EVENT SCHEDULE
DAY 1
DAY 1 | 8:00 - 8:45 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast
DAY 1 | 8:45 - 9:00 a.m.
Welcome & Review of Purpose
Alyssa Haymore, OCM BOCES DEI Coordinator
Westhill Auditorium
DAY 1 | 9:00 - 9:45 a.m.
Leaving Genius on the Table: Practical Tools to Identify, Nurture, and Sustain Brilliance
Colin Seale
Auditorium
Colin Seale is the founder & CEO of thinkLaw. This award-winning organization helps educators leverage inquiry-based instructional strategies to close the critical thinking gap and reach all students, regardless of race, zip code or what side of the poverty line they are born into. His career includes working as a math teacher, attorney, author, and now as a keynote speaker. He is a contributor to Forbes, The 74, Edutopia and Education Post and author of Thinking Like a Lawyer: A Framework for Teaching Critical Thinking to All Students (Prufrock Press, 2020) and Tangible Equity: A Guide for Leveraging Student Identity, Culture, and Power to Unlock Excellence In and Beyond the Classroom (Routledge, 2022).
Website: thinklaw.us
Website: thinklaw.us
The Heart Work: The Equity Case for Prioritizing Psychological Safety In & Beyond the Classroom
Colin Seale
Auditorium
Colin Seale and his thinkLaw team have championed creating opportunities and prioritizing psychological safety to unlock and nurture brilliance in all learners. In this session, participants will learn about the importance of psychological safety as a foundation for learning and gain practical strategies to integrate social and emotional learning seamlessly into educational practices.
DAY 1 | Session One: 10:00 - 10:45 a.m.
Social Justice Climate Change Workshop
Dr. Michael Mikulewicz
Room 101
This presentation will introduce attendees to the concept of Climate Justice. It will include an overview of key concepts using global and state examples. Attendees will be introduced to the idea that climate change is not just an environmental issue but also a serious social and political issue, and that its impacts can affect some places and certain groups of people more than others. We will also cover the injustices related to our responses to the climate crisis and ways to get engaged in the fight for climate justice.
Retaining Diverse Educators
Alyssa Haymore
Room 103
Join this empowering session for school administrators who want to foster welcoming environments and a genuine sense of belonging for diverse educators. Gain cultural competence, address disparities, build a cross-cultural community, and acquire tools to retain and support a diverse teaching staff.
Black Girls Don’t (Will) Get Love
Eden Strachan
Library
Discover the inspiring and impactful work of Black Girls will Get Love, Inc., which celebrates Black girlhood through various media and community initiatives, including the acclaimed Black Girls Don’t Get Love prom, slumber party, outdoor exploration, and film training program. Learn how this organization transforms perceptions and supports more than 150 girls with $70,000 in sponsorships. Explore this award-winning organization’s educational workshops, now available for school districts and universities, and discover their approved Screenwriting Workshop curriculum.
Tier 1 Instruction: The Equity Secret Weapon
Colin Seale
Auditorium
DEI consultants are hired, trainings conducted, and initiatives launched. Yet outcomes include community unrest and legislative pushback. Meanwhile, true educational equity remains elusive in many places, reduced to a checkbox or a daunting goal. Tier 1 instruction holds the key. By reimagining the school day as a platform for explicitly teaching critical thinking skills, we can achieve the academic, social, and emotional outcomes every student deserves.
DAY 1 | Session Two: 11:00- 11:45 a.m.
Remember Liss
Claire Bellerjeau
Room 101
Join historian and author Claire Bellerjeau as she reveals the story of Elizabeth, or Liss, enslaved by the Townsend family of Oyster Bay, N.Y. Liss’s tale intersects with George Washington’s spy, Robert Townsend, also known as “Samuel Culper, Jr.” Discover their journey alongside historical figures like Washington and Benjamin Franklin and events such as the Culper Spy Ring and Benedict Arnold’s treason plot. Educators will explore Liss’s struggle for freedom through primary documents, bridging America’s foundational history between 1619 and 1776.
CNY Youth Summit
West Genesee CSD
Room 103
This session will outline how students came together to create a school-wide movement in the wake of the George Floyd protests. With support from staff, clubs and committees were created, awards were won, and now we’ve developed a CNY Youth Unity Summit. During this session, you will learn our steps of action, plus how to support the youth and staff in your buildings.
Start with the Crown
Dr. Amanda Viel
Library
In this presentation, Dr. Amanda Viel will highlight Ken Williams’s work, which celebrates the transformative power of high expectations for all students. Ken will visit the session virtually to challenge the assumption that lowered standards benefit struggling students and demonstrate how a rigorous learning environment fosters growth for all students, regardless of background or ability.
DAY 1 | 11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Lunch
Callé Tropical- Latin American Food
DAY 1 | 12:30 - 1:15 p.m.
Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir about Great Books, Punk Rock and the Fight to Fit in
Dr. Phuc Tran
Auditorium
Phuc Tran is an author, educator, classicist, and tattooer. Born in Sài Gòn Vi?t Nam, his family fled to America in 1975 to the countryside of Carlisle, Pa., where his parents reared him on a steady diet of Saturday morning cartoons, John Hughes, Star Wars, Bones Brigade videos, and bootlegged cassettes of Minor Threat and TSOL. He and his wife moved to Maine in 2003, where they opened their own tattoo shop, Tsunami Tattoo. In 2016, he wrote a memoir about his life as a refugee called SIGH, GONE (Flatiron Books, 2020)
Website: phucskywalker.com
Website: phucskywalker.com
DAY 1 | Session Three: 1: 30 - 2:15 p.m.
The Heart Work: The Equity Case for Prioritizing Psychological Safety In & Beyond the Classroom
Colin Seale
Auditorium
Colin Seale and his thinkLaw team have championed creating opportunities and prioritizing psychological safety to unlock and nurture brilliance in all learners. In this session, participants will learn about the importance of psychological safety as a foundation for learning and gain practical strategies to integrate social and emotional learning seamlessly into educational practices.
Remember Liss
Claire Bellerjeau
Room 101
Join historian and author Claire Bellerjeau as she reveals the story of Elizabeth, or Liss, enslaved by the Townsend family of Oyster Bay, N.Y. Liss’s tale intersects with George Washington’s spy, Robert Townsend, also known as “Samuel Culper, Jr.” Discover their journey alongside historical figures like Washington and Benjamin Franklin and events such as the Culper Spy Ring and Benedict Arnold’s treason plot. Educators will explore Lisss’s struggle for freedom through primary documents, bridging America’s foundational history between 1619 and 1776.
Interfaith Works
Andrea Jacobs
Room 103
The Center for Dialogue and Action at InterFaith Works has engaged middle and high school students in dialogue-to-action programs for over 20 years. These dialogues build understanding across differences, develop racial equity awareness, and increase empathy and solution-oriented thinking. This session will explore the difference between dialogue and debate, and attendees will consider applying the dialogue method in classrooms to address divisive topics in the upcoming school year.
What’s In a Number? An Equitable Look at Grading
Chris Leece
Library
Grading is one of the primary ways schools communicate student progress, but do grades tell the entire story? Join us in examining current grading practices, how these practices were developed, and recent research into grading. Participants will also discuss how we might change grading practices to make them more equitable for all students.
DAY 1 | 2:30 - 3:15 p.m.
Leading Together For Students’ Sake
Dr. Jill Harrison Berg
Auditorium
Jill Harrison Berg is a leadership coach, school improvement consultant, researcher, and writer committed to supporting education leaders in recognizing and maximizing the critical role of teacher leadership in ensuring instructional equity. Her books include Uprooting Instructional Inequity: The Power of Inquiry-Based Professional Learning, and Leading In Sync: Teacher Leaders and Principals Working Together for Student Learning.
Berg earned her doctorate at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education while working as a researcher with the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers. She was one of the first teachers in Massachusetts to become a National Board Certified Teacher.
Website: ascd.org/people/jill-harrison-berg
Berg earned her doctorate at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education while working as a researcher with the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers. She was one of the first teachers in Massachusetts to become a National Board Certified Teacher.
Website: ascd.org/people/jill-harrison-berg