EduCon 2026

Alternative Approaches for Success of any Student

Interactive discussion centered on innovations in engagement and academic supports for Opportunity Youth and students as learned from their success in alternative settings.

Beyond Compliance: Building Equitable Discipline Systems That Support Growth

How can schools design discipline systems that are equitable, restorative, and empowering? Join a conversation about moving beyond compliance to practices that build belonging, strengthen relationships, and promote student growth.

Critical Creativity for Leadership & Change Making

How might we use creative forms of expression to help us identify solutions, communicate expectations, guide processes, and innovate education? Experiment with strategies and discuss methods that bring purposeful creativity into our committee meetings and conference rooms.

How Does This Work, and Why Does It Work This Way?

Descriptions of how things work are often made more complex than they need to be. Let's cut through the noise.

Level Up Literacy: Empowering Advanced Readers with Self-Paced, Engaging, and Cross-Content Novel Studies in Early Grades

How to continually challenge advanced readers in early grades? By designing personalized reading studies that combine reading and writing, assess for skills mastery through engaging virtual games, foster independence, and interdisciplinary connections.

Purpose Driven Middle School

At Tempe Elementary Schools, we are designing a new, purpose-driven learning model, centered on student agency and self-discovery. The goal is to help students identify their unique values, interests, and skills, as they explore and experience all that is possible for them.

Swords to Ploughshares: De-personalizing computing

Personal computing is not neutral and its effects feel different in 2025 than ten years ago. This is conversation on what we are seeing, and what we might do to create the technology environment we want

Teaching Towards What Lasts in the Age of AI

AI platforms will come and go. What disposition should we be nurturing in students to prepare them for the murky future of living and working with AI? This conversation will surface new modes of skills that learners need to leverage an unprecedented and evolving AI toolkit: judgment, agency, and creativity.

The Time Sensitive Question: What is the Future of Secondary School Design?

Through a structured conversational activity, participants will discuss and debate the attributes and impact of the future learner, the future creator(s) of educational experiences, and the future foundational content and skills on the design and sustainability of the K-12 public education experience.

Abundance in education

Unpacking the implications of the "abundance" agenda for education.

Beyond Burnout: Moving from survival to sustainability

Educator burnout is real—but it can also be a turning point. In this session, we’ll share stories, explore systemic causes, and co-create strategies for renewal. Together we’ll build a collective toolkit for sustaining joy, purpose, and impact in teaching and learning.

Bullying Solutions Lab: Co-Creating Safer Classrooms

This interactive session brings the attendees together to address bullying in schools. Through dialogue, scenarios, and collaborative problem-solving, participants will co-create practical strategies to recognize, prevent, and respond to bullying—leaving with immediate action steps to foster safer, more inclusive classrooms and communities.

Change History: Thematic Instruction

This workshop explores the use of thematic instruction to intentionally make history classrooms more thoughtful places.

Every Conversation Counts: Restorative Practices at Building 21

Building 21's Community Council empowers students to resolve conflicts through restorative conversations. This Tier 1 intervention trains 11th and 12th graders to guide peers, fostering a school culture of accountability, empathy, and intentional restoration.

Intentional Inquiry

Planning in an inquiry driven classroom can be challenging! What tools, workflows, and techniques do SLA teachers use to ensure that planning is student-centered and meaningful? How do you plan? Join in on an open and honest conversation led by an SLA teacher about planning effective units and day-to-day lessons.

The Importance of Student Inquiry in the Age of AI

Curiosity, questions, wonder - these human qualities serve as powerful drivers of learning in the age of AI. This modern era is changing at a breakneck speed, leaving educators to grapple with how to best prepare learners for their future.

We should all learn to think like an artist

In a world defined by uncertainty, rapid change, and constant upheaval, it is the artist’s mindset—creative, adaptable, and boldly curious—that becomes not just valuable, but vital. It empowers us all to navigate complexity with confidence and to shape the future rather than fear it.

Authentic Assessment in the Age of AI

AI has forced educators to reflect on their teaching and learning practices, especially when it comes to assessment. Author & educator Michael Hernandez leads this discussion about strategies for designing cheat-resistant assignments and how to foster cultures of academic integrity. See case studies, and begin designing uncheatable assessments.

Beyond the Three Branches: Educating Better Citizens

Taking a broad look at the competencies and skills necessary to educate the next generation of citizens, where are our schools meeting the needs and where are we struggling? Examine a proposal in the form of a "Portrait of a Graduate" framework, but designed for civics, ethics, community building, critical thinking, interconnectedness, and global awareness.

Big Picture, Little Things

If you could change one thing about education, what would it be? Join 2 preservice teachers in conversation about the little things we have control over every day as educators.

Making Reading Meaningful

Exploring collective best practices for engaging students as they read both fiction and non-fiction.

Process and Product: What Do We Value?

With the advent of AI, students can now create products in ways they never could before, but how do we know when those products represent deeper student learning?

So Now What? Figuring It Out in Schools, One Challenge at a Time

Creativity, flexibility, and endurance are required for every role in the school ecosystem—whether responding to another mandate, supporting a student in crisis, or figuring out staff coverage. Let’s discuss how we tackle both persistent and emerging challenges. Come for honest conversation, practical strategies, and tools you can use next week.

Supporting the Whole Student: Building Equitable Career Pathways through Internships in Title I Schools

Discover how our public school supports 11th graders through a holistic internship program that connects students' interests to career pathways while addressing equity gaps in an urban, Title I setting. We'll share our collaborative model involving teachers, our Real World Learning Director, and our school social worker to support the whole student—academically, socially, and professionally—while building agency and disrupting systems of inequity.

The Oxygen Mask First: Rethinking Staff Wellness as Intentional Practice

What if staff wellness was treated as central to student success? In this conversation, we’ll explore how intentional structures for educator wellbeing can reduce burnout, strengthen school culture, and transform sustainability. Together, we’ll reimagine how schools can proactively support the adults who hold them up.

Amplifying Every Voice: Equity-Based Pedagogy for Inclusive Classrooms

This powerful professional learning session is designed for all educators—teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders—committed to building truly inclusive learning environments where every student feels valued, heard, and empowered to contribute. We will collectively explore and practice equity of voice, a pedagogical approach rooted in the principle that all students, regardless of background or learning profile, deserve an equitable chance to participate in and influence the learning process.

Bridging History and STEM Towards A Sustainable Future

Concerned about climate change? Trying to combat student hopelessness and inspire them to take action for the future? Sign up! By working cross-curricularly, we can use examples from history on sustainable living, uncover everyday STEM practices of civilizations across the world, and build hopeful action for the future.

Centering the Future of Education on Human Thriving

An approach to education that centers holistic human thriving moves beyond traditional academics to prepare students for a complex, ever-changing world. We believe true success encompasses not only intellectual growth but also physical, mental, material, socio-emotional, and relational well-being.

From Audit to Action: Building a Staff-Led Equity Ecosystem

A practical case study of how a Philadelphia elementary school implemented a collaborative equity audit and staff-led equity team to build internal capacity, surface actionable data, and catalyze gradual schoolwide change.

From Spark to Habit: Designing Classrooms Where Creativity Lives

We’ll reimagine classrooms as spaces where creativity is practiced daily—through risk-taking, curiosity, and problem-solving. We'll focus on the question: How do we give students not just tools, but the mindset to tackle complex problems with confidence, imagination, and resilience?

Meeting the Moment(s) Together

How do we meet this moment? What does showing up for one another look like in our schools and communities? How do we create connections that sustain us through difficult times?

No more portraits of a graduate

A portrait of a graduate is a powerful symbol, but ultimately, it’s static. It offers a snapshot of who we hope students will become, but too often it stops short. It tells us what the end goal is, without showing us how to get there. What we need is a path.

Prompting Deeper Discussions

Sometimes, it's really just the prompt! A lot of times, when class discussions go flat, we blame our personalities, the lethargy of "kids these days", or the curriculum. But often, if we had just asked the question a different way, changed a few words, we would have had success! This session is about sharing best strategies to ask the best questions.

A Metamorphosis of the Library in an AI Age: Innovation Lab & Learning Commons (ILLC)

Participate in envisioning a physical and virtual space that serves as an innovation hub, lab, library, and learning commons. It is a place, both physical and virtual, where students, teachers, and administrators experiment, try out, create, and test major ideas before they are implemented across the school. Imagine a space where books, media, and technology don’t just coexist—they ignite curiosity, experimentation, and bold new ideas. That is the essence of the Innovation Lab and Learning Commons (ILLC): the next stage in the metamorphosis of the school library.

Data as a Generator of Narrative in Visual Art

How can we provide entry points into data analysis that support visual learners and enhance student curiosity and creativity? Both visual art and data tell stories, and students can use their skills of critical thinking and compassion to create visual narratives that also speak to their passion for activism and world-changing. The conversation will highlight an exciting and innovative seventh grade unit at the Rashi School. In this unit, students explored data about climate change from a variety of graphs and charts. This was connected to the 6th grade Science curriculum, and their Science teacher assisted in providing and vetting sources for the graphs. Students learned about the growing art form of data visualization, and created their own data art using a choice of fiber art, sculpture, and painting. They also wrote artist statements and presented their work in class.

New York at the Vanguard: Supporting the Shift to Performance Based Learning and Assessment

Join South Bronx Community Charter High School as we share our journey as a mentor school in New York State’s PLAN pilot, transforming graduation pathways through performance-based, student-centered learning. This interactive session will explore how we built systems for real-world assessment, support peer schools, and center equity and youth voice. Walk away with tools, strategies, and inspiration to lead personalized, competency-based learning in your own school or district.

Self-Care in an Uncaring World

The pressures on educators (and on everyone) are significant in this moment. How do we care for ourselves so that we can continue to care for others?

Standards Based Grading Revisited: Discussing Strategies for Emphasizing the Learning Process in Math Class

What's The Tea?

When students leave your classroom, what is the story they tell when they go home to their families or when they talk to their friends? The "tea" they spill is connected to the intentionality that goes into the planning in your class.

Building Community through Storytelling

This conversation engages educators in using The Moth’s storytelling guide to craft authentic narratives. Participants will practice sharing stories, apply portions of our structured feedback protocols, and listen to learners stories. The session fosters trust, empathy, and collaboration, equipping educators with tools to strengthen classroom and staff communities.

Data with Dignity: Using Assessment to Inform Without Dehumanizing

Can schools use data to drive growth without reducing students to numbers? Join a conversation on humanizing data practices that inform instruction, empower teachers, and center student identity.

Empowering Digital Citizens: AI Tools for Teaching Democratic Participation

This conversation will engage educators in an interactive discussion about innovative approaches for teaching digital literacy and democratic participation using AI tools.

Networking for Success: Empowering Students to Build Career-Launching Connections

Transform how students approach professional relationships through structured networking activities. This interactive session equips educators with concrete tools to teach networking skills, build student confidence, and create pathways to real-world learning opportunities including internships, job shadows, and career exploration experiences.

The Neuroarts Revolution: Transforming High School Pedagogy

There is a fascinating intersection between art and science. Let’s talk about it! We’ll be exploring Neuroarts—the science of how art and aesthetic experiences measurably impact the brain, body, and behavior. Learn how all forms of creative engagement benefit every student.