The Design Lab: Transforming Professional Learning
Jul 28, 2025 9:00AM—Jul 30, 2025 3:00PM
Location
Jewish Community High School | San Francisco
Cost Early Bird Pricing for Members (Available until July 6): $2,560 members; $2,160 group-rate 3+; $3,995 non-members
Categories Equity & Inclusion, In-Person, Leadership, Summer Institute
The Design Lab: Transforming Professional Learning
SESSION 1: July 28, 2025 | 9:00am - 3:00pm
SESSION 2: July 29, 2025 | 9:00am - 3:00pm
SESSION 3: July 30, 2025 | 9:00am - 3:00pm
ABOUT THIS IN-PERSON SUMMER INSTITUTE
Transform your meetings, professional development, and facilitation with The Design Lab workshop series. Over three days, you'll explore evidence-based practices that breathe new life into your meetings, professional development sessions, and group facilitation, and you’ll come away with practical tools you can use right away. This experience is designed for both experienced facilitators and new leaders who want to enhance their professional practice in concrete ways. Through a combination of hands-on learning and community building, you'll connect with fellow leaders who share your commitment to creating meaningful experiences for adults in professional settings.
In this workshop, you'll:
- Reflect on, assess, refine, and redefine what makes professional learning and meetings transformational
- Create conditions and new systems for adult learning
- Design a professional development session, meeting, or equivalent content
- Explore effective facilitation skills through reflection and practice
- Explore tools to assess for impact and work with feedback
- Build connections among participants
DAY ONE: SESSION TOPICS
- Redefining professional learning
- The who, what, why, how, and who of professional learning
- Designing meetings with intention, choice, and adult agency in mind
- Creating conditions for learning that foster belonging and psychological safety
DAY TWO: SESSION TOPICS
- Increasing emotional intelligence as a facilitator
- Facilitation foundations rooted in self-awareness, community awareness, clear communication, and reflection
- Exploring power in facilitation
- Adapting facilitation to meet the needs of the moment, including when things go sideways
DAY THREE: SESSION TOPICS
- Assessing the impact of professional learning—and designing with impact in mind
- Working with feedback and learn how to be an effective feedback receiver
- Share designs and celebrate learning
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Lori Cohen has worked in education (both public and independent schools) for over 25 years, serving as a teacher, instructional coach, school leader, professional development facilitator, and published author whose expertise spans a range of topics: coaching and leadership development, teacher development, school transformation, growth and evaluation, professional development design and facilitation. Lori is a contributing author of The Art of Coaching Workbook (2020), co-author of The PD Book: 7 Habits that Transform Professional Development (2022), and co-author (with Elizabeth Denevi) of Integrating Educator Well-Being, Growth, and Evaluation: Four Practices for Leaders (2025). She is currently working on a book on lesson planning, due out in 2026. Lori designs and facilitates with a balance of humility, humor, and heart. Lori currently works as an educational consultant. You can learn more about her here.
HOST AND PARTNER SCHOOL
CATDC partners with member schools to host our in-person programs, providing educators the opportunity to learn with peers in diverse settings. We are thrilled to partner with Jewish Community High School on this Summer Institute, welcoming the larger independent school community on their campus for three days of learning and collaboration.
Cancellation Policy
Life happens. We understand that there will be times when you cannot attend a workshop that you have registered and paid for. We strive to be as helpful and flexible as possible when things out of your control happen. Please visit our FAQ page for detailed information about our cancellation policy and answers to frequently asked questions about enrollment and membership.