Building Community in Our Classrooms

How can we build authentic communities with our students whether we are teaching online or in-person? Feelings of trust and connection are essential to creating the social and emotional environment in which thoughtful teaching and deep learning can take place. After the large shifts we have all experienced in our lives over the last year of the pandemic, fostering relationships has become even more important. This workshop offers specific tools and techniques for supporting you in getting to know and understand your learners and for helping learners deepen their sense of connection to another. Some of these approaches can be carried out in under 10 minutes; others are designed to be woven into the curricular content so that students build relationships as they engage in deep learning and work toward important curricular goals. In the highly interactive workshop, you will participate in activities that can be easily transferred to your classrooms. With small adaptations (which we will discuss in the workshop), these tools are appropriate and useful for all grade levels and all subjects.

About the Presenters

Ms Tina Blythe

Tina Blythe is the Project Director for Project Zero's online learning collaboration with the Independent Schools of Victoria. She is part of Project Zero's online learning development team, developing, facilitating, and assessing Project Zero online professional development courses. She is also the Education Chair of Project Zero's summer institute, "The Project Zero Classroom," and Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Central to her research and teaching is how to create and sustain learning environments—for students, teachers, and administrators, in both face-to-face and online contexts—that support deep learning, thinking, and understanding. Collaborative inquiry and the collaborative assessment of student and teacher work are key focuses of her work.

In addition to her work at Project Zero, Tina serves as education advisor for the Silkroad, an organization founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma to promote innovation, learning, and cross-cultural understanding through the arts. For twelve years, she was a faculty member and the Director of Faculty Development at the Boston Architectural College. She began her career more than three decades ago as a middle and high school teacher in urban public schools.

A researcher at Project Zero since 1988, Tina has participated in more than a dozen research grants, including: Teaching for Understanding; Practical Intelligence for School; ATLAS Communities (a collaboration with the Coalition of Essential Schools, the School Development Program, and the Educational Development Center); the Massachusetts Schools Network (a collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Education); The Evidence Project; WIDE World Online Learning; Project-based Learning in Afterschools (a collaboration with the New York City Afterschool Program Network); The Creative Classroom (a collaboration with the Disney Development Corporation); Making Learning Visible; and the Storywork Project (a collaboration with the International Storytelling Institute).

Tina is the co-author of a number of articles and books including Facilitating for Learning: A Guide for Teacher Groups of All Kinds (Teachers College Press, 2015); Looking Together at Student Work, 3rd Ed. (Teachers College Press, 2015); The Facilitator's Book of Questions (Teachers College Press, 2004); Teaching as Inquiry (Teachers College Press, 2004); and The Teaching for Understanding Guide (Jossey-Bass, 1998; translated into Spanish, Chinese, Swedish, and Georgian).

Mr Kurt Wootton

Kurt Wootton is the co-founder of Habla, a lab school and international education center in Mérida, México. He is the co-director of the ArtsLiteracy Project founded in the Education Department at Brown University. ArtsLiteracy's work in urban schools with diverse populations led him to work increasingly in different countries in Latin America, particularly Brazil and Mexico.

With a specialty in creative literacy pedagogies, teacher professional development, cultural transformation, and organizational change, he works internationally with teachers and administrators helping to design schools and organizations that are creative, meaningful and welcoming places.

He is the co-author of A Reason To Read: Linking Literacy and the Arts published by Harvard Education Press.

Registration Details

Course Code: TB2021622

Topic: Building Community in Our Classrooms

Trainer: Ms Tina Blythe

Date: 20 - 21 June 2022 (2 half days)

Time: 8.30 am to 11.30 am Singapore Time GMT+8

Mode of delivery: via Zoom

Click Here to Register

Closing date: 8 April 2022 Friday

Workshop Fee:

S$400.00.00 per participant. If 2 or more participants from the same school/organization attend the same workshop, the discounted fee will be S$380.00 per participant for that particular workshop. Fees are subject to GST and include all training materials.

Other Information:

Registration is on a first-come-first-serve basis. No refunds will be made for cancellations or in the case of absentees. The Academy accepts replacements for registered participants who are unable to attend for whatever reasons.

School/Cluster-Based Webinar Registration

Please contact Joseph Loy by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or tel: 6363 0330 on the cost of conducting the workshop.