Workshops
We put theory into practice every day in every classroom at Wildwood School. Let us share our work with you through the professional development workshops and custom consulting services of the Wildwood Outreach Center.
If you have any questions or would like to receive updates, please contact Director of Outreach Steve Barrett at (310) 806-4502 or sbarrett@wildwood.org.
I am thankful for how MLI challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone, challenge my thinking, and inspire change.
- Multicultural Leadership Institute (MLI) participant
2023-2024 Workshops
- Advisory is Essential: Fostering Purpose Through Advisory (And AI)
- Advisory is Essential: Program & Curriculum Development
- Advisory is Essential: Boost Advising Practice
- Advisory is Essential: Meaningful DEIB Integration
- Multicultural Leadership Institute (MLI) 2024
- Beyond Final Exams: Year-End Reflective Presentations
- Critical Friends Group® (CFG®) New Coaches Training
- Discover the Institutes at Wildwood School
- Inspire Students With Systems Thinking
- Systems Thinking 101
Advisory is Essential: Fostering Purpose Through Advisory (And AI)
February & March 2024 (Multiple Dates)
Online Cohort
FREE Sessions!
Interested in using AI as an advising tool?
Join us for this unique, leading-edge learning opportunity. Help your advisees in grades 10-12 develop a purpose mindset: the disposition of applying one’s strengths and values to the pursuit of goals beyond oneself–for the benefit of others and the world.
You’ll explore and try out a new set of purpose-focused AI tools and learning modules developed by researchers at Boston College’s Purpose Lab and the authors of How to Navigate Life: The New Science of Finding Your Way in School, Career, and Beyond.
For all advisors and teachers working with students in grades 10-12
Four online sessions–Mondays from 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm Pacific Time:
- February 12: Introduction to the purpose-focused AI tools
- February 26: Using the AI tools in our professional work
- March 4: Facilitating advisees’ use of the tools
- March 18: Long-term implementation to foster advisees’ purpose mindset
Sessions are FREE: Click HERE to register.
Co-facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood School’s Director of Outreach with 30+ years of experience as a teacher and administrator in public and independent schools. Advisory is one of Steve’s professional specialties: Since 2010, he has worked with nearly 1,000 educators at hundreds of schools across the US and the world to help them develop their advisory programs and deepen advising practice.
Co-facilitator: Timothy Klein, LCSW
Tim is the co-author of How to Navigate Life: The New Science of Finding Your Way in School, Career, and Beyond. He is an award-winning urban educator, clinical therapist, former teaching fellow at Harvard University, and lecturer at Boston College (where he is also the True North Program Project Lead at BC's Purpose Lab). Throughout his career, he’s worked intensively with marginalized students to empower them to pursue meaningful and fulfilling lives. Prior to his work at Boston College, he helped launch Project Wayfinder at Stanford University, through which he trained educators from over 30 states and 12 different countries.
Advisory is Essential: Program & Curriculum Development
April 22-23, 2024
Session Sold Out!
In-Person @Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
Looking to build or improve your advisory program?
This two-day session sets the standard in advisory program development workshops. Create a new program or re-tool your existing one. Design a program to fit your school—public, charter, or private—and a plan to succeed.
Participants will:
- Analyze current research on advisory practices and social-emotional learning (SEL)
- Generate targets for program success and criteria for evaluation
- Envision a program to foster each student's sense of purpose and belonging
- Gain and utilize versatile program development tools (with applications beyond Advisory)
For grades 5-12 advisory program leaders and development teams at all schools
- April 22-23, 2024 (SOLD OUT!)
- 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (lunch provided)
- In-person at Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
- $415 per participant (25% discount for public and charter schools)
Special Offer! Join us for an additional half-day. Receive 30% off the registration price for Advisory is Essential: Meaningful DEIB Integration—November 15 or April 24.
Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood School's Director of Outreach with 30+ years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools. Advisory is one of Steve's professional passions and he has facilitated professional learning at schools and presented at conferences across the US and the world.
Advisory is Essential: Boost Advising Practice
December 11, 2023,
February 5, 2024, or
April 8, 2024 Session Sold Out!
Looking to level up your advising?
This one-day session provides strategies for advisors to strengthen their practice and abilities to connect with students and serve their needs to develop a sense of purpose and belonging.
Participants will:
- Focus on applying current advisory research and best practices
- Participate in a mock advisory session and analyze its structure and content
- Practice advisory facilitation protocols to enhance their advising, increase student engagement, and embed social-emotional learning (SEL) into their advisories
For grades 5-12 advisors at public, private, and charter schools
- December 11, 2023, February 5, 2024, or April 8, 2024 (SOLD OUT!)
- 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (lunch provided)
- In-person at Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
- $249 per participant (25% discount for public and charter schools)
Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood School's Director of Outreach with 30+ years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools. Advisory is one of Steve's professional passions and he has facilitated professional learning at schools and presented at conferences across the US and the world.
Advisory is Essential: Meaningful DEIB Integration
November 15, 2023, or April 24, 2024
In-Person @Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
Looking for authentic ways to deepen DEIB work at your school?
This half-day session provides insights on how to reframe your school’s advisory program to enhance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) work. Assess your school’s current practice, gain new implantation strategies, and sample race-focused and social justice advisory lessons that foster student empathy and responsible citizenship.
Participants will:
- Engage in guided work to envision and plan ways to intentionally integrate DEIB work into advisory programming
- Utilize a diagnostic tool to evaluate their school’s current state of DEIB work
- Explore the integral role of DEIB work in Wildwood’s Middle & Upper School advisory program
- Connect with colleagues at other schools engaged in similar work
For grades 5-12 advisory program leaders and advisors, as well as DEIB directors and practitioners
- November 15, 2023, or April 24, 2024
- 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- In-person at Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
- $109 per participant (25% discount for public and charter schools)
- Click HERE to register
Special Offer! Receive a 30% discount if you also register for our two-day workshop, Advisory is Essential: Program and Curriculum Development.
Facilitator: Vanessa Stotland
Vanessa supports teaching, learning, and program logistics as Wildwood Middle & Upper School’s Faculty Services Coordinator. Over her nearly 20-year career, Vanessa has excelled in a variety of positions: an upper school literature teacher and advisor, as well as an administrator with expertise in curriculum development, program leadership, and assessment systems design.
Facilitator: Karen Dye
Karen is Wildwood's Director of Equity and Inclusion. She brings with her over 30 years of service in both independent schools and at the collegiate level. An established practitioner in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, Karen calls upon her experiences in guiding DEIB initiatives, as well as admissions and college counseling, to serve the needs of all students and faculty.
Multicultural Leadership Institute (MLI) 2024
June 24-27, 202
In-Person @Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
Registration Now Open! CLICK to Sign Up.
Interested in deepening and sustaining DEIB work in your school?
Come with your personal and institutional diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) goals and leave with deeper insights and plans for action.
This intensive, four-day institute is designed for educators to create and sustain authentically inclusive schools through reflection, inspiration, and planning.
Our Multicultural Leadership Institute provides responsive professional development by leveraging current research and practice, along with Wildwood School's institutional experiences. The setting is intimate and intentionally small, limited to 40 participants (with no more than 5 from any single school).
Please note: MLI sells out quickly!
The Institute supports individuals and cohorts committed to developing a shared vision of institutional and cultural change within their schools. Participants will consider, generate, and refine strategies to foster authentically inclusive and equitable practices—for themselves and their schools.
The Institute features:
- Expert guest presenters and facilitators
- Dynamic protocols and learning experiences
- Overview of Wildwood School's nationally-recognized DEIB program
- Personal and school focused DEIB application
- DEIB leadership team development
- Specific sessions on:
- Anti-racist practices
- White racial identity
- Gender identity
- Socio-economic diversity
- and more
Ideal learning opportunity for:
- DEIB coordinators
- School leaders
- Deans and curriculum directors
- Teacher leaders
- Board members and parents
For Grades K-12
- June 24-27, 2024
- $1,149 per person (3-5 participants from same school/organization)
- $1,349 per person (1-2 participants from same school/organization)
- In-person at Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
CLICK to Register
Institute Director: Karen Dye
Karen is Wildwood's Director of Equity and Inclusion. She brings with her over 30 years of dedicated service in both independent schools and at the collegiate level. An established DEIB practitioner, Karen calls upon her experiences in guiding DEIB initiatives, as well as admissions and college counseling, to serve the needs of all students and faculty.
Institute Co-Director: Claudia Gonzalez
Claudia is Wildwood's Director of Enterprise Software Systems. She is a dedicated mentor, team-builder, and data and information system specialist whose talents have been integral to Wildwood for over 20 years. As a member of Wildwood's DEIB Leadership Team, Claudia excels in expanding DEIB initiatives and learning beyond the classroom.
Featured Facilitator: Alison Park
Alison is the founder and principal of Blink Consulting, LLC—an educational consultancy dedicated to critically rethinking diversity, equity, and inclusion. Since 2005, Alison has collaborated with over 100 NAIS schools, as well as public schools, universities, governmental, and other organizations to help create communities where children, youth, and adults can thrive.
Featured Facilitator: Monique Marshall
Monique is the founder and principal of Monique Marshall Strategy and Consulting, LLC. As an innovator and thought leader in anti-bias/anti-racist education, Monique has worked for over 30 years with faculty, students, parents, and community members to develop and sustain equitable spaces of learning and belonging. Monique is a passionate anti-racist educator dedicated to working with communities that foster organizational change at multiple levels.
Featured Facilitator: Jason David
Jason co-founded the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere - Los Angeles (AWARE-LA) nearly 20 years ago. It has grown into a nationally recognized organization that offers a summer institute and engages in activism. Jason is also a program associate with Facing History and Ourselves, a national organization that uses the lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.
Beyond Final Exams: Year-End Reflective Presentations
May 30, 2024
In-Person @Wildwood School, Middle-Upper Campus
Are you ready to broaden your definition of rigor?
Throughout their middle and upper school years, every Wildwood student prepares and delivers reflective, year-end presentations on their intellectual and social-emotional learning to a panel of their teachers, family, and peers. Their goal: Make the case for why they're ready to move on to the next grade (or graduate).
Participants in this unique workshop will be special guests at Wildwood students’ end-of-year Gateway and Exhibition Presentations and will consider ideas to implement rigorous, reflective assessments at their schools.
Participants will:
- Attend multiple student presentations
- Engage in Q & A with student presenters
- Analyze the elements and design of Wildwood's approach to student metacognition and reflection
- Identify ways to prototype and implement authentic student reflections at your school
For Grades 6-12
- May 30, 2024
- 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. (lunch provided)
- In-person at Wildwood School, Middle & Upper Campus
- $249 per participant (25% discount for Mastery Transcript Consortium member schools + all public and charter school participants)
- Click HERE to register
Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood School's Director of Outreach with 30+ years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools. Advisory is one of Steve's professional passions and he has facilitated professional learning at schools and presented at conferences across the US and the world.
Critical Friends Group® (CFG®) New Coaches Training
July 22-26, 2024
In-Person @Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
Ready to tap your peer coaching potential?
This five-day, intensive national training provides educators with research-based tools for developing a collaborative culture that fosters professional learning and raises student achievement. New Coaches Training offers an opportunity to master the fundamentals of CFG coaching by experiencing them firsthand, as part of a cohort of like-minded professionals from across the country.
By the end of the workshop, participants will:
- Be CFG coaches certified by The National School Reform Faculty
- Embrace adult learning in service of equitable student outcomes
- Develop and deepen facilitation skills
- Know how to “mine” texts for deeper learning
- Understand how to match protocols to particular examples of student and adult work
- Know how to give and receive productive feedback on professional practice
- Have a plan for launching CFGs at their school or district
Registration Opens Soon!
For K-12 and University Educators
- In-person at Wildwood School (middle/upper campus)
- $999 per participant
- Registration includes a CFG Coaching Certificate and one-year coaches' membership with The National School Reform Faculty® (NSRF) during which you'll have free access to all coaches' protocols on the NSRF website
- Click HERE to register
Certified National Facilitator: Deb Christenson
Deb is a history teacher at Wildwood's middle and upper campus. With over 40 years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools, Deb has helped to start and sustain schools dedicated to authentic and engaged student learning.
Certified National Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood School's Director of Outreach with 30+ years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools. Advisory is one of Steve's professional passions and he has facilitated professional learning at schools and presented at conferences across the US and the world.
Discover the Institutes at Wildwood School
December 7, 2023
In-Person @Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus
FREE Session!
Want an inside look at the future of high school?
The Institutes at Wildwood School are three unique student-powered engines of project-based learning in Wildwood's Upper School (grades 9-12), created to reflect the school's broader commitment to highly-participatory student-centered learning.
The Institutes provide Wildwood students with the opportunity to learn and apply knowledge and skills in three authentic contexts that realistically mirror work worlds that students may encounter as adults: STEM research and development, social leadership, and entrepreneurship.
In this half-day session participants will:
- Visit all three of Wildwood's student-led Institutes
- Learn from student Institute members and the adults who assist them
- Reconsider teachers' roles in student learning
- Consider applications for your own school's program
For All Educators and Accompanied Students In Grades 9-12
- December 7, 2023
- 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
- In-person at Wildwood School (Middle/Upper Campus)
- FREE session (Registration Required)
- Click HERE to register
Host: Steve Barrett, Director of the Wildwood Outreach Center
Wildwood Institute for STEM Research and Development—Est. 2014
A working academic research lab contributing to active scientific and engineering communities.
Wildwood Institute for Social Leadership—Est. 2018
Research and consulting partner for LA-area schools and non-profits working to affect social change.
Wildwood Institute for Entrepreneurship—Est. 2019
An incubator and collaborative design studio for student-launched start-ups.
The Institutes at Wildwood School have been recognized for educational leadership by the E. E. Ford Foundation.
Inspire Students With Systems Thinking
February 1, 2024
In-Person @Wildwood School, Elementary Campus
Looking to supercharge student engagement?
Participants in this workshop will learn by doing as they engage in systems thinking—a versatile and transformative approach to teaching and learning. This unique opportunity illuminates how to use systems thinking as an entry point for instruction, assessment, and project-based learning.
Systems thinking motivates students to see their world and the skills and content they study as interconnected—enhancing their learning, deepening their understanding, and inspiring them to change their world through social action. Systems thinking is a powerful catalyst for student engagement and learning—at any grade level.
Participants will:
- Learn about and use systems thinking tools that can be applied in the classroom the next day
- More deeply understand systems thinking and how "everything is connected"
- Assess where and how to introduce systems thinking to enhance existing curriculum
- Connect and learn with other energized educators
For grades K-8 teachers and administrators
- February 1, 2024
- 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (lunch provided)
- In-person at Wildwood School, Elementary Campus
- $249 per participant (25% discount for public and charter schools)
- Click HERE to register
Facilitator: Sarah Simon
Sarah is the Assistant Director of Wildwood’s Elementary Campus where she coordinates K-5 curricula. In over 20 years at Wildwood, Sarah has taught Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 5th grades. As a 2nd grade teacher, Sarah brought systems thinking to Wildwood School through a partnership with systems thinking expert Dr. Barbara Moreno. She has facilitated teacher professional development in systems thinking for nearly ten years.
Facilitator: Judy Utvich
Judy has been a classroom teacher, building principal, and district-level director in the Los Angeles Unified School District over her nearly 40-year career in education. She became a systems thinking pioneer as a 4th grade co-teacher with Dr. Barbara Moreno at Open Charter School in Los Angeles and has been championing the pedagogy ever since, most recently as a systems thinking consultant and professional development facilitator.
Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood School's Director of Outreach with 30+ years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools. A National Facilitator with the National School Reform Faculty, Steve has coached educators in systems thinking practices at schools in the US and around the world.
Systems Thinking 101
June 17-18 (In-person @Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus)
September 5, September 26, & October 10 (Online)
Registration Now Open! CLICK to Sign Up.
Ready to engage your students in their learning and unlock their potential to change the world?
This transformative hybrid workshop supports K-8 educators interested in integrating systems thinking into daily practice.
Systems Thinking helps students see concepts, objects, and subjects as interconnected systems, rather than isolated entities, in order to enhance learning, deepen understanding, and change their world.
Systems Thinking helps students learn more deeply and effectively and also fosters the exploration of ethical, environmental, and global issues—encouraging increased personal responsibility and social action. It also invigorates teachers' planning and practice.
Systems Thinking 101 provides:
- Certification as a Systems Thinking Schools Educator
- Versatile go-to systems thinking tools for classroom use
- Experience and practice with strategies to increase student achievement
- Guided planning time to implement systems thinking in your classroom– for the next day and throughout the year
- Collaboration: Learn, plan, and share with fellow educators
For all K-8 educators
- June 17-18 / 9:00 am - 4:00 pm (In-person at Wildwood School, Middle/Upper Campus)
- All lunches and snacks included
- September 5, September 26, and October 10 / 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm PT (Online)
- $550 per person for teams of 2 or more from the same school/institution
- $650 for single participant
- Click HERE to register
Facilitator: Judy Utvich
Judy has been a classroom teacher, building principal, and district-level director in the Los Angeles Unified School District over her nearly 40-year career in education. She became a systems thinking pioneer as a 4th grade co-teacher with Dr. Barbara Moreno at Open Charter School in Los Angeles and has been championing the pedagogy ever since, most recently as a systems thinking consultant and professional development facilitator.
Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood School's Director of Outreach with 30+ years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools. A National Facilitator with the National School Reform Faculty, Steve has coached educators in systems thinking practices at schools in the US and around the world.
Cancellation and COVID-19 Policies
Cancellation Policy
Cancellation Policy for All Workshops:
- Full refund or credit prior to 30 days out of workshop start date
- 50% refund or credit after that up to two weeks out from the scheduled start date
- No refund or credit within two weeks of the training date
- COVID-19 Provisions: Exceptions will be made for illness
- If we need to cancel a workshop for any reason, we'll provide notice and full refunds or offer credit for future workshops