He is the author of the book Educated By Design, which outlines his principles for revealing and nurturing our innate creative courage and capacity. He is a national keynote speaker, advisor, and trainer who has taken the keynote stage at ISTE 2018 and a featured speaker at multiple state-level conferences. When he isn’t traveling the world sharing his message, he serves as the director of innovation for Yeshiva University of Los Angeles Boys School (YULA) where he oversees the Schlesinger STEAM and Entrepreneurship Center.

Keynote

Educated By Design: Designing The Space To Cultivate Creative Capacity

In today's world, we have an incredible opportunity to provide students with resources and experiences that will help them develop strong creative and critical thinking skills to solve interesting problems in the world. Opportunities to leverage academic skills and knowledge to practice entrepreneurship in order to create meaningful experiences that can positively impact those around them. In this session, Michael will share what that innovative practice looks like and how it can advance forward to new frontiers that can better prepare our students for a future that is unscripted and unknown.

Breakout Sessions and Featured Talks

Igniting The Spark: Empowering Students Through Media Creation With Adobe Spark

Ads, Billboards, and Magazines, it seems the world has mastered the art of visual storytelling, and more importantly effective and engaging communication. The World Economic Forum says that by 2020 creativity will be one of the "10 skills you need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution". How are we preparing our students to visually communicate beyond powerpoint slides? Discover how Adobe Spark's simple and powerful app suite can prepare our students to master the art of visual communication through imagery, color, and text to develop a creative and visual foundation for their future. 

Everyone Should Create: Exploring Creativity Apps On The iPad

Creativity is the way you look at the world. As educators, we have an incredible opportunity to teach our students how to leverage technology to see the world differently and engage with it. Their ability to communicate their ideas through video, photography, drawing, music, and more, gives their work a sense of personalization, empowerment, and opportunity. Come learn how Apple's iPad and a suite of creativity apps can help teachers give students the tools to let their creativity flourish and a chance to create work that can positively impact those around them.

Using Design Thinking and Technology To Foster Creative Problem Solving

Design thinking is a powerful framework that, when used, can help students create real impact in the world. In this session, participants will learn about how design thinking and technology can help build and improve communities both in school and beyond. Using a design-driven experience curriculum, administrators and education leaders will learn how to introduce this approach in their classrooms to help students use academic skills and knowledge to ideate the solutions to help communities around them.

Workshops

The Entrepreneurial Spark: Creating The Space To Promote Entrepreneurial Thinking

Entrepreneurial thinking is less about starting and running a business and more about how you look at the world around you differently and seek out to solve problems you see in the world. In this workshop participants will embark on a journey towards creating a dedicated time and space at their school for students to learn about, develop, and pursue challenges they care about through the lens of entrepreneurial problem-solving.  

Coding Your Story

Coding is not just a process but a language in and of itself. In education, it is often limited to afterschool programs or an independent course. While these approaches can have a positive impact on students, it does not give all students access and opportunities to discover coding's role in their learning. To solve this, I developed a curriculum that synthesizes coding and literacy in the elementary classroom. Beyond the benefits and skills gained through coding, it allows the writing process to become visual and hands-on, giving students a completely new way to develop writing and coding literacies. Come learn how I developed this program and bring it into your classroom.