In collaboration with Crystal Springs Uplands School, the inaugural Transformative Teaching Conference @ Crystal invites teachers, innovators, and thought leaders to participate in a day-long conference dedicated to transformative teaching practices. The goal of Transformative Teaching is to increase students’ mastery of skills and concepts, while at the same time cultivating in students a love of learning and positive sense of self and ability. This is a unique opportunity to collaborate and learn from the dynamic insights, experiences, and research of your peers that challenge conventional approaches and inspire all of us to enhance our teaching methodologies.

In this workshop, we’ll explore both challenges and opportunities that AI presents to the teaching of writing. We’ll look at the research on writing, consider a variety of classroom approaches, and discuss examples that fall into two categories: AI-resistant pedagogy and AI-assisted pedagogy. Participants will reflect on the way resistant and assisted approaches can deepen student learning and motivation when it comes to writing tasks.

In this workshop, we’ll explore both challenges and opportunities that AI presents to the teaching of writing. We’ll look at the research on writing, consider a variety of classroom approaches, and discuss examples that fall into two categories: AI-resistant pedagogy and AI-assisted pedagogy. Participants will reflect on the way resistant and assisted approaches can deepen student learning and motivation when it comes to writing tasks.

In this free Community Conversation we will explore how building authentic relationships with students is the foundation of progressive pedagogy. Through open dialogue, we’ll discuss the role of community, connection, and belonging in navigating the complexities of today’s classrooms. This is a conversation for educators who believe in the power of relationships to create transformative learning spaces and who want to foster classrooms that hold space for all identities and experiences.

This in-person workshop will allow educators to share their experiences and find common ground; elaborate the connections between different cultural challenges involving students and identify root causes; develop a shared vocabulary around the key elements of a healthy school culture; share a framework around an actual problem of practice in small groups, and of course throughout this process we will build community amongst each other.

This online program is designed for educators who are interested in strengthening their AI skills while exploring how to engage students in productive, ethical use of generative AI tools. By bringing together educators from different schools for learning, discussion, and practice, this program aims to not just deliver knowledge, but share it. Understanding how different schools and people are navigating the ever-changing boundaries of appropriate AI use at school will help us make decisions about the best way to engage our students.

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 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.

This one-day Summer Institute for middle and high school educators will focus on building our understanding of executive functioning and give space and opportunity for designing and refining our assessments.

The Teaching Foundations program is designed to support the growth and success of all teachers—particularly those in their early years at independent schools—by focusing on foundational areas of teaching.

The Teaching Foundations program is designed to support the growth and success of all teachers—particularly those in their early years at independent schools—by focusing on foundational areas of teaching.

This one-day virtual workshop is designed to give all educators tools to create an inclusive classroom that fosters thoughtful, deliberative dialogue around the pressing cultural and political issues facing our world, with a focus on the coming U.S. elections. Educators are encouraged to attend in teams to help create a more cohesive school-wide approach for engaging in conversations around contested issues.

This session is designed for educators who are already using AI in their practice and are looking to develop more advanced skills. Through strategic, detailed prompting and providing AI with a knowledge base of resources that we curate, we can teach AI to behave in more specific ways and provide more helpful and reliable responses.

This introductory 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.

This one-day intensive for early childhood educators will explore how to support neurodivergent learners through sensory regulation, classroom design, and motor development.