SPARK! Classroom Innovation and Student Engagement
In multiple studies, principals have reported that student engagement is the most challenging struggle in classrooms—especially after the pandemic. LINC experts will collaborate with teachers and leaders to strengthen instructional practices that capture student interest, foster agency, build relationships, and get students excited to learn.
Building on school/district capacity, attendees will focus on blended and project-based learning strategies, building SEL approaches that foster student-teacher partnerships, supporting the vitality of educators, and establishing ongoing pathways for increasing engagement that celebrates and recognizes teacher progress.
Choose from a variety of available workshops that are designed to strengthen engagement in classrooms through student voice, personalization, and blended learning while meaningfully integrating technology into instruction. Participants will have ongoing access to LINC’s experts to support their implementation through our transformational learning and coaching platform, LINCspring.
LINC Workshop Menu
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| Shifting to Equitable Grading Practices | Learners will examine the grading status quo and explore alternatives to current grading practices that encourage a greater sense of agency and intrinsic motivation in students. | Shifting to Equitable Grading Practices |
| Using Rubrics to Guide Mastery Learning | Learners will reflect on their understanding and current use of rubrics as formative assessment tools and try it in their class using a planning template. | Creating Rubrics that Act as Roadmaps |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| Knowing Better and Doing Better with Blended Learning | Deepen personalized learning and target student needs utilizing blended learning. | Knowing Better and Doing Better with Blended Learning |
| Creating Self-Paced Units of Study Using Playlists | Learners will explore how to effectively plan units to engage students, promote agency, and personalize learning. | Playlist in Action |
| A Deep Dive into Blended Learning Models | Educators will learn and apply tools and best practices in lesson planning for common blended learning models to increase student engagement. Models include flipped, station rotation, and whole group rotation. | Designing Flexible Learning Environments through Blended Learning |
| A Deep Dive into Station Rotation | Educators will learn and apply tools and best practices in lesson planning for a station rotation learning experience. | Station Rotation in Action |
| A Deep Dive into Whole Group Rotation and Flipped Classrooms | Teachers will learn and apply tools and best practices in lesson planning for whole group rotation and flipped classroom. | Planning for Whole-Group Rotation and Planning for Flipped Learning |
| Designing Flexible Learning Experiences with Blended Learning Models | Educators will be guided through the steps for selecting a blended learning model and then create a blended learning experience using your selected model to enage and meet the needs of all your students. | Designing Your 21C Classroom: Intro to Blended Learning Models |
| Empowering Student Engagement through Agency, Authenticity, & Creativity | Learners will hone their ability to deliver effective instruction with the focus on developing student choice, authenticity of tasks, and creativity to lead to increased student engagement. | Planning for High Quality Blended Learning |
| Strategies for Digital Collaboration | Learners will explore tools and strategies to build student connectivity and collaboration, develop a plan for student collaboration, and implement them in classrooms. | Supporting Student Collaboration in the Virtual Space |
| Leveraging Flipped Learning for Increased Engagement | Learners will explore the flipped learning model through a watch-through reflection, then tinker with ideas to reinvent a lesson using the flipped model. | Flipped Learning In Action |
| Leveraging Video Platforms for Increase Engagement | Learners will take a deeper dive in exploring the use of a digital video station for direct instruction then plan for a station rotation with in-class flip for direct instruction. | Station Rotation with In Class Flip |
| Leveraging Blended Models to Accelerate Learning | Learners will learn how to leverage three blended learning models simultaneously. Specifically, educators will learn how to effectively use the models together to optimize the learning experience for students. | Station Rotation with In Class Flip |
| Planning Virtual Field Trips | Field trips are an important component of learning as they allow learners to make connections with the content they are examining in the classroom and experience hands-on learning. Teachers will examine how to re-create that experience by taking their field trips into the virtual space | Supporting Student Collaboration in the Virtual Space |
| Reinventing Lesson Plans for Increased Student Engagement | Teachers will use the PAACC Framework (Personalization, Agency, Audience, Connectivity and Creativity) to reinvent traditional lesson plans to foster student engagement and connection. | Planning for High Quality Blended Learning |
| Turning a Week of Lessons into a Playlist | Explore the playlist model of blended learning in order to turn a week’s worth of lessons into a Playlist. This blended model allows students to move at their own pace while providing more choice, engagement, and agency. | One Week of Self-Paced Learning |
| Deepening Personalized Learning to Target Student Needs | Build your knowledge of personalized learning and competency-based instruction so that you can plan for more personalized instruction. Learn how to use blended models with flexibility to increase the time you have for small group and individualized instruction and find ways to integrate digital curriculum into your instructional lesson plans in meaningful ways. | The What and Why of Competency Based Learning |
| Station Rotation in the Virtual Classroom | Learners will examine how to create and use station rotations in the virtual classroom. | Station Rotation in Action |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| Building Student Mindset for Agency & Engagement | Learners will reflect upon the student perception of learning and assumptions about learning roles, then design an activity to engage students in shared visioning around new models of learning where teachers and students share responsibility. | Empowering Students Through Shared Visioning |
| Partnering with Students for Successful Blended Learning | Learners will collaborate with students on a class contract for increased agency in the learning environment. | Collaborative Class Contract |
| Empowering Families to Support Student Learning | Leaders and coaches will examine structures to support families. | Supporting Families of Early Childhood Learners |
| The Innovative Educator Mindset | Teachers will learn the fundamentals of innovative teaching models including the practice of designing student-centered learning experiences. | The Model of Generative Change for Teachers and Leaders |
| Onboarding Students to the Digital Toolkit | Teachers will learn to create a plan for onboarding students to the available digital tools through effective training activities and support protocols. | Onboarding and Supporting Students |
| Increasing Engagement and Self-Direction in the Virtual Environment | Learners will reflect upon student assumptions about learning roles, then design an activity to engage students in shared visioning around different teacher/learner responsibilities that increase agency among students. | How to Help Students be Engaged and Self-Directed as Virtual Learners |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to Social and Emotional Learning | Gain an understanding of the value of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and the importance of cultivating SEL skills within adults and students. | |
| Facilitating SEL Using an Equitable, Trauma-Informed Approach | Learn what trauma is and how it affects those who experience it. Understand the importance of facilitating SEL from an equitable, trauma-informed lens. | |
| Mindfulness Strategies for All Ages | Learn about the purpose and benefits of mindfulness with adults and students, examples of strategies and integration tips from bringing mindfulness to the school community. | |
| Connecting Social and Emotional and Academic Learning | At its core, all learning is both social-emotional and academic. Develop a plan to deliberately integrate SEL into your daily lessons/activities so students understand the value of these critical SEL skills in helping them succeed. | |
| Developing Students’ Self-Awareness | Make a plan to help students identify their emotions, explore how their emotions can influence the way they act, and identify their strengths and areas of growth. | |
| Developing Students’ Self-Management Skills | Discover strategies that help students develop the skills necessary to manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in productive ways. Learn how these valuable strategies help students to set and achieve personal and academic goals, de-stress, and practice self-discipline. | |
| Supporting Students as Responsible Decision Makers | Success in life is ultimately about the decisions we all make every day. Learn to create space for students to learn about and demonstrate responsibility, understand consequences of their actions, and identify solutions to problems. | |
| Building the Social Awareness of Students | Help students take different perspectives, show empathy, and offer compassion for others. | |
| Putting Connection Before Content | Participants will learn strategies for putting connection before content. Learn how to connect with students and become present before jumping into the day! | Connection Before Content: Engaging Students Personally before Academically |
| Strategies for Building Connection Among Students | Learners will create a learning environment that allows teachers and students to build community and maintain connections with one another. Learners will also learn ideas to help students process their emotions and creatively express themselves. | Strategies for Creating Community in a Digital Environment |
| Social and Emotional Learning in the Classroom | Learn how you can create space in your classroom to address trauma while recognizing and responding to the social emotional strengths and needs that accompany students. Explore different ways to strengthen student relationships, self-regulation, and agency within a powerful and connected community. | Supporting Students through Social and Emotional Learning |
| Purposeful SEL Planning to Address Trauma and Strengthen Relationships in the Classroom | Learn how to create space in your classroom to address trauma while recognizing and responding to the social and emotional strengths and needs that accompany students. Explore different ways to strengthen student relationships, self-regulation, and agency within a powerful and connected community. | Connection Before Content: Engaging Students Personally before Academically |
| Social Emotional Learning in Virtual Classrooms | Social emotional well-being is the foundation for growth. In order to see growth for the stakeholders in our school community, we need to prioritize social and emotional well being. In this session, we will share strategies for prioritizing time and space for intentional small group check-ins and SEL support for students and for teachers. | Supporting Students through Social and Emotional Learning |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| Reigniting Your Passion: Reconnecting with Your “Why” as an Educator | Educators will reflect on your “personal mission statement” and explore the core values that drive your teaching practice, discover self-care and emotional resilience strategies to nurture your well-being and maintain your passion for teaching, and set achievable personal and professional goals to help you grow and thrive in their career. | |
| Give Yourself a Break: Mindfulness for Teachers | Taking time and taking care! This session will provide participants with various mindfulness strategies and practicices that allow for more clarity, positivity, and overall wellnessness throughout the day. | |
| Sparking Joy in Students | Learners readily engage in activities that bring them joy. This workshop explores tools and strategies for increasing student engagement by planning for joy in your classroom. By the end of this session, your toolboxes will be overflowing with joy strategies to support student engagement and wellness. | |
| Give Your Students a Break: Mindfulness for Students | Learn tips that educators can use immediately to bring mindfulness into the classroom to support self and students. | |
| Recalibrating Work-Life Balance | Finding it hard to power down at the end of the day? This session provides mindfulness and self-care strategies for transitioning from work to enjoying the rest of your evening or weekend. |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| Exploring Formative Assessment Tools | Learners will reflect on the current use of apps that facilitate formative assessment, explore new assessment tools, and try a new tool in their class to generate formative data. | Assessment Tools |
| Formative Assessment for Student Agency | Learners will explore how to use formative assessment tools alongside students in order to support the development of student mindset and agency around learning. | Assessment Tools/Formative Assessment |
| Getting Started with Pear Deck | Learners will explore Pear Deck as a student engagement and formative assessment digital tool. | Getting Started with Pear Deck |
| Getting Started with Screencasting | Learners will explore screencasting to make flipped videos for instruction. | How to Create Engaging Screencasts |
| Getting Started with Edpuzzle | Learners will explore Edpuzzle as a formative assessment and classroom flipping tool. | Getting Started with Edpuzzle |
| Getting Started with Seesaw | Learners will explore Seesaw as a Learning Management System. | Seesaw 101: Setting Up Your Classroom, Seesaw 102: Creating Assignments, Seesaw 103: Providing Feedback to Students |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| KEYNOTE: Blended Learning: A Path to Equity Presented by Jason Green | Explore how classrooms that implement blended learning practices allow greater opportunities for student voice, connection, and agency. Blended learning classrooms also create more space for teachers to learn about their students more holistically. Through student voice and a deeper understanding of each student, teachers can create the pathway toward truly equitable classrooms. | Blended Learning to Foster Equity |
| How Identity Informs Instruction | Learners will explore how identity plays out in the classroom, our own and the identities of our students. Learn how to view curriculum and instruction through narratives and counternarratives. | Counter-Narratives and Reflection Toward Action and Change |
| Confronting Bias in Messaging & Media | Learners will examine how media messaging impacts classroom practices. Explore tools to more vigilantly identify and redirect actions influenced by biased messaging. | Implicit Bias in the Classroom |
| Examining School Policies That Foster Success for Each Student | Learners will examine classroom and school policies, and explore lenses that center traditionally marginalized students, their experiences and welcome their funds of knowledge. | Examining Educational Institutional Racism |
| Implicit Bias in the Classroom | Learners will analyze their own perspectives on implicit racial bias in the classroom. | Implicit Bias in the Classroom |
| Asset-Based Teaching: A Key to Equity | Engage in a series of activities designed to support educators and leaders in developing and building asset-based mindsets to reimagine classrooms centered around equity and student assets. | Counter-Narratives and Reflection Toward Action and Change |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| KEYNOTE: Your Approach to PD Matters – Especially Now! Presented by Jason Green | Is your current professional development strategy akin to throwing spaghetti at the wall– trying everything and seeing what sticks? Many districts are beginning to realize that online PD structures are inherently no better than in-person because we have brought the same practices and mindsets that didn’t work in in-person settings to online settings. Jason explores alternatives to traditional PD that actually cause shifts in teacher practices, increases in engagement, and positive results in student achievement. | The Model of Generative Change for Teachers and Leaders |
| Addressing Barriers to Hiring & Supporting Black Educators | This workshop will support you in creating supportive hiring practices and work environments for Black educators. We will address the challenges they experience in the workplace and discuss tangible strategies overcome these barriers. | |
| Becoming a Pedagogical Problem Solver | Learners will examine what it means to be an educator, and explore how a pedagogical problem solving approach to classroom challenges can empower educators to be agents of change, not objects of change. | Pedagogical Problem Solving through Action Research |
| Creating Original Content in LINCspring | Leaders and/or leadership teams will learn how to create LINCspring cycles that address school-specific PD needs. | Creating Original Content in LINCspring: A Guide to Writing Cycles |
| A Research-Based Model for Driving Improvement in Schools | Leaders and coaches will learn how the Model of Generative change is the foundation to helping educators make enduring shifts in their practice towards innovation, student-centered learning, and preparing students for their future. | The Model of Generative Change for Teachers and Leaders |
| Designing Innovative + Personalized PD Experiences | Explore ways to empower teachers to become Pedagogical Problem solvers through personalized PD and a learning culture that can inspire innovation and risk-taking within your school! | The Model of Generative Change for Leaders and Coaches |
| Guiding PLCs through Action Research | Educators will learn how to leverage LINCspring cycles within Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to facilitate action research within their classrooms and schools. | Supporting Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) |
| Leveraging Blended Coaching Structures to Support Teacher Development | Leaders and coaches will understand how to guide teachers toward goal setting. During this process, teachers will self-assess using the Teacher Learning Pathway Rubric. In collaboration, the coach and teacher will establish two to three SMARTE goals based on the Evidence of Practice (EOP) or Teacher Rubric. | Educator Self-Reflection and Goal Setting |
| Creating Your LINCspring Implementation Plan | Leaders and/or leadership teams will create an implementation plan that leverages LINCspring for PD and empowers teacher agency through personalized adult learning. | Creating Your LINCspring Implementation Plan |
| Strategies for Coaching & Supporting Teachers in LINCspring | Leaders and/or leadership teams will learn how to use LINCspring within a blended coaching model to scale coaching and personalize teacher support and professional learning. | Leveraging LINCspring Cycles through Blended PD Models |
| Leveraging LINCspring for Next Generation PD | Leaders and/or leadership teams will learn how to use LINCspring cycle content to guide whole-school PD, small group PLCs, and individualized professional learning. | Using LINCspring Data to Provide Targets Coaching & Support |
| Building a Culture of Innovation In Action | Explore ways to create a culture of innovation and learn a few school culture moves that can inspire innovation. | Building a Culture of Innovation |
| Leveraging LINCspring Cycles through Blended PD Models | Leaders and/or leadership teams will learn how to use LINCspring cycle content to guide whole-school PD, small group PLCs, and individualized professional learning. | Using LINCspring to Provide Targeted Coaching and Support |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| Designing Powerful Learning Experiences with PBL | Educators will learn how to move content knowledge to application by using the Question Formation Technique to create engaging project-based learning lessons. | Intro to PBL |
| Title | Description | Corresponding LINCspring Cycle Available for Deeper/Asynchronous Work |
|---|---|---|
| Reimagining Classrooms Centered in Equity and Student Agency | Learn to identify and leverage the assets that students have gained during the pandemic to re-imagine and re-design equitable classrooms that work for all learners. Reflect on the assumptions that exist about students post-pandemic and get excited about the possibilities that are now available to you and your students! | Teacher as Pedagogical Problem Solver |
| Acceleration Strategies to Address Learning Gaps | Discover how you can accelerate learning by providing the “just in time” support that students need to address the gaps in learning that may exist by utilizing power standards and prerequisite content to address grade-level content. | Unpacking Standards for Acceleration |
| Building an Innovative Blended Learning Mindset | Learners will discover how to build student agency and ownership for learning by incorporating the PAACC framework into instructional planning to increase opportunities for Personalization, Agency, Authenticity, Collaboration & Creativity | Planning for High Quality Blended Learning |
| Leveraging Digital Tools to Scaffold and Support ELL Students | Learners will learn how to leverage various technology tools to support English Language Learners in their class. Then, teachers will apply these technology tools to their practice based on their student individual and group needs to increase student agency and 21st-century learning in their class. | Leveraging Tech Tools to Support English Language Learner Students |
| Leveraging Digital Tools to Scaffold and Support SPED Students | Learners will learn how to leverage various technology tools to support special education students in their classes. Then, teachers will apply these technology tools to their practice based on their student individual and group needs to increase student agency and 21st-century learning. | Leveraging Tech Tools to Support Special Education Students |
| Personalizing Instruction through Flexible Grouping Structures | Learners will analyze student work and/or data and will create differentiated grouping structures based on the needs of students. Learners will then match the blended model to student needs to determine how best to deliver instruction. | Grouping Students for Differentiation |
| Personalizing Units to Address Learning Gaps | Learners will explore how to differentiate a playlist to meet the needs of all learners, especially those who may need to have learning gaps addressed before moving forward. | Differentiating Playlists to Address Skill Gaps |
| Supporting English Language Learners (ELLs) Students | Educators will explore various strategies to effectively support English Language Learner (ELL) students (and native speakers!) in content area classrooms to ensure that content AND language is at at the forefront of their lessons and units. | Supporting English Language Learners (ELLs) Students |
| The Power of Play in the Virtual Learning Environment | Educators will explore tools and strategies to effectively facilitate small group play virtually within and beyond their class. They will then create and apply this plan with a small group to reflect and innovate on based on individual and group needs. | Facilitating Small Group Play |