Teaching & Learning Series

September 29, 3:45-5pm
Everyday Choices, Lasting Impact: Cultivating Dignity, Compassion, and Inclusion in the Classroom
Inclusive school cultures are not built only through mission statements or special initiatives — they are built through hundreds of small, daily choices educators make in classrooms, hallways, meetings, and moments of tension. This interactive professional development session focuses on the day-to-day practices that shape whether students feel seen, valued, and safe to learn.

Together, we will explore:

• how dignity shows up (or gets missed) in everyday classroom interactions
• language choices that foster curiosity, belonging, and accountability
• curricular opportunities to deepen student awareness of the beauty of difference
• practical strategies for responding to conflict, difference, and harm in developmentally appropriate ways

Grounded in research and lived experience, this session centers educators as both instructional leaders and relational role models. Participants will leave with concrete tools they can immediately apply to curriculum design, classroom culture, and daily interactions with students and families.

By the end of this session, educators will be able to:

• Identify specific language moves and interaction patterns that promote dignity, compassion, and inclusion in daily classroom practice—and replace at least one habit that unintentionally undermines those goals.
• Analyze common classroom scenarios through a dignity lens, clarifying how their responses shape student belonging, accountability, and learning.
• Commit to at least one concrete instructional or relational practice (e.g., norms, feedback language, conflict response, curriculum framing) they will implement immediately to strengthen inclusive classroom culture.

Meet the Presenter: Jason Craige Harris
Jason Craige Harris is a thinker, writer, and speaker who uses the transformative power of storytelling to cultivate cultures of humility, curiosity, and empathy across sectors, contexts, and age groups. As a conflict mediator, executive coach, and organizational strategist, he integrates insights from diverse fields to help groups develop trust, achieve ambitious goals, and build structures that work. An expert on dignity-centered leadership, restorative practices, and dialogue across differences, Jason draws on the latest research in the study of human connection and human flourishing. Jason advises leaders and communities how to create environments where everyone can thrive—and what to do when challenges arise.

Thursday, October 15, 2026, 3:30-4:30pm
Self-Aware Leadership: Helping Students Lead with Clarity and Confidence
In this one-hour webinar, middle and upper school educators will explore how self-awareness serves as the foundation for effective student leadership. Drawing on the Strength–Stretch–Restore (SSR) framework, participants will learn how to help students recognize their strengths, manage emotions, and grow beyond their comfort zones while remaining grounded in who they are.

Grounded in research on adolescent brain development and personality, this session offers practical strategies to foster self-regulation, resilience, and reflective decision-making. Educators will leave with tools to support leadership development that is both intentional and sustainable.

Meet the Presenter: Heidi Kasevich
Dr. Heidi Kasevich is a faculty member at the Gardner Carney Leadership Institute, where she co-facilitates the Leadership Lab and designs programs that equip educators with practical, inclusive approaches to teaching leadership.

Heidi is the founder of Kase Leadership, a mission-driven organization dedicated to building leadership cultures where all personalities are valued. As a certified self-actualization coach, she guides educators to lead with greater clarity and impact. She consults with schools nationwide to design signature leadership programs that help faculty and students unlock team potential, navigate adaptive challenges, and build connected school communities.

She is the author of Silent Talk: Setting the Stage for Introverts to Thrive in the Classroom and Beyond, which provides educators with research-based strategies to create introvert-friendly schools and nurture quiet leaders, and The Introverted Actor: Practical Approaches.

Her expertise is grounded in over 20 years of experience as a history department chair and leadership program designer at several schools in New York City and Paris. Previously, she served as Director of Education at Susan Cain’s Quiet Revolution, where she launched a national professional development program featured by NPR, Huffington Post, New York Magazine, and Harvard Magazine.

Thursday, October 29, 3:45-5pm
Stress, Emotions, & Learning: What's the Connection?
Sometimes it makes us laser focused - other times it leaves us floundering.  What is the deal with stress?  During this session, we'll explore three core mechanisms by which stress impacts learning and identify ways we can harness or reduce its effects to improve student performance.

Meet the Presenter: Jared Cooney Horvath
Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath is an award-winning cognitive neuroscientist, best-selling author and renowned keynote speaker with an expertise in human learning, memory, and brain stimulation. 
 
Dr. Horvath has published 6 books, over 60 research articles, and currently serves as an honorary researcher at the University of Melbourne and St. Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne.

His research has been featured in The New York Times, WIRED, BBC, The Economist, PBS's Nova and ABC’s Catalyst.

Wednesday, November 11, 2026, 3:45-5pm
Measuring What Matters: Assessment With, Not Just Of
A People-Based Learning workshop for designing more human-centered assessment.
What we choose to assess shapes what gets valued in our classrooms and schools. Yet many of the most important drivers of learning, belonging, curiosity, agency, reflection, resilience, and collaboration, often remain under-measured or invisible. In this interactive workshop based on a  chapter of the book, People-Based Learning, participants will explore how to expand assessment without abandoning rigor. Together, we will examine practical ways to co-create criteria with learners, track growth over time, and design indicators that align with the culture of learning we hope to build. Educators will leave with concrete tools and one redesigned assessment, reflection routine, or set of human-centered indicators they can use in their own context.

Meet the Presenter: Dr. Jane Shore
Jane Shore, EdD, studies a question many schools live with but rarely resolve:
How do you measure something as human as learning?
As a learning scientist, research visualizer, and founder of School of Thought, Jane designs experiences that help educators rethink both learning and the ways we assess it.

Her perspective is shaped by working on both sides of the measurement equation. She directed research for an international organization focused on access and equity, where she saw how systems attempt to define what counts. She also helped found a high school in Philadelphia that opened in 2019, where she saw how much of what truly matters in learning resists easy measurement.
Her work has long focused on the hard-to-measure: connection, growth, perspective, and change.
Jane is the author of People-Based Learning: The Future of Learning Is Human (Routledge, 2026). In the learning experiences she co-creates, she invites educators to rethink what counts and to design ways of measuring what actually matters.

December 9, 2026, 4:15-5:30pm
AI as a Differentiation Partner: Supporting Every Learner Without Burning Out
Differentiation is essential when teaching diverse groups of students, but it can feel daunting to do alone. In this session, discover how AI can help you differentiate how students access content, process and make meaning, and demonstrate their learning without overwhelming your workload. Dr. Catlin Tucker shares practical strategies for using AI to be more responsive and flexible. Explore how you can leverage AI to generate scaffolded materials, create multiple entry points for learning, remove barriers, and support varied learning preferences. Walk away with ready-to-use prompts and protocols that make meaningful differentiation more sustainable and strategic.
Audience: Teachers of all grade levels, Academic Leaders

Meet the Presenter: Dr. Catlin Tucker
Dr. Catlin Tucker is an education expert, bestselling author, and international speaker with 24 years of experience in education. Named Sonoma County Teacher of the Year in 2010, she earned a Master’s in Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a doctorate in learning technologies from Pepperdine University.

Dr. Tucker partners with schools and districts worldwide to reimagine instruction, shifting from traditional teacher-led models to Universal Design for Learning (UDL), blended learning, and student-led strategies. Her work focuses on actively engaging students, improving learning outcomes, and designing more sustainable, equitable instructional practices that empower both educators and learners.

Dr. Tucker has written over 10 books on innovative approaches to teaching and learning. She also hosts the popular podcast The Balance, which explores strategies to make teaching and learning more sustainable and impactful.

Wednesday, January 13, 2027, 3:45-5pm
17 Tweaks That Make a Big Difference in Group Work
This webinar is designed for educators who believe in collaborative learning but want it to work better, feel lighter, and produce stronger learning.

Group work is research backed. It is also one of the first things teachers abandon when it feels messy. In this practical, fast paced webinar, we zoom in on the small instructional moves that quietly determine whether group work thrives or falls apart. Based on classroom observations of thousands of teachers, this session highlights 17 common approaches to group work that often underdeliver and the subtle tweaks that dramatically improve student engagement, accountability, and learning.

Rather than adding new programs or structures, these tweaks focus on how teachers group students, give directions, assign roles, respond during collaboration, and design learning tasks. Many of the shifts are deceptively simple. A change in timing. A shift in language. A decision to step back instead of stepping in.

Participants will:

• Identify common group work habits that unintentionally limit student thinking
• Learn 17 high leverage tweaks that strengthen collaboration without increasing workload
• Explore how small shifts in teacher talk and task design elevate student confidence and independence
• Leave with immediately applicable ideas that work across grade levels and content areas

For those who want to carry the work into classrooms and teams, discounted copies of Hacking Group Work are available for educators and schools. Reach out at email@conniehamilton.org or use this form to get started.

Meet the Presenter: Connie Hamilton, Ed.S
Connie Hamilton, Ed.S., is an author, speaker, and education consultant who helps educators strengthen student thinking and engagement through practical, classroom ready strategies. She is the author of seven books including Hacking Questions, Hacking Group Work, and her next book, Hacking Productive Struggle, is set for release in Spring 2027. She partners with schools and districts to turn strong ideas into clear, actionable practice, helping teachers step back so students can step up and take ownership of their learning.

Tuesday, February 9, 3:30-5pm
Swing into Resonant Teaching
The dream for a teacher is to have students arrive to class each day, eager to learn the thoughtfully curated content you have to offer; students are enthusiastic to be with you, interact with you, and learn from you and with you. Meeting, knowing, and spending time with young people can bring such delight and joy. Resonant Teaching is a framework for being deliberate about how teachers connect with students, helping them develop as learners and more. When resonance is achieved, teachers and students seem to propel themselves forward, as if they are swinging at a playground on a spring day. This session is about exploring strategies for taking the purposeful craft of resonating with students from the mystical and metaphorical to the actionable.

Meet the Presenters: Devra Ramsey
Devra Eskin Ramsey has taught mathematics in independent schools and with students who attend them since she started her career in 1994. She earned her MSEd and teaching certificate for secondary mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. She has taught in three Quaker schools, including Germantown Friends School, where she has been since 2012. Devra trained to lead Critical Friends Groups, which sparked and fueled her passion for working with fellow educators to reflect on and build their practice. She has received both formal and informal accolades from students throughout the years for resonating with them in her mathematics teaching.

Bob Wein
Bob Wein’s career started as a laser physicist, teaching at a university, preparing students for similar careers. With multiple detours through DoD work and government contracting, he has spent almost 30 years at independent schools after working on NSF grants to train teachers in underrepresented and urban districts. Bob has developed techniques to engage physics and engineering students at every level. Along with interventions co-designed with Harvard Graduate School of Education and Research Schools International, as well as transformational practices developed with Seeds of Change and Germantown Friends School. Bob now spends time spreading the idea of achieving resonance with students.

Tuesday, February 23, 3:45-5pm
From Coverage to Coherence: Designing Curriculum That Tells a Story
Description: Most curriculum is designed to cover ground — but coverage alone rarely creates meaning. In this webinar, we explore how to transform fragmented units into a coherent narrative that connects teachers, students, and families to the purpose behind the learning, and why that shift changes everything about how curriculum gets written, used, and experienced.

Meet the Presenter: Allison Zmuda
Allison Zmuda is an internationally recognized curriculum consultant with 25 years of experience helping schools design engaging and effective learning experiences. Specializing in curriculum, assessment, and instructional planning, she collaborates with schools worldwide to create meaningful learning experiences.

An accomplished author of 12 books, including her latest, Streamlining the Curriculum: Using the Storyboard Approach to Frame Compelling Learning Journeys, Allison is also the co-director of the Institute for Habits of Mind and co-founder of Curriculum Storyboards. Recently awarded the 2024 Malcolm Knowles Award for her contributions to personalized learning, she holds a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a Master’s from Wesleyan University.

Thursday, March 11, 2027, 3:30-4:30pm
Designing Questions for Authentic Engagement
Evoking Engagement with Deictic Prompts
One powerful way to shape student engagement is through the questions we ask about the content. This workshop introduces a framework for designing deictic prompts: questions that invite students to connect the content to their own experiences, their local communities, and the current times. These prompts help students locate themselves in relation to the ideas, texts, and issues they study, making their learning more meaningful and alive. During the workshop, participants will explore the structure and purpose of eight distinct kinds of deictic prompts, see examples drawn from multiple disciplines and grade levels, and practice creating deictic prompts about their own content. Rather than adding activities or technology, this approach focuses on small shifts in the design of questions to evoke authentic engagement. Participants will leave with prompts they can use in their classrooms and framework for generating prompts that help students connect more fully to their own learning.

Meet the Presenter: Lauren Porosoff
Lauren Porosoff works with schools and districts to align student experience with school values. Informed by 18 years of teaching in independent schools and by evidence-based psychological science, Lauren develops instructional tools, protocols, and frameworks that empower teachers to make school a source of meaning, vitality, and community in students’ lives. Lauren is the author of seven books for educators, including Teach for Authentic Engagement (ASCD, 2023) and EMPOWER Moves for Social-Emotional Learning (Solution Tree, 2022). Learn more about her work at TheTeacherNerd.com.

Wednesday, April 14, 2027
Creative Hustle: Blazing a Path from Our Gifts to Our Goals
In this interactive 90-minute workshop, participants will dive into the core principles of Creative Hustle, learn how to identify their unique gifts, and explore strategies for aligning their passions with their goals. Through engaging activities and group discussions, participants will gain valuable insights and tools for unlocking their—and their staff’s and students’—creative potential.

Meet the Presenters: Sam Seidel and Olatunde Sobomedin
Sam Seidel is the K12 Lab Director of Strategy + Research and Director of Products + Publications at the Stanford d.school. Sam is the co-author of Creative Hustle: Blaze Your Own Path and Make Work That Matters, Hip Hop Genius 2.0: Remixing High School Education, and Changing the Conversation About School Safety. He is co-editor of From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood: Reflections on Race, Culture, and Identity. His writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, Education Week, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The 74, Voices in Urban Education, and UnBoxed. He speaks and consults internationally about design, race, culture, and education. Sam has taught in a variety of settings from a public first grade classroom to Ivy League graduate programs. He has built and directed programs with and for young people affected by incarceration. And he has led design strategy projects for organizations throughout the country. He is always learning.

Olatunde Sobomehin is the 2025 Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. As a student at Stanford from 1998 to 2003, he held leadership positions in Alpha Phi Alpha, Nu Sigma Chapter, the NAACP, and STeP Up (Students using Technology to Empower People for United Progress), a student group he founded. He also led a public speaking course in the School of Engineering and competed on Stanford’s Top-25 Men’s Basketball team, where he was voted Most Inspirational Player (2003). Since graduating, he has taught courses through the Stanford Haas Center for Public Service and the Stanford d.school, where he also co-authored the book Creative Hustle with sam seidel.

In 2014, Olatunde co-founded StreetCode Academy, an East Palo Alto–based nonprofit that offers free technology education to communities of color. Under his leadership, StreetCode has become a national model for community-based innovation, serving more than 3,000 students annually and delivering over 50,000 hours of free instruction. His body of work has earned him recognition as a 2018 Aspen Institute Scholar, a 2019 Praxis Fellow, and a 2020 Social Entrepreneurship Fellow at Stanford University.