Summer Self-Care for the School Leader: If you are  tired, exhausted and stressed out.  This is the training for you.   From former Portland Schools Principal, and current CEO, Lana Penley comes a session that could not be more relevant. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the buzzword for education. But the majority of the discussion is starting with students.  Hear Lana share her story of how she came to the realization that we must move upstream and begin SEL with the adults-starting with the school leaders.  In the presentation Lana will share specific summer strategies that you can use  to increase wellbeing and decrease stress, all through the lens of mindfulness.    Equity Stance-   This training will provide mindful opportunities and skills that support trauma recovery and resilience for staff who are members of historically marginalized groups. 

Advisory for Equity: Foundations is the advisory program at the center of Bend-La Pine’s new choice high school, Skyline.  Structured around the systems of Positive Psychology, the Foundations program encourages students to identify and develop their character strengths, use goal setting, mindfulness, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy exercises.    These practices, along with other programs and systems at Skyline, including our Intersession courses and community retreats and meetings, have resulted in improved and more equitable student outcomes in academics, attendance, and behavior. At Skyline, equity begins with community.      Our established system also ensured an effective transition to remote learning and elements are now being replicated at other schools in our district, making us more resilient to future disruptions.      Join us to learn how these research-based practices can be added to any community to improve productivity, equitable outcomes, and life satisfaction.

PrincipalED: Navigating the Leadership Learning Curve: Join authors of Principaled: Navigating the Leadership Learning Curve  for an engaging session on how to elevate leadership to promote strong outcomes for all students.  Every administrator who is willing to put in the work can achieve incredible outcomes in both academic and social-emotional areas to promote student success.  Principals are critical to school success however, we rarely discuss the challenges, and building upon strengths to elevate our communities. This presentation is about the implementation of evidence-based practices to launch your community to the next level with a heart for equity, a focus on outcomes, and deep appreciation for educators.

Building Administrators Play a Pivotal Role in Leading Transformational Change and Building School Culture, Especially in the Throes of the COVID-19 Pandemic and  in the Midst Concerns with Equity and Social-Emotional Well-Being for our Students: Building administrators play a pivotal role in bringing about transformational change and building school culture.  This is especially true in the throes of the COVID-19 Pandemic, a return to in person learning, concerns with equity and social-emotional wellbeing.   Five key themes provide insight into the role of building administrators and the associated skills, knowledge, and behaviors that they must employ as we move forward this next school year.     Participants will learn:   

• The skills, knowledge, and behaviors that building administrators must employ to lead transformational change and build school culture.     
• The five key themes necessary for building school culture and leading transformational change include: 

1)    It is about students first and foremost  

2)    People and relationships matter  

3)    Leadership is approached through service – Be Humble  

4)    Keep purpose, vision, & values at the center – Start with WHY!  

5)    Professional learning is ongoing and collaborative.    

• That transformational change is led, and school culture is built through these five themes and by applying systemic and organizational practices     The session will present information through handouts, verbal presentation, modeling, and video clips. Participants will engage in reflection exercises and role-play in order to experience key practices, skills, and behaviors to support their learning around leading transformational change and building school culture.   The session will be a lively and upbeat experience for participants. Participants will leave with materials to support application in their own schools.

Cultivating Equity in Accelerated Learning: Accelerated Learning programs, such as AP, IB, and Dual Credit, can be effective tools for school equity. This session first presents research-based best practices for building inclusive AL programs. Next, attendees will use data to consider their AL programs through an equity lens, and create an action plan to help cultivate an equitable and inclusive AL program in their school or district.

To Your Health!: Education is the most stressful profession in our country, and educators get the least amount of sleep on average and have the highest rate of obesity of any profession that requires a 4-year degree. I will present 51 simple, proven techniques educators can use and teach that can help protect our physical, mental and emotional health. Typically, one or two of these in each of the three areas will resonate with individual audience members, and from these they can create their own simple, no-cost plan to protect our personal and institutional health.

Promoting Equity, Inclusion, and Academic Achievement with Best-Practice Small-Group Instruction: Educators can promote equity, inclusion, and academic achievement through well-designed small-group instruction (i.e., peer learning). Peer learning breaks down barriers among students, reduces bias and prejudice, and encourages social-emotional skill development, social integration and support, and academic achievement. For peer learning to be successful, educators must implement a set of design principles regarding contingencies, roles, and supports. In this workshop, participants will develop a deep understanding of these design principles and why they are important. Contrasts will be drawn with more typical small-group instruction, illustrating why the design principles contribute to a greater likelihood of success, both academically and socially.

Using ISLA (Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach) to reduce exclusionary discipline: A journey of two middle schools: Severity of exclusionary practices are related to severity of long-term outcomes. Attendees will learn the critical features of the Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA) that include authentic classroom proactive practices as well as school-wide practices and systems to reduce exclusionary discipline, improve student behavior and student-teacher relationships, and to increase student instructional time. Attendees will understand the rationale for increasing inclusive practices, learn an overview of critical features of ISLA practices and systems, and hear lessons learned (including tips and tools) and see initial outcome data from two middle schools implementing ISLA practices in Oregon.

Combating Education Burnout During Turbulent Times: Thriving during uncertainty demands conscious attention to building inner resilience. As we entered into the 2020-2021, educational leaders knew this year would be like no other and the demands of the workplace would begin to take its toll on our wellbeing. Knowing this, Willamette Education Service District (WESD) partnered with High Desert Education Service District (HDESD) to offer a 6 week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to Educators across the state of Oregon. The following session will provide foundations of the lessons learned from this program and offer data to support the impact of providing MBSR to educators.

Developing and Implementing Integrated Social Emotional Learning (SEL) / Academic Lessons and Supports As We Reopen Schools: With our reopening of schools, the offices of teaching and learning and student support services teamed up to develop and provide SEL infused practices and lessons, embedded within academics.  We followed our racial equity and socially just framework in order to align our vision and graduate profile into action through culturally responsive activities, tiered academic instruction and trauma informed social emotional learning, while honoring student voice and engagement.

Promising Practices to Prepare Students for the Workforce: This presentation will be packed with information on 3 different innovative workforce preparation models coming out of the Willamette Education Service District. Control Tower is a regional approach to work-based learning developed alongside industry professionals with an emphasis on equity of access to work-based learning opportunities. Embedded within the model, the Oregon Employability Skills curriculum (available in English and Spanish) provides an important bridge between K12 and industry and creates a shared language so that students develop the professional work skills necessary in order to be successful in a workforce setting. Recently, this curriculum was identified as one of the most promising practices in the state by the Workforce and Talent Development board in their December report on essential workforce skills. And finally, the Willamette Career Academy will be highlighted as a promising approach to a regional career and technical education center that emphasizes equity of access for all partners and shows what districts can gain by pooling time, energy, and resources into a shared vision.

Building Your Formative Assessment Practice Orientation: Begin to understand the role of formative assessment within a balanced assessment system in this orientation session. Gain ideas of how to put four core formative instructional practices to use in the classroom:  Clarifying Learning- Discover the characteristics of effective learning targets and how to establish success criteria  Eliciting Evidence- Cultivate your questioning skills and learn how to adjust instruction based on student responses  Providing Feedback- Learn to plan for feedback in multiple teaching scenarios and how to encourage forward-focused thinking  Activating Learners- Explore strategies for engaging students and find out how to facilitate student ownership of learning goals

A Baker’s Dozen – Guiding Principles for Cultivating Student Well-Being – No Matter Which Trauma/DEIA/SEL Programs You Use: Adopting a new well-being curriculum for your district is a good first step, but without a clear set of implementation principles your plan might be less impactful than it could be. This session will highlight the value of guiding principles and identify specific examples that help staff in doing their best to support ALL students.

Better practices in digital instruction for schools and programs: The new realities of education, as a result of the pandemic, have caused school districts to adapt, which is creating new challenges and highlighting equity concerns.  Oregon Digital Leaders Coalition was founded on the principles of quality digital education and advocacy to support equitable opportunities and excellence in online learning.  We have brought together the expertise of several online school faculty members with decades of experience in virtual and hybrid learning to share their pedagogy and offer practical recommendations that will support a successful online school or program.     If your school district is looking to form a new online program or learn strategies to bolster your existing program, this session was made for you!

5 Keys to Math Intervention Success: What can and should elementary math intervention look like next year? Which administrative decisions make or break successful interventions? What is the one most powerful decision that can affect the efficacy of interventions in the math classroom? Join us to answer these questions and more as we delve into how to support teachers and make a big impact on student gains.

Using Multiple Data Sources to Drive Equitable Systems of Support: To center equity and ensure continuity across support tiers, we must continuously evaluate the impact of our practices and strategies on all student groups especially those groups that have been historically underserved and marginalized. In this session, learners will learn to use multiple data sources with effective teaming structures to determine impact on students and student groups across all support tiers; and to ensure our systems, practices, and data do not inadvertently create further inequities.

Foundations of Prevention: Mental Health in a Multi-Tiered System: Addressing mental health for students, teacher wellness, and equity within our school systems, requires that we have a strong foundation of prevention. This session will focus on how we use evidence-based practices for an organizational foundation of prevention within a multi-tiered system of supports. We will highlight the administrator’s role, policy, and data to guide the decision-making process.  The goal is to create systematic priority for prevention as part of the fabric of the school and district.  This session aligns with SIA and Adi’s Act Legislation.

REdesigning the process: How a critical race spatial lens can transform your district facilities and culture: Traditional community engagement processes to transform school districts often reproduce the very inequities we seek to solve. By examining case studies and reviewing real-world implementation of critical race-spatial praxis and Liberatory Design principles, learn how Newberg Public Schools and BRIC Architecture co-created a community engagement approach which results in a rich tapestry of conversations, stories, relationships, and trust. Applied to planning and design, Critical Race Spatial Theory offers an innovative approach to amplify the voices of communities of color, examine how educational settings act to reproduce inequity, and identify institutional planning strategies that promote racial equity and social justice.

Curious Leadership; Leading from a Place of Appreciation, Curiosity and Emotional Intelligence: This event is for educational leaders who are looking to set an intention for the 2021-2022 school year.  Participants will connect with other administrators to explore different topics around wellness, equity, and culture with a strengths-based lens.  Administrators will practice using curiosity to work with their school and district stakeholders and formulate best practices. By the end of the day, everyone will have an action plan around these strategies so all stakeholders may thrive.

Are the Kids Alright? Listening to Learn Through a Pandemic: Are the kids alright? Are they engaged with their classmates and teachers? Are they all learning? Are they truly learning while doing school from home? In this workshop we will explore the findings from a national project that has asked students from across the country, including in Oregon, about life and learning during the pandemic. Together we will engage with a handful of evocative data points as we discuss the implications of how students’ perceptions of school have changed during the pandemic. Attendees will also leave with interactive activities and data protocols to use with their staff and students.

Early Indicator and Intervention Systems - Catalysts for Collaborative Data Analysis, Creative Supports for Student Learning, and Champions for All Students: In this session Superintendents, Principals, and other School and District Leaders will connect with Oregon Department of Education (ODE) staff to learn about the Early Indicator and Intervention Systems (EIIS) program, reflect on EIIS best practices related, identify current capacity for EIIS in their district or school, and identify the next steps in developing an EIIS that supports equitable outcomes for all students.    As part of the Student Success Act, the Early Indicator and Intervention Systems program provides financial support and technical assistance to Oregon school districts and charter schools to develop and implement data analysis systems to identify, support, and monitor students who may be at risk of leaving school or not graduating on time.

Retaining Diverse Staff: From the Minority Teachers Act to the Educators Equity Act: Where are we 30 years after the passage of the Minority Teachers Act (now known as the Educators Equity Act)? Very little research has examined retention for teachers of color in suburban schools, and almost none at all has examined retention for teachers of color in rural schools. In this presentation, a high school principal and doctoral candidate will share current research and engage the audience to shape future study. What questions have gone unasked? What knowledge or resources might enhance our ability to retain and support diverse staff?

Every Student Belongs: Rule to Resources: ODE staff will review the 2021 Every Student Belongs OAR, ODE’s guidance, and present resources to help administrators and teachers implement the rule. Resources will include videos to share with school staff and student-facing resources to share with teachers.

Planning for the 2021-2022 School Year While Attending to the COVID Variables: Join the Oregon Department of Education for an engaging session to help inspire clarity for the coming school year. In this session, ODE representatives will outline critical themes for the coming school year and inspire conversation around what matters most for students: mental health and well being, unfinished learning, and engaging the whole child. In addition, there will be an opportunity to reflect back on the 2020-2021 school year to surface high level reflections around what we learned and how we use our experiences to improve student learning for the coming year. Woven into this session will also be the most up-to-date information around COVID-19 and implications for operational considerations next year.

Implementing the SIA Engagement Toolkit Over Time: Adapted from a resource developed by Facilitating Power and the Movement Strategy Center, ODE will introduce the recently released SIA Engagement Spectrum guiding the SIA team’s coaching and support over the next five years. The Community Engagement Toolkit seeks to support educators in robust community engagement practices that go beyond statutory requirements for the SIA and into everyday operations. During this interactive session, participants will learn about practical and proven strategies for deepening community engagement practices that build upon the successes of the first year of the SIA and can be implemented in the immediate and over the long-term.

Recent Developments in Law Regarding Student and Employee Rights: This one-hour session will review recent court decisions on freedom of speech of both students and employees, in- and out-of-school (including social media posts, demonstrations in community, postings in classrooms, impact of ODE policy on Every Student Belongs and proclamation on BLM), etc. and other conduct issues.

Recent Developments in Law Regarding Employment and Labor Law: This session will cover recent developments in labor and employment law, including legislative changes, on-going impacts of HB 2016 and 2049 from 2019 session, carryover demands to bargain re: COVID-19-related issues, class size, on-the-job safety, obligation to engage in interim bargaining.