 hour session will provide participants a hands-on introduction to the goals of the program, complete with ideas perfect for immediate transfer back to your schools.

SPEAKERS:

  • Robin Kanaan is Director of Teaching and Learning at KnowledgeWorks. Robin leads a team of technical assistance coaches to help schools personalize learning for students through competency-based education and early college high school. Prior to joining KnowledgeWorks, Robin was among the first Ohio educators to receive certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Robin’s 23 years of experience as a classroom teacher spanned elementary, middle and high school in both urban and suburban districts, with a focus on English Language Arts, reading and special education. In her current role, Robin works with school districts around the country to ignite sparks resulting in personalized learning opportunities for all kids.

LOGISTICS:

  • The session will be held from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm at the William Pitt Union on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.

Museum Lab Site Visit and Roundtable Discussion (Session #AM2)

The Museum Lab, featuring a unique collaboration of The Children’s Museum and the Manchester Academic Charter School (MACS), will be a national model, highlighting our region’s collaborative commitment to public education, innovation and experiential learning. The design, purpose and operations of the facility will bring experts, ideas and resources together under one roof to prepare youth and families to face the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

MACS is committed to providing their students with a variety of exploratory project-based experiences such as entrepreneurship, robotics, mock trials, horticulture, debates, ceramics, dance and more. The Museum Lab features hands-on workshops, Virtual Reality and game design technology, STEM-based exhibit spaces, learning nooks, classrooms, a youth radio station, a theater and much more.

The site visit will include small group discussions and a roundtable focused on creative strategies for the implementation of personalized and project-based learning.

SITE VISIT HOSTS:

  • Chip Lindsey, Director of Education, The Children’s Museum
  • Dennis Henderson, Deputy CEO, Manchester Academic Charter School

LOGISTICS:

  • The session will be held from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm at the Museum Lab, a newly renovated facility in the historic Carnegie Free Library located right next to the Children's Museum.
  • The address is 10 Children's Way, Allegheny Square, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
  • Attendees will be responsible for their own transportation to the session.

AFTERNOON SESSIONS:

Building Equitable Collaboration in School Systems (Session #PM1)

How can we adapt our schools to meet the needs of all students? As educational stakeholders and teachers, we want all students to have excellent academic experiences in their classrooms. It’s part of our job to ask, “What messages are being communicated to and understood by our students? Are we implementing effective and equitable collaboration at the system level? Are we offering a clear path to the bridge that connects intention, competency and reflection?”

In this interactive session, participants will experience simulations of PBIS and Equitable Collaboration so they can compare and contrast the characteristics of the simulations and what messages are communicated to them as learners. Teams will reflect on the learning models operating in the session simulations as well as in their schools to identify “the cracks” where they are misaligned. We believe that Equitable Collaboration is a critical component of personalizing learning. A missing perspective is the personal messages that are communicated by the system to students about learning and themselves as learners. Educators will leave with new tools for analyzing the coherence of the messages their educational system sends to students about promoting equitable participation in learning.

GOALS:

  • Social: Deepen within-team dialogue; Learn and share insights with other teams
  • Metacognitive: Identify Learning Models within session experiences and school ecosystem
  • Professional: analyze the intended/unintended messages and procedural norms that shape how students/faculty think about themselves as learners
  • Content: Understand equitable collaboration as a concept and the benefits of intentional integration

STRUCTURE:

  • Part 1: Experiences and learning model simulations
  • Part 2: Debriefing (reflection/critical analysis)
  • Part 3: Application to home organization

SPEAKERS:

  • Mr. David Ross, Former CEO of P21 and Senior Director for BIE/PBLworks
  • Mrs. Ashli Detweiler, Teacher at Duquesne City School District
  • Mr. Andrew Cress, Teacher at Duquesne City School District
  • Mr. Rion Paige, M.S., Carnegie Museums
  • Dr. Jordan Lippman, Research Director at Collaboration Nation

LOGISTICS:

  • The session will be held from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm at the William Pitt Union on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.

New (Rapid) Evaluation Tool for Education and Technology Initiatives (Session #PM2)

The Rapid Cycle Evaluation (RCE) Coach is a free online tool designed to help district staff, school administrators and educators evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions in their districts and schools. The Coach provides intuitive tools that serve as embedded professional development for educators that might not have a traditional research background or research capacity. The Coach guides users through an easy-to-use five step evaluation process, and includes user-friendly supplemental guides, interactive tools, case studies, and tips designed to build the evaluation capacity and evidence-based decision-making capabilities of its users. The evaluation process provides districts with meaningful feedback regarding what worked or didn’t work about a program’s implementation on a quicker timeline than most research studies.

By hosting an interactive workshop on using the Coach, the REL Mid-Atlantic team can help build district capacity around using a tool designed to promote data and evidence use at a time when members of the network are developing their research plans. Successfully implemented evaluations could lead to the development and sharing of best practices among districts within the region and ultimately grow the overall body of knowledge around the effectiveness of personalized learning interventions. In addition to advancing the work of the network, the evidence generated by the Coach can help school administrators ensure that students within their districts have access to the most effective programs and educational opportunities now as well as in the future.

SPEAKERS:

  • Jessica Morton, M.P.H., is a lead program analyst at Mathematica, and was actively involved in developing the Ed Tech RCE Coach, serving in a liaison role between the system development and research teams. As a mission director at the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Ms. Morton provided technical assistance to grantee organizations through in-person interactive workshops and webinars, and sustained one-on-one coaching efforts both virtually and in person. Ms. Morton instructed grantees on how to conduct implementation and impact evaluations of their programs, as well as how to use their evaluation findings to implement process and program improvements to maximize their programs’ outcomes.
  • Amanda Lee, M.P.P., is a research analyst at Mathematica. She has worked on numerous education projects and recently helped facilitate a workshop on designing an empathic discipline pilot for the School District of Philadelphia. This workshop used a similar format to the proposed personalized learning workshop and used the RCE Coach as the primary tool for learning and applying evaluation strategies.

LOGISTICS:

  • The session will be held from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm at the William Pitt Union on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.

All workshops will be held at the William Pitt Union on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Parking is available in the Soldiers and Sailors Garage (right across the street from the venue). For individuals attending the Museum Lab Site Visit, attendees will use their own transportation and meet at the Museum Lab.