CES Small
Schools Summer Institute Workshops
Block A Block B Block C Schedule
6-hour,
Tuesday workshops
|
School(s) |
Workshop Title |
Interest to Students? |
Description |
|
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ALL DAY SCHOOL VISIT The ERS Experience:
a few hours of immersion into our learning community |
Yes |
Join the learning community at the nationally recognized
|
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Coalition of Essential Schools Youth |
Youth (FOR YOUTH ONLY) |
Yes |
This all-day session will be led by youth for youth
and will include workshops by students from |
|
Coalition of Essential Schools |
Discourse II and Beyond |
No |
This all-day session will offer participants an
opportunity to gain familiarity and comfort with a variety of tools
and skills that will allow them as coaches or facilitators to hold a
space for difficult conversations. Participants will engage in
and use Discourse II language in a number of contexts/venues.
In addition, participants will work collaboratively with a several real
time scenarios dealing with issues of equity and instances in our work
that require us to interrupt inequities. We will also expand our
shared understandings about race identification, cultural competency
and its impact on teaching and learning |
|
Coalition of Essential Schools |
Authentic Intellectual Achievement |
No |
In this workshop, learn how to foster high intellectual
quality student work by learning about the research of Fred Newmann
and his colleagues. Be trained in using rubrics to assess the intellectual
quality of teacher assignments and student work. This work continues
the current emphasis of the Network to look at student work to inform
our practice. Participants in this workshop are eligible to become
members of the SSP research team to contribute to the research on the
Small Schools Network. For more information, contact |
|
Highline Public Schools |
How can Schools and Districts Collaborate to Ensure
Successful Conversions |
No |
Converting large high schools into small schools
is dynamic work involving many stakeholders.
This session will focus on the dynamic relationship needed between
schools and district offices to ensure the viability and stability of
small schools on conversion campuses.
Participants will be asked to share and explore issues currently
faced in their districts. |
|
High Tech High |
Projects, Presentations of Learning and Assessment
at High Tech High |
No |
How do you create interdisciplinary projects with
real world applications? How
do you assess these projects? What
are Presentations of Learning? What
are different ways students can present their work? In this workshop, you will learn different
project planning and assessment techniques.
You will also plan your own interdisciplinary project and devise
an authentic assessment plan for this project.
We recommend that you attend this workshop with your school team. |
|
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The Advisory Experience: How can Advisory achieve the goal of personalization,
so that students receive the support necessary for success? |
Yes |
By the end of the workshop: participants will understand the experience
that advisors and students share at Leadership High School; learn structures
that allow advisors to support students academically and emotionally;
and explore their own plan to create or improve Advisory at their schools. |
|
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Leadership in Small Schools |
No |
As schools undertake the task of creating effective,
student-centered classrooms that put into practice the Ten Common Principles,
school leaders also need to have an environment for their own professional
development and growth. The Executive
Leadership Team of Leominster High School has created a structure and
principles whereby the school’s leaders meet regularly to ensure that
as their small schools develop, the schools’ leaders’ needs are being
met as well. |
|
|
The Ethnology of a Small Learning Community |
Yes |
What kind of school culture supports effective and
equitable teaching and learning? Join educators from |
|
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Student Ownership and Voice in a Math Classroom |
Yes |
Essential Questions:
Up to eight students will be present and involved
in this workshop including a mock class, a Q and A with open discussion,
and presentations of student work. In addition, there will be a presentation
involving the context of our school, the process of moving towards an
inquiry based classroom, and the changes in how we, the students and
I, now look at teaching and learning. Other components will include:
conferring, project based learning, differentiation, collaboration,
students as teachers, and literacy. |
|
Fenway H.S. (Part II) |
All Can Do Math! |
Yes |
This workshop will examine how |
3-Hour, Wednesday
Morning Workshops
|
School(s) |
Workshop Title |
Interest to Students? |
Descriptions |
|
|
The Right Kind of Data: What
information is most critical for effective curriculum development? |
Yes |
Being part of a school that has
diverse student needs and high standards it has been crucial for the math
team at |
|
ARISE High School |
Building Student and Parent Leadership |
Yes |
In this workshop, led by a student, parent, and
educator from the ARISE design team, participants will learn about the
processes followed by the design team to plan and open a new small
school. Workshop will include
opportunities to brainstorm, in small groups, ways to identify roles and
opportunities for parent and student involvement in planning and
implementation. |
|
|
Community Mapping: Building and Identifying
Resources for a New |
No |
As a new school design team we want to share
strategies for finding and tapping into community resources. These resources will provide additional
support for our students once our school opens. We will share our community mapping process
and invite others to do the same. |
|
Coalition of Essential Schools |
Communicating the Common Principles with your
School and Beyond |
No |
The Common Principles are a philosophy rather
than a model so how do we communicate and demonstrate their ideals in
practice, not just in theory? Join Eva Frank and |
|
Coalition of Essential Schools Northwest |
From the Outside In: what conversion looks like
through the eyes of critical friends |
Yes |
CES Northwest, as a technical assistance
provider, has a unique vantage point from which to understand high school
conversion as they provide outside eyes, critical friendship, school change
expertise, and a focus on teaching and learning. Coaches from CES NW who have worked with
converting high schools for the past five years will offer insights and
lessons learned. |
|
Coalition of Essential Schools Youth |
Student as Coach: Harnessing the Power of
Students Toward Professional Development |
No |
This youth-led workshop introduces a new outlook
on student involvement in the classroom. Our goal is to redefine the teacher
and student relationship by making students partners in improving
instruction. We have developed a system for students to observe and evaluate
teaching styles, as well as give teachers feedback on their best practices
and areas for improvement. Participants will learn how to use this tool and
implement it at their own school. |
|
|
Tale of Two Meetings: |
Yes |
Both of our schools have a weekly whole school
meeting and both of us are at very different points in the development of
those meetings. Learn about our experiences and how schools at different
points in their development necessarily need to reflect and modify such
meetings to meet their current needs. |
|
El |
More than just a school: Creating a school as part of a larger
cultural center. |
Yes |
El |
|
|
Boys Will Be Boys – A Facilitated Conversation
about the Education of Boys and Young Men. |
Yes |
This workshop will present a summary of the
latest research on boys’ educational and social development and how this
affects their success academically.
Participants will be encouraged to bring case studies from their
schools. We will generate dialogue and
strategies for reaching these young men and boys. |
|
Global Connections |
Student - Led Conferences |
Yes |
In our first year as a conversion small school,
we found ourselves challenged with engaging students and changing their
thinking about school as a place tat prepares them for college and success
after high school. We decided to
implement student-led conferences as a way of promoting personalization by
including students and families in a process of planning and monitoring their
progress through school. Join us in
examining our work to use student-led conferences as a means to put students
in charge of their learning. |
|
Humanities Preparatory Academy |
The Fairness Committee: An Alternative Model of School Discipline |
Yes |
The Fairness Committee of Humanities
Preparatory Academy is a model of how we integrate student voice and our
school's Core Values into a non-traditional restorative justice model of
school "discipline.” In this
workshop, we will introduce how this works in our school, help strategize
ways in which you could adapt this for your school, and hopefully conduct a
"mock fairness". |
|
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Small Schools as Small Societies: Questions and
Implications |
No |
Historically, small human societies of several
hundred people have had certain structural attributes: economic exchange is
reciprocal; conflict resolution is informal; there is no monopoly of force;
decision making is egalitarian; and other societal traits. Participants in this workshop will reflect
on the characteristics of traditional small human societies, and then we will
reflect on our own schools as societies in themselves; we will consider
structures of governance and leadership; judicial and disciplinary processes;
relationships, including family, extended family and inter-generational
living; and cultural attributes, including myth, ritual and faith. We will be guided by the essential
question: To what extent can – or
should – our small schools replicate the structural and cultural attributes
of small human societies? |
|
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Decision-making process and governance |
No |
One of the key structures that all schools need
to create is the process to make decisions and govern itself. |
|
Memphis Bridges Design Team |
Check Your Filters |
Yes |
To create an equitable school culture it is
important for all school personnel and students to acknowledge their own
bias, belief systems, and assumptions.
This workshop will have interactive activities to provide a safe space
for self-reflection and action stepping for building an honest, open, and
inclusive environment for all. |
|
Odyssey: The |
Teacher As Coach: Our school's effort to improve
instruction |
No |
In this workshop we will share the teacher
learning our school has engaged in as a way to increase student academic
achievement. This year’s study focused
on “teacher as coach” and included: an emphasis on student talk in the
classroom; a substantial change in literacy instruction with a focus on
differentiation and analysis; and math instruction that moved from linear
thought process to critical thinking. |
|
Olympic High School |
What’s Worked and What Hasn’t: Lesson From Our Year of Planning Our School
Conversion Process |
No |
As we at Olympic High School complete our year of
planning we find that we have done some things very, very well and made more
mistakes that we care to admit. We will talk about both. One of our greatest successes has been
building community support for our small essential schools. Because that work
can be translated to any new school, we will present a framework and tools
for building community support. We will also spend time working
collaboratively to allow you to personalize a plan for your team’s community. |
|
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Your Assignment?:
Change the World!: Incorporating Research-Based Social Action into the
Exhibition Process |
Yes |
One of Gandhi’s most profound statements is: “We
must be the change we wish to see in the world.” This statement
embraces our belief that kids, given the right scaffolding and the right
opportunities, truly can make a difference in the world now. At |
|
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The Conversion Experience: From all Stakeholder's
perspectives |
Yes |
|
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Skyview Academy with PEBC and Colorado Children’s
Campaign |
Inquiry 101:
The Journey of Creating an Inquiry-based Classroom |
Yes |
Essential Question: What is inquiry-based teaching
(through the eyes of a 1st year teacher)? Teaching using inquiry is a process. You can’t read a book (even if there was a
lot of professional literature) and become an expert overnight at inquiry
teaching. It comes from a trial and
error process. Figuring out how to use
inquiry in the classroom can sometimes be a struggle. This workshop will take the participants
through a new teacher’s process of developing an inquiry-based
classroom. The workshop will include a
short presentation on sharing the struggles and successes of defining what it
means to teach using inquiry, looking at student work, and hearing the
perspective of students; what do they think/know about inquiry teaching and
learning. The goal is to develop
inquiry-based teaching strategies and begin to work through the process of
planning a unit, using backwards planning, essential questions, and
developing opportunities where students can explore their own questions about
the unit topic. |
|
The Met, |
Education's most important people: Parents -
energizing, inspiring, and involving families |
Yes |
We have used some of our grant to build a parent
organization. We will share our
strategies, successes, challenges and then walk together for a deeper parent involvement
and commitment to our respective schools. |
|
Urban Academy |
Getting Quality Work Through Discussion |
No |
How do we get students to do advanced level
work? It starts with the
discussion-based classroom. We will
look at work done at |
3-Hour,
Thursday Morning Workshops
|
School(s) |
Workshop Title |
Interest to Students? |
Descriptions |
|
|
Connecting Through Conversation: Building learning
ambassadors into literacy classrooms |
Yes |
How can we use cross grade level Learning Ambassadors
to:
We will demonstrate our
purpose for learning ambassadors how this is reflective of our core
values. Student Learning Ambassadors
will lead the group through a typical learning ambassador session. Participants will engage in discourse around
how this tool can promote student voice and learning in their schools. |
|
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Communication Strategy: How to plan and execute
a communication strategy that will elevate your school. |
No |
ABHS has worked to create and execute a communication
strategy that serves the institution in a dynamic, if not treacherous,
political environment. Through a case study of the school's success,
including its’ recent acquisition and relocation to one of Downtown
Albuquerque’s historic federal buildings, schools will learn about how
to build and execute plans that build the profile of their institution
and position it for future growth. |
|
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Professional Learning Communities at |
No |
This workshop is designed to show how BAA creates
professional learning communities such that staff holds itself to a
high level of accountability and to a culture of student achievement,
in line with the CES 10th Common Principle of Democracy and
Equity. This workshop will discuss how |
|
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Different means to the same end: Tailoring Instruction
Through the Inclusion Model |
No |
|
|
Center for Collaborative Education |
Using the autonomies to support student achievement
in conversion high schools |
No |
What exactly ARE those autonomies and what evidence
is there that small autonomous schools are successful in supporting
student achievement? What’s the
difference between a conversion high school that creates small learning
communities and one that creates small high schools? Where do we see autonomies in our own schools
and how can we help each other in addressing the challenges and obstacles
to gaining autonomies? Participants will look at evidence of success in
the recent research on the Boston Pilot schools, and learn about how
these schools use the autonomies to support student achievement. As part of learning more about autonomies,
participants will discuss the differences between SLCs and small schools
and look for evidence in their own schools about how the autonomies
are being used to support student success - with time to share successful
strategies for gaining autonomies. |
|
Coalition of Essential Schools |
Beyond Pockets of Excellence: How to Position Your
School to Drive Transformation |
No |
CES schools are different: they honor practitioner experience and integrate student, parent, and community voice into school governance. Indeed, implementing the Common Principles often goes against the grain of conventional educational practices and part of our co |