Wednesday Breakout Session Descriptions
August 6, 2008
10:30 a.m. - Noon

Tiering Assignments and Assessments …………..……………..Rick Wormeli

Band Room

Some teachers think there are only two ways to differentiate: say it louder and slower. Of course, there are many ways to differentiate, but how can you do it all at the same time in the same room with varied learners? Some students are ready for the first steps of a topic and others are ready for advanced assignments and assessments in that topic - So how do we tier assignments and assessments to maximize their learning? Join us for a practical and thought-provoking look at what constitutes mastery, and how we can increase and decrease complexity in student assignments and assessments while meeting the needs of standards and their benchmarks. This is a "how-to" and "why-we-do-it" workshop for those just getting their feet wet with tiering or those already swimming in differentiated instruction who want more ideas.

Success is the Only Option for All Learners - Secondary …………….Vera Blake

Room E-165B

Today's classrooms and schools require that school-based stakeholders have an ever increasing repertoire of knowledge, skills, commitment, and support to ensure that all students meet and exceed standards though many have varied and unique learning needs. Participants will examine and practice several successful strategies that enhance achievement for all students. The presentation will focus on successful classroom approaches that work well for struggling and high achieving learners. Strategies will address classroom climate issues that impact learning and the use of multiple instructional strategies that actively engage students and foster increased success rates for students.

The Art and Science of Teaching……………………………..……Jane Doty-Fischer

Enclosed Cafeteria

Knowing when and how to use research-based instructional strategies to enhance student learning can prove to be one of the most effective understandings a teacher has.

The Art and Science of Teaching, Sessions I and II, will be presented in two separate sessions on Wednesday and will focus on instructional strategies tied to this research.

Session I – 10:30 a.m. - Noon

Chapter 3, Action Step 1: Similarities and Difference

There are four basic types of tasks that focus on identifying similarities and differences: comparing, classifying, creating metaphors, and creating analogies. Teachers will have an opportunity to practice and apply the understandings taught during this workshop.

Session II – 1 – 2:30 p.m.

Chapter 5, Action Steps One through Nine

Keeping students engaged in classroom activities has become increasingly more difficult. This session will provide teachers with the action steps associated with positive student engagement as well as time to share with others how this might look in their own classrooms.

Differentiated Instruction: The Curriculum/Assessment/Instruction Connection….............Carol Ann Tomlinson

Auditorium

In a classroom that works for each student, there is a tight connection between instructional goals, use of assessment to drive instruction, and teacher actions based on assessment results. In fact, when teachers are clear about what students should know, understand, and be able to do, and when on-going assessment makes clear to the teacher where each student is in regard to those learning goals, differentiation is the next logical step. In this session, we'll examine connections that should exist between curriculum, assessment, and instruction by looking at classroom examples that demonstrate what it looks like when these three elements work together as they should to move each student toward academic success.

Songwriting and Six Trait Writing – It's A Hit! …….............…..Monte Selby

Media Center

Music is a powerful tool for organizing, transitioning, and ending lessons - plus it's offers a dynamic approach to teaching and practicing six trait writing.  This session is for teachers from all subject areas who want to actively engage upper elementary and middle school students of all writing abilities.

Come examine why the brain loves music. Enjoy songs Monte has written with students from across the United States . Then, using those songs, explore ready-to-use classroom materials that motivate students to write!  Selby's new book and CD titled, “That's What I Need” models each of the six traits through song lyrics, offers engaging classroom activities, and encourages upper elementary and middle school to write, perform, and publish their own lyrics. No musicianship required!

How the Brain Learns: Implications for Teaching, Leading, and Student Success …….......Pam Robbins

Room E-107

This session will explore how the brain learns and what the implications are for designing classroom and school level conditions that cause both adult and student learning to flourish. Participants will discover five “theaters” that the brain constantly watches. They will analyze how perception influences learning. Finally, they will have the opportunity to practice developing their own memory capacities! Handouts which can be used immediately will be provided.

Classroom Management and Organization for Diverse Learners .....Elise Trumbull and Catherine Daley

Room E-168

Just as a universal approach to instruction is not successful with all students, a universal approach to classroom management and organization often falls short of its goals. Textbooks on classroom management mention “culture” as something to be considered, but they rarely offer explicit ways of understanding and responding to cultural differences.

In this workshop, we show how a simple framework for understanding the cultures of home and school can be used to guide observation, inquiry, and innovation. The presenters will share strategies used by the teacher-researchers of the Bridging Cultures Project and facilitate discussion of how educators in other environments can identify and implement an approach to classroom management and organization that taps the cultural strengths of their students—while expanding students' ability to respond to a range of classroom expectations.

Making Meetings Work……….….…………………………………Ann M. Delehant

Room B-119

Part 1 – 10: 30 a.m. - Noon

Are you discouraged about how decisions are made and problems are solved? Want to get something done rather than hosting or participating in unproductive meetings? If you are answering yes to these questions, plan to attend this session. We will practice using practical, user-friendly tools to support a true collaborative process and to improve the quality of your meetings and your decision-making. Be prepared to participate actively, practice using new tools and have fun learning together.

Participants will:

• Become familiar with Making Meetings Work as a resource guide
• Introduce strategies and tools for writing agendas, preparing norms, writing minutes, and assessing progress
• Explore processes used to facilitate group work and make efficient use of time
• Practice using strategies to help groups work together efficiently

Making Meetings Work will be offered as a two part session. Both sessions will stand alone. You can take one or both sessions.

Communication and Conflict Resolution for Educators………..…..Robert Garrity

R oom B-103

Educators work with many people every hour of everyday. They must communicate, inform, learn, decide, and resolve things with students, parents, and colleagues throughout the day. Effective communication and conflict resolution are vital for educators to be confident, comfortable, capable, and successful in their work.

In this workshop, participants with learn about, discuss, and practice:

•  Knowledge, skills, and methods for effective communication, problem-solving, and conflict resolution

•  Building, maintaining, and restoring positive working relationships

•  Restorative Thinking and Restorative Practices

•  Conflict mediation for educators around cultural differences.

•  Responding to difficult situations.

•  Mediation in schools.

Bob Garrity works as a mediator, facilitator, and trainer. He has provided training and services for over forty school divisions, as well as federal, state, and local government agencies, businesses, and other organizations

A Call to Action: Helping Our Children to Learn Well, Eat Well, and Play Well ….......…Leslie Bonci

Choir Room

This interactive session will help participants to create an action plan to enable and empower students to improve their health and well-being. Creative strategies to encourage healthy food choices and eating habits as well as physical activity will be presented. We will discuss some of the obstacles and focus on what we CAN do rather than what we CANNOT. Children who are competent in culinary skills and physical activity will live well and stay well, and have the tools they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Your Classroom: Simple Ways to Create a Positive Learning Climate …Marilyn Peplau

Room E-134

This session will introduce Developmental Assets to participants and encourage them to foster all 8 asset categories in their day-to-day classroom interactions. Achievement motivation (asset #21) and school engagement (asset #22) are two building blocks of human development within the Commitment to Learning asset category that can be supported through active, brain-friendly, constructivist, and differentiated learning. Explore the educational role of “guide on the side” rather than “sage on stage” as we work intentionally to foster relationships for the common good. An asset-rich classroom will be modeled with many strategies that help transform the room from a “same old” directed learning to co-investigative and interdependent learning. Rather than just talking about relationships and asset-rich environments, this session give educational leaders an opportunity to create both! Engage and achieve!

Implementing a Response to Intervention Model in Your School. ……John McCook

Room E-165A

The session will address the steps necessary to successfully implement RTI in your school. Issues addressed will include support team process, universal screening, progress monitoring, interventions and data requirements. Data from the Knoxville implementation will be shared and questions and interactive participation is encouraged.

Gotta Move, Gotta Share: Practical Strategies for Maximizing Student Engagement ………………………………………………………………….. Ron Nash

Room E-167

Grab a pen, lace up your sneakers, and join Ron Nash for a highly interactive session that will provide teachers with more than a dozen practical strategies to get students engaged in their own learning. We'll look at ways to shift students from the role of passive observer to that of active learner. Ron will model techniques for getting kids of any grade level engaged and involved through the use of movement, structured conversations, and music (as a facilitator of process). You'll stand more than you'll sit in this fast-paced session in which Ron will model instructional tools such as paired sharing, paired verbal fluency, priming, distribution dipstick, question/clarify/question, and the gallery walk. If you are looking for ways to motivate your students and yourself in the process, make the commitment to join Ron and then get ready to rock.

Ensuring Excellence for ALL students: Engagement, Affirmation, Discipline, Inspiration, and Love ………….Ernest Morrell

Room E-119

In this talk Morrell will draw upon fifteen years of successful projects with K-12 youth to offer a model of empowering classroom practice. Morrell will begin by outlining principles of empowering teaching that emanate from educational research, critical pedagogy, community activism, and conversations with parents and community members about what they want for their children. Morrell then explains how these principles have translated into innovative practices with young people across the K-12 spectrum. He offers numerous examples that include the use of popular culture in the classroom and working with youth as researchers and advocates in their own communities. Morrell will talk about the impact of these projects on identity development, literacy and academic achievement, and the development of tolerance and civic responsibility. He will also discuss some challenges associated with this work as well as some possibilities for school reform, curricular innovation, and classroom practice.

How to Make Brains work SMARTER, not Harder………….Jean Blaydes-Madigan

Room B-101

Pre-K through 6th Brain research suggests that what makes us move is also what makes us think. Physical movement builds the framework for cognition and proper brain development. This interactive, energetic presentation provides a checklist of activities that will give the teacher insight that will help students work at peak performance for learning. It will also demonstrate how proper early brain development is linked to early motor development and how practice of motor movement enhances student performance.

Objectives:

1) The professionals will gain insight into the principles and stages of early brain and motor development that impacts learning.

2) The professionals will gain insight into individual strengths and how to fulfill the needs of each child through movement.

3) The professionals will gain insight into how language acquisition can be facilitated through movement and music.

4) The professionals will gain insight into how movement and action based learning anchors learning based on the brain research that supports the link of movement to learning.