A few months into this most unique school year, and in response to the recently released Navigating Change: Kansas Guide to Learning and School Safety Operations by the Kansas SDE, Kansas ASCD is again partnering with BetterLesson to offer 6 virtual professional learning workshops “Just In Time” for this moment. These timely, relevant sessions are specifically designed to meet the needs of flexible learning while considering a manageable shift to Competency-Based Learning as the Navigating Change Guide strongly suggests.
(Please note, this is not a series - join for all 6 sessions or just 1, as your needs and schedule permits.)
Why Attend? Why Now?
Educators and administrators have been tasked with the unique task of leading the charge to tackle this new concept in the midst of a school year chock full of its own challenges. Due to the fact that there is no single accepted model of Competency-Based Learning, those leading the charge must consider not only systems of instruction, but the many forms of grading, assessment, and academic reporting to ensure that all students have the knowledge and skill to progress in their learning. With these considerations and an ever-changing landscape, each district or school must consider new models of additional instruction, practice time, or academic support to ensure competency in all areas.
Does this sound overwhelming? It doesn’t have to be! BetterLesson and KASCD are here to help by presenting “Just In Time” workshops for your immediate planning and implementation.
Now that your team is a few months into the 2020-2021 school year, it is vital to continuously reflect and determine what will best support your students and community. These six workshops will address instructional leadership, learning design, practical planning, and best practices as they relate to support learning in whatever scenario you find your school in, Hybrid, In-Person, or Remote.
Who Should Attend
This virtual “Just In Time” event is designed to help educators continue to find success in this school year, keeping in mind the distinct instructional and practical challenges we have seen so far, and considering what might still be to come. Teachers and school leaders are welcome to join on their own, but we also recommend that teams come together to brainstorm, reflect, and plan as a unit.
Sessions are intended for all Kansas educators including:
- Principals & Assistant Principals
- Curriculum Directors
- Technology Personnel
- Teachers and Teacher Leaders
- Instructional Coaches
- CTOs/CAOs
- Superintendents/Assistant Superintendents
Registration Cost
Registration for Just In Time sessions is $60 per session, per person.
Registration will close at 12 pm CDT on Thursday, November 5.
Schedule: (All sessions from 4-6 PM CDT)
Monday, November 9:
Synchronous Learning: Bringing Live Learning to Life
In this session, we will build understanding of the benefits and challenges of synchronous learning, and the ways in which we can make live classes via video conferencing tools more engaging and impactful. We will also introduce participants to creative ways to use a synchronous space that are not whole-group instruction and can therefore support differentiating the virtual learning experience.
Tuesday, November 10:
Asynchronous Learning: Pathways for Students to Learn at Their Own Pace
In this session, participants will experience self-paced learning for themselves and have an opportunity to think about how the creation of a ‘pathway’ can support students as they work towards mastery. When students have a guide that illustrates how their learning is progressing, it can replicate the positive feelings of completion and success in a purely brick-and-mortar setting. This session will also highlight the challenges of self-paced pathways, and how benchmarking and monitoring the amount of time students are self-paced can help.
Thursday, November 12:
Equity and Access: Ensuring All Students Meet Their Potential
Recent events, including the isolation resulting from sudden school closure due to COVID 19 and ongoing racial violence have been deeply traumatic to students, families, and entire communities. More than ever, it’s critical that we evaluate learning opportunities in terms of equity. Thinking about the accessibility of learning for all learners can help us to think about distance learning through a critical and societal lens. This session will support us to look at examples of flexible learning focusing on the experiences of students, especially those who need additional support or who will not have the same access as others, in order to audit and make positive changes.
Monday, November 16:
Closing the Gaps: Using Data to Address Academic Gaps
Students will need support addressing learning gaps more than ever after prolonged time away from school. Creating systems that make addressing those gaps consistent, replicable, and student-centered are key to ensuring that we can differentiate thoughtfully and equitably to effectively close academic gaps over time. The principles of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) will be explored and applied throughout this session as is appropriate in personalized and competency-based learning models.
Wednesday, November 18:
Meaningful Tasks: Designing Engaging Learning Experiences
In a flexible learning environment, students are far more likely to engage deeply in their learning if they are asked to complete tasks and make products that are meaningful and clearly connected to their identities and passions. In this session, we build awareness of the many approaches to asynchronous learning tasks. Participants will see examples and scenarios of asynchronous learning, and convert an in-person task to a distance learning format, supported by ideas explored within the session. Participants start to build their own strategic plan for what is most important to them and their students in this area.
Thursday, November 19:
Flexible Assessment: Designing Authentic Assessments to Check Progress
In a Flexible learning environment, students and teachers must have consistent access to feedback on progress so that they start to identify gaps early. Assessment is a meaningful, positive and empowering learning experience for all students that yields timely, relevant, and actionable evidence. Assessing at a distance and in hybrid scenarios needs to be approached carefully to ensure students feel motivated and that tasks are equitable. This session will explore some big ideas in providing feedback and assessing progress authentically and will guide participants in narrowing their focus to an actionable next step around their assessment design.
*Expert facilitators will be available for office hours after each session for further questions, discussion and support. Sessions have limited capacity and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Cancellation Policy
If for any reason you are unable to attend after registering, please contact jclark@usakansas.org. After November 6, if you are unable to attend and do not cancel, you will be billed for the full cost of registration.
