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

Engaging Instruction

1. A Deep Dive into SREB’s Powerful Instructional Practices:SREB’s Powerful Instructional Practices engage teachers in designing lessons, assignments and assessments that empower students to take ownership of their learning and reach new heights of achievement in every content area. What’s more, our PIPs work with any existing curriculum product to improve instruction. Together we will explore our practices for the arts, CTE, health education, literacy, math, science, social studies, project-based learning and world languages. 

   Participants will discuss supporting artifacts, student behaviors and teacher behaviors. Activities will support participants in applying the PIPs to their own classroom to improve instruction, classroom engagement and student success.
   
   Presenters:  Jason Adair and Connie Lester, SREB

Aligned Curriculum

2. Aligning Assignments, Assessments and Instruction to Standards: At the conclusion of an instructional unit, have your students merely acquired knowledge, or have they truly grasped the content? What sets these two apart? During this pre-conference session, attendees will acquire a method for assuring there is harmony between standards, instruction, assignments and assessments. This emphasis will facilitate the transition of students from mere knowledge acquisition to achieving higher levels of comprehension.
   
   Presenters: Debbie Robertson and Daniel Rock, SREB

Career Pathways

3. Do Your Students Have Access to High-Quality, Aligned Career Pathways?   Attend this session to review the elements of high-quality career pathways to identify the elements that are in place for your students and determine next steps to enhance course and program offerings.  This session will provide an opportunity to review course sequences and regional connections that support the seamless transition to both future training and employment.  Participants will share strategies to embed acceleration options, including dual enrollment, work-based learning and credential attainment, within existing pathway options.  Local labor market data will be shared and used to create promotional materials that connect pathway activities to employment opportunities in high-skill, in-demand careers within the region.  

   
   Presenter: Ivy Coburn, SREB

Student Support

4. 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. Participants will also develop a plan of action to include a self-assessment guide and additional ways to utilize the practices to improve student support efforts in their individual schools.

   Presenters: Erin Anderson-Williams, Marsha Moseley, Aimee Wyatt, SREB

Leadership for Continuous Improvement

5. 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

Team Session

6. Personalized Coaching Session for School Teams: The 2024 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 workshop, 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, Bob Stokes and Carita Venable, SREB