Conversations

During each of the six breakout sessions throughout the weekend, a large number of conversations will take place. This site will help you organize your plan for the weekend and provide the relevant information for each conversation. After signing in, search through the conversations below and mark the sessions you are interested in to populate your personal schedule on the right (or below if on your mobile phone).

Community Representation Matters: Centering Students Through Centering Their Community in Staffing

Session 4
John Clemente, Maria Ventura, Glenn George

An SBC leader, staff member and student will engage the audience in reflecting if the children they serve see themselves in their staff members, what are the benefits of community representation in staff hiring, and discuss what hiring practices can be implemented in order to create a school community reflective of the broader community.

For Us, By Us: Teachers of Color Leading Black and Brown Students in PBL

Session 4
Matthew Kay, Alexis Clancy, Roger Bracy, Rea Gade

Too often, Inquiry-Driven and Project-Based learning are left out of conversations about what benefits students of color. These pedagogies are often sacrificed in the name of either rote skill development or the dryness that passes for "rigor." We'll talk about it, and figure out how to ensure that students of color aren't locked out of progressive education.

Foresight Thinking & Future Scenario Design for Human Beings

Session 4
Christian Long

How might we as educators think 'like futurists and foresight strategists' so that we can best help our students purposefully respond to their unique futures? This interactive session will use recognized foresight strategies used by professional futurists to guide research and clients. Most importantly, it will help us consider ways we might adopt foresight practices and tools to empower our students.

Meaningful Making With Middle Schoolers

Session 4
Meredith Martin & Michael Franklin

How can we create a multi-year, hands-on program to engage and educate middle school makers? What best practices in STEM, STEAM, Makerspaces, Engineering, and more can be used to create an engaging and educational experience for our students? What outcomes do we value when creating these programs?

New ways to assess learning in an engineering classroom

Join us in the SLA Shop to discuss new ways of assessing what students learn and of encouraging academic growth. New approaches like having students make their own midterms have provided opportunities for deeper learning across the spectrum of students we serve. These approaches when coupled with engineering projects rich in making allow students to internalize concepts and skills. We will look at how non-linear grading methods have helped challenge a broader set of students in the SLA engineering program. Come prepared to share your own experiences in encouraging every student in your program to stay engaged and succeed.

Reclaiming Project-Based Learning

Session 4
Gary Stager

The growing popularity of learner-centered approaches, like project-based learning, are susceptible to being hijacked, trivialized, and then dismissed as "ineffective" by cynical critics. This session offers a coherent progressive vision of PBL, that withstands scrutiny and produces more productive contexts for learning. Practical strategies and learning adventures will be shared.

Redesigning the Process: Transforming Facilities and Culture with an Equity-based Approach

Session 4
Karina Ruiz, Allison Brown

Historically, traditional community engagement processes to have served to reproduce inequitable learning environments. Join us as we explore case studies rooted in critical race-spatial praxis and Liberatory Design principles to identify innovative institutional planning strategies that promote racial equity and social justice and amplify the voices of BIPOC communities.

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