Conference Sessions
Strands
Friday, February 20
Session A 9:30 AM–10:45 AM
Session AB 9:30 AM–12:15 PM
Session B 11:00 AM–12:15 PM
Session C 2:15 PM–3:30 PM
Saturday, February 21
Session D 9:30–10:45 AM
Session DE 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Session E 11:00 AM–12:00 PM
New Sessions
A10
Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Troubled Times
Luis Rodriguez, Author and Poet, Steven Barclay Agency, CA
The most important resource in a classroom is the student's own innate will and spirit to learn and be engaged. When teachers also embody the spirit of teaching, there's a vital link made with the pupils-like the spark between the contact points in electrical wiring. This often means knowing how to draw out the gifts that young people already bring to a classroom-their gifts of words, deduction, play, expression, and more. That's the root meaning of the word education-to lead out, as one would the intrinsic gifts of each pupil. Unlike instruction, the root of which is to "pack it in," we need the tools, strategies, and models for bringing in and tapping into this spirit to learn and spirit to teach. When it comes to education, the underlying premise should always be that everyone can win. If the teacher is wholly engaged in teaching, the student will be wholly engaged in learning. I call this Hearts and Hands-the emotional links that adults can properly make with students while imparting the vital life and subject skills they are hungry for.
Strands: Support for Teaching & Learning, NEW SESSION and KEYNOTE
AB7
Culturally Proficient Learning Communities
Linda Jungwirth, President, Convening Conversations, Inc., CA; Jarvis Pahl, Executive Director, Pahl Educational Consortium, CA; Kathleen Steele, CASLE Coordinator, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, CA
Learn how SLCs can cultivate cultural proficiency through convening conversations about issues that arise from diversity. Experience four tools of cultural proficiency in relation to SLCs and the five domains of SLC best practices. Through appreciative inquiry, examine applications of the cultural proficiency tools within your SLCs.
Strand: Support for Teaching & Learning, NEW
B5
Five Essential Elements of Our SLC Journey
Henry Russell, Deputy Superintendent; Kristel Barr, Principal; Bill Brooks, High School Redesign Coordinator, Independence School District, MO
The move from traditional high schools to SLCs is rife with challenges from a structural and nuts-and-bolts standpoint. The real work of change, however, is in the facilitation of cultural shifts in thinking and practice. We believe there are five essential elements of our SLC journey to learn from, whether you are in the investigating, planning, or implementing stages of SLCs. We will explain these elements from three different perspectives: central office administrator, building administrator, and teacher leader. We will also share specific, critical moments in our SLCs.
Strand: Smaller Learning Communities & Small School System Redesign, NEW SESSION
B10
Rebels with Applause: Brain-Compatible Approaches for Motivating Reluctant Learners
Grace Dearborn, Educational Consultant, Conscious Teaching, LLC, CA
How do we address our "rebel" students who seem to have the hardest time paying attention and getting work done? This lively, fun, and interactive session will provide teachers and staff developers with dozens of practical, brain-based strategies they can use to help get "rebel" students of varying abilities and learning styles involved and motivated, and help them retain more.
Strands: Student Support & Intervention, NEW SESSION
C2
Performance Assessment in the Age of High-Stakes Testing
Allison Allbee, Performance Assessment Coordinator, June Jordan School for Equity, San Francisco Unified School District, CA; Rachel Vigil, Program Associate, Small Schools for Equity, San Francisco Unified School District, CA
Have you begun to dread the spring testing season? June Jordan School for Equity has a performance assessment system that is designed to ensure real, public accountability for student achievement. With a focus on college prep and social justice, we work to build the skills necessary for college success while arming students with the tools to empower them to achieve their dreams for themselves and their communities. Using scaffolding, inquiry, essential questions, and culturally relevant material, we guide students through the process of developing papers on each of the following anchor tasks: Literacy Analysis, Scientific Research, Mathematical Application, and Original Research. Students then must present and defend a paper and a post-graduation plan to a graduation committee before they are allowed to graduate. Committees include teachers, students, family, and community members. Lessons from the presenters and committees are then integrated into curriculum for the following year.
Participants in this workshop will have an opportunity to investigate our classroom practices of inquiry, scaffolding, and culturally relevant material, and get practical advice on how to implement their own alternative assessment process. Using sociometry exercises, videos of student presentations, and student work, we will delve into the questions: Why do we as educators need assessment systems? What makes an assessment system useful? How does student work inform our practice? We will cover the need for multiple forms of assessment, present an introduction to how performance assessment looks at JJSE, and provide participants with a pallet of instructional strategies to survey.
The goal is for participants new to alternative assessment to leave with an invigorating sense of the potential of performance assessment and with practical steps for implementing an alternative assessment program at their school. For people who are already working with alternative assessments, this will be an opportunity to reflect on their own practice, dialogue about specific complications or questions that have arisen in implementation, and expand the strategies used in their classrooms or schools.
Strand: College and Career Education, NEW SESSION
C3
Transforming Comprehensive High Schools: Lessons Learned about Conditions, Practices, and Equity
LaShawn Routé Chatmon, Executive Director; Chinyelu Martin, Program Director, BayCES, CA
A school's or district's structural conditions (organization of time, people, money, space) are deeply intertwined with its sociocultural conditions, or the way race, class, and culture affect efforts to improve educational outcomes for underserved students. Comprehensive high schools can be utterly transformed through purposefully constructed structural and cultural conditions and practices. In this workshop, we will share key lessons learned about SLC development and its links to educational equity.
Strand: Smaller Learning Communities & Small School System Redesign, NEW SESSION and KEYNOTE
C4
Cornerstone Academy: Building Support for High School Success
Stefanie Mueller, SLC Coordinator, John B. Connally High School, Pflugerville Independent School District, TX
Schools choosing to restructure struggle with making many tough decisions in a minimal amount of time. The presenters in this session will share their own struggles and successes during their first year of SLC implementation at their own high school. With a focus on transitioning students to a more active, involved, and challenging educational setting, the Cornerstone Academy supports freshman students academically, personally, and socially.
Strand: Smaller Learning Communities & Small School System Redesign, NEW SESSION
C6
The Magic Is in the SLC
Janis Jarvis, SLC Project Manager; Kathy Davis, Secondary ELA/LOTE/AP Curriculum Coordinator; Felicia Andrews, Secondary Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator, Clear Creek Independent School District, TX
Don't let your teachers get lost in the illusion that SLCs inhibit academic success. Just as an alchemist turns lead into gold, SLCs can transform boring lessons into engaging instruction. Experience the magic that happens when SLCs use research-based strategies to move instruction to a higher level for every student. Participants experience the development of an integrated unit by showing how to include each curricular area within a unit of study. This session will provide the steps to begin small and move interdisciplinary instruction forward at a pace that is comfortable for your school. Through the use of engaging multimedia, participants will be able to find the "disappearing students" who fall through the cracks every year. Enjoy learning the sleight-of-hand tricks that pull different content areas together, and see the magic that is the SLC!
Strands: Support for Teaching & Learning, NEW SESSION
C9
Conscious Classroom Management: Bringing Out the Best in Students and Teachers
Grace Dearborn, Educational Consultant, Conscious Teaching, LLC, CA
Why is it that good classroom management is often invisible? In this lively, fun, interactive session, learn key ways that K-12 teachers can grow from inner apology to inner authority. Receive dozens of practical eye-opening strategies for managing classes effectively. Leave with your tool kit overflowing with stuff you can use.
Strands: Support for Teaching & Learning, NEW SESSION
D1
Tumultuous Transitions Be Gone! Moving from Middle School to High School with Ease
Robin Shrode, Founder/Consultant/Co-founder AAIS (American Alliance for Innovative Schools, Inc.), TX
The transition from middle school to high school can be a year of tumultuous change for students, but with focused and intentional planning, identified transitional processes and protocols in place, and a systemic communication structure implemented, the ease of movement can be increased. This session will discuss and demonstrate successful transition programs from various schools around the nation and how those processes and protocols might be put into place.
Strand: Middle School to High School Transition, NEW SESSION
D5
Structure and Support for Student Success
Pam Carter, Principal, Santa Susana High School, Simi Valley Unified School District, CA; Sara Leibman, Assistant Principal, University Charter Middle School, CA
Preparing today's youth for the realities of the 21st century means redesigning schools and reforming programs. This workshop offers ideas, tools, and resources to assist schools in promoting student achievement through structures and strategies such as advisors, smaller learning communities, interest-based academics, flexible scheduling, and senior projects.
Strands: Smaller Learning Communities & Small School System Redesign, NEW SESSION
DE6
Reshaping District Support to Mirror High School Transformation: Atlanta's Story
Katie Whitney Luers, Senior Program Advisor, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, OR; Kelly Walton, Project Administrator-Portfolio/Design, High School Transform Office, Atlanta Public Schools, GA
A district practitioner shares how Atlanta has reshaped district support for high school transformation to mirror the practices they ask of schools. From a "comprehensive" style of siloed initiatives, imposed on schools and monitored with lengthy paperwork, Atlanta is moving toward a flexible "interdisciplinary" mode suited to small schools and SLCs. Participants will leave with ideas for increasing coherence across initiatives, as well as hands-on experience with tools from Atlanta's transformation.
Strand: Smaller Learning Communities & Small School System Redesign, NEW SESSION
DE7
The Next Step: A Protective Factor Framework for Student Well-Being and Resiliency
Tim Burns, Educator/Author, Educare, NM
This workshop focuses on how best to utilize the Significant Six protective factors shown by research to bring about positive social, health, and academic outcomes for students at all levels of education. Using this research as a starting point and conceptual framework, we will explore and employ a set of mental models, tools, and activities designed to reduce risk factors while enhancing positive school climate. The framework has been successfully used in many school settings where the presenting problems were such seemingly intractable issues as chronic student disciplinary problems, lack of respect, high dropout rates, bullying, alcohol and drug abuse, and low staff morale.
Strand: Support for Teaching & Learning, NEW SESSION and KEYNOTE
E2
Advisory Programs for Student Success
Pam Carter, Principal, Santa Susana High School, Simi Valley Unified School District, CA; Sara Leibman, Assistant Principal, University Charter Middle School, CA
Research shows that the highest-performing high schools in the U.S. provide effective and meaningful student support programs that connect each student with an adult advocate. While advisory programs come in all shapes and sizes, they will, if executed effectively, transform the culture of your school and trigger major gains in student achievement. Learn how two educators led the effort to create an advisory program for their high school and how the program has contributed to a significant rise in test scores and student success. You will walk away from this session with tools to create a program customized to the needs and interests of your school, along with rationale and research to take back to your staff. You will also be provided with lessons and activities to get you started.
Strands: Smaller Learning Communities & Small School System Redesign, NEW SESSION
E3
Dual High School/College Credit Program
Jill Long, SLC Project Director; Kris Olsen, Principal; Tony Vicnair, Director of Curriculum, McMinnville High School, McMinnville School District, OR
Students who graduate high school having already acquired a college transcript are more likely to enroll and persist in post-secondary education. Over the last five years, McMinnville High School has collaborated with post-secondary partners to offer an extensive dual credit program. Last year, we offered 55 dual credit classes. Students earned over 3,200 college credits, resulting in a savings to families in excess of $160,000. In this session, participants will learn how to develop and grow a dual credit program that is integrated with other reform initiatives such as smaller learning communities and career pathways.
Strand: College and Career Education, NEW SESSION