One-Day Pre-Conference Institutes

About Pre-Conference Institutes | One-Day Institutes | Two-Day Institutes | Three-Day Institutes

Our one-day Pre-Conference Institutes will be held March 24, 2017, in Anaheim, California and will run from 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Specific location information for each institute is included below.

Teaching with Poverty in Mind for Change Agents
Room 204C, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenter: Eric Jensen, Jensen Learning, Maunaloa, HI

This engaging, research-based session explores the core question, "Why do most Title I schools struggle with student achievement?" Learn how the brains of children raised in poverty are different, get powerful and practical teaching strategies for your staff, and discover what can stall the change process. Most of all, learn the insider tools, actions, and systems that high-performing schools use to enact change. This event is for those who are ready to propel the change process into high gear.

Materials Fee: $20.00 for Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind: Practical Strategies for Raising Achievement

Registration Code: PD17PC003

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Unleashing Student Potential through Purposeful Questioning and Discussion
Room 304D, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenters: Jackie Walsh, Walsh Consulting, Montgomery, AL; Beth Sattes, Enthused Learning, Charleston, WV

Thoughtful, disciplined discussions enable students to own their learning and deepen their knowledge. However, students don't arrive at school with the essential skills and dispositions for productive, collaborative interactions. Rather, teachers must intentionally cultivate these skills through well-designed fields of practice. During this interactive, hands-on institute, facilitators will spotlight core skills and engage you in experiential learning to demonstrate how teachers can build and develop these skills over time. You will view and reflect on videotaped classroom discussions, and the facilitators will model quality questioning strategies that support productive discussions by stimulating student thinking and engaging all learners in this process. Participants will

• Explore the relationship between skillful student discussions and student thinking and ownership of their learning.
• Assess three sets of skills (social, cognitive, and use-of-knowledge) requisite to develop student capacity for engaging in thoughtful and productive discussions.
• Consider the relationship between quality questioning and orchestrating a powerful discussion.
• Use the "cycle of discussion" to design a learning experience that enables students to construct deep meaning through collaborative thinking.

Materials Fee: $22.00 for Questioning for Classroom Discussion: Purposeful Speaking, Engaged Listening, Deep Thinking

Registration Code: PD17PC010

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Personalized Learning and Habits of Mind
Room 204A, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenters: Allison Zmuda, The Competent Classroom, Virginia Beach, VA; Bena Kallick, Institute for Habits of Mind, Westport, CT

The more challenging, complex, and uncertain the world becomes, the greater the need for education to transform how we engage learners. We suggest that students develop necessary dispositions for self-directed and continuous learning through personalized learning experiences that build intellectual and social character. In this institute, we first define and describe personalized learning as a simple and powerful frame that allows students to thoughtfully engage with inquiry, generate ideas, and develop challenging yet achievable performance opportunities. You will

• Explore why personalized learning is important for student engagement and learning.
• Understand how students can become self-directed when personalizing learning is connected with habits of mind.
• Identify key elements for personalizing learning.
• Learn how to build a culture for personalizing learning in the classroom, school, and district.

We address the question of adaptive change and focus on ways that teachers and administrators can make the transition from more traditional models to personalized curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Explore the roads people are taking to become a truly learner-centered system, examine curricular and cocurricular examples, and hear suggestions for overcoming roadblocks others have faced on this journey.

Materials Fee: $20.00 for Students at the Center: Personalized Learning with Habits of Mind

Registration Code: PD17PC011

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Digital Leadership and Learning
Room 209AB, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenter: Eric Sheninger, ICLE, Rexford, NY

The educational landscape is changing as a result of continuous advances in technology and a changing learner. As a result, educational leaders must recognize this shift, anticipate needed changes, and lead by example to meet the diverse needs of key stakeholders in the 21st century. Leaders must develop a vision to create a culture focused on rigor, relevance, and relationships that is enhanced by technology.

Learn how to harness the power of today's digital tools and social media to improve communications, enhance public relations with parents and the community, establish a brand presence, increase student engagement, transform learning spaces to reflect the real-world environments students will experience, discover opportunity, and grow professionally like never before.

Materials Fee: N/A

Registration Code: PD17PC012

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The Highly Effective Teacher: 7 Classroom-Tested Practices That Foster Student Success
Room 303D, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenter: Jeff C. Marshall, Clemson University, Clemson, SC

We all desire to be highly effective teachers, yet various controllable obstacles frequently stymie success. This institute will introduce you to seven research-based, classroom-tested practices tied to student success that are within every teacher's control. The presenter will share a descriptive rubric to guide the development of individuals, teams, and schools. See examples of what proficiency in each practice looks like (and doesn't look like). Identify your performance level in each of the seven practices; learn how to distinguish the differences among the levels; and use the steps to begin to transform teaching so that all K–12 students can be successful.

Participants will learn how to

• Determine the strengths and challenges surrounding the instructional practices that influence student success.
• Create scaffolds and supports that transform your instructional effectiveness.
• Create and implement an action plan to move toward the identified targets.

Come see evidence and examples while learning how to make tomorrow distinctly better, next month more successful, and the semester more effective than ever before.

Materials Fee: $20.00 for The Highly Effective Teacher: 7 Classroom-Tested Practices that Foster Student Success

Registration Code: PD17PC013

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The Tech-Savvy Administrator
Room 201AB, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenter: Steven Anderson, Web20Classroom, Winston-Salem, NC

Being a digital leader today is more important than ever. From effectively using technology to keep in touch with your school community to creating innovative ways of engaging with staff, the role of the digital leader is a crucial one. Join learning evangelist Steven Anderson in examining some easy ways to move from leader Luddite to digital expert. Participants will explore the importance of digital leadership and how it affects teacher understanding of technology. Learn how to embrace digital technologies into your workflow and build a toolkit of effective and easy-to-use digital aids for communications, collaboration, and productivity.

Materials Fee: $10.00 for The Tech-Savvy Administrator: How do I use technology to be a better school leader? (ASCD Arias)

Registration Code: PD17PC014

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Making Teachers Better, Not Bitter: Balancing Evaluation, Supervision, and Reflection
Room 303B, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenter: Tony Frontier, Cardinal Stritch University, Cedarburg, WI

How can we build systems of supervision that focus on developing teacher expertise rather than merely measuring quality? How do we empower teachers as the active users of the frameworks for effective practice? This institute will provide a comprehensive roadmap to help schools and districts move beyond judgment as the driving force behind systems of teacher evaluation and instead empower teachers as central change agents. Teachers can learn to actively influence each step of the evaluation process as their build internal capacity to become reflective practitioners. Teachers, coaches, supervisors, principals, and central office staff will learn dozens of practical tools and protocols.

Materials Fee: $24.00 for Making Teachers Better, Not Bitter: Balancing Evaluation, Supervision, and Reflection

Registration Code: PD17PC015

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The Motivated Brain: Strategies to Improve Student Attention and Engagement
Room 304C, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenter: Martha Kaufeldt, Begin With the Brain, Scotts Valley, CA

What really motivates students to learn? What gets and keeps them interested in pursuing knowledge and understanding? Recent neuroscientific findings have uncovered the source of our motivation to learn or, as neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp terms it, the drive to seek. Students' brains are programmed to "seek and find," and teachers can enhance this intrinsic need by engaging the brain's seeking system.

This fascinating session will explain the underlying neurobiology of the seeking system and examine the three levels of the framework for motivation: (1) exploratory investigations, (2) making connections, and (3) imagination and synthesis. Join Martha Kaufeldt, educator and coauthor of the 2015 ASCD book The Motivated Brain, and learn key brain-friendly strategies for improving student motivation, knowledge acquisition, retention, and academic success. We will model strategies for increasing curiosity, play, firsthand experiences, and social interactions and suggest ways to provide student choice within a rigorous standards-based curriculum. Leave the day motivated to implement dozens of practical strategies. This institute is appropriate for all grade levels.

Materials Fee: $19.00 for The Motivated Brain: Improving Student Attention, Engagement, and Perseverance

Registration Code: PD17PC016

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Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn
Room 210D, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenter: Mike Anderson, Mike Anderson Consulting, LLC, Durham, NH

Offering students choices about their learning is one of the most powerful tools for boosting their intrinsic motivation and helping them learn to self-differentiate their learning. It's not enough, however, to simply give students more choices. We must create choices that support great learning in daily content and create the conditions necessary for students to challenge themselves through choice. We must also teach students how to make effective decisions. Additionally, choice should be used throughout the day and across all curricular areas with all students—not relegated to "genius hour" periods or reserved for students who work quickly or are labeled as gifted and talented. In fact, the effective use of choice can help educators differentiate learning and help students find passion for daily work, making add-on or pull-out programs less needed. In this active and interactive day-long institute, educators will

• Explore foundational ideas about the benefits of choice.
• Learn strategies for creating good choices and helping students choose well.
• Experience choice as an adult learner.
• Gain practical tools and resources to boost motivation and teach self-differentiation through choice.

Materials Fee: $20.00 for Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn: The Key to Student Motivation and Achievement

Registration Code: PD17PC018

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Strategies and Assessments to Foster Student Understanding of Complex Text—CANCELED

Presenter: Kathy Glass, Glass Educational Consulting, Woodside, CA

This interactive institute, ideal for educators from grades 3–12 across the content areas, aims to equip educators with the necessary tools for teaching students to effectively tackle rigorous text across content areas. Presenter Kathy Glass will provide an inventory of sound pedagogy for complex text instruction. Initially, she will share a lesson sequence with key components to show how to plan curriculum and orchestrate meaningful instruction. You will learn a variety of concrete, differentiated instructional strategies that encourage active student engagement in reading complex text. You will also explore practical assessments that involve writing in different formats to guide students toward deeper meaning and demonstrate comprehension as they grapple with challenging material. Additionally, the presenter will suggest resources to support lesson design and provide examples of traditional and nontraditional complex text.

Materials Fee: $22.00 for Complex Text Decoded: How to Design Lessons and Use Strategies That Target Authentic Text

Registration Code: PD17PC019

This institute has been canceled.

Inclusion Do's, Don'ts, and Do Betters
Room 203A, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenters: Toby Karten, Tamka Education, LLC, Wickatunk, NJ; Tobie Franklin, The Ideal School of Manhattan, New York, NY

Explore the cross-curricular instructional strategies that connect to the characteristics and struggles that students with specific disabilities often encounter in inclusive classrooms. All students can learn; however, all students process things differently. This institute covers inclusive practices for students with specific learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, and intellectual, behavioral, emotional, social, communicative, sensory, and physical differences. Teachers' anxieties and apprehensions are replaced with professional development, tangible mindsets, and the responsive inclusive interventions that promote positive attitudes, evidence-based practice, specially designed instruction (SDI), and multitiered systems of collaborative support. A team of school staff, family, and students will outline individually based SDI, and we will explore how the collaborative roles of staff, families, and students promote ongoing learner successes.

Materials Fee: $10.00 for Inclusion Do's, Dont's, and Do Betters (Quick Reference Guide)

Registration Code: PD17PC020

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Whole Child Initiative: Sustainable Transformation to Strengthen the Future
Room 304B, Anaheim Convention Center

Presenter: Gregory Benner, University of Washington, Tacoma, WA

Whole children, those who are academically successful with positive mental well-being and social health, achieve higher graduation rates, contribute to the community, and lead happy, productive lives. By transforming the classroom to focus on the whole child, we are strengthening the present and investing in the future of our community. It takes a village to raise a whole child, and, in turn, they raise the village. When students know what to expect and what is expected of them, and when they have confidence that they will be treated with respect, they perform better. This institute spotlights the whole child framework for improved student outcomes. Everywhere children go, they hear and see a consistent message about value, worth, and success. Over time, children emerge well-rounded, academically and socially successful, and developmentally strong. Through studying the whole child framework, participants will

• Be able to demonstrate a conceptual framework of sustainable community transformation.
• Increase their knowledge of effective strategies to reach out and connect with community and family partners to support students even when they aren't in school.
• Determine steps to move their communities forward in supporting youth academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally to increase educational outcomes and quality of life.

Materials Fee: N/A

Registration Code: PD17PC023

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Leadership Essentials for Educators
Room 303C, Anaheim Convention Center

 

Presenters: Carmella S. Franco; Darline P. Robles; Kathy Hurley; and Ann McMullan

Through the real-life stories of five recognized education leaders, participants will come to understand both the challenges and opportunities facing leaders in today’s education environment. Participants will learn from the presenters in a cooperative learning format as well as through collaborative activities and exchanges with each other.

The institute begins with an interactive study based on the work of Carmella S. Franco, Maria G. Ott, and Darline P. Robles on cultural proficiency as an integral component of school leadership. Participants will come away with an understanding of the importance that culture plays in learning, teaching, and especially in leadership to ensure that education reflects the cultural perspectives, faces, and languages of all stakeholders.

The institute's focus continues with an examination of the effect of diversity on the responsibilities of any school leader. Participants will learn how to overcome barriers associated with all types of diversity to be able to clear the way for success. They will also apply lessons learned by completing a personal leadership assessment.

In the closing segment, participants will examine essential leadership skills that apply to all leaders, regardless of age or leadership role.

All institute participants will receive complimentary copies of the following three books:

• A Culturally Proficient Society Begins in School: Leadership for Equity, by Carmella S. Franco, Maria G. Ott, and Darline P. Robles
• Real Women, Real Leaders, by Kathy Hurley and Priscilla Shumway
• Life Lessons in Leadership: The Way of the Wallaby, by Ann McMullan and Michael Barrett

Materials Fee: N/A

Registration Code: PD17PC029

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