STLinATL

This keynote focuses on the powerful roles teachers play to engage students in a personalized learning classroom. We explore what the expectations are of the world right now and how focusing on our interrelated roles of lead learner, facilitator, and coach can grow students capacity and future success. Participants will be introduced to the personalized learning sound board as an anchor for breakout sessions and further development.

Keynote 
Beyond the Why and Into the How: Practical Steps Toward Inclusive Classrooms
We know the startling opportunity gap in education and society.  We've learned about identity, culture, communication, and power and how they privilege some and disenfranchise others.  We are convinced as to why diversity and inclusion are important, but we are unsure or unclear as to how this intention becomes positive impact on student lives.  How do we turn commitment into action, and what are some strategies and best practices to become the educator with whom all children thrive?

Keynote - 
Differentiated Instruction in  World of Standards and Accountability
Differentiated instruction is a nice idea, but what happens when it comes to grading students or those high-stakes, standardized tests? Do we really believe what is fair isn't always equal, and it's okay to do different things for different students? Being sensitive to students' readiness levels and learning styles while holding them accountable for the same standards can be a challenge. What works? Join us for a provocative and entertaining address that examines differentiating instruction for diverse learners while also meeting the needs of standards and accountability. Affirming and confronting, the presentation busts differentiated instruction myths and gets to our core beliefs as educators.

The Robots are coming! The Robots are coming! The Robots are…. here. In recent months, there has been an upsurge in the attention given to robots and artificial intelligence (AI) and their future role in our society. Robots, with intelligence, are advancing into beneficial, life-saving, machines for assisting us in our everyday lives. The challenge is determining how we, as educators, can best train the next generation of students for a future that is still evolving? How do we make robots accessible for the next generation of diverse students? This talk provides a first look at how robots are changing the texture of our day-to-day experiences. Through lessons learned in building robots that assist children with special needs, this talk will discuss the elements of intelligence, trust, and emotional empathy robots are emulating. It will conclude with how we, as educators, can best prepare our students to embrace this inevitable future.

In this talk, Dr. Ozawa-de Silva will describe advances in the field of Social and Emotional Learning that have been considered so significant that some of the founders of SEL, including Dr. Daniel Goleman, have called the result “SEL 2.0.” These advances, combined in Emory University’s Social, Emotional, and Ethical (SEE) Learning program, include teaching students about methods for cultivating compassion, ethical discernment, and a concern for equity; helping students develop a personal understanding of nervous system physiology and the effects of trauma; developing an awareness of systems and their impact on individual and social well-being; and creating a deeper approach to attention training and the navigation of emotions. The talk will describe the science and theory behind these specific developments with examples taken from the SEE Learning curriculum and from the feedback of the over 600 educators in the US, India, and Europe who were introduced to the program during its feasibility phase.