High School Professional Development, Conference Sessions and Keynotes

KEYNOTES

I have been the keynote speaker at many state and district educational conferences.  I like to use humor and real stories about ordinary people that do extraordinary things to motivate educators.  I like to call my keynote "Impact Players" and I can customize the keynote to particular situations. 

Staff Development and Conference Sessions

1.   DIFFERENTIATED LEADERSHIP-LEADERSHIP FOR THE WHOLE SCHOOL 

This Session is where Practical meets Brain-Based in a synthesis of strategies designed to meet the needs of Leadership Teams.  Leadership is a Contact Sport!  Based on the book Differentiated Leadership, this session will demonstrate how to make every contact in your system count.  This session is for anyone interested in Leadership within schools.  Participants will learn about interactive, brain-based management systems which enable and require the types of interactions that are positive and productive, while disabling the interactions that are negative and counter-productive.  Participants will leave this training with practical strategies designed to dramatically reduce discipline referrals, develop meaningful curriculums that motivate teachers and students, create flexible schedules, identify and solve group issues, facilitate change, create motivating staff meetings, and much more.

Note:  Leading change in schools has been compared to trying to change the tires on a car while it's moving. To me it is more like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree!  Many good administrators have been undone by bad systems within their buildings.  In this session we will look at how to use Brain-Based strategies to facilitate change in schools, simplify your life and enhance your school.  We will look at how to assess your systems, how to get ownership with your staff, and how to keep things simple.  Whatever your leadership role, strategies will be shared to help the leaders become a more effective Leadership Team.

Note:  In workshop and seminar settings, I ask that schools and/or districts bring their Leadership Teams.  Leadership Teams could include Administrators, Team Leaders, Teacher Leaders, Department/Curriculum Leaders, Counselors, Committee Chairs, School Improvement Committee Members, District Level Personnel and anyone else charged with, or interested in, leadership responsibilities all of whom will benefit from this session.  Past participants have said this is the most practical session on leadership they have ever attended.  Participants will leave with System Models, Forms and Processes that will help define issues and simplify the change process.  What I do is demonstrate how to get your staff invested in each other's success.  When teachers are truly invested in each other's curriculum development, classroom instruction, discipline and so on, progress is inevitable.

Leadership Teams should bring several sample discipline referrals and the curriculum outlines for at least one grade level to get the most out of this workshop.  When visiting schools, I help the school apply the steps to the issues that school is facing.  We look at building ownership by getting the staff invested and clearly laying out a game plan to implement change whether it is putting in new practices or adapting and modifying current practices.  In a conference format with less time, we will look at some generic issues to demonstrate how practical and easy we break down the steps for leaders.

2.   GO TEAM!!  THE PERSONAL TRAINER FOR ACADEMIES AND TEAMS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL

Session Descriptor:

Casey Stengel said, "Gettin' good players is easy. Gettin' them to play good together is the hard part."   Organizing freshmen into “Academies” or “Small Communities for Learning” is only the beginning.  In this interactive session the components of effective academies will be shared.  We will look at practical strategies  for student management, curriculum development, administrative and guidance participation and support, time management, student support systems, great parent conferences, team building, and effective team meetings.  Many of the schools I have worked with have reduced their discipline referral rate by well over 50% using the strategies I share in this session.  Participants will leave with ideas for immediate use that will have a positive impact on student performance and make it much easier to ensure that No Child Is Left Behind.

Click here to see Customized Training based on this Session and Book

Note:  Many of the high schools I have worked with have cut their discipline referral rate by well over half by working together to be more pro-active with student management issues.  In this session I show teachers in the Small Communities how to work with their administrators and counselors in much more productive ways. 

Many of the things we look at are simple management techniques for getting things done more quickly and efficiently.  Some of the things I help teams deal with come under the category of what I like to call "administrivia".  We look at how to more effectively work with our special needs teachers.  We also look at how to run much more productive Parent conferences and get the most out of the time with the parents. Everything I do with teams is designed to have a positive impact on student performance. 

 3.  FIRE UP FOR LEARNING!  Differentiated Instruction to motivate and engage all of the learners in your class!

Click here for Information Regarding the Book

Session Descriptor:

Learn how to FIRE UP the high school learner and supercharge the learning experience in your classroom!  Differentiated instruction means finding ways to reach every student in your classroom.  In this session you will learn creative instructional techniques and assessment options as well as great activities that can be used in any content area to motivate and challenge the total class.  Based on the book “Fire Up For Learning!” you will leave with ideas to motivate your students, and “Fire Up” your classroom.

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Note:  It can be especially difficult to motivate and teach every student in a classroom with widely varying abilities.  We do not want to teach over any of our students and we absolutely cannot water down our curriculum to teach to the lower levels.  Closing the achievement gap means that we need to keep all of our students motivated.  In this session I model activities for teachers to demonstrate how to actively engage every student in their classrooms regardless of the skill levels involved.

This session can be a one day to a multiple day workshop with teachers and departments having the opportunities to develop lessons after the activities and lessons that are modeled for them.  This session is also a very popular concurrent session for conferences.  We do not get to do as many activities, but it is always very motivating for the teachers that participate.

4.    CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT WITH THE BRAIN IN MIND!

Session Descriptor:

In this session we will demonstrate an easy way for departments to ensure that their curriculums are aligned with the state standards.  Each department will learn how to work more efficiently and effectively.  We want to get the departments invested in each other's curriculums so we will show participants an easy way to bring together the many content areas of the high school curricula to develop an interdisciplinary approach to instruction.  As curriculums are aligned and standards are shared between curriculum areas you will see how to develop standards-based learning connections.  You will experience collaboration between departments as we chart the curriculums and begin to develop shared projects and assessments, which will make teaching and learning more real, relevant, challenging and motivating.  When you leave this session you will know how to make sure your curriculums are developed to maximize student performance on state tests to meet the requirements and ensure no child left behind.

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Note:  The process I share in this session is also described in my Leadership and Teaming books mentioned above and just below.  Every time I do this session participants tell me this is the most practical session they have ever attended.  This session demonstrates an easy way to enhance curriculum development based communication and gets teachers working together in ways that had been impossible before.  If you want to promote collaboration between departments, or you want to get into Project-Based Learning, or you want to start a hugely successful community partnership program then this session will fit your needs.

Interdisciplinary Instruction has often been associated with "Themes" or "Teams" and in this session you will see that you do not have to have either of those to have a very interdisciplinary approach to instruction.  In this session you also see that I do not ask teachers to ever change What they are teaching or When they are teaching it.  This is a system that helps teachers find naturally occurring learning connections with other subjects and share things like worksheets, overheads, and assessment items.  Much of the work done by students gets looked at by multiple teachers, and credit is given in multiple areas.  By cross-referencing the topics we teach with the skills needed from other areas, we reinforce skills between content areas, we motivate our students, we close achievement gaps, and we raise state test scores.

5. "THE BEST TEACHERS ON THE BLOCK"

Session Descriptor:

So, now that you have those longer periods in the block, what are you going to do with them? You have certain weapons in your teaching arsenal, but 90-110 minutes is a long time to be with one group of students. John Wooden said, "Failure to prepare is preparing to fail." So how do we prepare to take advantage of the block time to meet the wide variety of individual needs of our students? The goal of this session is to explore a variety of teaching models, strategies, and resources for the Extended Learning Time (ELT) of the Block. Learn how to actively involve your students and become the Best Teacher on the Block.

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Note:  Many schools report problems when they move to block schedules such as teachers not covering as much material, classroom management issues due to the longer periods, and student apathy in lecture type classes.  THE SCHEDULE IS NOT THE PROBLEM!  When teachers are properly trained and given the planning time (part of the training should be how to teach students in the extended learning time, and part of the training should be how to plan to teach students in extended learning time) block schedules can have a tremendous impact on student performance.

In this session I like to model lessons designed for block schedules and help teachers develop lessons.  This will require some departmental work on curriculum realignment and individual teacher planning to more actively engage the students in the lessons.  Lecture only will not work in extended periods of time, so I demonstrate how to utilize multiple instructional strategies and how to make the most of teaching in the block.

6. COMPASS- -Meaningful Community Involvement

Session Descriptor:

The way to get the community and families reengaged in the educational system is to make them a part of the curriculum. COMPASS (Community Partnerships Assuring Student Success) is an innovative program, which is bringing the community, through its businesses and organizations, into the high school by linking them with teachers and departments, and developing projects in a "community-based" curriculum.

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Note:  This session is built into the Curriculum Development- -With the Brain in Mind session (#5) listed above.  We use the COW's that we build in that session to get the business community and parents actively involved with our curriculums.  We want to get their support in the development of our curriculums and in the delivery of our lessons.  The trick is to create a system that enables communication between our teachers and our business community.  We want the business community to have an understanding of what skills are being taught in classes and then give them several ways and opportunities to support our planning and teaching. 

The need for getting the business community meaningfully involved is critical, and the impact a program like COMPASS can have on your school cannot be overstated.

7.  THE STUDENT ASSISTANCE PERIOD; aka, ADVOCACY / ADVISORY FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL

Learn about Brain-Based Skills to help students be successful in your school!

Session Descriptor:

The purpose of this session is to demonstrate how “Advocacy Programs”, often called “Advisory”, can supplement and promote the cognitive development of the high school learner.  This session will focus on how to use Advocacy as a "Student Assistance Period" to develop the student skills critical for cognitive development.  Advocacy is about helping each student become the very best student he or she can be.  Advocacy is a very skill-based program, so there will be no “touchy-feely” in this session.  Participants will also see how to use this time to create iSAPs - Individual Student Assistance Plans for every student in the school.  You will learn how to develop an effective high school Advocacy Program, and how to be an effective Advisor.  Imagine teaching students how to become better students and creating an owner's manual for student success for every student.                                                                                                                              _________________________________________________________________________

Note:  I prefer to call this time the "Student Assistance Period" because we assist the students in developing the "Student Skills" required to successful in the high school.  My session and the programs I promote are very skill-based.  In this session we identify the skills critical for students to be successful in their particular school setting.  Then I focus on activities that can be used to develop, practice and master these Student Skills.  We tend to teach Student Skills by consequence in education and not by direct instruction.  Advisory gives schools the time and place for the instruction and practice of Student Skills.

When teachers understand the Purpose of Advisory is to help students develop Student Skills, and we identify what those specific skills are, and then give them the materials and training to teach those skills, Advisory Programs can have a huge positive impact on the academic performance of the students, and the climate of the school.

8.iSAPs Individual Student Assistance Plans - - Developing Individual Student Assistance Plans for Every Student in the School

    Session Descriptor:

     Imagine having easy to use customized Individual Student Assistance Plans for every student that are proactive in diagnosing student issues and providing interventions when needed.  Individual Student Assistance Plans (iSAP’s) are interactive individual plans designed to provide customized assistance for success for each individual student in your school.  At the core of the student assistance plan is the Student Support Team (SST) which will have regular Student Progress Reviews.  In high schools with teams and/or academies, each team or academy will learn how to become a Student Support Team in this session.  Participants will learn how to run Student Progress Review Meetings and how to assess both cognitive and affective skill areas for each student.  Participants will learn how to identify the academic, social, behavioral, emotional and personal needs of each student, as well as learn about the interventions available.  Student goals and the continual assessment of student progress will guide the iSAP process and the Student Support Team’s efforts.  In this session I demonstrate how to use systems already in place to create and maintain iSAPs and keep them teacher friendly.    The iSAP becomes the owner's manual to maximize every student's performance!

9. INCLUSION CONFUSION

Session Descriptor:

Inclusion. No other term in education seems to create so much confusion. This session looks at what inclusion is -- and isn't. In this session, we will look at what it means to co-teach and how to be successful with inclusion.  A lesson for the inclusion classroom will be shared along with strategies for planning lessons for the inclusion classroom.

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Note:  In this session we look at the advantages of regular education and special needs teachers co-teaching in the same classroom.  We also look at the difficulties that can occur and how to avoid them.  I share and model co-taught lessons and how to plan together for a successful co-teaching experience.  The co-planning time is usually very limited for the teachers that will be teaching together, and often one special needs teacher will be asked to plan and co-teach with more than one regular education teacher.  I have a simplified process and planning form for teachers to use to make the most of their limited planning time.

10. "DIFFERENTIATE THIS!"

      Session Descriptor:

      Experience differentiated instruction and take away examples for immediate use in your classroom!  In this session we will demonstrate how to effectively challenge every learner in your classroom regardless of skill level.  You will leave this session with a clear idea of how to design and implement a differentiated lesson so that you will not have to ever teach above or below any of your students.  This session will take the mystery out of differentiated instruction and assessment by showing participants easy, practical ways to plan lessons and by giving them activities to take back to help them jump start their classes.

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Note:  Differentiated Instruction simply means find ways to teach them all.  It can be especially difficult to motivate and teach every student in a classroom with widely varying abilities.  We do not want to teach over any of our students and we absolutely cannot water down our curriculum to teach to the lower levels.  Closing the achievement gap means that we need to keep all of our students motivated.  In this session I model activities for teachers to demonstrate how to actively engage every student in their classrooms regardless of the skill levels involved.

This session can be a one day to a multiple day workshop with teachers and departments having the opportunities to develop lessons after the activities and lessons that are modeled for them.  This session is also a very popular concurrent session for conferences.  We do not get to do as many activities, but it is always very motivating for the teachers that participate.

NOTE:  This session and number 3. "Fire Up for Learning" are essentially the same.

11.  "GRIN AND BEAR IT"

Session Descriptor:

Did Daniel Boone really grin down a bear? Who knows, but you can always get further with a grin than a growl. This session will present how to build and maintain a positive school climate. Starting with good communication, many ideas and strategies will be presented to make your school a positive, productive, and FUN place to work and learn.

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Feel free to contact me at gator@edugator.com or diffleadership@prodigy.net

PLEASE NOTE: Sessions may be combined or customized to suit individual needs.  Most sessions can also be altered to fit any time slot from one hour (conferences or planning periods), to multiple days (in-service days or retreats).

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Revised 03/01/10