Deeper Learning 2026

Step into the year 2051. In this immersive Deep Dive, you’ll open a “Box from the Future” filled with strange ephemera—protest flyers, redacted curricula, AI classroom reviews—and work with peers to collaboratively imagine the story of how education might evolve over time. Drawing from the discipline of experience design, you will experience this participatory world- building process, but also design your own speculative artifacts and learning experiences. You’ll practice using world-building as a tool for deeper learning across disciplines, helping students critically analyze systems, see agency in the present, and connect learning to real-world issues. You’ll leave with adaptable strategies, artifact templates, and a prototype of your own, all ready to use with students in any subject.

This session is for teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders who want a highly engaging, equity-focused practice rooted in the principles of experience design.

Lunch is included in each deep dive.
LUNCH MENU
Greek Salad (Vegan, Gluten-Free)  
Cannelini Bean & Pasta Salad (Vegan)  
Lemon Basmati Rice (Vegan, Gluten-Free)  
Mediterranean Spiced Chicken (Gluten-Free)
Tahini Dressing  
Falafel (Vegan, Gluten-Free)  
Roasted Vegetables   Lemon Bars & Baklava

As educators, we design our learning environments with great care - spaces we feel comfortable in and feel will be engaging for our students, leaning on research, wisdom of practice,  and intuition.  What if we could find ways to improve even the best laid plans?  What hidden or untapped resources might be in and around your classroom to help increase belonging, engagement, self-awareness, and appreciation for culture and place?

Come join us in our collaborative lab space to explore Stanford’s Dimensions of Belonging as a framework for considering the roles we allow people and place to play in our learning environments; in our Belonging Lab, we’ll prototype changes to our school or classroom spaces that goes beyond just welcoming environment to activating our spaces and students as shapers of belonging.

Lunch is included in each deep dive.
LUNCH MENU
Greek Salad (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Cannelini Bean & Pasta Salad (Vegan)
Lemon Basmati Rice (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Mediterranean Spiced Chicken (Gluten-Free)
Tahini Dressing
Falafel (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Roasted Vegetables   Lemon Bars & Baklava

This session is for innovative educators looking to enhance engagement and develop students’ problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills. We will experience a gamified project addressing real-world issues such as eliminating poverty, combating climate change, and peacekeeping. In small groups representing different countries, you will create solutions, trade, form alliances, impose sanctions, and possibly engage in conflict to acquire resources.  Join us for this collaborative experience and take home this synergetic, gamified project that encourages students to learn and take action to improve themselves and the world. Throughout the session, you will hear from students who have completed the project, learning about their experiences and strategies. We will pause to reflect, brainstorm, and discuss how these instructional strategies can engage students in your schools.

Lunch is included in each deep dive.
LUNCH MENU
Greek Salad (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Cannelini Bean & Pasta Salad (Vegan)
Lemon Basmati Rice (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Mediterranean Spiced Chicken (Gluten-Free)
Tahini Dressing
Falafel (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Roasted Vegetables   Lemon Bars & Baklava

When we think about Deeper Learning, we usually picture Project-Based Learning. Projects are one of the best ways to immerse students in Deeper Learning, but in most schools, projects are not happening all the time. Often, even in PBL schools, they comprise only a small part of the schedule. Students deserve Deeper Learning all day long.

In this workshop, we will dive into Deeper Instruction strategies—analyzing frameworks, models, and videos—to help us move toward schools where every lesson is a Deeper Learning lesson. We will consider together strategies for PreK-12 classrooms where students are active, independent, and collaborative thinkers throughout lessons, whether the lessons are a part of projects or not connected to projects.

Lunch is included in each deep dive.
LUNCH MENU
Greek Salad (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Cannelini Bean & Pasta Salad (Vegan)
Lemon Basmati Rice (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Mediterranean Spiced Chicken (Gluten-Free)
Tahini Dressing
Falafel (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Roasted Vegetables   Lemon Bars & Baklava

More than ever, schools need cooperative learning environments where students feel a sense of belonging and know their voice matters. This workshop is a hands-on professional learning experience that equips educators with practical, rhythm-based strategies to strengthen engagement, focus, and classroom community across all grade levels and subject areas.  We will explore how these approaches help students build focus, self-regulation, nonverbal communication, collaboration, and confidence.  These strategies channel energy in positive, focused ways, align with SEL goals, and can be used immediately—no music or dance background required.

Participants will experience stepping and body percussion activities and learn how to adapt them for classroom use as warm-ups, mindset training, focus resets, and collaborative learning tools. Each strategy is clearly connected to classroom application, with guidance on facilitation, differentiation, and classroom management—making the session valuable for general classroom teachers, arts specialists, and administrators alike.

Participants will also take part in a short step performance inspired by collegiate step traditions and examine how its structure can be scaled for different ages, spaces, and instructional goals.  Come ready to clap, stomp, and laugh your way into tools for creating a classroom where every student feels seen, valued, and part of the rhythm.



Lunch is included in each deep dive.
LUNCH MENU
Greek Salad (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Cannelini Bean & Pasta Salad (Vegan)
Lemon Basmati Rice (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Mediterranean Spiced Chicken (Gluten-Free)
Tahini Dressing
Falafel (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Roasted Vegetables   Lemon Bars & Baklava