On February 12 -13, for over 30 continuous hours, about 200 innovators, change-makers, learner-centered advocates, and education revolutionaries from all around the world. Gathered virtually at the AEROx conference to exchange ideas, create plans, and network.
We began with a session from Longview School and Little River School students. This session was unique as it was a combination of a prerecorded session along with the live session, where students answered questions about different aspects of their democratic schools.
We then all gathered for an official welcome and overview from Peter and Jerry. Some stories were shared as we made brief introductions and went about what the next 30 plus would look like.
Crystal Byrd Farmer launched into her keynote on how schools have been responding to COVID 19. The ways in which they have been resourceful and how COVID has shone a spotlight on inequities that still exist.
After a break for networking and food. James Ford, Aixa Rodriguez, Heather Kostell, and Peter Rawtisch gave their keynote panel on how vital and critical relationships are to bringing about the education revolution. After that is was time for our two workshop blocks which you can view here .
That brought us to Je’anna Clements Keynote on “What do we mean by Structure in Education?
Thanks to our friend Kristy Cheng and members of the Sri Aria school in Malaysia we were able to have scheduled “overnight” (for the Northern Hemisphere) programming for the first time ever, which you can view here. We would have never been able to do this without their support and guidance.
Dr. Putri from the Sri Aria school was kind enough to take time out of her day to deliver her keynote at 7 am Eastern Time. We didn’t stop as we went right into a keynote/ panel discussion from Lea Jovy – Ford, Hannah Miller and Jenn Sutherland on going beyond the one size fits all model of education.
Then it was time for another round of workshops, which led right into our two mini – talk sessions. Jo Symes started the mini – talk sessions with her presentation on the progressive education site – resource collection she has created. Zineb Mouhi continued the mini-talk sessions with her presentation on why young people should design the future of education.
After another break and networking time Ndindi Kitonga delivered her keynote on anti – oppressive praxis in education. From there our afternoon workshops kicked into gear.
There was a buzz and anticipation as we were moving into our last few sessions. Naim Sanders delivered on a sacred place for learning and the soul of education. Heather MacTaggart followed Naim with her presentation on unschooling school . Jerry and Peter wrapped up the conference with an informal evaluation and feedback session and a session on putting on more local events.
Throughout the whole conference there was plenty of networking, laughs, stories and even some music. As with all AERO events I came away exhausted but recharged at the same time. We look forward to doing more events like this in the future. Stay tuned for June :) ! Thank you so much to all who participated and made this another amazing event.
