Are you an educator looking to enhance your teaching toolkit to better support the diverse needs of multilingual learners in your classroom? Join us for our "Introduction To Multilingual Learners" workshop, an engaging and interactive session that will empower you with essential knowledge and high-leverage strategies to effectively support the second language acquisition process of your students. Participants will gain an understanding of the stages of second language acquisition and the ways in which students’ cultural and educational backgrounds influence English language acquisition. They will explore effective high-leverage strategies, including fostering a welcoming classroom climate, differentiated instruction, and scaffolding techniques, that can be implemented immediately in the classroom.

In this virutal book club, participants will consider current grading practices and what they mean for students and parents and how to think about equity. The spring conference will feature a keynote by Feldman. This group will grapple with how to move towards more equitable grading practices in classrooms, schools and systems and how small changes can make big differences.

Secondary science teachers will be introduced to a variety of strategies that support multilingual learners in the science content areas as well as enhance instruction for all students. Teachers are encouraged to bring a lesson or a unit of study from their current science curriculum that they will use to determine where specific strategies can be implemented to augment science teaching and learning.

Developing instruction to engage culturally and linguistically diverse students is important for student engagement and academic achievement. Based on Gholdy Muhammad’s (2023) book Unearthing Joy: A guide to culturally and historically responsive teaching and learning, this 4-part virtual book club will provide educators an opportunity to unearth the joy of their own learning and teaching to plan for leveraging students’ funds of knowledge, cultural ways of being, and overall identities to deliver culturally, historically, and linguistic responsive and sustaining instruction to support students’ academic and social emotional learning. Book is not included in price of registration.

Supporting multilingual learners with little to no English is especially challenging. Participants will explore ways that educators can effectively support these students with strategies and linguisitc supports in any educational setting.

Writing can be intimidating for any student; that anxiety is heightened in Multilingual Learners (ELs). Participants will learn how to create a safe place for writing as well as many instructional strategies for engaging Multilingual Learners in the writing process.

This book group welcomes all people who are interested in understanding foundational concepts while cultivating an antiracist mindset that can be used to make sustainable changes within their communities. Through the sessions, participants will use this workbook-style text to explore complex topics of racial injustice and empower individuals with strategies and skills for confronting racism in personal, professional, and community spaces. Recommended Prerequisite: Open minded attitude. Required: The Anti-Racism Handbook:Practical Tools to Shift Your Mindset and Uproot Racism in Your Life and Community (The Social Justice Handbook Series) - by Edith G. Arrington and Thema Bryant-Davis (purchase on own).

This workshop will build the capacity of general education teachers to understand and support the multilingual learners (ELs) in thier classrooms. Teachers who attend this workshop may be looking for ways to support ML/EL students in all content areas of the regular education classroom. The session will give educators various ways to build their “bag of tricks” while learning about how multilingual learners learn and develop language.

In this virtual book club, participants will consider how to move the teachings found in Cornelius Minor's book We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be into practice and action within their own professional roles. Participants will engage in discourse about the book, and exchange ideas and stories aligned to practices found in the book. Book is not included in price of registration.

This professional learning opportunity will engage participants in discovering their own identity in order to serve and work with others while centering race, including white privilege, implicit bias, and systemic racism.
Participants will:

• Identify the values, behaviors, policies, and practices within your school and which stage they reflect within the cultural proficiency continuum.

• Identify institutional challenges negatively impacting students of color.

• Learn about the role implicit bias plays in educator expectations of Black and Brown student performance and behavior, along with strategies to counteract bias

• Discuss racial equity within schools and existing barriers at the individual, institutional and systemic levels, as well as strategies to address them

In this virtual book club, participants will come together to discuss Dr. Bettina Love's book Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Punishes Black Children and how school reform has impacted children of color. In these discussions, participants will unpack the historial context of school reform outlined by Dr. Love, how it impacts our work as educators today, and what we can do better. Book is not included in price of registration.

**Empowering Education Series: Supporting Black Multilingual Learners in Connecticut: Assuring Antiracism and Linguistic Equity** We are thrilled to announce LEARN’s newest partnership with Dr. Ayanna Cooper, bestselling author of And Justice for ELs, in this groundbreaking opportunity for you to be part of a transformative conversation. Connecticut has seen a notable rise in K-12 English Learners who are identified as Black. To address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by this trend, we are hosting a comprehensive series of three 90-minute sessions focused on empowering educators and students by creating an inclusive environment. Through engaging conversations, collaborative activities, and expert insights, over the course of 3 sessions, you will gain:- A comprehensive understanding of the experiences and challenges faced by Black English Learners.- Practical strategies to foster an environment that centers and supports their cultural and linguistic identities.- Tangible tools to redress racism and linguicism in educational settings. Upon registration, you will receive all necessary learning materials, including access to virtual sessions. Virtual session links will be sent a few days before the first session. For inquiries and assistance with registration, please contact jbessette@learn.k12.ct.us, and remember to include "Black Multilingual Learners” in the subject line. Join us in this important journey toward a more inclusive and equitable education system. Let's work together to empower and uplift Black English Learners in Connecticut.

In this four-session series, participants will continue their growth beyond the foundations of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and move deeper into addressing current misunderstandings and pushback related to equity initiatives within schools and districts. The sessions will ground individuals in a process of self-reflection and social awareness while also equipping them with the language and tools that they can use to address staff members and respond to community members. Topics to explore include decolonization and the use of restorative practices, responding to discriminatory language and creating a culture of inclusion, and addressing privilege and managing equity detours. There will be opportunity for participants to work with policies and practices relative to their own educational organizations at a variety of levels including classroom, school, department, or district in order to gain meaningful feedback for making intentional change at the individual, professional, and community level.