If you’re like me, one of the first things you do when starting a new unit is head back to the standards and do a deep dive of what students need to know and be able to do or produce. Unfortunately, sometimes I’m left scratching my head for new and better ways to teach a particular standard and get that coveted mastery outcome. So when Hope and Wade introduced the concept of the Level Up Conference to the leadership team late last year, I was ALL about it. I am so pumped for Level Up to debut on March 13th, and can’t wait for you to experience it! This blog serves as a little sneak peek into what you’ll get out of it.

First Things First

Before we go on a deep dive of what you really get out of an individual Level Up session, let’s take a look at what you get from the conference overall. During the one-day virtual conference you’ll get two live keynotes, as well as access to pre-recorded workshops/model lessons focused on the power standards in math and/or ELA (depending on which registration you choose). All attendees receive digital swag that includes a teacher planner designed by none other than the amazing Sarah Dhlouhy of Creative School Daze. Each session for every grade-level includes downloadable and printable resources for immediate implementation of what you’ve learned; this includes a thorough lesson plan, materials for the lesson, and student assessment to check for mastery. CEU hours vary by grade level, but you do get a certificate - and access to the content for two years!

Diving into a Sample Session

Being part of the GYTO leadership team has its perks - one of them being an early look at conference materials. I’m working with second grade this year in my role as a teacher of emerging multilinguals (focused on ELA), so I was able to preview the content for Naomi O’Briens FANTASTIC second grade session on RF2.3 - Phonics and Word Analysis!  (If you’re a second grade teacher, prepare to be “wow’ed” - I literally got teary because my students have been struggling with word analysis and this is an answer to some very specific teacher prayers!)

Before I dove into watching Naomi’s workshop, I browsed the folder of digital resources for RF2.3. Y’all. I knew this conference was going to be something special early on, but seeing it in its completed form has BLOWN ME AWAY. Truly. The digital resources for Naomi’s session alone are just phenomenal. Keep in mind that every session differs based upon content and approach, but all sessions will have some common elements.

• Lesson Plan | Raise your hand if you love writing lesson plans … anyone? If you’re like me, you can appreciate the purpose of a lesson plan and certainly utilize them, but writing them is a pain in the caboose. The lesson plans that come with all Level Up sessions are thorough and provide you exactly what you need to implement these lessons and strategies successfully! Naomi’s session, for example, provides guidance on using the interactive slideshow (a part of the session materials), and the projected timeframe for the standard and daily implementation.

• Workshop/Lesson Materials | Each Level Up session comes with digital/printable materials to accompany the lesson or strategy for the power standard. For Naomi’s session, her materials include interactive slides (in PDF and JPG form, to make it easy to use on the platform of your choice). The slides begin with a focus on CVC and CVCe words and progresses through other patterns including irregularly spelled words. I love the simplicity of using a slide a day in a routine, and I especially love how clean and visually appealing the slides are!

• Student Assessment | Each Level Up session includes a student assessment to check for mastery of the power standard in focus. Naomi’s assessment is based on informal observation and comes in checklist form, which gives you the greatest amount of flexibility in assessing students. As a specialist, I can easily share this checklist with my students’ homeroom teacher, perfect for keeping lines of communication open and in support of students.

After I finished exploring the materials for the session, I got out my favorite notebook and scented Flair pens (yes, those are a thing now!) and pressed play on Naomi’s session. All of the sessions are less than 30 minutes long, which is music to my ears! When I’m diving into a power standard, I want to get just the information I need, make the instructional decisions I need to make, and get going! (Who can relate?!) At about 20 minutes, I felt like every second of Naomi’s session was used purposefully, which is such a refreshing feeling with professional development.

One of the things I appreciated most in watching this Level Up session was the specificity. Normally when you attend PD, you’re learning about a skill or strategy in a broader way - usually a grade band, certainly not specific down to a standard. It felt like I had my own personal instructional coach, supporting me with just the standard I really needed support with. But what I loved most about this is that I can take what a content-area expert (Naomi) is using, and implement it in my own classroom (or in my case, small groups), and then circle back and reflect on my implementation by revisiting her video.

Run, Don’t Walk to Registration!

If this sounds like something right up your alley, then run, don’t walk to registration! All of the conference information - including grade-level specific conference guides - can be found here. There are several options for registration, including content and grade-level specific registration, and even access to ALL sessions regardless of grade-level or content area. There is something for EVERYONE! I hope to “see” you there, and can’t wait to see how you implement these amazing power standard lessons and strategies in your classroom!