What School Could Be

Fantastical Imaginarium

NOTE: Please Check The Conference App For Dates/Times

Ted Dintersmith has made 12 trips to Hawai`i, starting in 2016 and the end of his 50-state tour. This October, Ted will return to the islands for his 13th visit. The highlight of his visit will be headlining an Executive Design Session at the Leading Schools of the Future Conference (LSOTF), and his participation in the Schools of the Future Conference (SOTF).

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What School Could Be and the Schools of the Future Conference 2022 (SOTF2022) are teaming up to bring you a very special experience at this year’s gathering, which will be held at the Hawai`i Convention Center, live and in person, October 20th and 21st. This is the 14th annual conference, organized all these years by the Hawai`i Association of Independent Schools (HAIS), but attended by educators and education leaders from Hawaii and global public, public charter, independent, parochial and home schools.
The What School Could Be Fantastical Imaginarium will be an inventive attempt to make literal, make physical (with a few extra flourishes!) the rapidly growing What School Could Be Global Online Community. “Elements” in the Fantastical Imaginarium include a magical design thinking exhibition, a movie house, a coffee klatch, a playground, an arts studio, a podcast production center, a strengths reader, a piazza with town halls, a wellness concession, a museum of discovery, a coach’s corner and speakers’ soapbox and a Goodnight Moon book study nook. The Fantastical Imaginarium is a space where one might imagine the child born of the best of Hawaii’s public, charter and private schools. It’s a place where one can imagine everything that happens is grounded in wonder and inquiry. It’s a space where the essential question is: What could school be?

Elements Include:

The What School Could Be “Democracy is Grounded in Empathy” Town Hall

Join Ted Dintersmith and What School Could Be Executive Director, Kapono Ciotti for an intimate, New England style town hall meeting that will focus on the urgent need to develop a generation of young people skilled in empathy and relationship building. Join the conversation and bring your empathy! (Town halls will happen once each conference day immediately after the opening keynote. See your SOTF 2022 conference app for the schedule.)

The Design Thinking Hawaiʻi AgTech Magic Exhibition

Imagine Hawai`i on the cutting edge of a global movement to shift agriculture towards sustainable and organic AgTech. Imagine students coding computers to grow hydroponic lettuce, flying drones that survey sustainable agriculture topography and exercising other 21st century skillsets . Imagine this is happening at Leileihua High School. Well, don’t imagine, come see what Design Thinking Hawai’i has on display!

What School Could Be Strengths Coaching - The Tarot Card Reading Room

Why is knowing the strengths of your fellow teachers, and administrators, so important? What does it mean to take a strengths assessment and have your strengths evaluated by an expert strengths coach? Stop by and find out! (See your SOTF 2022 conference app for the schedule.)

The Wes Adkins “I Love the Movies” Movie House

Have a seat, put on a pair of FM transmitter wireless headphones and drop into a fantastical world of short films that tell the stories of innovation, creativity and imagination in schools in Hawaii and around the world. Bring a friend, be inspired and then take action. Popcorn provided!

The What School Could Be When You Wonder Playground

Ever been in a town square in Europe and watched people stand around a chess game, fascinated as the players move the pieces with lightning speed? Ever watched a toddler play with LEGOs, pausing at times to chew on a piece? Come to the playground and play a game of chess, or build a house with LEGOs!

The What School Could Be Ewa Makai Bean Bag QR Coffee Klatch

Come, take a comfy seat and, with your smartphone’s camera, be transported to places that will broaden your educator horizon and transform the way you see the world and all that is subject to wonder and learning. Away you will go to galaxies far away, a library in Norway that won’t open for 100 years, a green school in Bali, a learning village in Australia and a fishpond project in Kaneohe. And while you are wondering, have a coffee!

The Remarkable and Innovative Explorations Exchange

IMAGINE a school with a rich history of experiential learning that honors its culture and the power of place. Imagine a school where authentic collaboration is at the heart of the learning experience, facilitated with purpose and passion about what school can be for their community and beyond. Imagine no more! Come meet students and teachers from West Hawaii Explorations Academy (WHEA). Hear their stories, ask them about their in-depth integrated research studies and be prepared for an invitation to engage in some student-led participatory activities that aim to provide an immersive understanding of the "WHEA Way!”

Walking and Talking in the “Find Your Marigold” Garden of Neural Networks

Join a What School Could Be Podcast guest for a 15-minute one-on-one “walk and talk” stroll around the Convention Center. Get to know each other, share ideas, build relationships, share contacts and take small steps, together, to reimagine teaching and learning. But don’t forget to come back to Room 311! (See your SOTF 2022 conference app for the schedule.)

Stitching a Quilt of Innovation: What School Could Be Podcast Shorts

Ever wanted to be a guest on a podcast? Well, have a seat, our production team will mic you up and the host of the What School Could Be Podcast will interview you for 15 sparky and inspiring minutes. Recordings will be stitched together to make a full episode after the conference. Come, share your mana’o! (See your SOTF 2022 conference app for the schedule.)

The What School Could Be “I’ve Got Your Back” Coaches Corner

Think of Pat Summit, C. Vivian Stringer, John Madden, Bill Walsh, John Wooden, Geno Auriemma, Greg Popovich, Tara VanDerveer, Chuck Noll and Tom Landry. What do they all have in common? They were all great coaches. Coaching is the secret sauce to reimagining education. Come explore the ingredients! (See your SOTF 2022 conference app for the schedule.)

The Home is Where the Heart Is Activity Feed

When people think of activity feeds they think of Facebook, or online chats. Fair enough, but what is really happening when you comment on a post, or add your voice to a conversation? Are you just dropping in, or are you like a drip irrigation system that sustains the seed, and then the sprout of an idea? Join the What School Could Be activity feed and find out!

A Place to Be and Be Inspired - the Museum of Discovery

A mere 4986 nautical miles away from Honolulu is the remarkable, the amazing, the inspiring Museum of Discovery (MOD.) at the University of South Australia. But alas, the cost is too high, the time is too short and complications too great to take your students there, right? Au contraire mon ami! Have a seat, put on your headphones and transport yourself to MOD., where, as my mother used to say, the wonders never cease.

The What School Could Be Goodnight Moon Book Study

Close your eyes and think of your favorite reading nook. What does it look and sound and feel like? What do you remember about that first time you were read Goodnight Moon or Where the Wild Things Are? What was it like when you found yourself, for the first time, engaged in the process of writing? Join one of Hawaii’s celebrated writers on transforming education for an intimate deep dive into what writing and reading could be. (See your SOTF 2022 conference app for the schedule.)

Trish Morgan's Willy Wonka Wonderland

Come to the What School Could Be Fantastical Imaginarium in Room 311, and meet Trish Morgan, a former Hawaiʻi public school educator who built, with funds from a Farmer’s Insurance Hawaiʻi award, a truly remarkable maker-technology space within which her middle-level students built accessibility devices for real, community clients, and much more. Trish is now at Choice Learning Academy, a public school in Arizona, but she has taken her maker and design work even future. Come see her work and talk with her about how to take a small step towards big change.