Conference Preconference Workshops

The following workshops (organized by the Making Schools Work focus areas) will be offered:

Engaging Instruction

1. SREB’s Powerful Science Instructional Practices Are Phenomenal: To be viable members of society and the workforce, today’s students face a higher imperative to know, understand and be able to apply scientific knowledge. Science has entered a renaissance, with a focus on engaging students in scientific and engineering phenomena and three-dimensional performance; but phenomenal teaching and 3D science performances can be challenging to implement. Come see how to navigate these challenges using SREB’s Powerful Science Instructional Practices, and learn from one of the architects of the 3D science movement. The PSIPs and the phenomena in the workshop are applicable to every grade band and grade level.
   
   Presenters: Stephen Pruitt and Latonya Bolden, SREB

2. A Deep Dive into SREB’s Powerful Instructional Practices for Career and Technical Education: Career and technical teachers and administrators are encouraged to join us for an interactive workshop using SREB’s Powerful Instructional Practices for Career and Technical Education. Together we will review each of the six CTE PIPs and identify supporting artifacts, student behaviors and teacher behaviors, all while using real-world scenarios of different instructional moments. Leave this workshop with the skills to apply the CTE PIPs to improve instruction, classroom engagement and student success, no matter what curriculum you use.
   
   Presenters: Linda Floyd and Kathleen McNally, SREB

Aligned Curriculum

3. Aligning Assignments, Assessments and Instruction to Standards: At the end of an instructional unit, do your students know the content or do they understand it? What is the difference? In this preconference session, participants will learn a process for ensuring the alignment of standards, instruction, assignments and assessment. This focus will help move students from knowing to increasing levels of understanding.
   
   Presenter: Daniel Rock, SREB

4. We Have PLCs, Now What: Effective Use of Collaboration Time: Are your Professional Learning Communities working as a tool for improvement or have they become just another item to check off the to-do list? What is the purpose of your learning community? In this session, you will discuss purposes and best practices for teacher collaboration and how to leverage PLC work by extending teacher collaboration beyond meetings. Creating teacher-led, low-stakes opportunities that require limited time or energy is key to keeping meaningful collaboration alive. Ideas discussed will include conducting classroom and PLC visits, using instructional rounds, conducting lesson tuning, and reviewing classroom assignments. Join us as we talk about collaboration in schools that impacts student success.
   
   Presenters: Connie Luper and Susan Simpson, SREB

Career Pathways

5. Making Career Connections: Aligning Career Pathways to In-Demand Careers: Career pathways provide students with the skills and training needed to enter and advance in high-demand career fields; however, many students and families are unaware of the variety of in-demand occupations available in their region. This workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to learn about and design resources that effectively communicate career pathway outcomes and connections to regional opportunities, recruit future students, and strengthen partnerships with regional business and industry leaders. Participants will examine sample career ladders that can be used to promote both entry-level and advanced occupations within a pathway or career cluster area. They also will begin developing materials that help students and families understand the essential skills needed in a particular career field and the available certifications that can be used to demonstrate learning milestones and promote future educational opportunities after graduation.
   
   Presenter: Ivy Alford, SREB

6. Designing Career-Connected Project-Based Learning Units of Study: When implemented effectively, project-based learning is a powerful tool for creating engaging learning environments where students master curricular standards while also developing needed success skills for life beyond school — the types of learning environments that enable students to connect their learning to future careers. This workshop will explore the difference between true PBL and simply doing projects. Participants will apply this knowledge to either redesign a project from their curriculum or develop a new idea for a PBL unit of study that connects standards to authentic problems.
   
   Presenter: Leslie Eaves, SREB

Student Support

7. An Introduction to SREB’s Powerful Student Support Practices: SREB’s Powerful Student Support Practices provide schools and districts with a vision for a comprehensive effort to support student success. These practices can be used as guidelines for a schoolwide student advisement effort that helps students develop self-advocacy, explore career options and connect to their broader community. Participants will examine examples of artifacts and sets of behaviors that are found — across students, teachers, counselors and administrators — when these practices are in place. We will engage in activities and discussions around each of the practices, including an interactive Padlet that participants can continue to access when they return to their schools.
   
   Presenters: Aimee Wyatt, Erin Anderson-Williams, Philippa Whitfield, SREB
    
8. Supporting the Wounded Educator: A Trauma-Informed Journey Toward Personal and Professional Wellness: Are you sick of hearing about self-care because you know that no temporary “fix” is going to begin to stand up to what you’ve been up against? Us, too — which is why we’re going to start here: We can’t give what we don’t have. Expanding on information in our book (which was released pre-Covid, because we already knew your jobs were hard), this workshop will engage participants in a validating, empowering, practitioner-developed wellness model. We will discuss how trauma and secondary trauma can contribute to compassion fatigue or burnout, and we’ll address other obstacles to implementing meaningful self-care. Participants will leave with resources for mental, physical, emotional and professional health to support overall wellness through a variety of interactive activities. You matter, what you do matters, and your hope matters — so let’s get into some real talk and look at intentional ways to support and sustain your journey.
   
   Presenters: Dardi and Joe Hendershott, Hope for the Wounded

Leadership for Continuous Improvement

9. Getting Started with the Making Schools Work Improvement Frameworks: Are you new to SREB and Making Schools Work? Are you not really sure what you have got yourself into? Join the conversation in this workshop to better understand the power of the Making Schools Work school improvement frameworks and their central sets of key school and classroom practices that encourage student effort. Together we will unpack these key practices, help you identify what you may already be doing in each area and begin to define what best practices can look like in your school. You will leave the workshop feeling confident and focused as you move forward in your school improvement journey.
   
   Presenters: Gary Wrinkle and Tom Siler, SREB

10. How Leaders Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement Using Focus Teams and SREB’s Problem-Solving Process: Schools can rise or fall depending on the type of improvement culture they foster. Start by asking do stakeholders have a voice in planning and decision-making or do they feel like changes are being imposed upon them? When the school community is engaged in analyzing problems, developing plans, establishing goals and monitoring progress together, teachers and leaders truly own school improvement efforts — leading to greater buy-in and success. Participants in this workshop will learn how to engage well-organized and empowered focus teams in developing strong plans to reinvent education in ways that can address inequity, poverty, weak infrastructures and the social and emotional health of students and teachers.
    
    Presenters: Judy Frank and Allyson Morgan, SREB
     
11. Teaching to the Gamer Generation: A Deep Dive into the Mind of a Gamer: Why are video games like Fortnite and Roblox so addicting? Why do students continue to be so disengaged? Join international author and presenter Dr. Ian Jukes, global citizen and educator Dr. Nicky Mohan, and EdTech Entrepreneur and Gamer Nai Wang for this energetic, hands-on masterclass that examines: how the minds of gamers work, what motivates them to learn, how video games can use incremental growth, rewards, achievements,and peer engagement to maintain learner engagement, and how gamification can translate addictive strategies into everyday classroom practice. Participants will develop effective strategies that will cultivate learner engagement aligned with learner personality and culture.
    
    Presenters: Nai Wang, KP Education Systems, Ian Jukes, Nicky Mohan
     
12. Special Session for School Teams ($300): Personalized Coaching Session for School Teams: The 2023 SREB Making Schools Work Summer Conference has more than 500 high-quality sessions to meet the professional development needs of your school or district team. This special session is intentionally designed to make sure your team gets the most out of the full conference and leaves with a broad set of tools to address your specific improvement plans and priorities. An experienced SREB leadership coach or instructional coach will help your team map out a professional development plan, based on your data and priorities for improvement. The coach will engage your team in SREB’s problem-solving process and help identify the sessions that will be of the greatest benefit to you.
    
    In addition to the preconference session, your team will have a room available at the conclusion of each day to meet with your coach, debrief sessions, document the day’s learning and connect it to your professional learning goals. At the conclusion of the conference, your coach will support you in creating an action plan for sharing the learning from the conference with your entire staff to launch your school’s or district’s professional learning for the year. Maximize the benefit of your summer conference by making it integral to the professional development of your whole staff, and empower your teacher-leaders to support other teachers at your school.

Presenters: Steve Broome, SREB and SREB Leadership Coaches