2024 Welcome Back Week
We are thrilled to kick off the 2024-25 school year with a series of virtual sessions, free for AISNE members. This year our sessions from AISNE’s community supporters are created with faculty top of mind.
In these sessions we will focus on a variety of classroom topics, from technology to student wellness. Registration is free-of-charge for AISNE member schools; we encourage you to register a group. All sessions will be held virtually via Zoom.
Dates, Sessions, & Registration
Welcome Back Week
September 17 – 19, 2024
All sessions held virtually, via Zoom.
- Tuesday, September 17 | 3:00 – 4:00 PM | Grounding Your Student Experience in the Principles of Wellbeing | Register
- Wednesday, September 18 | 3:30 – 4:30 PM | Purposeful Tech Use in the Classroom: Empowering Educators with Strategies | Register
- Thursday, September 19 | 3:30 – 4:30 PM | How to Redefine and Apply Empathy in the Student-Teacher Experience | Register
Sessions are free-of-charge for AISNE member schools. Registration is required.
Tuesday, September 17 | 3:00 – 4:00 PM
Grounding Your Student Experience in the Principles of Wellbeing
For: All Roles
School schedules are traditionally curriculum-centered or adult-centered. That is, they are designed to serve the perceived requirements of the courses, leverage the need for “rigor,” and/or satisfy requests of adults. To really impact student wellbeing, we need to revisit the assumptions upon which schools build the daily, weekly, and annual experience for students. This session will consider this in light of the factors that underlie student wellbeing. You will learn how to define a student-centered schedule, ways to structure your day to promote wellbeing, policies to reconsider to influence wellbeing, and interventions that can support student wellness.
Bryan Smyth, PhD | Director of Research at ISM
Bryan has worked as a senior consultant for ISM for the past 10 years, following 13 years in independent school administration. As a former licensed psychologist, Bryan helps schools design mission-based advisory programs and helps schools evaluate their ability to support student well-being. He leads ISM’s research initiatives designing studies, conducting statistical analyses, and advancing the organization’s knowledge in areas important to independent school leadership. Bryan holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree in clinical psychology from Marquette University, Wisconsin, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Illinois. He also earned an MBA from Reinhardt University, Georgia, which focused on the application of business principles to the management of independent schools.
Presented By: 
Wednesday, September 18 | 3:30 – 4:30 PM
Purposeful Tech Use in the Classroom: Empowering Educators with Strategies
For: Classroom Teachers. All Roles Welcome to Attend.
In this session—led by current classroom teachers for teachers—you’ll get a glimpse of how fellow independent schools are utilizing EdTech with students from lower elementary through high school. Our friends at OunceIT, an organization that specializes in supporting schools’ technology needs, will discuss key components of purposeful tech use in classrooms that enhance teaching and learning. These include active collaboration, content creation, and learner agency.
They will then introduce you to teachers from across the region who will show examples of how they are engaging their students and managing their classrooms using technology. We’ll split up into breakout rooms by age level to go deeper into these solutions so that you can put them to use in your classroom. We’ll end with a discussion of ideas and learning reflections.
This session will include teachers from:
- Concord Academy (Concord, MA)
- The Park School (Brookline, MA)
- The Pike School (Andover, MA)
And will be facilitated by OunceIT’s EdTech team:
- Tom Corbin, Director of Educational Technology
- Jared Matas, Educational Technology Specialist
- Eileen Zhang, Educational Technology Specialist
This session will ignite your curiosity and give you practical, concrete strategies to implement in your classroom this year and beyond.
Presented By: 
Thursday, September 19 | 3:30 – 4:30 PM
How to Redefine and Apply Empathy in the Student-Teacher Experience
For: All Roles
Educators are regularly facing challenges such as supporting differentiated learning needs, cultural differences, or how to address student conflicts such as bullying. Typical concept-based training to solve these challenges often does not get its return on the time invested. That’s because every student’s experience has nuances that are shaped by their lived experiences. So no uniform solution will ever be adequate.
In this session, you’ll experience a new approach to solving these challenges by stepping into the shoes of real students and interacting with their real stories. These immersive experiences will serve as an example of how we can build educator skills more quickly, easily, and flexibly.
Micah Wonjoon Kessel—your session leader and the CEO of Empathable—has seen this experiential approach increase educators’ empathic skills by 80% and achieve a 40% increase in confidence to address challenging issues. Together with Empathable, we hope this session will give you the tools to foster a more inclusive, safe, and successful environment for all students.
You’ll leave with an increased skill set in creating a more inclusive environment that addresses the needs of all students. Through this session, you’ll improve your perspective on how to be an effective advocate across student and teacher challenges, and learn how empathy can be woven into the solving of many common challenges that teachers and students face today.
Presented By: 
Resources for the New Year
The following resources can help teachers, administrators, and other school professionals this year.
- Cult of Pedagogy shares eight tech tools to try in 2024.
- This election season, read about how you can create conditions for civil discourse, in this post from NAIS.
- The Boys Room is a place where your Black and brown male students can find affinity spaces with peers in other schools.
- You school could qualify for a custom workshop on behavioral health from Lenny Learning. Apply by September 30.
- A $2,500 professional learning grant is available to independent school educators from our friends at Borislow Insurance. Apply by September 30.
- Check out this idea from a Brooklyn public school for building inclusivity, empathy, and understanding between students with different abilities and identities.
Not an AISNE Member?
Become part of a network of more than 260 schools across New England. Enjoy opportunities for your entire school staff and faculty to connect with and learn from peers, and engage in high-quality professional development. AISNE is here to support your school’s excellence and continuous improvement.
Join today or renew your membership.