Engaging Students for Mastery: 10th Annual the ART of TEACHING Conference

Engaging Students for Mastery: 10th Annual the ART of TEACHING Conference

 

ENGAGING STUDENTS FOR MASTERY: 10TH ANNUAL THE ART OF TEACHING CONFERENCE

Cotsen Foundation for the ART of TEACHING kicks off the 2015-2016 school year with annual conference, now in its tenth year

0U1A3045LOS ANGELES, CA, September 30, 2015 — Hundreds of educators from school districts across California converged on the Hyatt Regency Ballroom in Long Beach bright and early Saturday, Sep. 26, for the highly anticipated 10th Annual the ART of TEACHING Conference presented by the Cotsen Foundation for the ART of TEACHING.

The ballroom’s foyer buzzed and hummed with the excited voices of Cotsen mentors, fellows, alumni, and administrators eager to sign in, grab some coffee, and head into the ballroom to hear Jerry Harris, the foundation’s executive director, kickoff a full day of learning with leading experts and authors in the field of education.

5C1A0634 Welcoming the more than 400 educators in attendance, Harris touched on the theme of this year’s conference. “We believe this year’s conference theme, Engaging Students for Mastery, is truly at the heart of excellent teaching and learning,” Harris said. “Setting the conditions in schools and classrooms that support students while they are developing deep conceptual understanding that leads to mastery… is a challenge and an imperative for all of us.”

This year’s lineup comprised a who’s who of instructional leaders, including Kylene Beers and Bob Probst (co-authors of Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading); Katherine Bomer (author ofHidden Gems: Naming and Teaching from the Brilliance in Every Student’s Writing); Nick Johnson (Research Assistant at UCLA and Mathematics Consultant with the Orange County Department of Education); Elham Kazemi (a professor of mathematics education at the University of Washington and co-author with Allison Hintze of Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions); Christopher Lehman (Founding Director of The Educator Collaborative and New York Times best-selling author); and keynote speaker, James Stigler (Professor of Psychology at UCLA and co-author of The Teaching Gap and The Learning Gap).

For Michelle Baldonado, Cotsen mentor from the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the highlights of this year’s conference were the presenters. “The conference had some heavy hitters in the teaching world,” said Baldonado. “I read the books these people have written. To actually be in the same room and participate in their sessions was such a treat.”

0U1A2999Conference-goers had a variety of sessions to choose from, all of which as dynamic and engaging as the presenters themselves. In the morning, Beers and Probst explored nonfiction reading strategies, Bomer shed light on a new way of looking at essay writing, Kazemi shared some of the ways teachers can plan and lead engaging math discussions with their students, and Lehman discussed close reading practices that are both fun and effective for young readers.

Mid-morning sessions included a deeper look at close reading strategies especially for developing readers, the joy and power of revisions in the writing process, children’s mathematical thinking, planning and leading productive math discussions in the upper grades, and practices that make informational reading, writing, and research more engaging for students.

5C1A0898After a productive and inspired morning of learning, Cotsen educators took a well-deserved break for lunch and the opportunity to listen to keynote speaker, James Stigler. Developed over many years of cross cultural research in education, Professor Stigler’s talk focused on “teaching for understanding”; that is, teaching students in a way that supports a deep conceptual understanding.

According to Professor Stigler, cultural conditions have hindered this type of teaching in the United States, but he offered solid practices teachers can incorporate into their instruction to overcome these obstacles. He encouraged teachers to provide their students with productive struggles, support them to make explicit connections, and help them to engage in deliberate practice.

Professor Stigler’s remarks resonated with Liz Romero, a Cotsen mentor from Los Angeles Unified. “When he said that high-achieving countries provide learning opportunities for students through productive struggles, explicit connection, and deliberate practice, I thought… this is Cognitively Guided Instruction.”

0U1A3060Following lunch, educators had the opportunity to hear from session presenters one last time for the day. Afternoon sessions were just as inspired as the ones that took place in the morning, and included, among others, the importance of finding the strengths in students’ writing as opposed to noticing only what needs to be corrected, helping students become independent learners of vocabulary, and an introduction to the major ideas of Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) and how to support students’ intuitive understanding of math.

“Our district was fortunate to be able to send a number of staff members, including administrators, mentor, fellows and alumni this year,” said Cotsen alumna Jody Bruce from San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District in Northern California.

“We used every minute of our time to learn, share, reflect, and brainstorm about how to bring information and insights from the conference back to our site. We talked throughout the plane flight and the shuttle ride back to our cars, and spent much of Sunday texting and emailing each other about the new learning we were going to implement on Monday.”

Bruce was one of more than 60 educators sponsored by the foundation to attend CGI or Reading/Writing Workshop observations the day before the conference (on Friday, Sep. 25) at Weaver Elementary (Los Alamitos Unified School District) and Alvarado Elementary (Long Beach Unified School District) respectively. The majority of the Cotsen teachers and administrators who attended these observations were from school districts in Northern California.

“I have come away from every Cotsen training and conference feeling humbled, inspired and energized,” continued Bruce. “This conference was no exception.”

/nas/content/live/cotsen/wp-content/themes/smarty/single.php