The 2022 KSDE Great Ideas in Education Conference: The Art of Teaching includes new networking opportunities. 

These include: 

• Targeted Community Discussions: Strands are discussed in greater depth. Strands are assigned to the larger rooms to allow attendees to self-select their focus and discuss what they’ve been hearing. KSDE staff members will serve as facilitators.
• Meet-A-Likes Discussion & Processing: Breakout rooms are assigned by roles of those attending the conference. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with others in the same role and discuss their challenges, successes, what they’ve learned, and what they’ll take back with them. This time also will allow for exchanging contact information. KSDE staff members will serve as facilitators and will be responsible for reporting out the main points.
• Leadership for All: Different topics are assigned to the larger rooms where the focus would be on how to lead respective to the identified areas, such as: mentoring/developing young educators, equity, school finance, social-emotional issues, student academic success and special education. KSDE staff members will serve as facilitators.
• Report Outs: KSDE staff members will share takeaways from the Targeted Community Discussions, Meet-a-likes Discussion and Leadership for All sessions.  
• Celebrate the Teacher: This portion of the agenda will be used to celebrate teachers and will highlight the teaching and education profession, serving as a gesture of gratitude to all school staff members 
• The Art of Teaching Showcase: Visit the Exhibit Hall to see examples of “The Art of Teaching,” demonstrating the skills that go into educating and the quality of products that are produced by these “artists.” The Showcase will highlight contributions from classroom teachers, specials teachers, counselors, administrators, paras, etc. 

Teaching is an art. It takes skills that not everyone possesses. It also requires a holistic mindset and commitment to the betterment of others, most notably students. 

The art of teaching is not confined to the classroom teacher. Effective, impactful teaching involves the “art” of not only the classroom or subject teacher, but also the administrator, counselor, paraprofessional, etc. 

The 2022 conference is focused on highlighting this “art” practiced by all, regardless of their role in schools, who are committed to the success of each student in Kansas. 

Strands being planned for this conference include: 

• Early Learning Opportunities 
• Accreditation – Process and Results 
• Standards, Competencies and Assessment 
• Whole Community, Whole School, Whole Child 
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 
• School Finance, Effective Leadership, Building Staff/Team 
• Teacher Retention and Recruitment 

A draft conference schedule can be found here: Conference Schedule 

Registration and information: https://events.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=771 

Program questions, contact Pat Bone at pbone@ksde.org. 

Registration questions, contact Tierney Kirtdoll at tkirtdoll@ksde.org.