Early Career Teaching Institute

This session will provide strategies to build a strong culture and climate within the classroom, with an eye on equity, justice and quality instruction for all.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ty1nxu8I2zwXznSfDuSUuW2OqnijYd1WqMax6QGtR1I/edit?usp=sharing

Learning Goals

• Strategies and ideas to create instructional success for all students.
• Positive guidance techniques, in order to promote a positive, tight-knit classroom.
• Classroom language, routines, rules and vibes that keep students learning and living their best in the classroom.

This session will examine the teaching practices and pedagogy of the legendary performer and teacher Arnold Jacobs. We will discuss how his studio teaching and philosophies can be applied in classroom music settings. We will also discuss the implications of Arnold Jacobs's pedagogies as a lens for future curriculum in school music settings.

Learning Goals

• Relate the artistic mindset to curricular design.
• Discuss participants mentors and experiences that center artistic motivation in their teaching.
• Discuss strategies for incorporating this concept into teaching practice.

During this session, teachers will hear about different categories for designing a classroom and guidance around intentional classroom setup with specific attention to daily routines and structures to support students. There will also be time for teachers to brainstorm their ideal classroom design and problem-solve with other educators about barriers to setting up their classroom.

Learning Goals

• New teachers will learn different ways to design their classrooms with intentionality around daily routines and student support.
• New teachers will begin to design the layout of their ideal classroom to best suit their needs and the needs of their students.

This workshop will help educators reflect on their values from their pre-service learning to operationalizing those values in the classroom.  New teachers often view classroom management as a method to deliver punitive consequences, and either highly reject all structures to avoid them, or fall into a helpless loop of negative consequences well into the school year.  This workshop will be centered in anti-racist philopsophy delivering practical steps and solutions to building community.  Centering on the language of coaching and building educator resilience, educators will begin the mindset work to set up their classrooms in the Fall.

Learning Goals

• Educators will identify their values as it relates to their classroom experience and desires.
• Educators will understand that love in a community comes with accountability and expecations.
• Educators will develop their own plan for setting up their classroom in the Fall.

In this session you will have the opportunity to try Playful Learning & Assessment for Impact Lab’s (PLAI Lab) game for educators and designers called Assessment Party Game. This is new and improved based on feedback from educators at ECTI 2023!
The game will help you think more deeply about assessment as a process of making claims based on evidence of student learning. After playing the game, we will spend time reflecting on the experience and how it can provide new ideas for approaching assessment in classrooms and informal learning spaces.

Learning Goals

• Think more deeply about assessment as a process of making claims based on evidence of student learning.
• Reflect on how to better design assessment tasks to elicit student understanding

In the workshop, "Collaborative Composition: Leveraging Multilingual Learners' Everyday Literacies in Student-Centered, Project-Based Learning," teachers will delve into transformative pedagogical strategies. Tailored for those navigating diverse language and literacy abilities in the digital age, this 90 minute-long session empowers teachers to meet unique student needs through innovative pedagogical approaches with a specific focus on leveraging digital literacies and technology.
Participants will explore the dynamic potential of collaborative, project-based learning, honing skills in crafting inclusive and engaging curriculum that integrates modern digital tools from cell phones to chromebooks. The focus is on student-centered, relevant, and responsive teaching strategies enhanced by technology. Through a mix of hands-on activities, collaborative discussions, and the examination of student artifacts, educators will gain practical insights into creating learning experiences that resonate with the rich tapestry of language and digital literacies in their classrooms.
Key topics include collaborative, project-based learning methodologies, integrating diverse literacies into curriculum design, and harnessing technology to foster inclusivity. Participants are encouraged to bring examples of their project-based learning ideas, fostering a collaborative space for shared experiences and refinement of teaching practices.
By the workshop's end, educators will emerge equipped with enhanced skills, a deeper understanding of diverse literacies, and practical strategies to leverage digital tools for creating culturally responsive, student-centered environments. This workshop promises to be a transformative experience for educators dedicated to meeting the varied needs of their multilingual student populations in the digital era.

Learning Goals

• Teacher will explore the potential of collaborative, project-based learning to harness the everyday literacies and experiences of multilingual learners.
• Teachers will develop skills in creating student-centered, culturally responsive curriculum.

This session will engage participants in their why and person mission and vision in life and work.  During this time, we will learn about strategies for prioritizing a "balance" and viewing life and work through the metaphor of a symphony.  Practical tools will be provided with reflection time about our own values and how that can provide a navigation for all things.

Learning Goals

• Participants will learn about building habits and the connection to the "Big Six" tactic for productivity.
• Participants will shift their mindset from work/life separation to a full balance and connection.

This session is a celebration and exploration of children’s literature. Participants will have an opportunity to share one of their favorite texts with others. Then, we’ll highlight a subsection of picks from the Children’s Collaborative Book Center Choices 2024 list. Participants will have time to explore some of the best new children’s literature from the last year, and collaborate with peers on ways they could incorporate new texts into their classrooms. We view children's literature broadly and texts may include anything written by children’s authors specifically for children, tweens, teens, and young adults, including picture books, graphic novels, young adult fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Learning Goals

• Participants will share one of their favorite texts with others, and learn about their colleagues’ favorite texts.
• Participants will review a subsection of selections from the Children’s Collaborative Book Center Choices 2024 list
• Participants will collaborate with others to brainstorm ways they might incorporate new texts into their classrooms

Are your students the next Ken Burns? Or future video journalists? Students' lives are increasingly saturated with media and the barriers to creating media are lower than ever. Media making is an essential part of media literacy. Using a variety of free resources, we will discuss tips on implementing media making into your lessons with little or no technology required.

Learning Goals

• Participants will learn the value of media creation in the classroom.
• Participants will learn the skills required to design and implement basic media projects.
• Participants will come away with free resources to assist with their youth media lessons.

The skills and practices of collaboration between educators can be a critical component in both student success and educator well being. In this session participants with learn best practices and techniques in the field of educational collaboration. The session is structured for participants to reflect on their  own collaborative experiences while deepening their understanding of additional practices to bring to future collaborative teams & partnerships.

Learning Goals

• Participants will review stages, mindset, techniques, and practices of successful collaborative teams.
• Participants will reflect on previous collaborative practices and plan for future collaborative teams & partnerships.

This workshop, titled "Contextualizing Decontextualized Reading Instruction for ELLs: Responsive Pedagogies in the Face of ACT 20," addresses the challenges Multilingual Learners (ELLs) face under the influence of ACT 20. Focusing on three key learning goals, participants will first build a comprehensive understanding of ACT 20 and its specific impacts on ELLs in educational contexts. The workshop then delves into an investigation of the affordances and constraints inherent in various curricular resources and approaches for reading instruction.
In response to these challenges, participants will engage in discussions and activities aimed at equipping them with the knowledge and skills to design responsive approaches that specifically cater to the needs of Multilingual Learners in reading instruction. By the end of the workshop, educators will have gained valuable insights into navigating the complexities of ACT 20, critically evaluating instructional resources, and creating tailored strategies that foster an inclusive and effective learning environment for Multilingual Learners in the realm of reading instruction.

Learning Goals

• Build understanding of Act 20 and its impacts on Multilingual Learners
• Investigate affordances and constraints of a variety of curricular resources and approaches for reading instruction.
• Design responsive approaches that support reading instruction for multilingual learners

This workshop uses Elena Aguilar's book Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators (2018) as a springboard to reflect and build practices to sustain educators in the profession. In this workshop, participants will reflect on the emotional components of teaching and the affordances and limitations of their current habits and practices. This reflection will include grappling with the complex and challenging structures and systems educators work within that often impact the ability to take care of oneself. Then, they will examine strategies and practices intended to cultivate emotional resilience. The practice section will include engaging in some mindfulness exercises and a look at the research on combating compassionate fatigue. Finally, participants will create individualized goals related to how they will build their emotional resilience in the next school year.

Learning Goals

• Participants will engage in reflection on the emotional components of teaching and the affordances and limitations of their current habits and practices.
• Participants will examine strategies and practice strategies intended to cultivate emotional resilience, including short mindfulness exercises and a look at the research on compassionate fatigue.
• Participants will create individualized goals related to how they will build their emotional resilience in the next school year.

Participants will learn the fun, simple and satisfying form of making an accordion book. We will discuss a variety of creative uses, adaptations and learning goals for this book form including turning it into a pocket book. Hands-on demos and participants will leave with two small book structures they have created as well as a lot of ideas.

Learning Goals

• Learn ways to enhance learning, creativity and art making through simple bookmaking forms in your classroom.
• Use problem solving skills to come up with unique solutions to adapt bookmaking for your students to use as a vehicle for process and learning.

This session will support educators in teaching difficult histories of mass violence and/or genocide in ways that are accessible for their students. With the Holocaust as a case study, we will use innovative reflective questions and guidelines written by two teacher-scholars, intentionally scaffolded images, and short, primary source texts to explore what is possible and meaningful for students’ historical learning. This session aims to not only deepen content knowledge of one historical instance of genocide teachers will likely encounter teaching about (especially per Wisconsin’s Act 30 mandate), but it aims to empower teachers in their capacity to facilitate the learning of complex and emotionally-provocative histories more broadly.

Learning Goals

• Teachers will reflect on, discuss, and identify what age-accessible learning looks like in their classrooms.
• Teachers will analyze resources for age-accessibility.
• Teachers will modify or draft learning opportunities about/through difficult histories that are age-accessible for their students.

A thinking routine is a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking. Project Zero researchers have developed a variety of thinking routines that are applicable across disciplines, topics, and age groups, and can be used at multiple points throughout a learning experience or unit of study. This workshop will introduce the concept of thinking routines, engage participants in the use of one particular routine: Parts, Perspectives and Me, and discuss ways to adapt a thinking routine for participants' classrooms.

Learning Goals
Participants will be able to:

• Identify key ideas defining thinking routines.
• Apply the Parts, Perspectives and Me thinking routines.
• Describe potential ways to adapt the thinking routine to implement in their own classroom.

Let’s take pride in our work and share our ideas in a casual discussion of our very own Pretty Good Lessons. Make a quick mini-poster of a lesson you’re proud of, you thought went well, or you’re excited to share with peers.

Make a digital copy of the graphic organizer to share your own "Pretty Good Lesson" or pick up a card copy at registration.

This is part 2 of a 2 part series open to ECTI participants and Cooperating Teachers. Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, email conferences@education.wisc.edu.

In this workshop we will dive into principles of equitable math classrooms and discuss practical strategies to foster an inclusive and challenging math environment. Through collaborative problem-solving and reflection we will examine productive struggle and how we develop key math concepts. We'll specifically engage with frameworks that promote inquiry and explore methods to develop students' algebraic reasoning.