Schedule of Events
8:30-9 a.m.: Registration
9-10 a.m.: Keynote: Grace Acan
10:10-11 a.m.: Session 1
11:05-11:55 a.m.: Session 2
12-1:45 p.m.: Keynote: Rebekah Peterson
Keynote Speaker
Grace Acan
Grace Acan is a former abductee by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. She is the co-founder of the Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN) in Gulu, Uganda. WAN works with war survivors, navigating the unique socio-cultural landscape of Northern Uganda. Acan has written a book about her experiences, Not yet sunset: A story of survival and perseverance in LRA captivity. She is knowledgeable about the needs of war survivors and is an advocate for women and children. She will speak about her experiences and work.
Keynote Speaker
Rebecka Peterson
Rebecka Peterson, the 2023 National Teacher of the Year, is a math teacher who loves stories.
Rebecka has taught high school math classes ranging from intermediate algebra to Advanced Placement calculus, for 11 years at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Amid a difficult first year of high school teaching, she found the “One Good Thing” blog. She credits daily posting there to helping her recognize the beautiful and positive experiences occurring in her classroom, which inspired her to stay in the profession. She has since contributed 1,400 posts to the blog. As Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, she has visited teachers across the state to highlight their important work through the Teachers of Oklahoma campaign.
Presenter: Richard Velasco
Learning math can be fun! In this session, participants will engage in non-curricular math tasks that help to elicit student thinking in K-12 classrooms. Themes from the text, “Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics,” will be discussed, and participants will walk away with resources they may use or modify for their own classroom settings.
Presenters: Kate Raymond, Mandy Howell
This presentation aims to engage participants in a series of interactive mathematical games tailored to 4th through 8th grade students. Each of these games will focus on developing number sense within students. During this session, participants will learn practical ways of incorporating these games into their classrooms effectively.
Presenters: Jacob Pleasants, Julianna Kershen
ChatGPT is full of possibilities... and problems. Come to this session to learn about what ChatGPT can (and cannot) do, how it might support and also impair the work of students and teachers, and the ethical issues it raises. Let’s engage in some critical dialogue so that we can help our students (and colleagues!) make informed decisions about ChatGPT and AI.
Presenters: Samaya Williams, Kate Raymond
Making sense of mathematics and communicating mathematical thinking are two of key skills STEM employers are increasingly seeking in candidates. In this session, learn several flexible strategies you can use to engage students in reasoning, sense making, and mathematical communication in just the first few minutes of class.
Presenters: William Davis, Kexuan Wu, Wenqing Yue
How can we creatively use tech to cultivate communicative spaces for language students? This session highlights the application of several websites and tech tools to promote world language and bi/multilingual learners’ interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication. Participants will consider how they might integrate these tools into their upcoming practice.
Presenters: Amber Beisly, Anne Moffit, Darshini A.H. Mudiyanselag
STEAM activities incorporate art as a way to make meaning out of science, math, technology, and engineering. This session explores activities that help children (and grown ups) understand math or science concepts through what happens when they create something on the page. Participants will explore color from a STEM lens and brainstorm ways to incorporate STEAM into their own classrooms.
Presenters: Brianne Johnson, Michelle Boyd Waters
Imagine your students inspired by the fields and communities around them, crafting compelling narratives, poems, and essays that resonate with authenticity and confidence. This workshop empowers secondary English teachers with a dynamic blend of place-based writing pedagogies and writing center practices to empower rural students as confident and skilled writers.
Presenter: Dr. Heidi Torres
Come to this session to learn about a flexible strategy that will help your students engage with the life stories of people throughout history, around the world, or even as fictional characters in books, while practicing reading, writing, research, and art skills in the process. Leave with resources and ideas to execute this project in your particular school context.
Presenters: Jacey Chakrabarty, Sofia Alvarez-Briglie and Kylie Jennings
Come to this session for ideas on how to intentionally use YA literature to integrate secondary science and ELA curriculums. The presentation will focus on a science lesson about MREs taught in conjunction with graphic novels including multicultural themes to encourage cross-curricular connections and represent and empower underrepresented student populations.
