Topic Strands

Breakout workshops, expert panels, and roundtable discussions will organize into these session strands:

Audience

All educators and teams, at a variety of stages, because the cycles of improvement require everyone to revisit the basics of autonomies and practices—and hear ideas that push what we think is possible.

Nov. 3 Pre-Con: Teacher-Powered 101, Jump Start Your Journey

New to teacher-powered? Interested, but don’t know where to start? Join us for an afternoon and leave understanding the fundamentals of teacher-powered—ready to start the conference with a strong foundation.

Designed for those new to teacher-powered, individuals as well as teams. Attendees will leave with a plan of schools to visit, teacher-powered practitioners to connect with, and steps for the next three months to move you forward on your journey.

$100 per person ($75 per person when attending with a team). This pre-conference workshop takes place at the conference hotel.

Register here

2022 Sessions

STRAND: Teacher-Powered On a Stick

The Carousel of Educational Staffing

  • Shifting the role of the teacher as a leader to work together in teams with community partners, business leaders, and other stakeholders to facilitate deeper learning of concepts and reinforce 21st Century Skills that prepare students for careers.
  • Teacher-Powered On a Stick
  • PRESENTERS: Michael Stewart, Brent Maddin, and Laurie King

Professional Learning Powered by Teacher Leaders

  • In this session, we will share how teacher leaders at UCLA Community School, a K-12 public school located in Los Angeles, designed professional learning cycles that are centered around student learning and teacher expertise. We will share practical examples of how teacher teams engaged in collective learning focused on k-5 math instruction. Then, we will present tools and protocols that participants can use to engage their teams in meaningful professional learning.
  • Teacher-Powered On a Stick
  • PRESENTERS: Rebekah Kang, Leyda Garcia, and Nancy Garcia

Systems Change at the Arcade

  • In this session, participants will learn systems-based thinking through the lens of video game design, moving from “gamification” to creating an “invitation to play”, and recognizing how to use progressive practices to build a more responsive educational experience through ungrading, purpose-finding, experiential learning, and more. (Video game knowledge is not required!)
  • <Teacher-Powered On a Stick
  • PRESENTER: Nick Covington

Teacher Collaboration & Growth Program

  • The Teacher Collaboration & Growth Program presentation focuses on using the autonomy of teacher evaluation and how to make it useful, personal and meaningful. Integrating aspects of the program will cause a major school culture shift as the faculty use their power and expertise to enter into professional dialogues, perform teacher-directed Classroom Observations, analyze student data, and generate value from Student Surveys. Collaboration skill building is at the heart of the program.
  • Teacher-Powered On a Stick
  • PRESENTER: Greg Fisher

STRAND: Blue Ribbon Practices

Ain’t No Rest for the Committed

  • Over COVID, our school’s leadership team rebuilt or switched its learning program 7 times. A team that is both committed and empowered (autonomy, resources, etc.) changes practice when when something has proven not to work. Session will focus on how and why choices were made, challenges faced, and lessons learned.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTERS: J. Josh MacLachlan and Academic Arts team

Café con y por estudiantes

  • Escuela Verde has added a student run and operated cafe to our Project Based Curriculum – this was a program that developed during the pandemic, it was able to engage students during this difficult period. Escuela Verde Newline Café, is a school based, completely student-run enterprise located in Milwaukee that offers students entrepreneurial experience and creates an intergenerational gathering place for creative community connections.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTERS: Cynthia Gonzalez, Jeremy Ault, and Escuela Verde teachers

Developing Student Curiosity and Amusement: Park Student Input at the Front of Curriculum Design

  • How do you build student voice and choice into your curriculum? Our discussion will unpack the benefits and challenges of empowering students to choose topics for class discussions. You will have the opportunity to create a lesson plan built on attendees’ curiosities and interests.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTERS: Brian D’Auteuil and Sarah McCarthy

Don’t Let the Tail Wag the Dog: Why Many EdTech Solutions Fall Short and One School’s Journey for a Solution That Works FOR Them Instead of Against

  • Learning Management Systems can catalyze or sabotage transformative learning models. The journey to identify, triangulate, and then roll out a LMS can be daunting and mistake prone. Join the WAVE team as we share our learning model, our 10+ year journey to find the right LMS, and our delight with the Headrush Learning Platform.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTERS: Shane Krukowski and Sarah Giddings

Empower Teachers to Empower Students

  • Come ask questions and hear about how Mastery Portfolio has partnered with Portal Schools in the development and tracking of student progress and learning. Teachers created their transdisciplinary competencies so that learning could be transferred across content to provide excellent student learning experiences.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTERS: Starr Sackstein, Constance Borro, Grace Cruz, Kate Parsons, Meika Nwaomah, and Jordana Benone

Grandstand One Night Only: The Disruptive Power of Space

  • The physical environment often creates barriers to the kind of authentic, empowering, student-centered learning that we know is best for everyone. We have a choice: we work to overcome those barriers, constantly trying to go through, over, or around them. Or, we can work to remove the barrier entirely.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTER: Nathan Strenge

Many hands, light work: Growing hope with individuals, students, and staff

  • This session provides a framework and language to actively engage staff and students in growing hope. A panel of three schools will share strategies they found to be successful, engaging, and at times transformational. Participants will unitize the framework and discussion to personalize growing hope for themselves and their school.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTERS: Dr. Steven J. Rippe and Scott Feraro

Materials Matter: How to Advocate for High-Quality Instructional Materials

  • A recent study shows that less than 20% of teachers have access to standards-aligned curriculum. It is more important than ever to know the research, understand the materials you have, find out how it was selected, and learn how to advocate to ensure that all educators and students have access to high-quality instructional materials.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTER: Melody Arabo

Piloting Powerful Pathways

  • Learn how schools leveraged teacher powered practices and autonomies to create powerful career pathways and CTE experiences for their students.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTER: Sarah Brown

Tilt A Whirl: Elevating the Power of Autonomies to Transform School Communities

  • Tilt A Whirl: Elevating the Power of Autonomies to Transform School Communities is an interactive session that spotlights two autonomous school sites, one elementary and one secondary, that have leveraged their autonomies as Pilot Schools within LAUSD to break down barriers and to propel outcomes for Black & Brown students.
  • Blue Ribbon Practices
  • PRESENTER: Letitia Johnson-Davis, EdD

STRAND: Escaping the House of Mirrors

Escaping the Giant Hairball of Edu-Fads!

  • An authentic learner-centered environment doesn’t happen by chasing edu-fads. It comes from building a culture that catalyzes local skills and talent through radical collaboration and open sharing. Using a Design Thinking framework, this session explores how collective teacher efficacy can create and sustain such a culture in your own school.
  • Escaping the House of Mirrors
  • PRESENTERS: Adam Haigler and Ben Pendarvis

Measuring What Matters: Developing Teacher Leadership Through A Multi-Data Point Evaluation System

  • Maricopa County Regional School District has worked alongside teacher-leaders to develop multiple tools to support the development and measure the progress of their practice. The tools have clarified expectations and helped solidify the vocabulary associated with what we are working so hard to accomplish.
  • Escaping the House of Mirrors
  • PRESENTERS: Laurie King, Adrian deAlba, and Darcy Moody

Riding the Rollercoaster: Teacher Power in a Pandemic

  • In this session, three Teacher-Powered Ambassadors from three very different schools will share some of the lessons they’ve taken from 2+ years of pandemic teaching. These ideas have relevance far beyond the pandemic, particularly when it comes to maintaining safe, equitable, and sustainable school communities.
  • Escaping the House of Mirrors
  • PRESENTERS: Peter Wieczorek, Carrie Bakken, and Skylar Primm