‣ World-Acclaimed Futurist & Thought-Leader in Education
‣ Acclaimed Author of 4 Bestselling Books on Education:
1) ‘Thrive: How Schools Will Win the Education Revolution’
2) ‘Seven Levers WE Can Press to Transform Education’
3) ‘#EdJourney: A Roadmap for the Future of Education’
4) ‘The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School’
WELCOME SPEECH
Grant Lichtman is an internationally-recognized thought leader on the transformation of K-12 education. He works with school teams to develop a comfort and capacity for change in a rapidly changing world. For almost 15 years, Grant was a trustee and senior administrator at one of the largest independent schools in the United States.
Since 2012, Grant has visited more than 250 schools and districts, published four books, written numerous articles, and worked with thousands of school and community stakeholders to develop unique and powerful visions and strategies for transforming education away from the Industrial Age and towards future-focused models of deeper learning.
Grant is the author of four books: Thrive: How Schools Will Win the Education Revolution; Moving the Rock: Seven Levers WE Can Press to Transform Education; #EdJourney: A Roadmap for the Future of Education; and The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School.
Before working in education, Grant directed business ventures in the oil and gas industry in the former Soviet Union, South America, and the U.S. Gulf Coast. Grant graduated from Stanford University with a BS and MS in geology in 1980 and studied the deep ocean basins of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Bering Sea. Grant and his wife, Julie, live in Poway, 20 miles north of downtown San Diego.
KEYNOTE 1
Best-selling & Highly Popular
The Future of Education is Already Here
BY Grant Lichtman
Synopsis
For more than two decades, educators have recognized that the traditional industrial-age model of learning is not preparing our students for the challenges they face today and in their future.
We are seeing a dramatic shift in K-12 education, from one that was teacher and subject-centric, overly focused on standardized exams and rote memory of content. We recognize that students learn both content and much-needed skills better when the learning ecosystem is more student-centric, personalized, experiential, collaborative, and inquiry/interest-based.
Ultimately our job is to develop students with a sense of purpose, ready to deploy both the content knowledge and human skills needed to navigate an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world.
How to Transform Schools: Meeting the Challenge of Our Times
BY Grant Lichtman
Synopsis
Education is in a period of rapid evolution; nothing could have been a stronger indicator than the disruptions caused by COVID. We must respond to evolutionary pressures or face the consequences. We know how effective organizations change. Unfortunately, most schools are not rich in change-focused DNA; it is just not part of what educators have been trained to do well.
The good news is that, contrary to most mythology, changing schools is not so much hard as it is uncomfortable. Grant has worked with more than 250 schools in the last decade, helping them build both a comfort and a capacity for change. As detailed in his widely-read latest book, Thrive, Grant will outline the key steps of effective, collaborative, innovative, value-focused change that school communities can undertake to ensure that they stay highly relevant in a rapidly changing world.
Transforming The Learning Experience: Preparing Our Students For Their Future
BY Grant Lichtman
Synopsis
Teachers are the primary leaders of change in the learning experience. Policy makers and site leaders can empower teachers with the confidence to take risks and embrace new pedagogy. They must also coordinate with, and support teachers, or else change will be temporary, shallow, or both. Teachers must learn that anyone can “lead from where they are”; they can make small changes in curriculum and practices, which then percolate across the school system.
In this hands-on workshop, attendees ranging from classroom teachers to site and district administrators will learn to translate the key elements of a student-centric, inquiry, interest, and experiential-based learning pathway into real, tangible plans and activities. In the morning session, we will unwrap the elements of what we generally now call “deeper learning”, and the collaborative professional tactics that are effective at launching these in a school. In the afternoon session, attendees will go through a rapid design challenge to identify, create, and be prepared to lead, a new unit of curriculum using the “deeper learning” paradigm.
A Roadmap And Guidebook For Moving Schools From Where They Are To Where They Want To Be
BY Grant Lichtman
Synopsis
In this highly interactive, hands-on workshop, attendees will learn and practice the keys to effective organizational change as they specifically apply to schools. In the morning session, we will learn the steps that educators can take, from the classroom all the way up to the district or policy-setting level, to bring about sustainable changes in how a school operates and how students experience learning. Major themes will include finding a clear, value-based vision; aligning strategy and practice; building momentum; distributing leadership; empowering others; creating an implementation roadmap; and measuring change.
In the afternoon, attendees will work in small groups to apply the tools of change to a real-world project that might apply to their school or district. They will generate a prototype of their collective vision; develop a first-order roadmap; and present their plan for feedback from colleagues. Attendees will leave the Master Class with the tools they need to initiate a change process within their school community, and the confidence that even big changes are well within their ability if they use time-tested methods.
