2022 Utah Rural Schools Conference

In this presentation we will share ideas on starting the school year strong with instructional coaching. This will include: how and why to embed coaching into other professional learning activities, coaching cycles, communication habits and skills, and program evaluation ideas.

The University of Utah’s School of Medicine Rural & Underserved Utah Training Experience (RUUTE) and Regional Affairs Program has learning experiences range from community outreach, becoming a preceptor, to learning experiences for medical students and residents. This program is specifically catered to rural and underserved communities, and we have a lot to offer through our Little RUUTE Program.

We would like the opportunity to share with educators and institutions that housed within the RUUTE Program is our Little RUUTE Program for K-5th graders that offers the following options for institutions and educators:
• Access to free Education Checkout Boxes including:
o Multiple STEM Kits
o Multiple STEM Lessons with Health Education Extensions
o Growing RUUTE Connection to Campus Garden and Nutrition Lessons
o Materials to Participate in Growing RUUTE Sustainability Growing Activity
o Lab Coats

Participants will better understand the purpose of a strategic plan, essential components, and the development of “buy in” by gaining stakeholder input and feedback, ensuring implementation and sustainability.

Personalized step by step process in strategic planning and implementation. 

This session is good for creating and developing any type of strategic plan, including: RTI, PBIS, MTSS and SEL.

Designing for your educational community can be a difficult idea. Whether you are trying to find a solution for your classroom, school, or larger local education authority, developing the solution can take time, effort, and be somewhat overwhelming to community members. However, Google Workspace for Edu helps to mitigate the difficulties throughout this process by streamlining routine check-ins and helping to give every member a voice in the process.

In this session, we will explore a design thinking procedure called the Gripe Jam and use Google tools to help mediate the process. We will also explore a few applications of Google Workspace for Edu for creating manageable, measurable change in your educational community. We will also explore leading design thinking techniques from Google, the Stanford d.school, and IDEO.

As defined, Utah's Personalized Competency Based Learning framework supports
educators in engaging all students with high expectations for shared learning intentions and empowering each learner to take ownership of their assets, needs, and interests while tailoring customized supports to maximize student growth and competence.
This session will provide educators and coaches with opportunities to explore ways specific aspects of the PCBL framework can be utilized to support a positive mathematics experience that includes cognitive rigor, rich student discourse, and access to mathematics content for all students. Participants will engage with the Culture of Learning and Customized Support components of the framework as they relate to mathematics.

The Utah Nearpod Community is a (free) place for Utah Nearpod users to learn, collaborate, and share resources that are relevant to teaching in Utah. In this kicked-back meetup, we'll share resources, discuss Nearpod certifications and badges, and discuss the needs of the Nearpod users in Utah. Whether you're already a member or just looking to learn more about Nearpod, we'd love to see you! Visit uen.org/nearpod and click on "Join Utah Nearpod Community" to learn more.

Candidates seeking a professional teaching license in Utah are now required to complete a pedagogical performance assessment (PPA). This presentation will provide tips and tricks that will help candidates for licensure and administrators who support them successfully complete a pedagogical performance assessment. Topics include an overview of which PPAs are approved in Utah, requirements of each PPA including task requirements and deadlines for submitting tasks, and other tips for successfully completing the PPA. Participants are welcome to bring their own devices to access online resources.

This presentation will focus on the power of touchstone experiences in a library. Machelle will share how to curate and collaborate with history boxes, touchstone experiences and standards bases instruction. The presentation will highlight 3 specific experiences Machelle has designed with her high school teachers. She will share the planning stage, curation, day of experience and reflection of the teachers and students who were impacted. The touchstone teaching option is relevant at every grade level and is flexible in how it is used. Machelle used touchstone teaching as a teacher and now shares and collaborates with her staff as a librarian. Handouts will be available.

As defined, Utah's Personalized Competency Based Learning framework supports
educators in engaging all students with high expectations for shared learning intentions and empowering each learner to take ownership of their assets, needs, and interests while tailoring customized supports to maximize student growth and competence.
This session will provide educators and coaches with opportunities to explore ways specific aspects of the PCBL framework can be utilized to support the learning environment for gifted learners in all spaces. Participants will engage with the Culture of Learning, Learner Agency and Customized Supports components of the framework as they relate to gifted and talented learners.

SoraApp.com. Using the digital library, Sora- The student reading app, in the K-12 classroom to help address gaps in student learning and provide intervention strategies. App settings include Dyslexic font and adjustable contrast, font, size and speed for audio. Additional in app helps include word definition, bookmarking, and note taking. Reading and listening uses in the classroom could include individuals or groups, including classroom sets. Content possibilities include read-along (words on the page highlighted with narration), high-low (& peers won’t know), decodable/phonics books, and ESL/non-English reads. Social and emotional learning books include self-help books as well as empowering fiction/nonfiction novels as mirrors and windows. Multiple genre possibilities grab students' interest. Ability to download books and take them anywhere. Audiobooks are great for comprehension and long bus rides.  ~~ Links: Sora Student Reading App for classroom learning and interventions

During this one hour presentation we will discuss what we have learned in year 1 of the statewide Acadience Math and collaborate on positive ways to effectively use the data to influence student learning and guide instructional practices.

The benefits of collaboration for improving teaching and learning have long been promoted as schools and districts across the country have implemented professional learning communities as a strategy to ensure high levels of student success. The many benefits of effective collaboration include, but are not limited to, improved teacher collective efficacy, less isolation, increased professional satisfaction, increased confidence, increased student achievement, increased positive attitudes, higher levels of trust, increased creativity, increased retention. Now more than ever we must support educators to realize the promise of effective, powerful collaboration. In this interactive session participants will learn about the Collaboration Self-Assessment (CSA). This research-based tool examines the qualities of effective and powerful collaboration related to the following dimensions:

* Capacity Building
* Empowerment
* Intentional
* Improvement-Focused
* Inquiry-Based
* Collective Responsibility

Within each collaboration dimension are indicators one would see in practice.

In this session participants will learn about how school teams use the results from the CSA to assess the qualities of their collaborative culture and to identify strengths, as well as areas for continued growth and improvement. Participants will have the chance to explore the tool and the ways in which results are shared back with school teams in an online data dashboard that highlights the aggregated results from all participants. Participants will have the chance to identify how this tool could be used in their own settings to explore areas of collaboration to cultivate and identify action steps.

This presentation will provide an overview of the High Quality Instructional Cycle and a close examination of Step 1 of the cycle. As we consider Step 1 of the cycle, we will clarify the importance of establishing clarity around learning intentions and success criteria as a driving force for providing high quality instruction and improved student outcomes.

Educators are self-directed learners, continually developing new skills and finding innovative ways improving their practice. The Utah Microcredentials System recognizes this and provides educators with an opportunity to earn USBE credits for these self-directed efforts.

Additionally, for the first time, you can now use microcredentials to earn USBE teaching endorsements! Beginning in 2022, Utah teachers can demonstrate competencies with microcredentials as an alternative to taking courses.

Come learn how to earn microcredentials, how to become a stipended microcredential reviewer, and how to participate in the creation of new microcredentials for other educators to earn!

A microcredential, also known as a badge, is a digital form of certification. It represents an educator’s demonstration of effective and consistent use of the target skill or concept as a part of instructional practice. Any educator in Utah’s public education system can earn microcredentials, including classroom teachers, instructional coaches, counselors, administrators, etc. Earning a microcredential provides the educator with three things: visible recognition of demonstrated competency, leadership opportunities, and USBE credit.

Arts advocacy comes in many forms whether occurring within our classroom, school, district or more broadly. It is shaped by the needs and desires of our learners as well as those of the larger community. Utah Arts Education Association (UAEA) provides the scaffolding to build advocacy by bringing together individuals specifically focused on creating art learning experiences.

In this presentation, we will demonstrate how advocacy can happen in a variety of environments, and, most importantly, it is something all educators, not just art teachers, can build into their practice. We propose creating advocacy systems that can be implemented across any level. We would like to share two important impact areas using hands-on, arts-integrated activities accessible to all participants.

Arts Education Relationships and Advocacy at Different Levels - We will show how to harness a variety of arts, cultural, political, and commercial organizations to broaden access to art learning across content areas. Our "Clouds" lesson and hands-on activity will demonstrate how the arts can be integrated across a variety of content areas.

Getting Arts Education and Arts Awareness into the Public Sphere - When art is integrated into communities, it helps to cultivate a student’s experience and teach them that art is a powerful tool in their life. Our second "All in for Art" hands-on activity will demonstrate how we can harness the arts to provide a creative voice beyond the classroom.

The Foundation Against Racism and Intolerance (FAIR) takes Pro-Human approach to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion training that focuses on our core principles of understanding, fairness and common humanity. The Pro-Human approach overcomes cognitive biases that can lead to flattening and stereotyping, by celebrating both our shared humanity and acknowledging the unique perspective of each person on the team. Our Diversity training provides tools that enhance positivity, build team cohesion, mitigate conflict, and foster healthy relationships, and opportunities to create diverse, dynamic teams. Through listen & learn segments, roleplay, small group discussion, large group discussion, and reflection, we foster an interactive and engaging learning experience.

Session slides (PDF)

Current data available to teachers do not always specify student learning needs at a deep enough level needed for teachers to know how to respond. In this interactive session, participants will experience a process and tools for administering quick Diagnostic Interviews (DI) to identify student gaps in concepts and skills that can be used to respond to student learning needs during Tier 1 Instruction. The 3–5-minute DI focuses on student thinking more deeply than typical data currently available. If your school has collaborative teacher teams, such as Professional Learning Communities (PLC), strategies and tools will be shared showing how to integrate the interview data into PLC planning conversations making it easier to differentiate upcoming units of study and daily lessons to meet each student’s unique learning needs.

Learning goals for the session include the following:
* Identify a process for conducting a quick Diagnostic Interview
* Practice using the DI
* Explore samples of student work resulting from the DI
* Create ways you can integrate the DI into your context and/or PLC.

Participants will leave the session with the following products:
* Diagnostic Interview Process
* Diagnostic Interview Probing Questions
* Samples of Student Work
* Protocol for Integrating Data into PLCs
* Checklist for Applying to Your Context

Even if you have been using Canvas for a while, you may not have discovered all the helpful tools available. Join us for a lightning fast round of basic and advanced tips. You should have a basic knowledge of Canvas, we’ll cover a lot, but you’ll have access to the presentation with links to refer back to and share with others! Here is the link to the presentation.

This session will look at the PLC work done with an ELA team who was UMLA team of the year, how they used data, protocols and daily practice to give students a viable curriculum and data driven decision making. They will also discuss how these same ideas are not part of their foundation in their respective jobs.

The International Institute of Restorative Practices posits that the fundamental hypothesis of restorative practices is that human beings are happier, more cooperative and productive and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them. A restorative approach to discipline focuses on restoring the relationship between an offender and his/her community through collaboration and rehabilitation of mindset and behavior. A major flaw of traditional disciplinary practices is that it addresses only behavior, a symptom of, but not the root of, the issues that manifest as problematic behavior. Pairing a cognitive behavioral approach with restorative practices, schools can more effectively and compassionately address underlying self-defeating thinking patterns, thus addressing the root of the issue. And more importantly, we allow our students to be part of their own process of change, thus creating lasting change. Recent research published by the IIRP attests to this: restorative practices in schools reduced suspensions and serious infractions by an average of 65%, reduced aggression by 26% and improved social skills by 20%. May we suggest that we collectively rethink our approach to school discipline, and shift into a more restorative one.