Our Events
The FIRST Educational Resources Conferences, Workshops, and Webinars are designed with the needs of educators and leaders in mind. Our presenters represent some of the premier thought leaders in education today.
Standards Based Grading Toolkit Series
Multiple Session Options
Whether you are a brand new teacher, or a teacher looking to expand your skill set in grading and reporting practices, the S.T.A.G.R. Toolkit Series is for you! Drawing upon the work of Dr. Thomas Guskey, Ken O’Connor, and others, this series will support teachers in learning and implementing the components of Standards Based Grading.
Standards Based Assessment Bootcamp
September 27 and October 25, 2022
Looking for support in designing and aligning standard or target aligned assessments? Join us for a virtual, 2-day event! During this bootcamp, participants will learn how to clearly define and identify measurable and observable learning targets, how to choose appropriate assessment measures, and much more!
Fall STAGR Conference
October 18-19, 2022
This two day professional learning conference has been designed to give educators access to resources, thought-leaders, practitioners and provide solutions to help improve their ability to analyze what is important for students to learn, the value in writing learning targets, information on writing high quality assessments and how to accurately and fairly grade and communicate learning as they prepare to overcome the obstacles placed in front of them.
Practical Assessment Strategies
Multiple Cohorts Available
We spend so much time focusing on the summative assessments, while, in reality, the daily assessment that occurs in our classroom is of utmost importance. Assessing students throughout the learning process is not only essential for our students, but also for us, as educators. So, how can we shift our focus to ensure that we are putting a priority on assessment practices during the learning process? Join Becky Peppler, Director of the Learner FIRST STAGR Center, to learn ways to use pre-assessment, assessment choice and student self- assessment and reflection to help plan and drive your classroom instruction.
Center for Civil Rights in Education
CREATING EQUITABLE OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH A SHARED COMMITMENT TO ACTION
Equity-Minded Leadership: Strategically Creating Access and Opportunity
Multiple Options
Success for every student depends on equity-minded leadership. Through purposeful engagement, participants will build a deeper understanding of equity-mindedness to strengthen and support their capacity to lead for equity.
Coaching That Transforms Collaborative Teacher Teams
Multiple Cohort Options
As coaches, if we aren’t coaching for equity we are complicit in reproducing an inequitable system. We have a professional obligation to lead and coach in a way that surfaces and interrupts inequities and transforms practices that help us to create the schools children deserve. This series will offer an opportunity to learn how to support teams in navigating the stages of team development, with equity at the center.
Creating Brave
Spaces
August 15-18, 2022
If you are an educator or leader looking for collaboration and ideas to grow your skill set in leading equity work in schools, these sessions will help you identify actions you can take to create brave spaces and conditions for deep equity work. These sessions will offer an opportunity to reflect on ways to support adults in navigating identity development.
Check Back Soon for Upcoming Events!
Jenni Donohoo Center for Collective Efficacy Events
RAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT TOGETHER
Fostering Collective Efficacy Institute
October 5-6, 2022
Learn about the sources that strengthen collective teacher efficacy in schools. Participants will leave with a plan and actionable steps to strengthen collective teacher efficacy.
In-Person Event!
Literacy and Coaching Center
Events
STRENGTHEN AND GROW YOUR PRACTICES
Instructional Coaching Toolkit Series
Multiple Cohort Options Available
Whether you are a brand new coach, or a coach looking to expand your skillset, the Instructional Coaching Toolkit Series is for you! Drawing upon a variety of coaching approaches and models, this series will support coaches in learning entry points for coaching relationships. Coaches will learn how to determine the best approach for any situation they might face.
Instructional Coaching Toolkit 2.0 (Advanced Pathways)
Multiple Pathways Available
Whether you participated in our original Instructional Coaching Toolkit series, or have several years of coaching experience under your belt, it’s time to take your desire to continually learn, develop, and refine your coaching practices and join us for the Instructional Coaching Toolkit 2.0, where you choose your learning pathway! Pathways include: Digging Deeper into Coaching Cycles, Planning and Facilitating Professional Learning for Staff, and Developing an Instructional Playbook.
Coaching That Transforms Collaborative Teacher Teams
Multiple Cohort Options
As coaches, if we aren’t coaching for equity we are complicit in reproducing an inequitable system. We have a professional obligation to lead and coach in a way that surfaces and interrupts inequities and transforms practices that help us to create the schools children deserve. This series will offer an opportunity to learn how to support teams in navigating the stages of team development, with equity at the center.
Equity Minded Coaching for Systems Change
Multiple Session Options
In this 3 part series, participants will interrogate their beliefs, learn key organizational considerations to address inequities, and analyze strategies needed to support an effective coaching culture. Participants will leave with tools and other resources to enact transformational change and create equitable conditions leading to high outcomes for all students.
Fall Learner FIRST Instructional Coaching Summit
September 28-29, 2022
Ready to start the new school year strong? Join us for our bi-annual Learner FIRST Instructional Coaching Summit! Elena Aguilar headlines this two day summit focused on the topics of highest interest to instructional coaches. This popular event sells out quickly, so be sure to register your team soon.
New Teacher
Learning Series
Monthly Sessions Throughout the 2022-2023 School Year
Your first year of teaching will be exciting, nerve-racking, and overwhelming. Sometimes all at the same time! We've been there and have supported hundreds of new teachers in your same spot. Join us, and a community of fellow new teachers, as we help you navigate the highs and lows of your first year in the greatest professional there is!
Coaching for Observable Impact Network
Ongoing Dates Throughout the 2022-2023 School Year
Members of the Coaching for Observable Impact Network will learn strategies and tools that will deepen the work they do with teachers. Coaches will also learn strategies for measuring the observable impact of their coaching efforts on the teachers they coach and the classrooms they support. Finally, coaches will have the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from their colleagues in schools and districts near and far. Together, we will connect our actions to our impact!
Engagement Through the Lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
August 9 and 11, 2022
Engagement is more than catchy lesson openers, offering a few choice assignments, or asking students to turn and talk to a neighbor. Engagement is also more than attendance and compliance. Engagement includes interest, effort and persistence, and self-regulation. This two part workshop will build understanding of active engagement while providing strategies for monitoring and measuring engagement
Intentional Planning with Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
August 9 and 11, 2022
As teachers maximize instructional time with learners, it is key to proactively design for the variability of learners within any classroom. In this session, participants will explore what it means to be firm on goals and flexible on means. As a result of this session, teachers, leaders, and coaches will learn strategies to embed within lesson design to address barriers and will develop an awareness of how providing multiple means of representation creates “on-ramps” for the range of learners within a classroom community.
RtI Reboot: Asset-Based Approaches for Supporting ALL Learners
August 9, 2022
Are your RtI processes focused on students’ assets or deficits? Is the data you use to make important instructional decisions multi-faceted? Are you nimble in your approaches and responses to meeting students’ needs? Join author, Julie Wright, to answer these questions and more!
Engaging Literacy for the Big Kids
(Grades 4-12)
August 15-18, 2022
When it comes to meaningful literacy instruction for the Big Kids, engagement is the key! For years, Dr. Katie McKnight has worked with teachers around the country to learn and develop the most effective models of literacy instruction for students in grades 4-12. During this 4-part series, Dr. McKnight will share tools and strategies that teachers can implement in their classrooms to draw students into learning and to allow them to become stronger readers, writers, and communicators.
10 Asset-Based Coaching Habits that Go the Long Distance
August 30, 2022
Whether you are a new or seasoned coach, now is the time to take stock of your own coaching habits and potentially add new ones to your practice. If you are an instructional coach, team leader, PLC facilitator, department chair or administrator who facilitates adult learning for colleagues, join Julie Wright for this resource-filled session where we’ll look at 10 asset-based coaching habits that are sure to go the long distance.
It’s All About Maximizing Time for Literacy!
September 26, 2022
In this session, we’ll dig into ways we can maximize the learning time we have to fuel students’ interests as well as meet their academic and social/emotional needs. Together, we’ll look at different planning tools and templates that increase students’ work time, autonomy and independence.
Encouraging a Love of Science Through Picture Books
November 1, 2022
In this session, participants will learn about why we use picture book read alouds to increase STEM understanding, how to select books and align them with standards and strategies that need be addressed in science and literacy, as well as looking at representation of the texts you choose, and strategies to use and extend student student learning with inquiry ideas and explorations.
Building a Coaching Schedule
September 12, 2022
Building a coaching schedule to meet the needs of a learning community can be tricky, no matter your coaching situation. Join Julie Wright to learn how to get clear about the time you have available for coaching, create cohorts, utilize in-person and virtual spaces, and learn a process for building a coaching schedule that is doable and sustainable.
I'm a Math Coach...Now What?
October 4, 2022
In this session, coaches will learn tips and ideas for making the leap from classroom teaching to being a math coach a little less intimidating. Participants will be guided through the components of a student-centered math coaching model, and share how coaching goals have a direct and intentional link to increasing math achievement.
Unit Planning Using Backward Design
November 8, 2022
Using a backwards design process when designing curriculum units supports teachers in focusing on developing students’ understanding of the important ideas within the unit. In this workshop, teachers will dive into the backwards design model of unit planning and gain an understanding of how to design an entire unit from start to finish.
Jumpstart Flexible, Small Group Reading
September 14, 2022
Whether you are a novice or veteran in designing small, flexible reading groups — this workshop might be just what you need to jumpstart beginning-of-the-year small groups. Bring your class roster with you (optional) and your questions related to small group learning, and leave with oodles of tips, tools and strategies for harnessing small groups that will bolster students’ literacy learning all year long!
Powerful Partnerships: Observable Impact in the Work of Coaches and Principals
October 11, 2022
The value of a strong partnership between coach and principal cannot be overstated. When this collaboration is focused on impact that can be observed, student learning and teacher success is assured. During this workshop, principal and coach teams will learn how to plan for observable impact within their coaching model and what action they can take, collaboratively, to implement coaching practices that move learning forward.
Mathematics Center
Events
HIGH QUALITY, HIGH IMPACT MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTION
“Help! They Don’t Know Their Facts!”
Moving Beyond Memorization by
Developing Fact Fluency
Multiple Session Options
Have you ever wondered why students don’t know their basic facts? In this 90 minute virtual session, we will explore the difference between fluency and memorization, barriers, and how to build fact fluency through conceptual understanding and developing students’ number sense.
Productive Struggle: Strategies and Tasks
for Promoting Perseverance in your Mathematics Classroom
November 9, 2022
During this session, we will explore the meaning of productive struggle and how it encourages risk-taking in the classroom. We will learn the importance of valuing perseverance and how mental stamina can be built through problem solving.
Best Practices in Secondary
Math Instruction: Incorporating Small Groups and Teams
Multiple Dates
Instruction using grouping strategies provides strategically planned lessons that promote student discourse, problem solving, risk-taking, inquiry, and increased student engagement that results in deep conceptual understanding of mathematics concepts to maximize student learning outcomes. Join us to learn how to bring small group instruction to your 6-12 Math Classroom!
High Impact Strategies in Your Math Classroom
September 26, 2022
In this session, we will explore strategies that are proven to have the greatest impact on student learning and learn ways in which we can leverage the use of these strategies in our math classrooms
I'm a Math Coach...Now What?
October 4, 2022
In this session, coaches will learn tips and ideas for making the leap from classroom teaching to being a math coach a little less intimidating. Participants will be guided through the components of a student-centered math coaching model, and share how coaching goals have a direct and intentional link to increasing math achievement.
Math Workshop: Laying the Groundwork for Differentiation in your Math Classroom
Multiple Dates
Math workshop is a flexible instructional format that allows teachers to meet the diverse needs of students in their classroom. During this series, participants will learn the how-to’s for a math workshop model, as well as an exploration into workshop structures and classroom organization in order to meet the needs of the diverse learners in the math classroom.
Using Technology with High Impact Instructional Strategies
September 27, October 4, 11, 18, 2022
In this series, we will explore four instructional strategies: Feedback, Discourse, Metacognition & Purposeful Planning that have been proven to increase student achievement and how digital tools can enhance the use of these strategies.
Learner FIRST Math Summit
October 10, 2022
As educators, we strive to help our students meet their maximum potential for learning in mathematics and create lifelong numerate learners who have the ability to work flexibly with strategies, think critically and possess resilience in order to persevere through problem solving tasks. During the one-day Learner FIRST Virtual Math Summit, educators will be able to engage with thought-leaders and practitioners to gain new ideas and perspectives, gather tons of tools and resources to develop numeracy and maximize mathematical potential in your learners.
Making Math Equitable Through Visual Models
October 12, 19, 26, & November 2, 2022
During this four-part series, participants will explore several visual models, learn about the developmental progression of each model, and will gain experience with digital tools and practical activities that can be used instantly to increase equity, engagement and conceptual understanding of early mathematical concepts.
Leveraging Small Group Instruction:
Mathematical Tools for Scaffolding and Extending Students Conceptual Understanding
October 27, November 1, 9, 10, 15, and 16, 2022
Small group instruction allows teachers to understand their student’s instructional strengths and areas of need. This series will provide teachers with many tools to build their “tool box” to meet the needs of the diverse learners in their classrooms through small group instruction.
Observable Impact Center
Events
EMPOWERING COLLABORATIVE TEAMS
Powerful Partnerships: Observable Impact in the Work of Coaches and Principals
October 11, 2022
The value of a strong partnership between coach and principal cannot be overstated. When this collaboration is focused on impact that can be observed, student learning and teacher success is assured. During this workshop, principal and coach teams will learn how to plan for observable impact within their coaching model and what action they can take, collaborative, to implement coaching practices that move learning forward.
Publishing Center
Events
PRINT RESOURCES THAT ARE PRACTICAL AND ENGAGING
How to Think Differently about Learner Engagement
September 19 and 20, 2022
Too often educators are evaluated, judged and told what to fix. It’s time to shift our focus to notice engagement in an appreciative manner. To discover, dream, design and deliver how we can enhance what’s already working. This session will focus on an inquiry process to get curious, to notice and value ourselves. Appreciation is one of the most compelling and powerful feelings we possess, so why don’t we use it more often in education? Together let’s find our spark to Think Differently.
Science and Agriculture Center
Events
RELEVANT LEARNING WITH CURRENT PRACTITIONERS
Standards-Based Grading in the Science Classroom
August 10, 2022
You may wonder, “ What does standards-based grading look like in the science classroom?” During this virtual session, we will walk you through and show examples of what the standards-based grading process looks like in a science classroom.
Social Emotional Learning Center
Events
UNLEASHING THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS
Better Behavior
Blueprint
Multiple Session Options
In this 3-part series, Greg Wolcott, author of the best-selling book Significant 72: Unleashing the Power of Relationships in Today’s Schools, will provide educators with a blueprint of practical strategies, tools, and ideas to not only better the behavior of our most challenging students, but create the relationships, routines, and rituals needed for all students to excel.
Differentiating UP: Strategies to Engage and Challenge All Learners
August 11, 18, and 25, 2022
Motivate students, incorporate their interests, and keep them engaged by differentiating “up” curriculum and instructional practices. During this three part series with Dr. Richard Cash, author of Advancing Differentiation: Thinking and Learning for the 21st Century (2017), participants will dive into advanced levels of questioning, varied instructional strategies, and concept driven instruction to challenge learners.
Event Registration Policies
By agreeing to the registration terms, you understand and acknowledge that this is a legal binding agreement and payment will be due in full whether you attend the event or not. If you are unable to attend, you may send a substitute at no extra cost, provided that you notify us of the change at least 5 business days prior to the Event. Substitutions must be communicated by email to FIRST Educational Resources (info@firsteducation-us.com).
By agreeing to the registration terms, you understand and acknowledge you can cancel your registration to this Event as long as it’s 15 business days prior to the Event, and will be refunded in full for the cost of payment received, minus a $10.00 administration fee and 3.49% of the total registration cost if you paid by Credit Card.
By agreeing to the registration terms, you understand and acknowledge if you cancel less than 14 business days prior to the Event or non-attendance, you will be liable for the full cost of the registration. No reimbursements will be made for travel, accommodation or any other costs incurred by you in connection with the Event which you do not attend or cancel.