Chapters International

Overview:

How can leaders directly improve the conditions for teaching and learning? We have a genuine opportunity to reconsider format decisions in our schools to address new challenges and open possibilities regarding the structural ecosystem. There are four program structures can be designed to work together providing opportunities for a responsive curriculum. The program structures are a kind of structural nest when viewed as INTERCONNECTED. Determining and shaping these four program structures is critical to help your school become a modern and contemporary ecosystem. The four interconnected structures we will explore are:

Schedule. How we use time to structure learning plans.
Spaces. How we organize and use spaces to engage with learners.
Learner Grouping. How we intentionally group learners to grow their interests, skill sets, and discourse.
Personnel Configuration. How we intentionally organize personnel to be responsive to what the schedules, spaces, and learner grouping demands.

These four critical structures and their interplay as paramount in creating that quite literally shape how our curriculum and learning experiences are planned. As leaders we will work to lay out planning approaches to address the format structures not in isolation by, but rather orchestrated to work together for cohesion.

OUTCOMES FOR PARTICIPANTS::

Draft of a working plan to adjust and make improvements in your schools’ ecosystem.

Tools for planning and researching fresh approaches to schedules, learning spaces, grouping patterns for learners and personnel.

Draft of potential curriculum upgrading and personalized learning experiences that will result from the shift in your ecosystem.

Tools and resources to develop a plan for improving the conditions at your school.

Fresh ideas, new practices, and case studies from around the world to support your work.

Session 1: Rethink and Reimagine Your School’s Structures Format: Leading with Time- How to establish schedules that support the learning experiences your students need

Analyze the direct impact of the four structures on establishing the conditions for learning.
Ascertain where your school is presently
Determine realistic options for both long-term and short-term schedules
Review case studies of different schedules
Explore strategies to deal with flex-time
Work with the concept of bidding for time with other faculty members
Weigh in on asynchronous and synchronous time
Examine how student self-navigating time

Session 2: Leading with Learning Spaces: How to use both physical and virtual learning spaces to support learning

Analyze the power and impact of physical spaces on learning
Examine extraordinary new learning spaces and architectural plans from around the world
Consider approaches to doing simple adjustments in physical spaces that have restrictions
Explore the uses of modern furniture designs in sculpting learning spaces
Explore the power of outdoor learning spaces and off-campus spaces
Analyze the impact of virtual spaces on how students learn
Examine the impact of learning spaces on curriculum planning and lesson design

Session 3: Leading with Grouping Patterns: How to design learner grouping pattens and personnel configurations to support learning

Examine the possibilities for grouping students in a greater variety of ways on the institutional level
Consider alternatives to rigid grade level grouping or ability grouping
Examine approaches to instructional grouping and how to help teachers work on grouping their learners more effectively
Analyze how to set up corresponding and dynamic approaches to faculty grouping
Analyze approaches to getting away from silos in our departments and grade levels
Examine the power of teaming and long-term grouping patterns with students

Session 4: Crafting a Plan and Prototypes to Make the Shift

Consider employing Design Thinking as a model for action.
Consider critical factors in establishing a purpose and mission for your community.
Determine key roles and players to launch the process.
Consider approaches to gathering input from all members of the community.
Examine various task force configurations.
Examine approaches for researching prototypes.
Examine approaches for drafting prototypes.
Examine considerations for hiring external experts: architects and designers.
Examine various approaches to establishing a timeline and deliverables.
Examine different approaches to launching the work and sustaining the work.

DR. HEIDI HAYES JACOBS

Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs is internationally recognized for her seminal work in contemporary curriculum design, vertical mapping and modernizing responsive school environments. She prizes her work directly with schools in all settings of every kind, whether public, private, secular, sectarian, on-site, or virtual. Dr. Jacobs’s models on curriculum mapping world are the basis for software solutions used throughout the world. Dr. Jacobs has engaged in projects with a wide array of both national and international organizations and companies such as ASCD, NAESP, Learning Forward, the European Council of International Schools, the Near East School Association, the College Board, ADK International Sino-Canadian Schools in China, New Zealand’s Learning Network, the Kennedy Center, the Peace Corps World Wise Schools, Carnegie Hall, Australia ISV, the United Nations Council on Teaching about the UN, the Near East School Association, the International Baccalaureate, the NY State Higher Education Commission, the CCSSO workgroup on Global Competencies, AASA, Newsela, Amazon Studios, and the Waterford Institute. The author of thirteen books including the best-selling Bold Moves for Schools:How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments (ASCD) with co-author, Marie Alcock. Dr. Jacobs is laser-focused on how professionals, learners, and families can make choices to best prepare students for the future and is currently in collaboration with Allison Zmuda on developing tools, approaches, and a book on how to move forward post-pandemic with fresh approaches and building on lessons learned.