This session is designed for elementary classroom teachers and elementary art teachers interested in interdisciplinary learning and the engagement of the imagination -- both tapping into their own imaginations as educators while developing curriculum that sparks their students' curiosity and imagination. We’ll explore the intersections of science, art, and literacy in this hands-on workshop centered on the book, Diary of a Worm.
In this session, you will:
Identify key facets of interdisciplinary curriculum that connect real-world observation with creative expression, supporting students’ scientific understanding, imaginative thinking and literacy development.
Develop strategies for fostering student curiosity, imagination and perspective-taking.
Engage in and reflect on hands-on, arts-based processes as learners in order to better understand student experience and to inform their own instructional decisions.
I've taught art to people of all ages in community and school-based settings for 26 years, and I am a lifelong maker-of-things. I've been in my role at UW-Madison as a Teaching Faculty member for 10 years and serve as a one-stop-shop for art education majors, serving as their academic... Read More →
I have taught art for 38 years in the public schools in Milwaukee and Madison with three additional years in Montessori Schools. My passion is to create art experiences with wonder and playfulness that will endure throughout the student's lifetime that will include the arts.The highlight... Read More →
In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to ignite their own sense of wonder by taking a closer look at a favorite text "The Sense of Wonder" by naturalist Rachel Carson. We will connect the text to our own nature explorations with early childhood students. We will introduce you to a tool called a loupe and follow the Private Eye Protocol of look, write, draw and theorize. You will have a turn to look closely at objects from the natural world and learn how to think by analogy.
In this session, you will:
Ignite your own sense of wonder so you can share that sense of wonder with students.
Use a loupe to explore objects more closely
Practice the Private Eye protocol: Look, write, draw and theorize, so you can share it with your students.
I love my job working with preservice teachers and their mentor teachers. Being in classrooms with Littles brings me so much joy. They are naturally curious and oh so wonderful. When I am not teaching, I enjoy spending time in nature. Hiking in the mountains is one of my favorite... Read More →
Love my job, love vacation, love my family and friends, love learning, love lounging, love lots of things. Talk to me about anything except teaching, it's still vacation time, people......!
A thinking routine is a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking. 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 briefly introduce the concept of thinking routines, engage participants in the use of one particular routine: Parts, Purposes and Complexities, along with a hands-on activity, and design ways to adapt a thinking routine for participants' classrooms.
In this session, you will:
Identify key ideas defining thinking routines.
Apply the Parts, Purposes and Complexities thinking routines.
Design potential ways to adapt the thinking routine to implement in your own classroom.
Associate Professor, School District/ Higher Education
Peter is Associate Professor of STEAM Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on the design of maker-based learning, professional communities and research practice partnerships. Peter enjoys playing soccer, euchre and drinking hot cocoa with his fam... Read More →
On a daily basis, in our schools, we exist in a space of contradictions. On the one hand, a world of precision and certainty: scopes and sequences, lesson plans, learning targets, SMART goals, benchmarks, outcomes, educator effectiveness measures. On the other hand, a dynamic world of the human community with ever-changing conditions and a high need to be flexible, adaptive, and responsive to what arises in the moment. Navigating the inherent tensions of these contradictions requires us to be in the practices of paying attention and asking questions: Being able to question ourselves is essential to bringing awareness to how our mindsets, emotions, and actions impact our students and colleagues. Being able to question our teaching practices is essential to gaining insight into what works, why, and for whom, which builds our skillfulness and efficacy. Being able to question the educational systems and structures in which we work is essential to engaging in the advocacy needed to create more just and equitable learning spaces for ALL students. In short, practices that support inquiry and reflection are essential for our individual and collective wellbeing and critical for professional growth and honing our craftsmanship as educators. In this highly interactive workshop, participants will engage in a variety of practices that support awareness, insight, reflection and connection, drawn from the Madison Metropolitan School District’s Classroom Action Research (CAR) year-long community of practice group focused on “Engaged Mindfulness and Educational Justice”. Using the Classroom Action Research design process, participants will develop a personally meaningful question about their professional practice and design the beginnings of a plan for how they would engage with this question during the upcoming school year. At the end of the session, information about a 2026-2027 Classroom Action Research professional learning program for early career teachers, (hosted by the Madison Metropolitan School District), will be shared and participants will learn how to sign up - to build community, reflect on their work, and earn continuing education credit in the year ahead.
In this session, you will:
Experience supportive interpersonal connections that strengthen collective wellbeing.
Explore a variety of practices that nurture inquiry and reflection and assess what might be of greatest personal meaning and benefit.
Generate ideas for how to weave inquiry and reflection experiences into your ongoing professional practice.
School Counselor & Mindfulness in MMSD Coordinator, Madison Metropolitan School District
erica Kruger (she, her) has been orbiting in educational spaces for the past 25 years - learning, unlearning, re-learning, dreaming, and discovering something new every day. Since becoming a school counselor in 2004, erica has worked at both the middle and high school levels... Read More →
Participants will learn about research on the significance of being curious educators as well as inspiring curiosity among our students and staff. We will also discuss practical ways to bring curiosity to life in our school communities.
In this session, you will:
Understand the significance of curiosity in our educational communities.
Consider ways to inspire curiosity among students, staff, and ourselves as educators.
