AI chatbots are a powerful way to provide safe, monitored, personalized learning experiences for students. Chatbots can be used for a wide range of engaging activities such as interviewing a historical figure, discussing a book, learning about a career, assessing understanding, providing tutoring, or diving into any topic. With AI these chatbots adjust to each student individually to meet their specific needs and interests. In this session we will explore traditional AI chatbots, as well as tools such as SchoolAI, Mizou, Khanmigo, and MagicSchoolAI where you can choose from a wide range of pre-made chatbots or easily create your own. For more details see: https://bit.ly/curts-chatbots
This session explores the power of math discussions in fostering confident mathematicians and stronger problem-solving skills at all levels. Math discussions create a safe space for students to share ideas, clarify understanding, and learn from each other. By explaining their thought processes and listening to others' approaches, students refine their reasoning skills. Students learn from different perspectives, build communication skills, and develop a sense of shared responsibility for solving problems. Discussions showcase the beauty of mathematics, encouraging students to be creative and adaptable in their problem-solving approaches. Effective communication empowers individuals to tackle complex problems in all areas of life. By fostering a culture of discussion, we can nurture confident mathematicians with strong reasoning and problem-solving abilities. We make math a conversation, not just a set of procedures.
As an instructional coach, it is easy to fall into the “advice trap.” This does little to empower the teachers we work with as coaches. In this session, we will explore questioning techniques that uncover unknown thinking in our teachers and help to elevate instructional practices in order to raise student achievement. We will dive into the purpose of the questions that are the most effective and identify ways to incorporate these into our coaching conversations.
One of the most effective ways to truly see if students are understanding what they are reading is to have them engage with a reader’s notebook. In this session, we are going to discuss different reading response strategies teachers can immediately use in their classrooms with students. These strategies will not only help students cultivate their identity as a reader, but will get them engaged in their reading and will have them engaging with each other.
True differentiation allows students to move through learning at their own pace. Managing a classroom full of kids that all have different needs can seem overwhelming! In this session you will hear how the general idea of "The Modern Classroom Project" was applied to a middle school science class to achieve true differentiation and self-paced learning. These strategies can be applied to any content, any grade, but the focus of this session will be how it was implemented in middle school.
Director of ROE Services, Regional Office of Education #8
With over two decades immersed in education, spanning the teaching of 3rd through 8th graders, Sarah Meador has gathered a breadth of knowledge and experience. Her focus on science education, engagement strategies, and technology integration has led her to achieve the honor of becoming... Read More →
Monday December 9, 2024 9:30am - 10:30am CST
Monarch
Do you feel like fun has been removed from writing instruction? Are students groaning when informed they will be completing a writing assignment? Writing memoirs brings excitement back and allows students to explore their identities while improving writing abilities. By engaging in memoir writing, students will learn narrative techniques such as dialogue and figurative language. Writers must discover how to engage readers by addressing plot features and using effective word choice. Sharing memoirs can be cathartic while also building community within the classroom.
Dr. Katie Hoving has been a high school teacher for 18 years. She taught special education for ten years with a focus on teaching Reading and English. She earned her Masters in Literacy from Judson University in 2009. Eight years ago, she made the switch to teaching general education... Read More →
Kim Millard has been a special education teacher at the high school level for 12 years. She currently co-teaches English 10 and Literacy Lab, the reading intervention course, as well as these same courses at the resource (self-contained) level. However, she has been teaching some... Read More →
Monday December 9, 2024 9:30am - 10:30am CST
Ballroom I-J
Participants will get ideas of how to incorporate a "Thinking Classroom" into their junior high math classes by getting students up and moving around to promote engagement. This format allows all students to take part in randomized groups and collaboratively work together on solving curricular problems. Teachers will learn how to turn their current curricular questions into "thinking" questions that better allow their students to do the thinking. Teachers will also participate in a BTC lesson, so they can see how this looks in a classroom. Teachers will also be shown possible templates to use for their BTC problems and how to utilize them in their classrooms.
The session will explore research in cognitive psychology and related disciplines, focusing on effective learning methods for lifelong learning and skill mastery. Participants will be provided with practical examples of these methods to utilize in their classrooms.
Using STEAM practices, this session will help to build staff confidence in relationship ideas and increase student classroom engagement. We will focus on priority standards, how to address your teachers and students, ways to build bridges between STEAM and your classroom, and opening a door for future school development conversations.
Maps can be used in any subject area to provide a unique look at the world - to visualize data, observe patterns and relationships, and seek new insights based on analysis. This session will introduce you to two free, GIS mapping platforms that only require Internet connectivity.
MapMaker, a National Geographic and Esri, Inc. collaboration, allows teachers and students to explore and design maps, using basic GIS tools. Students can add map symbols and layers of curated data to show information. Swipe and filtering tools make it easy to compare and analyze data.
GeoInquiries™ are free, ready-to-use, GIS-based mapping activities, based on inquiry methods. An amazing array of introductory GIS map activities, created by Esri’s Education Team, connect to curriculum for various subjects at multiple grade levels. You can present an activity with one computer or as a hands-on activity for students. They gently introduce the teacher and the students to the interactive world of digital maps and help you see traditional content in new ways.
See how a map can enhance a topic you are teaching and engage your students in GIS mapping and inquiry.
Level Up Your Teaching with a Student-Centered Approach! This session dives into competency-based instruction (CBI) and data-driven decision making, a powerful combination for maximizing student achievement. What You'll Learn: The Core of CBI: Discover how CBI focuses on mastering specific skills and knowledge, ensuring students progress at their own pace. Data as Your Guide: Explore how to leverage student data from assessments and activities to identify learning gaps and tailor instruction accordingly. Actionable Strategies: Leave with practical techniques to implement CBI in your classroom, including effective assessment methods and data analysis tools. Benefits for You and Your Students: Personalized Learning: Meet the needs of all learners by differentiating instruction based on individual strengths and weaknesses. Increased Engagement: Foster a mastery-oriented environment where students take ownership of their learning journey. Data-Driven Decisions: Make informed choices about instruction based on concrete evidence of student progress. Join us and unlock the potential of a dynamic and personalized learning experience!
This is Mollie's second year as an instructional coach for Sycamore High School. She previously taught English for seven years in two different school districts, most recently Sycamore High School.
Monday December 9, 2024 10:45am - 11:45am CST
Clarendon Hills
Are you eager to ignite a dynamic fusion of learning in your classroom? Dive into our session and discover the art of weaving together diverse content standards through the dynamic framework of the 5Es lesson design. Explore invaluable resources to seamlessly blend various subjects, empowering your students with engaging and interconnected learning experiences. Walk away equipped with the expertise and tools to cultivate impactful educational journeys in your classroom. Join us and unlock the potential of cross-curricular exploration!
This professional development session is designed to enhance your understanding of how to effectively unpack standards and integrate learning intentions into assessments and lesson planning. In this session, participants will delve into strategies for deconstructing standards to identify key concepts, skills, and knowledge. We will explore the importance of collaborating with your team to align learning intentions with standards to create meaningful assessments and lessons that promote growth, achievement, and equitable learning opportunities for all learners. This session will provide practical tools and resources that can be immediately applied in the classroom.
In this session, participants will leave with gamification ideas that can easily be implemented, are standards driven, empower students, and make learning fun. Using these student driven activities and giving students a voice and choice in their learning is just one more way to bring back the FUN and help increase engagement! We will reference our own experiences increasing engagement with gamifying as well as teacher and student feedback. Our inspiration comes from some of our favorite professional texts (Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Explore Like a Pirate, and Fully Engaged). Get inspired and bring in collaboration and creativity into your classroom.
This interactive session will being by exploring participants language profile. Then moving into terminology, theory, practice, examples and best practices of Translanguaging.
EduProtocols are instructional templates that are designed to engage students in learning through critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity, in any subject or grade level. In this session you will see how engaging these can be for students by trying out several hands-on activities with Google tools such as Sketch and Tell, Iron Chef, Tier List, Thin Slides, and more. For more details see: https://bit.ly/curts-active
As we looked to increase academic rigor in our school we realized that many students struggled with self regulation when confronted with a difficult or rigorous task. Our School Improvement Leadership Team utilized the Cycles of Inquiry process to develop a systematic plan to track emotional responses and then provide consistent strategies to empower students to self regulate. Learn more about our process and the self regulation strategies that students learned in this process.
Just as sports teams tend to perform better when they play at home, our students excel when they are in a comfortable classroom where they feel safe and encouraged. In this interactive session, participants will experience several activities that they can take back to their classrooms to help establish their own home court advantage. Building relationships is imperative, so we offer strategies to use not just in August but throughout the year to maintain the levels of excitement that sports fans feel when cheering on their favorite teams.
Are you looking for strategies that facilitate lively, thoughtful classroom discussions? Are you hoping to spur more balanced dialogue that encourages all students to participate? Are you looking for strategies to help your students navigate challenging conversations in your classroom? Come hear about and try out a variety of different strategies that encourage and model ways to encourage student participation in any classroom discussion. This session will be interactive, focusing on tools and strategies that encourage a balanced, lively classroom discussion whatever the topic or content area. Both small and large group discussion techniques will be discussed and modeled.
This presentation looks at the proven benefits of flipping the traditional model, where students engage with content outside class, enabling richer in-class experiences. We will look at activities that promote active learning, accommodating diverse learning styles and boosting student engagement and achievement. We will discuss a student-centered environment that cultivates success in Geometry and beyond.
This session equips educators with an understanding of how to address diverse reading challenges from Dyslexia to Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Through the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) framework, participants learn data analysis techniques and evidence-based interventions for word recognition, language comprehension, and reading comprehension difficulties. These strategies cultivate an inclusive culture of literacy success, aligning seamlessly with the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan to raise the literacy achievement of all students.
Reading Content Specialist, IL SLD Support Project
Kellyn Sirach is a passionate and motivated educator who has committed her career to ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn to read. Over the past year, she has served as the Reading Content Specialist for the IL SLD Support Project developing professional development... Read More →
Monday December 9, 2024 12:00pm - 1:00pm CST
Hinsdale
Raising student achievement is about moving students from novice to expert. In mathematics, becoming an expert relies heavily on the ability to problem-solve. What I have discovered is that my typical homework assignments have removed a crucial step in the problem-solving process: identifying the deep structure of the problem. The questions on my assignments often provided only surface-level variations of questions with the same underlying problem structure. To become experts, students need experience identifying the deep structure of problems, selecting appropriate mathematical concepts, and planning strategies to apply those concepts. To provide this necessary experience to students, I began to integrate purposeful instruction in metacognition, utilizing a blend of mathematical tasks and journaling in my Algebra 2 classroom. In this session, we will explore the implementation of metacognitive instruction in the classroom along with its outcomes. Additionally, we'll examine existing assignments and brainstorm strategies to enhance them, fostering students' development as adept problem solvers.
Word problems are always an area of frustration for teachers as well as students. Identifying key words to solve world problems in math is a common practice that often confuses students. Come find out how to shift the focus from identifying keywords to modeling and making sense of problems that you can make work in your classroom tomorrow!
One of the biggest challenges in education is the time required to provide detailed feedback on student work. Thankfully we now have powerful AI tools that can generate personalized feedback for student work based on the guidelines, rubrics, and style we suggest. This can include feedback on student writing from short answers to full essays, as well as feedback on spoken student explanations. In this session we will explore AI feedback tools such as Class Companion, Snorkl, EnlightenAI, and more. For more details see: http://bit.ly/curts-aigrading
Adolescent readers struggle with comprehension when they aren't able to lift the words off the page, but what happens when they are fluent, but they still don't understand what they read? Explicit vocabulary instruction is an essential strand in the Reading Rope. This session aims to share ways to support vocabulary acquisition while supporting comprehension. Participants will walk away with ready-to-use strategies to increase vocabulary, and even build some background knowledge in the process!
We’ve all heard about the Science of Reading, but what about the Science of Learning? This session unveils a roadmap empowering educators to optimize student learning. Journey through cutting-edge research illuminating the intricacies of how the brain learns. Dive deep into transformative learning strategies with proven impact and uncover their practical application in the classroom. Assess your current strategies to ensure you're maximizing efficacy and student outcomes. Join us to revolutionize your teaching approach and unlock the full potential of your students.
Discover the transformative power of Object-Based Learning (OBL) in the modern classroom with our presentation on "Engaging Minds: Active Teaching through Object-Based Learning." This innovative educational approach leverages physical objects to stimulate student engagement, enhance critical thinking, and deepen understanding across various subjects. Join us as we explore how OBL can bring abstract concepts to life by integrating tangible artifacts into lesson plans. Participants will gain insight into the diverse benefits of OBL, including improved retention, heightened curiosity, and the development of observational and inferential skills. Our interactive presentation, inspired by the Smithsonian’s Teacher Innovator Institute, will showcase practical examples from different educational settings, demonstrating how everyday objects, historical artifacts, and art pieces can serve as powerful educational tools. Attendees will learn how to curate and incorporate objects into their own teaching practices, creating immersive and interactive learning experiences. Additionally, we will discuss the logistical aspects of implementing OBL, such as sourcing objects, managing classroom dynamics, and aligning with curriculum standards. By the end of the session, educators will be equipped with actionable strategies to foster a more engaging and participatory classroom environment through the use of object-based learning. Prepare to be inspired by this dynamic approach that not only captivates students but also enriches their educational journey, turning passive learning into an active exploration of the world around them.
Executive functioning consists of many different processes that allow individuals to manage their everyday lives. It’s the skills we acquire that allow us to plan and organize our lives while managing ourselves emotionally. Without control of our executive functioning skills, we struggle to activate ourselves to take action, to stay focused and retain information to our long-term memory, to regulate our emotions and manage our frustrations. Our students require intense and explicit instruction in these areas more than ever before. Teachers will learn about each of the key components of executive functioning, the challenges of teaching executive functioning, and strategies to teach executive functioning skills in the classroom.
David Brannstrom is an instructional coach, with a specialization in special education, in Burlington, Illinois. David began his educational journey in 2004 as a middle school special education case manager and is currently an instructional coach/tech with an emphasis on special education... Read More →
Monday December 9, 2024 1:15pm - 2:15pm CST
Oak Brook
What does Taylor Swift have to do with the Trojan War? What does Black Panther have to do with the Epic of Sundiata? Embark on a journey through the realms of mythology and folklore in this breakout session designed for educators seeking to develop an engaging curriculum for high school students. Mythology and folklore serve as windows into the collective imagination of cultures around the world, offering rich opportunities for exploration and interpretation. In this session, we will delve into the process of designing a comprehensive course that goes beyond Greek mythology and introduces students to the captivating tales, symbolic motifs, and cultural significance embedded within world mythology. Learn how to select compelling narratives from diverse cultures and time periods, fostering cross-cultural understanding and empathy among students. Discover innovative teaching strategies for bringing these ancient tales to life, from multimedia presentations to interactive storytelling activities. Gain practical tips for integrating critical analysis, creative expression, and multimedia resources into your curriculum to enhance student engagement and foster deeper connections with the material. Whether you're a seasoned mythology enthusiast or new to the world of folklore studies, this session offers valuable insights and resources for creating an immersive and transformative learning experience for high school students.
Unlock the potential of your middle school ELA classroom with this session dedicated to fostering engagement within your classroom community. Dive into dynamic techniques and proven strategies designed to captivate and inspire young learners. From interactive activities to multimedia integration, discover practical methods to create an environment where every student thrives. Get inspired & revolutionize your approach to teaching ELA in the middle school setting.
Collaboration is fundamental in today's learning environment. Often, we assign collaborative tasks to students without explaining the key elements for success. This session is designed to unravel the core of collaboration and how it can be incorporated into the classroom. Get ready to discover various strategies for teaching people of all ages about teamwork. Participants will also have opportunities to experience digital and hands-on activities to promote and practice collaboration. Together, let’s make sure we’re supporting our learners to become strong collaborators for the classroom and beyond.
Leah Herold is in her 17th year as an educator in Central District #301. This is her seventh year of being an Instructional Coach. Prior to this position, she taught 4th grade for nine years. Leah is a Level 1 & 2 Google Certified Educator. She holds an undergraduate degree in Elementary... Read More →
Monday December 9, 2024 1:15pm - 2:15pm CST
Salt Creek
There are many Google tools, apps, extensions, and features available to assist all learners. In this session we take an in-depth hands-on look at a wide range of technology tools to assist any and all learners. These can include text-to-speech, speech-to-text, readability, reading comprehension, artificial intelligence tools, audio support, organization, focus, and more. Learn what tools are available and how to access and use these free tools with your students. For more details see: https://bit.ly/curts-support
Differentiation is a method of approaching teaching and learning that takes into account how students learn and their level of preparedness before the lesson. In this session, participants will learn how to plan for differentiation by making adjustments to the content, process, product, and learning environment based on students' readiness, interests, and learning profile. Additionally, resources for implementing differentiation will be provided.
By offering students creative ways to showcase and share their knowledge, we not only help them understand the content better but also teach them how to use design thinking in navigating their learning path. This thinking and creating approach can be adjusted and applied to different subjects.
Join Camille, a seasoned art teacher with 18 years of experience, as she introduces techniques to enhance your current curriculum by introducing imaginative avenues for students to display their learning. Discover numerous chances to inspire your students to explore their studies more deeply, boosting their confidence and giving them tools for real-world situations. We will explore contemporary artists who serve as examples for demonstrating learning, such as those who have transformed weather data into sculptures and musical compositions.
You will also create your own samples to prepare yourself for offering these opportunities to your students. For instance, you can use Adobe Express AI text-to-image for ELA students to visually represent character descriptions. With certifications in Google Level 1, Adobe Creative Educator Level 1 & 2, and as an Adobe Creative Educator Innovator, Camille will showcase basic techniques using Google and Adobe Express to improve student outcomes. Our primary focus will be on utilizing free computer-based tools, so please bring a device of your choice.
We will demonstrate how to use play based learning in elementary school classrooms as a method of instruction in both large and small scale opportunities to help engage students in authentic and meaning learning opportunities.
