Educators understand that student achievement hinges on engagement, yet a noticeable attention gap persists in today’s classrooms.
To bridge this gap, our everyday classroom heroes need concrete support (cue extra time!) to prioritize the human aspect of teaching, helping them nurture all students’ natural curiosity.
But – what is curiosity? It is the driving force behind our exploration and understanding of the incredible world around us, and we firmly believe that embracing curiosity is the most effective pathway to learning.
At this year’s ASCD Conference, take a break from the ordinary and enter our innovative session room that champions collaborative learning, idea-sharing, and exploration within the educational community.
Let’s connect in Washington D. C.!
Jump to a section!
Saturday, March 23 | Room 209A
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM ET
At a time when AI and the Internet can provide instant answers, fostering curiosity is more important than ever. Under what conditions is curiosity best cultivated?
Learn what brain research tells us about the relationship between curiosity and engagement as well as how to observe, measure, and assess curiosity in practical ways.
Described as “excellent, enlightening, and humorous,” Dr. Tim Hudson delivers a powerful message you won’t want to miss.
Sessions are first-come-first-serve and space is limited Please arrive early!
Tim Hudson serves as chief learning officer at Discovery Education, where he supports partner districts and internal teams as they develop and implement research-based, innovative, and effective resources for teachers and students. Prior to joining Discovery Education, Hudson spent 10 years in public education.
Saturday, March 23 | Room 209A | 10:30 AM - 2:00 PM ET
Choose from a series of thought-provoking mini-sessions and case studies on a range of topics all centered around the cultivation of curiosity in our classrooms.
Room 209A
10:30 AM – 11:00 AM ET (30 mins)
Topics:
Educators spend more and more time with learning data, monitoring progress, identifying gaps, and prioritizing learning next steps. Yet the most important work—connecting with students—remains. How do we shift the work we’ve done with learning data into student motivation? What are best practices for goal setting with students, and asking students to monitor their progress just like we do?
Sessions are first-come-first-serve and space is limited. Please arrive early!
Room 209A
11:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET (30 mins)
Topics:
More and more states are mandating schools adopt reading instructional practices that are backed by research. Now that seemingly everything is “science of reading” aligned, how can I focus on doing right by my students, and making sure they will grow as readers?
Sessions are first-come-first-serve and space is limited. Please arrive early!
Room 209A
12:30 PM – 1:00 PM ET (30 mins)
Topics:
Join us for a 30-minute deep dive into a rich array of resources to connect today’s classrooms to real-world careers. Explore foundations and global partners funded no-cost career resources, including virtual field trips, interactives, and pre-built presentations, giving students irreplaceable exposure to content and careers. Expose them to things beyond their communities so they can be what they cannot see.
Sessions are first-come-first-serve and space is limited. Please arrive early!
Room 209A
1:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET (30 mins)
Topics:
If you’re a school principal or district admin, you are likely feeling inundated with daily news on how AI is going to impact your schools, teachers, and students. This 30-minute workshop is a great way to start small with new AI strategies and actionable insights, including new approaches to prompt AI to generate lessons, evaluate student work, and develop homework-specific communications for family correspondence. The session will also discuss how to generate policy documents for the acceptable use of AI across classrooms and schools. Finally, the session will carefully walk through the various student career paths that leverage AI and computer science. Participants will have access to key content from the discussion, including a library of reference material, critical links, and helpful resources. The presentation will also be made available for attendees to share and distribute with colleagues.
Sessions are first-come-first-serve and space is limited. Please arrive early!
Eileen served as a K-8 teacher, instructional coach, and curriculum specialist before taking her passion for data driven instruction and developing high quality teacher materials to the world of ed tech. She joined Discovery Education's Teaching and Learning team after three years with DreamBox Learning and is most passionate about testing new features requested by educators.
Hall Davidson is a legendary ed tech speaker, both nationally and internationally. He has keynoted virtually every education technology conference, most recently FETC in 2023. He left the math classroom to teach math on television in Los Angeles on an Emmy-winning program. He spent 20 years in California as a consortium media director, teaching, and leading staff development on emerging technologies, including a TEDx talk. He served on the ISTE Board. For years, he and Discovery Education have worked with foundations and global companies to build a no-cost library of materials for teachers, families, and afterschool programs. He is currently president of an educational media foundation in Los Angeles serving 400,000 students.
As a valued Discovery Education or DreamBox Learning partner, we invite you to drop by our Curiosity Cafe in Room 209A at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center for complimentary hot coffee, a variety of teas, and refreshments!
Curiosity Cafe will be open for morning break from 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM, and for an afternoon break from 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM. Let us know your stopping by!
Did you know that DreamBox Learning has joined the Discovery Education family? Together, we are poised to offer a powerful combination of engagement, simplicity, and accelerated student growth across all four core subject areas. Email us to book a meeting with a team member at ASCD!