What is the DFS Rida Institute?

The Rida Institute offers a crash-course in reimagining what is possible within schools. The question “what is the purpose of education?” frames the institute, as participants explore the educational theories of Paolo Friere, Duncan-Andrade, James and Grace Lee Boggs, and others. Moving from theory to practice, participants will think critically about the specific social and historical contexts in which they work in order to create their own purpose of education statement. From there, they will use the DFS Rida framework to create visions for their classrooms and the kind of students they will produce. Instructional practices for integrating the 11 Essential Skills into classroom content, as well as daily practices for making lesson-planning more efficient and effective will be shared. Participants will have the chance to design and refine lesson plans over the course of 3 days, returning to their purpose of education statement to evaluate what instructional practices best allow them to fulfill that purpose.

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* 1. Full Name

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* 2. City

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* 3. Email Address

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* 4. Phone Number

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* 5. Please indicate the categories below that best define your current role in education

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* 6. Please describe your professional context (city, demographics, etc) and your students or audience.

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* 7. The following question will not be used to determine your acceptance into the institute. Your answers will help us meet the needs of our participants.

Please rate your agreement or disagreement with the following statements below.

  Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Somewhat Disagree Strongly Disagree N/A
I effectively integrate project-based learning into my classroom.
Student voice is actively valued in my classroom and informs instruction and content.
Technology is meaningfully integrated into my instruction resulting in a deeper understanding of the classroom content.

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* 8. The following question will not be used to determine your acceptance into the institute. Your answers will help us meet the needs of our participants.

Please rate your agreement or disagreement with the following statements below.

  Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Somewhat Disagree Strongly Disagree N/A
The community informs the content in my classroom (what happens in the world is meaningfully analyzed in the classroom).
The work in my classroom allows the students to discover their role(s) in their community and modifies their behavior to fulfill those roles.
There are distinct practices in my classroom for, teachers and students, that allow for objective documentation and evaluation of instruction and learning.

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* 9. Why did you become an educator?

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* 10. What is your purpose of education? Please provide examples for how this purpose plays out in your work.

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* 11. Why are you interested in attending the DFS Rida Institute? What do you hope to bring and gain to the gathering?

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* 12. How did you hear about the DFS Rida Institute? Please select all that apply

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* 13. At what level would be registering for this institute? Please note that we do not cover the costs for travel or housing. The cost below is only for registration. Registering as an Institution means you represent the interests of a larger organization and you will be sharing what you gain from our institute with a larger audience. This cost also allows us to subsidize the cost for individual local and national teachers.

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* 14. Any dietary restrictions or accommodations we should be aware of?

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* 15. Would you like to know more about the affordable housing options available here in Detroit (hostels, etc)?

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* 16. Anything else you'd like us to know? Anything at all? Don't be shy :-)

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