We are delighted to announce the first 30 sessions for the 2nd USA Festival of Education. You can view a summary of the sessions taking place below. Further content will be announced in the coming weeks.
It’s All Connected: Linking the Science of Learning with the Science of Literacy
Cognitive science has provided solid evidence for strategies like retrieval practice. But those strategies only work if they’re applied to substantive content or a transferable skill—and too often, literacy instruction focuses on non-transferable skills like “making inferences.” The overwhelming focus on such skills at lower grade levels, combined with a failure to recognize the heavy cognitive load imposed by reading and especially writing, leaves many students without the knowledge and skills assumed by the curriculum later on. Even in the age of AI, it’s crucial to have that knowledge and those skills stored in long-term memory. To enable all students to reach their full potential, we need to break down the artificial walls separating reading, writing, and learning—both in research and classroom practice.
Natalie Wexler
Author, The Knowledge Gap
Closing Keynote
Amy Loyd
Assistant Secretary for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), U.S. Department of Education
The Human Side of Intelligence Augmentation: Judgment Skills in an AI World
While much of the discourse on generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education has revolved around the potential for efficiency gains and the substitution of skills such as writing and lesson planning, more likely is a future where humans and AI will work together, enabling more effective performance than either can do alone–a concept termed “intelligence augmentation” (IA). In IA, human judgment complements the computational, calculative, and predictive capabilities of AI. This session explores what building awareness of and honing human judgment skills could look like for students, educators, and administrators, and how we might leverage AI to do this.
Ashley Etemadi
Research Assistant, Harvard Graduate School of Education
How to Foster Student Inquiry and Agency Using AI Tools
In this interactive workshop, participants will engage in hands-on activities with AI tools and products in order to discuss and reflect on how AI use in the classroom can foster inquiry, engage, and empower learners to develop critical thinking and collaboration skills. They will walk away with concrete strategies and resources relevant to their own context, as well as a renewed confidence in the power of AI tools for academic purposes. This workshop is most suitable for middle school and high school teachers, but all are welcome. Participants will need to bring a device of their choice to the workshop. No prior experience with AI is necessary, only an open mind!
Carole Geneix
Director of Teaching & Learning, Washington International School
Empowering Educators: AI Strategies for Teacher Sustainability and Student-Centric Curriculum Adaptation
Join us for an insightful session tailored to educators seeking to harness the potential of AI to foster both teacher sustainability and student success. Discover how AI tools can support teachers in creating adaptable curricula. Explore innovative approaches for utilizing AI-driven insights to tailor instruction, provide personalized feedback, and optimize teaching strategies. Moreover, learn about AI-powered professional development resources that enable teachers to stay current with educational trends and refine their pedagogical practices. Join us as we explore practical applications of AI in education, empowering teachers to create inclusive, dynamic learning environments that prepare students for the challenges of tomorrow.
Colleen Bernard
Curriculum Supervisor, Secondary Social Studies, Frederick County Public Schools
Tony Bollino
Teacher Specialist for Career and Technical Education, Frederick County Public Schools
Putting the TECH into TEaCHing
Are you a tech-heavy teacher? Do you have students that fall behind often because they can’t keep up with technology? Let’s face it, we can no longer assume that our students know how to use their devices. Join me as I present methods to get your students tech-ready!
Jason Davis
Teacher, Richland County School District One Columbia SC
Learning to Learn: Developing Self-Directed Learners
This session focuses on cultivating self-directed students in a K-12 environment by equipping them with skills to create and implement their own learning plans. Participants will explore strategies for fostering student autonomy, goal-setting, and self-monitoring. Emphasis will be placed on practical techniques to help students manage their time, develop problem-solving skills, and build resilience. Attendees will learn how to integrate these practices into their teaching to support students’ growth both academically and personally. By the end of the session, educators will be prepared to guide students in becoming proactive, responsible learners capable of thriving inside and outside the classroom.
Jonathon Borys
Regional Director of Education, OneSchool Global North America
Courtney Avangelista
Global Teacher Academy Director, OneSchool Global North America
Adaptive Expertise in the Science & Art of Teaching
Join us to explore the concept of adaptive expertise in teaching, and how research from Mind, Brain and Education (MBE) can support excellent teaching and learning. Teachers continuously adapt their instruction in response to ever-changing classroom dynamics, and expert teachers draw from a robust bank of knowledge, tools, and strategies to inform their practice. In this session, we’ll explore how concepts from Psychology, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Health and Education can inform great teaching by enhancing adaptive expertise.
Kristin Simmers
PhD Candidate, University of Connecticut
A Science of Teaching Built By and For Teachers
The profession of teaching is under assault. Many politicians, administrators and parents question content and methods. Some researchers and professional organizations lament that teachers do not leverage “evidence-based” strategies, others argue that teaching is a calling whose strategies are beyond examination, mystifying and de-professionalizing the practice of teaching. Does teaching lend itself to generating proof of its impact? This talk will explore the model of an educator who is evidence generating as a result of responsible classroom practice and the dire need for this to happen. Inherent to this idea is the need to evaluate practice in context by those who implement it, and the appreciation for what the teacher can, and should, bring to the practice and study of teaching. We will discuss various perspectives on where teaching innovations can, and should, come from; how to vet new, and current, strategies; how difficult it is to design for authentic classroom impact; and the need to examine unintended consequences when introducing new strategies to practice. Ultimately, the goal of this talk is to explore a new model of what it is for teaching to be a profession that responsibly generates its own knowledge and practices. We have Science of Learning: Why don’t we have a Science of Teaching?
David Daniel
Professor Emeritus, Psychology James Madison University
An emotion-based approach to education: Insights from a teacher turned mental health counselor
As educators, some of our hardest work is that involving emotions. The classroom itself is a hotbed of emotion-based interactions! However, teacher training seldom includes practices that could help to identify and address emotions. As a former science teacher now pursuing a career in youth mental health, I am learning skills that I wish I had known in the classroom. In this interactive session, we will discuss how principles of trauma-informed mental health treatment can be incorporated into the Universal Design for Learning framework. We will identify different states of emotional activation, what prompts them, how to spot them, and how to respond when they arise. You will learn how to reach more students, enhance student learning, and improve interpersonal connections with your students and colleagues. Whatever your educational role, this session will include nuggets of insight for you!
Raquel Sherman
School-Based and Educator-Support Clinician, River Valley Counseling Center
'Better than Bloom'? - Thinking Moves A - Z: Metacognition Made Simple
Roger Sutcliffe, the creator of the scheme, will explain how the 26 verbs in the A – Z encompass but surpass Bloom’s famous, but flawed, taxonomy of cognitive processes. He will show how teaching and learning at any level, and in any domain, can be improved by planning for and practising individual Moves, and by developing a rich range of metacognitive strategies, expressed as simple combinations of Moves. These strategies can be compared with Project Zero’s Thinking Routines, but enable both more precise articulations of the steps involved, and more potent variations.
Roger Sutcliffe
Director, DialogueWorks
Returning Control to Students: Learning Portfolios as Assessment Tools
The importance of student agency when it comes to assessment practices is well documented, though it can sometimes be challenging to design for such work systematically. This session will explore how learning portfolios can provide students with authentic opportunities to author their own learning narratives. Specifically, attendees will learn how to embed regular opportunities for metacognitive reflection, how to develop a culture of documentation, and how to capture this work in several different portfolio formats.
Kurt Prescott
Humanities Instructor, Maret School
The Sequel to the Science of Reading: The Science of Teaching Writing
This session will discuss the current state of writing instruction and student proficiency in America, identify key issues with existing teaching methods, and introduce the Writing Pathway—a free, open-source scope and sequence developed with and for teachers to guide writing instruction in any content area, grades 3-12. We’ll present findings from a quasi-experimental study we conducted in the 2022-2023 school year, which showed statistically significant improvement in student writing outcomes when the Pathway was used. Additionally, we’ll share preliminary results from a second ongoing study and demonstrate how the Pathway’s AI tools support teachers in creating tailored, high-quality materials that embed the teaching of writing in their specific content.
Sherry Lewkowicz
Senior Director, The Writing Pathway Innovation Lab, Teaching Lab
The Writing Revolution: Writing in Service of Learning with the Hochman Method
With the focus intensifying on evidence-based reading practices, it’s crucial that writing instruction is not excluded from the conversation. When students write about what they are learning, it improves their understanding of texts, deepens their thinking about content, and builds background knowledge and vocabulary. During our session, we will provide an overview and practice with the Hochman Method, an approach to explicit writing instruction that teachers can use in every grade and in all subjects.
Alexandria Chalonec
Co-Director of Academics, The Writing Revolution
Christine Teahan
Co-Director of Academics, The Writing Revolution
The Power Of A Core Set Of Teaching Techniques
Why do students struggle in the classroom? Well, it’s complicated! In a class of multiple individuals, it is not straight-forward to find out how successfully each individual person is learning, identifying what their difficulties or gaps are and then to use that information to close their learning gaps with appropriate responses. All too often, faced with this ever-present difficulty, teachers cut corners and do not structure lessons so that they focus on flushing out difficulties, errors and gaps in recall and understanding. They rely too heavily on collective responses and a generalised sense of student success rate without consciously and deliberately attending to each and every individual. As a result, the least confident students can pass from lesson to lesson, going through the motions of lesson activities, being present, caught up in the general flow, without having their individual learning issues addressed; their learning gaps go undetected at the point of instruction and often remain. Teachers who master a core set of powerful teaching techniques can respond more readily to these challenges.
Matt Stone
Director of Education & Operations, Teaching WalkThrus
Using MBE Strategies to Develop High Quality Learning Sessions
Effective learning design is the cornerstone of meaningful learning. By carefully crafting your learning episodes with evidence-informed strategies, you ensure that every moment in the classroom is impactful. Our session emphasizes the critical role of intentional and thoughtful design, combined with the use of evidence -informed strategies, in creating engaging and deep learning experiences. You will learn how to structure your learning episodes for a wide variety of audiences to maximize learner interaction, understanding, and retention.
Amy Struntz
Supervisor for Induction and Professional Learning, Frederick County Public Schools
Tammy Sander
Teacher Specialist for Induction and Professional Learning, Frederick County Public Schools
We Are All Innovators- How Design Thinking and Problem Based Learning Inspires Learners
Design thinking and problem based learning teachers create learning opportunities that create instructional value through transformation of information and learning as they form structures and experiences that are not merely about the product, but a process that encourages students to create knowledge, apply skills and acquire competencies by solving all scales of problems. When design thinking is combined with problem-based learning, it is a transformational process that creates deep cultures of learning, that embraces academic acumen, cross disciplinary skill, student choice, and inspired creativity.
Charles James
CTTL Design Thinking Research Lead, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School
How Teaching & Learning Happens: Implementing Evidence-Informed Practice in the Classroom, School, and District
This session is perfect for teachers and leaders seeking to start their school or district on a journey toward evidence-informed practice. Using insights from the acclaimed books How Learning Happens and How Teaching Happens, the session will highlight essential ways to use key findings from cognitive science to enhance student learning outcomes.
Walk away with a vision of the science of learning in practice at scale and how to move from theory to application on Monday morning!
Meg Lee
Advisor for Evidence-Informed Practice, Academica University of Applied Sciences
Teaching Like Ted (Lasso): Growing Happiness Today and Success Tomorrow
What does it mean to be educated? How about learning to be happy? Life, however, is not an easy assignment. The core tenets of the award-winning show Ted Lasso teach us to help others and aspire to reach our highest potential. To help students do this, we aim to emulate what Ted teaches: Teach students to connect their intellects with their hearts, broaden success as a positive sum, and grow positive feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Why? Happiness connects people more powerfully than almost any other human experience. The effects of those positive changes ripple through social networks increasing the happiness around us. You find yourself surrounded by the very things you helped foster. As Trent Crimm aptly remarked, “If the Lasso way is wrong, it’s hard to imagine being right.”
Join Steve in this engaging and interactive workshop where he will unveil over two decades of practical, evidence-based teaching strategies. These strategies intertwine the psychological science of happiness with SEL competencies that can seamlessly integrate into existing curricula or classroom settings. Additional lesson ideas and practices from Steve’s book will be provided to get you started teaching like Ted and growing happiness.
Steve Banno, Jr.
Author, Teaching What Matters
Coaching Mental Models: Connecting Purpose, Problems and the Playbook
When you integrate mental models into your coaching, the deeper insights that accrue strengthen a sense of purpose, enable accurate predictions, and harness personal power. This presentation will show-and-tell how to coach a teacher to identify learning problems in their class, and to assemble techniques into effective clusters — thereby surfacing previously hidden beliefs about classrooms. By combining a visual playbook with the freshly discovered mental models new levels of effectiveness become possible.
Matt Stone
Director of Education & Operations, Teaching WalkThrus
Building a healthy school culture through coaching conversations
This workshop explores how coaching can enhance wellbeing, connection, and leadership in your school community. As technology rapidly advances, we must choose how to amplify our humanity and foster a healthy school culture. The answer lies in fostering deep relationships through conversation – the antidote to separation and overwhelm. By embedding coaching skills in daily interactions, connection is amplified, and support becomes second nature. Discover how quality conversations impact school culture, use a coaching model to initiate conversations and choose the right help, and understand The Connection Hierarchy to support others. Learn how conversations can transform relationships and build a healthier school culture.
Quinn Simpson
Cofounder, Graydin
Resilience in Change & Uncertainty
Join us for an inspiring session with Sean Swarner, the first cancer survivor to summit Mt. Everest and complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam. Defying a prognosis of only fourteen days to live, Sean’s story is a profound testament to resilience and the human spirit’s capacity to overcome the impossible. In this session, he will share strategies for turning adversity into strength and how to harness resilience in the face of life’s greatest challenges. His message of hope and triumph will inspire you to rethink what is possible, making this a must-attend for anyone looking to push their own boundaries.
Sean Swarner
Speaker/Author
Shifting the Load: Building the Capacity of Teacher Leaders
Invest in building the capacity of your teacher-level school leaders to effectively address staff concerns involving professionalism and/or instruction through simulation, role play, problems of practice, and other coaching methods. Through year-long “leader learning,” designed and led by school administrators, department resource teachers strengthened their conviction and competency in handling issues that require responses both immediate and ongoing.
Allison Wilder
Magnet Coordinator, Poolesville High School/Montgomery County Public Schools, MD
Dan McKenna
School Administrator, Poolesville High School/Montgomery County Public Schools, MD
The trouble with the name: a unifying theory of everything in Coaching
Coaching, in many different forms, has been adopted by many schools as a way to improve teaching and learning, pedagogy, wellbeing, self-efficacy, efficiency, performance, leadership and flourishing. Some very interesting work has also been done on using a coaching approach to effect organisational change.
Yet the experience varies so much that two people are rarely talking about the same thing when the word “coaching” is mentioned. If coaching is to have the sort of beneficial effect that the profession, indeed that humans in society in general, need, some clarification is essential: at present, the confusion caused by labelling many different forms of help or support as the same single word, is already damaging. Worse than this, some very helpful forms of coaching are being serially misrepresented to their significant detriment. Will coaching be considered a fad, alongside various recent fads in education, in the years to come?
People will learn to:
- Distinguish between the many different types of coaching
- Highlight the strengths and the context-specific effectiveness of those different types of coaching
- Clarify when and how each type might help, and in what ways
- Explore when and how the same type of coaching is represented in different ways
- Reconnect all those forms of coaching to their roots
Iain Henderson
Director of The Bridge and Co-Director, Festival of Education, Wellington College
Cognitive Science Strand
Cognitive science research has the ability to transform education and accelerate learning. The implications and applications range from primary, secondary, further and higher education, as well as mentoring and staff development. This strand, curated in partnership with InnerDrive, gathers together a range of experts that will explore the possibilities, challenges and limitations of cognitive science.
Thinking Creates Learning: The Essentials of Working Memory
If “learning” requires “thinking,” how does “thinking” work? To answer this question, this talk explores an essential cognitive function: working memory. Working memory allows students to connect new information to prior knowledge, and to reorganize knowledge into new ideas. When teachers understand working memory – its function, importance, and limitations – we can anticipate, recognize, and solve many problems that hinder learning. Lively and practical, this workshop uses research to make learning easier and teaching more effective.
Andrew Watson
President, Translate the Brain
You Explained It, But They Didn’t Retain It: Solutions from Cognitive Science
In this session, participants will explore how teachers can overcome common learning obstacles through practical and explicit teaching strategies based on how the mind learns. Using an example of conventional “unsticky” teaching, the presenter will name and model a variety of techniques that will make the material much stickier.
Zach Groshell
Teacher, Author, Coach
Studying With The Brain in Mind
How can we help all students learn and study as effectively as possible? What does the research actually say about multi-tasking, memory, sleep and managing stress and pressure? In this highly interactive session, Edward Watson will give lots of tips and strategies to ensure all your students are studying as effectively as possible
Edward Watson
Director, InnerDrive
Attention Contagion in the Classroom
Attention is the currency of learning. What we attend to, we have a chance of remembering. With this in mind, teachers and students should create learning environments that maximize the ability to attend to pertinent information while minimizing distractions that may steal attention. And, to that end, how are we influenced by others in the learning environment? Do the actions of one student potentially impair others’ ability to attend? Is attention and/or inattention contagious? This session looks at research on this topic and discusses how to best create a learning environment for all students.
Blake Harvard
AP Psychology Teacher
AI and student learning: The Good and the Bad
In this session Edward Watson will explore the evolving role of AI in education, highlighting both its potential benefits and risks for teaching and student learning. Drawing on some of the latest research on the subject he will delve into strategies that we should consider when seeking to improve teacher and student outcomes using AI.
Edward Watson
Director, InnerDrive
The science behind nursery rhymes – how simple songs support great development in the early years.
Why do we sing nursery rhymes to children? And are there any real benefits besides being a bit of fun? In this interactive session, we will delve between the worlds of neuroscience, early childhood development, and ethnomusicology to understand the social and historical traditions behind nursery rhymes, and their proven impact on the developing brain.
Christine Haslett
Founding Head of School Wellington College Independent School Jakarta
Alicia Knox
Music Teacher St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School
FUTURES and the End of School as We Know It
FUTURES is an ambitious design project that explores the rapid changes of our time, building a framework that challenges us to reimagine our world at this inflection point. It is a design journey through the complexity of our interconnected lives.
Rather than projecting solutions, FUTURES encourages deep questioning as we imagine and visualize possible avenues forward. In this session, we will engage in conversation in the context of the themes of FUTURES and how they might impact early years education. FUTURES is not just about observing our world – it is about actively questioning to reshape the world we want to live in.
Trung Lê
Epic Decade
Darin Jellison
Principal, Blackney Hayes
UDL: How Differentiation Comes Alive with AI
UDL: How Differentiation Comes Alive with AI” equips educators with practical strategies and resources to streamline your workflow and focus on impactful student interactions. We will offer educators an introductory guide to creating inclusive, effective learning environments. Discover how to utilize Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to foster equitable student engagement and success. We’ll leverage AI tools and prompt engineering to create resources that support differentiated learning strategies to include all learners. Whether you’re a teacher, coach, or administrator, leave with a toolkit of ready-to-implement techniques that will bring differentiation to life in the classroom.
Heather McCarthy Rose
Teacher Specialist for Innovative Learning, Frederick County Public Schools
Tony Bollino
Teacher Specialist for Career and Technical Education, Frederick County Public Schools
Why Every Educator Should Visit A Black Church
Do you listen to jazz, soul, or hip hop? Have you ever attended an African American church? Did you know music can help you with lesson planning and classroom management? Many educators find they are culturally disconnected with students whose backgrounds differ from theirs. Educators often feel they can’t relate to these students and have classroom management problems. Through musical examples, demonstrations, and participation, we will see how to not only learn about other cultures, but how to implement actions in your classroom that will help you to make engaging lesson plans that make all students feel included.
Vincent Sneed
Music Educator, Central Gwinnett High School
Great Teaching Strand
What makes great teaching, and what does it look like in the classroom? Come find out! All sessions that form part of the strand are linked to the research evidence on the things that teachers know and do that have the biggest impact on learning. This stand is curated in partnership with Evidence Based Education.
Sessions to be announced.
Best Bets for Developing Great Teaching
Professional development is one of the few things that schools can influence that will have a considerable impact on student outcomes. As teachers’ knowledge, practices, and beliefs develop, so too does student learning (and achievement) increase. Given the importance of CPD, how should that time be spent? If time is one of most limited resources in education, we should ensure that it is used strategically—in a way that is likely to have an impact. What are the “best bets” for developing teacher expertise is most schools?
C.J. Rauch
Head of Teaching & Learning, Evidence Based Education
Teacher Stories of Creating a Supportive Environment and the Power of the Process
We know there is a link between creating a supportive environment and learning, but how does that translate into teachers intentionally making changes in their classrooms to minimize classroom threats? In this session, we’ll share a collection of middle school educators’ stories and the strategies they implemented to create a culture of risk-taking and a sense of belonging. The discussion will also explore how creating a space where educators feel safe to explore new approaches to teaching and learning is fundamental to the ability to successfully implement change.
Devon Rothschild DeLeonardo
Mentor Behaviour Coach, Carroll County Public Schools
Shannon Zepp
Principal, West Middle School
Making Co-Teaching Work for All Students
Let’s chat about co-teaching! In this collaborative, interactive session participants will learn practical strategies for elevating co-planning, co-teaching and co-assessing while created increased inclusion opportunities for students. Participants will walk away with resources for creating a dynamic, supportive learning environment that benefits all learners in the room!
Barbara Friedlander
Coordinator, Frederick County Public Schools
Planning & Supporting Instruction to Form Critical Thinkers
Students need to think critically about the world and make explicit connections between the classroom and the world. In order to do this in each classroom and school, it’s important to do intentional school wide, department, and individual planning so that students get a coherent experience across their school experience. In this session, we will examine how one school made a collective framework to define critical thinking across the school and aligned it to the post secondary vision for all students. We will look at a working framework one department is using to scaffold critical thinking and skills across their department to ensure that students are building and demonstrating their learning.
David Neagley
Principal, New Visions for Public Schools Humanities II
Illuminating the Interrelatedness of Curriculum, Pedagogy, & Evaluation of Instruction
In this session, participants will explore the connections between what we teach, how we teach it, and how we evaluate our success. Leaning on research and its translation to practice, TeVault will share case studies and examples of strategies to amplify your practice and embrace your school mission. You will gain insights into how to map curriculum, align your pedagogical approach, and evaluate your program to foster improved learning outcomes.
Dr. Darcie L. TeVault
Director Of Professional Learning, Virginia Association of Independent Schools
The Future of Education Panel
Ron Schildge
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School
Jonathon Borys
Regional Director of Education, OneSchool Global North America
Greg Toppo
Co-author Running with Robots
Connie White
Director of Learning & Innovation, Woodward Academy
Rethinking Assessment: Techniques and Tools to Inspire and Motivate
This session delivered by Skills and Education Group and GoReact is all about ditching traditional techniques and discovering how alternative assessment strategies can supercharge learning, supporting students and engaging teachers in their continued professional development. We’ll dive into practical strategies to:
Track Student Progress: Master formative assessment to keep tabs on student progress and identify areas for improvement through a range of ‘assessment for’ and ‘assessment of’ techniques.
Fuel Student Motivation: Learn how feedback and feed-forward can ignite student passion, encouraging them to reach new heights.
Tap into Tech: Explore innovative tools to inspire and motivate teachers through their ongoing development, thus enhancing the learning experience for all.
Boost Wider Skills: Discover how sharpening English and ICT skills can unlock a world of possibilities for your students.
The session will be delivered by Karen Plowman, Head of Professional Development and Learning at Skills and Education Group and Jenny Gordon, Vice President for International Markets at GoReact.
Karen Plowman
Head of Professional Development and Learning, Skills and Education Group
Jenny Gordon
Vice President of International Markets, GoReact
Ready Player One - Shifts for Future Classrooms: AI, VR, and Ethics /Dispositions are Embedded
In our rapidly evolving world, knowledge doubles every 12 hours and technological advancements surpass the rate of human adaptability. It is crucial to prepare students for a future that becomes increasingly unimaginable. The rise of artificial
intelligence (AI) and the advent of innovative technologies compel necessary shifts in education. Join us to learn how to design curriculum that embeds student-centered experiences with real-world topics that demand active engagement and the transfer of acquired knowledge. We will also examine the benefits of incorporating solution- oriented thinking and ethical decision-making into the curriculum while emphasizing the integration of SEL.
Connie White
Director of Learning & Innovation, Woodward Academy
Elizabeth Helfant
Dean of Curriculum & Instruction, MICDS
The Future is Bright, the Future is Bi-lingual Education
The delivery of world class bi-lingual education at Wellington College Shanghai Early Years Centre via the unique Dual Language Program has afforded our youngest learners the best possible start in their educational journey as confident and curious bi-lingual global citizens. The session includes case study sharing of our journey, our challenges and ultimately our pupils’ successes. This evidence-based session shares our unique Wellington College Shanghai approach alongside practical examples to facilitate learning and further discussion for bi-lingual educators and leaders.
Charlotte Knight-Benjafield
Executive Head, Wellington College China
Developing, launching, and expanding quality apprenticeships in the United States
This session will highlight the rapid growth of registered apprenticeships across the United States over the past decade.
Since 2014, Apprenticeship programs in the USA have grown more than 103%, with nearly 650,000 active apprentices spanning 24 industry sectors and nearly 30,000 programs. To meet the workforce needs of the nation, the US government has set a goal of 4 million active Apprentices by 2035. Apprenticeship expansion in the US has a direct benefit for the American worker, employer, and economy. At the same time, unprecedented investments at the Federal and State levels have helped support this growth. Learn how the USA is striving to catch up with peer nations and meet the goals of International Labour Organization’s R208 on its quest to solidify a national apprenticeship system as a pillar of the US economy.
This session will be delivered by Dr Mardy Leathers, Executive Vice President, Adaptive Construction Solutions, Executive Director of GAN USA and former Director of the Missouri Office of Workforce Development.
Dr. Mardy Leathers
Executive Vice President, Adaptive Construction Solutions (ACS)
Running with Robots: The American High School's Third Century
What will high school education look like in 20 years? High school students are educated today to take their places in a knowledge economy. But the knowledge economy, based on the assumption that information is a scarce and precious commodity, is giving way to an economy in which information is ubiquitous, digital, and machine-generated. So we need to begin thinking about how human and robotic skillsets can be complementary, not in competition.
Greg Tuppo
Co-author, Running with Robots
Tackling the Teacher Shortage Head-on Through Registered Apprenticeships
The persistent teacher shortage in the United States is a multifaceted issue that demands innovative solutions. Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) offer a promising avenue to address this challenge by creating a sustainable and scalable teacher pipeline.
This panel discussion will explore how RAPs can serve as a strategic response to teacher shortages, particularly in underserved areas. By integrating the “”earn and learn”” model, apprenticeships attract a diverse pool of candidates while ensuring compliance with state licensing requirements.
The discussion will highlight successful state models, such as Tennessee’s Grow Your Own initiative, and examine the critical role of stakeholder buy-in, funding strategies, and the recognition of prior learning in the effective implementation of these programs. Participants will gain insights into how RAPs cannot only fill vacancies but also promote equity in education by addressing shortages in high-need subjects and communities.
The session will be facilitated by Josh Beutler, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at GoReact. Panelists include: Erin Crisp Ed.D, Executive Director Tennessee Grow Your Own Center; Sari Harris, Assistant Director, Office of Teacher Education Services and Clinical Practice Network; and, Lori Piowlski, Dean School of Education, University of Massachusetts Global (TBC).
Josh Beutler
Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at GoReact
Erin Crisp
Executive Director Tennessee Grow Your Own Center
Sari Harris
Assistant Director, Office of Teacher Education Services and Clinical Practice Network
Lori Piowlski
Dean School of Education, University of Massachusetts Global
Employer led work-based learning, apprenticeship, and employability programs
This session will provide insight into the crucial role of employers as the torchbearer for quality skills development, employability, and workforce training programs. Across industries such as IT, Healthcare, Clean Energy, and Manufacturing, strategic growth strategies in today’s global market require workforce planning. Learn how employers should be in the driver’s seat, in tandem with education providers and government agencies, to cultivate the workforce of the future. Panel TBC.
Dr. Mardy Leathers
Executive Vice President, Adaptive Construction Solutions (ACS)
The New Era of Teacher-Centric Professional Learning
Transform your school by empowering teachers to lead their professional growth, promoting impactful learning experiences. This session unveils actionable strategies to elevate teacher morale, respect the principles of adult learning theory, and drive student success. Embrace practical tools for turning professional learning into a dynamic engine of change. If you contribute to other educators’ professional learning, this session is right for you!
Cathy Lacey
Curriculum Resource Teacher, Crayton Middle School/Richland School District One
What Your School-Based Research Center Could Look Like
Imagine a space in your school or district where research and practice converge to drive continuous improvement. In this session, you will learn about four replicable models for creating a school-based research center. Learn how these models can empower teachers and students to engage in research that enhances instruction, deepens learning, and answers educational questions your school or district is grappling with. Leaders from the Peter Clark Center of Mind, Brain, and Education, the Tang Institute, The Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching will share the journeys of each of their centers. Participants will leave this session with a toolkit of ideas and practical steps to begin building or enhancing their own research center.
Sara Deveaux
Director, Henry R. Kravis ’63 Center for Excellence in Teaching, Loomis Chaffee School
Ryan Clinesmith Montalvo
Project Manager, Tang Institute
Justin Cerenzia
Executive Director of The Center for Teaching & Learning, The Episcopal Academy
Sarah Flotten
Peter Clark Center
Because the Research Says So”: How to Evaluate ‘Research-Based’ Teaching Advice
Teachers regularly receive advice that “comes from brain research.” How can we distinguish between reliable research-based teaching advice, and the advice based on hunches and misrepresentations?
This talk offers specific, practical strategies. When teachers know the questions to ask, the web resources to check, and the research headings to explore, we can ensure that research-based advice truly deserves our trust. The result: reliable teaching guidance that fits our classroom, our curriculum, and our students.
Andrew Watson
President, Translate the Brain
Educator Stress and Wellness
This session is geared at identifying, understanding, and addressing the multitude of stressors that educators face in their day-to-day work. We will discuss current needs, essential boundaries, identifying dysregulation, and various ways that we can support ourselves and our students. Gain strategies and skills to reduce stress and promote wellness for yourself and those around you.
Sam Wilt
School Therapist, Frederick County Public Schools
Brainless Education: We Can't Develop Minds without Considering Kids' Brains.
The way most schools are run, it often seems there is little understanding of what decades of neuroscience have revealed about developing young brains – or that they just don’t care.
In this talk, a neuropsychologist and a veteran tutor will offer five insights and practical suggestions that, were they applied in schools, would revolutionize education.
Dr. William Stixrud
Neuropsychologist/co-author “The Self-Driven Child”, The Stixrud Group
Ned Johnson
Tutor/co-author “The Self-Driven Child”
Utilizing Neuroscience in Calls for Support
Have you ever actually been taught how to de-escalate a student or respond to a call for support from a classroom? In this session, my goal is to equip you with useful knowledge and skills to help you respond to those calls from a place of empowerment rather than just guessing and seeing what sticks. We will explore relevant neuroscience, discuss specific examples, and give strategies to be utilized in the moment so that you can connect, regulate, and get the student back to class.
Hayden Ahlbrandt
Play Therapist, Low Tide Play Therapy & Low Tide Coaching & Consulting
