Workshops

More than 35 workshops and resource spotlight sessions designed to help families and educators create the strong partnership relationship students need to thrive!

• How Can You Serve Me If You Can't Relate to Me?
  Learn about the strategies Chelsea Public Schools is using to build meaningful relationships with families and involve family members as active participants in making critical decisions about district practices. Facilitator: Tamara Blake-Canty, Chief Academic Officer, Chelsea Public Schools
  

• Promoting a Culture of Literacy: Engaging and Empowering Families for Student Success
  Starting with our youngest learners and their families, we can leverage high-quality, diverse books, and family engagement best practices to empower schools, families, and communities. This interactive session will cover foundational research on the impact families can play in student achievement and strategies families can use to build a culture of literacy and love of learning. Facilitators: Dr. Karen Burke, Senior Vice President, Education, and Morgan Ford, M.A., Senior Manager, Product and Research Innovation, Literacy Initiatives, Scholastic Education Solutions
  

• Bedtime Stories, Backyard Fun, and Book Swaps, Oh My!
  Books make us better! Come learn how a focus on literacy has helped connect families to our school and how one principal planned unconventional events to strengthen the home/school connection. Facilitator: Liz Garden, Principal, H. P. Clough Elementary, Mendon
  

• Grandparents and Other Caregivers Raising Students
  With increasing numbers of grandparents, family members, and other caregivers raising children, engagement strategies need to reflect dynamic and diverse families. The Wareham Public Schools Office of Beyond School Time has had a Grandparents Raising Grandkids group for over 13 years, meeting monthly. Facilitators will share the evolution of the grandparents’ group over the past decade and offer a variety of actionable steps and resources on forming a successful monthly caregiver group. Facilitators: Jane Fondulis, Director Office of Beyond School Time, Wareham Public Schools, Patricia Gagnon, Facilitator of the Grandparents Group
  

• Parenting the Developing Child
  Reflection. Understanding. Trust. These are three words adults embrace as they learn to parent children well, steward their gifts and talents, and guide their development. Join this highly interactive session to hear reflections from a mom and state Board of Education parent representative and her children about their K-12 and postsecondary education experiences and how to support their learning and well-being at particular points and stages in their growth. Facilitators: Mary Ann Stewart, parent of three twenty-somethings and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Parent Representative; Dr. Regina Robinson, Deputy Commissioner, MA DESE
  

• For Families!: Developing Your Leadership Skills
  Participants will reflect on the leadership skills they have and skills they would like to develop. We will also share resources for developing your leadership skills and opportunities to be a family leader. Facilitator: Emma Gregory, Statewide Trainer, Parent, Training, and Information Center (PTIC), Massachusetts Statewide Family Engagement Center/FCSN
  

• What Do Families Want? Results and Recommendations from a Northampton Public Schools Study
  Authentic family engagement requires understanding what families want from their child's public school education. This groundbreaking study explores family school enrollment decisions, qualities that mattered to parents at the time of their students' enrollment in a small suburban district, and implications for district-family partnerships. Facilitator: Julie Spencer-Robinson, Educational Consultant
  

• What Teachers Can Do: Teacher Reflections on Family and Community Engagement
  Hear how teachers enrolled in a graduate level Family and Community Engagement course used the National Family and Community Engagement standards to reflect on family partnership in their schools, identify fissures, and design impactful projects. Participants will have a chance to reflect on family partnership in their own schools and how they might replicate projects. Facilitators: Dr. Eileen Cyr, Professor of Education and Katy Reed, Assistant Professor of Education Springfield College; Cynthia Farmer, Teacher and Graduate Student
  

• Using Technology and Social Media to Promote Family and Community Engagement
  The session will focus on how to create a social media strategy that focuses on engaging families and the community. You'll learn social media initiative best practices and hear about other platforms that can help engage families in the school community. Facilitator: Jose Escribano, Chief of Family and Community Engagement, Springfield Public Schools
  

• Families and Schools Rising Together: Creating Brave and Safe Spaces for Meaningful Conversations
  What happens when families and educators hit an impasse in creating a dynamic partnership because of ability, language, race, culture, or identity? This interactive workshop will look at ways we can cultivate brave and safe spaces for challenging conversations and deeper dialogue with people from diverse backgrounds. Facilitators: Heidi Harris and Danielle Hardin, Federation for Children with Special Needs

• Understanding the Impact of Stress on the Overall Health and Learning of Children and Youth
  In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to engage with Dr. Nicole Christian Brathwaite in discussions around how stress and trauma impact the developing brain. Families and educators will learn strategies to create safe spaces at home, in school and in the community where children and youth can strengthen their social and emotional well-being. Facilitator: Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite, MD
  

• Southeastern Regional Speaks Families' Languages... And You Can Too!
  Learn about Southeastern's dynamic translation center model and family outreach practices that start with admissions. Representatives from the Massachusetts Statewide Family Engagement Center and the Federation for Children with Special Needs will also spotlight a range of language access strategies and help participants develop their own custom action to bring back to their home communities. Facilitators: Catie Tuccinardi, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, Southeastern Vocational Technical High School; Rosalie Rippey and Aceriane Leal, MASFEC/FCSN
  

• Connecting Families to Food Resources
  1 in 5 Massachusetts households with children struggle with food insecurity. Come to this session to look at the role schools can play! Learn about SNAP, School Meals, Summer Eats and other food access, nutrition and wellness initiatives you can implement in the classroom, school, home, and community. Facilitators: Chloe Miller, Child Nutrition Outreach Coordinator, and Leah Schenkel, Manager of Hotline Outreach, Project Bread; Nicole Good, School Wellness Specialist, Office for Food and Nutrition Programs, MA DESE
  

• The Wonderful World of Our Family Liaisons: A Day in the Life!
  Too often, as family liaisons step into their role, other people step back. Hear from a panel of family liaisons and educators about the role of liaisons, day-today successes and challenges, and ideas about moving the work forward. This workshop would be valuable for both districts that already have a liaison position and want to sharpen their roles and for districts looking to put a new liaison position in place to support family school partnership strategies. Facilitators: Olga Lopez, Family Engagement Specialist, MA DESE; and Pat Spradley, School & Main Institute
  

• It’s Time to Reframe Family Engagement!
  We’ve been talking about family engagement all wrong! This session will provide specific, well-researched findings from the research NAFSCE did with the FrameWorks Institute about what we’ve done wrong. You'll also learn about better strategies and tools you can use to communicate about family engagement so that everyone will finally understand what you are talking about and why family engagement is a critical component of student success. Facilitator: Sherri Wilson, Senior Director Training and Engagement, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement
  

• Multilingual Families Rights and Opportunities at School
  This session will review the legal rights and expectations for multilingual families and their students. It will also convene a panel of parent leaders to share sample best practices from their districts for multilingual family-school partnerships. Facilitators: Sibel Hughes, OLA Assistant Director, and David Valade, Language Acquisition Support Lead, MA DESE. Panelists also include: Gloria Morales and Tatiana Lara Melendez, Leominster Public Schools; Jamie Singelais and Monica Gonzalez Pico, Needham Public Schools; and Jullisa Declet, Maria Gutierrez-Rey, Ismael Rondon, and Yaritza Rizzo, Lawrence Public Schools
  

• Understanding US and MA Schools (conducted in Spanish)
  This session is an introduction to schools and is ideal for newcomer families. We will talk about the structure of schools in the United States and specific education options in Massachusetts. There will be time for questions and to share resources. Facilitators: Sylvia Gines, Massachusetts Statewide Family Engagement Center/FCSN
  

• Using Family Engagement to Improve Systems: Early Adopters in the IEP Improvement Project
  Family engagement is a shared responsibility, but we need to create the conditions for effective engagement. Learn how two Department of Elementary and Secondary Education-supported family engagement initiatives - FCSN’s APPLE Institute and the Early Adopters in the IEP Improvement Project - are using collaborative family-district teams to build relationships, address challenges, and co-design strategies for equitable system change. Facilitators: Martha Daigle, Special Education Family and Student Engagement Specialist, DESE; Ruth Templeton, IEP Implementation Specialist, CAST; Pam Nourse, Executive Director, Federation for Children with Special Needs; Danielle Hardin, Project Manager, MA Statewide Family Engagement Center; Leslie M. Leslie, Project Director, MassPAC and APPLE Institute
  

• MyCAP: Engaging Family in Student Career Planning
  My Career and Academic Plan (MyCAP) engages students in future planning based on their individual interests, strengths and talents. This session will delve into the importance of, and ways in which, families are part of that planning. Facilitator: Lisa Harney, College, Career and Technical Education Office; Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
  

• The Family Institute for Student Success: Strengthening Families and Schools Together
  Join us to learn about the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Family Institute for Student Success. FISS, for short, offers a broad range of training programs schools can tap into to help families and educators learn evidence-based practices and models for working together in systemic, intentional, and culturally and linguistically responsive ways. Find out about how FISS can be part of your community! Facilitators: Bertha-Elena Rojas and Noe Medina, MA DESE Family Institute for Student Success

• School on the Move!: Academic Family Engagement at James Otis Elementary
  As the 2021 EdVestors School on the Move Prize winner, the James Otis Elementary School stood out for its highly effective family engagement strategies. EdVestors partnered with LXD Research to better understand the practices and conditions at the Otis that foster intentional partnerships between schools and families. In this session, we will share what we learned and provide resources and tools participants can adapt and use to strengthen their academic family engagement. Facilitators: Heather Johnson, Vice President of Programs, Strategy & Impact, EdVestors; Rachel Schechter, Principal Researcher, Learning Experience Design (LXD) Research; and Jessica Hyland, Paula Goncalves, Katie Pagano, and Mara Dos Santos, Otis Elementary Staff
  

• Barbershop and Backyard Book Talks: Families as Literacy Advocates
  Join us as we share how Springfield families learned early literacy skills in order to better support their own children and feel more confident and clear about how to help their neighbors do the same. You will experience some of the training families received, learn how you can equip families to design and host literacy events, and put together a quick action plan to advocate for early literacy in your community. Facilitators: Gretchen Osodipe, Founder, Co-Teach; Chrissy Campos Howard, Program Manager, Reading Success by 4th Grade
  

• Collaboration to Support Multilingual Families
  This session will feature Holyoke Public Schools and the power of having multiple district departments work together for a more equitable support system for multilingual families. Facilitators: Jasarah Burgos, Stefany Garcia, Adrianna Colon, Family & Community Engagement Team; Jennifer Albury, Bilingual Department Director; Joeilys Diaz: Language Assessment Coordinator, Holyoke Public Schools
  

• The Future of Learning in Massachusetts: Shaping the Academic Vision for Our State
  The Commissioner of the Department of Education is looking for your input to craft an inclusive and ambitious academic vision for the state of Massachusetts. Please join Associate Commissioner for Student and Family Support, Rachelle Engler Bennett to share your thoughts on the conditions and experiences that make learning most meaningful; supports needed for students to thrive and hopes for the future. Facilitation: Rachelle Engler Bennett, Associate Commissioner for Student and Family Support, MA DESE
  

• Share Your Feedback! Family-Friendly Communication Guide
  Get a sneak preview of a new family outreach guide designed to help districts use welcoming and inclusive two-way communication practices. Representatives from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Student and Family Support and the Massachusetts Statewide Family Engagement Center will be on hand to share examples of tools, templates and other materials and would love your thoughts! Facilitators: Olga Lopez, Family Engagement Specialist, MA DESE; Rosalie Rippey, Special Projects Manager, Massachusetts Statewide Family Engagement Center/FSCN
  

• Understanding Career Pathways
  Members of the MA DESE College, Career and Technical Education (CCTE) unit will define the term “pathway” and share the key components for pathways that will lead to success after high school. Included in the presentation will be an overview of our state-designated pathways – Innovation Pathway, Early College Pathway, and Career Technical Education (CTE) – and tools the Department offers to help students and their families locate schools and programs that interest them. Facilitators: Jennifer Gwatkin, Innovation Pathways Lead; Kristin Hunt, Director of Early College Pathways; Liz Bennett, Associate Commissioner, College, Career and Technical Education; MA DESE.
  

• Supporting the Well-Being of LGBTQ+ Students
  In Massachusetts, LGBTQ+ students are 3.4 times more likely to report skipping school in the past month because they feel unsafe (MYRBS, 2019). What can educators and mental health professionals do to create safer school climates, partner with families, and provide direct support to LGBTQ+ students? This workshop will emphasize best practices for mental health care, particularly for students at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. Facilitators: Kimm Topping, Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students, JRI
  

• School Librarians as Community Builders
  School librarians are all about connecting families to resources - not just to books but also to tech support, community opportunities, and more. School libraries can capitalize on their reputation as trusted, safe, supportive places to help strengthen family-school partnership; for example, by hosting craft nights, informational sessions for family members, and other activities. This presentation will feature practices used at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School, which has students from over 50 sending towns. Facilitators: Leslie Skantz-Hodgson, Librarian, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School
  

• NEW! Social Media Toolkit for Family-Led Groups and District Staff
  The Massachusetts Family Engagement Center (MASFEC) has gathered best practices from across the Commonwealth to develop an equity-focused social media toolkit for family-led groups such as Special Education Parent Advisory Councils (SEPACs), English Learner Parent Advisory Councils (ELPACs) and Parent-Teacher Organizations (PTOs) and district staff. Come learn more about the toolkit and get tips, templates, and practical examples of how families, communities, and schools can partner to engage all families. Facilitators: Meghan Chapman, Family Partnership Support Specialist and Mikayla Metcalf, Development & Family Engagement Associate, Federation for Children with Special Needs

• Unidad en la Comunidad / Unity in the Community
  Charlas Virtuales (Virtual Chats) can build the capacity of educators and Latinx families to collaborate for student success. What's a Charla? Using a culturally sustaining approach, Latinx parents and educators focus on topics of concern to understand their root causes and then strategize approaches to address and resolve concerns together. This workshop will focus on how to organize and run Charlas Virtuales at schools. Facilitators: Soledad Valenciano, Retention Officer, Waltham Public School District and Juvenile Court Attorney; Lesly Garcia, ESL Educator and Latinx Advocate; Mary Jo Rendón, Assistant Principal, Alexandra Blenis, Health Educator and BIPOC advocate, Waltham High School
  

• Play to Learn Workshops for PK and Kindergarten Families: Growing Partnerships for Early Learning
  Come learn about "Play to Learn" – a series of three family workshops designed to raise awareness about the power of play in the learning process, share information about learning standards, and explore activities families can do at home to encourage intentional play and support learning. Facilitators: Joy Harvie, Teacher and Play to Learn Co-Author, Lawrence Public Schools; Francina Escolastico, Parent Liaison, Lawrence Public Schools
  

• Family Engagement Core Competencies: Equipping Staff to Engage for Impact
  Family engagement takes more than caring, it requires capacity. This session will provide an overview of the NAFSCE Family Engagement Core Competencies: A Body of Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions for Family-Facing Professionals. These eight core competencies are essential for educators working with families from early childhood through elementary and beyond. Participants will explore ways of using the Core Competencies to reflect on their own professional practice and to guide professional development and staff training. Facilitators: Reyna Hernandez, Senior Director of Research and Policy, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement
  

• Adult Education: Opportunity Knocks!
  Massachusetts offers many opportunities for adults to pursue their personal and professional goals. Adult education programs offer free classes for adults to learn English, prepare for the HiSET/GED, build foundational literacy and math skills, train for a career, prepare for and enroll in college – and so much more! In this session, you’ll hear parents enrolled in adult education programs explain how they are accessing resources and support. Facilitators: Nick Colello, MassLINKS; Alexandra Papagno, MA Adult Literacy Hotline; Kathy Rodriguez, Adult and Community Learning Services, MA DESE; and parents
  

• Building Data Literacy for Family Engagement
  Come join a conversation about the types of data used in schools and how educators and families can discuss data in a collaborative way. Walk away from the workshop with strategies that empower families as instructional partners! Facilitators: Dr. Barbara Mullen, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Cambridge Public Schools; Dr. Cambria Russell, Director, Mass Statewide Family Engagement Center
  

• What Should Students Be Learning In School? Do you worry that your student is on track or not? (Don’t worry, we all do). What are students supposed to learn in school during each grade? We will walk through the Family Learning Guides which are designed to help families understand the learning expectations in each grade. Members of the department of education will be available to answer any questions about the learning expectations, and ways that you can support your students. Facilitators: Craig Waterman, Assistant Director of Instructional Policy, Casandra Gonzalez, Science Education Specialist, and Grace Kingsbury, Educator Preparation Associate, MA DESE
  

• How’s It Going? Ask Your Families, Students, and Staff!
  How are you doing with family partnership work? What do family members, students and staff think? What does “good family school partnership” even look like anyway? In this session, you’ll learn about a collaborative reflection process your district can use to identify the family school partnership work that matters most to families, students, staff and leaders. We'll also share the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's newly developed online family partnership training module for educators. Facilitators: Naeemah Smith, Pat Spradley, Gregg Weltz, School & Main Institute
  

• Family Partnership and the Teacher's Educational Journey
  Do you have ideas about the teacher's educational journey and how we can best prepare teachers to teach all students and work in partnership with all families? Here's your opportunity to make your voice heard. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is working on multiple teacher training initiatives and would love to hear your thoughts. Facilitators: Taciane Santos, Educator Effectiveness Specialist, and Shannon Clancy, Educator Effectiveness Coordinator, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education