Fall Forum 2010, Demanding Education That Matters: All Sessions, Friday afternoon, November 12

Register for Fall Forum: http://www.regonline.com/fall_forum_2010 

Full list of the Workshops, Interest Groups, and Looking at Student Work Sessions that will be offered on the afternoon  of Friday, November 12. Room locations at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis will be available in the printed program guides distributed onsite to registered Fall Forum attendees.

Please click here for the full list of sessions offered at Fall Forum on the morning of Friday, November 12.

Please click here for the full list of sessions offered at Fall Forum on Saturday, November 13.

Friday, November 12, 1:30 pm - 3:15 pm

Featured Speaker: Deborah Meier | In Defense of Play
 Deborah Meier joins us as a renowned educator and author, CES co-founder, and CES Executive Board member to discuss the essential role of play in children's lives and learning. Click here for more info about Deborah Meier and her talk.

Featured Session: Family Engagment Panel: Ways that Families and Educators Lead “Our” Students Toward Improved and Equitable Outcomes
As educators, we often cite that we can’t do the work alone, additionally we recognize the role of families in educating students.  However, we often limit authentic family participation in school reform efforts or are quick to blame their actions when confronting student achievement issues. Come to this session to hear from parents and educators who are in alliance and who rethink the integral role of family partnerships, explicitly toward improved and equitable outcomes for each student. Click here for more on this panel and its moderator, San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools lead coach Tanya Friedman.

A Look at Student Work from Tenth Grade Gateway Exhibitions
Tenth grade students at Civitas School of Leadership in Los Angeles must pass Gateway, a spring exhibition of academic work and collaboration experiences from their first two years of high school. Work samples and experiences are offered as evidence of growth in specific behaviors called "indicators" for each of seven Habits of Mind. Gateway committees comprised of parents, faculty advisors and students serve as adjudicators for the exhibition, and essential rubrics are calibrated annually.
Civitas School of Leadership, Tina Kim | Looking at Student Work

Shoots from Roots! Sharing and Sustaining Leadership in Our Schools
Sustainable leadership in a school requires a shared responsibility of all stakeholders, not just the designated leader. In this session, we will explore and examine how to foster an “activist engagement” that counters external and internal forces that may affect or compromise the core values of a school over time. The primary aim is to promote a cross-fertilization of good ideas and effective strategies that nurture progressive shoots to grow from their honored roots.
Lehman Alternative Community School, Joe Greenberg, Dave Lehman | Interest Group

Are the CES Common Principles Culturally Appropriate for Schools Servicing an All African-American/Urban Student Population?
This session will focus on educational philosophies and distinctions among race, culture, class, and ethnicity. Specifically, we will take an in-depth look at the CES Common Principles and attempt to determine if they are, in some ways, culturally biased. What are some differences and similarities in the philosophies of traditional African American education, mainstream American education, and the education provided by CES schools? What does traditional African American education look like? Does it really exist?
Connexions Community Leadership Academy, Anthony Mckissic, Ernest Shaw | Interest Group

Silence is Not Always Golden: Creating a Culture of Student Talk in the Classroom
Children should be seen and not heard. Unfortunately, this aphorism has governed education for too long. Through a participatory approach, the facilitators, who lead professional learning at their school and who help their staff implement a culture of student talk, will model specific structures to create a culture of talk in your classroom. Participants will leave with an implementation plan for creating, through student talk, an educational experience that matters for learning.
New San Juan High School, Steve Hunt, Nicole Kukral | Workshop

Attacking Gorillas: Developing a Culture of Growth through Fierce Conversations
Our session will engage participants in a discussion about varying educational concerns such as school culture and student achievement. As participants share concerns relative to their schools, others will offer ideas, experiences, and suggestions for improvement. The session will provide opportunities for all participants to be heard and we will address as many concerns as possible—including our own—specifically with respect to CES Common Principles. Participants will leave having shared experiences, listened to suggestions and advice, and resolved concerns that are having an impact on instruction.
Eastern Elementary School, Timothy Aitken, Amanda Bayer | Interest Group

Not Just for Recess Anymore: Why Childhood Obesity Matters and What We Can Do About It
Learn how childhood obesity is becoming THE social justice issue of the century—and discover how you can help Michelle Obama in her campaign to end it. Simply by implementing classroom practices that get students out of their seats, we as educators can wage battle against the epidemic of childhood obesity. Come away with specific learning activities that will keep your students more engaged, more focused—and developing healthy habits early on.
Motion Infusion, Laura Putnam | Workshop

Project Based Learning 101: Basic Design and Management of Rigorous Projects in All Subjects and Grades for All Students
“Doing projects” is often not the same as rigorous, powerful project based learning, which increases student motivation to learn with a meaningful, authentic framework for teaching both content knowledge and skills for success in the 21st century. Learn how to design project-based learning curriculum units—including Driving Questions, Entry Events, assessment and scaffolding to ensure success for all students—and discuss practical classroom implementation tips. Sample projects and planning forms provided.
Buck Institute for Education, John Larmer | Workshop

Transformative Coaching: How Coaches Accelerate Systemic and Individual Change in Schools
What does it mean to coach for transformation? What does a coach need to KNOW, DO and BE in order to accelerate systemic and individual transformation in schools and classrooms? From developing equity-centered agendas to creating year-long strategic plans, transformative coaching interrupts educational inequities at the classroom, school and district levels. This interactive workshop will demonstrate the SF-CESS model of transformative coaching and share a range of our tools and practices. Using participant-generated coaching dilemmas, we will explore how specific strategies, and perspectives create opportunities for meaningful and sustained change. Participants will create personal action plans to inspire transformation in your own contexts.
San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools, Tanya Friedman, Greg Peters, Beth Silbergeld, Fredi Ware, Wesley Watkins | Workshop

Whose School is It Anyway?: Empowering Students through Non-Formal Learning
Milken Community High School implements a week of non-formal trips and courses that cultivated students’ love of learning through experiential learning models. This session addresses the key role students played in developing these non-formal learning experiences, and how, by empowering students by including them in the creation of their own learning experiences, they brought out their passions, increased their efforts, and ultimately experienced the value of learning on a much higher level.
Milken Community High School, Yechiel Hoffman, Pavel Lieb, Jacob Fishman | Workshop

Mission-Driven Power Sharing
This workshop pulls the curtain back on what structures contribute to actualizing power sharing in the school setting. How does this get done? How do we honor the time folks contribute to important school-wide leadership roles? How is the work sustained?  Participants will have time to think through how existing and necessary leadership practices in their settings can thrive in deliberate conditions that promote shared power. Souhegan High School continues to learn, grow, and revise practices that enhance shared leadership. Sarah Hooper-Barbato, humanities teacher and Division One Coordinator, and Colleen L. Meaney, Dean of Faculty, lead this look behind Souhegan’s curtain.
Souhegan High School, Sarah Hooper-Barbato, Colleen L. Meaney | Workshop

Nine Things Every Teacher Should Know about Teaching English Language Learners
Over the last 12 years, English Language Learners have come to make up about 30 percent of our school’s population, and this change has affected what we need to know to be better. “Nine Things Every Teacher Should Know About Words and Vocabulary Instruction” by Karen Bromley has helped change my thinking and my teaching. Come participate in a conversation about how to be as effective as possible in your changing community.
The Mission Hill School, Katherine Clunis | Workshop

Where I’m From: Writing that Starts at Home and Ends with a Vision for the Future
We all come from different neighborhoods, home communities where we live both a shared and individual experience. While everyone comes from a different neighborhood, we all share common values about the places we want to live. Engage in a conversation with instructors and students from Eagle Rock School about a writing project that focuses on individual life experiences and allows students to envision positive changes in their communities.
Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, Dave Manzella | Workshop

Ownership in a Small High School
This workshop will illustrate how the Scarsdale Alternative School creates ownership of its rules through the participation of all students and staff in school governance. The facilitators and workshop participants will role play the structures that support self-governance at our school: agenda committee, community meeting, and fairness committee. Together we will model how these structures encourage the consideration of multiple perspectives, and how the process builds ownership of the rules. We will allow time for participants to consider how their school could employ similar structures t engage their school in a more democratic approach to school governance.
Scarsdale Alternative School, Jennifer Maxwell, James Williams | Workshop

Collaborative Goal Setting: Constructing a Culture of High Achievement
The old Irish folk song states, “I know where I am going.” We certainly know our own objectives, but do the students know theirs? How do we ensure our students can formulate academic goals by analyzing their own academic and behavioral choices? A unified and structured approach will be presented by English teacher Adam Kinory and Inclusion Specialist Melissa Moskowitz, both from The School of the Future. Time will be allotted for collaboration, discussion, and planning.
The School of the Future, Adam Kinory | Workshop

Whose School Is It Anyway? Student Leaders at ARISE High School Tell It Like It Is
At ARISE, students are a part of all of the big decisions in the school. Students on the hiring committee interview potential teachers and even recommend whether current teachers should be asked to return or not. ARISE has weekly student-run Community Meetings where school issues and conflicts are discussed, where students who have improved or excelled are acknowledged, and where everyone talks about whatever is happening at the time. Problems as well as appreciations are shared and community is built. ARISE also has a school-wide leadership team made up of teachers, administrators, parents, and students that makes important decisions about the school in areas that include budget and staffing. ARISE student leaders even plan and run a week-long orientation for the whole school at the beginning of the year. At ARISE, adults take students' opinions into consideration and strive to constantly include the students' points of view. In this session, ARISE student leaders will share their experiences and advice for building meaningful student leadership.
ARISE High School, Lorena Borrayo, Anthony Dominguez, Laura Flaxman, Romeo Garcia, Thalia Jauregui, Yessenia Saucedo | Workshop

Are You Ready? Using the Hierarchy of School Needs to Make Successful School Change
Why does school change  “stick” in some schools but not in others? What makes the difference between success and failure? Laura Thomas from the Antioch University Center for School Renewal will introduce the School Change Readiness Tool and the Hierarchy of School Needs, two new instruments to help you accurately recognize your school's developmental stage in order to apply the right intervention at the right time. Participants will practice using the tool and applying the hierarchy and will leave understanding how to utilize both through a 360-degree assessment process.
Antioch University New England, Laura Thomas | Workshop

What Can our Students Tell Us about Education That Matters? Student-Led Classroom Observations for Culturally Relevant Teaching
Built on the Best Practices Club model and supported by SF-CESS, John O’Connell High School has developed its “What Works Club” in which trained students observe teachers teaching and offer positive feedback related to what seems to work for the school’s diverse, urban student body. This workshop will tell the story of how this club came to be and what it takes to get students and teachers talking about what works and what matters.
John O'Connell High School, Gary Cruz | Workshop

Engaging the Entire Village: Community Members as Essential Collaborators
Many, if not all, of our most meaningful learning experiences occur when we initiate learning based on our interests, we work closely with someone who is highly knowledgeable in the area of study, we receive timely and focused feedback, and we have time to reflect on our experiences. Join us in a discussion about how to effectively create these opportunities for students through collaboration with community members.
QED Foundation, Elizabeth Cardine, Kim Carter, Scott Prescott | Interest Group

An Environmental Community Partnership: Building a Net-Zero, Carbon Neutral Public School Building
The session is designed to appeal to those educators who also are deeply committed to sustainable environmental practices. The discussion will of necessity talk about energy use, new technologies, jobs, educational opportunities, and alliances that follow this kind of project. The lessons learned are transferable to any visionary project a school wants to tackle.
East Bay Met School, Charlie Plant | Interest Group

Virtually Impossible? The Challenge of Personalizing Learning for All Students
Does personalizing each student’s learning in your classroom seem virtually impossible? At New Hampshire’s Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, on-line collaboration between students, teachers, and parents promotes student-centered learning that results in equitable outcomes for all students. Participants at our session will examine student and teacher work, hear directly from students about the impact of their on-line collaboration with teachers, and explore how to put our “virtual” best practices to use in “real” classrooms.
Virtual Learning Academy Charter School | Workshop

How Do We See the Middle East? Examining Stereotypes and Teaching History
What stereotypes do we carry with us about the Middle East and how do they affect what we learn from the news and media? How can we help students explore cultural bias in order to learn the complex history of the US and the Middle East? This workshop will help educators learn how to use media images and challenging text to explore cultural biases through reading, writing and discussion. The workshop will ask participants to engage in cooperative reading and writing strategies to help students explore the complex subjects of the Middle East, the United States, foreign policy and the ways we approach these critical current issues today.
Humanities Preparatory Academy, Kate Burch, Laurie Gaughran | Workshop

Friday, November 12, 3:45 pm - 5:30 pm

Featured Session: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, and Transgender/Transsexual Panel: What Is “An Education that Matters” for Our LGBQT Youth?
Even with all the attention given to and lessons “learned” from the historical harm of oppression (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, etc.) within our institutions, our schools continue to be places that seem designed to welcome some of our students and to shun, shame, and push out others. Come hear from a panel of LGBQT youth and educators who answer the Essential Question: What is the role of families and educators in leading “our” students toward improved and equitable outcomes for each student? Click here for more on this panel and its moderator, San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools director Gregory Peters.

Interdisciplinary Projects Require Faculty Collaboration
School-wide, collaborative, interdisciplinary studies at Civitas School of Leadership have produced symposiums on the American Dream, health fairs offering resources to the local community for healthier and more socially just living, and oral histories of some of Southern California’s most notable neighborhoods. Students will share their interdisciplinary projects, and Cynthia Thompson, Civitas Lead Teacher, will share the collaborative process necessary among the faculty for students to experience success in interdisciplinary studies.
Civitas School of Leadership, Cynthia Thompson | Looking at Student Work

Making Learning Personal
Teachers and schools aim to develop their students’ attitudes and skills as much as possible.  You will work (by actual training and reflection) with Bert de Vos and Erik van Vliet, senior education consultants of APS, the Netherlands on improving the skill  of presentation as a vehicle for the way to create and use personalized “development lines.” We will discuss the benefits and the possibilities for your own educational practice and purposes.
APS Netherlands, Bert de Vos | Workshop

Inside the Mission Hill School: Democratic Education in Practice
This session is a talk and discussions led by a recent recipient of the CES Ted Sizer Dissertation grant. Matthew Knoester is a former teacher at the Mission Hill School in Boston who has conducted a dissertation study that was an evaluation and ethnography of the Mission Hill School. In his research he drew on interviews with 63 people who have been intimately involved with the school—approximately one part staff, one part parents, and one part graduates of the school. He uses a theory of democratic education and critical educational studies to help make sense of the results. In this session, Matthew will discuss how he conducted the research, what he found, and why he thinks it is important. There will also be small group discussions about key dilemmas that were found in the study and about other critical topics, followed by a large group discussion led by Matthew.
Sizer Scholar | Matthew Knoester | Workshop

Advancing Your School's Mission while Your School is Advancing
Join us in Advancing Your Mission, and you will leave with a blueprint for the next several years, including how to: build a fundraising plan incorporating foundations and individuals; create and produce at least two engaging newsletters annually; create sustainable and equitable partnerships; use free tools to advance your message; and organize yourself to rally your teachers, students, alumni and board as partners in the execution of your plan.
Boston Day and Evening Academy, Andrea Kunst, Nastasia Lawton | Workshop

The Art of Collegial Coaching: Using Video to Support Reflective Adult Learning Communities
At their best, schools are learning communities where youth and adults are engaged in creative, dynamic work and conversations that push their work forward. In this interactive workshop, faculty from the High Tech High Graduate School of Education will explore the role of video in collegial coaching to support teacher reflection and collaboration. Educators will analyze video, engage in role plays, and leave with ideas and tools to support collegial coaching in their own schools.
High Tech High Graduate School of Education, Melissa Daniels, Shani Higgins, Stacey Lopaz, Kelly Wilson | Workshop

DIS/Ability and the Arts: Making Space in the Classroom for Kids who "Think Different"
This workshop invites participants to explore the connections between artistic learning and the qualities of mind that are most disabling in traditional classrooms. Hands-on activities in small groups will allow participants to experience learning through the arts. The workshop will include a presentation on students with disabilities as arts learners, time for questions and discussion, and several sample lesson plans demonstrating arts-based learning.
Boston University School of Education, Sarah Mayper | Workshop

From "In the Seat" to "On Your Feet": Social Activism in Math and Humanities
How can education empower students to make change in the world? At Capital City Charter School, students engage in social action projects in Math and Humanities, through which they develop toolkits for the future, including deep understandings of content and skills for effectively expressing themselves. By providing opportunities for students to act on their passions, teachers can create highly motivating learning environments. In this session, participants will develop their own social action projects across disciplines.
Capital City Public Charter School Upper School, Alice Cook, Barrie Moorman | Workshop

Community Partners: Collaborating to Give students Richer and More Opportunities
For years Fenway High School has been collaborating with community partners in greater Boston to bring our students richer experiences and more opportunities. Our partners bring the arts to sophomores, enroll juniors and seniors in college classes, hire seniors as interns, recruit all-age students into specialized out-of-school programs, and share their facilities, personnel, and expertise with us. This workshop will help you develop a plan to engage community partners for your school's unique wants and needs.
Fenway High School, George Papayannis | Workshop

Let Freedom (& Learning) Swing: Critical Friends Tuning The Jazz & Democracy Project
The Jazz & Democracy Project® (J&D) highlights process over product. Join facilitator Wesley J. Watkins, IV, Ph.D as we engage in the very activities that help elementary and secondary students experience and therefore understand how Jazz is created. Then, like the democratic process that jazz is, connect your own experience to those of other participants to provide insights on how J&D can improve its assessment and student-centered teaching and learning.
The Jazz & Democracy Project/SF-CESS, Wesley Watkins | Workshop

Students Taking Action: Educating for Positive and Respectful Participation
Human Rights Education and Peace Education bring greater dignity to people's lives. Service-learning incorporates these values into formal curriculum. A meaningful model of service-learning requires more than "community service hours" to inspire students to take action in their community, understand it, and question it. This workshop will examine the potential of service-learning in school, create new ideas, and connect peace education with personal development.
Youth Spirit Foundation, Amy Argenal, Theodore Timpson | Workshop

Creating a Social Justice Curriculum
The investigation of social justice issues is a compelling strategy for facilitating the development of citizenship and academic skills by students, particularly when so many of our students face social justice issues related to poverty, parenting, employment, housing, discrimination, health, crime, violence, and many other factors. Using a curriculum development model originally developed by Lee Howe and Howie Kirschenbaum, a theory advocated by Pedro Noguera, and the work of psychotherapist Carl Rogers, participants will learn a curriculum development process that they can use with teachers and students and a product that they can use immediately.
School Without Walls, Dan Drmacich | Workshop

No Subject Left Behind: The Fight to Preserve Social Studies and More in Our Schools
Civic engagement and civil discourse are at risk as NCLB emphasizes testing in English and math while narrowing access to other engaging and meaningful curricula. Learn how the California Council for Social Studies (CCSS) fought against micro-managed curricular mandates and advocated for policies allowing rigorous whole child education. Fred Jones, Legislative Analyst for CCSS, will explain CCSS’s legislative agenda and lead a workshop teaching participants how to build relationships with local, state, and national policy makers.
Alameda County Office of Education, Nathan Ivy, Fred Jones | Workshop

A Revolutionary Curriculum: Student and Staff Interests and Passions as the Core of a School's Curriculum
We will pose a challenge: what should the learning experiences of our children really be? What are the fundamental goals? Our answers guide a very different approach to the high school years for a public school. We aim to be provocative, challenging, unsettling. We will openly discuss both the joys and heartbreaks of trying to develop a truly personalized program for both students and staff, and try to open the group's hearts and minds an alternative structure.
East Bay Met School, Steve Perry | Workshop

Twenty Years of High Expectations! Heterogeneity, Differentiation, Inclusion, and Mastery in a Math Program
At its inception in 1992, teachers at Souhegan High School were asked to figure out what the CES Common Principles meant for math curriculum and instruction. Value decisions were made that a) we were a school of inclusion, b) that all students could study the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ core curriculum, and c) that all students would be required to complete at least three credits in mathematics. Almost twenty years later, we now share our experiences and challenges of implementing such a program. The presenters, Joann McDeed and Amy McGuigan, are both math educators each with 25 years of experience who have taught on and off team courses in remedial to AP classes. Participants will be involved in discussions around inclusion, mastery learning, heterogeneous grouping, and differentiated instruction all in order to personalize the learning for all students.
Souhegan High School, Joann McDeed, Amy McGuigan | Interest Group

Whose Side Are You On? Teaching Controversial Issues in the Social Studies Classroom
Our students are the problem-solvers of the future; we need to gain confidence in using contemporary social issues as a means to develop problem solving, empathy, and critical thinking skills in our students. They need exposure to complex social issues in order to practice finding solutions to the problems they will face in their lives and communities. In this workshop, participants will discuss the challenges, benefits, and methods of teaching about controversial issues.
Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School, Freja Joslin, Matthew King | Workshop

Choosing To Participate: Linking the Past to Moral Choices Today
Choosing to Participate focuses on the civic choices people make about themselves and others in their community, nation, and world. Many CES schools use Facing History and Ourselves to help students be well informed in ways that shape their civic attitudes, beliefs, and ethical awareness, as informed by their understanding of history. Participants will be exposed to concrete Facing History teaching strategies, receive resources, and learn about structures of successful CES schools that help students to understand that choices are important and shape us as responsible global citizens.
Facing History and Ourselves, Jeremy Nesoff | Workshop

From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank: Brewing Biodiesel in the Classroom
At this workshop, learn how students at Young Women’s Leadership Charter School are using waste oil from local restaurants to produce biodiesel. This senior elective was created with the goal of motivating and empowering students to tackle a real-world scientific issue: the environmental impact of fossil fuels. The basics of biodiesel production will be covered, as well as more advanced topics and ideas for connecting this topic to each of the scientific disciplines.
Young Women's Leadership Charter School, Kathleen Grimes Menyhart | Workshop

What Do Educators Mean by “Ready for College and Career?”
Veteran National Professional Board for Teaching Standards certified classroom teachers will lead students and teachers in a shared discussion of David Conley’s “Four Dimensions of College and Career Readiness.” This will include ways high schools can better prepare more students to pursue learning beyond graduation, whether or not they go to college. The session will include a student driven video and collaborative group effort to consider strategies necessary to design a plan of action that focuses on college and career readiness.
Greenville Tech Charter High School, Jacqueline Brown-Williams, Cleo Crank, Carmen Rhodes | Workshop

I Told You So! My Real World Learning Project DOES Meet State Proficiency Standards!
In an ever-changing climate of what we want our students to learn and what state and national standards tell us our students should be learning, many find it difficult to focus on project work and real world leaning. In this workshop, students will share their interest-driven Real World Learning Projects that not only helped them learn hands-on and in a real-world setting, but also taught them proficiency-based graduation requirements set by the state. Educators will show how they coached their students to link their multidisciplinary project work to the state’s requirements and explain why it is important to continue to have students learn based on what they are passionate about, no matter their interest or skill level.
The Met - Peace Street Campus, Megan Cresci, Jeff Johnson | Looking at Student Work

Register for Fall Forum: http://www.regonline.com/fall_forum_2010