More than 100 Project Ignite educators convened on Wednesday, Dec. 6, in Dublin to connect with colleagues from across the state and to ignite their professional learning at the second Network Convening of the year. Attendees were able to learn, share, and collaborate as they work to transform educational outcomes and opportunities for the students they serve.
Models of excellence: Celebrated author, educator, and speaker Ron Berger delivered his keynote address “Beautiful Work” about improving school culture by inspiring students to put heart into their work and raise standards for quality.
Ron showed examples of brilliant student work from across the spectrum of age, student background, and geography, along with the instructional strategies that made this transformation possible. This work is available online on EL Education’s Models of Excellence site.
As Ron’s message stated, when students do work of a quality that is beyond what they thought was possible, those students are never the same. Their academic identity changes. They care more and try harder in school. They see more purpose in their learning.
Connecting with role-alike colleagues: Attendees once again had the opportunity to connect with colleagues from across the state in collaborative Job-Alike Sessions, where participants were able to learn from and share with others who are facing similar challenges in their daily roles. One of the most highly-attended Job-Alike Sessions was for teachers with nearly 50 attendees in the session.
Engaging and interactive learning sessions: The day featured eight learning sessions for attendees to choose from. Keynote speaker Ron Berger held a session on “Crew: A Teamwork Approach to School Culture and Student Success” while educators from Greenwood Elementary (Washington Local Schools) and Kinsner Elementary (Strongsville City Schools) led sessions. Learning session tracks in the 2023-24 Ignite Your Learning Cohort Series also continued at the convening.
About Project Ignite
Through a partnership between the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and Battelle for Kids, Project Ignite supports school teams as they address academic and social-emotional needs of students and improve student achievement in alignment with the Department’s priorities.
For the past two years, educators across Ohio have built and maintained relationships focused on improving outcomes for the students they serve by participating in Project Ignite, an Ohio school improvement network.
For the 2023-24 school year, Project Ignite includes 75 schools serving more than 35,000 students across 45 districts in Ohio. The network features school representation from all 16 State Support Team regions.
