How the Transformation Toolkit can make your conference learning stick

Transformation is the theme of this year’s Learning Forward Annual Conference, and it’s a fitting one. The last eighteen months have brought about so many changes in schools that flexibility and adaptation are key. In this environment, professional growth is essential, but time and resources are limited. That means we need to make the absolute most of each learning opportunity.

Learning Forward’s Transformation Toolkit can make that daunting task less intimidating and more manageable before, during, and after the conference. This resource is designed to help individuals and teams make sense of all their learning. Attendees can use it to make a learning plan, organize information from sessions and keynotes, align learning with goals, and set an actionable implementation plan for moving forward.

The Transformation Toolkit is divided into three sections to support your learning journey:

Pre-conference goal setting and planning: With so many opportunities to learn, conferences can be overwhelming. This section of the toolkit provides a guided goal-setting tool to focus your learning. It can even help you narrow down which sessions to attend if you are on the fence.

Reflection tools to use during the conference: Reflection and connection are essential for transferring learning into action, but attending sessions back-to-back may not leave much time for that work. The toolkit includes resources to help make it easier. The session note catcher can help guide your note taking so you can make connections with your goals and begin thinking about the impact on your school. A protocol for debriefing, which can be used at the end of each day or after the conference, supports reflection. Because we learn more when many voices and perspectives are involved, it’s helpful to debrief with others. If you don’t have a school or district team to debrief with, why not invite peers you have met in sessions or the networking lounge to reflect together?

Post-conference action planning: After a conference, attendees often find that their grand ideas fall flat or get lost in the daily routine. The resources in this section can help you establish an action plan and stick to it with a 30, 60, and 90-day progress checklist and a comprehensive, strategic plan for turning your learning into action. The best part of this year’s virtual conference is that the learning doesn’t have to end. Since you will have access to all sessions from your registered days, the Transformation Toolkit provides a resource to help you schedule time to view all those sessions you weren’t able to attend live.

Speaking for this year’s Host Committee, we want to make sure you have the best experience possible, not only at this year’s Learning Forward Annual Conference, but in all your conferences to come. We hope the Transformation Toolkit enriches your professional learning experience and magnifies its impact. We can’t wait to see you in December.