The world needs creative and entrepreneurial talents who are globally competent to take advantage of the opportunities brought about technology and globalization and tackle the tough challenges facing human beings. But our schools are being pushed to produce homogenous, compliant, and employee-minded test-takers, as a result of seductive power of the traditional education paradigm. In this presentation, Dr. Yong Zhao challenges the traditional paradigm, debunks the myth of international tests such as PISA and TIMSS, and proposes a new paradigm of education aimed to cultivate diverse, creative, and entrepreneurial talents. Dr. Zhao proposes a new paradigm of education. He will discuss the triad model of education to prepare global, creative, and entrepreneurial talents that include: personalized curriculum/educational experience, product-oriented learning, and the globe as the campus. Yong Zhao will present Specific details of each element will be presented as follows. Point 1: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students: Personalization and Strength-based Curriculum Point 2: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students: Product-oriented Learning Point 3: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students: The Global Campus Dr. Zhao’s presentation is based on the massive amount of evidence from a variety of sources he gathered for his new book World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students (Corwin, 2012) and his Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization (ASCD, 2009).

Join educators and school leaders in a dialogue that pushes past percentages and performances toward thriving 21st century schools. This workshop will propose some ways schools can foster a diverse, inclusive, and culturally competent school community. You will engage in activities to share best practices, and challenge existing behaviors, policies, and practices related to forwarding diversity initiatives. Activities will create the space to develop mission statements for diversity efforts at your school. You will consider the long-term and short-term goals for the institution, administration, faculty, and staff regarding cultural competency, student admissions and retention, the hiring and retention of historically underrepresented groups, etc.

This workshop is an opportunity for Summer Program Directors to connect, share best practices, and network.

Come participate in real life, challenging, and interesting scenarios that Division Heads have had to deal with in the recent past. This workshop is ideal for beginning administrators and people wanting to get into administration. It will be led by Josee Mayette, Middle School Head at Children's Day School and Julie Galles, Assistant Head for Middle School at San Francisco School. Let's work through problems together with help from current administrators and one another.

Leading independent schools seems to grow in complexity almost annually. Whether it's economic uncertainty, shifting demographics, intensified competition, an AP-dominated curriculum, hyper-anxious parents, distraught neighbors, or capital campaign demands, there is a constant flow of challenges that keeps the head's job lively and sometimes stressful. At the same time, many heads undeniably continue to derive deep satisfaction from the work that they do, despite the ongoing pressures. Join CAIS Executive Director, Jim McManus, for this opportunity to have a conversation with head colleagues that will focus upon whatever considerations the participants wish to explore.

Approximately 40% of children will witness their parents’ divorce before reaching adulthood and traditional, biological families are no longer the cultural norm. This workshop will inform you of issues and developmental challenges (academic and emotional) that are unique to students living in "blended" family situations; together with strategies & approaches that highlight the often overlooked benefits these students may enjoy. This workshop will focus on the realities of what's happening and provide an approach that balances the trauma of separation/divorce with a positive re-framing of the blended family experience.

Individuals exist in a world of uniqueness and similarities. Just as the commonalities of shared values, beliefs, principals, and styles of life serve to identify a people to a culture, the personal identities which an individual holds also serve to define the person’s cultural ties, as well as establish the person’s unique existence within that culture - a person-in-context.” In our multiracial and multicultural society, a truly competent educator and service provider must have cultural awareness, knowledge and skills. There is need to develop a deeper foundational knowledge and awareness of culture, ethnicity and race to be able to acquire culturally relevant skills. This session provides an avenue to increasing this foundational basis on the road to becoming a culturally competent educator, service provider, member of society and person-in-context.

An independent high school suffered an unexpected student death just prior to the opening of the 2011-12 academic year. Numerous complicating factors (including the presence of the student's sibling in the school community) made the process of school crisis response particularly challenging. This central loss was compounded as other schools around the Bay Area experienced several student suicides. This presentation outlines the school's response to the student loss and highlights the factors that proved crucial to positive outcome and building resilience during the long, complex response to the loss.

This workshop will be a gathering of counseling staff members to discuss current issues that are relevant on their campus. Items such as handling long term psychological issues and their impact on academic success will be discussed. Participants are welcome to come and discuss other counseling concerns in a collaborative environment with their counseling colleagues.

It is not always easy to identify anxiety in children. It can manifest in a variety ways. This workshop will focus on identifying signs of anxiety and understanding how to help an anxious child. We will also discuss how to work with the parents of anxious kids.

Come explore an interdisciplinary unit for first grade that centers on the neighborhood. Learn how math, writing, reading, art, and social studies can be woven together to give young children insights into the workings of a community. See that the richness of a multi-disciplined approach enthralls and excites learning in the classroom. Participants will receive a lesson plan to try in their own classrooms.

Based on our “mascot exchange'”project with a school in Saudi Arabia, first and second grade students not only learn about their own culture but Saudi Arabian culture as well. Exchange focuses on sharing our family, school, and community lives. This presentation focuses on the logistics of such an exchange, how it benefits our students, and how young learners can benefit from a global education project.

Research suggests that in order to confront gender bias, students need more than just passive exposure to read-alouds in the classroom. In this hands-on session participants will work with literature that challenges gender role stereotypes and create lessons that empower students to actually confront gender stereotyping. We will work with a variety of books suitable for PreK-4th grades, including classics (e.g. Ferdinand The Bull, William’s Doll) and contemporary titles (Pugdog, Elena’s Serenade, Ballarino Nate. Resources provided. Participants are welcome to bring booklists and lessons to share.

Simmer Math! Bake History! Eat Science! Connect all the factoids, processes and skills from core classes, throw in a pinch of differentiation, and see the depth of engagement and understanding experienced by students looking at learning through a different lens - cooking. With minimal tools, you can create the lesson students remember.

There are an estimated 70,000 education apps in the app store. Come learn about some of best ones that teachers are using in their classrooms.

Using Singapore Math and manipulatives to teach number sense is extremely effective in developing math students who can do mental math with flexibility and confidence. Come ready to work with base-10 blocks and acquire a new, powerful approach to teaching math first - sixth grade.

In this workshop, we will share the various steps associated with the writing and execution of a successful learning plan, including how to foster the critical relationship between learning services and administration which allows for effective implementation. Also, we will discuss the importance of collaboration among the different adult constituents who make up the team that facilitates a thriving academic journey for the student.

A couple of years ago, the presenter started teaching ukulele to her fifth grade students. This sweet instrument is accessible to all, and is experiencing quite a revival. Using games to teach the strings and chords, we will find out why the uke is such a great instrument for both personal use and group instruction. Bring the pleasure of strumming and singing into your classroom, regardless of what you teach. Bring a uke if you have one.

Our presentation will introduce The Joy of Teaching: A Comprehensive Thematic Teacher Planbook, with a K-2 and 3-5 version. Each planbook incorporates the universal theme, balance, integrated with social studies, language arts, science, creative/fine arts, and PE/ movement education. The presenters and participants will discuss incorporating a project-based curriculum into their classrooms. We will also highlight Discovery Learning Centers, complete with task cards and opportunities for independent research projects.

Build a richer repertoire for your developing writers, and lose the groans around the familiar conventions of expository essays without losing the academic habits and skills those essays help to hone. This workshop explores ways to teach the elements of interpretive and analytical writing through less traditional forms – without compromising the integrity and rigor of the traditional forms. Part I features a comprehensive overview: how to design, implement, and assess writing prompts that demand depth of inquiry (i.e. interpretive, analytical, formal writing) but also invite the development of a distinct writerly voice and a meaningful personal engagement with texts. Part II invites participants to revise, re-construct, and/or re-invent one (or more) of their own stock assignments. Come with colleagues!

From Homer to Homer Simpson, from Rambeau to Rambo, all cultures utilize archetypes to convey their values and beliefs. This session will demonstrate how teaching students an archetypal approach to analysis can enable them to unlock the meaning of a text. Discussion will draw from classical works and pop culture, including song, art, and advertising to illustrate how the world of our students connects with the literary worlds they study.

Strategies for helping our students master the art of reading and writing in this new era will be outlined. The ways we read and write are different, and more powerful than ever before. They will bring our students in touch with audiences from across the world, and opportunities to connect in ways they never have before. The presenter will share her experiences as director of the renowned organization LitWorld which serves children globally and will also share the LitWorld 7 Strengths Model for fostering lifelong writing skills across the disciplines.

Interested in using more modeling in your approach to teaching sentences and paragraphs? In helping students imitate the grammatical and logical structures writers really use in crafting sentences and paragraphs? Lack a lingo for celebrating the marvels of literary style? Want to talk technically about writing without inducing grammar-phobia? Drawing on Francis Christensen’s composition classic, Notes Toward a New Rhetoric, this workshop offers an accessible, unified approach to teaching the craft of writing sentences and sentences in sequence. This session will introduce Christensen’s key concepts, share a variety of Christensen-related resources, and model classroom activities in crafting effective sentences and paragraphs.

When we think about our courses and design curriculum, issues of gender and sexuality sometimes fall through the cracks. This constructive workshop will help us to think critically about where issues of gender and sexuality appear in our courses across a range of disciplines and to build strategies to address the complexity of these intersections of identity. We will work on lessons and activities that cross curricular boundaries. This workshop will address the themes of gender and sexuality that may appear in course content as well as instructional methods that may affect students. All disciplines are encouraged to join.

Independent schools have always served accomplished parents with high expectations. However, today’s GenX and Millennial parents present us with a new set of standards and motivations that can challenge us. If properly understood and supported, today's parents can become effective partners with educators. This session examines the over-parenting phenomenon prevalent in society today, offering strategies for managing parent needs and shaping their energies toward productive outcomes.

Technology is expanding exponentially. If we wait until we are experts in a medium to use or teach it in our classrooms we are imprisoning our students in the old paradigm of school. Let go of the need to be an expert and let your students teach you about tech in the 21st Century.

Our students are facing a rapidly changing future that defies easy understanding and challenges fundamental ideas about education and school. The Athenian School has been in a four year design thinking process with our students to rethink education -- to reshape our school and classes to meet the demands of the future. The outcome has been profound student leadership, school wide projects and academically rigorous courses that are also deeply relevant to the students’ lives. In this workshop, we’ll share lessons learned about engaging students to become partners and leaders in designing our schools to meet the future.

Executive Function - the set of cognitive skills that enable children to self-regulate, plan and act in a goal-directed manner - is critical to healthy academic and emotional growth. This "Swiss army knife" of thinking skills has immediate implications for achievement, independence and self-esteem.

Raising Capable Kids takes a holistic approach to exploring, understanding and responding to the implications of executive skills. The faculty/staff component provides participants with an overview of:

-A simple conceptual model of executive function (Based on the work of Dr. Adam Cox, Dr. Thomas Brown, Dr. Russell Barkely)
-Teaching practices and classroom routines that can be applied every day, across subjects
-The connection between challenging behaviors and executive function
-Responsive behavior management techniques
-Suggestions for collaborating with parents.

This discussion/workshop will address the importance of overarching, unifying design principles to the art and science of curriculum design. Inspired by design thinking and twenty-four years of classroom teaching, the presenter will share her personal philosophy of "freedom and constraint" as successful underpinnings for win/win curriculum design.

According to science, a meaningful life is made up of social connections, positive emotions, meaning and purpose, and accomplishment - all of which lead to greater academic achievement and emotional well-being for our students. You will: explore the latest research on how various facets of a meaningful life, including hope, mindfulness, and gratitude relate to student well-being and success; and learn research-based methods for incorporating hope, mindfulness, and gratitude into your classroom.

Especially helpful to schools accepting international students, this workshop will encourage schools to rethink a number of important issues in global learning. Some of the many topics covered will be how to support international students after admission, including planning effective orientation sessions, creating a caring dormitory or host-family environments, providing strong ESL training, establishing an international student support group network, and how to get US-born students and faculty to assist in welcoming and befriending international students, including offering US faculty and student community involvement, tutoring/academic support and extracurricular activity involvement, and college counseling. Additionally, attendees will learn how to help students plan trips to their home countries during school vacations, as well as how to recruit and support US host families - and much more.

This two-part workshop aims to introduce educators to the design thinking process and to share stories of its impact on teaching and learning in the 21st century. It highlights the collaborative learning journey at Brandeis-Hillel Day School (Marin Campus) and its partnership with Lime Design Associates, a design thinking consulting group based in the Bay Area. In the first part, participants will learn the design thinking process as an innovative, human-centered approach to defining and solving complex problems. Afterwards they will hear (and see) from teachers and administrators about school-wide and classroom experiences at Brandeis-Hillel as the school has integrated design thinking into the school’s learning landscape.

On-staff Learning Specialists are increasingly an integral and vital part of student care and support in independent schools. Often we work with few colleagues on site, and the need to share best practices is real. This workshop will be an opportunity to meet with your peers to share ideas, compare support structure models, discuss important issues and challenges in supporting learning diversity in independent schools, and to connect with you colleagues. We will begin together (K-12) and then break out into division-specific discussion groups, each led by a learning specialist on staff at HRS. You are most welcome to submit discussion topics, resources, ideas, etc. in advance to Kristi Farnham Thompson, Head Royce Learning Specialist, at [email protected]

Flex your 21st century muscles through old-fashioned literature appreciation and newfangled media production. Find out how, over the last three years, Burke’s has developed “How We Learn. A Model for the 21st Century” our very own comprehensive and mission-driven guide for teaching and learning. See how a Big-Sister/Little Sister project with fourth graders and kindergartners connects theory (our model) with the real world (an authentic demonstration of learning). Make your own iMovie and assess both your process and product with our model. Lights, camera, action! Limited to 24 people as iPads and picture books are provided.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to covertly determine student learning…and make it FUN! Explore technology-based and unwired methods for assessing student learning and tapping into students’ different learning styles. Learn how to use technology tools to determine student understanding in engaging and measurable ways. See how many of the strategies can be adapted to a variety of content areas, and allow students to express creativity and their understanding of the content learned. Time will be given to collaborate and plan for implementation.

This workshop will present an inclusive method of teaching tactical skills through small-sided games. It will include the advantages as well as the management of this teaching style using a game concept approach.

Math has been described as the science of pattern-finding and relationships. Visual pattern finding and manipulatives allow students entry points into deep thinking and mathematical conversation. We will describe patterns with the language of mathematics (equations, order of operations, variables), and connect to upper elementary concepts like factors, multiples, and growth patterns. We will offer thinking routines the presenters learned from Harvard Project Zero that provide a framework for developing student understanding.

This workshop describes two musical projects inspired from themes in the classroom. A study of the planets and the solar system leads to a investigation of planetary orbit lengths through movement and rhythmic speech. A unit on structures and the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge leads to a composition based on the proportions of the bridge. Both projects show how exploration in music and movement can deepen and enrich students' understanding of scientific, mathematical and historical information.

This presentation will discuss how to transition from TPR to TPRS in the upper elementary grades. It will also provide a demonstration of TPRS in action step by step from storytelling to reading and writing. Gain an understanding of how this gets students speaking in the target language and see what kind of results you can expect.

This session presents an in-depth look at AP French Language and Culture Exam’s Presentational Speaking task. Examination of its general scope, its scoring guidelines and their application to students samples, as well as instructional strategies for improving student performance on this task will be covered.

This presentation is aimed at teachers who want to develop the interest and encourage self-motivation towards the language-using computer programs.

This project is designed for Chinese teachers to improve intermediate learners’ oral proficiency with an explicit focus on discourse competence development. The teaching portfolio design increases the emphasis on discourse competence teaching so that intermediate learners of Chinese can create comprehensible unified spoken texts at the discourse level and meet the ACTFL speaking criteria. It provides a general guideline for adapting pedagogical techniques to improve discourse competence in the three genres of discourse: narration, description, and comparison, plus offers a collection of activities that aid development of discourse competence in the three genres of discourse.

The Urban School Language Department will be facilitating an affinity group discussion that will explore the teaching and learning issues of heritage speakers in independent school second language classrooms.

Attendance is limited to eight to ten participants on a first come, first served basis. Please come prepared with your various insights, challenges, practices and critical questions with respect to meeting the needs of this particular group of language learners. Some of our own questions for your consideration before we meet in March: What are the pedagogical needs, profiles, and typical strengths and weaknesses of heritage speakers? What are some current practices in language classrooms that are mixed heritage and non-heritage? How do we make best use of heritage speakers in second language classrooms while still meeting their needs? What resources are available, such as textbooks, curriculum, assessment tools and other guidelines?

Independent school librarians are increasingly being asked to work with their administrations to lead faculty learning in their schools. In roundtable discussions we will share best practices, models and strategies, as well as the unique challenges of doing professional development in one's own school. Some of the librarians who are staff development leaders are featured in the book Growing Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers (ABC-Clio/LU 2012).

LibGuides are a terrific resource for any school, and are a perfect vehicle for collaboration between librarians, teachers, and students. This workshop presents ideas for increasing usage of LibGuides, nontraditional applications, and the nuts and bolts of engaging faculty and increasing school-wide buy-in.

Many schools devote a large portion of their budgets to library databases, but how do we get students to not only use them, but use them well? This workshop will explore strategies to increase usage, such as collaboration with individual teachers and departments, database tools and widgets, a subject-based library homepage, and single sign-on and proxy servers. We will also cover increasing students’ efficiency through library instruction on search strategies, creating project-based LibGuides that direct students to the best sources, monitoring and interpreting usage statistics, and more.

Stretch your mind and explore the step-by-step visual strategy used for mathematical problem solving known as Singapore model drawing. Challenge yourself as you learn how to use this method to solve numerous complex word problems with ease and explore how it builds the bridge to algebraic thinking. If you have had a taste of model drawing and are ready to tackle some more advanced problems, this session is for you.

As a current MBA student at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, the presenter has discovered an amazing thing – quantitative-heavy classes in business school require knowing only simple Algebra. From finding the intersection of supply and demand curves to calculating the Consumer Price Index, there are numerous opportunities to satisfy students who ask "How will we ever use this stuff in real life"? Disciplines that will be covered include Economics, Finance, Operations, Marketing, and Sports Analytics.

Convergence is a fundamental concept: the idea that a sequence of operations approaches a limit under certain conditions. Applications range from image-compression to numerical methods in higher mathematics. This talk presents two fundamental examples of convergence. The first uses paper-folding to illustrate rapid convergence of equilateral triangles, useful in their own right; and the second applies the division algorithm in base-two to demonstrate a useful paper-folding trick. Each lesson offers entry points into numerous topics across the K12 curriculum, and the lessons can be presented to students from grade-school to high-school, or beyond.

How do we build a culture of teacher collaboration? How do we spread effective approaches across the department? How do we incorporate new ideas into our program? How do we respond to administrative directives, as well as to the needs of our students? What should we ask of our administrators? We will share our tentative answers, and would love to hear yours. Join us in a conversation about what it takes to strengthen a math department.

This presentation will introduce you to apps and activities that can be utilized to enhance your math curriculum. The presenter will also share our experience piloting a 1-1 iPad program with sixth grade students. You will leave with activities, forms, apps, and strategies you need to successfully utilize iPads in your math classroom.

Have you ever wanted to try a different activity for compound interest and recursive equations? Come to this session and learn about a class project that uses spreadsheets and the graphing calculator's sequence mode to explore how different options affect the price of a monthly mortgage payment. You will leave the session knowing how to find an upper bound for the price of your dream home. Important: Bring your own graphing calculator and laptop just in case we are not in a computer lab.

There is a lot of talk about 21st century education, but who is really doing it? Often marginalized as an “extra”curricular activity, but highly collaborative in nature, the performing arts have the potential to become a leader and a guiding force in providing cutting-edge 21st century education to students of all ages. Partnering with colleagues across the disciplines, performing arts educators can help break down the walls between schools' segregated subject matters, and give students a sense of interconnectedness between academics, arts, and the real world, as well as deeper understanding and appreciation of the various disciplines. Hamlin's drama teacher will share with you a number of her 21st century educational projects and discuss ways to confront the challenges and reap the rewards of this innovative type of teaching and learning.

Did you know that Americans fear public speaking more than death? The number of classes in public speaking, and it competitive counterpart, Speech and Debate, are growing in both public and private schools across California. Classroom and competition speech activities are valuable for their training of important life skills. Additionally, as students continue to seek admittance to independent high schools and colleges, public speaking can be a unique element for inclusion on an application. Join National Forensic League Diamond Coach and Almaden Country School teacher Chris Wardner for a presentation on public speaking as a classroom element and speech and debate as an inter-scholastic competition. The presentation will include classroom activities teachers can implement in any subject, as well as an overview of speech and debate as an academic competition.

Musicals are inspiring but demanding collaborative projects. Finding just the right one can highlight your program and fire up your students. In this round table we will present five-seven musicals you may not have heard of, that are "off-the-beaten path," but are viable and appropriate for middle and high school singers, actors and/or dancers. Establishing the role of a musical within a school’s community and providing a rubric for selecting the ideal show will also be covered in this session. This workshop will provide performing arts educators the opportunity to discuss managing and teaching a healthy, thriving musical theatre program for both the middle and high school curriculum, and will entertain your ideas and suggestions from your own repertoire and experience.

Jessica Redding and C.J. Healy of San Rafael High School will give an overview of some of the very different electives offered to students at their school. They will specifically present on their Adventure Curriculum and "Night PE" (Hiking and Sailing). Come to the workshop to hear how these programs came to be and how you might be able to jump start similar ideas at your school!

Videos are a powerful learning tool for all students. They can help them better understand their own work and inspire them. Learn about using video to enhance student learning and share your program with your community.

This workshop will be a simple introduction to a fitness segment using dice. There are many games that you can play using dice. Guaranteed fun and excitement in this session.

Join the presenter as he shares techniques to share some of Earth's most extreme environments with students. First, see and experience how to legally and safely fly a weather balloon to the edge of space. Then learn about class-built, remotely operated vehicles (ROV's), the awesome MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) competitions, and ROV applications for exploring shipwrecks and underwater formations throughout the state!

The presenter will share how she changed her middle school science classroom from being a textbook-based class to a discovery-based class using the Lawrence Hall of Science Great Explorations in Math and Science. It has allowed her to dramatically reduce the amount of homework she assigns and gives students the opportunity to work in groups analyzing data and making authentic observations about the world around them. Come experience one of the activities and learn how to implement it in your class.

Have your ever wondered how a lotus emerges from mud clean and beautiful? Scientists wondered too, and it inspired amazing innovations in green design. Observation skills, sustainable solutions, design, and appreciation of life’s diversity meet here in a session on how to bring the idea of biomimicry to your classroom, and into our future.

Come learn the basics about a flipped classroom, what it looks like, what it feels like and how to begin flipping your class. This session will provide tips and tricks to “flipping” chemistry and math classes. Different models for flipped classrooms will be discussed and concrete details will be provided, including methods to ensure students are getting the appropriate information at home, turning worksheets into activities, and a discussion about videos. While we will focus on high school chemistry and middle school algebra, most of the information is also applicable to other subjects.

The K -12 Framework for Science Education (National Research Council, 2012) identifies eight essential practices in science. This workshop demonstrates how a set of computer modeling lessons on disease transmission can give students experience with several of these practices along with reinforcing core standards in mathematics. In particular, the practices of asking scientific questions and using models to visualize, collect data about, and draw conclusions from the world are explored. The lesson plans were created through collaboration between Jeanne Appelget at Castilleja School, Nicolas Sippl-Swezey at UC San Francisco, Wayne Getz at UC Berkeley and Rich Salter at Oberlin College. Attendees of this workshop will receive a lesson plan packet including learning goals and activity outlines and links to the NOVA models online. Participants should bring a laptop, if possible.

Join Head-Royce History Department Chair and award winning film maker Juanita Brown (Juanita co-produced "Traces of the Trade") as they facilitate a discussion about using the slave trade, slavery and the Jim Crow period to explore the search for identity and inclusion in 21st century classrooms and schools. In addition to using excerpts from Juanita's critically acclaimed film, participants will have an opportunity to interact with Peter's sizable collection of racial memorabilia and art, some of which dates back to the early 19th century and was featured in the award winning film, "Ethnic Notions."

Find out how your students can edit National Geographic-quality footage into their own documentaries and PSA's - and learn 21st century skills, such as collaboration, empathy, critical thinking, media literacy, leadership, and global citizenship.

Come see some amazing apps and techniques that can help revolutionize the way you teach social studies. A wide array of apps and techniques will be presented including wireless mirroring, creating e-books, Notability, PDF Expert, and Air Video. Techniques integrating the iPad and computers will be discussed. Attendees are encouraged to bring either an iPad or a laptop.

The presentation is designed for teachers looking to arm middle and high school students with the tools necessary to sift through the flash of political spin and get to substantive information. The overabundance of spectacle makes staying informed about government a daunting and challenging task. Learn how one teacher and librarian team have leveraged media literacy and a class blog to encourage students' active engagement with issues of politics, governance and the media both in and out of the classroom. By the end of this workshop, you will have tools and resources to help you create a similar media literacy component in your own social studies classroom.

This workshop is about using Holocaust memoirs to create in depth projects based on the Centropa methods suitable for 6th grade and Holocaust Poetry to create collages and poems suitable for 8th grade.

An upper elementary teacher and a middle school humanities teacher will present their curriculum models for teaching history through role-play simulations that help students understand perspective and decision making.

One way we can be good stewards of the Earth is to avoid wasting paper and killing trees needlessly. Schools are notorious paper hogs. Much of what we do on paper can be done more efficiently and less wastefully by using cloud computing. All areas of a school’s operations can benefit from the FREE computing power contained in Google Apps. Google Docs and Sites will be discussed, and other features will be demonstrated, with special attention paid to collaboration for students and teachers using Google Docs.

We will discuss the uses, pros and cons of the flipped classroom model; share advice on how to implement the use of video as an at home learning tool; and how to make and use short videos for flipped lessons and concept review. Attendees will have a chance to make a video for their discipline - come with ideas for a concise concept. If possible, bring something to record on - iPad, computer, phone, camera, etc.

Hands-on projects can spark an interest in science, technology, or engineering but on their own they may not lead to a career interest in these fields. Role models are key for communicating information about the wide range of careers that are available and for inspiring students to think about their future in these fields. This workshop will share best practices for planning classroom visits and field trips by professionals in science, technology and engineering.

21st century schools seek to implement integrated technology programs that provide their students with the best digital tools. San Domenico’s extensive one-to-one iPad program in grades four through twelve has demonstrated that good technology needs to be blended with effective leadership and programming. What are the prerequisites for a successful 1:1 iPad implementation? Who should be on the implementation team? What are the key elements to ensure effective use of these digital learning tools in the classroom? The presenters will share their “lessons learned” from the past two years as a 1:1 iPad school.

We will present an integrated and cross-grade level arts project involving social-emotional curriculum, art, and language arts for fourth and seventh grade students that can be adapted for K-12 students. Participants will learn how to create this curriculum in their own classrooms and will also go through the initial steps of identifying their own personality traits to transform into superhero alter-egos.

Learn about the process of creating a mural at your school! This process will develop creativity, encourage collaboration and build community. We will brainstorm a theme, individual ideas within that theme, create a composite drawing of the ideas, and discuss colors.

One of the defining characteristics of the artwork created at The Urban School is that each person's work looks different than the next. We provide stepping stones for our students to venture out from concrete project-based learning into more personal and relevant work. The Visual Arts Department will be sharing different strategies for getting students started on, developing and refining class projects as well as independent work. We are working with structured assignments that yield divergent results. Included will be examples of our brainstorming process, sketchbook assignments, prompts for in-class, inquiry and research projects as well as our critique process. We will also present timelines and structures for our advanced students' work and how these culminate in a final exhibition. Following the presentation, we will invite participants to share their own best practices around cultivating an independent trajectory.

The world needs creative and entrepreneurial talents, who are globally competent, to take advantage of the opportunities brought about technology and globalization, and to tackle the tough challenges facing human beings. But our schools are being pushed to produce homogenous, and compliant test-takers. Dr. Yong Zhao challenges the traditional educational paradigm, debunks the myth of the value of international tests such as PISA and TIMSS, and proposes a new paradigm of education aimed to cultivate diverse, creative, and entrepreneurial talents. He will discuss his triad model of education based on the massive amount of evidence from a variety of sources he gathered for his new book World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students (Corwin, 2012), and his earlier book, Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization (ASCD, 2009). Specific details of each element involved in the paradigm will be outlined as follows. • Point 1: Personalization and Strength-Based Curriculum • Point 2: Product-Oriented Learning • Point 3:The Global Campus

The critical discussions and debates on identity have been explored in numerous contexts in education (e.g. resource books, study guides, and conferences). This seminar seeks to explore the relationship between identity and community. Drawing upon the complexities of society, participants will develop a philosophical framework for analyzing and understanding the challenges we face as members of independent school communities. We will use the following questions as our primary objectives: 1) Who am I? 2) What do I believe? 3) How can I make an impact? 4) What does it mean to be a member of this community? 5) How does our perspective shape the way we view others?

A positive school culture is one in which the highest human potential of all stakeholders is nurtured. Not only do students thrive in this kind of culture, but teachers and administrators do as well. In this workshop, you will: explore the latest research on what creates a positive school culture, including high quality relationships, trust, and meaningful work; and learn research-based methods for creating a positive school culture.

Dr. Gary Mallare, middle school counselor and Scott Kley Contini, assistant director of instructional technology will share their methods for communicating with students and parents on tech issues. The Harker Middle School is a 1:1 laptop school with a very diverse parent and student population. Parents in particular are in need of assistance, not just on how to deal with their developing teenager but also on how to manage their digital child. Gary and Scott have created a Tech Talk series that addresses key issues with students and parents, opening the door for communication between the school and families on digital citizenship issues. This session will share action plans as well as elicit feedback from other schools on their methods of communication with families. Digital devices are encouraged.

The job of a leader in an independent school world comes with many demands! We will discuss strategies to manage day to day tasks of both work and personal life including being a parent while working in your child's school! Come ready to share, empathize and feel support and walk away with new ideas in the ever present search for balance.

Participants will explore how school change can be made through a conceptual tool that focuses on four areas of concern: programmatic; political; cultural; and management. Through using an inquiry approach each of the focus areas can be explored. Using the tool presented participants will learn how to move from questions about change to action.

Faculty assessment, at its best, can generate collaborative innovation. We offer practical advice along with case studies to help administrators provide authentic and helpful feedback to faculty and fellow administrators. This workshop shares the multi-faceted approach that we have developed at Bentley School. We will discuss the diplomacy involved in offering formative feedback along with strategies for improvement. Workshop participants will leave with examples of our observation rubrics as well as resources for developing school-specific plans for themselves.

With the dramatic increase in autism diagnoses in the last decade, independent schools are serving increasing numbers of students on the autism spectrum. This presentation will give teachers, counselors and school administrators an introduction to Asperger's syndrome and high functioning autism. The presentation will explain the core and associated features of these syndromes, some of the common academic strengths and weaknesses shown by these students, and introduce some basic techniques for teaching them effectively.

Students showing anxiety, abusing substances, manifesting depression, disordered eating, social problems and under-achievement tied to behavioral health problems typically emerge from family systems wounded by legacies of loss and inter-generational interruptions in the sense of safety. Family members learn to cope in ways that perpetuate illness and trauma, in turn reinforcing the shameful sense there is something too terrible to face. This presentation will present a model of impaired coping in these systems and offer strategies for counselors/educators to move toward the family and include parents in developing solutions in a blame-free, structured way. Some resources for parents and their troubled teens as well as clinical vignette will be provided.

Individuals exist in a world of uniqueness and similarities. Just as the commonalities of shared values, beliefs, principals, and styles of life serve to identify a people to a culture, the personal identities which an individual holds also serve to define the person’s cultural ties, as well as establish the person’s unique existence within that culture - a person-in-context.” In our multiracial and multicultural society, a truly competent educator and service provider must have cultural awareness, knowledge and skills. There is need to develop a deeper foundational knowledge and awareness of culture, ethnicity and race to be able to acquire culturally relevant skills. This session provides an avenue to increasing this foundational basis on the road to becoming a culturally competent educator, service provider, member of society and person-in-context.

The mythology of superheroes resonates deeply with small children. In this workshop, we will explore the reasons why and investigate ways to help children find the hero within themselves, through art, drama, storytelling and service to others.

Sing, dance and play; three words that will change your classroom overnight. Musical games and activities provide opportunities for cross curricular connections so children can gain deeper meaning of any subject area. Teachers will learn ten energizing music and movement games that can be used the next day.

This presentation aims to cover the importance of the brain body connection in academics, building on recent publications and articles about the positive effects of fitness and exercise on learning. The discussion will focus on specific exercises that help regulate mood and energy levels, improve proprioception, support kids with sensory regulation issues and poor core strength, improve tracking skills, build bilateral integration, and develop cardiovascular strength. The goal of this presentation is to provide classroom teachers and PE teachers with movement and fitness exercises that can be easily implemented into their curriculum and to bridge gaps between PE and core subject areas.

With more and more resources becoming digital, learn about the best apps and website tools to use in conducting research using an iPad.

Freeing ourselves from a single published math program enabled us to better achieve our teaching and learning goals. Moreover, we have enjoyed greater appreciation from our parent body regarding the math program. The biggest change in the last three years has been our explicit commitment to the Common Core Standards. In this session, we will trace the trajectory of decision points, professional development, and parent education that have generated enthusiasm about math in our community.

Mindfulness is the practice of being in the present moment and living your life with attention, awareness, and intention. This experiential introduction to mindfulness will teach the attendee how to cultivate the skills to reduce stress, strengthen the mind/body connection and increase empathy and compassion. How to use mindfulness in education will be highlighted, as it has been scientifically proven to increase test scores, the ability to focus, and create a more peaceful classroom environment, all the while reducing stress, anxiety, and bullying.

Attention K-6 music, dance, theater teachers! Are you in need of new ideas to implement in your program? Do you have successful activities you love in your own classroom and would like to share? Come join us to share, learn, and get inspired from fellow teachers. Bring at least three activities to share: movement, games, songs etc., and be prepared to describe or lead each one. Feel free to bring handouts or activity instruction copies to distribute.

Discover extension activities for twenty+ picture books that appeal to the multiple intelligences of our students: linguistic, logical, spatial, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. You will learn songs, games, art activities, and more, that can easily be incorporated into your library time. Come with your own ideas to share as well!

We (two fourth grade teachers) will be discussing the process of recreating our curriculum and our classrooms in order to welcome the value of inquiry-based learning. Told through the lens of several anecdotal units, we will delve into the practice of instilling the value of critical thinking through project-based, differentiated learning. We have found that such practices (and the practice of thinking and re-thinking our style) has created a classroom full of extraordinary, well-equipped, and independent learners!

Creating a multicultural, equitable and socially just (MESJ) school environment is a goal for many schools. Without a supporting curriculum in place, this makes this goal more difficult to achieve. As part of our annual curriculum development review last year, the Live Oak faculty created curriculum standards for all subject areas and across grade levels, K-8. Come hear our approach and share yours with us.

Student councils are a wonderful opportunity for your school to develop service learning, community building, and establishing a voice for all students. This affinity group meeting is intended for those currently facilitating a student council and/or for those interested in how to get started. This will be a generative workshop focusing on a range of ideas and possibilities for overseeing student councils, including common constraints, and how to problem solve. Please come share your wisdom and curiosities.

Learn to use the structures and qualities of narrative to help our students learn to read and write more powerfully than ever before. In every aspect of life, story matters. People are compelled by stories, but stories are hard to craft in a way that universalizes them. This session will provide great examples of texts you can use with students grades K-8 and will introduce you to dynamic ideas for guiding students towards deepening the craft in their own writing.

While high school students are asked to read and analyze, they often know not what they do. In this presentation, we will introduce the accessibility of literary theory to the high school junior and senior. Rather than keeping theory locked in the tower of academia, we will offer ways to translate the esoteric into units and passages of meaningful prose as well as illustrate the methods of asking our students to appropriate and approximate the language of academic discourse.

Why do students struggle with essay writing? Because they do it backwards, focusing on the thesis and not the research. This session will argue that all essays -- from the analytic to the personal to the research -- can be improved by dumping the formulaic for the inductive, encouraging students to first gather anecdotes, descriptive details, facts, and speech before organizing them into a clearly focused piece. Dozens of student samples will be made available to participants.

Noted linguist Geoff Pullum wonders if English is the only discipline where it is regularly taught that two and two make(s) five. He's referring to English grammar and usage. Let's consider some of the Hallowed Rules (consecrated by the late William Safire et al.) and see if they really are the flat-earthist shibboleths and canards that Pullum claims. Start with And or But or Because or Which? End with a Preposition? Ditch the Passive? How to punctuate "Girls Basketball"? What's wrong with Ain't or Irregardless or Between You & I? Or Fragments? Must we bow to Subject-Verb Agreement? Can we lose the ghastly "he or she/him or her/his or her?” etc. Lots of fun to be had.

Why should all schools grow greener? California’s independent schools are leading the way in this rapidly growing movement. Green, environmentally sustainable schools, incorporate five key elements; they use resources efficiently, provide healthy operations, present a curriculum that nurtures environmental literacy, offer nutritious food, and engage student leaders in the process. This workshop will showcase the efforts of several CAIS schools that have achieved systemic changes at their school. A panel of administrators and teachers from four schools will describe their journeys to becoming greener, more environmentally sustainable. Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the importance of green schools, as well as specific examples of successful change.

This session offers administrators, teachers and coaches concepts, language and frameworks for addressing issues of gender and sexuality in the school setting. With a contemporary understanding of gender and sexual identity, and pedagogical clarity, educators can offer age-appropriate engagement with these essential aspects of human identity. Whether you are looking for the best way to challenge gender role stereotypes at recess; support a middle school student who is coming out, or confront the hypersexualization of adolescent girls, these frameworks will help you find an effective educational approach.

Are you looking for a professional growth opportunity that will transform your teaching and recognize you as one of the nation’s top educators? For the past twenty-five years, the National Board Certification program has been revolutionizing schools across the country by engaging teachers and administrators in a unique, rigorous, and reflective professional growth process. Hear from two National Board Certified educators about the way the program has changed teaching and learning at two Bay Area independent schools. You’ll leave the workshop with an understanding of national board certification and ideas for how to bring the program to your school.

Time for teacher collaboration is precious. The use of protocols can help organize this time to greatly enhance the outcome of collaborative dialogue by giving structure, focus and intentionality to conversations. By choosing a protocol that supports the goals of a conversation, communication and results are heightened. Participants will experience two different protocols, and share discussion about their strengths and limitations, as well as discover how protocols can be used to enhance student group discussions. Further resources and examples will also be provided.

Ever wonder why you can’t stop humming Justin Bieber’s latest hit (even though you’d rather forget it) while other songs are instantly forgettable? In this seminar, a music teacher and an English teacher will show you how to craft simple, but catchy songs to help your students memorize material. We’ll bring the ukuleles (no prior musical experience required), and you can feel free to bring your ukulele or guitar. First, we’ll teach you a few chords and the elements of a musical hook. Then, you’ll spend the rest of the time crafting songs that you can use in your classroom.

Seventh grade Harker students participate in an online poetry discussion forum with students from Kazakhstan. After studying an American and Kazakh poem, both groups of students participate in discussions centered around their cultures and the mechanics of poetry. The forum enhances the poetry curriculum at Harker and the EFL curriculum in Kazakhstan.

Schools integrating technology are experiencing challenges around Internet safety, appropriate online behavior, copyright, and research and information literacy skills. Digital citizenship is an essential 21st century skill in which students are safe, respectful, and responsible in their use of digital media to create, communicate, and collaborate. Join Common Sense Media to learn about their free Digital Literacy and Citizenship curriculum and educational resources. Developed in partnership with the GoodPlay Project at Harvard, the curriculum is research-based, student-centered, aligned to ISTE’s NETS’s and includes parent resources. Walk away with tools and ideas you can use immediately to teach students to be good digital citizens.

Social isolation is a painful reality for nearly all early adolescents at some point in their middle school career. Come learn how Brandeis-Hillel Day School partners with the Marin-based non-profit, "Beyond Differences," an organization dedicated to ending social isolation in middle schools. Their strategy empowers students to lead their peers toward acceptance and inclusion through innovative programs such as "No One Eats Alone," and the Leadership Academy Training Program. You'll hear from school administrators, Beyond Differences representatives and most importantly, the students themselves.

This workshop will introduce salient perspectives and mindsets inherent in design thinking to educators across disciplines. We will explore divergent and convergent thinking, user needs and the upside of integrating creativity into curriculum. There will be hands-on activities and a discussion of broader implications for tomorrow's leaders.

In this exciting and interactive workshop, Professor Hobert identifies five areas where CAIS schools can do things differently going forward if we expect to sustain our global leadership throughout the twenty-first century: 1) language and cultural fluency, including Chinese, Arabic, and other non-western languages, as well as the more traditional European languages; 2) technology and media as a means to making international issues more alive in the classroom; 3) expanded international exchange programs and other forms of cross-cultural engagement; 4) problem solving and participatory case studies of global crises, such as the one currently taking place in Syria; 5) and service-learning opportunities, both here at home and through well-thought-out programs abroad.

Both Tom Newkirk (Misreading Masculinity) and Ralph Fletcher (Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices) propose that if boys are to live writerly lives, they must be given the opportunity to write, and to write a lot. Let's give every boy a writer's notebook and give him the time and encouragement to write what matters. Boy writers, writing strategies, student work, and the writer's notebook itself will be the focus of our work together.

Where does our food come from, and how does what we eat affect our bodies? Learn how to teach students how to grow their own food and to love the taste of fresh fruits and vegetables while learning a variety of ways to preserve food and care for the earth - pastoral twist on old-school home economics.

Experience enriching hands-on math projects, games, and activities that will supplement, strengthen and enhance your mathematics program. Topics discussed will include integers, coordinate planes, fraction-decimal-percents, and geometry. Attendees will receive a detailed packet which will include samples, directions and resources.

After a small pilot last spring, Harker launched a fifth grade 1:1 Chromebook Program this Fall. Come and hear about our journey from pilot to full implementation, including successes, challenges, and stories from our teachers and students. The presentation will include a live demo of the Chromebook Management Console, and there will be a few Chromebooks (both the Samsung Series 5 and the new Samsung Chromebook that was released in October 2012) available to explore.

Sixth graders are reflecting on their childhood, trying to find their place in the world, and imagining who they will become. Poetry and personal essays can be used to help students strengthen their voices and think critically about their history. Students spend the year learning about their social identities and past by writing about themselves (I am poem, identity poster, autobiography, biography, family migration paper, and autobiographical incident). Writing projects, favorite mini-lessons, rubrics, book lists, student samples, and class management techniques will be shared.

The presenter created a cocurricular lesson with the religion department, developing a PowerPoint presentation showing students multiethnic images of Mary and Jesus. We discuss the idea of the images of Mary and Jesus as they are different to many different cultures. We will create a piece of art in collage form. Fr. Earl Gibson will be in class to inspire discussion and help answer religious question that arise.

Many digital, web and technology resources/tools are available for language educators to integrate into their practice to make the learning and teaching more effective, engaging and fun. This presentation provides an overview of innovative digital practices that can be easily adopted by teachers to create multi-media, multi-sensory learning environments. Specific examples will be given in Chinese and French. A detailed demonstration of featured programs include: digital visual/audio flashcards and interactive games for vocabulary learning; integration of resources from the Internet; interactive whiteboards; multimedia assignments/projects for students and samples of students' work; use of dictation tools for memorization and pronunciation etc.

This presentation focuses on how we used apps, websites, and e-textbooks to enrich our instruction in the classroom, and streamline the learning process from both the teacher’s and the students’ perspectives. We will share our experiences with creating digital content: making our own digital textbook using iBooks Author, and designing online language exercises and homework assignments. We will also share the way Notability has changed how we assign homework and grade tests.

Come ready to share successes using TPRS in your classroom and hear about how others use TPRS. The presenter will share how her classroom has benefited from using TPRS as a tool for differentiation while increasing Spanish use by both herself and her students. Collaborative discussion is encouraged as the presenter shares activities she created to use with TPRS published materials. Also covered will be how TRPS methods are applied to the texts used in her school's Spanish curriculum.

We're enthusiastic about the benefits of using iPads as language learning tools. In this workshop, we will share some of the iPad apps that have enriched our Spanish, French and Mandarin classes. We'll also show you some of the most compelling ways our language students are using iPads in and out of the classroom. Finally, we want to hear your best practices and greatest hits and let you brainstorm additions and improvements to some of our "tried and true" iPad activities.

How can library teachers address, adapt, reshape, and/or embrace the way students do research today? What is the research behind the research? What philosophies are at stake, and what tools can you use to best help your school community? Join us in a discussion of these topics.

Want to do more with your library program but don't have enough time? Do you have parents who want to help out at school and be more active in the learning community? This workshop will explore the mutual benefits of recruiting, training, managing and celebrating parents in school libraries.

As 1-1 technology becomes more prevalent in independent schools, students are inundated with ethical and behavioral choices as they navigate their increasingly digital world. This session discusses how, as part of implementing a 1-1 iPad program, we developed a targeted digital citizenship curriculum empowering students to mindfully consider the ramifications of their online decisions. Curriculum outline and resources will be provided.

Are you considering adding ebooks to your library collection, but don't know where to start? Do you have ebook experiences to share? Learn about Menlo School's recent Overdrive launch, share your own ebook expertise, and come away with some ideas for building your own collection.

While our students are now all digital natives, few are adept at, or even aware of, how to write their own programs. Using MIT’s free Scratch drag-and-drop language, we took kids with no programming experience and had them writing interactive programs by the end of one day. In this session, this surprisingly powerful language will be introduced and we will go through the inductive lessons the presenter did with his students.

Teachers of mathematics want to ensure that our students achieve proficiency or, better yet, mastery of skills and concepts. We want math to have "real world" applications. We want our students to think critically rather than just parrot back answers. We want them to collaborate effectively with each other in problem solving. We want students to have enough time to practice skills. We want kids to be engaged, motivated, and excited about math. In the face of "never enough time," in the face of many parents who exhibit their own angst about math, and given our own challenges with instruction time, how can we best pull together a comprehensive and effective math program that provides both differentiation and integration of instruction? This workshop addresses these issues and provides concrete suggestions for doing so. Bring your own ideas as this will be an interactive workshop.

Join two middle school math teachers who are well into their second year of using one-to-one iPads in math as they discuss their experiences flipping the classroom, using an iPad textbook app (Algebra FUSE), differentiating instruction with math apps, and checking for understanding with instant feedback apps. Projects using the iPad for sixth grade, pre-algebra and algebra will also be presented. Leave with easy ways to start using your iPads in math to increase engagement and learning!

Would you like to help your students become independent learners? If you answered yes, then this session is for you. Learn how to implement the flip teaching model by utilizing screencasting and other technology resources.

In this highly interactive workshop based on nine years of research, writing, speaking and two decades working with diverse groups across the country, Homa Tavangar, author of the acclaimed Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World will share best practices around educating responsive, resilient, curious, creative, kind, compassionate global citizens - true “world-class learners”. Participants will leave the session with tangible ideas for globalizing their classrooms. She also will share new materials from her chapter, “Growing Up in a Global Classroom” in Heidi Hayes-Jacobs, ed. forthcoming book, and Homa’s new book, The K-5 Global Education Toolkit.

Modeling lines in Cabri 3-D enabled precalculus students to see the vector relations and derive equations. Similarly, distance of points from lines and planes is more accessible with 3-D modeling. We use 2-D modeling of loci and conics from distance properties to discover polar, parametric and Cartesian equations. This enabled both wider access and deeper student understanding of these topics. We will end with student solutions to the sunrise/sunset problem.

This workshop will present several projects from the music classroom involving video and film. Moving pictures can inspire musical creation, much in the same way that dance and movement inspire. At the same time, video and animation can be inspired by music, and creating moving images to accompany a piece can be a way to understand the music more deeply. Techniques of animation, green screen, and video editing will be demonstrated and discussed, as well as ideas for sharing student work.

The presenter will share resources for exploring music creation in K-8 general music, band, and choir electives. The following are the ideas explored: K-5 general music creation, creation in learning a song on the Orff percussion instruments, blues improvisation in recorder and guitar classes, song writing, improvising in rock band, in jazz band, movement,and creation in choir.

The presenter will share her eighteen years of experience fusing dance, drama, history, and education. She will share practical and effective ways to further the missions and visions of our schools through the performing arts. Ms. Dolan is a trained dancer and actor, received a BA in Dance, and a minor in Drama from UC Berkeley, has danced with several Bay Area dance companies, with Harvard Radcliffe, and has choreographed and taught extensively within independent schools and in small Bay Area theaters.

Teachers, coaches, and school administrators feel increasing pressure to foster early sport specialization. Promises of college scholarships and professional contracts propel more parents and kids toward early work-like specialization in one sport. This pressure poses a challenge for independent schools who must balance academic rigor with a wide-array of athletic opportunities. The latest research on early sport specialization, and healthy athletic participation for children and adolescents will be reviewed, and tips for teachers, coaches, and administrators for balancing the athletic, educational, and psychological needs of their students offered.

For P.E. teachers (or anyone) looking for a great new team sport! Floorball is one of the world's fastest growing sports, played in over fifty countries. The sport is similar to hockey but is played on foot with a special wiffle-ball, and light, specially designed carbon clubs. With it's minimal equipment requirements, and rules designed around safety and civility, Floorball is the perfect substitute for outdated versions indoor hockey. It is easy to learn and difficult to master and suitable for students of all skill levels. Session is taught by a member of the United States National Floorball Team. Come ready to move!

Many techniques of crime scene investigation can make up an innovative hands-on science course. Many of these activities and demonstrations can truly make other courses, ranging from mathematics to literature to history, more dynamic. Demonstrations will include fingerprinting and print lifting, footprint study, skid mark simulation, blood spatter diagnosis and others.

This workshop will help teachers create a workflow in a 1:1 environment: from the teacher to the student, and from the student to the teacher, with the iPad doing the heavy lifting. We will discuss the different apps that make this process work as well as apps that engage students in the science curriculum. Using this inquiry-based approach, teachers will learn how to help their students create individual, personalized multimedia projects which demonstrate their deeper understanding of science concepts. This approach is applicable to many disciplines.

Developed by The Biodiversity Group, a working group of expedition scientists, herpetologists, artists, photographers, and teachers, Biodiversity PEEK is a citizen science project that invites you to know your own wild places better while participating with others around the world. Participants in this session will learn how to enhance student observations, access authentic questions, facilitate detailed classification and habitat descriptions, and participate in a global forum for species identification, while developing a connection with local wildlife. The activities developed to support PEEK enhance many types of science units and are infused with the magic of discovery and wonder. This project has been piloted at Trinity School in elementary science and garden classes, at Hillbrook School in middle school science classes, and in communities near endangered forest habitats in coastal Ecuador. Documenting the biodiversity of backyard habitats is accessible, educational, and important for our world!

At the Urban School, we have begun infusing screencast and flipping video lessons in several of our science classes, including ninth and tenth grade core courses. We'll give examples of these screencast videos, discuss different ways that we integrate them into our curriculum, and describe the underlying rationale and pedagogy for doing so. We will also share both quantitative and qualitative data that we have gathered about the effects on student learning. Q&A and discussion will broach the gamut of concerns -- from the technical/digital to the philosophical and pedagogical.

We believe that students have the power to change the world - literally. Through this project each of our students identifies a problem in the world, researches the history of the problem including previous attempts at a solution, and, then, proposes a solution she or he believe, will make a difference. Employing and practicing the math, science, English, and history skills our students have worked on throughout the year, this project is tailored to each student's abilities and areas for improvement. We will present our approach to working across disciplines, differentiation, and the challenges and successes of a project that has evolved over years.

This session will be focused on demonstrating an iBook the presenter created after spending a sabbatical year traveling the world. Titled Global Thinking, the book includes videos, Keynote presentations, Internet hyperlinks, graphics and personal photographs, and includes highlighting, annotation, glossary, study cards, and study notes features. Background information on the process of creating the book, as well as feedback from students in their use of the iBook will be included. The presentation will be hands-on and interactive concentrating on the possibilities of creative technology, social awareness and activism, and global mindfulness.

Come learn about an exciting interdisciplinary way to teach students about America's bloodiest conflict. Attendees will learn about our simulation which annually culminates in a "battle." Extensive curriculum materials will be provided.

Aloe Vera juice, Taro Chips, Pomegranate seeds and Tofu all have something in common. They were used in the ancient world for healing and health and they can be found on the shelves of Trader Joe's to enhance your teaching of world history. They introduce students to the themes of cultural diffusion and gender roles which are so important in AP World History. This presentation will discuss the innovative work of artist Judy Chicago, the healing poems of feminist author Aurora Morales and will provide participants with ideas for incorporating food and drink into your lessons.

This workshop will deal with how the first time or new teacher can teach the Holocaust without becoming overwhelmed by the subject matter. It will be geared as well to age appropriate lessons for the Middle School years.

Bring your own iPad to explore how iMovie, Notability, Book Creator, and ComicBook can deepen the learning process in your classes. Please download these apps prior to the session to allow time for hands-on practice. Then you will be ready to collaborate and create your own mini-presentation utilizing these apps to best understand the potential of each app to enrich, deepen and inspire your students’ comprehension.

Based on Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model, we will discuss how we can do more than just enhance instruction with technology, but really REDEFINE instruction with technology. We'll look at examples of redefinition and examples of merely substituting technology in for traditional teaching tools. We'll examine examples from both sides. Both innovators and tech skeptics are encouraged to join this discussion.

You’ve heard the buzz: MakerFaire, Make magazine, TechShop, hackerspaces, makerspaces, hack-a-day, Google Summer Maker camp, etc. There are many reasons the “maker movement” is surging beneath us, but how can independent schools capitalize on this energy and use it to enhance learning? In this workshop, we present the history of the Athenian School’s own Makers Studio: how it started, navigating hurdles, where we’re headed, and how your school can start one. We’ll also look at how digital fabrication can be used in the classroom (e.g. air rocket design, line-following robots, general science, etc.) through a number of student projects you’ll get to modify and assemble, time-permitting.

This presentation will explore how teachers can use technology to help students learn about Hip Hop and its evolution through film and video. We will also discuss how students through performance, brainstorming, dialogue, and group work create can create their own versions of Hip Hop songs and videos.

The workshop participants will look at the works of various artists, and based upon their observations, will make sketches, and, then, work collaboratively to create a mural.

The Nueva School's middle school art and writing teachers share their collaborative unit on writing folktales and presenting the story as a "narrative lantern.” This will be a hands-on workshop in which participants read and discuss a folktale, and define its characters, setting, and archetype. Then, participants will visually translate the folktale using the art of silhouette paper-cutting, emphasizing the use of positive and negative space, and finding ways to capture the story in four scenes.

Has the critique process ever caused the creative, engaging momentum in your art room to come to a screeching halt? We will share various methods of conducting critiques in the art room. What are most effective ways to get students to describe, analyze, evaluate, and interpret works of art? Let’s discuss approaches to making the classroom critique more energized and effective.

As a follow up to his first sessions, Dr. Yong Zhao will discuss how to use technology to support personalized learning, product-oriented learning, and a globalized campus. He will use Oba (http://obaworld.net), a global online collaborative learning and teaching platform, as an example to illustrate how schools, teachers, and students can use technology to create, share, or trade courses, products, and services on a global scale.

Life for African-American male student-athletes in independent schools presents both opportunities and challenges. Many thrive and are an integral part of a variety of sports teams. However, some are seen as less qualified and primarily on campus to improve the school's athletic program. These young men feel marginalized because a disproportionate percentage of them participate in sports. Some of the marginalized feelings can be self-induced simply because they are part of an underrepresented group, but in many cases it's due to preconceived misconceptions, minimal awareness, and a lack of communication about this issue. Learn how to effectively discuss this issue and develop strategies to help these student-athletes achieve confidence and success.

This is an opportunity for representatives of different schools to share their efforts to connect their students with the world beyond our national borders; it would include schools' practices with exchange programs, international visitors, distance and online learning, trips, and related matters.

Thinking about moving towards a headship, but not interested in going back to school for a degree in educational leadership? Come talk with several past and present participants in the NAIS Fellowship for Aspiring Heads, including a first-year head. This panel will discuss their decisions to apply for the program; their experiences with the cohort, workshops, mentors, and site-based projects that make up the meat of the program; and how their experiences have shaped their thinking about their own leadership journeys.

Adolescents are beginning to understand and experience their own sense of agency. They are neither a child nor an adult, and as life becomes more complex, they attempt to develop their own identity, struggle with social interactions, and grapple with moral issues. They are discovering who they are as individuals separate from family of origin, and as members of a wider society. This session provides an opportunity to explore your values and ideas related to gender and stereotypes, and incorporate this learning into your personal and professional lives and interactions.

Join a roundtable discussion about when testing is best recommended for students, and what type of testing is recommended - i.e. an educational, vs psychological vs neuropsychological. Hear from clinicians and experts from different disciplines (school counselor, learning specialist, psychologist, neuropsychologist, and school administrator) as they present their experiences and perspectives.

Some families consume an inordinate amount of counseling, teaching and administrative time due to their high level of dysfunction. Parents can often be more challenging to deal with than their children. Well-intended interventions often backfire, creating more drama and conflict. Dr. Frankel will outline an empathetic conceptual framework for understanding such families, and the reactions they provoke in staff. He will present a case example, and offer solutions for dealing effectively with such families.

Blogging is a great tool to document your classwork and make student learning visible to families, especially in the early years. Find out how easy it is to use this valuable communication tool. More than the classroom newsletter, it builds relationships with the families in your class, and your school. It informs parnets and colleagues alike about what students are learning. In addition, learn how to use digital and video cameras, scanners, Picasa, iPhoto and iMovie to help others gain knowledge of the children's learning process.

Daily interactions and conversations provide limitless and organic opportunities to introduce, reinforce and have fun with the Spanish language. We'll share how we incorporate Spanish throughout the day; specifically, we will focus on music, literature, games, and everyday conversations/interactions. We'll also share how to build connections between school and home by inviting families to share in their childrens’ experience with Spanish as we reveal the work we do through our blog, our daily conversation, and by sending home music, games, and props that provide opportunities for families to sing, play, and explore together in Spanish.

We will demonstrate advances in technology for teachers to use with special learners in the regular classroom setting (K-8) such as: classroom audio systems (RedCat), Dragon Naturally Speaking, Dragon dictation, Dragon search, iPads, iPad mini, accessories and research to support assistive technology approaches for the benefit of all students. Please bring your favorite sites and tools to share.

Hamlin School has run a successful lower school affinity group called The Mind That's Mine for over three years. Come learn about why it's been successful and the activities and games that the students love. We will leave time for hands-on exploration.

Most of us in independent schools have the luxury of teaching with an associate teacher, and yet it can be tricky to know how to maximize the usefulness of an associate in the classroom. Co-teachers Natanya Biskar and Kelly McDonough will present their co-teaching model, and provide tools and ideas for sharing the responsibilities of teaching. This model allows for more in-depth planning, assessment, and differentiation across subjects.

In this session, teachers will present various activities that engage their students to get their hearts pumping and muscles warm! Instant activities have quick explanations and get the students moving and ready within a few minutes. Come ready to play and get moving.

Participants will explore innovative pedagogical strategies that support 21st century skills. The intersectionality of gender, race, culture and collaboration while discovering more ways to help students intentionally cultivate, nurture, and engage in an inclusive and multicultural classroom experience through cross-curricular connections will be examined. In addition, participants will engage in hands-on activities that exemplify the cross-curricular and inclusive approach.

This workshop will present a unit on the civil rights movement conducted with third grade students. The unit culminated in teaching students to write historical fiction stories set in the era. Participants will include educators interested in finding ways to promote history education, social justice, and creative writing in elementary school classrooms.

Participants will take away knowledge about how to deconstruct and teach children’s literature that includes LGBT characters or families. Participants will gain an understanding of "problematizing" and "normalizing," and how an increased understanding of these issues enhances learning for all students in our pluralistic society. Though this work is based on a content analysis of LGBT characters in children's fantasy picture books, the concepts can be generalized to include other minority or under- represented characters; and the workshop will include a focus on how to recognize this.

Are you looking for simple and effective ways to partner with your students’ families? We will present a practical, and engaging approach to establishing healthy communication between teachers and parents. We will share our experiences about summer correspondence, a new model for Back to School Night, targeted parent education coffees, end-of-year surveys, and more. Participants will leave with a collection of ideas and samples ready to implement.

Students who love the humanities rarely have to opportunity to participate in a wider literary community celebration of reading and writing. Come to this affinity group if you are interested in planning and launching a LitConvention--an event where students from all over the Bay Area gather to celebrate the power of words. Come with your ideas and visions for such an event--this session will be just the beginning.

Why have academic traditions? Have they become something we just do? We’ll look both at academic projects that we’ve inherited as well as ones we’d like to begin. Using a traditional Redwood Day School eighth grade English project as an example, we’ll break down traditions into meaningful components. Please come with a classroom project in mind, as well as a copy of your school mission.

Geared to eighth or ninth grades, this very practical workshop will give you all you need to teach a three week unit on Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night. It will include: how to briefly, but effectively teach the Holocaust, recommended media; lesson plans, and student writing suggestions. It should be particularly helpful to those planning to take students to the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Writing can be one of the biggest challenges our students face, and it is often hard to carve out time for the writing process in the classroom. By using flipped instruction and creating a space for collaborative brainstorming, writing and revision students can feel empowered to take risks as a writer. Creating a safe space for students to read and respond to each others work leads to better revisions and more confident student writers.

An English classroom is a place where students are acquiring and enhancing a variety of skills from many different areas: vocabulary, grammar, oral discussion, reading, and writing. By discovering and creating opportunities for integration among these subject areas, teachers can use each of them as a vehicle for developing students’ writing skills. A differentiated spelling and vocabulary curriculum reinforced through writing, a literature program that inspires writing projects, and a grammar curriculum that responds to student inquiries and discoveries made in regard to the New York Times After Deadline Grammar and Style blog are all important pieces of an integrated English curriculum that empowers students with sophisticated writing skills and keen eyes for style and editing.

Mark Miller from MKTHINK with Nicholas Cofod from Town School for Boys will walk participants through case studies of what Building as a Teaching Tool (BATT) is, how it is successfully used, and how it may be used in Town School’s upcoming facilities expansion. From how air conditioning can teach children about thermodynamics to how toilet flushing can inform students about ecology, we will cover a host of examples that use the immediate physical environment to create poignant teaching moments. At the end of the presentation, we’d love participants to provide examples of how their school is integrating BATT into their curricula, and suggest ways your school may integrate BATT in future renovations.

Young people need evaluation skills in a participatory digital world. Yet, they ditch our our mini-lessons and checklists in the dizzying stew of click-and-go wikified information. Well-publicized examples of doctored scientific data and journalistic fabrications remind us that truth is complicated. Who is an authority when everyone is an author? How do culture and context affect evaluation judgments? Can technology show us whom to trust? This session will present strategies that both students and adults can use.

Turn a boring review session into a fun-filled Jeopardy-style competition! Attendees will learn how to use the Quiz Wizard, a device that is probably already available at your campus. Although this machine is a closely guarded secret of Latin teachers, teachers of most subjects can use it to create a lesson that students will love! After the initial presentation, attendees will vie against each other for the title of Quiz Wizard Royalty! Limited to sixteen attendees. First come, first served.

This workshop will offer practical techniques for self-identified people of color who want to foster learning and growing environments that acknowledge, respect, and celebrate the identities of all its community members. It is rooted in the premise that healthy ethnic identities enhance learning and collaboration, leadership and initiative, and personal success. We will examine the emotional and psychological effects of race and racism on historically underrepresented adults within predominantly white institutions. The interactive exploration of our own personal and professional stories will shed light on how internalized oppression impacts our professional lives. Participants will journal, work in small groups, create art work, and strategize ways in which we can build support networks within our schools while encouraging other adults in our communities to continually analyze thought patterns, belief systems, and emotional responses to the world around us.

The presenter will demonstrate the many ways that educators can embody and promote Carol Dweck's "growth mindset" in their school communities. While the growth mindset is important for all learners, it is particularly crucial for students who are struggling academically, whether due to learning/attention differences, or other factors. Ms. Herbert will include specific strategies, templates, and activities for supporting students’ progress in the academic areas they find most challenging.

Fostering a sense of community in a K-12 school can be a big challenge. Find out how The Harker School, with three campuses, has created a buddy program pairing upper and lower school students, resulting in a strong community feeling, increased interactions between the schools’ faculty and staff, and wonderful relationships between the “big kids” and the “little kids.” From the planning to the execution, we'll show you how to do this in your school.

Many educators want to be more innovative, but few know how to unlock the creative potential in their colleagues and students. You will learn the simple, but revolutionary, techniques of gamestorming and visual thinking to solve problems and innovate. Discover the approaches that groundbreaking companies, such as Google, use to run meetings that break down barriers and generate solutions. These visual thinking techniques have the potential to transform classrooms and schools.

Independent school communities recognize that ever-escalating tuitions push their schools beyond the grasp of middle-class families; and many schools devote considerable resources to tuition aid for middle-class and low-income children. What factors determine whether children on tuition aid can fully assimilate in their independent school communities? What are barriers to feeling included, worthy, and valued among their more advantaged peers? And what can educators and school leaders do to increase the likelihood that our lower-income students realize the full benefit of their experience in our schools? Join in this discussion-oriented session focused on issues of class and access, Dr. Ruby Payne’s A Framework of Poverty, and one school’s journey through a bold scholarship program for disadvantaged youth.

Marta Fuchs' illustrated intergenerational memoir Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter's Tribute tells the story of her father and Zoltán Kubinyi who saved him and over 100 Hungarian Jewish men during the Holocaust. The story of rescue came full circle in June 2011 when Marta and her brother took their children back to Hungary to meet Zoltán Kubinyi’s family, including his teenage great grandchildren. Together they discussed the extraordinary courage and altruistic actions of this compassionate man none of them knew, but who has made an indelible impact on all their lives. Middle and high school students have been riveted and inspired by this tale of rescue and its aftermath. With testimony and reflections by three generations of Marta's family, the book has served as a catalyst for engaging discussions about historical events, family history, ethical dilemmas, and finding one's own courage in everyday life to do the right thing. Due to Marta's father's testimony, Zoltán Kubinyi was posthumously honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem.

Independent schools need strong leadership at every level. Hear a panel discussion of graduates from the Private School Leadership programs at the Klingenstein Center, Columbia University Teachers College, and how they have impacted their schools in positive ways. From the classroom to the boardroom, a range of teachers, administrators, and heads of school will talk about their decision to go back to school, give advice to those considering it, and reflect on how their degree has impacted their school and their career.

Still think video games are just something teenage boys do to avoid doing homework? The world of gaming and video games is changing dramatically. The government and Fortune 500 companies are using video games to teach and train. Come learn about the surprising research that show how wrong we've been about video games.

Teaching is hard work. The physical and emotional toll on educators can be enormous and eventually lead to burnout. Thankfully, the practice of research-based methods such as self-compassion and mindfulness can help teachers effectively and positively deal with the stress of their jobs and avoid burnout. In this workshop, you will: explore the latest research on the benefits of self-compassion and mindfulness; and learn how to practice self-compassion and mindfulness, particularly in the moments when we need them most.

The presenter will facilitate a discussion on the instructional technique of "flip teaching." Included will be: gaining an understanding of what flipping the classroom means, and sharing examples and ideas of how to use it. Benefits and resources will also be explored.

Being Adept, a school-based prevention intervention for middle school students and their parents, was designed to prevent the onset of substance use through increasing students’ knowledge about the effects of these substances, and empowering them to resist using alcohol and marijuana through coping skills training. This presentation will demonstrate the Being Adept program and its innovative curriculum through presentations from the program's founder and CEO, and a middle school director from a Marin County middle school that has implemented the program over the past two years. We will also describe evaluations of the program's efficacy in partnership with the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF, and will conclude with a Q and A with the three panel members.

So many of our students are stressed out, anxious about college, hyper-focused on grades, steeped in the high-stakes, competitive environment of Silicon Valley, and often incredibly conscious of the opportunities they've been given at school (as well as the pressure to not mess up those opportunities). What tools can we give them to help them find a bit of peace in the storm? How can we help them cultivate a larger purpose, one that extends beyond the next test, beyond GPA, beyond college to the broader scope of their lives? The 20th century had the three Rs, perhaps it's time for the three Ms. In addition to teaching at Menlo School, in February, Carla Pugliese completed training to become a certified yoga teacher and a member of the Yoga Alliance at the 200-RYT level. 

Join us for discussion focused on creating quality after-school enrichment programs that have been successful, strategies to promote these programs, and ways an enrichment program can generate revenue.

The workshop will focus on the steps to take to build a strong and vibrant advisory program in a school. The presentation will cover scheduling, activity/curriculum development, building faculty support for the program, and student interests. This work draws from our own program development in the last three years, and uses resources from other schools.

Emily Dickinson was an introverted, mysterious, talented woman...and fascinating to teach to fifth graders! Learn the ins and outs of a fruitful week of introducing, studying, and falling in love with the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

What are we doing in our classrooms to foster curiosity and creativity, the hallmarks of an innovative society? We use iPads as a gateway to further creativity and collaboration among our teachers and students. Come find out how to use this tool to move the school community towards a learning environment that encourages curiosity and creativity to ask questions, communicate ideas, and work together. The focus will be on second through sixth grade activities that can be adapted for other grade levels.

Want to have fun learning ways to bring different cultures into your classroom? Come to sing, learn stick dancing, play hand-clapping and stone passing games from around the world. Share an appreciation of the music of different languages and cultures with your students.

Our third grade teachers partnered with our tech team to create opportunities that enabled students to make a difference in their communities through an authentic student driven service-learning project. We’ll guide you through the steps we took to make this project manageable for the teachers, and impactful and empowering for our students. We will provide an outline of procedures, and show you the impact these projects had on our students as well as for us.

Learn how the sixth grade students from Town School answered the question, "How can we model micro financing in our own community?" Real world math and global issues are addressed in a middle school classroom. Consider the use of project-based learning to encourage students to become global citizens. Learn how financial literacy lessons, iPads, Kiva.org, and social networking (Edmodo) work alongside curriculum to make a meaningful and fun for all.

Join this roundtable discussion about what is really working in your classrooms with upper elementary students. Bring a favorite unit, project, or strategy that truly celebrates your students and your teaching. This session will be a positive outlet to share our best practices.

Learn how to create "tech-enhanced" lessons that: are lively, fast-paced, and engaging; help teacher and students stay in the target language; improve classroom management; provide scaffolding for students with learning profiles. Based on the work of author/world language educator Ellen Shrager.

Come and learn traditional and popular songs to use in class, as well as poems and games that carry the soul of the Latin culture. These are authentic materials that can be used in grades one through eight. You will sing, play, move, recite, and take back home plenty of examples and how to apply them in class.

Love of mythology is a major factor in attracting students to Latin. Ways to incorporate myth in the classroom will be shared; there will also be time for a round-robin discussion of your mythological projects and activities.

We will discuss the role of differentiation in the world language classroom.

To assist eighth graders in understanding the almost incomprehensible effects of World War II, we have collected hundreds of books about war and conflict. The books range from memoir to science fiction, from non-fiction to graphic novels, and from realistic fiction to fantasy. On the cart, a student might find books about the Battle of Hastings, the Civil War, the Rwandan Genocide, WWII, the current fighting in Afghanistan and anything in between. With guidance from their teachers, students pick a book of interest and write about how they personally relate to the literature to begin to comprehend the truths of war.

This presentation is designed for all librarians and classroom teachers. A classroom-library partnership can be an exciting and integral part of teaching and assessment. Attendees will learn about tools which effectively scaffold research, writing skills and project based assignments. Dynamic team introduction of these strategies can ensure student engagement, facilitate alignment across curriculum, and result in long-term student success.

Join us for a lively discussion inspired by The Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project report, "How Teens do Research in the Digital World." We will tackle issues surrounding digital literacy, library instruction, resource evaluation, and information overload/pollution. How does distraction on the internet affect learning? How can we guide students to find credible sources? How can we help students become deeper searchers? Should you choose to browse the report before attending, it can be downloaded at http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Student-Research.aspx.

Google Earth, Youtube.com, Geogebra, SketchUp, and the ever-increasing supply of information-based and technological tools at our finger tips have created a whole new world for applications problems, specifically, a world where students must first determine what information is needed, and create a plan for gathering it. These tools have brought about increased levels of creativity and flexibility, as well as further avenues for extension and discussion. Participants will have a chance to discuss, brainstorm, and plan their own applications problems.

We invite you to attend a workshop on the principles of the Universal Design for Learning and how they can be applied to rigorous academic programs. The presenters, a math department chair and an academic support coordinator will discuss how they applied UDL’s three principles: multiple methods of presentation, multiple options for participation, and multiple means of expression. These were applied through technology in an analytic pre-calculus class fall 2012.

Two projects that demonstrate how issues such as race, gender and socio-economic status can be examined through a mathematical lens will be shown. In one project, students use census data for income levels based on race, gender, and education level. They must create a budget for a person living in San Francisco with that income (including doing their taxes!). In the second project, students examine voting rights by being assigned a specific demographic in the United States and examining how the presidential election would turn out if only their demographic voted. Both projects are designed for middle school students (but could easily be extended to high school) and involve heavy use of technology.

The New York Times Sunday Review Opinion Page, July 29, 2012, contained a controversial opinion on the necessity of the traditional math sequence in high school: algebra I through calculus, in high school. The debate continues as we passionately discuss the state of high school math education, and the curriculum of tomorrow. Please join us in our mathematics roundtable discussion as we solve the problems of tomorrow today!

Spend one of the CAIS sessions with arts education colleagues. We will cover several topics, including new and innovative lessons and projects in your classes. What is inspiring you and your students these days? Come prepared to share one idea with the group. Share resources - virtual and hardcopy. What resources do you regularly use for ideas and inspiration? We will discuss book resources as well as the new wealth of information on the web. Also included will be advocating for our programs, and making learning visible at your school. Participants will have opportunities to share ideas and questions, and participants will walk away with a list of new project ideas and teaching resources.

Report cards(!) - certainly not most teachers' favorite part of teaching - are a necessary part of independent school life. Join this roundtable discussion to talk about how we assess while teaching a dynamic class, what we focus on in writing individual comments, what our report cards look like, and what we wish they looked like! Brainstorm and share ideas for easier, more accurate ways of keeping track of student progress. Participants are encouraged to bring report card formats, sample comments and any other tricks/app's/etc., they have found useful in managing this area of responsibility.

Given the growing number of students participating in after-school sports, the intensity and time coaches spend with student athletes, often off campus, an effective proactive collaboration between the athletic director and the school counselor can provide quick much needed support to coaches, parents, and students alike. We will share our backgrounds, working model, and suggestions to formalizing this crucial collaboration.

GOTR is innovative running program for girls ages eight to thirteen that uses experiential learning to teach very specific and well-defined social and personal skills. It culminates in a 5K run at the end of the ten to twelve week program. The workshop will discuss what the Girls on the Run (GOTR) program entails, and how to implement it in a school setting.

This workshop will show how a yearlong, introductory robotics course at Menlo (now in its fifth year) was created. The objectives of the course, the method of implementation, and the challenges will be discussed. Teachers involved with robotics are particularly encouraged to attend so experiences and ideas can be shared.

A simple experiment is used to test mealworm behavior in choice chambers. Data are analyzed using a graphing calculator to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between choices. The statistical inference procedure will be explained at a level for students with no prior exposure to statistics. The meaning of the resulting p-value is interpreted in the context of primary research articles on animal behavior.

What are the essential skills and concepts that high school science students should already have when they get to high school? Are middle school science teachers preparing their students for what they will be learning in high school? If you are a sixth-twelfth grade science teacher, please join us for this roundtable discussion to share your ideas. Math and technology teachers interested in STEM integration, and collaboration are welcome to join us too.

From QR-coded bottle rockets to digital microscope camera photos of everyday objects, learn how two National Board Certified middle school science teachers have transformed their classrooms and labs to meet the needs of 21st century students. They will share examples of projects, assessments, and experiments that combine cutting edge (and often low cost) technology with innovative instructional strategies. Leave with ideas that will help you increase engagement and enrich student learning - methods that you’ll be able to integrate into your classroom in your very next class!

A component of the social studies curriculum at the presenter’s school is social justice. The focus over four years is to teach about, and have students experience six components of global citizenship: learning, teaching, serving, giving, advocating, and ethical spending. Each grade level class meets once a week. In addition, students are offered ample extra credit opportunities throughout the year for engaging in social and political activism outside of the class. Each year all grades participate in a special "Big Idea" experiential learning event and the year culminates in a Social Justice Fair that highlights all learning. Come learn about the program.

Learn how to deepen understanding while making learning more interesting and engaging for history students! Explore apps that are useful for presenting student work, note taking and annotating, classroom workflow, and project research. How can we use apps like iMovie, Book Creator, and Notability in the history class in a way that is authentic, and that fully engages students with their learning? Come with your ideas and we will all share!

For the past four years, the Athenian School has been offering a gay and lesbian history class as well as integrating GLBTQ history into our core history classes. The class has had a profound, positive impact on our school. We’ll show how teachers can integrate gay and lesbian history into their courses in ways that are relevant for all students, not just students who identify as GLBTQ . We’ll offer our lessons learned about teaching GLBTQ history as well as sources you can use in your classes. The workshop will have an open discussion to develop strategies for teaching GLBTQ history, in your schools.

Join us for a discussion centered around how to make effective use of news media to teach current events in history and social science. How do we teach students to be more news literate, savy, and discerning with the tsunami of information available to them? We will share ideas, classroom methodologies, tools and techniques - please bring yours!

New tools like iBook Author make it possible for teachers to use their own content knowledge and course materials to create and publish customized interactive textbooks. We will talk about the exciting new possibilities opened up by this changing landscape and show examples already in use at our school.

Students in the sixth grade use GameStar Mechanic to design games. This year, students used a design-thinking approach adapted from Stanford University's D-School to design educational games for students in Tamagawa, Japan. This global education project engaged students both here and abroad, and has reshaped our students' understanding of problem solving and design thinking. This session will share success stories as well as challenges. Bring your own device and play some games with us! Scott Kley Contini, assistant director of instructional technology and Dr. Abigail Joseph, computer science instructor have been developing game design curriculum at the Harker School for the past two years and are eager to share their experience with colleagues.

After eight-years of investigating and planning a 1:1 initiative, now every student and faculty member has an iPad in our school. Thoroughly planning for such a program is only the first step. What apps we thought students would use are different from what they’re actually using. What learning activities we thought teachers would engage in are different from what they’re actually doing. What professional development we’d been engaged in during previous years is not what teachers want now. And what we did to prepare students differs from what they need now. This workshop will share planned and unplanned outcomes of a 1:1 iPad program, and will include specific financial and technical details of a whole-school roll-out.

From dealing with technology at home to partnering with the school to support learning, parents are a key component to the success of extending technology beyond the classroom. Yet, their importance and influence are overlooked in most deployments. If your school has rolled out a 1:1 program, or is considering rolling out a 1:1 program, or you are just curious about how to deepen your school's connection with your parents with regards to technology, learn strategies on how to educate and support your parents, and subsequently, your program.

The use of social media continues to increase. Both students and teachers often find themselves victims of the dark side of these technologies. This session identifies the issues, or sticky points of social media and offers tips for teachers and students. The session will also cover ways schools can try to have inappropriate materials removed from websites.

Community service is a key component in progressive K-12 education. Artists have also seen the value in engaging participants beyond the gallery and museum, creating multiple opportunities for building alliances between art organizations and schools. Teachers will be provided strategies and insights into developing a community service-focused art curriculum. Workshop participants will also be provided with resources for developing their own creative service learning projects for their classes.

Assessment of learning in the visual arts can employ a host of authentic activities that connect the learner with the world while also reflecting the making and doing that are an essential part of arts education. What activities help you asses student work? Come share your questions, your experience and your knowledge. Learn what works for other teachers and how they handle the sometimes "sticky wicket" of assessing student art work.

Islamic geometric patterns are the foundation of our math, art, social/emotional learning, humanities, and world language interdisciplinary curriculum. An internally developed iPad application, silk painting, tile making, reading, writing, research, travel, and fundamentals of geometry are integrated across individual disciplines culminating with a trip to southern Spain. This learn by doing approach ensures that every learning type is addressed,that each student has choices, and that themes are reinforced across disciplines.