Liene Leiskalne, teacher at the International School of Latvia

Grade level: Grade 1-5, Subject area: IB PYP

This session will focus on how the Specialist teacher can align curriculum within the PYP framework. Often the Specialists' curriculum is lost when collaborating within the Units of Inquiry. Participants will learn effective strategies to successfully align the curriculum within the PYP.

Heidi Laffay Zarzeczny, Third grade teacher at the American school of Warsaw and Joseph Swinea, Sixth grade teacher at the John F. Kennedy School, Berlin

Grade level: K-12, Subject area: Literacy

Family literacy programs raise student achievement and help bring parents and children closer together. Participants will learn the reasoning behind family literacy programs, different ways to get programs started at their schools, and details to consider while launching a family literacy program. Participants will also be provided with a list of resources for further study. Join us in discussing how schools, teachers and parents can effectively collaborate to help their children.

Jennifer Hughes, PD and Assessment Coordinator at the Anglo-American School of Moscow

Grade level: K-12, Subject area: All

Have you ever been to a meeting where...

• a) You talk and talk and get nowhere?
• b) There is a burning issue/problem that cannot move forward because of unstructured conversation?
• c) You walk away from the meeting feeling unsatisfied, frustrated and not having anything new of significance that could help the issue?

Protocols are vehicles for building communication and collaboration skills that are needed in a professional learning community. In this workshop you will learn what is a protocol and why they are useful. You will have the opportunity to experience using a protocol, reflect on its efficacy and begin to inquire how you might apply protocols in your schools. In preparation for this workshop, we ask participants to bring a question or issue in mind on which they would potentially like to gain perspective. For example, “How can we effect change in a school with high turnover?”

Linda Dimitrov, ICT Manager at the Anglo-American School of Sofia

Grade level: K-12, Subject area: Professional Learning

Twitter is a rich resource and powerful tool for educators, yet, so many aren't sure why or how to use it. In this workshop, attendees will be exposed to the idea of developing / growing their Professional Learning Networks through an effective use of Twitter. The capacity to connect with classrooms and educators around the world via Twitter will be explored. Additionally, tips on how to dip into the river of information and target fellow educators worth following (so you're not reading about what they had for breakfast!) will be covered. Possibly most importantly, attendees will get started on the process of building their PLN with Twitter.(Hopefully this workshop would occur early on so folks could use a hash tag to follow throughout).