Professional Development for Distance, Hybrid, and In-Person instruction

Research shows the type of family engagement that matters most is tied to learning and curriculum. Family involvement in learning is increasingly relevant as families become critical co-teachers for distance and hybrid learning. But planning and implementing effective family engagement practices can seem challenging for teachers without support, tools, and systems. In this workshop, we explore how teachers can more effectively communicate with families and mobilize families as critical partners in their children’s academic success. We will focus on strategies for building trust and communication with families, drawing upon families’ knowledge of their children to drive instructional decisions, and sharing data with families. Through meaningful discussion, this workshop will shift teachers’ mindsets about families and offer new family engagement strategies for two-way communication and relationship building to improve student academic achievement.

Well-structured groupwork creates opportunities for deeper learning and fosters student agency and independence. Groupwork is a powerful element of distance and hybrid learning, but this educational context can exacerbate the challenge of holding all students accountable and ensuring all students are learning. In this workshop, teachers will learn group work strategies to overcome these challenges by fostering collaboration, participation, and mastery in in-person, hybrid, and distance-learning contexts. Teachers will learn how to facilitate effective group work that ensures dialogue between students and collective effort. They will explore strategies for teambuilding, task-selection, facilitating collaboration, and supporting students to monitor their own participation using metacognitive resources.

Through effective formative assessment and grouping strategies, teachers can spend less time reviewing content and move forward in their curricular plans. Effective formative assessment does not have to be cumbersome or time-consuming –and it can be a powerful tool for hybrid and distance learning. This workshop provides broadly applicable formative assessment strategies for teachers to identify students in need of support and responsively target their instruction. Teachers will be prepared to seamlessly embed formative assessment opportunities in their distance or in-person lessons and use that information to make real-time or next day adjustments.

For students to take cognitive and academic risks, they need to have a trusting relationship with their teacher. Building strong relationships with students is essential to ensuring that all students engage in rigorous learning experiences. In both in-person or remote environments, when teachers get to know students and their cultural backgrounds, they can form connections that accelerate student learning
In this workshop, teachers will reflect on their relationships with and expectations of their students. Teachers will explore relationship-building strategies and apply them to analyze a relationship with a specific student. This workshop is relevant for teachers of all experience levels who are interested in deepening their interpersonal work across cultural differences and shared backgrounds.

Most of us have heard the phrase “you really understand something if you can explain it to someone else.” Behind this concept is a powerful learning strategy with proven impact. This workshop offers a deep dive into the learning by teaching strategy, which guides students to teach what they are learning to peers and family members. Proven to increase retention, cognition, and motivation, learning by teaching is a refreshing option in teachers’ toolbox for stemming learning loss and seamlessly engaging families in curricular learning. Teachers gain strategies, resources, and practice time to support students to teach others.

Meaningful feedback can build trust with students and provide the extra support needed to help mitigate learning loss. This workshop provides strategies both for delivering meaningful feedback and, importantly, setting up structures for students to absorb and apply feedback. Teachers leave prepared to incorporate new methods into their practice, including what to say, how to say it, and how to help students apply the feedback –all in a way that helps save teachers time and energy.

When students develop skills in speaking, listening and engaging in deep academic discourse, they have an advantage for success in school, college, career and beyond. Creating these engaging, student-centered experiences in the classroom can build student-teacher relationships, strengthen classroom community, and deepen student mastery. This workshop provides teachers with guidelines on how to craft effective conversation questions, teach conversation skills, and structure discussions for online or in-person environments.