Progressive Educators from around the Greater San Francisco Bay Area gathered on January 20 for a Winter Institute, inspired by last fall’s National PEN Conference theme of Amplifying Student Voices. The institute, organized through the Center for Progressive Education (CPE) at Presidio Hill School (a regional PEN affiliate organization), originally planned to leverage the good work of local presenters from the PEN Conference to hold a meeting for those unable to travel to Boston. While several local educators did reprise their Boston workshops, their numbers proved to be small, so other local educators stepped up to bring new workshop offerings to fill out the schedule. Forty educators gathered for the one-day institute on the expansive campus of the New School of San Francisco, a progressive public charter school that is part of the San Francisco Unified School District and a founding member of the CPE. Workshops were diverse, focussing on a wide swath of the curriculum and varied grade levels, and included such topics as:
- Discovering Resilience Through Trial and Error, Failure and Risk: A Journey Into the Practical Arts
- Selecting and Sequencing Student Work: Making the Most of Student Voice in Math Class
- Biographies: Studying Change Makers to Understand Ourselves
- Using TED Talks to Promote Social Change
- Learning Naturally: Integrating a Nature Immersion Program at Your School
- Using Inquiry to Amplify Student Voice
- A Model Railroad as a Vehicle for Math Engagement
The CPE is beginning planning for our second annual Summer Institute tentatively scheduled for June 22 in San Francisco. Be on the look out on the PEN website for additional information as our plans develop.
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