Thursday Morning Workshops - $35
Thursday, October 30, 2008
8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
CW1101
Differentiation in Action in the Middle Grades
Carol Ann Tomlinson
Join us in looking inside the minds and classrooms of middle grades teachers who plan for differentiated instruction to address the varied learning needs of their students. Attendees will take a look at specific classroom examples in a range of subject areas that are differentiated to address student readiness, interest, and learning profile. Particular emphasis is placed on why teachers decide to differentiate, what constitutes quality differentiation, and how teachers think about managing a differentiated classroom. Participants will develop a stronger framework for planning effective differentiation and take away particular instructional and management strategies for use in their own classrooms.
CW1102
Help! I Wasn't Trained to Be a Reading Teacher
Sharon Faber
What are teachers to do when students get to middle school and are struggling readers? Participants will receive hands-on practice for ways reading can be taught through content. Effective strategies will be modeled and participants will leave with practical strategies and activities that can be used immediately in the classroom.
CW1103
Classroom Management Meets Super-Sized Teaching Strategies
David Sanders
Attendees are required to be ready to laugh and participate as they experience firsthand active learning and classroom management strategies that will motivate students. Attendees will leave motivated to apply these strategies first thing Monday morning!
CW1104
Promoting Student Achievement through Flexible Scheduling
Joel Brodsky
Would you like a schedule in which your staff could choose from varied options to meet individual student needs? Then join Joel in finding solutions for your scheduling challenges. Participants will look at some of the most successful models: staff selection, block scheduling, increased time for certain subjects or A.I.S. services, integration of special education, and sixth grade transition. In addition, attendees will learn specific techniques for using design strategies and today's software in creating your desired schedule.
CW1105
Network Literacy: Leveraging the Potential of a HyperConnected World
Will Richardson
Learning in the 21st century is all about networks and the connections we can make to other learners and teachers, both in our communities and around the globe. But being literate in this new learning environment requires more than knowing how to read and write. It requires us to edit, publish, collaborate, create, and connect in the process of building our own personal learning spaces. Participants will explore the growing importance of "network literacy" in our learning lives.
CW1106
Rebels with Applause: Brain Compatible Approaches for Motivating Reluctant Learners
Rick Smith
This lively and energetic session will provide teachers with dozens of practical, interactive, "brain-based" strategies they can use to help get kids of varying abilities and learning styles involved and motivated and help them retain more. Brain-compatible presentation skills will be modeled and addressed.
CW1107
Teams as Professional Learning Communities
Patricia Benson
Attendees will gain the necessary skills to function as a part of a professional learning community. Participants will engage in more than 15 strategies to support deep conversations around teaching and learning. Attendees will also learn how pausing and paraphrasing can help a team become a high-performing professional learning community.
CW1108
Talk, Move, and Mess—Tools for Active Learners
David Shepard
What do you do when faced with blank stares, nodding heads, and daydreaming minds? Exceptional educators know that all students must be actively engaged to reach their maximum potential. Research shows that students regularly need to talk, move, and mess in their classes. This session will outline and demonstrate 20+ strategies that differentiate instruction and engage more students. "I'll try that on Monday" ideas that help change passive sponges into lively learners will be the focus.
CW1109
Writing Across the Curriculum
Alice Greiner
If you are looking for practical, implement-them-tomorrow writing strategies to use in your content area classroom, this is the workshop for you. Attendees will learn and practice easy-to-teach methods for responding to text, note taking, summary writing, and paragraph writing to prove learning. No matter their content areas, attendees will walk away with strategies to use immediately.
CW1110
Advisory: the HEART and HUB of the Middle Level School
Kathy Hunt Ullock
Do you currently have an advisory program in your school? Does it need a big shot in the arm? Are you thinking of starting one in the near future? Did you have one and you lost it? If the answer to any of these questions is YES ... then this is the session for you. Advisory is the hardest program to start and it is the hardest program to keep going! Join Kathy for a look at the why, what, and how of an effective advisory program. Topics to be covered include: a brief history of the advisory program, reasons to have the program, the job description of an advisor, the structure of an effective program, a list of great advisory topics and activities, an extensive book list, and a comprehensive bibliography on the topic. Advisory can indeed be the heart and hub of your middle school but there are some definite do's and don'ts.