
How to Harness the Power of Storytelling for School Improvement
During this session participants will have an opportunity to learn about the NYC DOE Showcase Schools initiative, a program designed to recognize, celebrate, and share innovative practices through interschool visitations. Storytelling helps frame the day, not for exhibition, but for authentic conversation around what “better” can look like in schools. The creation and sharing of school narratives helps bind schools together through collaboration to achieve a common purpose -

Enhancing Teaching and Learning in STEM
This session will demonstrate, as part of an interactive workshop, the use of gamification and stop-motion in the teaching of complex scientific content. Participants will participate in a 'Blind Kahoot' and learn how designing games for their students can enable teaching of new subjects. They will use Stopmotion Studio HD on the iPads to see how creating animations can creatively enhance teaching and learning of scientific processes. Stephanie teaches Chemistry and Internati

Design 4 Impact: The Student-Led Startup
Entrepreneurship and Innovation align with the 21st century needs of our society: complex problem solving; creativity, collaboration, communication; lateral thinking, grit, flexibility and hustle. They also align with emerging best practice areas: interest-driven learning, open-ended PBL, and real world learning. Despite this alignment, we still do not teach entrepreneurship in depth at the K12 level! This session will address the question of why we don't teach entrepreneursh

Rethinking Immigration: Discussing Cultural Identity through Hip-Hop Music
On January 30th, 2017, New York City Department of Education Chancellor Carmen Farina issued a letter explaining the urgency of protecting immigrant students within our schools. Government-issued travel bans temporarily halted travel of people originating from countries in portions of the Middle East, the Sahel, and Eastern Africa. The ban created a level of suspicion and isolationism that created local, national, and international concern. In the midst of this landscape, dis

Google Chrome Extensions: Leveraging Instructional Technology to Advance the Learning Experience
Unleash the power of the Google Chrome browser! Google Chrome extensions are like superpowers for your web browser, literally extending the capabilities of the browser. In this conversation, teachers will explore various Chrome extensions that are designed for educators and students. Participants will examine Chrome extensions such as Nimbus Screenshot, Screencastify, Talk and Comment, MakeGIF Video Capture, Polling in Google Slides by PollEverywhere, Extensity, and EasyBib T

Mindfulness to Address Bias in Education
This interactive workshop will provide participants with an introduction to Mindfulness in Education via specific strategies they will learn and explore. A text-based protocol will be used as a catalyst for discussion, discourse and debate around mindfulness to surface bias. We will also draw from the diverse knowledge and experience of our participants to explore how mindfulness practices might be used to identify, interrupt and transform bias into awareness, acceptance and


The First Five
This conversation will focus on the first five days of school. Too often we see these first few days as a "nuisance." A time to quickly move through necessary paperwork and get to the "real stuff" the content. This conversation will ask teachers to rethink that approach and see the first five days as a time to spend relationship building with students. A few years ago I made the bold decision to spend the first five days truly getting to know my students and letting them get