STLinATL

In this session, educators will engage in a brief simulation that highlights the role of cognitive frameworks and the power of neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt and form new neurons and synapses in response to new experiences. Understanding these processes is essential for educating students and making the shift toward a sustainable future. We will explore and discuss an article that uses the SCARF model by Dr. David Rock to understand how to educate for sustainability without putting students and other adults in a “threat state”.

The hands-on workshop (concurrent session) “Beyond the Books: Creating Engaging STEAM Activities, 2.0” will provide attendees with the opportunity to experience a variety of activities that can be used in the Makerspace or STEAM classroom. Presenters will share teaching strategies and classroom practices that foster critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity in elementary students. Additionally, there will be an opportunity to explore various technologies including coding and robotics (Root Robot, Ozobots, Sphero Indie, and Spike Prime.). This will be an engaging experience that reflects best practices of STEAM instruction and creative ways to incorporate literature.

In this session participants will explore the EfS Framework, Enduring Understandings, Standards and Performance Indicators, and practice aligning and integrating at least one Enduring Understanding and one or two EfS performance indicators into a lesson/group of lessons in a chosen unit. Additionally, participants will receive a DIY EfS toolkit, providing practical resources to support the seamless integration of sustainability concepts into their teaching.

Discussion is at the heart of any great school community and communication skills are central to mission statements and portraits of a graduate. Yet, few schools have an intentional strategy for teaching, practicing, and assessing discussion skills across grades and divisions!

At REAL Discussion, we partner with schools to design and implement customized discussion skills strategies. We're experts in discussion pedagogy, gen-z and alpha learners, and change management -- and we know that the best academic leaders balance big-picture purpose with programmatic realities.

Join this session to imagine a whole-school discussion skills strategy, thinking both philosophically (why does this work matter? what language do we use to describe it?) and tactically (what do we already do? how do we know? what obstacles to alignment exist?). Leave with a roadmap for your school's journey towards intentional discussion skills instruction!

In this presentation, Alexis will share how she has been using LOOM to provide feedback to help improve student writing. She will discuss other uses for LOOM in the classroom, student responses to this method, and ways she plans to push this strategy in the future. participants will leave the presentation with a clear understanding of how Loom works and with ideas for how it might be used in other subject areas.