Deeper Learning New York

What if play were not an “extra,” but a powerful design lens for bringing a district’s Portrait of a Graduate to life—through any learning objective, at any grade level?
In this interactive session, participants will explore how play can be intentionally used to translate learning objectives aligned to Portrait of a Graduate competencies—such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication, agency, and empathy—into learning experiences that strengthen understanding, transfer, and student engagement, without sacrificing rigor, standards, or accountability.
Drawing from research, classroom practice, and large-scale system implementation, the session demystifies what “learning through play” really means—and what it does not mean. Superintendents and system leaders will engage in a hands-on design experience that demonstrates how the same core learning objective can be activated through different types of play, making learning more relevant, motivating, and durable for students.
The session will also address common leadership questions, including alignment to standards, assessment of Portrait competencies, teacher readiness, time constraints, and scalability across schools and contexts.
Participants will leave with a clear, practical framework they can use to guide instructional conversations, professional learning, and classroom design—so the Portrait becomes not just a vision statement, but a lived student experience.

Jaimie will use the classic Deeper Learning structure to lead a conversation exploring examples of “education for unsustainability” currently present in curricula and academic standards. Participants will have the opportunity to share what they are seeing and doing in their schools and classrooms, as well as how these practices may correlate with students’ mindsets.
The session will include discussion and Q&A focused on intentional shifts in language and practice that can lead to profoundly different student learning and action outcomes.
All participants will receive:

1. A self-directed, step-by-step guide to aligning and integrating Education for Sustainability (EfS) enduring understandings, standards, and performance indicators into core curriculum, unit by unit; and
2. A simple audit tool for school leaders that connects core curriculum with students’ mindsets related to sustainability.

Together, these resources provide a clear rationale for “sustainabilizing” all PreK–12 curriculum.
 


 

Every year, schools roll out new initiatives to fix culture, boost engagement, or address behavior but too often, the people most impacted by those issues aren’t at the table. In this interactive session, teachers and school leaders will explore how Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) can serve as a powerful, restorative tool to reimagine their school and classroom culture with students, not for them.


Grounded in real school-based examples, this session walks teachers and leaders through how to design and implement a YPAR project from identifying a challenge to guiding students through research, data collection, solution design, and action. Participants will learn how YPAR builds students’ leadership, confidence, and advocacy skills while also helping educators and administrators develop actionable, student-informed strategies that heal culture, not police it.


By the end of the session, teachers and leaders will walk away with a framework for launching YPAR in their context, strategies to use student voice as a driver of school culture transformation, concrete examples of how YPAR has addressed issues like attendance, relationships, and academic engagement. This is about more than checking a box for student voice, it’s about letting students help you rebuild what’s broken for them by them.

As districts grapple with how to respond to the rapid emergence of generative AI, many face the same challenge: how to move beyond isolated trainings or vague top-down guidance toward sustainable, school-based adoption that strengthens instruction and aligns with deeper learning principles.
In this session, Azadi Partners—alongside leaders and teacher leaders from New York City Public Schools’ CUNY/Urban Assembly High School District—will share how they partnered to build districtwide capacity for responsible AI use through a combination of system-level professional development and targeted AI Catalyst coaching. Azadi Partners will provide an overview of their approach to supporting AI adoption, including how district-wide PD sessions established shared AI literacy, ethical guardrails, and common instructional use cases, while ongoing coaching supported AI Catalysts—teacher leaders in schools across the CUNY/UA district—to model, extend, and support effective practice.
The session will highlight Azadi Partners’ and CUNY/UA’s shared focus on using AI to strengthen instructional planning, including lesson design, differentiation, assessment planning, and alignment. Throughout, the work centers educators’ expertise, experience, and deep understanding of their students. The CUNY/UA Deputy Superintendent and an AI Catalyst teacher leader will speak directly to the impact of this work, sharing how the professional learning and coaching supported meaningful adoption of AI tools in schools and influenced instructional practice at both the classroom and system levels.
The session will be structured as a facilitated conversation, with opportunities for participants to reflect on the case example, surface questions, and consider how similar approaches might translate to their own districts and schools. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how a district can build sustainable, school-based capacity for AI adoption through a combination of shared professional learning and embedded teacher leadership. They will gain insight into the structures, design choices, and coaching practices that supported responsible AI use in CUNY/UA schools, along with practical takeaways they can adapt in their own contexts—such as how to identify and support teacher leaders, structure AI-focused professional learning, and focus AI use on strengthening instructional planning while maintaining educator agency and deeper learning priorities.