Breakout Sessions

Elevate your leadership in education by prioritizing joy & justice. Learn strategies to create inclusive, empowering environments for both educators & students. This session will delve into the intersection of joy & justice, emphasizing their pivotal roles in creating a holistic & inclusive learning experience. Participants will engage in discussions & activities designed to highlight the importance of infusing joy into the educational process, fostering a positive & empowering atmosphere that propels both students & educators toward success. Join us in revolutionizing education for a more equitable & joyful future.

Who decides how much teachers are paid? Where’s all the lottery money going? What’s going on with private school vouchers? And how well are we funding our schools, really? Learn about these topics, and more! Join us for a conversation about school finance, policymaking, and explore how you can advocate for our students and schools.

You cannot champion K-12 education equity without the most important demographic: students. In this session, learn how the Center for Racial Equity in Education designed its LEAD (Leaders for Equity, Advocacy, and Diversity) Ambassadors program on how to not only involve youth but increase awareness of systemic racism and inequity while empowering them to advocate for change.

The Public School Strong North Carolina Team is anchored by Heal Together NC, an organizing coalition made up of parents, students, educators and community members who are committed to honest, equitable and fully funded public schools. We support each other in turning out to local school board meetings to observe, make our movement visible, and speak up to promote, protect and strengthen our public education system. Anyone who is committed to this can join the NC Public School Strong team.

What is your local school doing to help protect immigrant students? Immigrant families are experiencing fear and insecurity in the face of anti-immigrant policies. Learn about the everyday practices that put students at risk of immigration enforcement, understand what to advocate for, and gain the tools to turn your advocacy into actions that will change policies for the better. Join us to help students and families navigate ICE in schools.

We have a duty to protect and transform our public schools so that all students can benefit from equitable school policies that allow for our most impacted student populations to thrive. During this training, you will gain a deeper understanding of what is at stake and learn how to strategically use our collective power to transform policies, practices, and culture in our public education system. Every day working people can make a change. Join us to gain tools and strategies centered in racial equity, to best support moving people from advocacy into action. 

In our session, we will explore how public education has historically contributed to the erasure of culture and identity, particularly for Native, Black, and Brown communities. We’ll share how youth organizing programs help students become critical observers of their learning environments by examining the systems that shape their realities. Through relationship-building and culturally affirming practices, we support students in developing a deeper understanding of themselves and their lived experiences within these systems. Our presentation will offer a model for how educators can foster belonging, critical inquiry, and student agency as tools for transforming policies, practices and culture in our public education systems.

Excellence in education is often measured by test scores and compliance, but the WELL Center offers a different vision. In this session, educators will explore how the WELL framework—Wellness, Excellence, Learning, and Leadership—redefines professional excellence through equity, joy, and justice. Participants will engage in interactive activities to reflect on their own practice, build shared language for excellence, and identify actionable steps to embody this vision in their schools and communities.

This session explores the concept of neurodiversity, which recognizes and respects the natural variations in how students think, learn, and process information. Every student brings unique strengths and challenges to the classroom—whether through learning differences such as ADHD, dyslexia, or autism, or through exceptional talents in specific areas.

Every day, our public schools create opportunities for young people across lines of race and class to connect, learn together, and achieve their fullest potential.  However, the public conversations about our public schools seem to be dominated by stories of division and conflict.  Wealthy elites have poured billions into efforts used to discredit our schools and divide us from one another in order to create a society that benefits themselves.  This workshop will create space for participants to explore the stories that we are hearing about our schools, break down their divisive intentions, and offer ways to tell our own stories, rooted in the hope, connection, and possibility that we see in our public schools every day. 

We must draw on our collective stories and build a unified coalition to create a grassroots movement for the public schools all students deserve and a thriving democracy requires. This workshop will preview the We Are Public Schools coalition we need to win.

For generations, our public schools have served as sites of possibility and connection for North Carolina communities.  These connections, and our ability to learn, love, and thrive together across lines of race and class, have always been a threat to wealthy elites, who can only thrive by keeping us divided.  This workshop will explore the ways that multiracial movements have positively transformed our society, how public schools are central to that story, and why the current attacks on our schools fit into a broader pattern of division that we can, and must defeat, to win the schools and communities that our students deserve.