School, District or Local Education Authority Partnered Professional Development
You’re invited to host or co-host a 1-day friendly news media meeting with peer educators from your regional geographic area. Learning Counsel will provide mini-workshops, our national trends surveys and analysis and future predictions, unique future-of-learning exercise to experience spatial-temporal AI class calendaring, and schedule local speakers to share out to our national audience. We’ll provide a continental breakfast and box lunches for all, plus help drive registration and select sponsors who can contribute product information of interest.
Who is the Learning Counsel?
We are a research institute and news media hub with 310,000 readers that provides context for educators from ongoing analysis of trends and a deep understanding of new dynamics in technology, systems, and school administration. Our mission-based organization was the first to develop a thesis of education’s future based on tech and cultural evolution — and start helping schools advance systematically with live field events and the direct work of the Learning Counsel Innovation Services division on things like the Flex Learning Logistics Project.
Things we do in addition to field media meetings with educators:
Learning Counsel Website
Independent editorials. Edtech news.
National Surveys
Frequent national surveys help Learning Counsel present important context to trends and issues in education.
LeiLani Cauthen, Publisher, Education Futurist, Author and Software Developer hosts regular recorded shows with distribution to millions of followers.
Who is the Learning Counsel? cont’d.
Special Reports & Whitepapers
Informed from research, each piece brings forward reliable sources, reasoning, and new knowledge for educators.
Knowstory
Education’s AI Calendaring Ecosystem with featured edtech products, bookmarking, AI master schedules and more.
Consulting
Above and beyond help for schools in transformation and edtech models.
Applying AI to School Time & Space Use
Transforming schooling structure.
Details of the day
A Meeting to Prepare Educators on Issues & Trends from National Research with live-exercise professional development.
Learning Counsel conducts national surveys on trends and issues, then tours the nation each year to brief educators and provide perspective with several discussion topics.
Invitation Only Speaker Timeslots for local educators are videoed to bring forward good works to our large national audience.
Select edtech companies sponsor and share what’s working by their school and district customers, plus research-based and “science of” learning info in the half-day meeting.
New perspectives on:
• AI types and convergence
• Schooling challenges today
• Attraction and retention of both students and teachers
Discussion Rounds Topics:
Alpha Generation Traits. One of the five reasons why students are absent or leave for an alternative has to do with the characteristics of the current K12 student population.
Perfect for: Any administrator as they consider trend turnaround tactics, and teachers for creating pace-based or project-based learning to personalize for students.
The Nines. What are the nine types of AI and what happens when they converge? New consumer-focused Generative AI is only one of the nine. Additionally, what are the nine types of human intelligences and should schools pivot to develop them all or stay with the two most focused on since the manufacturing Age?
10:10 - 11:00 a.m. – Wizarding World Time Turner Challenge
11:00 - 11:30 a.m. – Special Briefing by Learning Counsel: Market Briefing — The Soon Future
Priorities Luncheon for All Educators
11:30 - 12:10 p.m. – Lunch, Video Showcase
12:10 - 1:00 p.m. – Whole Group Discussion & Sharing 1:00 - 1:30 p.m. – Local Panel Interview with Discussion
1:30 - 2:00 p.m. – Wrap Up
Perfect for: Training any educator to understand the meaning of AI in teaching and learning so that practices are not overwhelmed, and administrative policies understand the full picture. Driving new discussion about the often-overlooked co-intelligences of humans in traditional learning that may need to come to the forefront to balance the AI convergence on the horizon.
The Missing Orderliness of Teacher & Institution Workflow Logic. Three areas of discussion including safety and security workflow, curriculum workflow and tech model workflow.
Perfect for: Administrators for understanding ideal scenes for each area of discussion as to how they affect the workflow patterns of all stakeholders, and teachers as they consider what’s important amongst all new expectations.
Our Research Briefing
Learning Counsel’s surveys are major national research. Analysis of trends through mathematical modeling is second to none.
Every year, Learning Counsel conducts major surveys on trends and spending in K12. Different questions and new analysis each year against secondary research provide a top-line view for school and district leaders to understand how their own institutions fit within the national landscape.
What sorts of data is shared?
Top-line trends such as total K12 spend in edtech, which categories are projected to see the most spending, which are losing, and top issues like the teacher shortage, absenteeism rates, growth of homeschooling, States passing choice legislation for vouchers, and other major law changes.
Many surveys also ask about pressures and awareness of new arenas of interest, these are just a couple of them:
Highest Pressures — % by Administrators vs. Teachers
Predicted Student Enrollment Shift by Category Totals
Which types of AI are you familiar with?
Teachers’ #1 Best Priority (top three by percentage)
64% cite Stop Lecturing — Use Other Methods
63% cite Student Discipline Solutions
60% cite Pre-Created Full Courses Teachers Can Tweak (so they don’t have to build all their own lessons)
What help we need from you
Will you be our host?
We need a local school, district or local education authority champion to ensure we have a facility to arrive at and good attendance. Learning Counsel tours with a minimum number of staff and manages promotion, registration, catering, and printing for every media meeting as inexpensively as possible so that we can afford to do the tour with only a handful of sponsors and no cost to your institution. Sponsors want to contribute and meet educators in person, sometimes traveling great distances to do so. The cost to just attend for them is considerable, so we keep sponsor fees low and are choosy about which companies we allow. Almost universally the sponsor representatives sent are former educators themselves. Some bring literature, help host workshop discussions, speak for ten minutes, sponsor the agenda or meal, or give us a 2-minute video to show during lunch.
The help we need:
These helpful contributions by you and your organization as host:
Free facility use, if possible. We need one good-sized classroom to hold 20-45 people. With the busy schedules of educators, registration per city is normally 60 or less, and frequently we get only a fraction actually arriving due to whatever called their attention away that day. School leaders face many emergencies, as our research clearly indicates. We try to reconfirm registrants prior to the day to make sure we don’t overspend on ordering catering.
Someone there to let us set up by 7:30 a.m.
Help with clean-up afterward since we normally have to run right after the event to get to airports to catch flights out.
Help with contacting peers in your own and other schools and districts. This is usually a huge help to make sure we reach a good registration number to make the day of free professional development pay worthwhile for Learning Counsel to produce.
Help with local speakers and panelists that are administrators.
Safe sender our email address for outbound invitations through your networking technicians. This is the invitation email address we use: counselmail@lcnewsletter.org
What happens after:
During our Spring and Fall tours, Learning Counsel rushes to get our video footage and photos and “What Happened?” editorials completed as soon as possible to go out nationally. Once our editors receive everything, they are quick to get it out in our newsletter and multiple social postings. Sometimes with back-to-back events this can still be a couple of weeks.
All registrants receive the registration contact information for everyone else so that there can be continued camaraderie between all educators in the area who would have gotten to know each other during the day.
What educators say about these meetings
“Thank you very much for inviting and including me yesterday. I found the day to be a great use of my time and look forward to more work together in the future.”
“Attending a Learning Counsel event is a good opportunity to create or stretch a vision, is a good opportunity to develop strategies to implement a 1:1 initiative, is a good opportunity to learn about resources and is a good opportunity to network with vendors. It becomes a great opportunity when school districts come in teams because in addition to the information present, your team spends the day collaborating and idea sharing which truly develops a shared responsibility of creating a digitally enhanced educational environment that improves instruction and learning.”
—Eric Godfrey, Superintendent Buckeye Union High School District, Phoenix, AZ
“It was a really good day for getting people together that work in the tech industry, having Superintendents come together, and really delving into the data that’s really important to understand (for) not only the trends happening, but what are the motivating factors behind those. It’s a really good place to build community and begin the conversations about where people have been successful.”
Brian Gatens, Superintendent, Emerson School District,NJ
“There’s always a forward look as to where this could be going. LeiLani’s got a wonderful vision about where things could take us, and so just hearing that is inspiration; there are nuggets I can take back to my own district that we pull out of that to build into our own system and architecture.”
Superintendent Greg Magnuson, Buena Park School District, CA
“My favorite thing today has been the openness to talk about some of these things that people don’t want to talk about. The fact that education is changing in such a rapid way…whether it is the pandemic that forced that change and people are trying to put the genie back in the bottle, or the fact that it’s just human evolution. The fact that it is changing, and people are out there talking about it and saying, ‘Hey there’s a better way to do this, and we can move forward in a better light,’ it’s refreshing to see that.”
Chad Greene, Director – Technology Operations, Klein ISD (TX)
“There was a time during my thirty-one years that I think the stars aligned for us and I’ve been listening to Leilani preach at us for the last few years saying things like ‘Will we let human teachers be human? Will there ever be a day when human teachers are used precisely and fortuitously only for their human qualities? Never leave any student behind but work like maestros of direct instruction?’ When you’re in the trenches you don’t ever get to tell the story, but human relationships are the number one piece.”
Chris Knutsen, Superintendent, Florence Unified School District (AZ)
Dr. Michael Robert, Superintendent, Osborn School District #8 (AZ)
Phoenix, AZ
Prior speakers and panelists
Michael Neu, CTE Director, Buckeye Union High School District
Dr. Leslie Standerfer, Assistant Superintendent of Academics, Buckeye Union High SD
Jason Stuewe, Assistant Superintendent of Student Achievement, Buckeye Union High School District
San Diego, CA
Dr. Stacey Perez, Principal, Temecula International Academy
Terri Novacek, Executive Director, Element Education
Dr. David Miyashiro, Superintendent, Cajon Valley Union School District
Dr. Benjamin Churchill, Superintendent, Carlsbad Unified School District
San Antonio, TX
Dr. Roberto Basurto, Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services, Edgewood ISD
David Valverde, Principal, RMA Public Schools Midland
Amy Reasons-Copes, Principal - Regency Place Elementary, North East ISD
Becky Landa, Senior Executive Director Educational Technology & Extended Learning, San Antonio ISD
Houston, TX
Dr. Jenny McGown, Superintendent, Klein Independent School District
Chad Greene, Director - Technology Operations, Klein Independent School District Nashville, TN
Tavis Massey, Principal - Northeast High School, Clarksville-Montgomery County School System
Michelle James Dircksen, Director of Technology, Humphreys County School System
Dr. Robyn Beard, Principal - Alex Green Design Technology Magnet, Metro Nashville Public Schools
Michelle James Dircksen, Director of Technology, Humphreys County School System Atlanta, GA
Lisa Watkins, Executive Director of Instructional Technology & Innovation, Gwinnett County Public Schools
Bay Area
Cheryl Jordan, Superintendent, Milpitas Unified School District
Benjamin Fobert, Director of Educational Services, Lammersville Unified School District
Crystal Castañeda, Superintendent, Byron Union School District
Baltimore, MD
Dr. Joseph Jones, Superintendent, New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District (DE)
Dr. Joseph Bostic Jr., Assistant PrincipalNorthwood High School, Montgomery County Public Schools (MD)
Jim Corns, Executive Director, Baltimore County Public Schools (MD) Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Kelly Murray, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Innovation, Spring-Ford Area School District
Adam McGraw, Director of Instructional Technology, Conestoga Valley School District
Dr. James Pedersen, Superintendent, Essex County Schools of Technology
Kansas City, MO
Scott Jones, Chief Technology Officer, Kansas City Public Schools (MO)
Dr. Ivy Nelson, Instructional Technology Manager, Belton School District #124
Dr. Judith Campbell, Deputy Superintendent, Kansas City Kansas Public Schools (KS) Dallas, TX
Carmen Blakey, Director of CTE, Garland ISD
Brandy Schneider, Principal, Gilbreath Reed Career and Technical Center, Garland Independent School District
