Learn from Diana Laufenberg at #WEMTA17

Diana Laufenberg is one of #WEMTA17's great spotlight speakers. For the past two decades Diana has been a secondary social studies teacher in Wisconsin, Kansas, Arizona and Pennsylvania. She most recently taught at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, an inquiry-driven, project-based high school focused on modern learning. Her practice has deep roots in experiential education, taking students from the classroom to the real world and back again. Prior to her work in Philadelphia, she was an active member of the teaching community in Flagstaff, AZ where she was named Technology Teacher of the Year for Arizona and a member of the Governor's Master Teacher Corps. Diana was featured on TED.com for her "How to Learn? From Mistakes" and recognized for earning National Board Certification. Her publications include a featured piece on the New York Times Learning blog, co-authoring a chapter in an educational leadership book, and an article in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. In 2013, Diana Laufenberg partnered with Chris Lehmann to start Inquiry Schools, a new non-profit working to create and support learning environments that are inquiry driven, project based and utilizing modern technology. She currently serves as the Executive Director and Lead Teacher for Inquiry Schools.

Learn more about Diana's sessions on Sched

Learning Visually

Visuals work as a possible equalizer in the classroom because they grab students and allow an entry point to learning — and because they sum up pages and pages, even chapters, of information that would take a reader hours to process. Interactive infographics make kids want to immediately start clicking around to see what's what, questions start forming organically as they explore and process. Infographics and Data visualization are not just for consumption though, teachers and students can also challenge the learning process by creating original graphics for themselves.

Inquiry Based Teaching/Learning (offered twice)

Student participation in their learning starts with instilling a sense of wonder and curiosity for their own learning. This does not come easily. Privileging the student voice in the process of their own learning is critical. Join me in a discussion of the overall strategy and a specific conversation about how to employ this strategy in the classroom. Rich classroom examples and resources will be provided.

Creating Access for All: Shifting Systems and Structures (offered twice)

In the age of standards, we have spent much time discussing the "what" of classrooms and learning, but in this workshop we will look at the "how". Join Diana Laufenberg in a session about building systems and structures for our classrooms, schools and organizations that allow us to adapt in an ever changing learning landscape. To move the learning beyond simply asking what students should know to asking what they can create, innovate and imagine, we will explore the following: 

• How do we create enough structure to be effective without becoming so rigid that we can't innovate? 

• How do we honor the human experience and not just the efficient outcome? 

• How do we ensure that it's technology that serves the learning and not the other way around? 

Join us for a conversation that may influence the way you think about every decision you make from daily learning objectives to the mission and vision of your school or district.

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