PZ PGH Learning and Thinking that Make a Difference (Oct 2026)

This workshop is for educators who are looking to reconnect to their sense of purpose - their “why” - for teaching. Using arts integration practices that can be applied to a variety of subjects and classrooms, this workshop will provide an opportunity for educators to engage in and deeply reflect on their role in the education system and consider how they want to contribute to or work against it. Exercises will include a diversity of approaches, including movement, dialogue, play, and visual art.

Participants will be able to:
•    Identify and practice a diversity of arts integration practices to engage students in deep, student-centered learning.
•    Articulate and share their “why” for teaching through interactive exercises.
•    Engage in collaborative play and consider how to bring in these playful practices into their own classrooms.

This interactive workshop invites educators to observe “learning in the wild” and discover the many ways thinking and learning are made visible in spaces beyond the classroom. Participants will engage with a transferable routine they can bring back to their own settings to help identify and interpret examples of thinking and learning in the environments around them.

The session also emphasizes the importance of using a lens to guide observation. Educators will explore how focusing on themes such as joy, collaboration, failure, community, curiosity, or agency can deepen their understanding of how environments are intentionally designed to support different forms of learning.

Participants will have time to explore the Children’s Museum—the country’s largest children’s museum campus—and experience its inspiring learning spaces firsthand. Through guided observation and reflection, they will leave with practical strategies for noticing, interpreting, and designing for learning in a wide range of educational contexts.

In this interactive session, participants will explore how educators are leveraging AI to provide timely, actionable feedback that strengthens student learning. Through real classroom examples, attendees will examine the impact of immediate feedback on student revision and growth.

Participants will engage in the feedback process from both the student and teacher perspectives, experiencing how AI can support rapid, meaningful revisions. They will then design a feedback approach tailored to their own classroom context.

This session focuses not on specific tools, but on practical strategies for using AI to enhance feedback cycles, empower teachers, and help students improve more efficiently and effectively.