Presentation here.

Presentation link here.

Notes and/or Resources:

https://shorturl.at/JFoqA

How can teachers problem solve and identify opportunity?

Who can we connect with to solve this problem?

Subscribe to Todd's school YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@hallpasscreates

christytoddcreates@gmail.com

Presentation here.

Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors

How can educators provide opportunities for students to see themselves in our classroom and walk in and out of other peoples experiences?

1. Build a school environment where all students feel welcome and seen

2. Honor all languages, cultures, and countries through celebrations

   1. Cultural Heritage Days - Celebrate music, food, and art

   2. Physical environment should be representative of all students

3. In Class Activities

   1. Where Im From Poem

   2. 6 word memoir

4. Global and Diverse literature

   1. Consider using podcasts, poetry, Graphic novels, and short stories

Closing Questions

1. How can you create opportunities for windows mirrors, and sliding glass door learning in your classroom?

2. How can you connect with your local community to value and honor local cultures?

3. What activity shown today do you want to bring back to your own school community?

4. What teacher(s) in your school or community can you collaborate with to bring cultural awareness teaching and learning to your students?

Email mailto:kerrie.gill@dodea.edu if you have questions

Perfect way to start this day by thinking about what it means to create space for the teachers! A few of the many highlights:

• ABT "Always be teaching!"

• Create space to breathe

• A little investment in "me" pays dividends!

• Be vulnerable enough to start with play. Teachers want to laugh and have fun and connect with their colleagues. Go beyond icebreakers into play!

Louise shared so much thoughtful framing about how to manage stress. More than a "list of things to do" she offered us ways to think about stress management. A few of my favorites:

• When you are stressed, we're most likely to isolate, close our door. Instead, open your door and connect.

• Establish a new daily schedule or routine

• Understand your circle of control vs. non-control

• Do the "next right thing" (instead of trying to do ALL the things)

• Lean into your professional organizations

"YOU are the most important!"

We often hear that as teachers we need to take care of ourselves. Kylie's session not only helped us think about how to make explicit changes in our teaching to create more "time at the margins," but this shift also resulted in creating a more student-centered classroom.

• “It wasn’t all the hard work. It was me and the love I had for my students. You don’t have to be all the things all the time!!!!”

• Some examples of what Kylie did:

  • she stopped decorating her classroom and let her students do it

  • she opened her classroom to the community

  • she started giving feedback during class instead of at home/at night

  • she started having students curate their own passion projects which changed how she thought about lesson planning

  • and so many more!!

Here's her resource!

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGTykYe7Gg/FuVP8FbxUxSK_bxe0iu8dg/view?utm_content=DAGTykYe7Gg&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor

Interactive Reading: Focusing on Joy, Pace, Fluency, Comprehension, and Vocabulary Building but mostly importantly, share an experience.

Interactive reading supports students to also practice reading on their own... we are creating opportunities! we are creating classroom community through our conversations about the text and how it connects to our experiences.

1. Picture Walk

2. Vocabulary Preview

3. Read Text (BTW: Beautiful storytelling De'Shawn <3)

4. Debrief and Plan an Extension

   1. Can you write the next chapter?

   2. Turn and Learn with an Essential Question

   3. Write an Essay

   4. Support the claim with evidence

Mini Lesson - Who ate more pizza?

Warm Demander Chart

5 Takeaways

Need the warmth of encouragement

Remove Yourself as the person with the answers

Focus on community and how we all can help each other get better

Uncover gaps in knowledge

Phenomenon/engaging problems

1. drive authentic learning + build community + connect students to curriculum

Presentation here

How do you ensure that your classroom is an inclusive space where every student feels seen, represented, and valued?

-Listen and connect to every child everyday

-Ask students what songs they are listening to right now and try to work them into class/performance

How do we bridge learning and cultural learning gap?

-Importance of protecting art and music classes for all students, particularly in the elementary levels to ensure students are interested in music in their HS years

-Music can also help students develop key and foundational academic skills

-Create life experiences

-Learning about students' culture shows you care about them as humans

What challenges have you faced in promoting diversity and inclusions in your classroom?

-DEIA- Adding in the ACCESS to diversity, equity, inclusion. Band can be expensive and that can be a barrier. In this case: school has created school instruments where every student can access the instruments they need.

-Send me all your hyper kids, those are the kids that have the energy to march all day through the parade!

What advice do you have?

• Go for it

• It's okay if you don't get it right the first time

• Don't be afraid to try different things

• We should never show our students we are perfect, be humble

• Find a mentor who you think does what you want to do well

• Educate yourself on opportunities available

• Be intentional

^How

This session gave us a combination a meditation and yoga moments (very appreciated!) and the larger purposes for wellness in the classroom.

We started with doing a brief "wellness audit" of our surroundings. It was amazing how the invitation to do something as simple as opening a curtain, moving some clutter, doing a scan of your space got us ready to be present. Then some stretching and mountain poses and another look at our wellness audit to see how it shifted.

This was a meaningful combination of research, storytelling and practicing our presence. "When we pause, we expand." -- Mary Kay Connerton

Here are some resources! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cO7ktLR_ssoiQC5432XF2kKTl1iYZUjR/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116948892485689849541&rtpof=true&sd=true

Brian approached culturally relevant teaching in order to bridge to Ojibwe students who were mistrustful of school bc the school did not consider their culture and create safety.

1. Create "Welcome Mats"- welcoming space as you learn about the students' culture

   1. Although he started with unintentional cultural appropriation, he did the work to really learn about the Ojibwe community. Now he is embraced by the Ojibwe community.

   2. Multilingual signage was added to school

   3. How do you move beyond being negligent and/or by culturally appropriate? Brian's mentor says "do it afraid" but do it! Brian stepped out to the community and he began to learn the Ojibwe language and Anishinaabe culture

   4. Find your Game-Changers: with a students like, Raven and Lyric, Brian deepened his learning

   5. Protecting students' right to show their culture: Brian supported students as they wore Eagle feathers on graduation although it wasn't board approved (now for 10 years, Eagle feathers have been embraced for graduation ceremonies)

   6. Graduation rate went from 38% to 100%

   7. Community is everything!

   8. We are righting the wrong and de-colonizing the system

   9. Being inclusive means all, non Ojibwe students can participate in language learning

Sheila was inspired by her daughter with autism to start a peer to peer program for students with special needs to develop strong friends.

1. Find all the spaces that students aren't finding belonging and spaces

2. Reverse immersion: English speakers engaged in the world through the eyes of multilingual speakers

3. Complete service projects to ensure students with special educational needs develop equitable partnerships (students with special needs are being treated as partners and friends)

4. All abilities and Identities are celebrated

5. Students have taken ownership of ideas: carnivals celebrating neuro diversity, even students without disabilities are asking to be mentees if they need extra help and/or need help finding connections with peers

6. Extended to HS

7. Jordan, a student, now is a PhD candidate who is studying the impact:

   1. Peer to Peer increased friendships among 90-95% of students did

   2. Skill Development: Increase of academic skills, communication skills, etc

Materials: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JrCM1FMCnl85Zt6iYH8lT4EyUVs3W-WP?usp=drive_link

Slide deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ukyIxPfS1BDQSKQ-DFkwxHrNkYtIu4kyej2XzGyw30c/edit

Mauro (CT), Aziza Malik (VT), Traci Manuel (OK)

Sharon and Liz share how they incorporate Science of Reading in their classrooms with practical strategies and applications you can incorporate tomorrow.

• Notice and Wonder help students learn to pay attention and interact what they're reading.

• Annotation helps students organize their ideas, slow down and interact with the text.

• Detective Work: What makes the text challenging? What Science of Reading areas are addressed? What other content areas are included?

And we even were able to see some video of teaching in action!

This session was a powerful combination of teaching philosophy, personal storytelling and inspirational science demonstrations!

Taniece reminded us that we can't do it all, that students are engaged when learning is hands-on and purposeful.

"You can't do everything, but what you can do, you can hold space for the children. You can use your past experiences to inform your current experiences and you can use those to inform your future." -- Taniece (paraphrase)

Taniece also shared some of the realities of being a military spouse who is also pursuing teaching.

Resources: https://tinyurl.com/craftingscienceconnections