Thursday, March 15, 2012

8:30 a.m.                                       General Session - Tony Evers and Sarah Granofsky Toce

9:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.                 Breakout Sessions Round 1
                                                        School Operations (Maple Lawn A)                                                        
                                          Here Today and Gone Tomorrow: Are you Sustainable?                                      
                                          Learn about what Kaleidoscope Academy does to make sure there school is sustainable 
                                          beyond the grant cycles.  We will review our governance structure with subcommittees,
                                          growing the schools resources, increasing student enrollment, and marketing your school.
                                          Presenter:  Al Brant, Kaleidoscope Academy, Appleton Area School District

                                          Curriculum/Technology (Maple Lawn B)                                          
                                          Inquiry Based Learning in a Digital Age: With the ease of access of information from
                                          students and exponential growth of digital capabilities, how can we teach the digital
                                          natives?  
                                          In this session you will learn to focus the learning activities so that the center of the
                                          growth and experience is student led using technology as a means to knowledge and skills
                                          rather than an end.  We will cover the basics of setting up a well-organized inquiry based
                                          project, free digital tools that aid student organization, assessment of inquiry based projects
                                          and how to scaffold learners away from “sit and get” learning.
                                          Presenter:  John Richards, Kaleidoscope Academy, Appleton Area School District                                         

                                          Achievement (Maple Lawn C)
                                          Demystifying Montessori
                                          The Wisconsin Montessori Association will present a series of hands-on mini-workshops that  
                                          will introduce participants to Montessori methods and materials.  We will discuss the history of
                                          Montessori education and guide participants through four levels of materials, instruction and 
                                          environments (ages 3-6, ages 6-9, ages 9-12 and ages 12-18).             

                                          Presenters: Chris Kjaer, Phil Dosmann, Laurie Schuaf, Gina Meinertz, and Mary Ellyn
                                          Wrobelewski, Nancy Schaitel and Josh R. Zimmers
                                          
                                          Communications (Linwood B)
                                                  Marketing your school
                                          2 sessions offered:  9:45-10:45 for new schools, 10:45-11:45 for established schools
                                          Your school is unique and innovative in its educational offerings.  You have a mission and a
                                          vision that conveys what your school is all about.  But a key to this all, whether you have a
                                          brand new school, a school that is in its first or second year, or a school that has been in your 
                                          community for years, is to have a plan for how to cost-effectively market and communicate
                                           your school.

                                          In order for your school to succeed (and really to thrive), you need people to know what your
                                          school is and all that it has to offer.   You need to get word out to target audiences - parents
                                          and students, to press and media, to others in your community.

                                          For new schools, we’ll look at the essential elements you need for your school’s marketing
                                          strategy – and understand the challenges so you can be better prepared.  Does your school
                                          need a “brand”?   How do you define your messaging points?   Should you craft a value
                                          proposition (and why)?  Who are your target audiences?  How can you get media coverage for
                                          my school?  Should you use social media?

                                          For established schools, the issues are a bit different.  You still need a marketing plan, but
                                          you likely have many of the elements already in place.  But a marketing plan must evolve so
                                          your communication efforts are as effective as they should be.  Ask yourself, are your  
                                          marketing efforts helping you meet your school’s overall goals?

                                          Whether early in the process of developing your marketing efforts for your school, or if you are
                                          looking to ensure that your marketing plan has continued to grow and change as your school
                                          grows and/or changes, one of these sessions will help give you tools to be more successful.
                                          Presenter: Laurel Cavalluzzo, Madison Marketing Communications, LLC


                                                       Dissemination (Linwood A)
                                                       An Introduction to the Wisconsin Innovative Schools Network
                                                       Description coming soon.
                                                       Presenter: WISN representatives

12:00 p.m.                                    Networking Lunch

1:15 - 2:30 p.m.                           Breakout Sessions Round 2
                                                       School Operations (Maple Lawn A)
                                                       Serving All Students: Are You Reflective of the Community?
                                                       How does your charter school serve the needs of students with special education.  Charter schools
                                                       are supposed to be reflective of the community they are located in.  Serving all students includes
                                                       students with learning disabilities.  Find out how one charter school with an enrollment of 250 has
                                                       served students with learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, deaf and hard of hearing, and legally
                                                       blind.  
                                                       Presenter: Al Brant, Kaleidoscope Academy, Appleton Area School District

                                                       Curriculum/Technology (Maple Lawn B)
                                                       Discover how to engage impactful, year-long professional development to improving
                                         classroom instruction and student learning.   
                                         We’ll bring together the research on Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) and 
                                         Collaborative Learning Groups (CLG’s) as well as recent research on effective adult 
                                         professional development.  This session will become a PLC/CLG meeting while participants
                                         look at student data samples and access Editure’s Professional Learning Platform with 
                                         research-based content for both facilitator and learner.
                                         Presenter:  Konnie Byford, Midwest Manager, Editure Professional Development

                                         Achievement (Maple Lawn C)
                                         Learn about a multiage environment for third, fourth and fifth graders where design, 
                                         community building, student choice and technology is combined to create a more 
                                         effective and engaging learning environment. 
                                                       Learning is not confined by physical space, instead students are empowered to move into the 
                                                       community and beyond. The HSCL has a generative curriculum and believes in a constructive 
                                                       philosophy where students' interests are the propelling force in guiding new learning experiences. 
                                                       To accomplish these goals, a Facilitation Team was created for the staff to provide continual 
                                                       collaboration to meet the needs of all individual learners. The atmosphere of our learning space when 
                                                       it is full of children is amazing which drives the school forward with new ideas leading in new 
                                                       directions.  
                                                       Presenters: Staff of Hartland School of Community Learning

                                                       Communications (Linwood B)
                                                       English Learners (EL)
                                                       Wisconsin has both an increasing number of charter schools and a growing population of English
                                                       Learners. How can charter school educators in Wisconsin best meet the needs of English Learners
                                                       (ELs) in their schools? Join us for an informative session that will help charter school educators who
                                                       do not have a great deal of experience with ELs better understand the characteristics of the EL
                                                       population, what the research says about instructional practices that are most effective with ELs, and
                                                       how teachers can provide ELs with a variety of classroom supports to help them master the academic
                                                       content and improve their language proficiency in English.
                                                       Presenter: National Charter School Resource Center

                                                       Dissemination (Linwood A)
                                                       An Introduction to Multiage Learning                                                       
                                                       This series is intended to help educators who are new to multiage learning learn what it is and what it
                                                       is not, and to allow experienced multiage educators get new ideas.  In this session, you'll learn about
                                                       multiage learning's benefits, effective implementation of a multiage learning model, and have the 
                                                       chance to ask a panel of educators who just made the transition what they've learned.  
                                                       Presenters:  Pam Gustafson from IDEAL Charter School; Diane Dalzin,  Pam Bakken, and Keri 
                                                       Adelmeyer  from LINCS; Jennifer Wilson, New Leaf Coaching and Consulting

2:45 - 4:00  p.m.                         Breakout Sessions Round 3

                                                       School Operations (Maple Lawn A)
                                                       Defining the Authorizer’s Role in the Autonomy/Accountability Tradeoff:  Do you know what is 
                                                       (or should be) in your charter contract?  
                                                       Learn about the role of a strong charter contract in defining the relationship between a charter school 
                                                       authorizer and its schools.  We will discuss the basic elements of a strong charter contract and how 
                                                       enforcement of the contract will allow authorizers to uphold school autonomy, maintain high standards
                                                       for schools, and protect student and public interests.
                                                       Presenter: National Association of Charter School Authorizers

                                                       Curriculum/Technology (Maple Lawn B)
                                                        21st Century Learning Environments
                                                       Today’s students require a skill set that the traditional school model was never intended to deliver.  All
                                                       students have the ability to be top performers if they are instructed in a way that best matches their
                                                       own learning characteristics. Often, the physical space limits the techniques used to engage students
                                                       during the daily learning opportunities. We will review how education used to be received by
                                                       students, how it has or hasn’t changed, and what may be on the horizon.
                                                       Presenters:  Tiffany May and Eric Dufek, Berghammer Construction Corporation

                                                       Achievement (Maple Lawn C)                                                       
                                                       Model for Change:  How to develop a comprehensive process for change that includes
                                                       stakeholders in leadership roles     
                                                       Major change in an organization can create stress and uncertainty unless there is active formal and                                                     
                                                       informal cooperation between the leader and the staff.  So how do you develop a comprehensive   
                                                       vision based on student learning and improving instruction and have all the stakeholders take a     
                                                       leadership role in the process and ownership in the results?    This workshop will provide a model for
                                                       success in doing just that based on an actual process used by the principal and staff of Lincoln Inquiry
                                                       Charter School, which is in its first year of operation as a charter school.  This workshop will be useful 
                                                       to potential planners of charter schools, but is equally useful to anyone contemplating major change in
                                                       their organization.                                                         
                                                       Presenters: Dr. Jo Bernhardt, LINCS principal, and Kristen Kwiatkowski

                                                       Communications (Linwood B)
                                                       Green Imagination: STEAM Teaching and Learning
                                                       This fast-paced, hands-on session introduces ways to connect the environment to
                                                       classrooms and communities greening imagination. Participants ‘breathe in life’ by getting
                                                       fresh understandings of a world connected in nine scales- nano, pattern, object, space,
                                                       architecture, neighborhoods, cities, regions, and global. Looking with light as the first material,
                                                       participants draw lines, shapes, patterns, making nature based compositions. Greening
                                                       schools and campuses, participants introduce environmentally responsive reforms and use
                                                       nature patterns to design earth day outdoor classrooms. Design As Nature stresses
                                                       responsibility for the choices we make and embeds understanding of the impact human
                                                       ecology has in relationship to bio diversity of culture and earth’s ecosystems.
                                                       Presenter Mark Keane and Linda Keane, NEXT.cc
                                                      
                                                       Dissemination (Linwood A)
                                                       That Sounds Like a Project 
                                                       So you want to learn where your food comes from?  That sounds like a project to me!  Learn how to 
                                                       give your students voice and choice by turning any topic into a multidisciplinary project.  Staff and 
                                                       students from a PBL school in dissemination will answer questions about starting, operating, and 
                                                       maintaining a PBL charter school for students in 7th-12th grade. Information and data regarding 
                                                       achievement, demographics and return on investment (both human and financial) will be provided 
                                                       along with ready to use materials.  Participants will better understand the structure of the project 
                                                       process and its application with work developed and shared by innovative teachers.   Leave with tools
                                                       and ideas that can get the project process started on Monday.
                                                      Presenters: Staff of TAGOS Leadership Academy

Friday, March 16, 2012

9:00 a.m.                                      General Session- Policy Roundtable Discussion featuring Senator Tim Cullen, Senator Luther
                                                       Olsen, and Bob Soldner of DPI

10:15 - 11:45 a.m.                      Sessions 4
                                                       School Operations (Maple Lawn A)
                                                        Presenters from IFF will share lessons learned from over a decade of finding, securing, developing,
                                                        and financing new facilities for charter schools.  Strategies for both start-up schools and schools
                                                        looking to relocate or expand will be shared.  Participants will receive tools and resources to help
                                                       them prepare for and navigate through the facility development and financing process.  Financing
                                                       mechanisms including traditional financing, new markets tax credits, and tax-exempt bond financing
                                                       will be explored.
                                                        Presenters:  Heather Heaviland and Andrea Underwood
                                                     
                                                        Curriculum/Technology (Maple Lawn B)
                                                        Make a Difference                                                        
                                                        Teaching our youth to become financially responsible today helps them become responsible adults, 
                                                        employees, parents and community members tomorrow. Since 2006, Make A Difference – Wisconsin
                                                        has been working with business community volunteers to deliver financial education in high school
                                                        classrooms. Hear more about this dynamic program, their outcomes, and the impact their making in
                                                         the community.                                    
                                                        Presenters: Brenda Campbell, Executive Director of Make a Difference WI                                         

                                                       Achievement (Maple Lawn C)
                                                       Neuroscience - The Foundation For Learning Recent scientific evidence is changing our common 
                                                       belief about human development and is supporting that purposeful intervention can change the
                                                       brain at any age!  
                                                       The purpose of this session is to share neuroscience principles, thinking skills and
                                                       the framework we use to foster improved student learning.   Participants will understand:  The need to 
                                                       use neuroscience as a foundation for teaching and learning;   It is possible to significantly influence 
                                                       each student's opportunity for success; Specific strategies, tools and structures we use to positively
                                                       affect student achievement.
                                                       Presenters:  Lynn Brown and Kristine Hutchinson, Jacob Shapiro Brain Based Instruction Laboratory 
                                                       School
                                                      
                                                       Communications (Linwood B)
                                                       Does your nonprofit or school need more resources, but you and your board members really
                                                       hate asking for MONEY, don’t know how or don’t have time?
                                                       3 Steps to loving your role as board member and fundraiser.  Become inspired and confident by
                                                       knowing what to say and do.  Find time to do it by getting the direction and support you need.  Never
                                                       get rejected by focusing on strategic relationship building.
                                                       Presenter:  Deborah Lukovich, Alinea


                                                       (Linwood A)
                                                       An Introduction to WI eSchools Network                                                       
                                                       The Mission of the Wisconsin eSchool Network is to share high quality online learning resources and
                                                       best practices while maintaining maximum autonomy for schools and programs to best meet the 
                                                       needs of their local community. We currently partner with 11 districts throughout the state of which the
                                                       majority are charter schools. Our members range in size seven being in the top ten largest districts 
                                                       and the remain 4 being much smaller programs. Thus, our offerings are applicable to all districts 
                                                       looking to embrace 21st century learning.
                                                      Presenters: John Jacobs

12:00 p.m.                                    Networking Lunch