CASIE's Learning Lab quarterly workshop series is designed to address both the practical needs and the classroom dreams of educators.
Teachers wrestle with many different aspects of pedagogy and practice on a daily basis. At CASIE, we believe that thinking and learning collaboratively is one of the best ways to build a strong individual practice in the classroom. We developed our Learning Lab series as an opportunity for K-12 educators to meaningfully and deeply engage with new ideas while refining their own teaching. Each Learning Lab will feature focused content, active learning, collaborative work, expert support, and guided reflection over the span of two days of interactive learning with small groups and content experts.
Join us ONLINE for a unique opportunity to experience an intimate interactive setting with some of the practitioners and researchers at the forefront of education today.
We have designed our online Learning Labs to maximize engagement with your instructor and with fellow attendees in a relaxed, comfortable context. Expect to be challenged and excited over two days, three hours per day.
... I was able to immediately put what I learned into practice in the classroom!! Awesome facilitator, great stories and activities!!"
-Anne Prouty, French American International School, Portland, Oregon
"Excellent Learning Lab. From the facility to the food everything was fabulous...I came away with a bank of conceptual knowledge, more than I ever knew I would!"
-Kimberly Schorr, Clubview Elementary, Columbus, Georgia
Be a part of this conversation!
Use #CASIELearningLab and tag us on social media, @casieonline
2021-2022 Online Learning Labs
Critical Unmaking in the Classroom: A maker-centered approach to systemic injustice
OCTOBER 21-22, 2021
Jamie Chao Mignano
Technology & Maker Educator
Given a sharpened public focus in recent years around history and legacy in the US and around the world, many educators feel a renewed call to enact social justice ideas in their practice and classroom culture. When we ask our students to challenge systems of oppression, how do they know what that means? How might student agency, in the context of broad social forces, translate into deeper understanding and systemic change?
Drawing from Project Zero’s Agency by Design (AbD) initiative, this 2-day interactive workshop is designed for educators interested in an inquiry-based approach to probing complex, historically-based systems of oppression in their classroom. Participants will engage in practices for taking apart representational objects to explore their complexity and draw connections to larger systems. They’ll use the tools of maker-centered learning and systems thinking to confront historical artifacts with evidence that examines and expands the voices involved. The workshop will showcase applications of tools and strategies that aim to strengthen design sensitivity and the skills of inquiry in approaching issues of systemic injustice with students.
Jaime Chao Mignano has been a technology and maker educator in Washington, DC, for over a decade, serving schools and nonprofit organizations in developing and delivering curriculum and programs at the intersection of technology, making, human rights, and social justice. She is an enthusiastic maker with a love for purpose-driven innovation and playful learning. Jaime has been part of the leadership team for two AbD projects, Making Across the Curriculum and JusticexDesign.
Achieving Transformation through Concept-Based Learning
JANUARY 27-28, 2022
Chad Hyatt
Educator & Instructional Coach
It's a time for transformation in education. They say that we can't go back to the old way of doing school. We need a reimagining. Systemic inequities, pandemics, global issues, and an obsession with standardized testing have all taken a toll on teacher mindsets, school funding, and community fatigue. What if transformation could be sparked through our curriculum and instruction? How can curriculum be used as a tool for equity? What if we taught in a way that could ease our fears from the ramifications of standardized testing? What if our curriculum provided paths for learning about and solving global issues? Transitioning curriculum and instruction to a concept-based model can provide schools and teachers with just the tool to begin the work of transformation.
In this 2-day interactive workshop, participants will explore what concept-based learning is and how it looks in schools and classrooms. They will discover why concept-based learning aims for the transfer of learning and how that eases the stress of "covering" the curriculum. Participants will investigate how conceptual learning provides equitable access to our curriculum and instruction by honoring the funds of knowledge that all students enter our classroom with from day one. Participants will consider why local and global issues can be integrated more easily into a concept-based curriculum. This collaborative and engaging workshop will spark attendees to dig into their curriculum, interrogate it, and transform it into what teaching and learning looks like in our schools.
Chad lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with his partner of 21 years. He has been a member of the IB Educator Network since 2008 and has served as a workshop leader, site visit team leader and member, and school consultant. As a member of IBEN, Chad participated in the review process, at the IB offices in The Hague, for the Enhanced PYP and the design of the online platform for the 2020 Programme Standards and Practices. He also developed several of the original online PYP workshops. Chad has presented at several IB Global Conferences in the Americas Region, as well as also served on the Board of Directors for the Association of Hoosier IB Schools for several years. He has worked at PYP or MYP schools since 2003. He loved being a 3rd grade PYP teacher. He also served as a PYP and/or MYP coordinator for schools in Las Vegas, Baltimore, and Indianapolis. Chad is currently a District K-12 Curriculum Coach in Indianapolis.
Creating Engaging Learning Communities that Cultivate Critical Thinking Through Art Integration
MARCH 24-25, 2022
Kristen Kullbergh
Educator and Arts Integration Instructional Coach
What happens when we use art to deepen student thinking and understanding? How can the arts bolster equity and engagement in our classrooms? For the past several years, Kristen has been investigating these big questions as she experiments with purposeful integration of the arts in her middle school Language Arts classroom.
This 2-day interactive workshop is designed for the educator interested in exploring the benefits of intentional arts integration in any academic setting. Participants will engage in various Project Zero Thinking Routines as a vehicle to access and navigate the complexities of student thinking as well as reimagine how we as teachers can form and maintain meaningful collaborative relationships among our learners. Participants will uncover the significance of artful learning as they rethink the role that art can - and should - play in establishing and sustaining a Culture of Thinking in our diverse classrooms.
Kristen Kullberg is the middle school Language Arts teacher and Arts Integration Instructional Coach at Sacred Heart School in Washington, DC. In her dual role, Kristen engages students in PreK3 through 8th grade in accessing academic content through the visual and dramatic arts. As the arts have allowed her learners to grow in their close looking, artful thinking, and deep understanding, Kristen has delighted in sharing her journey with educators nationwide. She continues to investigate the impact of arts integration on student learning as an active participant in DCPZ, a group of DC area educators dedicated to passionately pursuing Project Zero ideas in their classrooms, as well as a faculty member of the Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute and Education Coordinator of the Washington International School Summer Institute for Teachers (WISSIT).