Connecting Big Ideas

“It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

~ Warren Buffet

The Statewide Field Team is excited for the learning opportunities for the amazing educators we have in our state!  We hope you will join us on August 4 and 5 for the free Virtual Blueprint Institute (VBPI) VII – Engaging and Refining Our Systems to Support Continuous Improvement conference.  As an upstream educator, you know it’s critical to work towards collective teacher efficacy, to use data to guide instruction, and to instill in our students a growth mindset while building a positive classroom and school culture and climate!  Unite the right people and consider attending the following VBPI sessions to deepen your understanding and plan for action!  These sessions are designed specifically with teachers in mind!

Session	Session Description
How to REACH Youth Today	By sharing very real, life-changing lessons, Manny Scott has learned from teachers and loving adults who helped him. From the work he has been doing with kids for the last 18 years, he shows how to cultivate healthy relationships with students—and all youth, so that they can excel in school, and come out prepared for work and life. Learn how to transform your schools into safe, positive environments where all adults are equipped to REACH kids, and all kids are empowered to REACH their destinies.
Networking: Cultivating Healthy Relationships With Students	In this session we will debrief our keynote presentation from Manny Scott, allowing participants to share connections and ideas around how to cultivate healthy relationships with students. We will highlight examples from Blueprint districts to support our discussion and networking.
Moving Forward: Impacting the Whole Child in an Equitable Way	Through the lens of our growth mindsets we will share what we learned and how we shifted our practices during the 20-21 school year to meet the academic and non-academic needs of EACH student, in each classroom, in each school, each day. In this session, participants will determine how they will continue to impact the whole child in an equitable way.
Developing a District Curriculum: Supporting Teacher Focus and Student Learning	This session will focus on some of the key aspects of developing a district curriculum. This will include a brief explanation of protocols that can be used to support essential standards selection, K-12 vertical alignment, and learning target development. We will also discuss the use of success criteria to provide evidence of student learning. Finally, a monitoring tool will be shared that can support educators as they work to put these foundational elements into place for the district.
Engaging Students to Impact Learning	We often think that each student is engaged, yet how do we know?  Engagement is essential for students to learn and grow. Ongoing classroom engagement fosters learning and enhances achievement. In this session, we will explore a framework that classroom teachers can use to make instructional decisions that help foster student engagement. We will model and share attention, engagement, and teaching strategies that promote student engagement in any learning environment. Finally, we will share ideas on how student engagement might be monitored to ensure the greatest impact on learning.
The Power of Collective Efficacy	Greater job satisfaction, resilience, and impact are a result of educators sharing a sense of collective efficacy. This inspirational keynote provides the foundation for understanding teacher and leader collective efficacy, the positive consequences associated with it, and the sources of efficacy.
Networking: Supporting Teacher Collective Efficacy Through Teacher Collaborative Teams	We will debrief Jenni Donohoo’s keynote presentation. We will make connections to and share ideas on how teacher collective efficacy is supported through teacher collaborative teams. We will highlight examples from Blueprint districts to support our discussion and networking.
Teachers Help Teachers – The Power of Examining Student Work	Teachers collaboratively examining student work uncover how their teaching methods impact student learning. When staff collectively believe and collaboratively act, great things are accomplished and students are the winners. This session will provide you with an opportunity to examine protocols and identify your next steps for impactful collaboration.
Regaining Our Balance: Improving Teaching and Learning through a Balanced-Assessment System	This unprecedented time has encouraged us to adjust our lens, align our priorities, and act with intentionality to impact and improve student achievement. In this session, we will define a balanced-assessment system and explore how to utilize multiple measures of data to support continuous improvement.
Everyone Needs a Coach	Bill Gates once said, “Everyone needs a coach.” In this session, participants will learn why coaching is an integral component of reaching improvement goals in a district. Participants will begin by focusing on strategies to determine what to coach around and give opportunities to reflect and apply to your own context. In breakout sessions, we will address strategies for how to coach, how to receive coaching and feedback, and how the coach and the learner can develop skills through improvement cycles.