We need your help to bring our expertise in school design and implementation to SXSWedu 2018! Our four proposed sessions are designed to arm participants with new ideas, skills, and resources to accelerate innovative, student-centered practices. That’s where you come in.
Public voting comprises 30% of the selection process. PanelPicker, the online portal for public voting, is open today through Friday, August 25th. Please take a look at the session descriptions below. If you’d like to help us bring them to SXSWedu, create an account and vote for our sessions, which focus on innovative school design practices and highlighting the perspectives of adults and young people in these schools.
Check out the session descriptions below and use the links to each session to vote!
Leave Your Post-Its and Presumptions at the Door
How can educators know what their students need? Ask them! This interactive session uses a design thinking approach to help participants overcome assumptions and gather information about what students and families really want and need from school. Emphasizing empathy, equity, and the art of the interview, facilitators will equip participants to ask, listen to, survey, and collaborate with your school’s “users.” From there, participants will be prepared to design school and classroom practices and systems that are directly responsive to student needs. Carlos Beato, principal of International High School at Langley Park and Elina Alayeva, Senior Director at Springpoint, will also share examples from IHSLP’s iterative data gathering and understanding with students and families to make this design practice come alive.
No, I Won’t “See You at McDonalds” & Other Stories
There is a growing national movement of alternative high schools that are intentionally designed to serve students who are off-track to graduation. These schools, grounded in positive youth development theory, work to re-engage students who have been failed by the system. Participants will hear from our own Sam Sherwood, a co-founder of one of these schools, Lester Mayers, a graduate of Edward A. Reynolds Westside High School, and Rachel Babcock, who’s designing The MAP Academy. The session will explore the ways in which alternative high schools support overage, under-credited students toward graduation and college and career readiness.
What’s Up With This Transcript?
Mastery-based learning and grading has been gaining traction in schools across the country. Communicating with parents, students, and community members is a major part of successfully implementing mastery in any context. Each of these audiences needs tailored outreach, free of jargon. This interactive session with Angela Duffy, Communications Manager at Springpoint, and Juliana Charles Brown, Associate Director at Mastery Collaborative will equip participants to talk about mastery in plain language. Participants will leave with conversation starters and a plan for describing mastery at their schools.
Why Can’t Principals Get Out of Their Office?
School leaders make daily decisions on how they spend one of their most valuable resources: time. To hone their practice as a leader they must reflect on how their day is spent. A leadership development practice we call Time as a Resource breaks down a leader’s day into five minute increments. Join Lisa Simms, Principal of Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design and Matthew Pilarski, Director of Instruction & Design at Springpoint, to hear how this practice helped Lisa sharpen her management skills and improve her school community—from staff development to instruction to operations and more.
We need your votes to help bring these ideas to life! Voting is easy and straightforward; you just need a SXSWedu account, which you can create here, or sign in if you already have one. Once you’re logged in, you can use the links above to cast your votes. Thanks in advance, and we hope to see you in Austin next March!