Early Career Teaching Institute

Participants will explore the robust Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) framework and its capacity to transform educational equity. AIW is defined by three essential components: constructing knowledge through disciplined inquiry to produce work that has value beyond school.
Research consistently demonstrates that authentic pedagogy benefits students regardless of background, with achievement gains that are positive and virtually equal across demographic groups. This workshop will examine how AIW practices can ensure all students access high-quality instruction and assessment.
Participants will:
• Understand the three core components of Authentic Intellectual Work
• Examine research demonstrating AIW's equitable impact on student achievement
• Explore the framework through hands-on application
• Consider how AIW practices can close opportunity gaps in their educational contexts
The session balances theoretical foundations with practical applications, providing educators with actionable strategies. By structuring learning experiences around authentic intellectual challenges, educators can simultaneously raise the bar for academic excellence while ensuring equitable outcomes.
Join us to discover how AIW can transform your approach to instruction and assessment, creating learning experiences that prepare all students for success in school and beyond.

Have you ever considered studying your practice as a Cooperating Teacher? We are excited to bring people together in this session to talk about our mutual yet too often isolated work as CTs and learn more about our plans for a 2024-2025 CT Classroom Action Research group that will provide the opportunity to explore and investigate what CTs know and do, build a cross-program network, and identify future goals/practices for mentoring pre-service teachers through the process of teacher inquiry. We invite you to join our workshop to learn more about this unique opportunity to study and refine your CT practice across the year in a supportive professional learning community.

In this session, you will:
* Talk with other CTs about the puzzles, challenges, and rewards of mentoring preservice teachers
* Begin thinking about possible research questions related to your role as a cooperating teacher
* Learn how the action research process and timeline works so that you can decide if you'd like to give it a whirl at some point in the near future
* Hear what past CTs have studied and learned in similar groups
* Build connections with other CTs who wish to delve further into their role through teacher inquiry

In this workshop, we will explore a community-centered approach to supporting immigrant and refugee students and families in our schools during this critical time. Participants will examine successful advocacy models from both school-based personnel and community partners. Through collaborative work, teachers will discover support networks within their own communities, compile and share valuable resources, and develop personal commitments based on their values. By the conclusion of the workshop, each participant will have created a concrete action plan that translates these commitments into meaningful support for immigrant and refugee students and families.

The anti-racist cycle of inquiry and action empowers educational and organizational leaders to move from individual analysis of racial inequities toward systemic and institutional changes that address racism. Participants in this interactive session will begin with reflection and move into collaborative conversations, discussing and defining anti-racist leadership and anti-racism. They will then learn about the anti-racist cycle of inquiry and action: the four phases and their interconnectedness. In small groups, participants will brainstorm racial inequities and then consider each phase as an on-ramp as to how the inquiry process might begin. From there, participants will share racial inequities from their professional contexts and potential actionable next steps utilizing the anti-racist cycle of inquiry, empowering them as anti-racist change agents while also reinforcing the value of inquiry as a strategy for capacity- and coalition-building.

You will use computer science and creative technology tools to create a personally meaningful project based on the prompt, "Imagine a world where..." What does your ideal world look like? Who or what inhabits your world? Make an animation or interactive art piece using Scratch, a block based programming tool used in classroom and youth programs around the world.
After a short introduction to some computer science concepts and making your project, we will spend time talking about how we might integrate creative technologies and computer science activities into different subject areas and disciplines with our students.

A well-informed citizenry is essential to democracy, and media literacy skills provide a pathway for learners of all ages to become more engaged citizens. From developing healthy media habits with our youngest learners to high school students tackling misinformation, media literacy is an essential skill. Educators will explore strategies for guiding students in media mentorship, analyzing media, fact-checking, identifying reliable sources. Attendees will come away with practical tips and free PBS Wisconsin resources to support media literacy across all age levels.

How about a session that puts reflection to work—not only to look back but to sharpen focus and lean into growth (mindset)?

I’d ask students to revisit the Seeing Like a Student → Seeing Like a Teacher → Being a Teacher thread, not just about a shifting role, but as a cognitive rewiring. What insights from “seeing like a student” still serve you? What new expertise has reshaped your thinking? What have you held onto that no longer fits?

Likely using guided reflection and discussion, I’d scaffold individual, pair and larger group engagements- drawing from program learning principles—(ie SoLD & CRT/ GLB & ZHammond- these likely go across programs - Balancing Cognitive Load, Metacognitive Awareness, Adaptive Expertise, What Students/Self Actually Need…)
The goal would be to explore your experience in learning with the strengths and blind spots in this shift—not about what you liked or didn’t, but how your thinking has changed, what served you, and how to use that awareness moving forward.

The Big Idea: Great teachers see like both a student and a teacher—staying curious and adaptive while building expertise and authority. The real skill? Knowing when to shift perspectives, staying flexible without losing direction, and continuing to be your own bus driver—hopefully headed somewhere you mean to go. 🙂

Current cooperating teachers and aspiring cooperating teachers (mentor teachers) are encouraged to attend and learn about the power of building a reflective and question based relationship with teacher candidates. This session will include considering coaching moves that can be fostered to help teacher candidates build their capacity and growth on specific goals. We will also watch a brief video clip to practice collecting data to drive conversations and pre-plan questions for debrief discussions. Then, we will practice these debriefs in mock scenarios. On the whole, we will elevate expertise in the room regarding serving as cooperating teachers on when to be direct versus fostering collaborative thinking with teacher candidates. All levels of classroom instruction and experiences as mentor teachers are welcome.

Explore practical strategies for finding joy while doing the challenging work of an early educator. In this workshop, led by veteran MMSD educators, we'll consider ways to design a classroom environment that you and your students want to be a part of, routines and rituals that really work, how to build meaningful relationships, and other valuable tips for building resilience and staying joyful in the early years of your career.

This workshop guides participants to explore the intersection of multilingualism and neurodiversity. Participants will gain foundational understandings as they explore their own contexts and relevant research. Participants will leave this workshop with practical frameworks they can use as they work to create more inclusive and equitable ESL programs.

Evolving laws and court decisions impact school policies. As a result, it is important for educators to stay updated on recent legal developments. This session explores recent challenges to the school curriculum and discusses teachers' rights in K-12 schools.

Active learning involves putting students at the center of instruction and giving them opportunities to solve, explore, experiment, try, create, and invent. Collaborative learning is inherently active because it requires individuals to interact in organized ways with others to problem solve, practice skills, or produce work together in organized ways. In this session participants will have the opportunity to experience practical, adaptable strategies that can be implemented across all ages and disciplines. Through collaborative activities and thoughtful discussion, educators will leave equipped with actionable techniques to cultivate dynamic, interactive learning environments that can include all types of learners.

Maker education has been in educators’ lexicons for at least a decade (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014), but many still struggle to justify, integrate, and assess for learning through making and tinkering activities in the classroom. In this workshop, which is based on a newly implemented course in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, participants will grapple with why we can’t afford not to justify, integrate, and assess for learning through making in today’s learning environments. The session will acquaint participants with the theoretical foundations for maker education, including constructivism (Papert, 1990) and sociocultural theories (Vygotsky, 1978; Lave, 1990), then broaden the discussion to contemporary perspectives on how making is an essential strategy for cultivating equitable learning environments (Voussoughi et al., 2016).

Most importantly, we will make together to reflect on the affective experience and learning moments made possible by making and tinkering. Participants will have multiple options for making that will be presented with potential content and standards alignment: a tech-take apart activity that addresses science standards; a textiles project with connections to mathematics standards; and a stop-motion animation activity that can link to social studies and ELA standards. The workshop will conclude with small and large group discussions about the possibilities of bringing making to life with students. We will also address real constraints, such as access to tools materials, gaps in technical knowledge, and the challenges of aligning curriculum and assessment practices with making. Educators will leave with resources and strategies to confront these challenges and make making a central part of their teaching practice.

Introduction (10 mins)
Learning theories & critical perspectives in maker education (20 mins)
Making station rotations (tech take apart, textiles, stop motion) (50 mins)
- Small group reflection
- Large group discussion
Closing: imagining making in our classrooms & connection to resources (10 mins)

As professionals, teachers should be at the center of creating the policies that affect their daily decisions in the classroom and beyond. Join educational policy scholars from Wisconsin Education Policy Outreach and Practice (“WEPOP”) at UW-Madison in an introductory session called “Teachers as Policy Agents”. We will engage in interactive discussions and activities designed to change the way teachers think of themselves as policy experts, policy makers, and policy advocates. Participants will leave with policy action ideas for an issue important to them and their classroom, as well as tools for building coalitions with others around education policy.

Teaching is an emotional endeavor. As educators, we bring our emotional highs and lows with us into and out of the classroom. How can we work with our emotions kindly and compassionately in order to stay with the rigor of the educational field? Join Tuyet Nguyen and Evan Moss in exploring how mindfulness practice can be a key component of sustaining the stamina to be a thoughtful, present educator with our emotions and with our students’ emotions. Leave with a deeper understanding of how theory and practice support the creation of mindfulness practice as a good human and a good teacher.

This interactive workshop will guide educators through an embodied exploration of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) concepts—including the movement alphabet (flexion, extension, rotation, spring, stillness), pathways, and levels—as tools for enhancing learning in diverse classroom settings. Participants will engage in movement-based strategies that align with culturally responsive-sustaining and trauma-informed pedagogies, fostering safe, inclusive, and engaging environments for all students.
Through hands-on exploration, educators will discover how movement can be integrated into various content areas to support multimodal learning, language development, social-emotional learning, and student engagement. Emphasis will be placed on using movement to create spaces that affirm diverse cultural identities, recognize the impact of trauma on learning, and center the strengths of non-dominant communities.
Participants will leave with practical strategies to incorporate movement into their teaching practice, helping students of all backgrounds access curriculum in meaningful and embodied ways. No prior movement experience is required—only a willingness to explore, reflect, and move!

This session will explore how you can use low-stakes writing activities to strengthen your classroom community and teach students the power of writing as a thinking tool. We will discuss and practice practical, low-stakes writing techniques that encourage students to use writing to develop critical thinking and communication skills AND promote a sense of joy and fun (yes, we can be joyful and develop skills at the same time). While we know your schedule is probably already overfilled with "must-dos", we will explore ways to integrate these activities in ways that support your learning objectives and fit into what you are already doing.

This presentation will explore the role of race and racism in producing discipline disparities. It will offer restorative justice as a pedagogical and organizational tool to address racial discipline disparities.

A thinking routine is a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking. Project Zero researchers have developed a variety of thinking routines that are applicable across disciplines, topics, and age groups, and can be used at multiple points throughout a learning experience or unit of study. This workshop will introduce the concept of thinking routines, engage participants in the use of one particular routine: Parts, Perspectives and Complexities, along with a hands-on activity, and discuss ways to adapt a thinking routine for participants' classrooms.

Research shows that teacher evaluation is professional responsibility that often causes stress, confusion, and leads to cognitive dissonances between teaching philosophies and practice (Potter, 2024; Robinson, 2019). This session will explore common criteria and methods of teacher evaluation frameworks to build greater understanding of how educators are assessed for effectiveness. By gaining a more clear understanding of what goes into evaluations, teachers, particularly in their early career, can build a healthy relationship with these processes and shift their mindset from one of compliance to working toward professional growth. In this session participants will look at how their teaching content and practices connect to these evaluation frameworks, and how the feedback they receive can be turned into professional goals as a means to improve practice and student achievement. Particular attention will be placed on non-tested subjects such as music, art, physical education, and career and technical education, but these ideas can be used in any setting.

What Is Whoopensocker? “Whoopensocker” is an old Wisconsin word that means “Something extraordinary of its kind.” For us, Whoopensocker is an arts integration program that uses improv and theater as tools to teach creative writing. Through games, writing, and performance, we help students realize how extraordinary their ideas are.

Whoopensocker, an arts-based residency project of Dr. Erica Halverson, has conducted in-person residencies in 3rd-5th grade classrooms around Madison for 10 years. In collaboration with PBS Education, Whoopensocker has translated the in-person model into a virtual collection of tools which will be free to use by educators throughout the state in the 2025-2026 school year.

In this session, you will receive an overview of Whoopensocker, be introduced to the virtual tools, and have hands-on experience expressing your good ideas and collaborating with others to create stories and performances.