Conference Sessions

Strands

Thursday, February 7

Session A 10:00 AM–12:00 PM

Session B 1:15 AM–3:15 PM

Friday, February 8

Session C 9:30–10:45 AM

Session CD 9:30 AM–12:15 PM

Session D 11:00 AM–12:15 PM

Session E 2:15–3:30 PM

Saturday, February 9

Session F 9:30–10:45 AM

Session FG 9:30 AM–12:00 PM

Session G 11:00 AM–12:00 PM

Session FG

FG1

So You Want to Start an SLC? Everything You Wanted to Know about Starting an SLC House or Academy
Georgette Phillips, SLC Coordinator; Terry Colvin, Principal: 9th Grade; Tracy Marsh, Principal, Silverado High School, Victor Valley Union HSD, CA

One school’s story about how SLCs were incorporated into the schoolwide plan. Video clips and PowerPoint® will be used to present SLC structures, including freshman houses, academies, Link Crew, and business advisory communities. Learn how SLCs encourage a college-going culture through project-based instruction and internships. Here are the nuts and bolts of starting your SLC. Quick-start handbook and handouts will be provided.

Strands: Collaboration

FG2

Under the Umbrella, Making It Fit: Building the Structures under SLCs
Corine Sayler, Assistant Principal, Syracuse High School, Davis School District, UT

This presentation is intended for teachers, administrators, board members, and others interested in inclusion of various structures for student success under the umbrella of SLCs. Based on the experience of building SLC programs in both new and existing high schools, the presentation will provide information on designing SLCs to include PLCs with departmental leadership, advisories, protocols for student interventions, collaboration, common assessments, and building the leadership capacity of a school.

Strands: Collaboration, NEW!

FG4 - Session Canceled

Support for Teaching and Learning: Creating a Critical Friends Group
Sean Delgado, Assistant Principal, Chino Hills High School, Chino Valley USD, CA; Cuahutemoc Arroyo, Categorical Program Coordinator, LAUSD Categorical Programs, Los Angeles USD, CA

In this session, participants will learn how to use protocols within Critical Friends Groups to look at student work, as a way of improving instruction and developing collegiality. Participants will then engage in a mock protocol to look at authentic student work. Participants will then debrief about the process, and leave with a variety of different protocols to use for Critical Friends Groups at their own site.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

FG5

Reaching and Teaching Every Student
Judith Ann Pauley, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Cal State San Marcos, CA; Joseph Pauley, Lecturer, George Washington University, MD

A science teacher in an inner-city LA high school was having problems with her students. They had no interest in school and intended to drop out. The teacher began applying the concepts of Process Communication in her classes. Student motivation improved; they started doing their homework; their grades improved and they stopped their acting out behaviors. Participants will learn these concepts so they can reach every student.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

FG9

Professional Conversations: Guiding a Staff Through the Process of Change
Albert Castillo, Director, Secondary School Services; Catherine Armstrong, SLC Advisor, LAUSD Local District 6, CA; Jesus Angulo, Principal; Patrick Moretta, Principal, South Gate High School, Los Angeles USD

In this workshop, participants will examine a process of implementing change at a large comprehensive high school. Two high school principals will share a unique process they used to move their schools to wall-to-wall SLCs with a 4 x 4 block schedule and common conference periods for teacher teams.

Strands: Identity

FG10

Why Try? Innovative Interventions that Provide Hope and Motivate Youth to Overcome Poverty, Violence, and Failure
Christian Moore, Co-founder, Why Try Organization, UT

This presentation provides tools to help youth answer, “Why try in life?” Christian Moore walks the audience through several methods to teach emotional intelligence and life skills such as anger management, problem solving, overcoming peer pressure, and keeping laws and rules. This workshop emphasizes a strength-based approach to helping youth overcome their challenges using multiple intelligence methods that emphasize the youths’ learning styles.

Strands: Personalization, NEW!

FG11

Role of Structures in Student Achievement
Mike Neubig, Co-founder, American Alliance for Innovative Schools, Capture Educational Consulting Services, OH

This presentation focuses on creating school day structures that provide flexible blocks of time for personalized programs, while maintaining the positive elements of the existing structures.We will demonstrate a research-based scheduling system that is proven to enhance the school environment and improve student achievement, specifically at the all-important ninth grade level. Participants will be asked to design schedules that they believe may be useful in their own teaching settings.

Strands: Personalization, NEW!

FG12

Building an Advisory Program from the Ground Up
Dennis Clancy, Career Technical Education; Beth Winningham, College Counselor/Adjunct Professor CSU Northridge, Monroe High School, Los Angeles USD, CA

Advisory programs allow students and teachers to develop meaningful relationships that facilitate teaching and learning. Participants will discover practical strategies to create an advisory program that offers academic, social, and developmental LAB support for students. Learn how advisory can influence school-wide literacy initiatives, foster college awareness, raise student achievement, and build a collaborative culture at your school. Presenters will demonstrate model lessons that participants can use as advisory curriculum building blocks.

Strands: Personalization

FG13

Featured School: Extreme Makeover— School Edition
Lynda Schwartz, Principal, Francisco Ayala, Assistance Principal, Nikki Siercks, SLC Coordinator and a team from Monroe High, Los Angeles USD, CA

If you just change the structure of a school, you have not created small learning communities. It’s like a cone with no ice cream. This session offers a highly successful model for converting large, comprehensive high schools into wall-to-wall small learning communities by changing both the structure and instruction. James Monroe High School Lead teachers will relate how they increased academic rigor by creating interdisciplinary curriculum, a 9th grade academy, and writing and project-based learning. In addition, the Monroe High school staff will also discuss how their efforts have resulted in a true distributed leadership model, as well as greater parental, business, and community involvement.

Strands: NEW!