Leadership and Organization

Advisory 101 and 201

Need help starting an advisory program from the ground up? Do you have an advisory program that needs a little work? We can help! Rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach to advisory, we support your team with information, research, examples, and provocative questioning so you can make informed decisions to develop an advisory program that fits your needs. From duration and frequency to content and delivery, training of advisors, and troubleshooting, we can craft a supportive experience just for you.

AI: Challenges and Opportunities

Middle school students are on the cutting edge of technology. As early adopters, they need to develop a solid understanding of AI’s potential opportunities as well as its limitations and ethical concerns. We’ll work with school teams to share the challenges and opportunities and provide a support framework for schools to consider when creating policy. We’ll also share some ready-made resources for use in the classroom to address common assessment concerns. To quote an IBM study: “AI won’t replace people, but people who use AI will replace people who don’t.”

Career Exploration

More than asking, “What do you want to be when you grow up,” career exploration is a discovery of passions, strengths, and potential. Leveraging the ASA and AMLE Career Exploration Playbook, and a collaboration with Canva, we’ll take a look at what’s possible, share a road map for success, and explore how to optimize programming for our pioneering thinkers! There are careers out there that don’t yet exist!

Connected Educator Communities

As leaders, it is crucial to be able to build strong educator communities. Enhancing job satisfaction helps to create positive learning environments, which in turn improves academic engagement and success and fosters a strong, resilient whole-school culture. We’ll share the research and the tools for school leaders so teachers and students feel like they belong.

Family Engagement: Parent EDU

Research shows that student atten­dance, social skills, and behavior improve when parents/guardians are involved in their child’s education. If the extent to which schools nurture a relationship with families makes all the difference to a student’s success, how do we cultivate positive parent-school partnerships while setting high expectations and maintaining appropriate boundaries? Set up a Family Engagement plan to enhance your school’s educational outcomes and ensure the kids are alright.

From Evaluation to Elevation: Meaningful Professional Learning for Faculty & Staff

Crafted for school leaders, this workshop focuses on uplifting professional growth. Participants will explore innovative approaches to personalized development plans, constructive feedback, and collaborative learning communities. Gain practical insights into fostering a culture where faculty and staff feel empowered to continuously improve, ensuring not just compliance but genuine professional elevation and propelling your educational team towards a culture of excellence and collective achievement.

From Surviving to Thriving: Rethinking Educator Retention

Explore innovative approaches to address burnout, promote work-life balance, and enhance professional satisfaction. Gain practical insights into building a culture that not only attracts but also retains top talent, transforming educator retention from a challenge to an asset and empowering you to redefine the narrative, fostering a thriving and resilient educational community.

House Systems

Organizational structures that foster belonging optimize positive relationships between students and students and teachers. This engaging workshop explores the transformative potential of implementing a House System within your middle school. Participants will delve into the benefits of fostering a sense of community, healthy competition, and cross-grade relationships. Gain practical insights on structuring and implementing a House System, promoting a positive school culture where every student feels connected and motivated to excel. Using case studies, we’ll share how to build a House system that works for your school, regardless of size.

Interdisciplinary Teaming

The structure of interdisciplinary teaming is a hallmark of the middle school concept. That may mean looking at the master schedule and staffing needs, ensuring that students are grouped together with the same teachers and that those teachers have planning time together. But developing a master schedule that affords common planning time for teams of teachers is just part of the story. Once teachers have that time together, what do they do with it? How can teaming create true learning communities within your school? We will work with you to meet you where you are and help you advance toward truly student-centered, productive interdisciplinary teams.

Scheduling

Does your master schedule limit your vision? Or does your vision drive your schedule? Many of the hallmark practices of the middle school concept require time within the schedule. Our team can work with you to re-evaluate your values and schedule and develop a master schedule that allows your school to fully execute your vision and values.

Student Choice & Agency

Middle school students are discovering who they are and how they navigate the world, and that includes how they function in our classrooms. Rather than being passive recipients of information, middle school students should be at the center of their learning experiences. But when we start talking about increasing student choice and agency, we have some concerns: How do we satisfy the demands of the curriculum and the pacing guide? Are we talking about creating an individual lesson plan for every student? And what happens when a student just wants us to tell them what to do? Unpack these challenges and come away empowered with real steps you can take, within your own teaching style and comfort zone, to start engaging students today.

Young Adolescent Development

YAD is the heartbeat of middle school, the why behind what we do—and don’t do. However, many educators find themselves in middle grades positions without a strong background in young adolescent development, and sometimes our developmental responsiveness gets dulled under the weight of the countless decisions we make and obstacles we face in any given day. In this engaging session, we lay a foundational understanding of young adolescent development and explore the implications for teaching, classroom management and discipline, and school culture.