Erin Gruwell
Becoming a Catalyst for Change

Erin Gruwell helped 150 of her students - many of whom were written off by the education system - to use the power of education to write a book, graduate from high school and attend college. The journey of this teacher and her students is chronicled in Freedom Writers' Diary - How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. In her inspiring presentation, Ms. Gruwell tells the story of this extraordinary journey - from poverty and despair to hope and promise - with stops at Anne Frank's House and Auschwitz and then on to Capitol Hill and Congress. How can one person take on seemingly insurmountable problems of poverty, racism, violence? What can our classrooms provide in order to make our children safe, educated, and productive people? Erin Gruwell teaches us all how we can become "Catalysts for Change."

Gruwell currently leads the Freedom Writers Foundation, which she founded in 1997. Working to eradicate intolerance and thrust strong educators into classrooms where they are needed, Gruwell travels the country to teach educators how they can engage the "unreachable" and "unteachable" students in their schools.

A nationally acclaimed educator and advocate for students, Gruwell is the author of Teach with Your Heart and Freedom Writers Diary Teacher’s Guide, co-author of The Freedom Writers Diary, and subject of the January 2007 Paramount Pictures film Freedom Writers. She has been featured on Oprah, PrimeTime Live with Connie Chung, Barbara Walters’ The View, and Good Morning America, among others.

Ian Jukes
Education in the Age of Disruptive Innovation

In today’s digital world, we are witnessing the evolution of an incredible and turbulent new age. It’s the age of disruptive innovation—an age where every part of society is experiencing a complete upheaval due to the chronic and pervasive nature of change. Our schools, like our businesses, communities, and families, must constantly adapt to such conditions to thrive. The Age of Disruptive Innovation examines disruptive innovation, the changing nature of the workforce, identifies the critical 21st-century skills that are not being addressed by our current educational model, and outlines how we can effectively engage learners so that they can perform exceptionally well on exams, while simultaneously learning the critical 21st-century $uencies needed to excel in both school and life. This presentation is based on the book Living on the Future Edge: Windows on Tomorrow

Author, educator, technology expert, and futurist are just a few of the words that have been used to describe this highly sought after keynote speaker. But, Ian Jukes is an educator first and foremost, focusing on the compelling need to restructure educational institutions so they become relevant to the current and future needs of children. "We need to prepare students for their future, not our past," said Jukes. His rambunctious and highly charged presentations emphasize many of the practical issues related to ensuring that change is meaningful. As a registered educational evangelist, his self-avowed mission in life is to ensure that children are properly prepared for the future rather than society’s past. "We need to transform learning, not just use new technology in an old way," said Jukes.

Jukes has written 12 books, nine educational series and has had more than 100 articles published in various journals. He is also the publisher of an online electronic newsletter, the Committed Sardine Blog, which is electronically distributed to almost 90,000 people in 60 plus countries.

Sarah Wessling
Leadership Spaces for Deep Learning: What Matters Most

Leadership Spaces for Deep Learning: What Matters Most School leaders know this maxim well: that the space between the ideal and reality is our greatest opportunity to do our most meaningful work. And our most meaningful work is realized when we see our days fill with teaching moments rather than tasks.  Our pathway to deliberate and purposeful leadership is grounded in a desire for meeting teachers and students where they are, to embracing a growth mindset, and to enhancing the instruction of our environments in authentic, ongoing ways.  In order to create environments that invite curiosity, we must elevate everyone in our spaces to the status of learner.  It's in this mindset we'll be centered on what matters most and find the courage to live it.

Named National Teacher of the Year in 2010, Sarah is a 12-year veteran of the high school English Language Arts classroom, where she enjoys working with students of all ability levels. Believing in the power of asking good questions and creating worthy learning experiences for students, she has worked to put herself in the same growth mindset she hopes to cultivate in her students. When you walk into Sarah’s classroom, the first thing you notice is that her desk is in the back corner of the room — an outward sign of her implicit philosophy that education should be "learner-centered."

Sarah holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Iowa State University in English Education and English Literature respectively. She became a Nationally Board Certified Teacher in 2005 and has been active in the Iowa and National Council of Teachers of English as well as in numerous committees and advisory boards in her district and statewide.

As National Teacher of The Year, she had speaking engagements both nationally and internationally — an experience that “made her feel more responsible than ever to be a better teacher tomorrow."