Pre-Conference Workshops

Developing excellent teachers who understand how learning happens and what that means for teaching is a game-changer for schools and districts. Learn ways to strengthen your school system's ability to leverage key components of learning science to improve student learning and recruit and retain educators who are evidence-informed and equity-driven. This workshop will articulate a simple model of the mind, describing how learning happens; identify key learning science principles that ensure instructional effectiveness; analyze identified components of successful evidence-to-practice implementation in classroom practice and professional learning; and outline initial steps for building capacity for professional learning in your school or district. 

 Countless teachers have identified a problem: their students can’t write. We are all writing teachers, and we have a responsibility to ensure writing is embedded into instruction across the disciplines. Writing about learning leads to greater brain activity, improved outcomes in reading, and the increased likelihood that students will retain and transfer knowledge and skills. In this workshop, you will explore cognitive writing in journals as a sustainable solution for writing to learn across subjects, including how to scaffold writing properly for all learners, multilinguals, and students with disabilities. 

 If you wait until you have planned your lesson to decide how you will assess it, you have waited too late! If you wait until the end of the lesson to determine if students have mastered essential learning, again, you have waited too late! Once you have decided what you want students to know and be able to do, the next question becomes, how will you know when they can do it? This workshop will enable you to: (1) create a brain-compatible environment conducive to optimal learning; (2) delineate over 50 products and performances that students can use to demonstrate what they are learning; and (3) develop practical rubrics for assessing those authentic forms of assessment. You will leave this session with four ways that enable students to succeed at any test. 

 Teachers often hear that you should change the way you teach because “research says so.” And yet, of course, we should think critically before we accept research-based advice. Our experience matters! How do we get that balance just right? In this workshop, you will explore the questions to ask, the answers to doubt, and the responses to trust. Through expert questions and insider terminology, you can make thoughtful and balanced decisions about complex research topics. As a result, you can avoid fads and champion teaching practices that fit your classroom, your curriculum, your students, and the research. 

 Designed for leadership teams, this workshop will bridge cognitive science research with school-specific contexts to establish guiding principles for high-impact teaching. It will provide a framework for defining what the research says about effective teaching and adapting it to a school’s unique environment. The presenters will provide several examples of how this has been done in schools.