Workshops 2019-20
Due to COVID-19, we are postponing all in-person workshops through summer 2020. We are offering some workshops online. Please see listings below for more details.
The Wildwood Outreach Center is housed at Wildwood School, an independent, coeducational K-12 school in Los Angeles. We put theory into practice every day in every classroom, and share our work with you through our professional development workshops and custom on-site consulting services.
To receive updates, please contact Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, at sbarrett@wildwood.org or (310) 806-4502 to be placed on our email list.
2019-20 WORKSHOPS
Advisory Programs
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Advisory Is Essential™ 101 / Special Online (and Free!) Version, April 16
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Advisory Is Essential™ 201 / Special Online (and Free!) Version, April 21
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Systems Thinking & Design Thinking
Global Citizenship
Outside the Box [ ]
Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
Custom Programs
Locations: Workshops take place at either Wildwood School's elementary or middle and upper campuses.
Fees: Most single-day workshops are $199 per participant. Prices vary for multi-day workshops. Registration includes parking, continental breakfast, lunch (for most workshops), and all program materials.
Discounts: Available for registrants from public and charter schools for most workshops.
Advisory is Essential 101
* FREE one-day online workshop, Thursday, April 16, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm PDT via Zoom *
(Due to overwhelming demand, we are only accepting waitlist requests at this time: Please click HERE)
Just starting out? Want a complete program re-design?
Our flagship advisory workshop. Bring your team to this 2-day in-depth session to create or re-tool an advisory program that fits your school—public, charter, or private—and leave with a plan to succeed. Participants will:
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Analyze current research on Advisory practices and social-emotional learning (SEL)
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Practice Advisory facilitation protocols
- Generate a plan to implement their program
For Grades 5-12
Free one-day online version of this workshop: Thursday, April 16, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm PDT via Zoom.
Registration required. Click HERE to be added to our waitlist. (regular price: $375 per participant).
- November 14-15, 2019
- April 16-17, 2020 / In-person workshop canceled due to school closures
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Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood's Director of Outreach with nearly 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 here in Los Angeles, nationally, and internationally.
Advisory is Essential 201
* FREE online workshop, Tuesday, April 21, 9:00 am - 2:00 pm PDT via Zoom *
(Due to overwhelming demand, we are only accepting waitlist requests at this time: Please click HERE)
Want to tune-up your advising practice?
Our advanced, 1-day session for advisors provides strategies to strengthen practice and skills. Participants will:
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Focus on applying current Advisory research and best practices
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Practice Advisory facilitation protocols to enhance their advising and embed social-emotional learning (SEL) into everyday use
For Grades 5-12
Free online version of this workshop: Tuesday, April 21, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm PDT via Zoom.
Registration required: Click HERE to join the waitlist. (regular price: $199 per participant).
- November 12, 2019
- January 14, 2020
- April 14, 2020 / In-person workshop canceled due to school closures
Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood's Director of Outreach with nearly 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 here in Los Angeles, nationally, and internationally.
Never Too Young: Engaging Elementary Age Activism
Want to facilitate young students’ conversations around race, class, gender, and other social issues?
Join us for this thought-provoking, interactive one-day workshop. Leave with developmentally appropriate teaching strategies and tools to help you to normalize conversations about often-silenced social topics. Participants will:
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Learn to facilitate young students’ conversations around race, class, gender, and other social issues
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Observe examples of this work in action at Wildwood
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Explore the “doll stories” instructional model to help elementary-age children explore big social justice topics
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Acknowledge and validate their own multicultural identities
For Grades K-5
Click HERE to register. $199 per participant (discounts available for public and charter schools). Location: Wildwood elementary campus— 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Choose from the following dates:
- November 13, 2019
- January 21, 2020
Facilitator: Monique Marshall
Monique is a 5th grade teacher at Wildwood School. A 30-year teaching veteran, she is a founding member and current board member of SoCal POCIS (Southern California People of Color in Independent Schools). Monique passionately works to create multicultural learning opportunities that spring from her young learners’ naturally inquisitive worlds.
Building Buxton: Achieving Diversity and Equity in Schools
Ready to act upon your school's vision for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)?
In the early 1900s, Buxton, Iowa represented a rare example of racial equality in the workplace and civic life. For over 25 years the majority African American and white residents peacefully integrated the city’s coal mines, neighborhoods, and public facilities-- leaving a legacy to which other American cities and towns aspired.
Let Buxton inspire your school’s faculty recruitment and retention processes. Participants in this workshop will learn new tools and strategies for cultivating a diverse school workplace-- in hiring, as well as in developing and supporting employees of color in their lived experiences at school. Participants will come away with tips and resources, along with an action plan draft to take back to their boards and administrators in order to build their own versions of Buxton at their schools. Workshop takeaways will include:
- List of job fairs and other recruiting events targeting candidates of color locally and nationally
- List of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) with teaching degrees, certification, and/or programs
- Resume screening strategies
- Interviewing strategies
- Retention strategies (professional development, mentoring, leadership opportunities, affinity spaces)
- School climate and culture evaluation resources
For Grades K-12
Click HERE to register. $199 per participant (discounts available for public and charter schools). Location: Wildwood middle/upper campus— 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. One session only:
- April 28, 2020 / In-person workshop canceled due to school closures
Facilitator: 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 DEI practitioner, Karen calls upon her experiences in guiding DEI initiatives, as well as admissions and college counseling, to serve the needs of all students and faculty.
Systems Thinking Schools™ Summer Workshop
June 22-25, 2020 / In-person workshop postponed. Virtual version in development. Stay Tuned!
Ready for your students to see the world through a whole new lens?
Click HERE for our video gallery to systems thinking in action at Palms Elementary and Wildwood School.
This transformative four-day workshop supports elementary educators interested in integrating systems thinking into daily practice.
Systems thinking encourages students (and their teachers) to uncover the interconnectedness of all knowledge and deeply analyze the systems that underlie everything from subject-matter learning, interpersonal dynamics, and cause-and-effect relationships.
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.
To learn more, click HERE for a study from researchers from Chapman University on the teaching and learning implications of systems thinking in a 5th grade classroom.
Summer Workshop features
The Systems Thinking Schools Summer Workshop is perfect for educators interested in:
- Become acquainted with systems thinking and the mindset shift it creates in students and teachers
- Explore and apply ways to introduce systems thinking to your students
- Understand how to deepen systems thinking in the classroom through questioning and mapping
- Envision and plan how to apply systems thinking to classroom practice
- Grasp the value of nurturing systems thinkers
For Grades K-6 / June 22-25, 2020
Click HERE to register. Location: Wildwood Elementary Campus
Early Bird Rates: Through May 15, 2020
Public & charter school educators: $500 per person / $600 after May 15
Independent schools: $600 per person (1-2 from same school) / $700 after May 15
On-site instructional support and coaching during the 2020-21 school year is also available for an additional cost
Facilitators: The Educators of Systems Thinking Schools
The hosts and facilitators of this workshop are a team of teachers, administrators, and consultants from schools across Los Angeles. These include independent schools like Wildwood, as well as LAUSD’s Palms Elementary and Mid-City's Prescott Schools—the founding partners of Systems Thinking Schools, a community of public and private schools committed to student and school success everywhere through systems thinking.
Join us this summer and become a new partner.
Design Thinking for Systems Learners
Want your students to learn more deeply and (maybe) save the world?
Add two innovative approaches to your professional repertoire: Systems and design thinking. Systems thinking is a pedagogical approach that builds students' learning upon their understanding of the human-made and natural systems all around them. Design thinking affords them the tools to define and find solutions to all kinds of dilemmas—academic, societal, or global. Used together, these approaches equip students with skills and strategies that boost their academic and social-emotional learning.
With our experts' guidance, participants in this workshop will:
- Explore the 'how' and 'why' of systems thinking pedagogy
- Engage in the design thinking process to address systems thinking problems
- Create a design thinking learning experience for their students
- Take away examples of teacher and student work that can be adapted to their classroom context
For Grades K-5
Click HERE to register. $199 per participant (discounts available for public and charter schools). Location: Wildwood elementary campus— 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. One session only:
- May 1, 2020 / In-person workshop postponed due to school closures
Facilitator: Carolyn Peralta
Carolyn is in her 10th year at Wildwood School and currently teaches 5th Grade. With both public and private school teaching experience, Carolyn uses design thinking to help her students develop empathy for others—with a view toward taking positive social action. Carolyn also facilitates the Systems Thinking Summer Intensive Workshop.
Facilitator: Maddie Bradshaw
Maddie is an instructional technology coach at Wildwood's elementary campus. With a graduate degree in Technology, Innovation, and Education, Maddie's background includes work as a researcher and education fellow at organizations including Sesame Workshop and the Graduate Schools of Education at Harvard and Stanford.
Life Skills For Lifelong Learning
Interested in making your school's core values part of students' learning every day?
Life Skills are the desired personal qualities and skills that inform Wildwood School's elementary program. They're woven into students’ everyday experiences and provide a framework for faculty and parents to support students’ academic learning, as well as social and emotional growth.
Participants will:
- Engage in Life Skills-focused hands-on activities
- Investigate Life Skills’ and similar frameworks’ roles in student growth
- Develop strategies implement their own schools' core values into daily practice
For Grades K-5
Click HERE to register. $199 per person (discounts available for public and charter schools). Location: Wildwood elementary campus— 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. One session only:
- January 15, 2020
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Facilitator: Roxanne Bergmans
Roxanne is a 3rd grade teacher at Wildwood with nearly 35 years' experience as an educator—and over 20 in Wildwood classrooms. Roxanne's enthusiasm for Life Skills at Wildwood stems from her love of learning from her students every day; from their thinking, perspectives, and creativity.
Multicultural Leadership Institute
June 15-19, 2020 / In-person workshop postponed. Virtual version in development. Stay tuned!
Interested in creating and sustaining a multicultural school?
Revamped for the new decade, this five-day institute is designed for educators to create and sustain authentically multicultural schools through reflection, understanding, planning, and implementation.
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 35 participants.
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.
The Institute features:
- Expert guest presenters and facilitators
- Dynamic protocols and learning experiences
- Overview of Wildwood School's multicultural program
- Personal and school focused application
- A multicultural framework for personal and school focused application
- Introduction to stages of white racial identity development and white anti-racist practices
- Multicultural leadership team development
- Breakout sessions focused on participant needs, including:
- School-wide multicultural curriculum
- Student and faculty affinity groups
- Gender diversity and inclusion
- Socio-economic differences
- And more
Ideal training opportunity for:
- Multicultural/diversity coordinators
- Administrators
- Deans and curriculum directors
- Teacher leaders
- Board members and parents
For Grades K-12 / June 15-19, 2020
Click HERE to register. Location: Wildwood Elementary Campus
Early Bird Rates: Through April 15, 2020
$1,154 per person (3-5 participants from a school)
$1,336 per person (1-2 participants from a school)
After April 15, 2019
$1,288 per person (3-5 participants from a school)
$1,488 per person (1-2 participants from a school)
Facilitators:
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 DEI practitioner, Karen calls upon her experiences in guiding DEI initiatives, as well as admissions and college counseling, to serve the needs of all students and faculty.
Monique Marshall
Monique is a 5th grade teacher at Wildwood School. A 30-year teaching veteran, she is a founding member and current board member of SoCal POCIS (Southern California People of Color in Independent Schools). Monique passionately works to create multicultural learning opportunities that spring from her young learners’ naturally inquisitive worlds.
Sandi Crozier
Sandi is a 3rd Grade teacher at Wildwood School and an original member of the MLI facilitation team. Throughout her two decades in Wildwood classrooms Sandi has fostered a love of poetry and literature in her students, enhancing their understanding of their multicultural identities and their love for learning.
Featured Presenters:
- Alison Park—Educator and lead facilitator of Blink Consulting; nationally-known facilitator on socio-economic differences in schools
- More presenters to be announced soon!
The Global-ready Learner (Grades 6-12)
Are your students prepared for global citizenship?
Develop strategies to help your students view themselves as global citizens who understand their roles in a diverse world and seek to find creative solutions to societal challenges.
Participants will:
- Explore the purpose and practice of global citizenship education
- Consider existing and planned global citizenship projects in the Wildwood curriculum
- Examine interdisciplinary approaches which build connections across content areas to deepen student understanding
- Generate practical project ideas for classroom implementation
For Grades 6-12
Click HERE to register. $199 per participant (discounts available for public and charter schools). Location: Wildwood middle/upper campus— 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. One session only:
- January 16, 2020
Facilitator: Holli Plummer
Holli is in her 4th year at Wildwood as a Humanities teacher and Advisor after extended experience as a teacher and dorm parent at Idyllwild Arts Academy. A multi-faceted educator and entrepreneur, Holli's enthusiasm for global citizenship was recognized in 2018 when she was awarded a place in the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Think Tank on Global Education.
Discovery Days: The Institutes at Wildwood School
New Dates Coming Soon
Ready for programming that really pushes your thinking?
Join us for an inside look at The Institutes at Wildwood School. Your guides: The students in charge and the adults who assist them.
The Institutes provide a unique parallel environment for students to transfer their traditional classroom knowledge into three unique learning contexts:
- STEM research and development lab
- Community collaborative for social action and leadership
- Business start-up incubator
Each Institute’s student-members uncover problems in their respective fields, identify what they need to know or do, and then synthesize solutions. The Institutes are governed by students, who work for the advancement of the Institutes, their goals, and the common good—not grades.
Curious? Bring yourself or come with your students to spend part of a day immersed in these contextual climates, see what works, and discuss ideas to take back to your school.
New Discovery Dates Coming Soon!
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Standards-Based Assessment: Moving Towards Mastery
Is your school prepared for the future of assessment?
When it comes to measuring what your school values—showing is better than telling. Work with Wildwood School teachers and administrators who will challenge participants to disrupt traditional, opaque grading practices and envision clearer, more descriptive measures of learning for their students. This future-forward workshop is perfect for participants at schools interested in the work of the Mastery Transcript Consortium—a nationwide assessment reform movement—or who are simply interested in framing student learning in more meaningful ways.
Participants will:
- See standards-based assessment in action by unpacking Wildwood School’s leading-edge system for measuring student learning and growth
- Consider how to develop illuminating reporting practices to enlighten student and parent understanding
- Leave with ideas to apply to your individual, or school's, practice
Come discover Wildwood’s unique role among the founding members of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, as a K-12 school leading the way for nearly 20 years without relying on letter grade assessments or traditional report cards (even in upper school).
For Grades 6-12
Click HERE to register. $199 per participant (discounts available for public and charter schools). Location: Wildwood middle/upper campus— 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. One session only:
- May 6, 2020 / In-person workshop canceled due to school closures
Lead Facilitators: Emily Johnson and Jenn Spellman
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Emily is Wildwood's Director of Middle School. Her career has encompassed classroom teaching and administration in middle and elementary schools beginning in the Bay Area, at Old Orchard School in Campbell and The Nueva School in Hillsborough, before coming to Wildwood. Her assessment expertise comes from a deep appreciation of both the art and science of teaching and student learning.
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Jenn is Wildwood's Director of Upper School. Jenn's career began as a high school English teacher before moving into programmatic leadership at Milken Community Schools in Los Angeles and Westmark School in Encino, where she directed the middle and lower schools. Her broad K-12 experience affords Jenn unique insights into student learning over time and the challenges of effectively measuring it.
The Swiss Army Teacher: Versatile Facilitation With Protocols
Want some new tools for your classroom practice?
Versatility is the theme of this hands-on workshop. Participants will practice and reflect upon a variety of multi-use protocols to help them meaningfully facilitate student learning. Whether your goal is to increase student engagement, implement Common Core State Standards, or simply enliven your craft, you'll leave with new skills, ready to use in class the next day. Practice protocols to help facilitate your students' abilities to:
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"Mine" texts for deeper meaning
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More respectfully converse with each other
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Ask good questions
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Generate strong ideas
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Thoughtfully reflect on their learning
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Identify and build upon successes
For Grades 6-12
Click HERE to Register. $199 per participant (discounts available for public and charter schools). Location: Wildwood middle and upper campus— 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. One session only:
- May 5, 2020 / In-person workshop canceled due to school closures
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Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood's Director of Outreach, with nearly 30 years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools in California and Illinois. As a facilitator, he's guided the professional learning of educators here in Los Angeles, nationally, and internationally. Steve is also a national Critical Friends Group (CFG) facilitator.
Beyond Final Exams: Year-End Reflective Presentations
Ready to re-define high-stakes assessments?
See Wildwood students’ end-of-year Gateway and Exhibition Presentations demonstrating their academic and personal growth and take away ideas to implement similar authentic assessments for your students. Participants will:
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Attend 8th, 10th, and 12th grade presentations
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Engage in Q & A with student presenters
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Analyze the elements and design of Wildwood's capstone projects
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Identify ways to design and implement capstone projects at your school
For Grades 6-12
Click HERE to register. $199 per participant (discounts available for public and charter schools). Location: Wildwood middle and upper campus— 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. One session only:
- May 18, 2020 / In-person workshop canceled due to school closures
Facilitator: Steve Barrett
Steve is Wildwood's Director of Outreach, with nearly 30 years' experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools in California and Illinois. As a facilitator, he's guided the professional learning of educators here in Los Angeles, nationally, and internationally. Steve is also a national Critical Friends Group (CFG) facilitator.
CUSTOM FACILITATION AND WORKSHOPS
Let us come to you!
We can custom-design programs that target your school's goals. Our specialties include:
- Advisory programs
- Social-emotional learning
- School leadership strategies
- Facilitative practices for teachers and administrators
- Systems thinking pedagogy
- STE(A)M programs
- Project-based learning
- Instructional and assessment differentiation
- School culture
- Authentic assessment
- Graduation by exhibition
- Common Core-aligned reading and writing practices
- Internal professional development capacity building
