Conference Program/Sessions

Join ASCD Emerging Leaders Robert Pennington and Billy Krakower to discuss multiple strategies they've used with students, staff members, and families during remote learning. Relationships are important in a school climate and culture, even more so during uncertain times. The presenters will share strategies that worked with students, such as using brief videos, connecting with students through weekly challenges, creating virtual field trips, and converting daily lessons to remote lessons. Connecting with staff during remote learning has also helped build stronger relationships, whether through professional learning, weekly check-ins, games, challenges, and support. With the community, the presenters have built connections through social media read-alouds, check-ins with guidance counselors and other staff members, and weekly games such as Kahoot that engage our families in collaborative activities. Implemented now, these strategies will carryover to regular in-person classroom instruction and continue to foster a strong school culture.

Participants will

• Learn multiple strategies to connect with students during remote learning and strategies to strengthen relationships during regular classroom instruction.
• Learn multiple strategies to connect with staff during remote learning and strategies to strengthen relationships during regular classroom instruction.

Throughout history, whenever a system gets a significant shakeup some things change forever. Through this COVID-19 era, we’ve had some realizations that involve innovative instructional, grading ,and assessment practices. Join Myron Dueck (@myrondueck), school administrator, educator, and author of Grading Smarter Not Harder to examine three COVID-era grading and assessment changes that will have a lasting impact in his district.

Participants will be able to

• Align instructional, grading and assessment strategies to more complex learning environments.
• Consider changes to homework, projects, and questioning to reflect deeper learning opportunities.

We don’t know exactly what schools will look like in the fall, but we do know that student motivation will be a key to success. Whether we’re fully back in classrooms, still teaching remotely, or some combination of the two, we should tap into students’ intrinsic motivations to help them authentically engage in great learning. Instead of spending our time trying to motivate our students, what if our role is to create conditions where self-motivation can flourish?

Participants will

• Learn about six key intrinsic motivators to inform instructional planning.
• Gain many practical ideas for applying these intrinsic motivators in their teaching.

As students return to school this academic year, teachers will be confronted with an array of challenges, one of which, put simply, is where to start. Pre-assessment is a useful tool to gather information about students’ grasp of key knowledge, skills, and understandings, along with any relevant areas of interest prior to teaching. Through a careful analysis of pre-assessment results, teachers can better tailor their curricular and instructional design to meet the needs of their students. In a mid- or post-pandemic world, the potential for significant learning gaps is high; therefore, the value of understanding what students know and are able to do prior to teaching is amplified. Additionally, many students are likely struggling socially and emotionally. For example, to what degree has the loss of structure and social interaction affected them? What are they most worried about as the new school year gets underway? What will motivate them to engage in learning? Pre-assessments, then, should be designed to better understand the academic and social-emotional needs of students. This session will explore how to design pre-assessments that invite students back to school (in whatever format that might be) and let them know that their teachers are here for them, care about them, and will do their very best to meet students wherever they are.

Participants will be able to

• Understand the unique academic and social-emotional needs of students as they return to school (in either face-to-face, remote, or blended environments).
• Explore elements of effective pre-assessment design.

In the throes of societal crises, schools struggle to have meaningful dialogues that dig deeply into plans for creating equitable learning. In this session, participants will engage in deeper, more meaningful conversations that forge relationships to co-construct equitable schooling.

Participants will

• Experience powerful strategies and protocols to add to their repertoire.
• Enhance their capabilities to shape culture that facilitates transformation from unhealthy mindsets that perpetuate exclusion to healthy mindsets that support inclusion.

As schools' transition from remote learning to re-entry, establishing a solid plan is crucial. Above all else, educations, students, families, and support staff need to feel safe and have the confidence that their schools will fully address all health concerns. With this as the foundation principle, participants in will dive into eight focus areas that together can help them create a successful re-entry plan that ensures learner success.

Participants will leave with practical and ready to implement re-entry strategies as well as a framework that they can use during implementation.

View a demo of Frontline School Health Management to see how the software can support your reopening efforts:

• Collect health data (e.g., symptoms, testing, immunity) on students, families, and staff through a mobile app?
• Educate, implement, and monitor compliance with safe practices to reduce risk.
• Identify early warning signs with comprehensive tracking and reporting
• Support mental and behavioral health issues among students

School health is more important than ever, and you can’t afford to retrofit a solution. Join us to see how Frontline can support you in this critical time.

We can learn crucial lessons about school safety in a post-pandemic United States—not all of which have to do with COVID-19. In this timely, interactive session, we'll explore the urgent need for an all-hazards approach to school safety that empowers schools and districts to plan for, prevent, and respond to a wide array of natural and manmade hazards. While the session will deal with coronavirus-specific issues, we will also explore vital, but often overlooked, research-based crisis response principles such as threat assessment, continuity of operations planning, stakeholder communication, parent reunification, violence prevention initiatives, and improving school culture.

Participants will

• Understand the requirements necessary for an all-hazards approach to school safety that includes planning for a post-pandemic school year.
• Self-assess their district's level of preparedness for preventing and responding to events.
• Generate appropriate action steps to further the development of an all-hazards approach to safety in their school or district.

As educators, we are becoming more aware of the epic number of students exposed to adverse experiences. These experiences have been further exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis and social injustice conditions. As we learn to adapt to different teaching environments (in person and remotely), it is essential that we (1) have a deep understanding of students living with trauma, violence, and chronic stress; and (2) embrace the evidence-based research on the urgency if using a strengths-based approach during these uncertain times. As we transition to the next school year, this practical session will help educators move away from what we perceive is “lacking” to finding “what is already there” by empowering all of us—educators, students, and others—to see and draw from our individual strengths and assets.

Participants will be able to

• Recognize the urgent call for using a strengths-based approach with students living with adversity.
• Apply principles of an asset-based framework to identify our strengths and the strengths of our students.

For too long, English learners have been segregated from their English-speaking peers or supported in ways that inadvertently lead to isolation, limited access to the core curriculum, and exclusion from enriching language and learning opportunities. English learners bring tremendous assets to each school community that often go unnoticed and misinterpreted as deficiencies. We must recognize and nurture their multiple literacies, resilience, lived experiences, and eagerness to learn through inclusivity.

Rather than focusing on deficiencies, we will showcase that successful teaming is heavily dependent on four core principles that form the foundation of teamwork: common purpose, shared mindset, supportive environment, and diverse team membership. This session will focus on teamwork and relate to the personal and professional development of educators who work with English learners in varied capacities.

Participants will

• Review and evaluate a framework for coordinated support for students, teachers, and families.
• Analyze short case studies depicting collaborative support for English learners.
• Unpack strategies that create opportunities for English learners to interact with each other to speak, write, interact, read, and listen (SWIRL).
• Review sample protocols for inquiry- and project-based learning that requires teamwork.

As educators continue to adapt to online teaching and learning, it is just as important for individuals to have support groups and systems in place to strengthen their professional development. We'll cover multiple tracks such as equity, readiness, and planning for transition.

• Learn the importance of connecting with other individuals who share similar aspects of their identity, especially in situations where they are in the minority.
• Understand that affinity groups start with a willingness to be vulnerable and admit to not knowing all the answers but possessing the will to try.
• Know that affinity groups serve different purposes for different groups.
• Explore how to use affinity groups as an opportunity to not only dismantle negative misconceptions, but also develop positive perspectives.

We've heard enough "expert claims." Addressing trauma and stress with valid  evidence-based neuroscience guidance reveals how stress affects the way the brain learns. This session will provide new tools to help you plan for your best success and that of your students.

Participants will be able to

• Understand the neuroscience of how anxiety, stress, and perceived threat affect learning.
• Apply the video game model of individual achievable challenge levels and the recognition of incremental progress to increase student effort and perseverance.
• Use advances in neuroscience research to ignite student engagement and motivation and promote a growth mindset.

As public schools across the United States and Canada search for a “new normal,” we can learn lessons from high-performing, high-poverty (HP/HP) schools. Pandemic-related school closures magnified the “old normal” problem of systemic inequities in our schools; however, one of the hallmarks of HP/HP schools is their capacity to tackle whatever comes at them. This session focuses on strategies deployed by the 12 schools featured the in the 2nd edition of Turning High-Poverty Schools into High Performing Schools.  All are welcome to participate and learn how these schools ensured equity before and during the pandemic as you start constructing your new normal.

Participants will

• Emerge with an understanding of how the capacity and collective efficacy built in high-performing, high-poverty schools paid off in terms of their ability to address heightened inequities during emergency closures requiring remote learning.
• Learn from the successes of high-performing, high-poverty schools how to create equitable learning conditions in both brick and mortar and remote learning contexts.

Learn how to revisit or start fresh to articulate your school’s moral purpose as you align a new reality with what you believe about learning, teaching, and leading.

Participants will

• Learn practical tools for engaging staff in articulating a shared moral purpose to drive the work of learning, teaching, and leading.
• Understand how to align decision making to their shared moral purpose.

In difficult times, teachers use a lot of energy and enthusiasm to motivate their students. But how do we recharge our own batteries and keep developing our own growth mindsets? In this session, participants will discover research linking well-being and brain performance and, more important, learn how to develop a growth mindset that drives this process. Leave this learning event inspired and empowered with five practical strategies you can apply right away with benefits that can build over a lifetime.

Participants will

• Discover research on links between well-being and brain performance.
• Learn how to develop a growth mindset for well-being.
• Apply five practical strategies that can lead to greater well-being.

Learn the principles of focused curriculum and assessment with the three criteria that allow state and district curriculum leaders and classroom teachers to focus curriculum and assessment on the essentials.

Participants will be able to

• Establish priorities for standards.
• Analyze and evaluate standards based on the critter of leverage, endurance, and essentiality.
• Synthesize standards in order to identify cross-disciplinary opportunities.

Join Craig Martin for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about addressing academic gaps. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Join Scottie Nash for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about educator readiness. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Join Kelisa Wing for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about equity. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Join us for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about social and emotional learning and student support. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Join Phyllis Pajardo for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about strategy and operations. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Academic learning may be the explicit focus of schooling, but what teachers say, the values we express, the materials and activities we chose, and the skills we prioritize all influence how our students think, see themselves, interact with content and with others, and assert themselves in the world. While social and emotional learning (SEL) is most familiar as compartmentalized programs or specific interventions, the truth is, all learning is social and emotional. This session makes the case for taking a deliberate approach to the “hidden curriculum” already being taught, presenting a five-part model of SEL that’s easy to integrate into everyday content instruction.

You’ll learn the whys and hows of

• Building students’ sense of identity and their belief in their ability to learn, overcome challenge, and influence the world around them.
• Helping students identify, describe, and regulate their emotional responses.
• Promoting the skills of cognitive regulation crucial to decision making and problem solving.
• Fostering students’ social skills—including teamwork and sharing—and their ability to establish and repair relationships.
• Equipping students to becoming active and involved citizens.

COVID-19 forced many classrooms either partially or completely online for the first time. But what started as a challenge may turn out to be an opportunity to breathe new life into your assessment strategy. In this session, we’ll explore design principles that make online assessment not only possible for your remote or blended classroom, but potentially better for student learning.

Want to know how to select the right tools for formative assessment? Or design summative assessments that effectively leverage the digital space? We’ll cover these best practices and more. Plus, we’ll dive into principles of accessibility so that you can make sure your online instruction is equitable for all learners. Join us to learn how to support a great variety of learning styles online and how to design better measures of learning for the 21st century student.

As schools tackle blended learning and distance learning, building teacher capacity includes nurturing an understanding of the benefits and challenges of using digital tools to reach and support students and families. In this session, Monica Burns, author of Tasks Before Apps, will take you through strategies for reviewing curriculum goals, setting up structures and routines, and examining traditional best practices through a blended and distance learning lens.

Participants will

• Explore the foundations of blended learning and distance learning.
• Identify connections to traditional best practices.
• Determine action items related to the goals of their school community.

How can schools transform from those of the industrial era to ones that are personalized and leverage the power of technology? Schools across the nation are transforming into ones that are future ready. They are revamping teaching and learning—as well as vital aspects of education such as professional learning, learning spaces, and community partnerships—while tackling difficult issues of equity that have been ingrained in the system since inception. This session will inspire leaders and provide a framework and free tools to transform their schools into ones that better prepare students for their tomorrow.

Participants will

• Understand the research-based levers of school district transformation.
• Leverage the Future Ready Framework and hundreds of free tools and resources.
• Understand the importance of maintaining an equity lens in leadership.

It is crucial that we create a culture of learning to support leaders' and teachers' capacity with opportunities for professional learning and reflective practice. Organizing and outlining professional learning takes planning, time, and focus. Embedded professional learning such as learning walks, classroom labs, instructional rounds, peer observations and hosting teachers from other districts are beneficial to teachers. Coaching, modeling, and co-teaching are other ways to build capacity. This session will focus on sharing ideas and resources for building teacher and leader capacity. You will leave this session with an overview of how to build capacity with embedded professional learning and a template to get you started immediately. We will share how weaving all activities into your evaluation tool is helpful so everything connects and does not feel like “one more thing.”

Participants will

• Understand different forms of embedded professional learning.
• Leave with an overview of how to build teachers' and leaders' capacity with embedded professional learning.

Meeting the needs of students with disabilities is often viewed as an add on to meeting the needs of students without Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Yet, the COVID-19 era has reminded us of the need to plan for students with specific needs first because that will set the stage for everyone to be successful. This session will bring together some of the lessons learned across different states as they reacted to and now are proactively trying to plan for distance learning for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and other low incidence disabilities.

Participants will

• Receive a list of considerations for choosing platforms, providing guidance to administrators, educators, and specialists (e.g., SLP).
• Get examples of strategies that have worked.
• Hear input we have received from family members about supporting students with disabilities.

With the effects of COVID-19 and antiracist protests on students and families, our school saw the need for a wholistic response of supports. As a result, we created a Student Support Team to plan, implement, and evaluate a network of student and family supports. This multidisciplinary team of staff and partners relied on their areas of expertise to inform discussions about which students might be most at risk and connect with resources to provide things like food and rent assistance. In this session, we'll describe the roles of the team members, explore protocols and metrics used for evaluating the team's impact, and share reflections about what worked and what didn't. Participants will have the chance to brainstorm the roles and metrics that align with their own situations and use technology to share responses and give feedback.

Participants will leave with

• A draft list of participants and roles for a Student Support Team in their own school.
• Potential protocols and metrics to measure their team's success.
• A list of next steps they can take immediately to create their own Student Support Team.

Join us for the fourth monthly presentation of the ASCD & CDC webinar series focusing on leading schools during the coronavirus crisis. This webinar will focus on what schools and their communities are planning as they begin to reopen schools around the country. This session will update attendees on current status and COVID-19 recommendations from the CDC regarding the physical health and well-being of school staff, and students. We will also highlight the unique and innovative actions that schools are implementing around the country. A core focus of this presentation will be on ensuring not only the physical safety but also the social, emotional, mental well-being of students, staff, and communities using the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model (WSCC).

The compelling events of May 2020 that streamed into the streets, homes, and communities across the United States made it abundantly clear that cultural competency cannot wait. Staff and students are processing the aftermath of pain and frustration, and they will bring their assumptions and socialized beliefs with them through the school doors this fall. Ignorance of racial and cultural bias and how it manifests in educational practice is not something that schools can afford any longer. Every educator needs to recognize, understand, and challenge implicit bias, structural racism, and privilege in schools. This session will outline a path forward in the new school year through which one can build cultural competency with staff or as an individual and systematically confront and redesign a more equitable classroom or school . . . right now.

Participants will

• Unpack a working definition of cultural competency.
• Learn six systematic steps toward building cultural competency individually or as a learning team.

What is a good question? Or more specifically, how could we use good questions to address and assess standards; identify potential gaps in learning; and provide academic instruction, intervention, and enrichment? Learn how to rephrase the performance objective into good questions that you can use to assess and build foundational knowledge, deepen understanding and awareness, and develop and demonstrate personal expertise.

Participants will be able to

• Recognize the difference between questioning and inquiry.
• Understand how good questions challenge students to demonstrate different levels of thinking and communicate depth of knowledge.
• Use good questions to assess and build foundational knowledge, deepen conceptual and procedural understanding, and develop talent and thinking into personal expertise.
• Develop and deliver an inquiry-based learning experience that uses good questions to provide academic instruction, intervention, and enrichment.

This session explores feasible ways teachers can gain insight into students’ experiences outside school as well as how to engage students in assessment that improves learning outcomes and reduces lingering disparities. Participants will review exemplars and visualize strategies for translating theory and research into practical and personalized routines of practice. These assessment routines can illuminate learning gaps and move learners forward. They account for your school's priorities (resume, catch-up, move forward); allow for personalization; and persist until lingering disparities are lessened.

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, schools had to close down overnight, bringing about excessive frustration for students, parents, and teachers in the delivery and completion of distance learning school work. With the potential for second or third waves of the virus, we must be able to adapt to the new paradigms in education. Teacher collaboration through teaming is an option worth considering. Through teaming, teachers can plan lessons that are more relevant to students' needs, and by joining forces and resources, teachers can deliver lessons that are more focused and provide student feedback that is more specific and balanced across content areas than when provided by individual teachers.

Participants will be able to

• Determine the benefits of teaming in the midst of the COVID-19 challenges.
• Develop talking points to discuss teaming with the stakeholders.
• Prepare for the challenges in instituting teaming as a new paradigm.

What did we learn this past spring that can help us this fall? Without knowing how much in-person and online learning we will have in the fall, we must consider new options for structuring our plans for Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Get practical ideas for addressing both the academic and social and emotional learning executive function needs of students. Learn easy ways to embed safe and welcoming environments into remote learning. Explore ways to structure Tier 2 and 3 interventions to reduce learning gaps.

Participants will

• Take away practical ideas for addressing both the academic and social and emotional learning and executive function needs of students.
• Learn easy ways to embed safe and welcoming environments into remote learning.
• Explore ways to structure Tier 2 and 3 interventions to reduce learning gaps.

With schools closed and remote learning becoming the norm, our teachers have gone from saying, “Please raise your hand” to “Click the hand-raising icon to participate and then unmute yourself.”
No professional development day or session could have prepared us for this dramatic shift. As educational leaders, we sprinted to support teachers with ideas, lessons, and support. But now, a month into remote learning, it’s no longer a sprint; it’s looking more and more like a marathon.
Technology trainers need to create a long-term plan to support educators and encourage the effective use of digital tools for instruction. Online meetings and digital communication have become the norm for providing learning opportunities to educators. Having strategies for virtual training will make these opportunities more effective.
Participants will learn

• Strategies to design professional opportunities to maximize adult learning without face-to-face sessions.
• Techniques to provide instructional coaches and building leaders so that they can continue being instructional leaders.

Join us for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about addressing academic gaps. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Join us for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about educator readiness. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Join us for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about equity. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Join us for a lively moderated discussion with your fellow participants about social and emotional learning and student support. You can submit questions in advance when you register or join the conversation as it unfolds. Participants will need to download and install Zoom to participate in the Town Hall.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.

Connect with fellow educators on various topics in a discussion moderated by an ASCD Emerging Leader. You will need to have the latest version of Zoom to participate.