This session will focus on problems in education that have been developing since the turn of the century, and how Covid 19 has brought them to light. The nature and direction of solutions will also be examined. Case examples of potential success will be described.

Much of our joy and sorrow in life, and our success and failure at work is the direct result of our relationships, and our relationships flourish or fail depending on how well we communicate. When we listen with empathy, find common bonds, build emotional connections, we will discover that our lives at home, work, and in the community are better. For that reason, taking time to improve how we communicate is probably one of the best ways we can spend our time.
In this session, participants will learn how to coach themselves to have Better Conversations. Participants will learn (a) the beliefs that lead to Better Conversations, and (b) habits they can implement to have more life-giving conversations. Anyone who wants to improve the way they interact with others, or the way educators in their school interact with each other should find this session helpful.

This session will focus on the common human experiences of this pandemic. The past few months have made us realize that we all want the same basic things; security, safety, love, appreciation, and purpose. Schools should be a place (when we reopen) that embraces the oneness that we experienced during the pandemic. Schools should not be meritocratic rat races that pit one student against another or favors one culture of class over another, we all want to be seen, heard, and appreciated. This session will focus on the power of equity and the lessons of equity that we have all experienced during this pandemic.

The magic is in the quality of instruction, not in the newest fad, but rather in the strength of bell-to-bell instruction, clear lesson purposes, structured lessons with an introduction, body and closure, embedded formative assessment, active participation, effective feedback, and judicious practice. When these elements are consistently and effectively used, learning results. These are the elements that we need to stress as America's Schools Reopen.

Extended school closures and distance learning have added intense stressors to the lives of educators, students, and their families. Being away from school means disruptions not only in academic learning but also the systems to support students’ social-emotional-behavioral development. This presentation will describe establishing and maintaining systems to keep education safe, predictable, and positive, in the wake of school closures, trauma, and distance learning.

Out of crises can emerge new and incredible opportunities!

With little notice to plan and prepare, the COVID-19 pandemic caused sudden school closures, Overnight, traditional approaches and paradigms in education have been questioned and challenged. Learning incentives and motivations have changed, leading to new cooperative behaviors and the creation of new systems and structures.

We have an opportunity like never before to capitalize on our current collective adrenaline and out of the box thinking to plan the reopening of schools. We have a unique window to hit the reset button on past haphazard and unsustainable implementation efforts.

Research is unequivocal, an implementation team is mission-critical to the successful implementation of any change initiatives. Reopening school is one change you CAN plan for. With effective planning and the use of an implementation team, the reopening of school can become the start of the most successful year of learning to date.

Session Outcomes:
- Participants will learn why implementation design and planning will positively impact reopening school

- Participants will discover the power of using implementation teams to Iaunch, implement, and sustain evidence-based practices outlined in their reopening plan

Join the Reflection CAST at the end of each day! Find the link on our social media accounts. Throughout the day, type in your questions and ideas so we can feature them during the live show!

The pandemonium of the education triage during this pandemic has created a "now" normal. It has given way to building closures and the realization that existing gaps are only being exacerbated. How do district and campus leaders, and their teachers plan for re-entry? What are the right areas of focus, the right questions to ask and potential strategies for closing gaps created by school closures? How can a school or district use this opportunity to innovate and develop an equity mindset? This session will take you through the Big Rocks that need to be moved for re-entry!

Reopening America’s schools in the wake of COVID-19 is education’s ultimate adaptive challenge. School communities now face the daunting task of designing a meaningful end to the school year, developing summer programs to support students, and reimagining what K-12 education should look like when schools reopen. New learnings are emerging during this unprecedented time; one of the most important is that systems intentionally focusing on building collective efficacy are proving to have the adaptive capacity to meet the demands created by the pandemic crisis. Those systems continuing to attend to collective efficacy through the crisis will be able to use their learning to make the bold shifts necessary to become even more resilient and innovative.

During our webinar we will define collective efficacy and explain its importance. We will discuss the difference between technical and adaptive challenges and how collective efficacy supports our ability to meet those challenges. We will share key learnings from educational leaders, connected to collective efficacy, and consider how those learnings play a role in developing our next steps.

In a normal year, students in our K-12 public school system would be looking forward to end-of-year rituals, and educators would be preparing for summer learning and well-earned vacations. However, nothing seems normal now. Some say we are adjusting to a "new normal" - but we prefer to think of it as our "new now" and an opportunity to build our "new future." Join us to explore: 1). what to leave behind, 2). what to keep, and 3). what to build as we increase equity-based MTSS in our new future of K-12 schools.

In this session, we'll explore what it means to incorporate "learning to learn" processes and instructional conversations into our instruction as a way to build students' ability to be more cognitively independent learners. This is our opportunity to move beyond over-scaffolding and teachers carry most of the cognitive load during in-person learning. How do we help students maintain a sense of inquiry, natural learning ability, and self-directedness that they had to development during distance learning once they are back with us in the classroom.

A high skill facilitative school leader is the "Carl Elsener" for education. Carl Elsener leads the people of his company Victorinox through economic devastation, emerging as a dynamic company to this day. I welcome you to explore Carl Elsener's story by reading the book Infinite Games, written by author Simon Sinek. A leader that is a highly skilled facilitator realizes education is an infinite game meaning that the purpose of education is more than hitting the annual academic targets. On the infinite horizon, quality education remains steady as an unalienable right for all people. The purpose of education, in the words of Martin Luther King, jr. is to ready students with both content knowledge and sound character. Therefore, I contend that 80% of a leader's time should be devoted to the facilitation of those high impact leadership practices. High impact leadership practices are those that can cause over one year's growth in students and can cultivate life-long learners equipped with the desire and capability to thrive in their ever-change world.

The participants of the session ought to achieve the following desired learning outcomes:
• Examine essential facilitation skills and coaching competencies
• Identify the leadership approaches that make a substantial impact on student outcomes
• Recognize the characteristics of high functioning teams
• Acknowledge the attributes of a highly effective and efficient conversation.
• Study organizational structures and protocols that are necessary to operationalize effective and efficient meetings.

Join the Reflection CAST at the end of each day! Find the link on our social media accounts. Throughout the day, type in your questions and ideas so we can feature them during the live show!

Many schools and districts have made necessary and significant changes to grading and reporting in response to the suspension of classes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been a wide range of changes from minor adjustments to grading scales and reporting periods to the elimination of grades for elementary and middle schools and Pass/Incomplete grades for high schools. It has been suggested that this provides a rare opportunity to reimagine and redefine what we do in grading and reporting. The presenter will discuss the aspects of grading and reporting that he believes should be implemented when we return to a new normal.

Never let a good crisis go to waste. This time in history provides with the unique opportunity to determine what we choose to bring back into Americas schooling systems. The Tools of Cultural Proficiency provide the frameworks for having the conversations that will lead to more equitable education for all students and school communities. This seminar will provide an application of the Tools of Cultural Proficiency as well as examples of where the tools were used to make major improvements in educational outcomes.

We know that students often experience "summer slide" in their literacy learning; what will the "slide" be like after months of not being with effective teachers? We have an unprecedented opportunity to reinvigorate literacy instruction so that our students see every adult as a literacy role model, learn in enriched environments, become lifelong readers and writers, and engage in purposeful speaking and listening every day. Come to this session to find out more about how we can all do this together.

This session will provide educators with key insights and research to guide the strategic planning of multiple scenarios for opening school in the Fall. An emphasis will be placed on district systems, school practices and high quality teaching and learning. The four key drivers for equitable growth in student learning will be used as a roadmap to navigate a path moving forward; Clarity of Focus, Shared Leadership, Collective Expertise, and Continuous Improvement.

Within our effective, Trauma Informed MTSS Framework, Continua Consulting Group advocates for an Egalitarian Psychological approach of universal mental health practices readily available to all in our communities.. Prior to COVID-19, the number of educators exiting the field has been increasing annually, making the occupation's attrition rate one of the highest in US. Anxiety levels of educators and families are high in our current reality and will continue to be until we can systemically address their needs through universally learned and applied tools. Participants in this session will be introduced to the concepts of Sphere of Influence, Locus of Control, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy practices and Function of Behavior. The integration of these concepts serves to support educators' knowledge of universal mental health and SEL practices which can be applied to their instruction and supports for students.
Recommendations for implementing sustainable adult wellness practices will be made with specific COVID 19 distance learning strategies for virtual collaboration and workload expectations. Continua hopes to help system leaders and educators ensure that all adults from the Superintendent to the classroom teacher are attending to their adult SEL in preparation for the SEL of students. Lessons learned from Continua's Spring 2020 Virtual SEL Hangouts with administrators, counselors and teachers will be shared.

Teacher credibility, being credible in the eyes of students, has a strong influence on students' learning with an effect size of 1.09. When students see their teachers as trustworthy, competent, and dynamic, learning accelerates. Each of these areas are malleable and are always at play in the classroom. Teachers with low credibility are not likely to impact the learning of their students and are not likely to be valued members of their teams. Teams want members who are credible with their students so that they can learn from one another. In this session, we explore the components of teacher credibility and identify specific actions that can be taken to increase credibility. In addition, we focus on the skills that credible teachers need to work collaboratively with their peers. These communication and interpersonal skills can facilitate team work and foster collective efficacy, or block it. When teams have the necessary skills, and they engage in a collective efficacy cycle, mastery experiences are created such that the team’s efficacy is reinforced. As part of this cycle, teams use evidence of impact to extend their collective efficacy.


Objectives:

1. Describe the four components of teacher credibility.
2. Develop an action plan for improving teacher credibility, either your own or another teacher.
3. Identify the skills needed for teams to develop collective efficacy.
4. Evaluate the collective efficacy cycle to determine areas of need in your own practice.

The current pandemic has brought into focus the issue of where and how STEM teaching and learning take place. In the past months, educators have worked to provide learning opportunities that transcend the classroom walls and have been challenged to make use of tools, resources, and interactions in new ways. As an educational field, we have an opportunity to consider innovative approaches to address equity in PK-12 STEM teaching and learning. In this presentation, we’ll provide examples of how our team has leveraged best practices alongside creative approaches that embrace human-centered STEM teaching and learning.

Join the Reflection CAST at the end of each day! Find the link on our social media accounts. Throughout the day, type in your questions and ideas so we can feature them during the live show!