{"success":true,"data":[{"ID":1120,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1667239708,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Design Thinking Beyond the Classroom","Handle":"design_thinking_beyond_the_classroom","ShortDescription":"Participants will consider how to use the design thinking model on a school wide level. Learn from our experiences as administrators from redesigning Back to School Night to reframing student support. Participants will explore how this model can center empathy, purpose, and a prototyping mindset to improve your school.","Description":"Starting with a short presentation on the design thinking model and how the presenters have used it to lead and redesign experiences at their own school, participants will have the chance to work with breakout groups to consider how design thinking can help them with their own challenges. Seeking empathy helps you understand experiences and challenges through a different lens. A prototyping mindset allows you to work and fail fast, while gaining critical feedback to improve an overall experience. Our experience has also helped us recognize the importance of setting a purpose for everything from large projects to the smallest team meetings. Participants should walk away with quick tips, useful strategies, and the motivation to work through school wide challenges with a new set of tools.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"A short presentation will precede a mini-design thinking session and then small breakout groups. In the design thinking session, the group will choose one challenge and tackle it together to practice the steps of the process. Breakout groups will give participants the chance to think through the steps they can take to rethink their own challenge. With the support of group leaders and other participants, everyone should walk away with a plan to use empathy and prototyping to find a solution to one of their own challenges.","Presenter":["Chris Loeffler","Julie Rodowsky"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Wilmington Friends School"],"PresenterEmail":["cloeffler@wilmingtonfriends.org","jrodowsky@wilmingtonfriends.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":29,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1148,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1667393862,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Designing and Refining a Makerspace\/Innovation Lab at the Middle Level","Handle":"designing_and_refining_a_makerspace-innovation_lab_at_the_middle_level","ShortDescription":"Are you interested in building a learning community where everyone is a teacher, students learn how to fail forward, and creativity is celebrated? Our middle school is in year two of operating  six different Innovation Labs that 6th graders visit daily. Come reflect on our journey to challenge and plan your own.","Description":"In our middle school, each sixth grader has a dedicated daily period of Innovation. Students spend six weeks in each lab: Coding and Robotics, Clean Tech, Humanities, Wellness, Makerspace, and Simulations. We would like to share how we got to this point, our ever evolving goals, how we used the ISTE Standards to guide us, connections across curricular areas, assessment practices, interdisciplinary collaboration, ongoing feedback, the development of guiding axioms and our ongoing evolution. We have used two different models to provide access to our 7th and 8th graders. \r\nWe will also engage the group in a short immersive hands on experience where facilitators will challenge participants following the model of the Innovation Axioms. \r\nAfter the immersive experiences, we will have an interactive discussion about the activity. that will be followed by an Open Space activity where participants can self-select into discussions around the following areas: \r\nGroup 1- My class\/school does not yet have a Makerspace\/Innovation experience but we are interested in designing one.\r\nGroup 2- My class\/school has a fledgling Makerspace\/Innovation experience and I would like to review our progress and plans.\r\nGroup 3- My class\/school has a Makerspace\/Innovation Program and I would like to review our learnings and future thinking around it \r\nGroup 4- I have additional questions for the presenter.\r\nThe conversation will close with a brief 3-4 question survey on the Padlet.","Link":["https:\/\/sites.google.com\/nccsk12.org\/smsinovspaces\/home?authuser=0"],"Audience":["Middle School"],"Practice":"Participants will access a Padlet using a QR code that will include all slides, resources and organizational tools for participants to engage in the Open Space portion of the conversation. This provides participants with a single point of digital access to the content, resources and their own reflective thinking.","Presenter":["Thea MacFawn","Catara Vinson-Westbrook","Mark Kaercher"],"PresenterAffiliation":["North Colonie Central Schools"],"PresenterEmail":["Thea.MacFawn@nccsk12.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":33,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1103,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1666183489,"CreatorID":736,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Gradelessness & Microdocumentation of Learning: Assessment through Learning Journeys","Handle":"gradelessness-microdocumentation_of_learning--assessment_through_learning_journeys","ShortDescription":"Teacher and Students from a gradeless class discuss different ways they assess learning and how students are guided to take charge of and tell the stories of their learning journeys.","Description":"Join a teacher with over 15 years experience (not all of it good...but better than grades) in a gradeless classroom as he and his students discuss the impacts of a gradeless classroom on their learning.\r\n\r\nWe will also have a math teacher from our high school who has created a grade-less method for assessment present to discuss her methods, successes, and opportunities.\r\n\r\nLearn how certain techniques and applications make the gradeless process a truer and more authentic assessment of student learning.\r\n\r\nConferencing, Student Narratives, Digital-Portfolios, Microducumentation  and Macrodocumentation of learning are the key methods of focus.  However, the impact of this session will be found when those with experience in Specs grading, Labor-based Grading, or in using grading contracts join us to add your knowledge and experience to the discussion.\r\n\r\nPlease see this slidedeck for other important links and research.  https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/5968r6sd","Link":["https:\/\/www.onlyconnects.wordpress.com","https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/5968r6sd","https:\/\/unrulr.com","https:\/\/spikeview.com"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Student testimonials and teacher reflections form the basis for the background.  Current students will discuss their experiences.    \r\n\r\nDocuments, testimonials, and digital media will help develop background for teachers new to gradeless practices.","Presenter":["Garreth Heidt & Students"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Perkiomen Valley High School"],"PresenterEmail":["gheidt@pvsd.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":30,"SubmitterID":736,"AdditionalComments":"This is one of two conversations I've proposed.  If they could be on the same day, that'd be great.  If not, I can swing that, too.","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1107,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1666637387,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Making Meaningful Work or Making Work Meaningful?","Handle":"making_meaningful_work_or_making_work_meaningful","ShortDescription":"Join me in discussing the question that serves as the title to this workshop. Is one more important than the other? Can a classroom be a place where there is both meaningful work being produced  and how can writing act as a cathartic outlet for social emotional rigor? How can our classes offer a chance to bring students' most authentic selves into the classroom?","Description":"As an English teacher at a Project-based school, content classes can often feel  like the \"ugly step child.\" Yet, as a high school English teacher for the last thirteen years, I have strived to make English class a time of day that debunks those stereotypes. In my opinion, a teacher who makes meaningful units allows for students to produce meaningful work..and not all work is tangible. How do you make work meaningful? How can your class  offer a cathartic outlet for social emotional rigor?  I will share an example of a content-based project that I have created for my seniors around the idea of food and family that ultimately will result in a collection of stories as well as a cookbook.","Link":["http:\/\/www.workshopschool.org"],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"I'll share some of the meaningful work that we produced in English class.\r\n\r\nWe'll practice some writing prompts that act as a cathartic outlet. \r\n\r\nBuild an idea guide together.","Presenter":["Willa Deitch"],"PresenterAffiliation":[],"PresenterEmail":["willa.deitch@workshopschool.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":36,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1158,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1668139103,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Perhaps We\u2019re Past EdTech","Handle":"perhaps_we-re_past_edtech","ShortDescription":"EdTech has had its moment. Perhaps it\u2019s over. Come let\u2019s talk about what\u2019s next and what never worked out.","Description":"While it\u2019s good to look to what\u2019s next, EdTech has been promising an almost here future for a good 100 years or so. In this conversation, we will unpack some broken promises and redirect our efforts towards doing better today rather than waiting for tomorrow.","Link":["http:\/\/budtheteacher.com\/killingedtech"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"After a brief introduction of some historical trends and patterns of \u201cjust around the corner\u201d proclamations, we will open the floor to those who wish to interrogate the practices of \u201cinnovation,\u201d leaning in to attention around how we can build the learning environments of good habits and practices right now, rather than looking ahead to what might be if only. \r\n\r\nParticipants will share their \u201cif only\u201d moments and their \u201clet\u2019s do this now\u201d ideas as we unpack the promises of a future that never quite was.","Presenter":["Bud Hunt"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Poudre School District"],"PresenterEmail":["budtheteacher@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":32,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1147,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1667359301,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Preparing Students For Meaningful Work: Moving Beyond College Readiness","Handle":"preparing_students_for_meaningful_work--moving_beyond_college_readiness","ShortDescription":"How do you move beyond a narrow focus on college to preparing students for meaningful work?  At South Bronx Community a 60-hour internship is a graduation requirement. Learn how to weave career skills across student experiences from the classroom, to the internship, to the student capstone experience.","Description":"Participants will discuss how to move beyond a narrow focus on college towards a more expansive definition of life readiness and preparing students for meaningful work.  They will explore best practices at the school and classroom level with an opportunity for differentiated discussion based on role (principal, guidance counselor, career coordinator, teacher, etc.) Some of the areas explored will include defining competencies, setting a standard for work-based learning\/internships, and incorporating career readiness into curriculum.   \r\n\r\nAt SBC, all student apply to college as an option, but they also must complete a 60 hour internship that is aligned to the school's competency-based system in order to graduate.  A number of students also complete more in depth apprenticeships where they are working half of the time and in school half of the time.  Students begin career exploration early as a foundational project in their advisor space in 9th grade, and have authentic opportunities to build career skills over their four years (mock group interviews, career networking events, etc).  Students also present on their career plan each year as an element of their culminating gateway project, highlighting skills they are working on.  These same skills are a part of our competency framework which students receive feedback on across classroom spaces.\r\n\r\nWhile career readiness has always been at the center of SBC's framework, this is a timely topic given the number of students opting to not enroll directly in college post-COVID.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"The presentation will be tailored to the needs\/interests in the room. There will be differentiated break-out groups for deeper discussion based on role (eg classroom vs school level) and opportunity to explore artifacts.  Participants will discuss best practices but also walk away with an action plan to implement an element of what they learned.","Presenter":["Natalie Ferrell","Asia Cruz","Angela Aponte","Isaiah Williams"],"PresenterAffiliation":["South Bronx Community Charter High School"],"PresenterEmail":["natalie.ferrell@southbronxcommunity.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":35,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1126,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1667259119,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Reclaiming Our Why","Handle":"reclaiming_our_why","ShortDescription":"Participants, after discussing the importance of staying connected to our purpose for remaining in the profession, will reflect on (and maybe rediscover) their why. We\u2019ll culminate with the opportunity to create a short video exclaiming our \u201cWHY\u201d.","Description":"We chose to become educators because we are (were) passionate about [we each fill in the blank differently here]. Our time in (and out) of schools and collaborating with students and colleagues these past few years may have brought challenges that call this passion into question or buoy us with optimism for our students, their successes, and the future. For years, conversations about teachers staying or leaving the classroom have returned to a clear commonality amongst those who have stayed in teaching, or education more broadly: we are motivated by a strong sense of purpose (Nieto, 2003; 2015). Choi (2022), in his text Sparks into Fire: Revitalizing Teacher Practice through Collective Learning states\r\n\r\n\u201cSpending time to clarify and reconnect with our purpose as teachers and educational leaders seems like a luxury that there just isn\u2019t time for. And yet, if we don\u2019t attend to our purpose and continue to cultivate it, we may lose our passion for the work; we burn out\u201d (p.4).\r\n\r\n\u201cThrough the sharing of our stories, we are reminded about our purpose and what matters to us at a fundamental level. . . Stories of purpose give us . . . \u2018courage to act\u2019\u201d (p. 5). \r\n\r\nIn this session, we will engage in conversations about our purposes, perhaps even rekindling our respective purposes, through structured reflection, relevant discussion and writing prompts, and time to share. Participants will have the opportunity to record a short video (e.g. through flipgrid or on their devices) to document their purpose right now.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Using a combination of structured conversational protocols and discussion and writing prompts, participants will engage in conversations about our purpose for teaching or being in education. Participants will have the opportunity to record a short video (e.g. through flipgrid or on their devices) to document their purpose right now.","Presenter":["Walter Brown","Kate Spence"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Walter- Hudson High School of Learning Technologies (NYC Public School)","Kate Spence - Fairleigh Dickinson University"],"PresenterEmail":["wbrown@hudsonhs.nyc","kspence@fdu.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":34,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1154,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1667840266,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Using Radical Roots to Create Deeper Learning Experiences","Handle":"tbd-something_about_pbl-pedagogy-inquiry","ShortDescription":"Join SLA teachers and students for an interactive workshop about the design of deeper school learning experiences. Collectively we will (re)read work from both widely known and frequently overlooked progressive and radical educators. Participants will then develop and share creative responses as we develop ideas about enacting a vision of deeper, democratic learning in the everyday reality of classrooms.","Description":"Join SLA teachers and students for an interactive workshop about the design of deeper school learning experiences. Collectively we will (re)read work from both widely known and frequently overlooked progressive and radical educators. Participants will then develop and share creative responses as we develop ideas about enacting a vision of deeper, democratic learning in the everyday reality of classrooms.","Link":["https:\/\/mrjblock.com"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Workshop \/ Conversation","Presenter":["Joshua Block & Alexis Clancy"],"PresenterAffiliation":["SLA"],"PresenterEmail":["jblock@scienceleadership.org","aclancy@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":27,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1159,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1670449741,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Visible Thinking: Note-Making Skills Across Disciplines","Handle":"visible_thinking--note-making_skills_across_disciplines","ShortDescription":"In this session, participants will engage with visible thinking strategies and note-making applications that support deeper learning and understandings across all disciplines.","Description":"Thinking happens mostly in our heads, invisible to others and even to ourselves. Research shows the effectiveness of making thinking visible: directing, improving, and documenting thoughts for reflection, collaboration, and application. In this session, participants will engage with visible thinking strategies and note-making applications that support deeper learning and understandings across all disciplines.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Participants will work with facilitators to experiment with visible thinking strategies.","Presenter":["Amal Giknis","Brad Latimer"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["agiknis@scienceleadership.org","blatimer@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":31,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1119,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1667237735,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"What's the deal with failure?  (Spoiler alert: this is not a session about grading)","Handle":"what-s_the_deal_with_failure--spoiler_alert--this_is_not_a_session_about_grading","ShortDescription":"We all fail. We all know it. But we are so afraid to talk about it. In this discussion we will talk about it...and see it as a superpower.","Description":"This conversation developed out of a collaboration between two friends\/colleagues who, for separate but similar reasons, found themselves wrestling with failure in their personal and professional lives. As educators, they did the only thing they could...they avoided it. That is, they avoided it until one day they were talking about how horrible life was, and they decided to start a podcast, Toasted, with the goal of opening a dialogue about how to see failure as a powerful learning tool. More importantly, they wanted people to know that there is supportive community out there for people who are wrestling with failure, which sometimes is all we need in order to rise through the challenges in our lives.","Link":["http:\/\/www.toastedpodcast.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will do a brief (10 minute) introductory talk and then spend the remaining time discussing failure and how to reframe our understanding of failure.","Presenter":["Dr. Margie Wright","Nicholas Fargnoli"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Toasted: a podcast about seeing failure as a superpower"],"PresenterEmail":["toastedthepodcast@gmail.com","nfargnoli@gmail.com","margiewrightca@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":28,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10},{"ID":1099,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1665691980,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Wonder, Curiosity, Expeditions and Journeys","Handle":"wonder-curiosity-expeditions_and_journeys","ShortDescription":"Join a provocative conversation about the role that wonder, curiosity and imagination plays in the design of a new learning journey for students.  We\u2019ll focus on understanding that journey, how it can emerge and be sustained, and how professional educators must challenge themselves to invent and lead a new experience worthy of serving our students' future.","Description":"In the spirit of rejuvenation, there is an opportunity to reshape our practice as educators by rekindling the beliefs and actions that contribute to the design of an education that matters.  Moving beyond the expected and mundane, and past different and better, reimagining education means developing a new path and a new journey - one that leads to a remarkable future for learners.  This path, fundamentally grounded by the childlike learning behaviors of wonder and curiosity, requires that educators recapture the imagination required to think and act in completely new ways.  This conversation focuses on understanding that journey, how it can emerge and be sustained, and how professional educators must challenge themselves to invent and lead a new experience worthy of serving our students' future.","Link":["http:\/\/davidjakesdesigns.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"The session will begin with a short 5 minute presentation on the Shackleton Expedition to frame the concept of an expedition and journey where the destination is somewhat known but that the outcome is defiantly not known.  The conversation then initiates with a series of provocations associated with identifying key elements of a journey, the role that wonder and curiosity play in establishing a canvas for learning, with the upshot and final synthesis of the conversation being focused on the need to think big and with renewed vigor about the potential of the educational opportunity that schools offer.  I see too much of traditional, too much stagnant practice and too much acceptance of a pathway that leads to an unremarkable destination.  This session is about provocation, getting people to think bigger and in different directions and dimensions, while respectfully challenging them to reflect on their own practice and what the ideas discussed in the session mean to them.","Presenter":["David Jakes"],"PresenterAffiliation":["David Jakes Designs LLC"],"PresenterEmail":["david@davidjakesdesigns.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":144,"ScheduleLocationID":26,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":"Glad to see Educon back!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":10}],"conditions":{"Status":"Accepted","ConferenceID":10,"ScheduleSlotID":144},"total":11,"limit":false,"offset":false}