Keynote Presentation: Teachers - Transforming Their World and Their Work

Speaker: Ann Lieberman, Senior Scholar at Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Dr. Lieberman's presentation will address the urgent need to change the culture of schools and classrooms so that collaborative learning teams or Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) led by teachers with strong content knowledge can accelerate the learning of students and close the achievement gap.

Panel Discussion

A facilitated discussion led by Ann Lieberman will consider questions related to change in schools and how teachers must be part of the process of providing leadership and facilitating change in the culture of the schools to improve student achievement.

Panel Participants will include:

• Richard Cansdale, Ed.D, District Superintendent Area 3, San Diego Unified School District
• Karen Janney, Assistant Superintendent, Academic Growth/Development, Sweetwater School District
• Heather Lattimer, Ed.D, Assistant Professor, University of San Diego, Department of Learning and Teaching
• Damen Lopez, Principal, No Excuse University at Los Penasquitos Elementary, Poway Unified School District
• Karen Nares, Ph.D, Teacher, School of Business, San Diego High School, San Diego Unified School District
• Tylene Hicks, Teacher, La Presa Middle School, La Mesa - Spring Valley School District

Interactive Session

Participants working in grade configurations will consider the questions posed to the panel to examine relevancy to their site. Ann Lieberman will interact with each group to provide feedback to assist each team in developing teacher leadership capacity.

Table Talks

Table Talks will be hosted by teams of K-12 principals and teacher leaders from six county schools. The discussion will focus on successes and challenges they have encountered along the continuum of implementing Professional Learning Communities.

The table talks will be hosted by teams from the following schools:

• Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School, Chula Vista Elementary School District, Jorge Ramirez, Ed.D
• Creative Performing, & Media Arts Middle School, San Diego Unified School District, Fred Hilgers
• Great Oaks High School, Temecula Valley Unified School District, Joe Balleweg
• Morning Creek Elementary School, Poway Unified School District, Carol Osborne
• Pershing Middle School, San Diego Unified School District, Sarah Sullivan
• Southwest High School, Sweetwater Union High School District, Sid Salazar

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PLC and Assessment: The Dynamic Duo

Speaker: Laurie Robinson, University of North Dakota, Outreach Specialist for Continuing Education

Participants will learn the basic tenents of sound assessment including theunwrapping of standards into student-friendly "I Can" statements, which will lead to common formative assessments.

Interactive Session with Laurie Robinson

The essence of a high functioning professional learning community is to develop a collaborative culture focused on student learning. The fact that teachers collaborate means little unless teams are collaborating on the right things.  What are those "right things"? In order to find enough evidence to convince a student to learn, educators must engage in the basic tenets of sound assessment practices. The work of Dr. Richard Stiggens, Doug Reeves, and Larry Ainsworth will be the foundation for the day's work which will include the five pieces of sound assessment and the unwrapping of standards into student-friendly "I Can" statements, which lead to common formative assessment. The last session of the day will be set aside for site-based teams to apply what they have learned in the earlier sessions with the presenter assisting in development of this important work. Laurie will lead teams in discussion of their assessment practices, the delivery of standards based instruction, and how these relate to the work of the Professional Learning Community.

Leading for Results:  Transforming Teaching, Learning and Relationships in Schools

Speaker: Dennis Sparks, Emeritus Executive Director of National Staff Development Council

Dr. Sparks will help leaders explore the significant changes in organizations beginning with leaders’ beliefs, their depth of understanding of critical issues, and their speech and actions.

Closing Remarks, Graduation and Presentation of Certificates