Pear Fair

Weston Kieschnick | Weston is an award-winning educator, best-selling author, TEDx speaker, coach, and creator and host of Teaching Keating; one of the most downloaded podcasts for educators and parents on iTunes.

Based on the critically acclaimed book, this session — The Educator’s ATLAS — offers a groundbreaking roadmap for capturing student engagement in the first moments of class and sustaining it all the way to the last. In keeping with Weston Kieschnick’s mission and vision for education, ATLAS holds both the learner's needs and the teacher's wisdom in equal importance.

Central to this is alignment and clarification of student engagement that — once and for all — offers teachers an actionable role. Educators will leave this session joyfully inspired, motivated, and with a plan in hand for cultivating curiosity, creating participatory classrooms, and nurturing a desire to persevere in all students. And as is always the case with Kieschnick’s keynotes, participants will laugh and have a lot of fun along the way.

Stacy Yung | Stacy is an Instructional Designer on the Pear Deck team and a former middle school history for 12 years.

Pear Deck's growing collection of templates, quick-start activities, and ready-to-teach lessons is now accessible right from Pear Deck Home! In this session, see how easy it is to explore and download hundreds of free, customizable templates. Plus, learn about some of Pear Deck's amazing content partners, including EiE® from The Boston Museum of Science, Flip, Google's Be Internet Awesome, Newsela, Facing History and Ourselves, and more.

John Burnett | John is a Middle School Counselor in Houston, Texas with 12 years of experience in education and mental health, including roles as an Elementary and Middle School Counselor, Spanish Teacher, and Assistant Principal.

In this session, participants will identify 6 types of self-care and explore different ways educators can reduce burnout and increase productivity. Walk away with practical, budget-friendly activities to improve mental health and overall wellness for students, families, and educators!

Ryan Hetchler | Ryan is an experienced teacher, school administrator, and district leader in private and public K-12 schools. Ryan previously served as the Chief Academic Officer for a high-performing district in Wisconsin and is currently the Subject Matter Expert of Curriculum and Instruction at GoGuardian.

As connecting with students became more challenging during the pandemic, learning tools and techniques emerged to bridge the engagement gap. Despite the challenges of virtual learning, some classrooms saw an increase in a key engagement metric… Ratio. In this session, we’ll explore why we need to think about physical learning spaces with the same intentionality we viewed virtual classrooms. A focus on ratio drives student engagement and creates equitable learning opportunities.

Stephanie Rothstein | Stephanie is an Educational Innovation Leader for Santa Clara Unified School District, a K-12 district in Northern California serving 31 K-12 schools. Stephanie's continuous love of learning led her to become a Google Innovator, Trainer, and Coach; Pear Deck Coach; and Adobe Creative Educator.

Collaboration is a skill. Come learn how to scaffold this skill for students and how to create a classroom where all students are valued and seen. During this session, you will learn how to use personality information and activities to better formulate teams, create interactive opportunities for students to connect before being in groups, organize group projects and work, and better provide feedback to peers. Walk away with ready-to-implement decks and activities to help take your classroom collaboration to the next level.

Jake Miller | Jake is an edtech and learning enthusiast, author of Educational Duct Tape: An EdTech Integration Mindset, host of the EdTech News Brief and #EduDuctTape podcasts, and speaker. Jake’s current day job is a Personalized Learning Specialist and previously spent 5 years as a Technology Integration Specialist and an additional 14 years in the classroom teaching math, science, and STEM at various grade levels.

Want to upgrade your Pear Deck skills from somewhat exPEARienced to exPEARt? If you already know how to use Pear Deck and would like to level up your skills — including adding timers, unveiling correct answers, utilizing draggable slides with multiple icons, embedding YouTube videos, and more — then this session is for you!