Getting Better @ Getting Better

Tuesday, June 2

Improvement for Today’s Students: What We Have Learned Working Online

11:00 a.m. ET 10:00 a.m. CT 08:00 a.m. PT

25-Year Retrospective and Welcome

KEYNOTE: What Have We Learned From Online Learning That Can Help Us Reimagine Education?

In this session, Professor Amanda Godley, IFL Fellows Victoria Bill and Allison Escher, and educators from diverse school districts will share experiences and ideas about how remote teaching and learning can help us reimagine ways to make K-12 education more engaging and equitable. Dr. Godley will provide a national perspective on the educational issues that have arisen as a result of COVID-19 school closures such as equity, differentiation, assessment, and relationships. Following her keynote, we will hear how educators from Schenectady, New Brunswick, Syracuse and Weehawken have worked to improve and transform online learning.

Followed by a Leaders’ Discussion with Speakers

  • Aaron Bochniak, Superintendent, Schenectady City SD

  • Eric Crespo, Superintendent, Weehawken Township SD

  • Melanie Cifonelli, Director of Math, Syracuse City SD

  • Jamie Gulotta, Supervisor of Math, New Brunswick PS

  • Keira M. Scussa, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, New Brunswick PS

Select Readings and Materials

External Links

1:00 p.m. ET 12:00 p.m. CT 10:00 a.m. PT

Facilitating High‐Level Math Tasks in a World of Virtual Instruction

Laurie Speranzo, IFL Fellow

As teaching and learning are being propelled into an online world, many teachers are grappling with ways to advance conceptual understanding with students. This session will explore engaging students and facilitating meaningful math learning virtually.

Materials

Moving from Quick Write to Essay

Donnell Armstrong, Wilmer-Hutchins High School Teacher, Dallas ISD

Sara DeMartino, IFL Fellow

Darlene Seeley, W. T. White High School Teacher, Dallas ISD

Writing, especially text-based writing, is often presented to students as a process they come into cold, meaning they aren’t asked to extend their prior thinking work, such as the thinking done in quick writes, as they compose text-based essays. This session will introduce you to a test of change that asked students to work from a comprehension quick write to generate a text-based essay. You’ll hear from teachers who have enacted the test of change and consider the potential of a quick write to essay task as an instructional test of change to use with your students.

Materials