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).
SLA works with many different partners. How do they benefit our students? How do we form those partnerships? How can you form similar partnerships? Join us for a conversation about the formation of these partnerships and many benefits to our students.
In a time when we have unlimited access to information, including new technology, what is the purpose of the current edtech conference model? Join us to discuss why we continue to support these yearly events that are often non-transformative, non-informative, and non-diverse.
Technology provides possibilities to collaborate, but standing in the way of successful collaboration is a tremendous amount of ungrounded fear and anxiety that no one wants to name. We would like to stage a conversation that addresses the emotional anatomy of collaborating in a 21st century digital learning space.
Mindfulness is the new buzzword in EduCircles these days. But what is it, exactly? What does it look like in different incarnations and different settings? Is it a relaxation technique, a stress reducer, or the feel good hit of the new school year? Is Mindfulness a passing fad or the key to powerful teaching and learning- or something in between?
How do the words we choose to use in school impact our students, positively or negatively? How might we use language to empower, include, and reimagine? Let's dig in to the evocative lexicon of education and unpack how we talk the talk.
In the era of increasing teacher demoralization, how do teachers keep the momentum going? What are the most effective self-care ideas for teachers to implement in their teaching lives. This session will create a space for a dialogue and sharing of the strategies that have helped us along our professional journey. We are looking forward to hearing and learning from other participants in this session and creating a resource for other teachers to utilize as well.
SLA students and teachers will share examples and experiences that shift the learning focus to students' inquiry and projects that elevate student voices. Session participants will then create a public project, elevating their own voices.
This conversation will examine best practices for considering system wide goals and charting a course for building capacity to meet those goals. Participants will also consider how they can use online tools to meet their needs and evaluate progress.
Quick: Define “college readiness”. Now: compare what’s in your head with definitions that have been established by standardized testing publishers, policy makers, and colleges themselves? Are they in alignment? Likely not. Let’s redefine college readiness and discuss innovative teaching and assessment practices (you’re likely already utilizing) that are aligned with our new, consensus-built definition.
By modeling activities from the University of Texas' Principalship Program, with it’s anti-racist leadership and social justice focus, attendees will work to unpack previously unexplored assumptions and will walk away with tools to share with others.
“The Wannado Curriculum: Scenes from a Dynamic Math 2.0 Classroom” presents glimpses of what 21st century math teaching and learning could look like if we embrace a student driven, teacher supported, national approach. We would like to add your input, please.