2026
CONFERENCE

Colorado has a number of innovative, deeper learning schools across the state. Some are affiliated with national networks such as Big Picture Learning, EL, or the New Tech Network. Many are stand-alone beacons that are receiving local, state, or national recognition.

The goals of the Colorado Innovates conference are to share the awesomeness, better connect our trailblazing educators, and learn about the amazing things that are happening in other schools across the state. Interesting learning is happening all across Colorado, but the transformative school in Greeley may not know about the cool stuff occurring in Durango or Denver. Similarly, the lighthouse school in Cañon City may not be connected with what is happening in Steamboat Springs or Silverton.

This isn’t a conference about having the answers.

It’s about finding the people who are asking the same questions.

The innovative school in Fairplay may have something to teach the educator in Aurora. A microschool in Colorado Springs may be wrestling with the same challenge as a district program in Glenwood Springs.

Colorado Innovates brings together educators who are creating powerful learning experiences across the state, so that we can make the work visible, learn from one another, and discover what becomes possible when those ideas collide.

Come ready to share something. Come ready to borrow something. Come with a question you can’t answer alone.

What we mean by innovation

Innovation isn’t something new for the sake of something new.

Innovation is the willingness to question the assumptions underneath what we do and create the conditions to discover something better than what exists today.

We are interested in schools and learning communities where learners experience things like

• hands-on, active, experiential learning;

• meaningful agency, voice, choice, and ownership;

• deep creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration;

• authentic, real-world work and problem-solving;

• opportunities to make a positive impact in local or global contexts;

• place-based and community-engaged learning;

• creative and empowering uses of technology; and

• learning designed in response to the actual young people in the room.

Your school doesn’t have to do all of these things.

And you definitely don’t have to have everything figured out.

We’re looking for people willing to share what they’re building, what they’re learning, and what they’re still trying to understand.