#NAISAC 2016

This post is LONG overdue, but I assure you it is worth the wait! This past February, Holton-Arms sent a team of team of teachers and administrators to the 2016 NAIS Annual Conference in San Francisco. You never know what you will get when you head to a conference, but I have to say that this year the sessions I attended were some of the best conference sessions I have been to in quite some time. I walked away from every session with new information and great resources to learn even more. Listed below are just a few of my big "take-aways". Where ever possible I have linked to the original presentations or videos and highly recommend that you check them out!  Blogging about conference experiences is not only a great way for me to record and curate my notes but also serves a great way to share them with others that could not be there. I hope you enjoy!


STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINING INNOVATION: When Hype Turns to Gripe
The Urban School of San Francisco - bit.ly/UrbanNAISAC

• Gartner's Hype Cycle - Using the five phases of technology adoption in business as a way to look at the process of innovation in schools [very interesting!] 
• Technology trigger
• Peak of inflated expectations
• Trough of disillusionment
• Slope of enlightenment
• Plateau of productivity
• Strategies for sustaining innovation
• Develop a sponsorship spine to create distributed support for the innovation
• Tie innovation to school's mission and culture 
• Develop a shared vocabulary and understanding of what the innovation is and dispel negative myths
• Establish and publicize the innovation' value added
• Manage resistance and negativity

RANDI ZUCKERBERG - Social Media is Free, Like a Puppy is Free
Randi entertained the audience during a general session by sharing stories, reciting poetry, and even singing a parody about technology trends and complications.

"who needs English, teach them geek!"

2016 AC Day 1: Randi Zuckerberg Shares Her Career Highlights, Key Tech Trends, and Why They’re So Dot Complicated - NAIS Connect - http://connect.nais.org/blogs/ari-pinkus/2016/02/26/2016-ac-day-1-key-tech-trends-and-why-theyre-so-dot-complicated 

BRYAN STEVENSON - American Injustice: Mercy, Humanity, and Making a Difference
The Author of "Just Mercy", delivered an amazing general session talk where he explained what he believes it will take to change the world. He spoke about the power of proximity, the need to change the narratives, how important it is to remain hopeful, and how we all must be willing to be uncomfortable (despite the fact that humans are programmed to seek comfort). 

2016 AC Day 2: With Gripping Life Stories, Bryan Stevenson Inspires Us to Change the World - http://connect.nais.org/blogs/ari-pinkus/2016/02/29/2016-day-2-with-gripping-life-stories-bryan-stevenson-inspires-us-to-change-the-world 

JAMIE CASAP - Iteration and Innovation in Education
"Google Chief Education Evangelist Jamie Casap preach[ed] the power and potential of the web, technology, and Google Tools to enable and support capabilities that can lead to powerful learning models".

• Technology is taking students places school buses can't go
• Education disrupts poverty
• Generation Z thinks about learning differently than we do! We need to change the questions we are asking! 
• "Don't ask what do you want to be when you grow up - instead ask students what problems do you want to solve and what do you need to learn to do that"
• The future of education is experimental collaborative learning models (makerspaces)
• More than anything in education, we need a culture of iteration and innovation - transformation has no end point!

2016 AC Day 2: Google’s Chief Education Evangelist Outlines Our Calling to Reimagine Education - NAIS Connect - http://connect.nais.org/blogs/ari-pinkus/2016/02/28/2016-ac-day-2-googles-chief-education-evangelist-outlines-our-calling-to-reimagine-education

I can't wait to see what the 2017 NAIS Annual Conference will hold!