The Cultures of Thinking Summit (CoT) is an opportunity to immerse yourself in meaningful conversation, rich exploration, and joyous engagements that will equip you to better guide, support, and nurture a culture of thinking amongst the learners you lead. At the CoT Summit you will build a network of support for your ongoing efforts and gather the tools, frameworks, practices, and understanding that will sustain your journey over the long haul.

Effective coaches and mentors utilize purposeful practices in their relationships and conversations. Join us in this two-part series to learn and apply best practices for engaging in meaningful and productive coaching and mentoring. Through small group discussion, individual reflection, scenario analysis, and role play, attendees will learn to better navigate the current reality and develop skills that increase impact and foster resilience and agency.

This two-hour virtual intensive offers educators the time, space, and support to redesign a key writing assessment in response to generative AI. First, we’ll deconstruct a signature assessment into its essential process components. Then, using strategies for effective prompting, we’ll use chatbots to test the “vulnerability” of each of those components, acting as students who might use AI to bypass essential learning.

This session is for administrators interested in headship. Numerous schools in California and throughout the country are seeking new leaders. In this interactive virtual session, three experienced heads of school will share data, stories, and strategies about the path to headship. Participants will have a glimpse into some of the challenges and some of the rewards at the heart of this job and will walk away with concrete steps on how best to put themselves on a headship track.

This ongoing program will provide new leaders and educators growing into leadership roles with the tools and strategies to lead more successfully. With a focus on fostering our own personal growth as well as furthering our responsibility for the growth and development of others, participants will identify and hone the skills and habits of effective leaders, including locating one’s authentic leadership style, leveraging position within an institution, fostering high functioning teams, making informed decisions, navigating change and conflict, and creating and maintaining inclusive school environments in predominantly white institutions.

This program will provide new and aspiring leaders with tools and strategies to transition successfully into a leadership role. Throughout this program, participants will also have the opportunity to discuss the dynamics, challenges, and opportunities unique to their roles and schools. Participants will engage in focused conversations around navigating colleague dynamics, becoming a supervisor, prioritizing tasks, and engaging in effective communication strategies.

This 5-session series focuses on the unique role and responsibilities of educators who support classroom teachers directly and indirectly from positions outside of senior administration. These professionals inside schools—curriculum coordinators, learning specialists, instructional coaches, assistant teacher program directors, and others—who inhabit the space between classroom teachers and administrators often work within this context and without the power to change the overarching systems.

This program is designed for leaders who want to navigate these complexities with greater confidence and clarity learning with and from a community of practitioners. Together, we’ll tackle the challenges that come with making tough decisions, leading effective meetings, supervising your peers, and giving feedback that builds rather than erodes trust.

In this virtual series for lower school educators we will explore the importance of human-centered approaches, share insights into the value of AI literacy, engage with AI tools, and examine supportive leadership frameworks and processes. This dynamic program will meet educators where they are in their AI journeys and build a learning community of educators grappling with the complexity of this work

This year-long fellowship for experienced educators from throughout California supports the unique demands of independent school leaders—the only program of its kind in California!

This 5-session program will help educators develop practical financial and risk management skills necessary for leadership roles in K12 schools, both day schools and boarding schools. Moving beyond the theoretical and foundational principles of finance, we will ground our work together in the practical tools that educators and schools can use to understand trends, articulate current and potential economic challenges, and develop strategic and action-oriented approaches to sound financial management and financial sustainability.

This session is designed for school leaders who want to better understand how to use generative AI to support their own work and goals. While they are often immersed in questions of philosophy, policy, and supporting students and colleagues, school leaders rarely have the opportunity to explore generative AI in practical terms: learning the skills and tools that will make them more effective users of this powerful technology.

Educators navigate increasingly complex parent and caretaker communication situations in person, over the phone, via email, Zoom, and during in-person school events. Please join facilitator Dr. Jawaan Wallace, Director of Enrollment Management and Collegiate Partnerships at Marlborough School to build your toolkit of effective, responsive, and nimble communication strategies.

This workshop offers educators relevant and practical entry points to begin the process of making sense of AI. We’ll cover three guiding principles and seven strategies for understanding AI’s impact on education and harnessing its power to support deeper learning and teaching.

The Department Chairs Institute will guide participants in exploring the multilayered challenges of this unique position and in developing the knowledge, skills, and strategies needed to become effective department leaders.