The River Literacy Project is an online, Transdisciplinary, Inquiry-based learning project designed to connect children, teachers, classrooms, schools, and communities from around the world.The basic design idea for the project involves students and teachers around the world in learning and sharing their learnings related to their local rivers. The RLP guiding question is: How can we help the river find its way for the next 100 years?

The Summer Science Camp is a fun-filled three/four weeks in many scientific areas. Our goal is to have students know what a scientist does. We want them to know that a scientist examines the physical world to learn more about how nature works. Scientists can do experiments or do theoretical calculations. Scientists can study many disciplines — like chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, and many more.

The session will focus on the process of drawing facial features and a more realistic and proportional human face. Participants need only paper and a pencil (preferred), or pen.

• Supporting Document

• Better results through Playful Learning

• Playful Learning provides research-based pedagogical training, methods and tools. We take learning outdoors. As proven, mind-on, hands-on and body-on activities bring 25 % better learning results – our approach teaches how to do this. Our mission is to bring the advantages of playful learning to every child and adult around the world, despite of cultural background and local curriculums. Playful Learning is adaptable at all school and age levels. Users of Playful Learning are teachers, teacher trainers, principals, policy makers and persons who are interested in the power of play and games in learning.

• Website: www.playfullearning.fi

Join us for a fun and energetic class filled with movement and Hip Hop music!

This session will be focused on students thinking critically about food advertising strategies, analyzing a range of food advertisements, and creating their own persuasive fruit or vegetable advertisement.

This session will teach you how to incorporate art into any subject matter or any lesson. Art and math. Art and science. Art everywhere.

In this session I will share a "4 step process" to guiding students through an "Art Criticism". Part of the power and success of this "4 step process" is that it is highly accessible to students coming into any given class from a wide range of experiences and varying levels of background knowledge. The teacher has the ability to strategically select the image/artwork that the students will be critiquing with the goal of facilitating in-depth conversations related to both the artwork, and the other subject areas the work relates to. I will share several examples of different artworks that my students have critiqued that are also related to mathematics, social students, science and language arts.

Developing Mathematical Thinking Institute is to help students, educators, and parents understand, use, and love mathematics. Too often, math educators are guided by textbooks, testing materials, and teacher training programs that are not aligned with key research findings on how to prevent fundamental misunderstandings, avoid long-term struggles in mathematics, and ultimately create a lack of confidence in students. DMTI can help reverse these trends with a comprehensive system of support that empowers students, teachers, school leaders, and families.

To keep pace with digital transformation, leaders of all types need to evolve how they lead: from loud leadership to crowd leadership. Crowd leaders who activate everyone to solve challenges together outperform loud leaders who make decisions and then influence people. The wisdom of crowds is powerful and scalable. Learn how Thought Exchange can help you lead.

When students develop a love of thinking, that very easily spills over into a love of mathematics and can open doors to future careers in STEM. So, what are the best, most enjoyable free logic puzzles for students to play? Learn about the Simple TetraVex puzzles (for Android), the Simple Sokoban puzzles, and the Number Squares puzzles -- all suitable for students as young as kindergarten and right up through high school. Two of these puzzles I had a role in designing. (Number Squares was a commercial product for Apple II computers and was rated 5 out 5 by Iowa City Community School District educators. These puzzles are now playable in any web browser via the Internet Archive.) This session also invites teachers to share whatever fun logic puzzles they enjoy using with their students. A web page will be set up two weeks before the conference so that teachers can try out some of these puzzles before the conference.

Girls STEAM Club: During this session I will share my purpose, journey and experience in creating and growing Girls STEAM Clubs at middle school sites, which brought together groups of girls in a safe, welcoming, and collaborative space to explore THEIR interests and how those interests align with the expansive STEAM areas.

MESA: During the MESA portion of the session, we will share information about the MESA program (mission and goals) and how we utilize MESA projects to engage students in STEM learning to develop their interests and think about their educational journey.

Unlock the potential of Seesaw to transform your asynchronous instruction and activities. Tips, tricks, and templates for designing student checklists on Seesaw that can support student asynchronous learning in a Distance Learning and/or Hybrid model. Participants will see a modeled design of a multi-step checklist and suggestions of modifications for different structures and purposes.

“Coaching is an essential component of an effective professional development program. Coaching can build will, skill, knowledge, and capacity because it can go where no other professional development has gone before: into the intellect, behaviors, practices, beliefs, values, and feelings of an educator. A coach can foster conditions in which deep reflection and learning can take place, where a teacher can take risks to change her practice, where powerful conversations can take place and where growth is recognized and celebrated.“–The Art of Coaching. To achieve a high-quality implementation at each school site, we are providing a new coaching initiative model that is job-embedded, has a gradual release of responsibility model, and is differentiated to meet the unique needs of the teachers and school sites. Our region will develop a cadre of Results coaches at each school site, supported by our regional office and a dedicated CRLP Results Staff.

This course will talk about how partnerships and leadership go hand in hand and will be a round table with leaders from various districts and business community members.

Women leaders experience unique barriers to success and often need specific women-leadership development programs to help them overcome these barriers. This workshop aims to help women understand themselves as leaders, overcome barriers to advancement, and align their personal values with their work. It focuses on female leadership in education and examines some of the inequities that exist as well as how females are thriving as leaders. In a relaxed, stress-free environment, you’ll learn ways to support female pathways to leadership and how to support and lift females up in their professional pursuits shoulder to shoulder with other professionals, networking with leaders you’d never had a chance to otherwise. Each participant will leave with a unique “make and take” that unites and connects the group moving forward as we all thrive.

Explore with us guiding questions, insights, and connections to emerge from our summer book club selection, Columbus and other Cannibals. We will look at excerpts from the book, engage in a social justice-themed experience, and look at student work from various classrooms addressing the question, Whose Knowledge Counts?

Nothing has been more uncertain, complex, or challenging in education in recent memory than what began in Spring, 2020, during time of COVID 19. The purpose of this session is to share Rio District IBID (Inquiry-Based Instructional Designers) Inquiry Group’s work over time in supporting educators in constructing new inquiry-based possibilities with their students. Practices often include exploring how to respond to the unknown, to challenge, uncertainty – important resources as teachers/students entered the world of remote learning in 2020. Participants will engage with IBID’s processes and practices. Presenters, including IBID Student Inquirers, will share work; how inquiry-based instructors took first baby steps in Spring, bringing inquiry into distance learning, how IBID collaborative practices supported them in trying new in face of unknown. They will share what they learned from being willing to explore new possibilities last Spring; how it became resource for taking new steps forward together this year, bringing inquiry in time of pandemic, supporting students – and themselves – in continuing to thrive.