Please find below a description of each concurrent session.
Let’s Get Fired Up: Using Generous Authority to Create Singular Classroom Experiences and Energized Students
Abstract for Conference Program (150 words max)
Experience the techniques of successful facilitators and performance artists. Consider how the measures by which we gauge other gatherings should be used in classrooms to create student buy-in and anticipation of class meetings as singular events in which students develop high aspirations for their own work.
In this assembly, participants will use the facilitating techniques recommended by Priya Parker, Thrive Labs founder, in The Art of Gathering. We will reference organizational scholars who aim to foster civility; ensure gender, racial, and socioeconomic parity; and create safe spaces for dialogue. We think these techniques and goals—managing student and teacher emotional reactions to class material and social dynamics—are the essential conditions for motivated learning. By planning class meetings as if designing interactive performance pieces, hosting dinner parties, or negotiating mergers, teachers can improve classroom focus, emotional safety, student interconnectedness, and intellectual outcomes. As Parker writes, “How we gather matters.”