Diversity and Inclusion: Which Questions Are The Right Ones?

Sherri Spelic
Sherri Spelic

When a school community attempts to engage in meaningful discussion of diversity and inclusion, how do we start? What are the right questions to ask? Using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), participants will gain insights about approaches to Diversity & Inclusion work in an empowering, replicable process.

Participants from all areas of school life will find in this format a positive, non-judgmental learning atmosphere that encourages healthy dialogue and concrete outcomes. As a presenter, I offer a working laboratory for thinking about diversity and inclusion not as a set of problems to be solved in the hour but as a field of inquiry that impacts us all and merits our deep curiosity and deliberate consideration. I will share our experience in piloting the QFT protocol at AISV with middle and high school students as well as with faculty.

The Future of Collaborative Instruction

Aliza Robinson

As educators continue to better understand the variety of learner profiles, and design effective instruction to meet learning needs and interests, the typical classroom is changing. The future of inclusive education requires educators to collaboratively design instruction for all learners, and to best utilize everyone’s professional experience to teach. The facilitators will model collaborative teaching methods and support learner choice through the lens of inclusive best practice strategies in the areas of instruction and assessment.

 

 

Jillian Nichols

This interactive workshop will ask participants to take on the role of the diverse learner, as they move through activities including Incomplete Stations, Parallel Teaching, and Student Choice scenarios. Participants will leave the workshop with practical inclusive strategies to use immediately within their own classrooms, whether they teach independently or with a team, in order to best meet the needs of their students.

The Neuroscience of Learning Space

Kathleen Naglee

It is physically impossible to create memory without emotion. Effective teaching requires creating conditions of charged memory for the brain to layer meaning. Utilize the findings of neuroscience in your classroom, physical or virtual for authentic learning.

Community Building and The Pandemic Effects

Fran Prolman

As part of her course Practical Strategies for Rebuilding Community; Belonging and Connection, Dr. Fran Prolman will share the reality of the pandemic effects on ourselves and our students, highlight the practical skillsets necessary for addressing pandemic induced trauma and anxiety; rebuilding classroom community, strengthen the infrastructure of belonging, connection, building psychological safety and equitable classroom practice and embracing of the community when our world has moved to virtual space.

Participants will:

  • Analyze the importance of conscious and intentional community building
  • Expand your repertoire of community building strategies for virtual and in-person student connection
  • Consider the effects of the pandemic on the restoration of community.

Applying Technology Innovation to the Future of Learning

Shelly Kurtz

Does the conversation around technology scare you or excite you? This workshop harnesses the power of innovation as a tool to support improved outcomes by showcasing the transformation of data into knowledge. Participants will take key learnings from the private sector paired with secrets from startup culture to become part of the new frontier of what’s possible.

Come away with a field guide to demystify cloud tech and AI. Learn about the movement of technology for the public interest (Tech4PI) and hear how technology innovation protect children with a case study on VidaNyx, a digital evidence management solution for child advocacy centers. A Children’s Advocacy Center is a child-friendly facility in which law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical and victim advocacy professionals work together to investigate abuse, help children heal from abuse, and hold offenders accountable.

Come away with a new understanding of how to create impact at scale and the ways in which domain level expertise will transform the search for knowledge for future generations. Impress your friends with new insights about Knowledge Graphs, Cloud Tech and Ethical AI and excite your students with the possibilities of doing well while doing good in the emerging field of technology for public interest.

Cultivating Connections that Matter: Creating Transformational Learning Experiences

Ellen Heyting

This workshop will support curriculum leaders and teachers as they seek to develop transformational units. These are the kind of learning opportunities that shift students’ thinking and allow them to make authentic meaning from the world around them.

We will explore how transformational units begin with student voice and interest and develop through carefully curated materials. Participants will explore innovative ways of integrating service learning and community experiences while hitting external benchmarks.

 

 

Rachael Thrash

We will provide opportunities to consider summative assessments that support risk taking and real transfer of understanding. Participants will be introduced to a unit development framework and given the opportunity to workshop some of their own units.

We aim to empower participants to think about what connects students to learning and how these connections matter outside of the classroom.

The Mouth of The Shark

Jawid Danish
My journey from my home country to Europe is the same as many other refugees leave their homes. I left Afghanistan on my own when I was just 12 and made the journey to Europe just as many other refugees did. I spent 10-11 months working in Tehran, then came to Greece through Turkey and finally arrived in Helsinki. This presentation will deliver my message on the perspective of refugees.

It’s Time to Walk the Talk: Individualizing Professional Learning

Ben Thrash

Current research in the evaluation of high-quality teachers strongly recommends the need to separate processes that address accountability from meaningful professional growth. To maximize high-quality student learning we must prioritize authentic teacher growth. In doing so, schools should model a professional learning practice that mirrors our efforts to individualize learning for students.

This workshop calls on participants to join a simulation that illustrates different approaches to professional learning in schools. In the process, we highlight ISH’s professional growth cycle framed around individualization, choice, and autonomy that asks teachers to develop inquiry goals that aspire toward our best teaching selves.

Participants choosing to learn with us will explore effective frameworks for pursuing one’s own professional growth, how schools can best promote teacher learning, and the toughest but most relevant question – how do we measure this impact on student learning.