This year’s SAANYS conference is the place and the time to tell your leadership story and share something you have learned through hard won experience.

Whether you were a brand new leader when COVID hit, or a seasoned leader feeling like a brand new leader all over again, we want you to share something that your colleagues can use to help and inspire them going forward.

This year, instead of longer 75-minute workshops, we are seeking proposals for shorter 35-minute Tabletop presentations that would be featured twice on Monday, October 24, from 9:45-11:45 am. We are looking for leaders like you, in all roles at every stage of your professional journey to share your story and something you have learned that will be useful to fellow school leaders going forward. Some suggestions:

•    What did ‘pressure cooker leadership’ during COVID teach you about students, families, teachers and yourself that others can learn from and use going forward? Tell a story with an emphasis on a takeaway that applies now that we are in a different place with COVID.
•    What leadership experience or challenge as a (principal, assistant principal, essential service provider, other role) did you face that will benefit others in a similar role in today’s environment?
•    How have you learned to take care of yourself so that you can care of others? What approaches or actions have really made a difference to you that you would like to share?
•    What have you learned about the best ways to support teachers, learning, and instruction in such a challenging time? What works and what doesn’t? What approach or strategy would you share with a new leader stepping into your role now?
•    What is a specific skill or technology application you can share that has changed your ability to manage the workload, communicate, or inspire for the better? You can assume that those who come to your Tabletop will have their devices, so your goal would be to teach that skill or app during the 35 minute segment.
•    Tell the story of your own growth leading Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in your school, with an emphasis on a specific challenge you have met or strategy that is working. In addition to race, think about diverse learners, LQBTQ and other differences that have been supported in new ways by changing an aspect of school culture.

Remember: You have 35 minutes to give the colleagues at your table something they can use and benefit from. BE CREATIVE – and give your Tabletop a title that will catch interest in the program!

• You will submit a proposal for a 35-minute workshop which you will present twice during the 90-minute segment. Here is the time frame:
       9:45-9:55 – Conference attendees enter the ballroom and get seated for Session A.
9:55-10:35 – You present your 35 minute workshop for the first time (Session A).
10:30-10:50 – Attendees get up and move to the second session (Session B).
10:40-11:15 – You present the same workshop the second time to a new group.
•  Name and description of the Tabletops, along with Table Numbers, will be printed in the conference program just like traditional practitioner workshops have been in the past, so that attendees can scope out which ones they want to attend during session one. This is NOT an improvisational EdCamp format.
• Each attendee will attend two Tabletop sessions of their choice. They will be encouraged to plan their third and fourth choices, since space at each table for each session is limited.
• Each Tabletop presenter will be seated at a round table in the ballroom that seats 10, so there can be up to 9 attendees at each of your two sessions.
• A clock will be up on the big screen and a bell will sound at the conclusion of a session, signaling that attendees should get up and move.
• Tabletops do not allow for presentation screens, etc., so plan to use your laptop and bring any materials you would like your attendees to share. You own the table for 90 minutes. Be creative!
• Since Tabletops are short, and may only scratch the surface, presenters should provide attendees with a means of getting more information on the topic if they wish to do so. We hope to have QR codes in the program catalogue for this purpose.