Keynote Speakers
Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Executive Director of the Curriculum Mapping Institute and President of Curriculum Designers, Inc.
Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs will discuss curriculum development for global competence. How can we revise and update curriculum and assessment to prepare our learners for their future? How do we create instructional portals to bring the world into classroom life? In her provocative and practical keynote, Heidi will examine specific steps to replace for content, skills, and assessments to be implemented gradually and realistically. A specific focus will be on global interdisciplinary issues as well as considerations for globalizing discipline areas. Bring your laptops and tablets to engage in this interactive presentation.
Heidi is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of curriculum and instruction. Her work has been the basis for reform in numerous school systems. Dr. Jacobs is the founder of Curriculum Designers, Inc., a company committed to helping educational systems implement integrated and more effective curriculum.
She has served as an education consultant to schools nationally and internationally. She works with schools K-12 on issues and practices pertaining to: curriculum reform, instructional strategies to encourage critical thinking, and strategic planning. She is the author of Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation and Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment K-12, Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping, among many other publications.
Alan November
Senior Partner, November Learning, Inc. and Lecturer, Executive Doctoral Program, Seton Hall University, NJ
Alan November will lead an interactive session on connecting kids to the world. Education technology itself is not important; it’s the way we use it to prepare students for global citizenship and leadership. Mr. November will discuss the impact that technology has for the future of our nation as a tool for collaborating and competing in an interconnected world. He will also demonstrate how to teach with technology.
Alan is an international leader in education technology. He began his career as a teacher at a reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. He has been director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant, and university lecturer. He has helped schools, governments and industry leaders improve the quality of education through technology.
Alan was named one of the nation’s fifteen most influential thinkers of the decade by Classroom Computer Learning magazine. In 2001, he was listed one of eight educators to provide leadership into the future by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. In 2007 he was selected to speak at the Cisco Public Services Summit during the Nobel Prize Festivities in Stockholm, Sweden. His writing includes numerous articles and best-selling book, Empowering Students with Technology. Alan was co-founder of the Stanford Institute for Educational Leadership Through Technology and is most proud of being selected as one of the original five national Christa McAuliffe Educators.
Andreas Schleicher
Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division, Directorate for Education, OECD
What lessons can we learn from other high-performing school systems? Hear Andreas Schleicher, an internationally renowned expert in comparative education, explain the keys to fostering best teacher quality in the workforce. What role does global education play?
Andreas Schleicher is responsible for the development and analysis of benchmarks on the performance of education systems around the world. He manages the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the OECD Education Indicators Programme (INES). Before joining the OECD in 1994, he was Director for analysis at the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA).
In 2003, Andreas Schleicher was awarded the “Theodor Heuss” prize, named after the first president of the German Federal Republic of Germany, for “exemplary democratic engagement” in association with the public debate on PISA. He also holds an honorary professorship at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. In 2002, Andreas Schleicher was awarded the “educación y libertad en el ámbito educativo” prize by the Spanish national association of private schools.
Maya Soetoro-Ng
Maya Soetoro-Ng is known as the sister of President Barack Obama, but she is also known for extensive work in education and global learning.
Dr. Soetoro-Ng will speak with the audience about how to teach interconnectedness.
She will share thoughts behind her newest publication, Ladder to the Moon, a children’s book that addresses the sensitive topic of loss and building bonds among people. This story can be used to help children become aware of the concept of being a connected part of our global world.
Dr. Soetoro-Ng is an education specialist for the East-West Center, where she facilitates educational exchange and cross-cultural understanding between Asia and the United States. She is also a lecturer at the University of Hawai’i’s College of Education where she teaches multicultural education and the history of education.
Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Soetoro-Ng later moved with her family to Honolulu. She has traveled extensively, speaks Spanish and Indonesian, and has a long and rich background in cultures and in education. After her undergraduate studies at Barnard College and the University of Hawai’i, she was awarded a Master’s degree in secondary education from New York University and a doctorate in International Comparative Education. Professionally she has taught and developed curriculum at the middle school level in New York City as well as worked in the classroom at a charter public school and a girls’ high school.
