KEYNOTE SPEAKERS - DR. WAYNE AU, Associate Professor, Univ. of Washington Bothell, AND DR. DENISHA JONES, Student Equity Team Projects.

***Washington State Educators will get 4.5 clock hours for this Conference***

Give a listen to this Education Town Hall Radio Show with Thomas Byrd and Virginia Spatz - BATs talk equity teams, the power of parent & student voices, gender diversity, & the BATs 4th Annual Education Conference https://educationtownhall.org/2017/06/22/equity-teams-parent-and-student-voices-and-the-bat-conference/

WORKSHOPS

BATs Go Back to School Conference

9:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. – Zero Period (Breakfast, registration, socialization) Hall 6

10:00-10:05 - Welcome Priscilla Sanstead - Co-Founder BATS

1. 10:05-10:30 – a.m. Keynote Dr. Wayne Au – Hall 8

2. 10:35-11:05 Anthony Cody Hall 90 or Melissa Tomlinson Hall 6, or Oregon State Sen. Lew Frederick Hall 8

3. 11:10-11:40 Brett Bigham Hall 6 or Sara Ortiz Hall 90 or Purple Daca Letters Hall 8

4. 11:45-12:15 - Recess! Julianna Dauble Yoga Session Hall 6 or Tracey Drum Martial Arts Hall 8

5. 12:20-12:50 MECHA Hall 6 or McERA Hall 90 or Mary Jo Hetzel Hall 8

12:50-1:30 Lunch on your own

6. 1:35-2:00 p.m. Keynote Dr. Denisha Jones Hall 8

7. 2:05 – 2:35 Dr. Tam Dinh Hall 6 or Highline Special Needs PTA Hall 90 or BATs QWL Hall 8

8. 2:40-3:10 - Crystal Krippaehne Music Hall 6 or Don Bunger Arts Hall 90

9. 3:10-4:10 Plenary -Jitu Brown #WeChoose Critical Conversations Hall 8

10. 4:15 – 4:40 Purple Umbrella Hall 90 or Julie Borst Hall 6

4:40 - 5:00 – Event wrap up Hall 8 - Picture in solidarity with the March for Education

Highline Special Needs PTA -Award winning PTA who will give a workshop around their mission to build a community with E.A.R.S.: to educate; to advocate; to be a resource; and to provide support

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán is a student organization that promotes higher education, cultura, and historia. Each word in MEChA symbolizes a great concept in terms of la causa. Movimiento means that the organization is dedicated to the movement to gain self-determination for our people. Estudiantil, identifies the organization as a student group for we are part of our Raza's future. At the heart of the name is the use of the identity: Chicanx. At first seen as a negative word, now taken for a badge of honor. In adopting their new identity, the students committed themselves to return to the barrios, colonias, or campos and together, struggle against the forces that oppress our gente. Lastly, the affirmation that we are Indigenous people to this land by placing our movement in Aztlán, the homeland of all peoples from Anahuak.

BATs Quality of Work Life Team -After concerns of stress on the job were reported to the Badass Teachers Association, a survey on well-being, working conditions and stressors for educators was designed by a group of teachers who are members of the American Federation of Teachers or BATs, and it was reviewed and refined by a workplace stress expert and a professional pollster. Circulated via email and social media, the survey was posted online on April 21 and closed on May 1. The first of its kind, the 80-question survey was filled out by more than 30,000 educators. The results of this survey have spearheaded the national conversation around teacher workplace conditions and student learning.

Brett Bigham -2014 Teacher of the Year in Oregon. Brett will discuss his experience as an LGBTQ teacher as well as his work with students who have special needs. Bigham began a series of support books for people with autism entitled:Ability Guidebooks. These books are step-by-step instructions on how to visit community destinations. The original series were books for the Portland, Oregon area including I Am Going UP on the Portland Aerial Tram! In May 2014 Bigham was recognized at the White House by President Barak Obama. Bigham used this and future visits to begin a series of books for the Washington, D.C. area including I Am Going To The National Museum of the American Indian, I Am Going to the Supreme Court, and I Am Going to the Renwick Gallery! When Bigham was named an NEA Foundation Global Fellow he was sent to Peru as an ambassador of U.S. education. During this visit Bigham created his first international Ability Guidebooks for the Inca Museum in Cusco. Since then books for Italy, Greece, Finland, Latvia and Estonia have been added.

Anthony Cody-Anthony is a Co-Founder of The Network for Public Education. Anthony will be conducting a book discussion about his book The Oligarch and The Educator.

Tam Dinh-Dr. Tam Dinh will be giving a workshop on Vietnamese culture and how teachers can build bridges with Vietnamese children, families, and community.

Julie Borst-Julie is a New Jersey parent and expert on Social Impact Bonds. Julie is also active in New Jersey SOS and is an advocate for Special Needs children. She will be giving a workshop on ESSA Special Education Regulations specifically focusing on Social Impact Bonds

Mary Jo Hetzel- Mary Jo Hetzel will facilitate a participatory workshop about the need to transform urban schools into powerful, just and loving learning communities as a necessary context for making the social-emotional health of students more possible. She will read briefly from her recently published novel entitled, In a Silent Way, about a young teacher activist in urban America, that brings to life the co-creation of such a powerful learning community in the face of extreme adversity, and shows how the roles of, and relationships among, students, educators and community members change in the process. Participants will offer their own suggestions about what kinds of changes are needed in our schools to respond to students' inner passions and the broader community's self-defined needs, and how we as teachers can imagine our own roles positively changing in the process.

Purple DACA Letters-#purpleDACAletters will discuss their campaign which aims at raising awareness about DACA by having DACA students and allies write letters and sending them to their state reps.

My Purple Umbrella-My Purple Umbrella serves as a community partner to support gender diverse youth and their families. Our focus is advocacy, outreach and education training, events, and organizational partnerships that serve and protect LGBTQ youth. Additionally, My Purple Umbrella offers a whole school program addressing harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Instilling necessary life skills of self-awareness, communication, problem solving and empathy through team building and art.

Sara Ortiz - Sara runs the Native Education Program for Highline Public Schools. Her workshop will be centered around how to provide authentic, culturally relevant, responsive, and competent academic support to Native students

Crystal Krippaehne - Crystal teaches in the Highline Public Schools. Her workshop will be centered around how to use and infuse opera into instruction.

Melissa Tomlinson - Melissa is the Asst. Executive Director of BATs. Her workshop will center around the book Runaway Inequality and address one of America’s most critical economic fact of life. “In 1970, the ratio of pay between the top 100 CEOs and the average worker was 45 to 1. Today it is a shocking 829 to one! During that time a new economic philosophy set in that cut taxes, deregulated finance, and trimmed social spending. Those policies set in motion a process that greatly expanded the power of financial interests to accelerate inequality. But how exactly does that happen? Using easy-to-understand charts and graphs, Runaway Inequality explains the process by which corporation after corporation falls victim to systematic wealth extraction by banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds. It reveals how financial strip-mining puts enormous downward pressure on jobs, wages, benefits, and working conditions, while boosting the incomes of financial elites.”

Jitu Brown - Jitu is the National Director for Journey for Justice Alliance. His workshop will focus on the work of the #WeChoose National Coalition. BATs joined the coalition in the fall of 2016. Jitu's workshop will focus on the #WeChoose Coalition work towards sustainable community schools and a moratorium on privatization. The workshop will focus on the #WeChoose Critical Conversations component about the many issues we face to sustain and save public education.

Dawn Bennett and Sieng Duongdala of McERA (Multicultural Education Rights Alliance) - McERA strives to change the dynamics that have isolated teachers, schools and education decision-makers. They believe that every teacher wants to successfully educate and every child has limitless promise. To support the trust and awareness that are needed to change dynamics that often debilitate our schools, we bring sustained opportunities for positive partnerships between schools and their leaders with families and community to foster student success. Their mentor network advocates for changes in policies, programs and practices that not only support education justice for all students, but also contribute to teacher satisfaction and success.

Oregon State Senator Lew Frederick - Senator Frederick will be presenting about how to talk to lawmakers, how to run for office, and why he is such a strong supporter of public education!

Plus we will have music, art, and lots of recess!

A conference where you will be able to make up your own school schedule on the day of the event!

Professional development certificates will be provided for educators.

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