NEASC Showcase 2025

A new ninth-grade course, "Early Modern Encounters and Exchange (EMEE)," encourages students to explore the pre-colonial histories of either the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara or the South China Sea. Students connect a current event to course themes and present their findings on a poster at a peer symposium for their culminating project. Drawing from their experiences, participants will learn and practice strategies for matching course goals and essential questions in a culminating project, breaking down departmental silos by seeking out others' expertise, making adjustments mid-course at decision points, engaging students as partners in the process, marshaling school spaces, community practices, and physical resources, and reflecting upon the process to consider what to do in future years.

As educational leaders grapple with budgetary constraints, attendance concerns, and student well-being, it is imperative that to identify and implement cost-effective and tangible strategies to increase connection and belonging in schools. Engage in interactive survey questions to illustrate the initiatives implemented. Learn about the strategies used and the importance of using data to identify the specific needs of each school. Attendees will collaborate and draft action plans using a template. Participants will leave with immediate and long-term plans to begin successfully addressing the unique challenges that their schools face.

Learn how to synergize classroom learning with engaging out-of-the-building experiences and community collaboration. In 2018, Aspire Gorham was created to bridge student learning and community engagement. This transformative initiative encourages students in every grade to think about their futures, connects students to professionals for career exposure and exploration, and prepares students for employment and citizenship. Data shows students' perceptions increased about their work in high school being relevant to their future selves, and staff feels greater responsibility for students' post-secondary success. Hear from students about their work with teachers and community mentors to pursue authentic career experiences directly tied to future goals and learn specific strategies to implement this transformative program in any school.

Learn about the process of advisory redesign from idea to implementation. Learn how an advisory redesign launch team reinvented the advisory experience for students; including auditing past practice, redesigning new structures and non-negotiables, curating resources, and delivering professional development. Participants will learn how a high school advisory block can be structured to ensure an equitable and consistent student experiences where meaningful lessons take place for academic, college and career, and social emotional readiness. Participants will learn how to embed 1:1 student conferencing in advisory where advisors meet regularly with students to monitor academic performance through goal setting and frequent check-ins. Participants will receive coaching on how to deliver effective student conferencing through live demonstration, questioning techniques that enhance the conferencing process, strategies for monitoring the effectiveness of advisory redesign implementation, and resources for collecting input from faculty and students on advisory redesign.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically shifted the educational landscape, highlighting the need for flexible and personalized learning experiences. Students' ability to access course material at different times is essential as needs grow more complex. Participants will step into learners' shoes as they experience and explore a classroom model that combines teacher-curated resources and self-paced learning journeys to increase learner agency and autonomy, which increases engagement, motivation, and mastery. Participants will be able to (1) describe the principles and benefits of learner-centered instruction, (2) apply a tiered-level system to differentiate a new or current unit of study, (3) design a physical or digital progress tracker based on shared templates and samples, (4) collect practical strategies for implementing a similar model in their classrooms, and (5) access implementation support and resources for additional professional development.

In this session, participants will learn how the Newburyport Public Schools made the portrait of a graduate vision a reality. Participants will learn about and experience several of the learning activities that teachers, teacher leaders, and administrators incorporated to bring to life the portrait of a graduate. Participants will also learn how to incorporate the portrait of a graduate across the school district.

Learn how role-playing games can be used to hone written and analytical skills through play. Participants will simulate a brief activity to showcase how students can practice using evidence in argumentation, underscoring the influence of perspective in determining the actions of diverse historical actors. Participants will be briefed on the background on the historical period before assigning roles and objectives. Attendees will role-play a town meeting in a fictional French town during World War I. Participants must use their role sheets to decide whether to alert the local military commander, who will destroy their beloved church to root out a foreign threat, or save their church by saying nothing, and hoping the threat passes. Learn how the activity can be adapted to emphasize writing, discussion, and research skills and cultivate curiosity and empathy without agreement with historical actors' decisions.

Often, student-led discussions focus on how those discussions are structured through format, roles, and assessment. Students are shown how to participate but often lack the missing link of the ability to structure and envision thinking to share. Participants will receive a handout with a set of community aspirations and agreements and a menu of visible thinking routines. Beginning with the essential questions "What motivates students to participate in classroom discussions?" and "Why do our students hesitate to participate?" participants will share examples of student-led discussions. Learn how the framework is used and the enculturation of imperfect contributions built together to create greater equity in and frequency of participation in classroom discussions, especially among diverse learners. Engage in a sample discussion using this framework. There will be time for questions and answers.