Spring 2026 NGLC Learning Excursion to Casco Bay High School

✏️ REGISTER NOW: Space is limited to 25 participants. Register early to reserve your spot and a discounted rate!

🌏 WHAT: Join Next Generation Learning Challenges to observe high-quality, innovative instruction at Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine. See how project-based learning, proficiency-based grading, and student advisory work to create a coherent learning environment built on rigor, relevance, and relationships. Exchange strategies with the school's faculty and fellow participants, and apply what you learn and the tools and resources you pick up to improve instructional practices and student outcomes.

✨ WHO: If you are looking for an example of innovative and equitable instructional practices within a supportive and engaging learning culture, this Learning Excursion is for you. We invite any educator or partner (including students!) from anywhere in the U.S. and beyond to attend. Individual and discounted team registrations are available.

🎯 WHY: NGLC's Learning Excursions are more than a school tour, they are a learning experience focused on inspiring innovation. You'll observe innovative practices, pick up strategies and tools, and lean on experienced coaching to figure out solutions that work with your professional strengths and unique school setting.

Past participants say that the Learning Excursion has had long-lasting effects on their own efforts to transform learning. Join us so you too can start creating the learning environment that students need and deserve!

• 🔍 See teaching and learning in action at Casco Bay HS, focusing in particular on proficiency-based grading within their expeditionary learning instructional model.
• 🙌🏽 Go "behind the scenes" with Casco Bay HS's school leaders, faculty, and students to understand their experience and gather resources, strategies, and tools that make their approach to teaching and learning successful.
• 📋 Participate in workshops to connect what you observe at Casco Bay HS to the opportunities and challenges in your classroom and school.
• ☑️ Create an action plan and an artifact to share what you learn and begin to make changes in your instructional practice.
• 🎉 Have fun! Experience learning that is filled with joy, wonder, hope, and connection.

Explore some takeaways from past NGLC Learning Excursions to Casco Bay High School with these blog posts:

• "Bravery Is Contagious," in Three Stories of Courage and Resilience
• Connection before Content: Operationalizing the 80/20 Rule of Restorative Practices

Info: Join us in the hotel lobby for an informal meet and greet with your NGLC facilitator and fellow participants. Pick up your participant packet and name badge. Cash bar available.

Info: Our excursion begins with a kickoff session in the hotel meeting room. Following a brief overview of the program's learning objectives, you will work with NGLC and fellow participants to define your instructional vision and goals. Participants will then gather in the hotel lobby to car pool to Casco Bay High School. Directions and parking instructions will be provided.

Info: Introduction to CBHS Learning Model, Learning Walk and School Tour, Workshop on Proficiency-Based Grading, small group discussions with CBHS faculty and students. Coffee, light snacks, and a lunch is provided.

Info: We reconvene at the hotel to focus on your instructional vision and goals. In groups and independently, NGLC will guide you to surface observations and identify themes of greatest importance to you. As you brainstorm emerging solutions for your classroom and school, you will connect with colleagues in similar roles to explore challenges and share promising strategies to improve instruction.

Info: Meet in the hotel lobby to car pool to Casco Bay High School.

Info: Student Panel, Classroom Visits, Q&A on Advisory and Student Supports

Info: Returning to the hotel, you will incorporate the day's observations into the solutions you generated. Then, you will make commitments to test new instructional practices from your list of solutions. With support from NGLC, you also will develop a final reflection, artifact, and action plan; all of these will help you share this experience with your school community and initiate longer-term changes that improve instruction and outcomes for your students and school.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Residence Inn by Marriott Portland Downtown/Waterfront, 145 Fore Street, Portland, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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