How children succeed: grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character
Presented by Paul Tough
July 29, 9:15 – 10:15

In our society, we believe that success comes from those who score highest on tests, from preschool to sats. Yet evidence indicates that our story here might be dead wrong. The work of a new generation of researchers and educators points to the fact that the qualities that have a better shot at indicating lifelong success are “non cognitive” or what we might refer to as “personality traits” such as: curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, self-control, and grit.

Using the tools of science, tough peels back the mysteries of character and traces the links between early childhood neurological development and environment. By showing how “nature” and “nurture” are intertwined, tough explores how childhood stresses modify life success and the surprising ways that parents do—and do not—prepare their children for adulthood. Tough helps us understand how early adversity affects childhood emotional, social, and cognitive development in ways that will carry on throughout their entire lives, and what we can do about it.

Courageous and Connected Leadership
Presented by Dallas Dance
July 29, 10:15 – 11:15

Dr. Dallas Dance is creating a culture of deliberate excellence for the 108,000 student Baltimore County School District. This plan involves aligning goals, resources and actions to meet the needs of contemporary learners. Learners in the Baltimore County School Division are part of a digital conversion that involves laptop/mobile devices for all secondary students as well as a world language initiative that supports all students being bi-lingual upon graduation.

Dr. Dance's keynote will provide a glimpse into contemporary leadership as well as the urgency associated with bold instructional initiatives.

Educating the Whole Child: Conditions for Learning Matter!
Presented by Russel Brown
July 29, 11:15 – 12:15

Following a school shooting in October of 2007, Cleveland Metropolitan School District embarked on a journey to improve the conditions for learning in our schools. Partnering with the American Institutes for Research, the District began an initiative, called Humanware, to improve how students perceive the following four dimensions tied to the conditions for learning in their schools : (1) safe and respectful climate, (2) challenge, (3) student support, and (4)social and emotional learning. From 2008 to 2012, the District saw a significant positive changes in attendance, disruptive behavior, referrals for violent behavior, and out of school suspensions . The evolution and outcomes of this work were described in an invited Federal Policy briefing of Civil Rights Project and were subsequently published in EdWeek in February of this year. The work to address the needs of the child, as a whole, continues. During this session, we will outline our ongoing work to address both the emotional as well as the educational needs of children, and how we are leveraging our instructional management system to support this work as we move forward.

1:1 Learning Environment and the Common Core Learning Standards
Presented by Anne Bechert, Kim Swartz, Nancy Legg and Kathyleen DeLucia
July 29, 11:15 – 12:15

Join us as teachers from Ithaca schools share experiences they have had as a result of being early adopters in the district’s 1:1 initiative. You will have the opportunity to hear directly from classroom practitioners as they share their work implementing units and lessons connecting Common Core learning standards and local curriculum. Teachers will share artifacts from projects and other learning experiences that have allowed students to use digital tools to demonstrate acquisition of skills and understandings in new and powerful ways.

High Impact: Establishing a Full-Time District Virtual School from an Idea to Success
Presented by Dr. Brian Blanton and Mr. Steve Thompson
July 29, 11:15 – 12:15

When Henry County Schools recognized that it had the highest proportion of students per capita leaving a district to attend Georgia’s state-wide virtual charter school, we recognized it was time to examine the schooling option traditionally provided students. Do all students fit within the traditional school model? Our experience for many years with supplemental online learning told us that many students are successful in online courses. In 2012-13, after 8 years of offering single courses to students at the high school level, Henry County Schools embarked on creating and establishing a full time virtual school program, Impact Academy. The journey through the community-involved development to the final days of the first year are scattered with milestones that tell a story of lessons learned and great success.

#Tweet2Connect: Using Twitter to Connect and Collaborate in a Professional Learning Community
Presented by Dr. Brian Blanton and Mr. Steve Thompson
July 29, 11:15 – 12:15

For both teachers and administrators, educating students can be isolated, consuming work. As educators, we know it is highly important to connect and collaborate with one another but the nature of our work often makes this difficult. Enter social media. Educators worldwide have found Twitter to be an effective tool for creating professional learning communities (PLCs) and personal learning networks (PLNs) and Henry County Schools in Georgia has found Twitter to be a powerful for collaboration and sharing. Each week, school system leaders moderate a Twitter chat that engages district educators and has grown to include participants from across the state and far beyond. This session will focus on how the #gaed weekly chat has been used to build a PLC lead by the district’s chief academic officer and other district leaders and how this supports, enables, and accelerates powerful innovation within the district and beyond.

Making Meaning of Data to Enable School Leaders to Make Human Capital Decisions
Presented by Nicole Wolden and Erin McMahon
July 29, 11:15 – 12:15

The core issue of our case study is identifying the key data points that will enable school leaders to make difficult human capital decisions. These include but are not limited to summative decisions (renewal, non-probationary status, recommendation for teacher leadership, and remediation and dismissal) and formative decisions (coaching, new teacher support, teacher leader roles, etc.). A secondary challenge is working to build a system and roll it out as decisions are being made on the data collected

Re-thinking How Schools Improve
Presented by Christian Cox, Alice Gemp and Dr. Mike Hickey
July 29, 11:15 – 12:15

In today’s era of school accountability, there isn’t a principal or teacher anywhere who doesn’t recognize the urgency of being data driven.Teachers are drowning in data as they try to cope with it in ways that make sense and that will directly help them improve their own performance and that of their students. This case is about a large and very diverse elementary school that recognized the need to re-think how student performance improves and came to the conclusion that, in spite of all the School Improvement Plans they had written year after year, school performance improved only when the performance of the students in the classroom improved, and that, in turn, called for a very different kind of strategy than that of the typical school improvement process. It called for a Classroom-Focused Improvement Process (CFIP), a collaborative, question-based protocol using real time, formative data to improve teaching and learning and transform the data culture of the school. This case is the story of one school’s journey to improved performance as seen through the eyes of those who did it—the teachers.. In this case study, you will have the opportunity to see a video of the process, and to talk and interact with two teachers from the school who played “starring” roles in the video. They will share with you their own perspectives on the CFIP protocol and the impact it has had on them, their team, and their school.

A Flipped School
Presented by Greg Green
July 29, 11:15 – 12:15

This game changing program was developed in order to better serve our students and eliminate the learning obstacles that often stop learning from taking place. This flipped school approach allows an at-risk student to learn in the same type of supportive atmosphere as a more affluent student. Thus creating educational equality in schools. By using today’s available software enables local, state and national educators to put the best teacher presentation in front of all students at all times. For the first time, we have the opportunity to take advantage of each teacher’s strength and expertise and set up a blended teaching model that works well for all students and schools. This unique high school / flipped school approach has been highlighted not only by CNN but also the following: Bloomberg EDU, The Teaching Channel, November Learning, Forbes, USA Today, Fast Company Magazine, Globe and Mail, Detroit Free Press, ESchool News, School Administrator and District Administration Magazine.

The Evolution of Assessments in the DeKalb County School District using SchoolNet
Presented by Kathy Shelton
July 29, 11:15 – 12:15

DeKalb County School District was administering and evaluating 6-week benchmarks in all core content subjects through paper/pencil administration and manual scoring by teachers. Results were then entered into Excel spreadsheets for all core content benchmarks and reported to the district office. When the SchoolNet Assess module was implemented across the district, district content coordinators began entering benchmarks in SchoolNet so results could be captured and interpreted electronically. Select school personnel had to be permissioned to prepare student answer documents to use with these benchmarks and scanning of student answer sheets was the only method used to input scores. School benchmark or common assessments were being created by select personnel at the school level for these. Eventually DeKalb contracted Pearson to develop quarterly district benchmarks based on our district curriculum housed in SchoolNet. Currently all teachers have the ability to create classroom tests in SchoolNet for the courses they teach either by creating questions from scratch or creating express tests using the test item bank. We have evolved to online testing implemented this school year.

Elements of Student Engagement
Presented by John Antonetti
July 29, 11:15 - 12:15

John will lead a more informal conversation with participants focused on discussing elements of student engagement. 

Listening to the learners
Presented by John Antonetti
July 29, 1:30 – 2:30

Over the past 10 years, John Antonetti has visited 17,000 classrooms and talked to the learners. The focus of John's keynote will be on the powerful lessons on student engagement that he learned visiting schools across the country and listening to what students have to say about their own learning experiences. 

Opening Keynote
Presented by Josh Stumpenhorst
July 30, 8:35 – 9:00

The Connected Educator Introduction to Social Media as an Instructional Tool.

Disruptive Demographics: Implications for K-12 Education
Presented by Dr. Jim Johnson
July 30, 9:00 – 10:00

The U.S. population changed dramatically—in size, composition, and distribution--during the first decade of the new millennium. Some of the changes were a continuation of late 20th century trends. Others were decade-specific, newly emergent trends. Irrespective of timing and periodicity, the observed population shifts have drastically altered the social, economic, and political fabric of our nation. Six of the most disruptive demographic trends are highlighted, with specific emphasis on the challenges and opportunities they pose for K-12 education in the U.S.

Do Teacher Effectiveness Programs Improve Teacher Effectiveness?
Presented by the State Teachers of the Year Debra Calvino, Katie Ferguson, Marguerite Izzo, and Joshua Parker
July 30, 10:30-11:00

How have teacher effectiveness programs impacted teaching?

A Day in the Life of Schoolnet
Presented by Jarren Pester
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

Intro Schoolnet and accessing Benchmarks and reviewing results.

The ePortfolio Habit: Promoting Reflection as a Life-Long Learning Skill
Presented by Eric Machan and Richard Kiely
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

The use of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) in learning and teaching has many facets that benefit the learner and the teacher. By promoting reflective-based learning through ePortfolios we help kindle the learners' discovery of their tacit skills and knowledge, while simultaneously providing evidence-based documentation of their growth as learners. This presentation will introduce you to ePortfolios and some reflective-based practices that you can apply to your teaching. Examples, case studies and current research on the impact of ePortfolios in learning and teaching will also be presented.

Teaching Text Features & Text Structure Aligned to the Common Core
Presented by Susan Provost
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

This informative, hands-on session will help you guide students through the basics of informational text features and then how to determine informational text structure. We will explore the five basic structures used in informational text. Help your students to match graphic organizer to structure in order to improve student note-taking, organization and comprehension.

Common Core State Standards are being unpacked around the country and teachers are unsure of what this means for their instruction. This session will take one College and Career Readiness standard (5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text relate to each other and the whole) and explore its impact for Kindergarten through fifth grade with regards to reading informational text. We will unpack this standard across these six grade levels and practice teaching and learning opportunities at each level. Using the research of Linda Hoyt, Dr. Robert Marzano, and Dr. Donald Bear, we will engage in best practice activities to approach teaching text features as well as strategies to help all students to access difficult vocabulary encountered in informational texts. Teachers will be able to define five text structures and identify effective graphic organizers to use with each to improve student note-taking, organization and comprehension. They will return to the classroom the following day with easy strategies and activities to transfer to their Kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms.

Lessons Learned in Implementing Educator Effectiveness Programs: Round Table Discussion
Presented by Kelly Burling
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

The federal government and state legislatures have issued a charge to improve educator effectiveness across the country. We will discuss how educator evaluation is being implemented across the country; what seems to be working and what is problematic. The conversation will also focus on how individual teachers, cohorts, school leaders, and district leaders can make use of the information being generated by evaluation systems to understand teacher practice and support continuous improvement.

Building a Professional Learning Network (PLN)
Presented by Josh Stumpenhorst
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

Participants will get hands-on experience and guidance on leveraging social media to connect and collaborate with educators around the world through creating and maintaining a Professional Learning Network. 

The Right Keys for the Right Doors: Harnessing Difference-Making Data
Presented by Joshua Parker
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

This presentation will demystify the data collection and action process. You will walk away with a practical system of analyzing and responding to data within a classroom that is 'next-day' ready. We will also discuss in a multimedia, response-driven presentation, what data points correlate the most with student success and if you are unaware of the data that make the difference in your school, part of this session will teach you how to find it. If you have the right keys (efficacious data points), you'll be able to open the right doors (high student growth). 

Professional Development: How do we get more out of it?
Presented by Marguerite Izzo
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

Administrators, teachers and their students benefit from effective professional development. Research on what works and what doesn't will be shared. In this session we will develop strategies and workplans to engage in Professional Development that is asset-/strength based, differentiated, and job-imbedded.  

Teachers! We matter!
Presented by Debra Calvino
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

It has been said, “Teachers are the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement.” This workshop will examine the impact of teacher characteristics on teacher effectiveness. What makes a teacher effective? What hinders that effectiveness? Participants will receive practical insight to inform their teaching and/or mentoring. Come join the discussion.  

We Love Literacy and Learning! K-2
Presented by Katie Ferguson
July 30, 11:15 - 12:15

Create independent and enthusiastic learners during your literacy block! Katie will share the strategies that helped lead her to literacy success and recognition. She will share her ideas for fostering independence and a love of reading and writing for K-2 learners. Participants will walk away with practical ideas and concrete strategies for differentiation that can work across different models of literacy instruction and align with Common Core State Standards.

Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day: The Flipped Classroom
Presented by Jonathan Bergmann
July 30, 12:15 - 1:15

Come learn from Jonathan Bergmann as he takes you on his journey from a nineteen year lecturer to a flipped class pioneer. Hear how teachers can talk to every student in every class every day creating a learner centered, inquiry driven, problem based class. Learn how you can begin to transform your classroom by asking one critical question: What is the best use of my face-to-face class time?