Prompts for Workshop Ideas- CAIS Southern Regional Meeting All Ideas Welcome ADMINISTRATION • Core Common Standards—What are the Implications? • The Role of Standardized Testing in Independent School Life • Creating and Sustaining Professional Cultures that Encourage and Support Excellence • Forming Durable Partnerships with Parents • Student Support Systems • Managing for Balance COUNSELING • Successful peer tutoring and peer support models • Teaching growth mindset/incorporating SEL • Students “behind” on academic work due to chronic absences due to medical/SEL • Concerns - or benefits - of “marketing” academic support programs • Making LD concerns and benefits in academically rigorous schools ELEMENTARY, LOWER (K-2) • Sharing information with parents creatively – trusting the school • Responsive classrooms • Influx of sensory input issues • Social media and young children: how to be involved • Common core curriculum in early childhood • Fab lab/dream lab – creative learning, thinking outside the box ELEMENTARY, UPPER (3-5/6) • Inquiry-based learning and technology: STEAM, Flipping and iPad technology • Backward planning/curriculum mapping • Differentiating instruction: organizing, assessment and progress monitoring • Social-Emotional learning: teaching empathy and creating a culture of kindness • Data driven instruction and common core • Brain friendly learning – brain gym ENGLISH • Transitioning to e-readers from traditional paper texts • Nonfiction reading in the English curriculum • Project based learning with English and other departments • Incorporating real-world, tech-based writing (blogs, emails, etc.) • Approaching literature from a global perspective using tech tools (Twitter, Skype); connecting

with students in other parts of the world to learn about common curriculum GENERAL INTEREST • Differentiation and assessment • Critical Friends Group • PLCs, collaborative learning communities: how to build them, how to sustain them • MOOCS • Twenty-first century non-cognitive” skills: grit, resilience, persistence, empathy etc. • Twenty-first century skills: what they are and how to teach them • Nutrition for the brain and body • Design thinking and project-based learning • Common Core: where do independent schools fit in? • STEM, STEAM, and STREAM • What are maker spaces? • School culture • Professional growth and development: best practices • Finding balance between athletics arts, extracurriculars, service, academics • De-cluttering classrooms – creating a learning environment that encourages learning LIBRARY • Developing ebook collections (limited resources, Here Be Fiction etc.) • Library makerspaces • Limitless libraries: collaborating with local schools/libraries to maximize resources • Library advocacy • Using social media to reach library patrons • Digital citizenships

MATHEMATICS • Common Core Math Standards: Curriculum, Practices, Assessments • Are your grades truly a measure of proficiency/mastery? What is mathematical proficiency? • Connecting mathematics to the real world: the intellectual/emotional need • Creating & supporting a professional learning community for K-12 math teachers PERFORMING ARTS • Connecting in real life through disconnecting electronically and how theatre arts can facilitate

that connection • How to bring classroom lessons to life through theatrical presentations • Connecting the voice and body and freeing young actors up onstage • How to help a child discover his/her voice through music and vocal games PHYSICAL EDUCATION • Assessment in P.E. – Why? • Integrating technology in the curriculum • Creative warm-ups & lead-up games for core sports • Exercise and the brain – should be P.S. be in the morning? • Helping every player succeed within the “no cut” campus? • Offering electives/choice to middle-schoolers • Fitness games with nutrition component SCIENCE • Engaging students with active participation and discrepant events • 21st century skills in the classroom – flipping the science class • Bringing in scientific research and technology/Content-specific workshops (chemistry,

biology, physics, etc.) • What do the Next Generation Science Standards mean for independent schools? • Interdisciplinary approaches to science (literature, history, etc.) • Finding a balance between inquiry-based and traditional methods SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY • Rigor & fun? Ensuring classes maintain traditional rigor but employ constructivist practices • Keeping the conversation alive: using blogs, wikis, & discussion forums to keep students

discussing topics outside of class • Integrating geography in a useful, 21sts century manner • Syria and the United States’ role in the global world • Going “GLOCAL”: Using technology to connect with classrooms around the world TECHNOLOGY • BYOD (we just launched a BYOD program in grades 7-9 • iPad use in education • Online learning (both blended and fully online) • Maker movement VISUAL ARTS • Creating art apps for iPads & mobile devices • Tapping into LA and local art resources • Interactive Multimedia and Design • 3D printing and/or STEAM project • Plagiarism & appropriation of image WORLD LANGUAGES • Unfolding 21st century language instruction: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational

skills • What does student-centered instruction look like in the classroom? • What teaching practices produce proficiency most effectively? • Curriculum design and implementation: backward design, task-based design & other

approaches • Assessing student work in the 21st century: skill-based assessment and formative assessment • Technology as a tool for collaboration, real life proficiency and cultural competence • Teaching heritage speakers

OTHER IDEAS Have a Reunion! Get together with fellow attendees from a CAIS retreat Organize an Affinity Group! Get together with colleagues from other CAIS schools around a topic of mutual interest