Time: 9:00 - 10:00

Location: Tantipipatpong Theatre

Presenter: Kristine Mizzone

Where Wellbeing Meets Learning: The Future of Education

Learning cannot thrive without wellbeing. In this keynote, we examine the six universal social and emotional needs all humans carry and how they form the foundation of the future of education. Drawing on powerful examples from our very schools, we will explore how intentional design can transform these needs into lived experiences for students and educators alike. 

This keynote offers both affirmation and aspiration: affirmation of the meaningful, human-centered practices already taking shape in schools, and aspiration toward environments where every member of the community, child and adult, feels supported in ways that promote genuine wellbeing. Before we return to our respective contexts, this session is both a mirror and a map: a moment to reconnect with what matters most, to see what is already working, and to imagine what becomes possible when we intentionally design for human needs. The future of education begins here: at the place where wellbeing meets learning.

Time: 10:00 - 10:10

Time: 10:10 -11:25

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🌐 Mid-Year Check: Is Your Literacy Work Sticking?

Grades K-12 

Description: Meaningful shifts take time to take root, whether you’ve launched a new program, redesigned units, or refined your school’s literacy framework. By mid-year, the excitement often gives way to practical questions: What’s working? What needs attention? And how can we tell?

In this interactive session, we’ll step back to assess progress through the lens of implementation science. Together, we’ll look at classroom evidence, teacher experiences, and student learning to pinpoint what’s taking hold and where to focus next. You’ll leave with simple tools and reflection protocols to run your own mid-year check and a clear process for translating insight into action for the second half of the year.

Facilitator: Katie Vis

Location: 1314

Resource:

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🌐 Leading Change: Driving new initiatives forward with high-energy collaboration and collective enthusiasm

Grades K-12

Description: Driving meaningful change requires more than just a strategic plan; it requires a movement. To move the needle on student outcomes and staff culture, leaders must ignite action across three critical dimensions: Self, Team, and Process. In this session, we move beyond the "what" of school initiatives and dive into the "how" of impactful leadership. We will explore:

• Leading Yourself - The Catalyst for Change: Cultivate the personal credibility and emotional intelligence needed to champion new ideas. 

• Leading Your Team - Building Collective Momentum: Discover strategies to build collective efficacy and navigate complexities with confidence. 

Leading the Process - Making Change Stick: Explore practical, evidence-based models to ensure change is sustainable and measurable.

Facilitator: Jane Lobsey

Location: 1306

Resource:

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💬 Teaching Across Languages: Activating Linguistic Assets for Instructional Impact

Grades K-12 

Description: Multilingual learners thrive when they draw on their full linguistic repertoire to engage deeply in literacy and content learning.  We’ll examine how to strengthen instruction through explicit instruction that builds metabilingual awareness and cross-linguistic connections between English and home languages (e.g., word study, syntax study).  You’ll explore research-backed practices and leave with a framework of look-fors that support ongoing professional learning for EAL and bilingual immersion teachers.

Facilitator: Annie Ng

Location: 1309

Resource:

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📚 Reducing Load, Building Meaning: Bringing the Science of Reading into Mathematics Instruction

Grades K-8

Description: Shifts in literacy practice have been at the forefront for many schools, and as they become more embedded, the spotlight naturally expands to other subject areas. What if we examined our approaches to mathematics through the lens of the Science of Reading? 

In this session, we will explore how coherence in mathematical vocabulary, meaningful fluency and flexible thinking, and intentional routines that support mathematical reasoning align with the moves we already make in effective literacy instruction. You’ll leave with ideas for school-wide practices that promote coherence in mathematics, as well as practical strategies that reduce cognitive load, support multilingual learners, and strengthen flexible, conceptually rich mathematical thinking.

Facilitator: Andrea Rees

Location: 1307

Resource:

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💬 The Power of Pause and Much More: Talk Strategies for Learners Age 2-5

Grades EY-K

Description: Learning to read and write begins long before a student picks up a pencil. It starts with talk. Grounded in decades of research on early language acquisition and oral language development - the single greatest predictor of future literacy success - this session equips educators with simple, high-impact strategies to transform everyday conversations into powerful learning opportunities.

We'll move beyond casual interaction to explore intentional communication techniques. Participants will learn the "Three S" approach, including the crucial role of the Pause, to increase the complexity, length, and confidence of children's verbal responses. We will unpack the science behind phonological awareness (the auditory foundation of reading) and practice effective ways to build vocabulary and narrative skills through rich, scaffolded dialogue.

You will leave with practical, evidence-based communication protocols you can immediately apply across all areas to ensure every learner gains the strong language foundation needed to thrive.

Facilitator: Emma Weston

Location: 1311

Resource:

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🌐 Beyond the Classroom Block: Literacy learning through specialist subjects and shared planning

Grades PK-5

Description: Literacy does not live in a single block of the day. It lives in every discipline where children observe, move, create, and make meaning. This session explores how disciplinary literacy and intentional co-planning with specialist teachers can transform literacy learning, especially writing, from an isolated task into an authentic, connected practice. Together, we will examine how the arts, music, PE, and other specialist subjects offer powerful entry points for language development, meaning-making, and purposeful writing. We will also look at how collaboration creates space in already-full schedules without sacrificing depth. You will leave with practical co-planning tools, lesson structures, and real classroom examples that make literacy instruction feel integrated, visible, and grounded in the work children do across the day.

Facilitator: Meredith Spragg

Location: 1316

Resource:

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📚 Building Knowledge Through Text Sets: Designing Intentional Reading Resources

Grades EY-5

Description: This session supports elementary teachers in learning how to design purposeful text sets that strengthen reading instruction and deepen student understanding. Participants will be guided through a clear process for building their own intentional groups of texts used across a reading unit and organized around a common module of knowledge. Teachers will explore how thoughtful text selection builds students’ schema, as vocabulary and background knowledge are essential for reading comprehension and for accessing increasingly complex texts. The session also highlights how well-designed text sets enhance transdisciplinary learning, helping students connect ideas and transfer knowledge across subject areas.

Facilitator: Erika Olson

Location: 1315

Resource:

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🌐 How Assessment Literacy Builds Academic Language

Grades 5-12

Description: This session explores assessment literacy as a twofold skill: understanding assessment demands and intentionally using the language of assessment to build students’ academic language. Framed through content-area literacy, the session focuses on how command terms embedded in assessment tasks shape how students are expected to think, respond, and communicate across subjects. Designed for Grades 6–12 teachers across all disciplines, with particular relevance for middle school classrooms and English language learners, the session highlights practical ways teachers can make assessment language explicit and leverage it to strengthen students’ academic language and support success across the curriculum.

Facilitator: Sarah McCord

Location: 1317

Resource:

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📚 Making Close Reading Stick: Engaging, High-Impact Moves for Secondary Readers

Grades 6-12

Description: Close reading doesn’t have to feel rigid - or boring. In this practical session, we’ll zoom in on why close reading matters for adolescent learners and how to choose texts that spark curiosity. We’ll explore high-leverage strategies that sharpen student attention and keep the process lively, even when the content gets challenging. You’ll experience close reading from the learner perspective, experiment with a range of moves you can use tomorrow, and walk away with a lesson you can try with your students next week.

Facilitator: Jenny Killion

Location: 1302

Resource:

Time: 11:35 -12:50

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🌐 Coaching Through Change: Supporting Meaningful Instructional Shifts

Grade K-12 Leaders, Coaches, & Coordinators

Description: Coaching during instructional change is complex—teams have mixed readiness, individuals enter from different starting points, and the work demands clarity, empathy, and purpose. In this session, we’ll explore the realities of change in schools today, including trends emerging around the world, and consider how change-management principles can guide effective coaching at the individual, team, or whole-school level. You’ll engage with practical tools and routines you can tailor to your context and leave with clear, usable coaching moves to support teachers and teams through ongoing instructional shifts.

Facilitator: Molly Ball

Location: 1314

Resource:

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📚 The Shared Reading Toolkit: Strategies to Deepen Content Knowledge Through Writing

Grades K-8

Description: In this workshop, we’ll look at how to bridge the gap between shared reading and writing using evidence-based practices that strengthen both language comprehension and writing composition. We will show how shared texts provide a natural framework for teaching syntax, vocabulary, and text structure while simultaneously deepening students' content knowledge. You’ll gain a toolkit of practical, high-impact strategies that help students more deeply understand what they read through writing experiences, ensuring they build both literacy skills and a richer understanding of texts.

Facilitator: Jane Lobsey

Location: 1316

Resource:

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📚 Purposeful Planning:  Shared Reading for EY-G2 Word Study and Beyond

Grades EY-2

Description: With the growing number of literacy instruction essentials competing for limited time in the school day, teachers often ask where those minutes can be found. This session explores how a carefully selected picture book can serve as a powerful anchor for shared instruction, allowing teachers to intentionally extract multiple teaching points from a single text across early literacy.

Participants will explore how to plan with a picture book at the centre, identifying opportunities to teach word study, vocabulary, language structures, and comprehension through rereads and responsive instruction. The session will include time for teachers to examine texts, explore instructional possibilities, and consider how shared reading can enhance and streamline their existing curriculum.

Facilitator: Lauren Hateley-Crowe

Location: 1315

Resource:

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✏️Strengthening Student Writing: Practical Strategies for International Classrooms

Grades 1-8

Description: This hands-on discussion introduces international school teachers to sentence-level writing instruction. This not only develops stronger thinking, but clearer writing across all subjects.

Participants will explore practical techniques—sentence expansion, sentence combining, as well as single and multi-paragraph outlines — to support students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. We’ll model routines that integrate writing into daily lessons, enabling teachers to scaffold complex ideas to enhance transdisciplinary instruction. Through short demonstrations and collaborative planning, attendees will learn to design quick, high-impact writing exercises that develop syntax, organization, and analytical skills. Austin will share real classroom examples from his international school context that illustrate adaptable lesson sequences for lower and upper primary grades. Teachers will leave with ready-to-use sentence templates and ideas for embedding new practices into units across the curriculum. (As a bonus, we will also layer in some tips on using a professional book club to drive change in your school context!)

Facilitator: Austin Wellman

Location: 1317

Resource:

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📚 Disrupting the Default: Facing Assessment Change with An Innovator's Mindset

Grades K-5

Description: With traditional assessments being questioned, we decided to take a bold step: to redesign literacy assessment from the ground up. Rather than measuring reading through leveled passages that privileged prior knowledge and favored fluent test-takers, we set out to create a system that reflected the real complexity of literacy development — one rooted in the science of reading and inquiry-driven learning.  Along the way, we built a UFLI-aligned spelling assessment that requires the students to encode their phonics knowledge and a writing rubric grounded in composition and transcription skills that allows both teachers and students to see where learners are in their progression and plan next steps accordingly.  This transformation wasn’t just about replacing one assessment with another — it was about shifting mindsets. You’ll leave inspired with practical ideas and frameworks for rethinking literacy assessment in your own context — from benchmarks to rubrics, from compliance to insight, and from measurement to meaning.

Facilitator: Rebecca Murray

Location: 1306

Resource:

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🌐 AI as Your Creative Partner: Purposeful Possibilities for K-5 Learning

Grades K-5

Description: Curious about AI tools and their potential? This session will help K-5 educators confidently explore AI as a creative partner in designing engaging learning experiences. You will explore multiple possibilities for AI integration focused around Google tools. You'll leave with practical tools, ready-to-use resources, and renewed confidence to take small, purposeful steps with AI in your classroom. Come ready to experiment, ask questions, and discover how AI can help create engaging, differentiated learning experiences.

Facilitator: Karen Hendren

Location: 1309

Resource:

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✏️ Writing That Works: A Classroom Case Study in Structured Writing and Knowledge-Building

Grades K-5

Description: Writing is one of the most complex tasks we ask students to do, yet many classrooms are still navigating how to support writers in meaningful and sustainable ways. In this session, we will briefly ground our work in the science of writing before exploring what structured writing instruction can look like in practice.

Using a second-grade classroom as a case study, participants will examine how thinkSRSD can serve as one effective framework for supporting planning, organization, and self-regulation—particularly when writing is grounded in shared, knowledge-rich content. Together, we will explore practical tools such as breaking down prompts into clear “do” and “what” components and using mnemonics like TIDE to support organization. Participants will leave with strategies they can try right away.

Facilitator: Molly Kaschub

Location: 1302

Resource:

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🌐Designing Durable Learning: Using Retrieval Practices to Strengthen Literacy Instruction

Grades 4-12

Description: This session draws on the science of learning to explore how retrieval practice strengthens long-term memory and supports deep literacy development. Participants will engage with research-backed strategies that make learning stick across classrooms and contexts, with a focus on practical applications in reading and writing instruction. The session also highlights thoughtful ways to use AI tools to support retrieval practices while keeping student thinking at the center. The session emphasizes practical takeaways, leaving teachers with ready-to-use approaches they can implement in their classrooms right away.

Facilitator: Natalie Gilbert

Location: 1307

Resource:

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🌐 Beyond the Numbers: Transforming Literacy Data into Actionable Insight

Grades 6-12

Description: Data doesn’t have to be a daunting task. In fact, when framed by the right conversation, it becomes the most powerful tool in your teaching toolkit. Join us for a 75-minute hands-on workshop designed to move your team from "collecting data" to "creating change."

Drawing on the proven Adaptive Leadership protocols from Thinking Collaborative and research from Wellman & Lipton, this session provides a welcoming space to master the art of data-informed discussions. You will walk away with a ready-to-use toolkit of protocols that make team meetings more efficient, more equitable, and, most importantly, more impactful for your students. Together, we will explore:

• The Big Picture: How to use departmental protocols to spot curriculum gaps and align your goals without the overwhelm.

• The Classroom View: Collaborative strategies for quick, action-oriented "data dives" that result in immediate, effective shifts in your daily teaching.

Facilitator: Marcella Cooper

Location: 1311

Resource:

Time: 12:55 -13:40

Location: Black Box Theater and Foyer

Time: 13:45 -14:45

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🌱 Crystal Alchemy Soundbath: An immersive healing that takes you deep within

Description: In the busyness of being an educator, we sometimes need to take the time to care for ourselves and give our nervous system a moment of deep healing that it deserves. I invite you to experience a Crystal Alchemy Soundbath—a deeply soulful and meditative experience that will leave you feeling both deeply rested and rejuvenated.  Using high-frequency quartz crystal singing bowls, this session washes away the "mental chatter" with pure, resonant vibrations. As the harmonic tones surround you, your brainwaves naturally shift from a state of high-alert activity to a restorative alpha or theta state, triggering the body’s parasympathetic nervous system. This immersive journey works on a cellular level to release stored tension, reduce cortisol levels, and quiet the mind. Attune to your inner being, open your heart, and simply breathe and be. 

*Note: This session is a repeat of Saturday’s session.

Facilitator: Andrea Morris

Location: 2206

Resource:

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🌱 Everyday Color: Coloring Your Perspective

Description: Art invites us to discover the freedom within. It encourages us to pause, observe, and truly appreciate the small details—including the colors that surround us every single day.

In this session, you are invited to build a personal relationship with color. We will explore the mindful act of mixing paints freely, create a palette that speaks to your inner self, and learn to infuse everyday objects with your own personal hues.

Color has a deep connection to our emotions. By the end of this journey, you may find that the meaning behind these colors is, in fact, a reflection of your soul.

Facilitator: Navin Tantanadaecha

Location: 1306

Resource:

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🌱 Breathing Room: Centering Yoga, Mindfulness, and Journaling to Support Teen Well-Being

Description: Across the globe, adolescents are showing signs of distress that can no longer be ignored. As Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation warns, growing dependence on screens and shrinking opportunities for real connection are reshaping how teens think, feel, and relate. Within schools that prize rigor and relentless productivity, many students are quietly struggling under the pressure to perform. This session calls for a rebalancing of attention and presence through evidence-based mind-body and literacy practices that any teacher can facilitate. Grounded in research demonstrating that school-based yoga and mindfulness programs meaningfully reduce stress and support psychological well-being, participants will learn accessible techniques in mindfulness, breathwork, and reflective journaling to help students restore focus, resilience, and calm in a world of constant digital distraction.

(No prior yoga experience required; suitable for all teachers and leaders.)

Facilitator: Emily Thomas

Location: 1307

Resource:

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🌱 Everyone’s an Artist:

Returning to creativity as a daily practice for calm, presence, and joy

Description: We often tell children that everyone is an artist, but we sometimes forget to offer that same permission to ourselves. This session is an invitation back to your own creativity, not as a performance but as a daily practice that supports well-being, presence, and joy. Together, we will explore five simple sketchbook techniques that anyone can try, even in a busy school day, and look at what research tells us about the calming and grounding power of drawing. You will leave with accessible ways to build a gentle art habit, reconnect with your creative identity, and bring that renewed sense of curiosity and calm back into your work with children.

Facilitator: Meredith Spragg

Location: 1315

Resource:

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🌱 When Life Hands You Lemons… Write About It!

Description: Life has a way of offering us “lemons”, or moments of transition, challenge, and emotional weight that can feel overwhelming. Yet with intention and reflection, those same experiences can become sources of clarity, resilience, and even strength. This workshop invites you to explore how writing can help transform difficult moments into meaningful insights. Through guided prompts, quiet journaling time, and optional sharing, you will practice turning personal challenges into narratives that offer perspective and possibility. Whether you already journal regularly or are looking to reconnect with your voice, this workshop offers a supportive space to pause, process, and create. Together, we’ll slow down, reflect, and use writing as a grounding tool for understanding what life is handing us and what we want to do with it.

Facilitator: Kristine Mizzone

Location: 1316

Resource:

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🌱 The Positivity Ratio: Research-Backed Strategies for Educator Flourishing

Description: In a demanding profession like education, our natural negativity bias often causes us to focus on challenges and overlook the profound impact we make every day, leading to exhaustion and burnout. This session introduces a tangible, evidence-based approach drawn from Positive Psychology designed to intentionally build resilience by actively increasing the Positivity Ratio. Participants will explore the science behind self-affirmation and receive a choice menu of practical, research-based methods—including the Digital Drop Box, the Physical Gratitude Jar, and the Three-Sentence Success Journal. We will guide educators through the crucial steps of Collect, Reflect, and Commit, ensuring they choose and establish a personalized routine for regularly internalizing their value, reminding them how truly amazing they are, and sustaining their professional well-being throughout the year

Facilitator: Emma Weston

Location: 1311

Resource:

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🌱Building Community through Meaningful Conversations

Description: How do you stay calm, open, and compassionate in the middle of a tough conversation with a colleague, parent, or student?

In this workshop, you’ll explore how your thoughts, emotions and habits shape and influence the way you listen and respond. You’ll learn to recognise what influences how you show up in conversation, build skills to stay grounded in challenging situations, and discover the power of curiosity.

By the end, you’ll walk away with tools to make your conversations more intentional, inclusive, and impactful, for yourself and those around you.

Facilitator: Stephanie Lill (Lilly)

Location: 1302

Resource:

Time: 14:45 - 14:55

Time: 14:55 - 15:45

Location: Tantipipatpong Theatre

Presenter: Erin Kent

 The Global Landscape  of Literacy: Where We Were. Where We Are. What’s Next.

What if your school’s story is part of something much bigger?

In this keynote, Erin Kent draws on EKC’s work in hundreds of international schools to paint a global picture of how reading and writing are evolving - and how schools are tackling change in thoughtful, sustainable ways.

You’ll hear what’s working (and what’s not), which regions are leading the way (and why), and the real, measurable impact these shifts are having on learners around the world.

This closing session is a chance to zoom out, reflect, and reconnect with the bigger movement we’re part of - and leave with renewed clarity for your school’s next steps.

Because when we learn from others’ journeys, we do better in our own communities.

Let’s leverage the world to lift the world