WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS
Please note: Workshops are subject to change.
Embedded Files
ANITA CHURCHVILLE and LILY POE
- Addressing the Academic and Social-emotional Needs of Highly Able/Gifted Learners- This session will focus on explicit ways in which teachers and school leaders can address the academic and social-emotional needs of Gifted and High Ability Learners in and out of the regular classroom. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 1)
LINDSEY ANDERSON
- Universal Design for Learning + Personalized Learning: Building Common Understandings - In this introductory workshop, participants will build some shared understandings around universal design for learning and personalized learning. Beyond developing shared vocabulary and frameworks, participants will begin to establish the need for personalized and universally designed learning by considering their own classrooms and students. It is recommended that participants who plan to attend later sessions in this series attend this first workshop as the later sessions will build off of the content and activities that are started in this session. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 2)
- UDL Goal-Setting for Personalization- It can be difficult for us to see opportunities for personalization within our curriculum. Often, this is because we are confusing our learning goals with the means for achieving those goals. In this session, participants will learn how to analyze the nature of goals, standards, and objectives in order to determine their true purpose. It is only when we clarify the true purpose of a goal that personalized pathways for reaching the goal become clear to us. Participants will have an opportunity to apply the ideas in this session to their own lesson and unit plans. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 3)
- Creating Personalized Learning Paths -Clear goals help us to uncover flexible pathways for reaching those goals. In this session, participants will learn how to use the frameworks of universal design for learning and personalized learning to create and select flexible instructional methods and materials in order to create personalized learning pathways. A portion of this session will give participants an opportunity to apply these tools to their own lesson plans. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 3)
- Assessment for Personalization -We assess whenever we collect information about who are students are, what they know, and what they are able to do. After examining some principles for universally designed assessments, participants will explore ways to create flexible assessment plans in order to know and respond to the needs of each learner within the context of personalized learning. As always, participants will have the opportunity to apply these principles to create assessments plans for their own classroom context. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 3)
MARILYN FRIEND
- Co-Teach 2.0: Learning from the Past but Moving Toward the Future - Though traditional co-teaching emphasized placing two professionals in a classroom, contemporary co-teaching incorporates a more rigorous set of expectations. This session will explore a range of partnerships, including classroom teachers and special educators or EL teachers as well as interdisciplinary teaching partners. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 2)
- Contemporary Co-Teaching in Practice: Going Beyond the Six Basic Approaches -The six co-teaching approaches form a foundation for co-taught classes, but that is just the start. Experienced co-teachers have carefully considered how to enhance the approaches and how to implement creative variations of them that enable them to maximize student learning. (3 hour session, Continuum Level: 4)
- Co-Teacher Roles and Responsibilities: Re-Thinking the Classroom Partnership to Improve Student Learning - Although co-teaching sometimes is jokingly referred to as a professional marriage, professionals have a very serious obligation to negotiate their working relationship. In this session, the roles and responsibilities of each professional will be explored with the goal of describing how to maximize the benefit of co-teaching for diverse learners while creating an inclusive classroom culture. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 4)
- Integrating Specialized Instruction into Co-Taught Classes (1.5 hour) -The purpose of co-teaching is to ensure that students receive their specialized services within the context of the typical classroom. This session focuses on what that means in terms of planning, delivering, and evaluating the teaching and learning of a co-taught class. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 5)
- What Makes an Effective Team? - Most educators are members of teams, whether grade-level, department, leadership, or special service. Much is known about what makes teams effective and how each member contributes to a team’s success, and this session will emphasize specific ways that educators can enhance their team’s performance. (3 hour session, Continuum Level: 4)
- I Wish I Knew What To Say When…: Navigating Difficult Interactions - Most professionals occasionally wish they could re-play a contentious or awkward interaction, more carefully selecting their words and achieving a more satisfactory outcome. This session will be based on real scenarios and demonstrate how what is said and how it is said can either enhance collaboration or detract from it. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 4)
ALEXANDER JOHNSON
Virtual Reality: A Vehicle for Empathy - How can emerging technologies such as virtual reality be harnessed to deepen our understanding of learners? In this session, participants will learn about virtual reality applications in schools, exploring innovative research in the field. With hands-on demonstrations and activities, they will be immersed in experiences designed to build empathy for others. (Two, 1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 1)
ROHIT KUMAR and VELICIA PERNELL
- Understanding multicultural intersectionality for wholesome development of all learners - During this workshop, participants will explore multicultural experiences we hold within ourselves, how that impacts our lives and meaning-making, and the intersectionality of those experiences. Meaning-making is the process of education and hence it becomes crucial that we unpack our own frameworks of meaning-making in order to understand various frameworks our students might be coming in with and hence making meaning out of their educational experiences (planned and unplanned). (Two, 3 hour sessions, Part 1/Continuum Level: 1 and 2, Part 2/Continuum Level: 3 and 4)
CHRISTOPHER O'SHAUGHNESSY
- Connecting the Culture of TCKs to Wider Society -As the world grows ever more connected and globalized, the challenges we face are growing ever more interconnected and complex as well. Many of the characteristics observed in TCKs regarding culture and identity are now finding their way into mainstream society. It’s been said for decades that TCKs are the “prototype citizens of tomorrow,” and that’s coming true eminently. With a touch of laughter and reflection, we’ll explore the correlation between TCKs and a world moving ever closer to their experience. We’ll discuss ways to help TCKs make the most of their strengths and prepare for the challenges ahead as well as apply those skills in a wider context as bridge-builders in society. (3 hour session, Continuum Level: 2)
- Developing Change Management Skills in Tomorrow’s Global Citizens -While it’s been said that “change is the only constant” – the rate at which we must adapt to change is increasing. Change management abilities have been linked to success in careers, social skills, and emotional resilience. In this workshop we’ll explore how TCKs can successfully navigate the high level of transition they grow up in. Through activities, memorable stories, and discussion we’ll put into practice tactics to deal with conflict resolution, grief & loss, and adaptability as students, and adults. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 3)
- Intentionally Establishing Empathy as a Mindset and Skillset -Studies claim that empathy is on the decline in modern society. Some estimates claim we are up to 30% less empathetic now than we were 3 decades ago. In light of this, we’ll look at the causes for such a decline and the implications at various levels of community and society. Through activities, stories (with a healthy dose of humor), and discussion we’ll explore ways to intentionally establish and reinforce healthy empathetic abilities in students drawing connections to the cross-cultural and transient experience of TCKs and expats. (3 hour session, Continuum: 3)
- Moving Beyond Tolerance using Stories to build Empathy & Intercultural Awareness - Drawing on research and experience gathered from educators, sociologists, counselors, and other experts, this workshop seeks to make the case that we can no longer aim for mere tolerance in order to progress as a society and face the challenges before us in an ever globalized world. Incorporating small group interaction, activities, and narrative (with a healthy dose of humor), we’ll examine how the powerful use of stories, combined with intentionally fostered empathy can help shape frameworks for cultural interaction to rise above empathy to something far more positively impacting. (3 hour session, Continuum Level: 2)
- Intercultural Frameworks for TCKs - International schools are uniquely placed to harness the reality of their students’, families’, and faculty’s experiences to help process intellectually what people are doing intuitively as they live and grow in the international and cross-cultural arena. We’ll analyze various frameworks for intercultural awareness and see how they apply practically to teaching, supporting, and encouraging TCKs and their families. We’ll discuss the overlap between cultural frameworks, empathy, and identity, and its application to society as a whole. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 4)
RUTH E VAN REKEN
- The Road Home - A profound—and beautiful—twenty minute film dealing with the complexities of identity, culture, loss, gain, and, yes, even bullying, that so many children face while growing up among many cultural worlds. The movie was filmed in Mussoorie by producer Rahul Gandotra, an Indian ATCK who grew up in both Britain and India. Following the film, small group discussions will focus on the many issues raised through the story and consider what appropriate and helpful responses educators might take when faced with similar situations. (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 1)
- Why a Changing World Matter to Educators and Their Students- With increasing ease of mobility and international connections developing throughout the world at a rapidly growing rate, vast changes have occurred in societies everywhere. The demographics of many local and international schools have also changed profoundly. What new opportunities as well as challenges do these evolving dynamics offer to both educators and their students? How can educators best prepare to deal with these realities for both their professional and personal good, as well as that of their students? (1.5 hour session, Continuum Level: 2)
- Why Each Child’s Story Matters for Educators and Their Students - Building on the awareness raised in earlier workshops, this session will take a deeper look at why becoming aware of each student’s story is critical for educators. Through presentation and discussion groups, we will examine the consequences of what happens in the educational process when the often ‘hidden diversity’ of today’s student is not recognized as well as what happens when it is. Specific exercises and strategies for how learning, understanding, and using each story can be built in to the ongoing curriculum rather than adding more burden to already busy schedules will be a special focus. (3 hour session, Continuum Levels: 3-4)
- Why Mobility Matters for Educators and Their Students -In his ground-breaking book, Visible Learning, John Hattie says ‘The effect of mobility [on learning] is quite marked.” In fact, he ranks it as the number one negative influence on a student’s capacity to achieve in school! Given that reality and that personal and communal mobility is ‘the name of the game’ for educators, staff, parents and students--whether they are the 'stay'ers' or 'movers'--in international schools, it is imperative for educators to understand the normal transition process in order to help themselves and others navigate this terrain well. (3 hour session, Continuum Levels: 2-3)
- Building a Strong, Sustainable, School-wide Transition Program -After looking at ‘normal transition’ from a personal perspective in an earlier workshop, this session will consider the type of program Safe Passages Across Networks (SPAN) has developed that is already being used in many schools to tackle this topic in a more systemic way. Participants will then be invited to consider the positive things their schools already do and what might be even simple steps each person might take to make their school more ‘transition friendly’ for all. (3 hour session, Continuum Levels: 4-5)
ANDREW WATSON
- Working Memory -Working memory allows students to combine thought processes and pieces of information. That is: it allows us to learn. Sadly, working memory has dismayingly small capacity. After understanding how to anticipate and identify working memory “hot spots,” we will discuss many research-informed strategies for solving our students’ inevitable difficulties. This new perspective on learning offers surprising insights for teaching across all ages, disciplines, and cultures. (3 hour session, Continuum Levels: All Levels)
- Long-Term Memory -Scientists understand learning as the process of encoding, consolidating, and retrieving. After a review of the neural basis of long-term memory formation, we explore the classroom strategies that best solidify neural networks. By understanding the importance of spacing, interleaving, desirable difficulties, and “blank page review,” teachers can structure lesson plans, syllabi, and assessments to improve student learning. By recognizing the unexpected tensions between encoding and retrieval, we can overcome difficulties created by our students’ prior misconceptions. (3 hour session, Continuum Levels: All Levels)
- Motivation - Paradoxically, researchers help teachers motivate students best by exploring the forces that demotivate them. Dweck’s work on Mindset looks at beliefs that discourage students, and the teacherly guidance that inspires them to recommit to their work. Steele’s theory of Stereotype Threat explains our students’ surprising responses societal beliefs about gender, race, class, culture, and a host of other stereotypes. He also shows how teachers can restore student confidence and deepen student learning. (3 hour session, Continuum Levels: All Levels)
- Attention -Research offers teachers this surprising—and essential—finding: attention is not one thing, but a precise combination of three distinct cognitive functions. Once we understand how attention functions in the brain, we can work more effectively with the neural systems that help students focus and learn. By concentrating on alertness, orienting, and executive attention, we understand our classroom challenges more accurately, and recognize the specific strategies that foster the rarest of educational experiences: a classroom full of highly focused students. (3 hour session, Continuum Levels: All Levels)
NESA Learning Continuum: As a member of the Near East South Asia (NESA), .ASB aligns workshop differentiation practices with NESA. By identifying a level, or levels, on the continuum for each workshop, conference attendees are able to make informed choices for their professional learning. The level of each workshop is indicated below its description.
Report abuse