Charles Best leads DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit organization that provides a simple way to address educational inequity. At DonorsChoose.org, public school teachers create classroom project requests and donors can choose the projects they want to support. Charles launched the organization... Read More →
As the nation moves toward designing next generation learning models, how do we create learning environments that are equitable for all students? Join us for a fireside chat with national innovators to discuss key design components necessary for building truly equitable learning environments.
Authentic student, family, and community engagement is crucial to student and school success. Through knowledge building, organizing, and leadership development, schools and organizations alike are partnering with stakeholders to end educational inequity. Hear about inspirational work taking place across the country to give students and families the tools to define, demand, and lead systemic change to transform our country's schools.
What happens when educators and students around the world share their best ideas with each other? The TED-Ed team will host an interactive session to explore the elements of a great idea and dive into the process of building a narrative that will reach and inspire others. Learn how TED-Ed’s presentation literacy program helps educators and students discover and tell their best story in the form of short, TED-style Talks and how to amplify the voices of fellow educators and students everywhere.
iNACOL, CRPE, NORC, and LEAP Innovations partnered to conduct two national surveys to better understand how personalized learning is emerging nationwide. A new report summarizes findings and provides insights on key trends. Join this session for a conversation with report authors about key findings.
The idea of a personalized learning experience for each and every student sounds great in theory, but what does personalized learning really entail, and how do we make it work in real classrooms, with real students? Join LEAP innovations for an introduction to personalized learning and the LEAP Learning Framework.
For the past decade, Chicago organizations have led efforts to scale connected learning in our city. Participants will learn how organizations approach the work, exploring the long-term vision for a connected learning ecosystem that allows all learners to thrive.
Are existing teacher programs effective in training the next generations of educators? Come learn about natonal and regional programs that are rethinking the way educators learn to teach.
The early wave of next generation schools is maturing, with schools looking to spread and evolve. Distinctive Schools will share how they reflected on their progress and planned for their next stage, discussing the research and experiences that informed their next steps and the strategy they created to develop the model.
School districts across the country are using virtual reality to give educators practice with avatars before they into head into the workplace. Virtual reality provides a safe space for learners to build their skills by making mistakes and learn from them, without harming themselves or others. In this session, you’ll see a live, interactive simulation and learn how VR can be leveraged to create a safe practice space for teachers and school leaders to practice challenging interactions they face in K-12 settings each day. You will also see examples of work in simulation being done today with school district leaders at multiple districts. Come see how educators are using virtual reality to master their toughest on the job moments.
The high school transcript aims to document a student’s learning, but it is an outdated instrument that no longer serves students, teachers or the world outside our school walls. Come learn about a national effort to change the way we capture students’ readiness for college and career by retooling the transcript. The road to preparing high school students for post-secondary success will require updated learning goals, better assessments and new signaling mechanisms. Come hear from leaders in the work and join the national conversation on retooling the way we capture student competencies and profiles.
According to LinkedIn’s 2017 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report, nearly 65% of today’s elementary students will ultimately hold jobs that don’t yet exist.* How do we prepare every learner to succeed in this changing world? A diverse panel of leaders will discuss models and approaches that are driving the paradigm shift necessary to create conditions for all learners to thrive.
Participants in this session will come away with best practices and lessons learned from ISTI programs, ideas about ways they might advance industry engagement in the classroom, and teaching techniques around problem-based learning.
Over the course of their six years at P-TECH, a public school, students attain a high school diploma and a no-cost, two-year associate degree aligned to jobs in a high-growth industry. Participants will learn about the thinking that drives the model, as well as the benefits it can bring.
Modern research offers valuable insights into social and emotional learning. The power of these insights coupled with family and community involvement can uplift an entire school ecosystem. Join leaders from Lurie Children's Hospital, Northwest Housing Association and Belmont-Cragin Elementary School to learn about a holistic approach to school transformation.
Valor Collegiate, an intentionally-diverse, top 1% school, has pioneered a Comprehensive Human Development model, called The Compass, that has gained international acclaim. Learn about this model and engage in a simple transformative practice of affirming interactions in this interactive session.
Come explore the edtech tools helping teachers bring learning to life in their classrooms. Endorsed by the LEAP Curation Panel, these are the products at the forefront of the movement to transform the learning experience.
Tour the innovative furniture showcase, brought to you by 3 Oaks Resource Group International. From swivel chairs to ball chairs, from standing desks to cluster tables - stop in and explore the latest creative ideas to make your classroom more personalized for your learners!
Flexible Learning StudioTour the innovative furniture showcase, brought to you by Three Oaks Resource Group. From smart boards to tack boards, beakers to benches, desks to cluster tables, there will be a wide range of ideas for you to explore.
Tuesday August 28, 2018 9:45am - 11:45am CDT
Prairie A
Visit the Learning Innovation Gallery to learn how some of the region’s most innovative educators engage and inspire their students. Connect with programs, resources and tools that empower both educators and learners.
Participants will gain an understanding of the development and deployment of the CVUSD World of Work Initiative, a systemic career development framework and process that ensures students experience a minimum of 54 careers between kindergarten and eighth grade to develop a vision for their future possible selves.
Efficacy matters! Join members of Dreambox, Lexia and Newsela as they consider what's missing from edtech efficacy measurements as they're presented today. Help inform how companies and educators collaborate to make efficacy an informative, accurate data point for teachers and schools.
The education world is abuzz about personalized learning, but what does the research have to say? In this session, leading education researchers will discuss the challenges as well as the potential of national efforts to measure personalized learning's impact, going over the progress that's been made so far.
Over the past four years, many of LEAP's Pilot Network schools have adopted LEAP's professional development services while simultaneously implementing Lexia Reading Core5 in elementary classrooms. The combination of professional development focused on personalizing instruction, strong implementation of a highly adaptive reading program and leadership and determination from school instructional teams has led to very large reading gains in LEAP schools. Share in the success and reflect on what's yet to come as team members from LEAP, Lexia and Chicago-area schools tell their stories of innovation and student growth.
A good working memory is crucial to becoming a successful learner—what is the theory behind the concept, and how does it inform teacher practice? This session will explore ways to address working memory in an educational setting. It will review the linkage between working memory skills and key areas of learning and offer solutions for supporting children with working memory deficits.
DonorsChoose.org staff will go through the ins and outs of their award-winning crowdfunding platform. Teachers will learn how to secure new materials and learning opportunities for their students, maximizing the platform’s immense potential.
African-American male youth face a litany of challenges on the road to college, career and life success. Is their trajectory pre-determined? Join leading researchers and educators for a discussion on the tools, resources and interventions that are reversing trends and improving life prospects for young African-American males.
Join us as we explore the ways that smart policymaking can create the conditions for personalized learning to thrive across the country. Our panel of national and local policy experts will look at cutting-edge state policies that are bringing classrooms into the 21st century, analyze the obstacles that sometimes prevent forward-thinking education policies from catching on, and discuss opportunities for lawmakers at the national, state, and local levels to enable a new era of teaching and learning.
Learn about the emerging innovations and new technologies that are increasing students' access to diverse and caring networks of adults, mentors and industry experts. Participants will explore the outcomes these innovations stand to produce, in terms of both learning and connecting.
Leaders are foundational to the work of scaling innovative teaching and learning practices across schools. Strong leaders enable educators to learn, fail and reiterate. Hear from a panel of local principal leaders as they share their school's transformation journey including how they navigate the change management process, create an environment for innovation, empower, educators as leaders and engage the broader school community along the process.
Learn about Bridgespan’s research on the innovation zone model, what makes it different and the impact it is having across the country in different contexts. Hear from leaders from schools in innovation zones and how this model has changed their ability to make an impact (the benefits and the challenges).
This year's kindergartners will graduate from high school in 2032. Are we preparing them for 2032? You may have crossed the digital divide, but you may be up against the second-level digital divide. You have technology, but are you prepared to use it?
Eliciting ideas about personalizing adult learning and developing personalized learning-specific competencies among pre-service learners, we'll use the LEAP Learning Framework to explore how the Relay Teaching Residency blends theory and practice, fueling a pipeline of teachers uniquely prepared for new school models. *This session requires devices (a laptop or tablet is preferred)
Explore the benefits of bilingualism while laying the groundwork for how the foundations of language acquisition and personalized learning intertwine. This session includes action steps organizations can take to improve their culturally and linguistically responsive practices.
The use of data allows for meaningful opportunities for personalized learning. This session will go through what data from Summit Basecamp looks like, then how the data is used for small group instruction. The session will include how the small group instruction is prepared for.
Young learners are capable of thinking big thoughts, ideas, and questions. Explore strategies and approaches that foster deeper learning outcomes that empower young students within a personalized learning environment. Explore ways to document learning on the Kdg. Individual Development Survey.
Participants will explore the necessary elements in creating empathy activities to kick start a design, redesign or change process within their school community. They will engage in designing questions to find root cause and hear from first hand experience how transformative the process can be.
This session will explore the use of Oral History to Personalize Learning while making students Published Authors. Oral History Projects from 1st grade through high school engage students who reach peak learning through interviews and research. The Holocaust and the Vietnam War are two topics.
Learn how to incorporate music & the arts to create multi-layered immersive lessons that will both challenge and engage your learners. Using research-backed methods we will look at examples in multiple subjects, discuss practical application, and brainstorm ways to apply these in your own classroom.
Chicago’s Oak Park and River Forest High School’s (OPRF) student population encompasses a racial, economic and cultural mix that reflects the nation as a whole. Located in a mostly affluent, progressive suburb, the school attracts families of all races and means, many of whom make great sacrifices to secure their children a place there. But even in this diverse and liberal community, ensuring an educational experience that equally benefits all students poses challenges for the school’s dedicated and well-meaning teachers, administrators and parents.
In the multipart unscripted documentary series “America to Me,” Academy Awardnominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Life Itself) and his team follow a diverse selection of the school’s 3,400 students, including artists, athletes, scholars, underachievers and iconocla iconoclasts, to present an indelible account of their dreams, fears, triumphs and aspirations.
Join us for a preview of the trailer and panel discussion about the new documentary as the film participants talk about highlights from the docuseries and approaches and innovations that ensure an equitable learning experience for all students.
Opening Remarks: Phyllis Lockett, CEO of LEAP Innovations Moderator: LeeAndra Khan, CEO, Civitas EducationPanelists: Rebecca Parrish, Segment Director and CinematographerDr. Jackie Moore, President, Oak Park and River Forest High School Board of Education Jada Buford, Former Oak Park and River Forest High School Student
Heath Slawner believes that when we meaningfully connect with and inspire one another, we rise well beyond what we could do alone. Specializing in strategic communication and leadership, Heath is fascinated by human behavior and has built a career learning and sharing his insights... Read More →
The Power of Whole Child Personalization: Connecting Science, Learning and Human Potential Pamela Cantor M.D. Founder and Senior Science Advisor, Turnaround for Children
Founder and Senior Science Advisor, Turnaround for Children
Founder and Senior Science Advisor, Turnaround for Children, practiced child psychiatry for nearly two decades, specializing in trauma. She founded the education nonprofit Turnaround for Children after co-authoring a study on the impact of the 9/11 attacks on New York City schoolchildren. Turnaround connects the dots between science,adver... Read More →
Though it’s often overlooked, the most important aspect of implementing any education innovation is organizational culture. Our interactive lecture will showcase how your team can successfully cultivate a culture where innovation thrives.
Data can--and should--be an important part of your Afterschool Program, both internally and externally. Having data that provides a clear overview of your Afterschool Program’s performance is increasingly important when gathering community support or raising funds. Additionally, access to data can build capacity, and inform program design and decision-making. In this session, attendees will gain an understanding of why data is useful for their Afterschool Programs, and how they can begin to take steps to develop a data framework specific to their organization.
For too long, struggling students have been sent down "learning paths" that are far below grade level. In this session, we'll look at how Edgenuity UpSmart allows for personalization at grade level to ensure that all middle school students can meet standards in math and ELA.
For students of all backgrounds to achieve their full potential academically and socially, we can no longer avoid discussions about race and education. The America To Me Discussion Guide was created to help facilitate these conversations - in the classroom, the faculty room and parent group meetings. You're invited to understand how to navigte these conversations and the immediate positive impact they can have on your school culture.
Teachers will have the opportunity to design learner-led and learner-centered activities that help increase student engagement. Join this session to learn how to develop learner profiles, explore ways to assess mastery and make time for learners to collaborate.
Using the LEAP Learning Framework, presenters will share best practices for building learner pathways and how they are supported. The session will align with the Framework’s key themes so that attendees can drive greater impact in the classroom.
Learn how to teach your students to #BeInternetAwesome. Be Internet Awesome is a FREE multifaceted program designed to teach kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety so they can explore the online world with confidence. The program is available in English and Spanish and consists of an ISTE standards aligned curriculum, ready-made Pear Decks for each lesson, Interland - an adventure-packed online game about digital safety and citizenship, and plenty of resources for educators and parents.
Experience firsthand how authentic entrepreneurship programs can foster personalized learning while also teaching vital teamwork and SEL skills. Explore the entrepreneurship pathways that bring these experiences to your schools.
Transitioning away from seat time and moving toward a model that lets students progress as they demonstrate mastery is crucial to creating personalized learning environments. Whether you're just starting to implement competency-based approaches or you've been at it for a while, come explore the keys to building and sustaining these approaches in ways that help your students reach their learning and life goals.
Mentoring can increase motivation and help students become self-directed learners. Participants will learn how Lee Elementary explored systems and structures involving teacher-to-student as well as teacher-to-teacher mentoring models, gathering strategies for doing the same in their own educational environments.
Using real-world examples that are grounded in the science of adversity, trauma and brain development, this session will offer strategies for educators to build classrooms that truly personalize learning for all students. Participants will draw on their own experiences and take new practices into the school year.
This panel will focus on the lessons learned and next steps to support student informational writing at the elementary school level. Teachers, administrators, and the ThinkCERCA school support manager will share qualitative and quantitative evidence as well as share their best practices.
With a little bit of practice and grit, you can lead your team team from compiling and tracking data to analyzing it and using it to make decisions. Folks will need a growth mindset, a laptop, G Suite for Education and a spreadsheet data source for this hands-on workshop.
This 90-minute workshop will guide participants in effectively developing and using measurement and data to improve their systems. Improvement approaches are grounded in the effective use of data, and yet many educators rely on conventional measures that are not designed to guide improvement efforts. In this workshop, participants will get an overview of how measurement for improvement departs from the typical uses of measurement in education, which stem from accountability or research paradigms. Participants will also learn how to link their theory of practice improvement to a system of measures that they can track and utilize to understand if and how their system is improving.
Success Bound prepares middle schoolers for high school and beyond. This work begins in 6th grade, with a focus on keeping middle-grade students on track, helping them prepare for and enroll in high school. Participants will hear from our partners and leave with tangible ideas for implementation.
Get hands-on experience with Family Playlists, an innovative tool that transcends language and technology barriers to strengthen learning relationships and foster powerful, student-centered learning experiences. Participants will leave with concrete ideas for bringing the Learner Connected component to life.
Experience project-based learning from the perspective of teacher as designer. In this interactive session, participants will work from academic standards to rapidly generate unique, rigorous projects. They will compete against other educators in pursuit of high-quality project-based learning for all.
Working collaboratively is one of the most powerful ways for students of any age to learn. How, though, do you build a culture of groupwork that avoids common pitfalls and promotes learning that is equitable, authentic and rigorous for all students? Our workshop will dive into the theory and practice of group-based learning, uncovering the keys to designing collaborative tasks and practicing strategies that bolster groupwork skills in students.
Using sample profiles, attendees will build a personalized learning path for middle school math students, exploring through a playlist the ways the objectives are delivered and assessed.
This is a hands-on workshop focused on planning for a private, personal, and/or shared vision. Participants will work on their own to create a prototype, share and present their plans through small group discussion, a gallery walk, and identify ways to collaborate cross curricularly.
Participants will engage in an experiential workshop that discusses Restorative Justice as a mindset, theory and practical approach. Diving into concepts like self-awareness and adult-accountability, the session will examine Restorative Justice’s school-based application.
Learn about the research behind FUSE Studios, a project-based STEAM environment from Northwestern University. Explore how kids in FUSE discover new interests, new skills and new identities, as well as how teachers and administrators adapt to the challenges of choice-based learning.
Come explore the edtech tools helping teachers bring learning to life in their classrooms. Endorsed by the LEAP Curation Panel, these are the products at the forefront of the movement to transform the learning experience.
Tour the innovative furniture showcase, brought to you by 3 Oaks Resource Group International. From swivel chairs to ball chairs, from standing desks to cluster tables - stop in and explore the latest creative ideas to make your classroom more personalized for your learners!
Flexible Learning StudioTour the innovative furniture showcase, brought to you by Three Oaks Resource Group. From smart boards to tack boards, beakers to benches, desks to cluster tables, there will be a wide range of ideas for you to explore.
Tuesday August 28, 2018 2:45pm - 4:30pm CDT
Prairie A
Visit the Learning Innovation Gallery to learn how some of the region’s most innovative educators engage and inspire their students. Connect with programs, resources and tools that empower both educators and learners.
This workshop will support educators who are working to bring the LEAP Learning Framework from the conceptual realm to practical reality. Using BrainPOP's FREE Digital Citizenship Subscription, we'll explore a host of personalized learning strategies that align with the LEAP Learning Framework.
The design and purpose of this hands-on workshop is to identify the assets and resources available in your city, which can help you create a connected learning ecosystem. At the Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX), we know that no one organization alone can transform teaching and learning to better serve today’s young people. With this in mind, we work with a growing community of over 200 youth-serving organizations, schools, cultural institutions, city agencies, corporations, foundations and universities to learn, coordinate and reduce duplication. Learn how you can do the same in your community.
Energize your lesson plan (and students) with a fresh take on your literacy tools. Strategize daily differentiation while leveraging the power of your digital devices. Participants will learn how to apply add-ons and extensions to literacy tools like Newsela and Read&Write.
Most students and adults experience math as a spectator sport, where they "sit and get" someone else's ideas. Learning science, however, makes it clear that no one can be given an understanding. Session participants will engage in research-based techniques that make math personal for students, letting them make sense of ideas for themselves.
You be a student! Step inside myON's classroom for a hands-on experience through a personalized, cross-curricular lesson. Participants will have the opportunity to explore myON's library, demonstrate visual thinking with literacy tools and utilize built-in scaffolds to personalize their own learning.
Learner profiles help build meaningful relationships, strengthen the learning community and provide a sense of belonging with and among students. Participants will explore learner profile components that reveal students’ language, culture and experiences, using these insights to design a personalized classroom library.
The old mantra "hire hard, manage easy" still applies, but how do we tailor the hiring process to ensure personalized learning is a success? In this session, participants will learn and share best practices for supporting recruitment and hiring in a personalized learning setting.
