Deeper Learning 2026

Students and community service – passengers or drivers? Shift the mindset from "have to" to "want to" by empowering students as architects of change. This interactive session provides a proven framework for to having students identify needs, create plans, secure seed funding and mentor student-designed initiatives. Through real-world case studies and collaborative planning, you will gain practical strategies and a concrete roadmap to launch student-led service projects in your own community.

This workshop showcases how real-world learning, equity, and interdisciplinary design come together in powerful project-based experiences for secondary students. Grounded in iLEAD’s innovative blend of IB, CTE, and Deeper Learning, participants will engage with planning frameworks and tools that support students in solving authentic community problems, developing career-ready skills, and amplifying their voice. The focus is on intentional project design—where equity, community partnerships, and student agency drive meaningful learning.

This session introduces Neighborhood Walks as a powerful entry point into a community-connected, place-based learning experience. Drawing on WPS Institute partnerships with urban schools in Massachusetts, we’ll engage with student voices that illuminate the dimensions of learning, connection, and engagement that can happen when young people step outside the classroom. Participants will then experience a Neighborhood Walk near the conference site, guided by simple lenses such as Making a Living or Being in Community. Along the way, you’ll practice skills that scaffold student confidence for learning in the wider world.
Together, we’ll identify the skills and mindsets students develop through these immersions, and leave with practical tools to create neighborhood walks for your own schools and communities.

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

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

In Crafting Hope in Challenging Times, diverse participants from across the educational ecosystem are invited to engage in a shared, reflective experience focused on how today’s social and political dynamics are felt and lived in schools. Blending design thinking, narrative inquiry, and accessible hands-on making (no artistic background required), participants will translate lived experiences into small quilt-square artifacts using mixed media as metaphor, assembled into a collaborative installation representing collective experience, hope, and imagined change. In a moment of heightened polarization, the session treats craft as a tool for connection, sense-making, and pedagogical imagination.

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

What if your block was the best classroom you’ve never used? Drawn from the WPS Institute’s partnerships with urban schools in Massachusetts, this session introduces Neighborhood Walks as a powerful entry point into community-connected, place-based learning.

We’ll begin by engaging with student voices from Salem and Boston that highlight the learning, connection, and engagement that emerge when young people step outside the classroom. Participants will then experience a Neighborhood Walk near the conference site, guided by lenses such as Making a Living or Being in Community. Along the way, they will practice slow observation, photo documentation, and reflection protocols that scaffold student confidence for learning in the wider world. Together, we will identify the skills and mindsets students develop through these immersions and leave with tools to design neighborhood walks for their own schools and communities.

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.