Join us this summer for BPL’s own unique blend of professional development, training, and culture-building.

This year, Big Bang 9 will be hosted at The Met Center in Providence, RI in order to provide participants with an authentic in-school experience.

Big Bang is a valuable foundational experience for those opening new schools in the Fall 2010, a learning opportunity for those interested in incorporating the BPL design into their current work, and a great opportunity for those educators new to the BPL network who want to learn more.

Registration fee: $1000 per participant
Download the registration form here.

This fee includes all conference events, training materials, and lunch each day. Please secure your own flight (we recommend flying into T.F. Green), airport transfer, and hotel arrangements.

Big Bang 9 begins at 7:30am on Wednesday, August 4th and ends at Noon on Friday, August 6th.
Please plan air transportation accordingly.

Local transportation to and from the Met Center will be provided from the following partner hotels:
The Hotel Providence: $90 per night (our recommendation)
Hilton Providence: $89 per night
Renaissance Providence Hotel: $95 per night
*In order to receive these special rates, you MUST make your hotel arrangements by JULY 10, 2010!*

Please join us for a Welcome Reception on Tuesday, August 3rd at 6pm at The Hotel Providence!

Download the full agenda from the conference here.

If you have any questions about this convening, please contact Kari Thierer, Big Picture Learning’s Director of School & Network Support, at kthierer@bigpicturelearning.org.

Meet the community of people that have worked tirelessly to make the vision of College Unbound a reality and enjoy a video presentation created by the students chronicling their cross-country freshman orientation. This event is free and open to the public.

Please contact Tara Corso at tcorso@bigpicturelearning.org or 401.752.2640 for more information.

Visit the College Unbound website to learn more about Big Picture Learning’s first college-level program.

“Big Picture is engaging students in discovering the level of content they understand, and how they apply it, and how they appreciate it, and how they can connect it to the next task in education, life, and experience.”
– U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee

Disruptive Innovation: First Different, Then Better was an event hosted by Big Picture Learning in order to garner stronger support for BPL’s successful and innovative work in schools internationally, as well as to present Clayton Christensen with the inaugural BPL Disruptive Innovation Award. An impressive roster of politicians came out in support and spoke (see video above), an impressive hand-crafted hammer was presented to Professor Christensen in recognition of his work as a pioneer in the field of disruptive innovation, and most impressively, four Big Picture Learning students from around the country shared their experiences and stories that have come from being a BPL learner.

Click here to read a piece about Big Picture Learning’s role in disrupting education from EduFlack, a blog devoted to improving education through effective communication.

Click here to read the press release from the event, featured on Yahoo! News.

Click on the links below to download the articles and white papers that were presented and discussed at this event:

• At the Core of the Apple Store: Images of Next Generation Learning by Elliot Washor, Charlie Mojkowski and Loran Newsom
• Thoughts on Innovation by Elliot Washor
• Going, Going, Gone by Elliot Washor
• COLLEGE UNBOUND, a Big Picture Initiative: Why Innovation is Needed in Post Secondary Education by Dennis Littky and Jamie Scurry

On August 12th, Big Picture Learning was proud to officially kick off our partnership with the Tulsa School district with three days of professional development with Tulsa teachers and school staff. Similar to Big Bang 8: Infinite Possibilities, educators will enjoyed three 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, hear about the growth of the network from our Co-Director Elliot Washor, and work with their colleagues to figure out how Big Picture Learning can be seamlessly integrated into their own school.

Reception @ 5:30pm
Performance @ 7pm
Tickets: $150 per person
Please contact Tara Corso at 401.752.2640 or tcorso@bigpicture.org to purchase tickets.

100% of proceeds fund scholarships for College Unbound students.

Unable to make it to Providence but still want to show your support? Check out our sponsorship levels! For sponsorship information please contact Loriana De Crescenzo.

$10,000 COLLEGE UNBOUND LEAD INNOVATOR
*exclusive lead sponsor recognition through banner display
*logo on all promotional materials released after March 15th
*donor recognition in the program
*10 tickets to the event
*5 autographed and dedicated copies of “The Big Picture” by Dennis Littky
*Meet and greet with Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker

$5000 Platinum sponsor
*sponsor recognition through banner display
*logo on all promotional materials released after March 15th
*donor recognition in the program
*6 tickets to the event
*2 autographed and dedicated copies of “The Big Picture” by Dennis Littky

$2500 Gold Sponsor
*logo on all promotional materials released after March 15th
*donor recognition in the program
*4 tickets to the event

$1000 Silver Sponsor
*logo on all promotional materials released after March 15th
*donor recognition in the program
*2 tickets to the event

If you are unable to attend the event, but would still like to be a part of the “Big Picture” please consider a charitable donation in any amount
*Friend ($1 - $99)
*Supporter($100- $249)
*Contributor($250 - $499)
*Sustainer ($500 - $999)
Sponsorship packages may also be tailored to suit specific corporate/funder needs upon agreement.

In Better, Atul Gawande, writes about improving patient care and outcomes through diligence and being a positive deviant. To do this, he urges doctors and medical practitioners to do five things in their work: write something, be open to change, avoid complaining, ask an unscripted question, and to count something. For this event, Big Picture invited its network of principals to count something, to dig into data at their own schools, to travel to Philadelphia, and to participate with their colleagues from around the country in a collaborative learning event.

During Count This!, Big Picture’s principal network:

• Shared inquiries, observations, and data that they had collected about their school.
• Delved deeply into the projects and processes of another Big Picture school during the visit to MetEast and in working with them, deepened their own understanding of the outcomes of the design in their schools.
• Participated in group outings in Old Philadelphia and recharged their collective creative powers for addressing challenges in new and inspired ways
• Worked together on self-identified subjects using an Open Space format.
• Enjoyed a motivating keynote from Dr. Ira Harkavy, Founding Director and Associate Vice President of the Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania.

As Big Picture kicked off its thirteenth year, the network continues to grow, the schools continually evolve, and students and fellow staff members never fail to challenge and enrich the our lives. Relatedly, as of August 2008, Big Bang was being held for the seventh time.

In recognition of these two landmark anniversaries, Big Picture celebrated Big Bang VII: BP Prime! This Big Bang delivered some of the familiar goodness of Big Bangs past, while simultaneously recognizing the necessity of fulfilling the needs of a changing network.

During BP Prime, Big Picture:

• Celebrated the culture of our network of schools.
• Built the collective awareness of our movement by looking closely at the foundational elements of the design.
• Introduced the new elements of our relationship with the Gates Foundation, including processes for peer review, data collection, and improving practice.
• Unveiled rebranding work with Milton Glaser and website redesign project with Behavior.
• Provided skills training to help rookies, advisors, and specialists tackle their work.
• Enjoyed an inspiring keynote from Dr. Eric Cooper, President of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA).

Click here to see the conference agenda.

Click here to learn about AHSI’s High School to Careers & College Workgroup.