Presented by Erik Burmeister, Superintendent, Menlo Park City School District, CA; Theresa Fox, Coordinator, Technology and Innovation, Menlo Park City School District, CA; and Dr. Devin Vodicka, Chief Impact Officer, AltSchool
Sponsored by AltSchool
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Imagine a learning community where learner-centered, teacher-driven innovation is being dreamt, designed, tested, and scaled to provide students with agency to drive their own learning. In this community, students set rigorous academic and social-emotional goals, use individual progress and actionable feedback to inform next steps, and demonstrate mastery in meaningful ways.
District leaders are critical to this transformation and are invited watch this edWebinar where they’ll see how Menlo Park City School District is making this a reality for learners using Zones of Innovation to redesign the classroom experience. This cross-district collaboration is driven by the question: “How do we foundationally change the public school learning experience so that all students can reach their potential?” We’ll explore strategies for engaging the community and catalyzing change through Zones of Innovation. Participants will learn the five elements of Menlo’s vision for teaching and learning and approaches and tools that support a shift to a more learner-centered model.
This edWebinar is of particular benefit for K-12 school and district leaders, and teachers at all levels will find it a valuable opportunity to learn how student-centered learning impacts the classroom experience.
About the Presenters
Erik Burmeister, Superintendent of the Menlo Park City School District in California, is passionate about innovating public education and ensuring our public schools offer students, parents, and educators a wide variety of high quality experiences that meet the demands of our rapidly changing environment. Erik served as the principal of two model schools—Union in San Jose and Hillview in Menlo Park—both award-winning institutions of rigor and innovation. In partnership with the Stanford Design School, Erik has become a leader in applying design to solve a variety of education challenges including closing the achievement gap, school redesign, technology implementation, and whole child support. Erik was named Middle Grades Principal of the Year for the Association of California School Administrators and one of the three finalists for the 2014 NASSP National Principal of the Year. In 2012, the Wiseman Group named Erik Multiplier of the Year in Education.
Theresa Fox is the coordinator for technology and innovation for Menlo Park City School District in California. She brings multiple perspectives to this work, informed by her 20 years of experience as a 2nd-8th grade teacher, a K-8 instructional coach, and an elementary assistant principal. She is passionate about engaging all students in deeper learning through inquiry (especially project-based learning and design thinking), integrating technology meaningfully, and supporting teachers’ professional growth. She is currently facilitating the work of the i3 Zones of Innovation team, a group of 20 teachers who are collaborating to “imagine, inspire, and innovate” to better meet the needs of all learners in their classrooms.
Dr. Devin Vodicka, Chief Impact Officer at AltSchool and former superintendent, is recognized as one of the most innovative educational leaders in the country. He is a three-time California superintendent of the year (2016 AASA, 2015 ACSA, 2015 Pepperdine), Innovative Superintendent of the Year, and nine-time White House honoree, both in recognition for district-wide achievement, and to advise and partner with the U.S. Department of Education.
Devin is renowned for his unique understanding of how technology can help transform learning. As superintendent of Vista Unified School District, Devin led his 25,000-student community through district-wide changes that resulted in major improvements across every academic and behavioral metric. Now Devin is working to bring similar sweeping improvements to children nationwide through his work to help develop an education technology platform to accelerate learner-centric education.
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The edWebinar recording will be posted to this page the day after the presentation.
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AltSchool partners with schools and districts to catalyze and accelerate their shift to learner-centric education. The AltSchool Platform empowers educators to focus on each learner’s needs throughout the learning cycle and provides students with the ability to build agency and drive their learning. Whether a teacher is planning, engaging, assessing or understanding a student’s progress, they have a complete set of tools.