MSAA Summer Institute featuring:

Seaside Educational Consultant Dr. Curtis Bates

This workshop will explore how Restorative Practice is a fundamental change in how to respond to misbehavior and rule violations and is viewed as an alternative to traditional school discipline. Participants will review the principles of Restorative Practice and how they are designed to gain a better understanding as to what happened, why it happened, and how the damage can be fixed. The restorative approach, within a school setting, attempts to shift the emphasis from managing

behavior to focusing on building relationships. Also, Restorative Circles are a strategy used for building the school s or classroom s community through authentic dialogue coming to an understanding and making things right. SIGN UP HERE

Oftentimes, one of the biggest areas of push back or concern when implementing co-teaching, is whether students on IEP’s are receiving adequate service delivery and instruction.  UDL, best practices, accommodations, and modifications worked into the co-taught classroom are all great benefit to both students with and without disabilities, but how are we ensuring that Specially Designed Instruction is also occurring for those students for whom it is deemed necessary for their success and growth?  In this workshop we will explore the nuances and criteria that make up Specially Designed Instruction and what makes it different from other instructional practices within the classroom.  We will look at the 6 approaches to co-teaching and develop an understanding of how SDI can be applied in each of these approaches.  Common planning protocols and lesson plan templates will be examined to help teams develop an effective way to ensure specific students’ SDI is being addressed within the instructional block. Sign Up Here.

Co-Teaching and Inclusion have been around for decades. This workshop will focus on delivering service to ALL students in an inclusive setting and create an understanding of best practices for leading and teaching in a co-taught environment.  While reviewing the key elements to a successful co-teaching model, you as a school/ district will review the six approaches to co-teaching, common language and the strategies for instruction that support the DESE teacher rubric focusing on Standard II…Teaching ALL Students. This workshop will emphasize the need for all adults in the school to create a mindset that everyone is responsible for the social, emotional, and academic achievement of ALL students. Sign Up Here.

The best professional athletes are continuously coached; why aren’t more educators coached?  Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention in schools; it is designed for improving human performance. The session will answer the following key questions: Why is coaching in schools important?  What are the benefits for all? What is instructional coaching for teachers and administrators? What does coaching look like? Why trust is paramount? What are some redacted examples of coaching observation and data? What video resources for refinement will the coach provide? The tenants of this Instructional Coaching program can also provide a school with a data-driven baseline of what’s happening, what’s not happening, and how often it happens across the disciplines and grades. This information can be used to validate proficient/exemplary teaching and to serve as data for goals for instructional practice refinement. Sign Up Here.

This workshop will explore a wide range of school crises and what to do before, during, and after a school crisis. Participants will generate ideas for creating crisis team action plans. There will be opportunities to engage and share ideas with colleagues from other school districts. This experience will offer an in-depth look at some of the most challenging and problematic situations that can suddenly happen to a school and a community.  The key to successful crisis team action plans is to prevent, prepare, respond, and recover. Sign Up Here.

Employee motivation and a positive workplace culture are critical factors in achieving organizational success. The "Staff Motivation and Culture" workshop is designed to provide practical insights, strategies, and tools to cultivate a motivating work environment and foster a positive organizational culture. Participants will leave the workshop with a deepened understanding of motivation and culture, along with practical tools to enhance staff engagement, improve communication, and foster a positive workplace atmosphere. Invest in your staff's motivation and the culture of your organization through the "Staff Motivation and Culture" workshop. Together, let's build a workplace where every member feels valued, motivated, and contributes to a thriving educational community. Sign Up Here.

This workshop will explore behaviors that constitute bullying and behaviors that are not considered bullying. Several case studies will be examined along with the latest research. Educators will share how to reduce the incidences of bullying and what to do when bullying and/or social conflicts occur. The tenants of a social-behavior diversionary program will be discussed and how to immediately set-up a diversionary program in your school. Sign Up Here.

Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast. “Yet, most leaders spend their time developing well-thought-out goals and strategies and fail to realize a culture that is toxic, lacking trust, and unhealthy will squash the best-developed and well-intentioned goals and strategies in their tracks.  Before presenting new goals and strategies in an organization, a leader should assess the health of their culture. What changes must they make to create a culture ready to support new initiatives? Do you have the right people in the right positions? Is it the right time, or do you need to spend time developing our culture? If you are a school committee member or on a board of any organization, you may be eager to implement new goals, but you could be missing a vital element that will lead to successful outcomes.  We can't plant healthy seeds in toxic soil that lack nutrients or are overused.  They just won't grow. 

Leaders often know they have an unhealthy culture and purposely get lost in their responsibilities that keep them busy and avoid confronting the most challenging part of their job. Developing goals for your organization will not solve the problem of a culture that needs attention.

This workshop will cover the basic tenets of organizational behavior and discuss the two forces that make change and progress possible. These two forces challenge leaders to make difficult decisions. Leaders must ask and understand questions such as: Why do staff behave the way they do? Why do some staff respond while others do not? How do we influence behavior? When leaders want to initiate a change in their culture, it will only be as effective as how they understand and act towards the opposing forces.

This workshop will explore how educators can make their lessons more student-centered by broadening their lesson plans to include different models of teaching, different principles of learning, and more engaging instructional strategies in each lesson.  This workshop will inspire teachers to plan lessons in a different way.  Educators will be able to put new instructional practices into immediate use in the classroom. Sign Up Here.

A multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) is a proactive and preventative framework that integrates data and instruction to maximize student achievement and support students’ social, emotional, and behavior needs from a strengths-based perspective. MTSS offers a framework for educators to engage in data-based decision making related to program improvement, high-quality instruction and intervention, social and emotional learning, and positive behavioral supports necessary to ensure positive outcomes for districts, schools, teachers, and students. For the MTSS framework to be implemented successfully, in a high school educators must lead, communicate, and participate in many (if not all) areas of implementation. Educators must also understand the importance of student-level work, systems-level problem solving, and assist in building a mindset that every student is the responsibility of every teacher and helping all staff take ownership of the continuous improvement process (Marlowe, 2021). Sign Up Here.

The workshop will explore the core components of multi-tiered system of supports and provide a guide of looking at an effective delivery system that is intended to provide an educational experience for all students with a focus on effective instruction, scientifically based interventions, and student outcomes. The workshop will also, explore how the S.S.T. (Student Success Team) augments the MTSS framework in its role as a problem-solving, multi-disciplinary team deeply examines individual student needs and helps identify the supports needed to promote student success. Sign Up Here.

In the dynamic landscape of education, leaders face unprecedented challenges that require a unique set of skills and approaches. The "Adaptive School Leadership" workshop aims to empower educational leaders with the knowledge and strategies necessary to navigate complexity, foster innovation, and create a thriving learning environment. Participants will leave the workshop with a heightened understanding of adaptive leadership, a toolkit of practical strategies, and a network of peers for ongoing collaboration and support. Empower your school leaders to thrive in an ever-changing educational environment through the "Adaptive School Leadership" workshop. Together, let's shape the future of education through dynamic and innovative leadership. Sign Up Here.

In June 2023 the Massachusetts Department of Elementary Secondary Education released the new model rubric for school level administrators. Per the DESE, the rubrics have been updated to strengthen culturally and linguistically sustaining practices through the Standards and Indicators. The updated rubric reflects a significant step forward in the commitment to ensuring that all students in Massachusetts, and particularly students from historically underserved groups and communities, have equitable opportunities to excel and thrive. The new rubric is designed to be both a reflective tool and a roadmap for school leaders to cultivate a shared vision that makes powerful teaching and learning the central focus of learning. Sign Up Here.

Educator evaluations can become perfunctory “tasks” to be      completed for administrators, and confrontational or “one more thing,” for the educators. That is one end of a continuum, at the other end, the evaluation process can be a productive thread in the fabric of a school that is a learning organization built on trust and a willingness to grow.  The workshop will provide time and space to analyze the current approach toward educator evaluation, of both the school and DESE., develop strategies and plans to move toward an aligned, feasible, and meaningful approach to educator evaluation. Written and oral feedback, collection and evaluation of evidence, goal alignment, and ongoing improvement will be examined. The workshop will model communication and alignment practices and will be an interactive session with guided discussion. Sign Up Here.

 Helping our students feel like they belong is an important starting place for real learning. This workshop will focus on how we as educators include the rich diversity in our classrooms and schools to ensure all students succeed by creating culturally responsive learning environments where culture and identity are viewed as assets, valuable resources and where what is being taught connects to a student’s lived experiences. By promoting and respecting our students' cultural backgrounds we can improve and deepen learning, promote educational equity, and create a community of learners among individuals from different cultural, social, and ethnic backgrounds; thus, developing students' agency, efficacy, and empowerment.

Educators will be introduced to culturally sustaining pedagogy that affirms and values students’ cultures, and that prior experiences ensures learning is more relevant and effective while building community and developing student agency. Participants will learn strategies to promote teaching and learning principles of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to achieve academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical awareness. This encourages students to accept and affirm their cultural identity while they develop critical perspectives that challenge inequities. Sign Up Here.

The organizational culture of a school, or district, has a direct impact on retention of effective staff, productive relationships with families, educator cohesion and mutual support, and student learning outcomes. Culture is often overlooked as a real lever for change. This workshop will develop skills to understand the current culture and intentionally move to build a more effective one.  Specifically creating a building-based climate and culture team. Topics will range from identifying current cultural norms and values and how they affect the school, creating a model of shared leadership and shared responsibility, honest and professional communication, and using evidence to connect norms, values, and vision to the daily life of the school. Workshop content and process is relevant for district and school leadership. Sign up Here.

Today’s leaders are challenged to ensure that their district/school evaluations, collaboration, and feedback make a difference for teachers and students. Learning how to give effective feedback that positively impacts teaching and learning can be a difficult task for teacher leaders. This is especially true for what is called ‘hard feedback’. This type of feedback challenges the teachers’ practice and can cause professional discomfort. Sign Up Here.