REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN
Student Engagement As A Design Challenge
An NWAIS workshop series to explore how to shift thinking about student engagement from a strategy challenge to a design challenge. Participants will explore how student engagement is shaped by the structures we create—moment to moment and over time.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 (3:00PM-4:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM-5:00 PM MT)
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 (3:00PM-4:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM-5:00 PM MT)
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 (3:00PM-4:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM-5:00 PM MT)
Audience
This interactive workshop series is designed for independent school educators and educational leaders. Teachers of all levels and working with all ages of students, academic deans, division heads, instructional coaches, learning specialists and other similar roles are invited to attend.
Workshop Series Description
What if student engagement isn’t something we spark or manage—but something that emerges from the way learning is structured? What if the patterns of disengagement we see every day aren’t signs of student failure or apathy, but clues about how our systems are functioning?
In this three-part series, we’ll look at engagement as a systemic phenomenon—not a product of personality, effort, or classroom management, but an emergent quality of design. Drawing on real classroom examples and participants’ own experiences, we’ll examine how student engagement is shaped by the structures we create—moment to moment and over time. This is not a strategies session. It’s an opportunity to rethink what learning asks of students and what our design choices make possible.
Note: Each session builds on the last, so attending the full series live will give you the most powerful results.
Session Descriptions
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 (3:00PM-4:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM-5:00 PM MT)
Session 1: Rethinking Disengagement
Why do students disengage—even in classrooms with relevant content and respectful norms? In this session, we’ll explore common patterns of disengagement as default behaviors that emerge from how instruction is designed. We’ll examine typical school responses—from encouragement to accommodation to control—and consider what it means to respond through systemic redesign instead.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 (3:00PM-4:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM-5:00 PM MT)
Session 2: The Microarchitecture of Engagement Every instructional choice—how a prompt is worded, how time is structured, how students are grouped—shapes how students interact with content and each other. In this session, we’ll zoom in on the small-scale design decisions that make certain forms of engagement more or less likely. By analyzing and adjusting these microstructures, teachers can create more intentional and responsive learning environments.
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 (3:00PM-4:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM-5:00 PM MT)
Session 3: Designing Units to Sustain Engagement Student engagement depends not only on individual lessons but on the larger unit: its purpose, patterns, and possibilities. During this session, we’ll explore three distinct unit formats (inquiry-based, rehearsal-based, and project-based) as structures that evoke different ways of engaging. Participants will consider how unit design shapes the relationships students build with the discipline, their work, each other, and themselves.
About Our Facilitator: Lauren Porosoff, Founder, The Teacher Nerd
Lauren Porosoff is the founder of The Teacher Nerd, a consultancy dedicated to making school a source of meaning, vitality, and community for students and teachers. Drawing on 18 years of classroom experience and evidence-based psychological science, she develops tools, strategies, and systems that transform the experience of school through values-based action. Her work spans instructional design, social-emotional learning, professional development, and anti-bias action.
Lauren began teaching in 2000 and most recently taught middle school English at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York. She’s the lead author of eight books for educators, including Teach for Authentic Engagement (ASCD, 2023). Her writing has appeared in Educational Leadership, Edutopia, Independent School, Kappan, Learning for Justice, and Rethinking Schools. Lauren has presented at conferences for regional, national, and international organizations—including NCTE, ACBS, Learning & the Brain, NAESP, and ASCD—and facilitated workshops for schools, districts, and associations country. Learn more about her work at theteachernerd.com.
 Want to extend your learning? Purchase Teach for Authentic Engagement Here
Registration
Registration is now open!
Participants will register for the full series. In the case that you are not able to attend all three sessions in real time, all registrations include access to session recordings. Links to recordings will remain active for two weeks following each session and
should not be shared.
Pricing
Course Registration (Includes access to all three workshops, session resources, and recordings*)
Member Schools - $195
Non-Members - $265
* Links to recordings will remain active for two weeks following each session.
Cancellation
Substitutions may be made any time prior to the workshop. Written cancellations received before the start of the course are eligible for a refund after a $50 cancellation fee.
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