Past Events

Overview

Every year since 2002, staff members from the Big Picture Learning network of schools have gathered for a summer professional development session to improve their understanding of the Big Picture Learning design, share best practices, psych themselves up for the school year ahead, and strengthen their relationships with other schools.

This practice, an enduring piece of Big Picture Learning’s culture, is invariably referred to as Big Bang, and the summer of 2009 brought Big Bang 8! Big Picture Learning continues to expand, and our over eighty schools in the United States sent participants, as well as our sister organizations in Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia.

This year’s Big Bang kicked off on Wednesday, August 5th with a Principals’ Gathering, held at The Met Center in Providence, RI. Michael Soguero, Director of Professional Development for the Eagle Rock School and founding principal of the Bronx Guild, led BPL’s network of principals through the Appreciative Inquiry Protocol used to help identify best practices.

• Download the full agenda for the Principals’ Gathering here.
• Download the Appreciative Inquiry Protocol here.

On Friday August 7th, two hundred advisors, learning specialists, support staff, and other representatives from around our global network joined the principals to enjoy three more days of Big Picture Learning’s unique blend of professional development, training, and culture-building.

Reflecting the Big Picture Learning design, all participants were a part of an advisory for the weekend, which served as a home base for learning and debriefing. Participants also had the opportunity to take part in workshops tailored to their work, heard about the growth of the network from our Co-Directors Dennis and Elliot, and met with their colleagues. We were also proud to welcome James Forman Jr., Professor at Georgetown Law School, who delivered a keynote address on the subject of education as a civil right.

• Download the full agenda for Big Bang 8: Infinite Possibilities here.
• Click here to download Professor Forman’s article entitled “From Martin Luther King to Bill Cosby: Race and Class in the Twenty-First Century”.

For additional information on the programming of this event, please contact Jill Olson-Crowley, Big Picture Learning’s Director Conferences & Connections.