{"success":true,"data":[{"ID":550,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1446133506,"CreatorID":4735,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"What are they thinking?  Understanding the Adolescent Mind","Handle":"what_are_they_thinking-understanding_the_adolescent_mind","ShortDescription":"Have you ever wondered, \"What is going on inside their heads?  Why do they put themselves at risk when they understand and know the consequences involved?  Why aren't they focused?  How can I motivate them?\"  This conversation will explore brain research to understand how changes in the adolescent brain impact their decisions and what interventions can be taken to help teens develop a healthy mind while and boost their learning.","Description":"Based on the research of Daniel Siegel, M.D. and his book Brainstorm we will discuss myths about teenagers and the qualities of teens that Dr. Siegel describes as the ESSENCE of adolescence (Emotional Spark, Social Engagement, Novelty, and Creative Exploration).  We will look at the research and discuss implications for our teaching.  If we know how the adolescent brain develops, how does this impact the way we think about teaching and learning in our classrooms.  We will also look at some of the strategies proposed by Dr. Siegel for fostering, nurturing, and exercising the adolescent brain so that students are able to link the limbic (emotion generating) area with their frontal lobe (thinking and decision making).  We will discuss how we can integrate these exercises into our teaching.  This discussion will be structured using an adaptation of the reflective conversation proposed by Dr. Siegel and the Harkness discussion model.  This will allow participants to engage the ideas proposed by Dr. Siegel through a modification of one of his strategies for promoting brain integration.","Link":[],"Audience":["High School","Middle School"],"Practice":"Teachers will be a part of the conversation by following the reflective conversation protocols I've developed for use in my classroom.  Teachers will go through the process while also discussing and sharing ideas.  I will also use TAG cards at the end of the session for teachers to Tell what they liked, Ask a question, or Give advice.  These responses will be posted (anonymously) on a weebly site dedicated to this conversation.","Presenter":["Carl Ackerman"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Constitution High School"],"PresenterEmail":["ackermancarl@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":61,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":4735,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":5},{"ID":514,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1442874897,"CreatorID":4735,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Becoming a Community that Learns: Extending the Lessons of Edcamp","Handle":"becoming_a_community_that_learns--extending_the_lessons_of_edcamp","ShortDescription":"This session will explore the underlying beliefs that have made Edcamp such a phenomenon and highlight ways to embrace participatory leadership, solve tough problems, and ultimately, change school from a community of learners to a community that learns.","Description":"In just 5 short years, Edcamp has become an international phenomenon. People accredit this to autonomy, choice, and personalized PD but, the real driver behind the movement is a redistribution in power - decreasing the power of the hierarchy and distributing it more evenly across the community. Approaching professional development from this perspective has broad implications for schools. It opens opportunities for collaborative decision making, to learn through problems, co-create solutions, and to create true communities of practice that continually regenerate schools.\r\n\r\nBuilding from the success of Edcamp, we will explore how a wider array of dialogic processes can be employed to move school from a community of learners to a community that learns.","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will be using the following conversation protocols to model the processes we will be discussing:\r\nPeer Circle\r\nWorld Cafe\r\n\r\nThis session will require an open room where chairs may be re-arranged.","Presenter":["Mike Ritzius","Dan Callahan","Christine Miles"],"PresenterAffiliation":["NJ Education Association","Massachusetts Teacher Association","Cherry Hill School District"],"PresenterEmail":["mritzius@gmail.com","danielcallahan@gmail.com","ritzius2@gmail.com"],"ScheduleSlotID":63,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":4735,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":5},{"ID":511,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1442515478,"CreatorID":4735,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Accelerating Expectations","Handle":"accelerating_expectations","ShortDescription":"Join some of the founders--staff and students--of a pioneering public school that has been celebrated by President Obama for a discussion on the value of school culture. We will discuss the unique impact of the 9-14 public-private partnership school model that raises expectations for underrepresented youth by preparing them for careers in the tech industry. Also, we will share ideas for how to improve school culture through external partnerships.","Description":"Join some of the founders--staff and students--of a pioneering public school that has been celebrated by President Obama, PM Tony Abbott of Australia, and public officials and business leaders from around the world for a discussion on the value of school culture. The P-TECH movement now includes over 40 sites, including schools throughout New York State, Connecticut and Chicago. We will discuss the unique impact of the 9-14 public-private partnership school model that has raised expectations for underrepresented youth by preparing them for careers in the tech industry and share ideas for how to improve school culture through external partnerships. The presence of committed, well-trained mentors in the school on a consistent basis, along with college professors and other caring adults, creates a college-going culture that transforms the school experience for young people who, demographically, are unlikely to earn college degrees. In addition, providing workplace experience in a corporate environment allows students to see themselves in a new light, with the accompanying elevated expectations that go along with a middle class career. In particular, we will investigate the effects of accelerated progress for students on their peers through the lens of 18-year-old young people who have earned both a high school diploma and an associate in applied sciences degree and, in three cases, full-time jobs at IBM.","Link":["http:\/\/www.ptech.org"],"Audience":["High School","All School Levels"],"Practice":"Students in their 5th year of the 9-14 program will share their experiences through brief presentations and Q&A. Then, the whole group participates in a question formulation protocol around school culture and the influences that affect culture in schools and organizations.","Presenter":["Will Ehrenfeld","Joel Duran","Kevin Garcia"],"PresenterAffiliation":["P-TECH"],"PresenterEmail":["wehrenfeld@ptechnyc.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":64,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":4735,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":5},{"ID":588,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1446419062,"CreatorID":4735,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"Getting to the Heart of Education: Relationships that Revolutionize School Culture","Handle":"getting_to_the_heart_of_education--relationships_that_revolutionize_school_culture","ShortDescription":"We are on a mission to upend traditional education from teacher driven instruction to student driven  learning.  Potent evidence has exposed the former model as a failure, yet most public and independent schools still cling to it.  Working within the current paradigm, we attempt to influence one heart at a time.","Description":"Student-centered instruction is not a flash in the pan trend; it is here to stay. It is  the linchpin of 21st century teaching and learning. If our students are to thrive in an unpredictable future, it is time to shift instruction--and to keep shifting instruction--with their authentic interests foremost in mind.\r\n\r\nThe McLean School Head, Mike Saxenian, envisions a place  where students have agency and authority over their learning, not only answering questions, but asking questions of themselves and each other.  We are working with classroom teachers to realize this vision, evolving from an inherited industrial age model, with students often \u201csitting and getting\u201d... and  \u201cgiving\u201d the correct answer. Middle School Academic Technologist, Mike Carson, and Instructional Coach, Kate Rizzi, form partnerships with faculty members to alter the culture from inside their school. \r\n\r\nWith our colleagues, we hope to create a  learning community in which all members share, reflect on, and learn from their successes and failures.  We have just begun, but we can see small, positive steps towards student-driven learning.  We will share what we have learned from this process of self-reflection and mutual support.  Where are you in the process of revolutionizing education?  What have you learned?  How can we support  one another?","Link":[],"Audience":["All School Levels"],"Practice":"We will share several short highlights of our work, along with examples of challenges we experience at our growing edge. We will ask participants to identify and talk about where they are in the process of initiating reflective teaching practices in their schools. Serving as facilitators, we will join our Educon colleagues in learning with and from each other.","Presenter":["Kate Rizzi","Mike Carson"],"PresenterAffiliation":["McLean School of Maryland"],"PresenterEmail":["krizzi@mcleanschool.org","mcarson@mcleanschool.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":69,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":4735,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":5},{"ID":538,"Class":"Conversation","Created":1445722456,"CreatorID":4735,"RevisionID":null,"Status":"Accepted","Title":"The Answers Aren\u2019t In This Classroom","Handle":"the_answers_aren-t_in_this_classroom","ShortDescription":"What if we didn\u2019t measure student success in grades, but rather the depth and duration of good they create in the world?  What if we placed \u201cimpact\u201d at the forefront of conversations about students\u2019 abilities and potential?  This conversation is for anyone who is tired of pretending, playacting, and performing safe solutions.  For anyone who is ready to give up the security of classroom-based projects, experiments, and simulations in pursuit of deeper purposes.  This is a conversation for anyone who believes in our students\u2019 capacity to shape our world for the better, and our ability to assess impact, not abstractions.","Description":"This is a conversation about our students\u2019 capabilities and seriousness of purpose when they are working on something that truly matters.  It\u2019s about what they can do when faced with a client or partner or responsibility to another that isn\u2019t going away.  It\u2019s a conversation about the difference our students can make when failure isn\u2019t a choice or even a comprehensible possibility.  It\u2019s an opportunity to talk about hopes and dreams for our students\u2019 futures, and how we might eliminate the distinction between classrooms and real-world complexities.  \r\n\r\nIn January of 2015, I handed my students a dozen handmade paperclips and told them they had to use them to make a positive impact in the lives of others.  They could only barter (no money or donations) and could not trade with each other or their families.  They were on their own and had to wade beyond the secure classroom environment and into the messy real world beyond.  Hundreds of trades and countless surprises later, they gave nearly $14,000 in goods and services to individuals and organizations at home and abroad.  Along the way, they discovered the value of values and the power of collaboration.  \r\n\r\nEarly on, students asked how they would be graded.  \u201cAccording to the depth and duration of your impact on others,\u201d I said. \r\n\r\n\u201cIs there a rubric?\u201d they asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cNot one that I can give you,\u201d I replied.  \u201cThe answers aren\u2019t in this classroom.  You\u2019ll have to go out and truly understand others\u2019 needs in order to know what you should do.  They are the ones who will tell you what the requirements are.  Not me.\u201d\r\n\r\nThese were clearly not the answers that they wanted to hear.  But, alongside others\u2019 needs and the good that they were trying to create in the world, my students quickly stopped concerning themselves with my alphanumeric assessments of their academic performance, and began to place emphasis where it really mattered\u2014making a positive impact on others.  \r\n\r\nParticipants in this conversation will discuss the myriad challenges to pursuing and measuring impact while also remaining accountable to the \u201cgame of school.\u201d  What impact do you hope your students will have in the world beyond the classroom?  What are the structural, temporal, spatial challenges to focusing on impact?  How might we measure impact in (your subject area or grade level)?  These and other questions will drive the conversation, as participants seek the inspiration they need to let their students lead the way toward our future.","Link":["http:\/\/jessedowns.wordpress.com","http:\/\/www.providenceday.org","https:\/\/twitter.com\/downs_jesse"],"Audience":["High School","Middle School","Elementary School","All School Levels"],"Practice":"After briefly sharing the story of sixty-one Providence Day School students\u2019 successes, failures, challenges, and determination to positively impact others, and their teacher\u2019s attempts to measure that impact; participants in this conversation will use a version of the focus\/framing question exercise to develop the questions that will provoke the very best in their students.  They\u2019ll leave with the questions that will drive the pursuit of impact and catalyze students\u2019 learning in and beyond their school walls.","Presenter":["Jesse Downs"],"PresenterAffiliation":["Providence Day School (Charlotte","NC)"],"PresenterEmail":["jesse.downs@providenceday.org"],"ScheduleSlotID":71,"ScheduleLocationID":6,"SubmitterID":4735,"AdditionalComments":null,"LiveChannel":null,"Hashtag":null,"VokleID":null,"RecordingURL":null,"ConferenceID":5}],"conditions":{"Status":"Accepted","ConferenceID":5,"ScheduleLocationID":6},"total":5,"limit":false,"offset":false}