Join the Initiative Foundation, Sourcewell, Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation, and the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits for a free lunch (Despite what they say, this is a free lunch). The public policy advocacy team at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits will join us for a brief overview of their work, including why nonprofits in our region are vital to successful advocacy efforts. Marie Ellis and Ileana Mejia will share MCN's hopes and concerns for the 2023 legislative session, which will have a focus on state oversight of nonprofits. Learn how you and your nonprofit can join the conversations and make your opinions known.

This introductory workshop will offer you ways for your students to be thinkers beyond rote memorization and repetitive calculations. Jessica Strom, mathematics educator in a small rural Minnesota school, will introduce you to 14 teaching practices for enhancing learning, engagement, and discourse in your math classroom. Learn how to apply these practices to engage your students in learning mathematics.

This workshop is designed for teachers who are current users of Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics. We will be learning with Jessica Strom on grading, assessment, reporting in the morning. In the afternoon, we will be focusing on closing a lesson through consolidating, notes, and CYUs (check your understanding).

Learn to create environments that support all children in engaging thoughtfully through room layout and design by understanding how a student’s physical surroundings impact their ability to function, learn, and thrive at school. Students who learn in a predictable, safe, and purposeful environment are able to spend more of their energy on the content and less on navigating their space.

Dig deeper into the Catalyst Whole Group Leadership foundation skills as well as additional strategies and refinements to impact the learning in your classroom even more. Collaborate and practice with other educators who are committed to preserving relationships, increasing engagement, and have more curriculum time for their students.

At the core of strong classroom management is how the adults manage themselves. In this class, participants learn strategies (based on observations and field-testing in more than 50,000 classrooms) that allow them to strengthen relationships, increase equity, reduce frustration, and foster independence in the classroom.

This session will give an overview of recent updates that have taken place in the 2022 math standards adoption and implementation process and then offer a protocol that can be used for unpacking the new benchmarks.

The Minnesota Service Cooperatives have collaborated to bring you a virtual, asynchronous option to meeting your Cultural Competency licensure requirement. This course provides video learning, personal reflection time, an opportunity to hear from educators in the field, and many additional resources to explore as you continue your journey to be an even more culturally competent educator.

Minnesota statute requires Cultural Competency training for educators to renew their teaching license with PELSB (Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board). Sourcewell has developed a PELSB-approved training that meets all components of PELSB's definition.

EcoTime 2.0: Where Outdoor Learning Meets 3-Dimensional Teaching 

This interactive session introduces teachers to life science lessons that encourage outdoor learning while incorporating the use of science journals. Teachers will participate in lessons that: build community and engagement in science concepts; promote investigation, analysis, and interpretation of data; and extend science instruction to language arts, math, art, and engineering. Teachers will receive a copy of EcoTime 2.0, which includes 120 lessons that focus on the 3-dimensions of science instruction emphasized in the new science standards, and learn about opportunities for free workshops at their schools. Participants will learn through experience, so come prepared to go outdoors!