{"success":true,"data":[{"ID":488,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1415124071,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Community and University Partnerships: How do we cultivate them?","Handle":"community_and_university_partnerships--how_do_we_cultivate_them","ShortDescription":"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.","Description":"SLA has partnerships with The Franklin Institute, Drexel University, University of Pennsylvania, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the ExCITe Center, the Department of Making and Doing, USAID...\r\nHow did these partnerships start? Why did these partnerships start? Join us for a brief overview of the partnerships to help see some of the possibilities then workshop some possibilities at your schools.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"There will be an overview of many of our partnerships and the benefits our students have gotten from them (voiced by our students) with some data. Then some of our partners will speak on why they chose to partner with us, what motivates them to partner with schools. Then we will give a brief description of national resources for partnerships. Then there will be workshops around cold-calling, cold-emailing and other ways the participants can create their own partnerships.","Presenter":["Matthew N VanKouwenberg and others"],"PresenterAffiliation":[],"PresenterEmail":["mvankouwenberg@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":9,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":472,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414900518,"CreatorID":3788,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Debating the Purpose of the EdTech Conference","Handle":"debating_the_purpose_of_the_edtech_conference","ShortDescription":"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.","Description":"Typically, the norm of the edtech conference is that it is tool-focused, repetitive in content, and outdated.  Although best practices suggest using higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy with students, we often neglect to do the same with teachers.  Many educators find themselves drowning in a sea of QR codes, augmented reality, and sessions on Twitter 101.\r\n\r\nIt's time to take a stand and change our practice...or is this all there is?  In this conversation, we hope to hack the edtech conference and explore ways to redefine professional learning opportunities.","Link":["http:\/\/rafranzdavis.com","http:\/\/sarahjanethomas.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"As a result of the discussion, we will develop a collaborative manifesto of guidelines and expections to be shared with state and national edtech affiliates, to consider as they plan their events.  We will also host a space for individual and group share-out, questioning, and debates, so that all sides of this conversation can be explored, and done.","Presenter":["Rafranz Davis","Sarah Thomas"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Rafranzdavis.com","Prince Georges County Public Schools"],"PresenterEmail":["rafranz11@gmail.com","sthomasgmu@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":15,"SubmitterID":3788,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":427,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414101191,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"From Anxiety to Joy: Discussing the Emotional and Technological Anatomy of 21st Century Collaboration","Handle":"from_anxiety_to_joy--discussing_the_emotional_and_technological_anatomy_of_21st_century_collaboration","ShortDescription":"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.","Description":"Our conversation explores how new technologies present promising opportunities for educators at different schools to learn the meaning of collaboration. Growing from a shared interest to try something \u201cnew,\u201d three teachers at different schools experimented to understand the organic but deliberate aspects of collaboration made possible by technology. We want to share that experience to invite participants to reflect intentionally on the emotional demands made by such projects on teachers and students. Modeling what we were learning about collaboration, both technologically and emotionally, students engaged in unexpected conversations, demonstrated knowledge through multiple media, and inspired critical thinking in all involved, demonstrating the relationship between teaching practices and student habits of mind. Students were empowered to formulate questions for real audiences, to understand through practice the relationship between purpose, audience, and word, and to analyze, create, and synthesize ideas through multiple modes of communication, all on the social space of the internet. What makes our prospective conversation unique is that we want to get others to talk about the elephant in the room - namely, what it feels like to take such risks. Standing in the way of successful collaboration is a tremendous amount of ungrounded fear and anxiety that no one wants to name, and that\u2019s a conversation we want to explore. What did it feel like to collaborate? What did it feel like to yield to others? What were the anxieties? What were the joys? How do we get past such anxiety to connect to collaborative communities of joy?","Link":["http:\/\/dubliners2013.blogspot.com\/; http:\/\/wereadr3.blogspot.com\/; https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B2IkraEAu1OfMUtJNUFzRnhiQUU\/view?usp=sharing"],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"After sharing a very short version of our story, we will generate conversation by pairing up groups to share ideas based on situational questions we distribute, and our discussion starters would be based on scenarios where we (in our previous collaborative experience) encountered challenges or difficulties emotionally speaking. Groups would discuss the question, and an appointed person from each discussion circle would then share their \"best\" ideas\/responses on a google doc we'll have set up for everyone. (The google doc will also contain links to our web resources from our previous collaborative projects, and the google doc will be permanent so attendees can reference it later.) After each discussion starter, we'll share a little about how we responded to such challenges in our own experience as well. Some of the issues we would want to discuss would be (1) how do we get colleagues to collaborate? (2) where are the boundaries when collaborating via media and web 2.0 technologies? (3) what do we do when we cross into an \u201cout-of-boundary\u201d area? (4) how do we improve each other\u2019s ideas without criticizing the other? (5) how does one handle moments of professional jealousy that no one wants to talk about? (6) when do we yield to others? (7) who owns what in a completely collaborative endeavor? (8) what are the joys to be experienced when overcoming such hurdles? (9) what kind of similar demands do we make on our students? To inspire as much sharing as possible, we\u2019ll be providing details from our story that give specificity and context to these emotionally difficult questions. We\u2019d also like to skype in a student to share their perspective on the experience.\r\n\r\nHere's an audio clip (w\/ images) of us talking together: https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B2IkraEAu1OfMUtJNUFzRnhiQUU\/view?usp=sharing","Presenter":["Jared Colley","Joel Garza"],"PresenterAffiliation":["The Oakridge School","Greenhill School"],"PresenterEmail":["jcolley@theoakridgeschool.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":3,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":"Please take a listen to a sample of this conversation in the form of a podcast we made and set to some images and video:\r\nhttps:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B2IkraEAu1OfMUtJNUFzRnhiQUU\/view?usp=sharing\r\n(This was a draft of what we put together for K12 Online this year)","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":407,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1411406984,"CreatorID":15,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Getting our Kum-ba-ya On","Handle":"getting_our_kum-ba-ya_on","ShortDescription":"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?","Description":"In light of the ever-increasing pressures facing students and teachers, is it any wonder that we're reaching for new tools to keep us focused and balanced? Mindfulness seems like an easy solution. It does't cost much, there are no expensive materials and really- how hard is it to teach people to breath and be present? As a result, myriad programs have sprung up around the concept- some of dubious quality, all introducing the ideas from different perspectives.  What's the difference between the good ones and the weak ones? What is *your* experience with Mindfulness in schools? Has it worked for you kids? Why (or why not)?","Link":["http:\/\/mindfulnessineducation.wordpress.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"I'll spend just a few minutes (no more than 10) sharing some examples of what I mean by Mindfulness, followed by discussions focused around the questions included above using either a whole group (if the group is small) or small group to large group (if it's large) discussion format.","Presenter":["Susan Dreyer Leon"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Antioch University New England"],"PresenterEmail":["sdreyerleon@antioch.edu"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":2,"SubmitterID":15,"AdditionalComments":"You can also find me on Twitter and Pinterest @MindfulEducator","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":460,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414878249,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Re-Languaging School","Handle":"re-languaging_school","ShortDescription":"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.","Description":"The language of education evokes strong emotions for many of us: Discipline. Freshman. Grades. Math. Administration. Assessment. We each bring our own understandings, context and history to the language we use in school. As we change our educational practices, our attention to physical space, our approaches to student support, how are our word choices keeping up - or not? \r\n\r\n In this conversation, we\u2019ll explore these questions: do the words we choose to use in school describe what we actually mean? How do words include or exclude? Do our terms inspire hope or fear? How might we use our language to guide our culture? Are we being intentional? How do the lenses of history, race, gender, power and poverty factor in? What might we shift to align our values with our language? \r\n\r\nThis conversation will not seek to answer any of these questions; rather, we\u2019ll seek to debate and generate.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Large group brainstorm, small group discussion of terms, large group conversation and generation of proposal for re-languaging common school terms.","Presenter":["Alex Shevrin"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Centerpoint School"],"PresenterEmail":["alex.shevrin@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":12,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":478,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1415122224,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Self Care in a Challenging Educational Climate","Handle":"self_care_in_a_challenging_educational_climate","ShortDescription":"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.","Description":"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.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"","Presenter":["Zoe Siswick","Meenoo Rami"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Science Leadership Academy"],"PresenterEmail":["zsiswick@scienceleadership.org","mrami@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":10,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":485,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1415123507,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Shifting the Focus: Elevating Student Voices","Handle":"shifting_the_focus--elevating_student_voices","ShortDescription":"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.","Description":"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.","Link":["http:\/\/mrjblock.com"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"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.","Presenter":["Joshua Block","Amal Giknis"],"PresenterAffiliation":["SLA"],"PresenterEmail":["jblock@scienceleadership.org","agiknis@scienceleadership.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":16,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":"Can you put us on Saturday, please?","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":497,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1416955468,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"System wide alignment and capacity building of professional learning","Handle":"system_wide_alignment_and_capacity_building_of_professional_learning","ShortDescription":"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.","Description":"The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology published its Professional Learning Toolkit in November 2014. Published in the public domain and openly available for remix and re-purposing, the toolkit offers research-supported thinking around aligning the pile of plans and goals within a school or district, figuring out capacity, and then moving to use all the tools available to design toward a learning organization.","Link":["http:\/\/tech.ed.gov\/professional-learning\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"The conversation will include individual reflection (written and spoken), small group conversation, and whole group debate.","Presenter":["Zac Chase"],"PresenterAffiliation":["U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology"],"PresenterEmail":["Zac.chase@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":13,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":426,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1413994984,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Readiness Project","Handle":"the_readiness_project","ShortDescription":"Quick: Define \u201ccollege readiness\u201d. Now: compare what\u2019s 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\u2019s redefine college readiness and discuss innovative teaching and assessment practices (you\u2019re likely already utilizing) that are aligned with our new, consensus-built definition.","Description":"Last year, ACT published findings (via Policy Implications on Preparing for Higher Standards) illustrating that 89% of high school educators believe that they are graduating students college-ready, while only 26% of college professors believe this to be true. Therefore, it must either be true that high school educators have a misguided sense of self-worth, or we\u2019re faced with conflicting definitions of what it actually means to be \u201ccollege-ready\u201d. \r\n\r\nACT bases its definition of readiness on established content-area benchmarks (science, math, reading English). Arne Duncan describes CCR as the ability to work in diverse teams, display grit, and continually learn. As Director of the CWRA (the College & Work Readiness Assessment), even I\u2019m guilty of definition-conflating. (Our definition includes mastery of deeper learning skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication). \r\n\r\nIt\u2019s high time we take back the conversation and define for ourselves what definitions of college and career readiness we wish to be held to.  This session builds off work I have done with other groups to build ground-level consensus around (a) how to best define what it means to be college (and career) ready, (b) best methods for teaching toward that definition and (c) ways to effectively align assessment practices with both the definition and the aligned teaching practices.  \r\n\r\nAs I continue accumulating feedback from across the country, my goal is to determine how these definitions\u2014essentially created in the vacuum of individual conference sessions\u2014resemble one another (and often fail to resemble the definitions established by outside parties).","Link":["http:\/\/www.cae.org\/rr"],"Audience":["High School"],"Practice":"This session will be roughly 80% group-based work and consensus building. But for some baseline foundation setting, the content of the session will be driven by the discussions themselves. Conversations around defining \u201creadiness\u201d will scaffold appropriately into conversations about pedagogy and, subsequently, assessment. To be fair\u2026EduCon attendees are somewhat self-selecting, so I can anticipate where the conversation will go, so it won\u2019t be without structure. But the results of this session will play an integral part in ensuring that the voices of the EduCon participant will influence a more national conversation about righting existing misalignment in the ways that various groups view college (and career) readiness.","Presenter":["Chris Jackson"],"PresenterAffiliation":["CWRA"],"PresenterEmail":["cjackson@cae.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":14,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":455,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414814177,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Working from Color Blind to Color Conscious","Handle":"working_from_color_blind_to_color_conscious","ShortDescription":"By modeling activities from the University of Texas' Principalship Program, with it\u2019s 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.","Description":"How do you get (predominantly white) educators to 'see' color? To be able to hold productive conversations around race? Quality conversations are rare in nearly all schools across the country. Too often talks about race are derailed due to poor execution and\/or planning, failing to understand the complex dynamics involved in such discussions. This conversation will help provide participants with the tools needed to begin this much needed dialogue.","Link":["http:\/\/www.adamholman.org","http:\/\/www.edcampATX.org"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"All participants and attendees will be encouraged to bring an activity, an article, a blog post, a video, etc. to share;  that they've found helpful in raising their level of color consciousness. All ideas shared will be collected on a Padlet or similar level platform for curation. Newcomers are strongly encouraged to attend, even if they don\u2019t feel confident sharing, as this conversation is meant to help give all educators some practical tools and conversation starters to bring back to their campus or district.","Presenter":["Adam Holman","Stephanie Cerda"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Austin ISD","Manor ISD"],"PresenterEmail":["agholm@gmail.com","isis.s.cerda@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":7,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4},{"ID":445,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1414765510,"CreatorID":79,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"\u201cThe Wannado Curriculum: Scenes from a Dynamic Math 2.0 Classroom\u201d","Handle":"the_wannado_curriculum--scenes_from_a_dynamic_math_2.0_classroom","ShortDescription":"\u201cThe Wannado Curriculum: Scenes from a Dynamic Math 2.0 Classroom\u201d 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.","Description":"Following a brief presentation by one local and one remote presenter, we will engage with the discussants who may be interested in enriching mathematics learning and teaching at all levels through more active problem solving, non-traditional methodologies and utilization of Web 2.0 technologies. Challenges abound, no-doubt (Core Curriculum demands, state-mandated high-stakes testing) but dynamic teachers across the US and around the world are already sharing best practices.\r\n\r\n We anticipate an active discussion with participants in the room at SLA as well as contributions from colleagues and friends - we are going to set this up in advance! - sharing ideas through Twitter and other social media platforms, email, etc. The engagement of the participants in a focussed but far-ranging (interdisciplinary approaches, problem\/project-based learning ideas - even the SLA model!) conversation will hopefully not end at the conclusion of the breakout session. Relationships may be formed and plans for implementations in classrooms will continue to be discussed and supported. Orthogonal thinking (math PLUS dance, math PLUS art, math in the real world) will be encouraged.","Link":["http:\/\/dynamicmathclassroom.blogspot.com\/2012\/08\/preview-of-forthcoming-book.html","http:\/\/www.moebiusnoodles.com","http:\/\/mathfour.com\/"],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"Remote presenter (Ihor, by Skype, Google Hangout, etc.), Twitter #hashtag commentary during presentation for added input - outgrouth of active #mathchat","Presenter":["David Weksler","Ihor Charischak"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Too many to mention ;-) - independent math prof. development providers"],"PresenterEmail":["wex@pobox.com","ihor@clime.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":53,"ScheduleLocationID":11,"SubmitterID":79,"AdditionalComments":"Thanks for considering our conversation proposal!","LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":4}],"conditions":{"Status":"Accepted","ConferenceID":4,"ScheduleSlotID":53},"total":11,"limit":false,"offset":false}