The Sonoma County Office of Education is proud to be hosting our 11th annual Teaching & Learning Summer Institute. The Summer Institute is a multi-day professional development opportunity for Sonoma County teachers, counselors, administrators, paraprofessionals, and students. It supports educators in learning about, designing, and implementing strategies that prepare young people for the demands of the 21st century.

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Over the past ten years, over 900 educators from schools and districts throughout Sonoma County have participated in this innovative program. They have been challenged to consider new ideas about education through interactive learning activities and presentations by thought-provoking speakers, including:

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•    Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned author and advisor on creativity in education

•    Sugata Mitra, educational researcher and 2013 TED Prize winner

•    Emily Pilloton, educator and founder of  the nonprofit Project H Design and its sister program, Girls Garage

•    Dale Dougherty, founder and CEO, Maker Media, Inc.
•    Ken Kay, founder and CEO, EdLeader21

•    Ainissa Ramirez, author and noted science evangelist

•    Todd Rose, co-founder and president, Center for Individual Opportunity and Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education​

•    Ted Dintersmith, film producer and author of Most Likely to Succeed and What School Could Be

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The theme for this year's Institute is Community Voices, Bold New Choices. Over the past 5 years, SCOE and its partner organizations have invested significant time, energy, and resources into gathering community voices and perspectives on educational needs and experiences of local students. It is now critical that those of us in the education system take action in response to what we have heard and what we have learned. We must act boldly in confronting the challenges being faced by our students, examine our systems and our individual and collective role in contributing to these challenges, and begin the essential work of building more responsive and more human systems. 

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I encourage you to participate in the 2022 Summer Institute. Tuition is free and participants will receive a $700 stipend for their attendance at all three days of the Institute. Through initiatives like this, we are working together to improve and enhance education for all of Sonoma County’s students.   

 

Steven D. Herrington, Ph.D.
Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools