All Sessions   Saturday   Sunday   Monday
1102T     Professional Learning Networks Using Web 2.0 Tools

Session Available Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:00 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Meg Ormiston, Burr Ridge, IL

Description: Exemplary professional development extends far beyond face-to-face sessions. Learn how to continue the conversation of change by creating personal learning networks supported by Web 2.0 tools. The collection of such tools is staggering, but you can learn to harness them to continue professional discussions. You no longer have to be a techie to make use of blogs, social networks, videos, podcasts, and many more features.

Levels: All Levels   85% Interactive
1113T     Why All Teachers Must Learn How to Teach Online

Session Available Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Susan Patrick, North American Council for Online Learning, Vienna, VA; Tatum Murphy, Florida Connections Academy, Orlando; Mickey Revenaugh, Connections Academy, Baltimore, MD

Description: Everyone agrees that there is an urgent need to provide teachers with deliberate and meaningful technology training focused on 21st century skills and current uses of technology--yet old, piecemeal paradigms of technology training abound. So what's the new paradigm for technology professional development? This session's participants will learn from expert leaders in the field of professional development and virtual learning why all teachers should have the experiences of both teaching and learning online.

Levels: PreK-12   30% Interactive
1117T     Supervising the Art and Science of Teaching: A New Approach

Session Available Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Robert Marzano, Marzano & Associates, Centennial, CO

Description: Integrating the work described in three previous books (Classroom Instruction That Works, Classroom Management That Works, and What Works in Schools), The Art and Science of Teaching provides a comprehensive framework for teaching by outlining 10 critical areas of instructional practice and specific strategies for each area. This session will address how administrators might supervise the art and science of teaching in a way that keeps the focus of attention on student learning (as opposed to use of specific instructional strategies) and allows individual teachers flexibility and creativity in their teaching practices. The session will also provide a new framework for lesson observation and lesson design that breaks lessons into basic segments, each with its own expectations regarding teacher behavior.

Levels: All Levels   70% Interactive
1118T     Supporting New Principals: Leadership Strategies to Achieve Excellence

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Harvey Alvy, Eastern Washington University, Cheney; Pam Robbins, Mt. Crawford, VA

Description: New principals who journey beyond traditional boundaries use powerful strategies to foster student and teacher success. This interactive session, designed to highlight building deep understanding of the Educational Leadership Policy Standards, will showcase promising practices, stories, and behaviors linked to newcomer success. Topics will include ethical leadership, sustaining a culture of learning, and promoting instructional and curriculum excellence. Excerpts from The New Principal's Fieldbook, coauthored by the presenters, will be shared. Handouts will be provided.

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
1123T     The RTI Data Dilemma: Understanding and Managing Critical Assessment Information

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Robert Howell, Colorado Springs School District 11; Lindy Crawford, College of Education, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; Sandra Patton, Colorado Springs School District 11, Manitou Springs

Description: Response to Intervention (RTI) success is predicated on timely access to a variety of assessment data: screenings and benchmarks to identify at-risk students, prescriptive and diagnostic assessments for students not attaining proficiency, progress-monitoring tools to ascertain whether interventions are working, and outcome assessments to measure student progress against grade-level expectations. But once you have the data, then what? In this session, practitioners will discuss methods for analyzing root causes, proven assessment strategies, and data systems for designing, delivering, managing, and accessing critical information.

Levels: All Levels   30% Interactive
1125T     Helping Secondary English Language Learners Develop Academic Language

Session Available Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): David Freeman and Yvonne Freeman, University of Texas at Brownsville

Description: Secondary-level English language learners, especially students with limited formal schooling and long-term English language learners, struggle with academic language. Using PowerPoint pictures of classrooms and student work, this session's presenters will explain and give examples of academic language at the text, sentence, and word levels. They will also share creative classroom activities that teachers have used to help English language learners develop academic language.

Levels: ESOL   20% Interactive
1127T     Pushing the Effects of Poverty Out of the Classroom

SESSION IS FULL Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Janet Hinds, Linden Elementary School, Columbus, OH

Description: Students who are impoverished arrive at school unmotivated and distracted. Developing their ability to become intrinsically motivated or to increase behaviors that boost their chances of having incremental successes is a daunting but not impossible task. During this session, participants will see video clips of engaged students and teachers who explain practices that they have used to push the effects of poverty out of their classrooms. Lesson outlines will be provided.

Levels: Elementary   40% Interactive
1128T     Funding Your Dreams: Writing Grants to Ensure Learner Success

Session Available Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Sandra Koczwara and Kathleen Airhart, Putnam County Schools, Cookeville, TN

Description: While school districts across the nation are cutting back or eliminating programs due to budget constraints, Putnam County (Tennessee) continues to enhance the professional learning community, having received more than $15 million in grant funds. Through engaging discussions and handouts, participants will discover how their districts can search out and write grants. Participants will walk away with strategies to replicate Putnam County's success.

Levels: All Levels   20% Interactive
1130T     African American Males in Crisis: Literacy Strategies and Academic Language

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Tonia Clare-Jones, Cumberland County Schools, Fayetteville, NC; Marlene Jenkins, Fayetteville, NC

Description: This session's participants will explore reading and writing challenges plaguing African American males, as well as innovative strategies to combat these challenges. The session will feature examination of student self-image and efficacy, culturally relevant teaching of resiliency novels, and discussion of the connection between academic language and high academic achievement. The presenters will demonstrate hands-on reading, comprehension, writing, and vocabulary strategies. They will also discuss literacy strategies that immediately affect reading and writing achievement for African American males in crisis.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   50% Interactive
1137T     Strategies for Differentiating in the Content Areas

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Troy Strayer and Beverly Strayer, Red Lion Area School District, PA

Description: All teachers are faced with the diverse needs of learners. Toolboxes must be filled with strategies to meet each and every one of those needs. This session will provide ready-to-use strategies to help students navigate text, learn vocabulary, and demonstrate mastery of content-area text and information. Participants will be fully involved throughout the session, creating strategies and participating in each activity modeled. Come join the fun!

Levels: Middle and Secondary   85% Interactive
1165T     Using Summer to Address and Support the Whole Child

Session Available Sat March 14 at 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Erin Ulery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Description: Summer is an opportunity to engage children in a different way, to see them as whole children, and to concentrate on both academics and youth development. Summer is an opportunity for children to learn and gain background knowledge through different experiences. Through an interactive presentation, networking, and reflection, this session's participants will understand the need for summer learning and how it can address the needs of the whole child.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
1168T     Lessons Learned in District Implementation of UbD in Science

Session Available Sat March 14 at 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Margaret Hayden, Pia Carswell, and Madge Nanney, Duval County Public Schools, Jacksonville, FL

Description: Come find out how a large urban district prepares science teachers to be quality designers of unit plans and critical consumers of resource materials. Be immersed in the process of developing ways to work with teachers to uncover what is critical content and the best ways to present standards to students, using National Science Foundation<\#208>developed curricula as a resource. Leave with resources and a clear plan based on the findings of the presenters' partnership in a national research study.

Levels: Secondary   50% Interactive
1169T     Connecting Students to Literacy Through the Visual Arts

SESSION IS FULL Sat March 14 at 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.0 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Heather Fountain, Kutztown University, PA

Description: If literacy is power, what happens to students with barriers that keep them from accessing literacy? Many students struggle to access literacy skills through traditional methods. In this session, participants will explore visual strategies for engaging learners in reading and writing. The presenters will provide practical examples and resources to assist teachers in choosing artwork and design lessons that engage learners. A background knowledge of art is not needed for participation in this session.

Levels: PreK-12   40% Interactive
1170T     Students as Action Researchers: A New Model for Inquiry

Session Available Sat March 14 at 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Barbara Smith, Sheree North, and Marco Zimbalatti, Sterling Hall School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Description: Wonder. Plan. Seek. Analyze. Defend. These actions define the SHARK Program (Sterling Has Action Research Kids). This presentation will reveal how students in grades 3, 4, and 5 synthesize data from books, the Web, and interview transcription sources, working on a customized program that guides their inquiry journey. Action research on this program has been conducted with data generated from students, teachers, and parents over a three-year period.

Levels: Elementary   40% Interactive
1202T     A Superintendent's Journey into the World of Web 2.0

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Dennis Richards, Falmouth Public Schools, MA

Description: The presenter's July 2007 introduction to the Internet world where collaborating, contributing, and creating are the norm taught him much about the people, platforms, and pedagogy of the online world. What are Ustream, Twitter, YouTube, Elluminate, Diigo, Mind42, Jing, Google Docs, and TED? What do they have to do with learning? With our capacity to learn, to share, to invent? Come join the conversation as the presenter tells stories of his journey.

Levels: PreK-12   40% Interactive
1204T     Literacy Leadership to Improve Student Achievement

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Sue Presler and Rachel Billmeyer, Rachel and Associates, Omaha, NE

Description: Everyone in your organization is under pressure to maximize students' literacy achievement. This session will provide you with the leadership strategies and practices you need to rise to this challenge. Learn how to improve literacy and content learning for students by combining the research on leadership and literacy. Explore supportive examples of literacy leadership and research that supports the development of strategic readers.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
1206T     Understanding Middle School: Listening to the Voices of Young Adolescents

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Nancy Doda, Teacher to Teacher, Springfield, VA

Description: How do you define "best middle schooling"? When middle school students were asked, “What do you think every middle school teacher should know about middle school students?” their answers were honest, insightful, humorous, and instructive. Their responses were read, analyzed, and categorized in an attempt to find common themes. From their comments about teaching styles, school environment, homework, teacher-student interactions, appropriate curriculum, and more, educators can begin to better understand these students and what would make middle school more meaningful to them. Join the presenter for a lively discussion and leave with some helpful wisdom to guide your teaching and middle school reform.

Levels: Middle or Junior High   65% Interactive
1207T     Teaching Strategies That Reach Challenging Students

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Spence Rogers, Peak Learning Systems, Evergreen, CO; Joanne Whitley, Garinger High School, Charlotte, NC

Description: Come explore and experience dozens of effective strategies and critical techniques for succeeding with challenging students who typically fall through the cracks. Examine numerous practices that teachers from tiny rural schools and large urban schools are using to successfully engage more students than ever before. Learn tools that reduce gaps and reach challenging students, whether rich, poor, rural, urban, or suburban. Receive a handout with many research-supported strategies and techniques.

Levels: All Levels   40% Interactive
1208T     Writing for Understanding: A Matter of Equity

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Joanna Hawkins, Vermont Writing Collaborative, South Strafford; Eloise Ginty, Vermont Writing Collaborative, Norwich; Karen Kurzman, Vermont Writing Collaborative, Derby Line

Description: Writing for Understanding helps students write effectively so they have the tools and habits to construct meaning from information, text, and experience. This session will closely examine the genre of response to text, a type of understanding and writing essential for all students at every grade level. Participants will analyze examples of K<\#208>8 student work, discussing how teachers helped their students construct deep understanding of text through writing. Participants will receive examples of specific strategies successfully used to help all students--struggling and fluent writers alike--write clearly and cogently.

Levels: All Levels   75% Interactive
1209T     Eight Ways to Help You and Your Students Remember

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Marilee Sprenger, Aurora University, Peoria, IL

Description: Train their brains and change their lives! If you remember to come to this workshop, you’ll leave with at least eight strategies to improve memory. Brain rules and brain tools will be shared, modeled, and practiced so you can use them immediately. Since educators change students' brains every day, learn to wire them for success. Impress your students with your ability to build their memory powers. Handouts will be provided.

Levels: All Levels   40% Interactive
1212T     The CRAFT of Leadership: Developing Professional Learning Communities That Work

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Harvey Silver, Silver Strong & Associates, Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ; Joyce Jackson and Tyrone Olverson, Thoughtful Education Press, Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ

Description: Why do some schools achieve at high levels? Answer: They know their CRAFT--that is, they know that their capacity to collaborate (C), reflect (R), adapt (A), and focus (F) leads to thoughtful (T) teaching, learning, and leadership for all. In this session, the presenters will explore each capacity in CRAFT, demonstrate how schools are building these capacities to create and sustain improvement, and provide administrators with a set of ready-to-use tools for collecting meaningful data about teaching and learning.

Levels: All Levels   40% Interactive
1213T     Differentiating Instruction for ELLs in the Core Content Areas

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Pamela Mesta, Candice Maxson, and Olga Reber, Carroll County Public Schools, Westminster, MD

Description: Do you have English language learners in your school? Join this interactive session to learn about best strategies for differentiating instruction for them in core content areas such as science, math, social studies, and reading. You will get new insights into specific difficulties ELLs face in the classroom. You will walk away with new ideas on how to modify instruction to effectively teach ELLs and best prepare them for statewide testing.

Levels: All Levels   85% Interactive
1214T     Determining Fair and Meaningful Grades for Students with Disabilities

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Lee Ann Jung, University of Kentucky, Lexington; Thomas Guskey, Georgetown College, KY

Description: Determining meaningful grades for students with disabilities is a task with which teachers at all levels of education struggle. The grade that seems fair often is not the grade that accurately communicates progress on grade-level standards. In this interactive session, the presenters will guide participants through a five-step process for determining grades for students with disabilities so that the grades are fair, meaningful, and consistent with legal requirements. Vignettes will be used to facilitate participants' practice and discussion.

Levels: Special Needs   30% Interactive
1221T     Performance Feedback: Getting to "I Got It!"

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Kathy Kennedy, Cumberland County Schools, Fayetteville, NC

Description: Practice doesn't make perfect, but perfect practice increases learning and makes it permanent. Performance feedback, the single most powerful modification that can enhance student achievement, enhances brain chemistry and increases correct and rapid learning. Participants in this session will learn the three critical attributes of performance feedback, as well as practical ways all teachers can provide feedback during the teaching and learning process. Don't miss this interactive and fun session; you'll leave thinking, "I got it!" Handouts will be provided.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
1226T     Teacher Working Conditions: Empowering Teachers, Encouraging Student Success

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Lynn Malarz, National Education Association, Washington, DC; Eric Hirsch, New Teacher Center at University of California<\#208>Santa Cruz

Description: How can school leaders create safe environments that empower teachers, develop supportive climates, and successfully promote student learning? What links leadership, sufficient planning time, professional development and resources, and retention of high-quality teachers? Findings from numerous state surveys show teacher working conditions matter. In this interactive session, the presenters will share survey results and provide school leaders with ways to generate data-driven decisions about policies that make schools better places to work and learn.

Levels: All Levels   80% Interactive
1229T     EXCEL: Engaging, eXcellent Curriculum for English Language Learners

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Kathy Perez, Saint Mary's College of California, Alameda

Description: Are you seeking practical, proven strategies for your classroom to meet the needs of your diverse learners? Learn powerful, research-based strategies to boost vocabulary, improve reading skills, accelerate language acquisition, and increase all students' desire to learn. Develop strategies that enhance your literacy program using multiple intelligences and cooperative learning techniques. Gain a wide range of teaching techniques that integrate language and content learning and use differentiated instruction to maximize the learning for all students. Learn how to create a language-rich classroom. Handouts of instant ideas will be available.

Levels: All Levels   75% Interactive
1230T     Decriminalizing Homework

Session Available Sat March 14 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Cathy Vatterott, University of Missouri<\#208>St. Louis

Description: How can teachers support independent learning and self-monitoring without sabotaging motivation with punitive homework grading and harsh late policies? This session will offer practical ideas and tools for more accurately diagnosing homework completion problems, assisting students with special needs, providing quick and easy feedback, and separating grading from work habits. Participants will learn how to design quality homework tasks, how to differentiate homework, and how to better communicate with students and parents. Handouts with examples will be provided.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
1241T     Exploring ASCD's Online Resources

Session Available Sat March 14 at 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Linda Scraper, ASCD, Alexandria, VA

Description: In this session, participants will have an opportunity to explore a variety of ASCD online resources for professional development: Professional Development Online courses, the Building Academic Vocabulary word selection Web site, the What Works in Schools staff and parent/guardian/community online surveys, ASPIRE, and other relevant ASCD Web-based products. Participants will learn which Web-based program, product, or service would best meet their individual, school, or district needs. This session will be repeated as session #2239T.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
1242T     Making On-Time Graduation a Reality While Lowering District Expenditures

Session Available Sat March 14 at 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Richard Shear, Locust Valley Central Schools, NY

Description: Imagine a program that allows troubled students to reach success, graduate on time, and have fewer discipline and attendance problems. The On-Time Program does all that while improving school culture and, in many cases, lowering district operating costs. Find out how this simply designed yet highly effective program can help your district.

Levels: Secondary   33% Interactive
1246T     Improving Schools via Effective Instructional Walk-Throughs

SESSION IS FULL Sat March 14 at 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.5 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Pearl Harmon, Prince George's County Public Schools, Forestville, MD; Andrea Thompson, Prince George's County Public Schools, Upper Marlboro, MD

Description: Discover how a professional learning community uses learning walks to support and sustain student achievement. This interactive session will engage participants in a practical model designed to focus on teaching and learning; increase teacher performance via study groups, collaboration, and peer observations; use data for increased improvement; and provide professional development.

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
1304T     Assessing Urban Teachers' Learning from NUA Professional Development

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Jill Lindsey, National Urban Alliance, Syosset, NY

Description: This session will offer examples of different methods used to formatively assess teachers' learning from National Urban Alliance (NUA) professional development. Three different methods--teacher products, focus groups, and classroom observations--will be outlined, along with recommendations and implications for follow-up activities based on the assessment results. Participants will experience a formative assessment and conduct a mini-analysis during the hands-on portion of the session.

Levels: All Levels   40% Interactive
1308T     PE Metrics: Physical Education Assessment to Measure Student Success

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Marybell Avery, Lincoln Public Schools, NE

Description: In this session, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education will present the first edition of PE Metrics, featuring performance indicators, research-based assessment tasks, and rubrics designed to measure student success in meeting the Physical Education National Standards. The assessment tasks evaluate grade-appropriate performance of many critical motor skills and movement patterns. PE Metrics enables teachers to be accountable for learning in high-quality physical education programs, use data to improve instruction, and compare program success across school districts and states.

Levels: Elementary   10% Interactive
1311T     Supporting Teacher Research: Inquiry, Dialogue, and Engagement (STRIDE)

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Anne Kennedy, Educational Service District 112, Vancouver, WA

Description: This session will explore critical supports needed to engage and sustain teachers' work in professional learning communities (PLCs). Using a case study approach, participants will discuss three PLCs that illustrate unique strengths and challenges of teacher collaboration, including organization of PLCs, technical support needed for doing PLC work, managing energy to sustain the inquiry process, difficulties in measuring effect on student learning, and aligning teacher needs and interests with larger initiatives and contexts.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   70% Interactive
1312T     Professional Learning That Invites Instructional Partnership Among Multiple Stakeholders

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Margery Ginsberg, University of Washington, Seattle; Amy Baeder, Seattle Public Schools, WA; Cathy Thompson, Rainier View Elementary School, Seattle, WA; Mary Ann Unger, Port Angeles High School, WA

Description: This session will exemplify how to create motivating partnerships that improve instructional practice in high-poverty schools. With an emphasis on translating "knowing what" into "knowing how," participants will explore ways to implement classroom walk-throughs, motivationally grounded lesson study, data teams, and home visits in ways that develop new and deeper instructional relationships. Handouts will be provided.

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
1321T     Dispelling the Myth: Low-Performing Schools Can Close Achievement Gaps

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Susan Warren, Azusa Pacific University, CA; Deidra Price, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Office, CA; Bruce LaVallee, Rancho Cucamonga Middle School, CA

Description: In an era of high-stakes accountability, how can low-performing schools under state sanctions turn around and become models exhibiting high student achievement? This session's presenters will provide successful models from five schools that have courageously united to develop collaborative leadership, effective use of data, instructional practices, and school climates that support all learners. Participants will have opportunities to address current obstacles with colleagues and practice effective strategies through interactive discussion.

Levels: All Levels   75% Interactive
1324T     Developing a Districtwide Common Assessment System

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Twianie Roberts, Southfield Public Schools, MI

Description: This session will provide a step-by-step approach to developing a districtwide common assessment system from a top-down (central office<\#208>developed) and a bottom-up (teacher-developed) perspective. Participants will examine time lines, item development, assessment systems, professional development, instructional implications, and data dissemination and disaggregation issues. This cyclical approach to an assessment system is highly replicable.

Levels: All Levels   20% Interactive
1326T     Dropout Prevention: The Magic Bullets Every School Can Implement

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Jennifer Kliewer, Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, CA; Lori Albright, Options for Youth, Pasadena, CA

Description: The number of students dropping out of high school in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. This session will expose participants to a collection of critical retention and recovery strategies. Four "magic bullets" will be introduced and developed by small groups. Participants will learn about the power of individualized learning plans, uncovering dreams, reducing anomie, and establishing relevant relationships. Participants will fill a toolbox that is customized for their particular needs.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   30% Interactive
1328T     How Las Vegas Beat the Odds in No Child Left Behind

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Debra Roberson and Christine Shaw-Taylor, Clark County School District, Las Vegas, NV

Description: Among the largest school systems in the United States, Clark County School District (Nevada) stands tallest in one category: It is the only district among the country's 10 most populous to meet all federal benchmarks for NCLB in the 2006<\#208>07 school year. In this session, participants will learn how the district achieved this milestone by creating quality formative assessments, analyzing data to target instruction, implementing a standards-based report card, and motivating students to take ownership of their learning.

Levels: PreK-12   40% Interactive
1331T     It All Happens in the Classroom: Supervision That Really Works

Session Available Sat March 14 at 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Tom Gannon, Mount Union College, Alliance, OH; Marc Wigler, Chicago Teachers Union, IL; Judith Ann Conk, Asia Society of International Studies Schools Network, Nanuet, NY; Barbara Lentine, Stanton, NJ

Description: Are we doing the right things to reform our schools? Integrated models of recruitment, interviewing, and mentoring can produce better teachers, but what about the next piece--refinements in supervision? Should student work samples be a part of this process? Does improved supervision have the power to simultaneously improve student achievement and increase teacher satisfaction? Hear from experienced practitioners, use James Stronge's and Jane Pollock's research, collaborate with peers, and formulate an action plan.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
1345T     Using Virtual Manipulatives to Teach Mathematics Concepts

Session Available Sat March 14 at 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Gladis Kersaint, University of South Florida, Tampa

Description: This session will familiarize participants with virtual manipulatives that drive deeper understanding of mathematics concepts taught in grades 3<\#208>12. The presenter and participants will discuss various virtual manipulatives available on the Internet and model mathematics lessons using the best of these Web-based simulations. Discussion will then focus on these products' ease of use in today's classrooms with features such as correlations, customization of activities for differentiated curriculum, student assessment, and reporting.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
1350T     Using Conflict as a Resource: Moving Your Organization Forward

Session Available Sat March 14 at 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Julie Combs, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX;

Description: Conflicts are daily experiences for educational leaders. How is it possible to use conflict to strengthen a team? The leader's skill in facilitating conflict resolution can enhance or impede the organization's overall success. This interactive session will examine common patterns of response to conflict and provide strategies to resolve conflict. Leadership research, examples, and reflection exercises will be offered. Handouts will be provided.

Levels: PreK-12   70% Interactive
1351T     Inclusion: I Gave Them a 70%, Now What?

Session Available Sat March 14 at 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Tonya Burns, Natasha Holmes, Tracy Stolze, and Valerie Williams, Merry Acres Middle School, Albany, GA

Description: Mainstreaming students with disabilities into regular education classrooms raises this question: How do I make modifications and accommodations? Cutting through the jargon to provide the nuts and bolts, this session will be an introduction to inclusion. Participants will receive step-by-step guidance on inclusion, learn what inclusion is and isn't and what it can do and can’t do, and gain practical ways to reap its reward--better teaching and better learning.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   40% Interactive
1353T     Using Student Voice to Personalize Your School and Improve Learning

Session Available Sat March 14 at 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Cynthia Crimmin, Bedford Public Schools, MA; Andrew Keough, Wellesley Public Schools, MA

Description: In this session, examine the powerful effect student voice can have on improving individual learning and strengthening school culture. Learn how to help students clarify and articulate their thoughts with adults. View video clips of students analyzing their own work, self-assessing the achievement gap, and discussing student leadership in developing a healthy and welcoming school culture. Leave with specific strategies for soliciting student input and a greater appreciation for student voice.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   75% Interactive
1358T     Single-Gender Classrooms: A Viable Option for Students

Session Available Sat March 14 at 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Kathy Piechura, Elizabeth Heins, Doug MacIsaac, and Mercedes Tichenor, Stetson University, DeLand, FL

Description: This presentation will provide an overview of and rationale for implementing single-gender classrooms at the elementary school level. The presenters will share information about professional development workshops held for teachers working in single-gender classrooms and materials developed for teacher training. They will also discuss results of interviews with teachers and students, as well as results from standardized test data collected after four years of implementation. They will offer suggestions for implementing similar programs.

Levels: Elementary   50% Interactive
1401T     A Click Away: Cheating 2.0

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Eugenie Segura and Erin Henry, Catholic High School, New Iberia, LA

Description: Imagine a classroom without boundaries, connecting and collaborating with others who are only a click away. However, as boundaries dissolve, both face-to-face and online schools face the e-world challenge of ease of cheating and plagiarism. In this session, participants will learn causes and sources of online cheating, receive ideas for assignments that take a proactive approach to the dilemma, and explore ways to empower teachers that are only a click away.

Levels: All Levels   10% Interactive
1403T     Podcasting Demystified

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Martin Reardon and Jeffrey Nugent, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond

Description: Podcasting enriches the classroom learning experience by enabling content to be presented in a way that befits the YouTube era. The technology to produce a podcast is accessible, and learners from the very young to graduate-level students can deepen their content knowledge by moving from being consumers to being producers of podcasts. This session will discuss podcasting, provide examples, and engage participants in small groups with producing audio podcasts that will be uploaded for later access.

Levels: All Levels   80% Interactive
1407T     Using Maps and Visuals to Guide Instruction Across the Curriculum

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Donna Knoell, Shawnee Mission, KS

Description: This session will demonstrate the instructional power of maps and other visuals to communicate information and enhance learning across the curriculum. Participants will actively engage in strategies to compare the effectiveness of text, visuals, or a synergistic combination of both to help students construct meaning. The presenter will demonstrate strategies to use maps and other visuals to differentiate instruction and to enhance comprehension across the curriculum for English- and non-English-speaking students. Handouts will be provided.

Levels: PreK-12   75% Interactive
1415T     Desired Skills Versus Required Skills: Interview Tips for Urban Principals

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Samuetta Drew, Birmingham City Schools, AL

Description: This session will help urban school leaders develop the specific skills necessary to recruit and hire the most culturally responsive teachers for their schools. Concrete strategies will focus on how best to distinguish between skills that are required and those that are desired to recruit and retain successful urban teachers. When urban school leaders understand how to sharpen their interview skills, their teacher retention rates will increase, morale will heighten, and academic achievement will improve.

Levels: PreK-12   20% Interactive
1422T     Differentiation in the Art Room: Attending to Learners' Differences

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Heather Fountain, Kutztown University, PA

Description: The literature and resources regarding differentiated instruction often provide limited examples that apply to the art room. This session will examine examples of how to differentiate instruction in the art room. Participants will look at practical tools for planning assessment; receive tips for building community; and gather ideas for designing lessons that differentiate the content, process, and product. Through differentiated instruction, art teachers can fulfill the promise of attending to students' various learning styles.

Levels: PreK-12   40% Interactive
1425T     Teaching and Learning Strategies That Promote Academic Success

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Carol Josel, Gwynedd-Mercy College, Gwynedd Valley, PA

Description: As children progress through school, their coursework and studying demands intensify. Supporting students' academic efforts with essential learning strategies becomes even more crucial but is often overlooked. This presentation will help teachers incorporate time management, memory techniques, study strategies, two-column notes, and test-taking skills into their lessons, regardless of content area. All activities will be available in a take-it-with-you packet ready for immediate classroom use.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   50% Interactive
1430T     Engaging and Retaining: A Program for Beginning Teachers

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Kay Shapiro and Renee Coward, North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Cullowhee

Description: Discover how to engage and retain quality beginning teachers through an innovative, research-based, yearlong support system created by professional developers and award-winning classroom teachers. Examine the effect this program has on improving classroom management, collaboration, and integration of innovations into instructional practice, ultimately keeping beginning teachers in low-socioeconomic school systems.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
1432T     Providing Enriching Summer Experiences for Students in Low-Socioeconomic Populations

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Rachael Hays and Nancy Madison, Russellville School District, AR; Rebecca Shopfner, Arkansas Tech University, Russellville

Description: Academic regression during summer months is one of many challenges educators face when addressing the needs of students from low-socioeconomic populations. Camp Crawford rallied faculty, administration, and community to minimize student academic, behavioral, and social losses on a zero-dollar budget. Camp Crawford provides students with enriched learning experiences and builds relationships among teachers, students, parents, and the community. Through multimedia, session participants will experience Camp Crawford. Handouts will provide information for program replication.

Levels: Elementary   20% Interactive
1433T     Use Music to Engage Children in Literacy and History

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Sara Fry, Boise State University, ID

Description: Tired of literacy instruction that leaves the whole child, music, and history behind? Then come experience how music can enrich instruction using literature with history-related topics. Participants in this interactive session will learn how to use music in three ways: prereading activities, to engage children and establish historic setup; during-reading activities, to enhance instructional strategies that support comprehension; and postreading activities, to facilitate summarizing. Handouts with recommendations for children's literature and music will be available.

Levels: Elementary   85% Interactive
1434T     Providing Effective Professional Development in Technology

Session Available Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Sarah Meltzer, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC

Description: Technology isn't going away! Providing adequate training to help educators feel comfortable using technology in the classroom can be a challenge for many administrators, faculty, and staff. This session will present a model for effective professional development, including key elements for planning, implementation, and follow-up. Following these basic steps will help motivate teachers and engage them in the process of integrating technology into their classroom instruction.

Levels: All Levels   10% Interactive
1437T     Eight Strategies for Using Humor to Improve Learning

Session Available by phone only Sat March 14 at 05:15 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Peter Jonas, Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI

Description: Theoretical and empirical studies reveal that individuals can use humor not only to increase learning comprehension but also to enhance the learning environment. This session will provide an analysis and synthesis of the research behind using humor in schools. The interactive presentation will use brain-based techniques to examine eight research-based strategies and provide practical examples (e.g., jokes, puns, stories, overheads, and videos) of how to use humor appropriately to improve teaching and the learning environment.

Levels: All Levels   30% Interactive
2102T     Digital Xpress: An Online Writing and Publishing Portal

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:00 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Anna Baldwin and Chris Peters, Clemson University, SC

Description: The Digital XPress is an online writing portal used to increase student achievement in English language arts. Specifically, teachers learn to use digital cameras and digital image editing software to stimulate and support student writing in a wide variety of standards-based instructional activities. A teacher-controlled, online publishing environment allows students to publish their written compositions for others to read and react to. In this session, see how South Carolina teachers and students are using this system across the curriculum.

Levels: Elementary   20% Interactive
2115T     Programs and Instructional Approaches for Working with Immigrant Students

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Joy Peyton, Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC; Robert Cole, Edu-Data, Louisville, KY; JoAnn Crandall, University of Maryland<\#208>Baltimore County, Washington, DC; Aida Walqui, WestEd, San Francisco, CA

Description: Immigrant students in secondary school face a number of challenges as they make the transition into and through schooling in the United States. This session's presenters will discuss the qualities of schools and instructional approaches that support these students and help them succeed. Programs and instructional approaches include ways to develop students' language and literacy skills and make academic content challenging, interesting, and accessible. Participants will have time for discussion, and handouts will be available.

Levels: Secondary   25% Interactive
2120T     Lessons Learned About Leading Change for Improved Teaching and Learning

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Cynthia Carver, Michigan State University, East Lansing; Lori Abbott-Smith, Shelley Barlow, and Andrea Rodriguez, Lansing Public Schools, MI

Description: In this presentation, urban principals from Lansing Public Schools (Michigan) will share lessons learned from leading in-building teacher development projects. As a member of a university-based leadership study group, each principal designed and led a project that addressed teachers' learning needs relative to building-level school improvement goals. Projects ranged from book clubs and focused professional development to the development of cross-district curricular teams. The presenters will discuss the rewards and challenges of this work.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
2124T     Classroom Strategies to Support Bilingual Learners

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Anne Soderman, Michigan State University, East Lansing

Description: Numbers of bilingual learners are growing exponentially in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Teachers working with children at preproductive and early productive stages of second-language acquisition need to scaffold vocabulary and literacy skills quickly in order to involve students in academic content. This highly interactive session will provide a brief overview of important factors in second-language acquisition and activities to engage and motivate English language learners.

Levels: Elementary   70% Interactive
2125T     Adding the 4th R--Real-World Financial Literacy

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Fred Dorsett, The Gus A. Stavros Center for Free Enterprise and Economic Education, Tampa, FL

Description: You know the importance of "reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic," but what about the 4th r--real-world financial literacy? In this session, discover ways to teach your students basic personal financial skills and the importance of becoming financially literate. Explore a variety of print and technology-based resources to help your students master the basics of earning an income, saving, investing, and money management. These skills will ensure a lifetime of financial literacy for your students.

Levels: All Levels   30% Interactive
2126T     Mission Possible: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers in Hard-to-Staff Schools

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Amy Holcombe, Peggy Thompson, Sara Roberts, and Rodney Wilds, Guilford County Schools, Greensboro, NC

Description: Mission Possible, North Carolina's first comprehensive alternative salary structure, is successfully recruiting and retaining teachers at hard-to-staff schools. Using a combination of compensation incentives, performance accountability, professional development, and structural support, Mission Possible has transformed recruiting and retention in Guilford County Schools. This session will explain how the four core program components form a web of teacher support. Participants will engage in discussion with the chief human resources officer and principals to learn about the program's effect.

Levels: PreK-12   50% Interactive
2127T     Strategies to Make Academic Vocabulary Fun

Session Available by phone only Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Connie Mayo, Nashville, TN; Deborah Boyd, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN

Description: Academic vocabulary connects students from all backgrounds and allows them to be fluent in academic language and background knowledge needed for school success. Participants in this session will discuss terms, play simple games, and engage in academic vocabulary-building activities that both teach and reinforce the terms taught. Participants will leave prepared to use the strategies or teach them to others with the game templates and activity instructions provided in the handout.

Levels: PreK-12   70% Interactive
2133T     Courageous Conversations for Instructional Leaders

Session Available by phone only Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Robyn Jackson, Mindsteps, Washington, DC

Description: Have you ever wanted to give a teacher feedback but you did not know what to say or how to say it? In this interactive session, discover how to structure a courageous conversation about instruction. Learn the different types of teachers you'll meet and how to approach each one. Practice four types of courageous conversations that will lead to improvement in teachers' instructional practice. Leave with worksheets and resources you can use in your own school.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
2135T     How to Handle Hard-to-Handle Parents

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Maryln Appelbaum, Appelbaum Training Institute, Sugar Land, TX

Description: This session will be packed with strategies for success with difficult parents. Participants will learn four things never to do with difficult parents and a seven-step approach to conflict resolution and fostering community with even the toughest parents. The session will be fast-paced, featuring multimedia clips, fun, information, handouts, and tools participants will be able to use immediately to create caring school communities.

Levels: All Levels   30% Interactive
2137T     Modeling Effective Inclusion Partnerships to Support the Whole Child

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Ashly Albritton, Donna Kirksey, Craig Lockhart, and JoLynn Moncrief, Taylor County Upper Elementary School, Butler, GA

Description: In this session, learn how to create an inclusion partnership that inspires learning. Examine some of the barriers to effective coteaching. Learn how to build valuable partnerships by observing models of coteaching styles that support the whole child in the least restrictive environment. Receive tools to help you form cohesive teams, evaluate effectiveness, and implement or improve your program.

Levels: All Levels   40% Interactive
2138T     Surviving the Stresses of School Leadership

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): John Blaydes, Brea, CA

Description: Inspirational leaders can transform their schools into learning communities where students and staff survive and thrive despite unrelenting stress and accountability. However, these leaders must first learn to take care of themselves before taking care of others. In this interactive session--using lecture, discussion, humor, reflective assessments, and a comprehensive handout--participants will learn school-tested strategies for sustaining spirit, renewing energy, managing stress, avoiding burnout, and keeping a balance in their lives.

Levels: All Levels   40% Interactive
2139T     Talking in Class: Oral Language and English Learners

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:00 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Douglas Fisher, San Diego State University, CA; Carol Rothenberg, San Diego Unified School District, CA

Description: This session will focus on academic discourse and the ways in which classrooms can be structured to ensure that English language learners develop academic language proficiency. Through the lens of classroom talk, the presenters and participants will explore various ways to model and guide students' understanding of the English language. Although it will touch on language development theory and language structure, the session will be highly practical in that it will offer a systematic approach to focusing on students' linguistic needs. The presenters will consider purpose, modeling, peer interaction, and feedback and will provide participants with multiple opportunities to interact with the content.

Levels: PreK-12   50% Interactive
2164T     An Action Research Approach to School Reform: Lessons from Chicago

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Brandon Hamilton, DeVry University, Tinley Park, IL

Description: This session will illustrate action-based learning. The presenter will describe how a group of educators and consultants developed a Web-based laboratory where they employed action research methods to develop tools that stakeholders from two diverse neighborhoods used to reform their curricula. The team members collaborated first to identify the realities of the Chicago neighborhoods and then to develop Web sites that modeled organizational structures to support the major reform efforts of their unique cultures.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   20% Interactive
2165T     ASCD's Instructional Leadership Development: Supporting Principals' Work

Session Available by phone only Sun March 15 at 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Ann Cunningham-Morris, ASCD, Alexandria, VA; Bobb Darnell, Zurich, IL

Description: Because school systems of all sizes need support for addressing ongoing principal leadership development related to student achievement, ASCD has created the Principal Leadership Capacity-Building Program. This new leadership development program can bring to your state, district, or regional center a renowned cadre of leadership experts and the most authoritative resources on instructional leadership. ASCD's approach can be integrated into your current principal development program or used as an add-on for schools and districts that need extra support. A broad range of component options makes it easy to customize this leadership development to meet your needs. Join the presenters as they guide you in an examination of your present principal leadership development program and action planning for future areas of focus.

Levels: PreK-12   60% Interactive
2171T     Visual Literacy: Using Images to Build Comprehension Skills

Session Available Sun March 15 at 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Diana Dumetz-Carry, ETA/Cuisenaire, Vernon Hills, IL

Description: Students need visual images to help them read and understand texts. Visual information--found, for example, in maps, charts, graphs, and time lines--supports the reading of a text and helps make meaning of the text for the reader. Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from the information provided by an image. This session will focus on helping educators learn how to use images to make meaning of texts.

Levels: All Levels   75% Interactive
2204T     Who, What, When, Where, and How: Connecting with Every Learner

Session Available Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Norman Merrifield and LaVerne Flowers, National Urban Alliance, Syosset, NY; Laura Cavendar, Cityview Performing Arts Magnet School, Minneapolis, MN

Description: How does a school transform itself to create an environment where teachers generate learning opportunities to engage each learner? Answer: By using cultural knowledge, student prior experience and performance styles, and pedagogy that capitalizes on student strengths. This highly interactive session will engage participants in teaching and learning strategies that teachers use at the Cityview Magnet School in Minnesota as part of the National Urban Alliance professional development initiative. Learn what they have discovered as appropriate and effective ways of inspiring learning for each child.

Levels: PreK-12   50% Interactive
2205T     Personalizing Learning to Ensure Success for Each Secondary School Student

Session Available Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Joseph DiMartino and William Bryan, Center for Secondary School Redesign, West Warwick, RI

Description: This multimedia, interactive session will focus on strategies included in ASCD's Personalizing the High School Experience for Each Student. Participants will learn how to engage adolescent learners to take charge of their own learning by implementing authentic pedagogy. Teachers and administrators will learn how to personalize assessment of exhibitions, portfolios, and projects to explicitly link content mastery with skill proficiency while effectively connecting to student interests, thereby ensuring student success.

Levels: Secondary   60% Interactive
2206T     Improving Student Learning One Teacher at a Time

Session Available by phone only Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Jane Pollock, Learning Horizon, Centennial, CO

Description: This session's presenter will show teachers how to improve student learning on the basis of research she refers to as the "Big Four:" (1) Define robust learning targets that help students make meaning. (2) Use research-based instructional strategies that work to help learners remember and apply information and skills, not just do schoolwork. (3) Vary assessment to provide formative feedback. (4) Improve grading, record keeping, and reporting. Participants will learn the history and science behind improving learning and how they can show long-term gains in their classrooms, one teacher at a time.

Levels: PreK-12   80% Interactive
2207T     Proven Brain-Based Cooperative Strategies Close the Achievement Gap

Session Available Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Spencer Kagan, Kagan Publishing & Professional Development, San Clemente, CA

Description: Participants in this session will experience Sage-n-Scribe, Team-Pair-Solo, and other instructional strategies. They will then examine empirical research proving that these strategies dramatically increase both excellence (i.e., they boost achievement) and equity (i.e., they reduce the achievement gap). The presenter will show brain scans demonstrating how these structures generate increased active engagement. The strategies are easy to learn and use, and they can be used at all grade levels with all content.

Levels: All Levels   65% Interactive
2209T     50 Ways to Leave Your Lecture

Session Available by phone only Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Rick Smith, Conscious Teaching, Fairfax, CA

Description: This lively, energetic session will provide staff developers and K<\#208>12 teachers with more than 50 practical, interactive, brain-compatible strategies that can break up lectures and actively engage students. The strategies that the presenter will share and model are particularly effective for reluctant learners in the classroom or reluctant participants in staff meetings or workshops. Detailed handouts will be provided.

Levels: All Levels   45% Interactive
2211T     Getting to "Got It!"--Helping Struggling Students Learn How to Learn

SESSION IS FULL Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Betty Garner, Aesthetic of Lifelong Learning, Gig Harbor, WA

Description: Why do some students get it but some don't? This interactive session will help educators learn how to help students develop cognitive structures needed to process information for meaning, such as finding patterns, formulating predictable rules, and abstracting generalizable principles that transfer and apply learning. Students' difficulties with reading, remembering, paying attention, following directions, or behaving appropriately are often caused by underdeveloped cognitive structures. Effective cognitive structures develop "metability"--the dynamic of learning, creating, and changing.

Levels: All Levels   75% Interactive
2214T     101 Practical Adaptations for Students with Special Needs

Session Available Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Beverley Johns, MacMurray College, Jacksonville, IL

Description: To ensure each learner's success, it is important that classroom teachers utilize an array of adaptations for students with special needs. This session will provide a brief explanation of the legal basis for providing adaptations and an overview of the difference between accommodations and modifications. The presenter will offer a multitude of practical adaptations for reading, writing, and math, and for lectures, homework, and assessments.

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
2215T     Using Formative Assessment to Ensure Success for English Language Learners

Session Available Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Rachel Syrja, El Monte City School District, CA

Description: This interactive session will focus on using assessment to provide targeted, differentiated instruction for English language learners. Participants will learn formative assessment strategies to identify each student's level of proficiency and then model a process for using the results collaboratively to plan differentiated lessons. Participants will leave with an implementation plan, as well as handouts and step-by-step resources for developing formative assessments.

Levels: Elementary   40% Interactive
2216T     Effective Strategies to Improve School Climate and Culture

Session Available by phone only Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Sheila Eller, Chippewa Middle School, Shoreview, MN; John Eller, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Falls Church, VA

Description: Positive school climate and culture can be elusive for some principals to attain. In this interactive session, participants will learn practical and proven strategies to positively affect school climate and improve school culture. They will also learn ways to diagnose the present culture and gather information related to their improvement efforts. Participants will leave with strategies and tools that can be implemented immediately in their school or district.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
2222T     Math Without Walls: Reaching Dyslexic, Reluctant, and Struggling Students

SESSION IS FULL Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Corina Bullock and Clara Yates, Houston Independent School District, TX

Description: In this session, participants will engage in fun, meaningful ways to establish a positive relationship with students. They will explore potential areas of difficulty for students in learning mathematics and then participate in related intervention activities. Finally, participants will learn how to design a unit of study that incorporates a standards-based curriculum and differentiated instruction to respond to students' backgrounds, strengths, weaknesses, cognitive styles, and interests to ensure their academic success.

Levels: Elementary   75% Interactive
2230T     Give Your Students Grades That Authentically Reflect What They Know

Session Available by phone only Sun March 15 at 12:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Polly Patrick and Jeffrey Erickson, Minnetonka Schools, MN

Description: We all want students and parents to know that the grades on the report card reflect what a student knows. This session will describe how one school system achieved that goal. The presenters will discuss how their district changed assessment, attendance systems, academic honors, grading, and academic integrity--all in one year. They will interactively present their plan and help participants imagine new ways to lead their own middle and high schools through the same critical changes. Participants will leave with a copy of the plan and information to lead change.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   50% Interactive
2239T     Exploring ASCD's Online Resources

Session Available Sun March 15 at 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Linda Scraper, ASCD, Alexandria, VA

Description: In this session, participants will have an opportunity to explore a variety of ASCD online resources for professional development: Professional Development Online courses, the Building Academic Vocabulary word selection Web site, the What Works in Schools staff and parent/guardian/community online surveys, ASPIRE, and other relevant ASCD Web-based products. Participants will learn which Web-based program, product, or service would best meet their individual, school, or district needs. This session is a repeat of session #1241T.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
2241T     Gaming and Learning

Session Available Sun March 15 at 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Catherine Parsons, Pine Plains Central School District, NY

Description: Connecting to learners means connecting to the tools of their everyday world. Therefore, video games, now ubiquitous among two full generations, must be considered when examining curriculum and instruction. In this session, participants will deconstruct the learning and design concepts behind video games, examine how these concepts align with research-based classroom practice, and explore ways in which gaming should be incorporated into the definition of what it means to be literate in society today.

Levels: All Levels   30% Interactive
2242T     Planning for Defensible Differentiation

Session Available Sun March 15 at 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Carol Ann Tomlinson, University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Description: There is no magic in the word "differentiation." What always counts in the classroom is the quality of practice, and quality differentiation is both complex and promising. Through the use of lessons at a variety of grades and in a variety of subjects, this session will help educators explore what is involved in planning high-quality differentiation that benefits a wide range of learners. Participants will look at positive and negative examples of differentiation, and analyze how teachers can modify instruction to benefit a range of learners while maintaining responsibility for content standards.

Levels: All Levels   20% Interactive
2248T     The Inspired Teacher: Know One, Grow One, Be One

Session Available Sun March 15 at 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Carol Steele, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids

Description: If there were a Bloom's taxonomy for teacher reflection and growth, it would resemble the developmental chart this session's presenter will offer. A National Board<\#208>certified teacher, she will introduce ways for teachers, and those who support them, to improve the 13 core skills that make great teachers so great. From the unawareness of beginners to growing awareness and increased capacity, this session will trace the route for becoming an inspired teacher. The session will include lecture, graphics, and some interaction.

Levels: All Levels   20% Interactive
2259T     Creating the Urban Outdoor Classroom

Session Available Sun March 15 at 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Gwendolyn Tilgham and Sharon Pollard, Birmingham City Schools, AL

Description: How do urban students connect with nature, develop a sense of efficacy about protecting the environment, and enhance their social skills? The Urban Outdoor Classroom Project provides the setting for this interdisciplinary innovative project. This session's presenters will discuss how the project has created a sense of pride in the school community and has positively affected achievement for their urban students. They will provide concrete strategies to assist participants in creating a similar learning initiative at their own school sites.

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
2261T     Using Storybooks to Encourage Mathematical Thinking

Session Available Sun March 15 at 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Carol Den Otter, Michelle Hanson, and Rachelle Loven, University of Sioux Falls, SD; Sara Duncan, Mark Twain Elementary School, Centennial, CO

Description: Do your kindergartners complain that math is boring? This session will pose problems using storybooks to demonstrate how children think critically about problem solving. The presenters will discuss how to use Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) to understand children's abilities. CGI has been found to be effective with children of diverse social classes, language proficiencies, and ethnic and racial backgrounds. Participants will engage in think-pair-share activities and video evaluation, and leave with examples of story problems based on current storybooks.

Levels: Ages 0-5   60% Interactive
2262T     How to Teach Creatively Whether You Are Creative or Not

Session Available Sun March 15 at 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Patti Drapeau, University of Southern Maine, South Freeport

Description: In this session, the presenter will share strategies and tools used specifically to differentiate for creative students, unmotivated students, and English language learners. The strategies focus on alternate ways to make meaning, and they require less verbal ability and language usage than traditional lessons. Participants will see examples of student responses using specific techniques with sound, color, and imagery. These powerful techniques can be applied effectively while still being anchored in content and standards.

Levels: All Levels   40% Interactive
2305T     Improving Special Students' High Intellectual Performance

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Alexis Leitgeb, National Urban Alliance, Syosset, NY; Paulette Miller, Blackham School, Bridgeport, CT

Description: This multimedia session will inspire participants to appreciate the power of caring and good teaching. The presenters will demonstrate how teachers can remove barriers for students with physical, cognitive, and learning disabilities in order for them to achieve. They will describe how a team of special and regular education teachers and a National Urban Alliance (NUA) mentor provide special solutions for special kids. Using NUA strategies, severely challenged middle school students master content areas and participate fully in the classroom.

Levels: Middle or Junior High   35% Interactive
2310T     Suspensions Are Old-School: A Proactive Approach to Student Management

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Dennis Queen, Montgomery County Public Schools, Germantown, MD

Description: Can you imagine a school with few suspensions? How about one with no suspensions? "Impossible," you might say. However, Kingsview Middle School in Montgomery County (Maryland) has greatly reduced suspensions and is moving toward none at all. The residual effect has been increased student achievement, greater parent engagement and support, and remarkable staff morale. During a time of high-stakes testing and accountability, what school would not covet such results? Come and hear this school's success story.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   30% Interactive
2311T     Using Neuroscience Research to Engage Learners Who Live in Poverty

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Rick DuVall, Orlando, FL

Description: Advances in brain science have illuminated which teaching methods best align with how individuals' brains engage and learn. Participants in this session will experience challenging, enriching instructional strategies that stimulate brains, capture attention, increase motivation, deepen understanding, and expand self-awareness. By actively participating in and reflecting on these strategies, participants will become equipped to implement several practical, brain-friendly approaches to more effectively teach and more efficiently reach some of the neediest students.

Levels: All Levels   65% Interactive
2315T     Roles, Responsibilities, and Ethical Issues: The Teacher and Paraeducator Team

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Kent Gerlach, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA

Description: This session will present an overview of current research on national issues involving the employment, supervision, and training of paraeducators. In an interactive format, the presenter will discuss the responsibilities of the teacher, who supervises paraeducators, and clarify the role of the paraeducator, who assists with instruction. Other topics will include mentoring, legal issues, job descriptions, professional ethics, confidentiality, standards, and ways to improve team communication. Participants will gain an understanding of current federal and legal issues involving paraeducators. Handouts will include information on evaluating training programs and team effectiveness.

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
2316T     Finding Your Leadership Style

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Jeffrey Glanz, Yeshiva University, New York

Description: This interactive session will help participants discover their unique leadership talents and how to best use them in the process of implementing change. The presenter will use a research-based and interesting approach to assessing one's personal leadership style as well as learning how to identify the styles of others. Participants will complete a questionnaire at the start of the session. Because transforming schools and systems requires the talents of many, participants will explore ways to form the most effective leadership team comprising diverse leadership talents.

Levels: All Levels   30% Interactive
2319T     What Great Students Do When Nobody's Looking

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Michael Zarchin, Jennifer Goodstein, Erika Huck, and Claire Lambert, Montgomery County Public Schools, Bethesda, MD

Description: Outstanding students understand the secrets of how--not just what--to study. Learn one National Blue Ribbon School's targeted study skills for tackling each core academic subject, as well as both objective and subjective assessments. Discover how the school's program supports different learning styles, reinforces brain-based research, and provides methods to generate effective parent involvement. Build your critical knowledge base and unlock the power of teaching students how to meet--and exceed--your expectations.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   40% Interactive
2321T     Introduction to World Cultures: Toward Cultural Diversity and Cultural Competence

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Julianne Wilson, Colegio Americano de Quito, Ecuador; Paul Landry, Landry and Associates, Quito, Ecuador

Description: Through interactive exploration of cultural similarities and differences among peoples, this session's participants will learn how to introduce the concepts of cultural diversity and competence (i.e., negotiating cultural interactions and collisions) into the curriculum structure and teaching process. The presenters will show how to teach students to recognize and appreciate cultural attributes and factors that influence culture; demonstrate integrative use of geography, environmental sciences, history, and other disciplines for context in describing and understanding cultures; and show how to engage students to foster independent investigation, research skills, and self-confidence.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   65% Interactive
2325T     Reaching and Teaching the Reluctant Learner

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Judith Ann Pauley, California State University, San Marcos; Joseph Pauley, Plymouth State University, Potomac, MD

Description: Fifteen-year-old students in a high school in the Watts area of Los Angeles (California) had no interest in school, refused to do any homework, were disruptive, and were waiting until they could drop out. When their teacher applied the concepts of process communication, the students' attitude changed. They stopped their disruptive behaviors, did their homework, and improved their grades. In this session, learn how you can improve the academic achievement and behavior of every student using these research-based and internationally acclaimed concepts.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
2337T     Leadership for Schoolwide Differentiation

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:00 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Carol Ann Tomlinson, University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Description: As academic diversity becomes a defining factor in many schools and classrooms, leaders at school and district levels express a strong interest in helping teachers develop attitudes and practices that vigorously support the academic success of a full range of learners. Nonetheless, the prospect of making a schoolwide change to effectively differentiated classrooms is daunting. This session will provide specific guidance about leading for significant change from our best understanding of the change process and the experiences of two schools that moved successfully to schoolwide differentiation. The presenter and participants will examine the role of the leader and the nature and contents of professional development, and evaluate the impact of the change.

Levels: All Levels   15% Interactive
2343T     Engage Young Learners with Web 2.0 Tools

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Gail Lovely, Friendswood, TX

Description: Discover the educational possibilities of engaging Web 2.0 tools such as Skype, YackPack, Wikis, and VoiceThread in primary classrooms. Understand some of the implications of the newer tools in the online world for young learners. See how Web 2.0 tools can apply to curriculum areas and can empower teachers and students. This session will explore the tools and share implementation strategies while focusing on teaching and learning, not just the "gee whiz" factor.

Levels: Elementary   60% Interactive
2345T     A First Amendment School Imagines and Fosters Rights and Responsibility

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Joanne Kroon, Brendan Colfer, Paul Neumann, and Thuy Pham, East Northport Middle School, NY

Description: In this interactive session, educators from East Northport Middle School (New York) will describe how they foster hands-on interdisciplinary learning experiences for children that encourage them to become respectful, responsible, lifelong learners and respectful members of a caring learning community. Come learn how students are encouraged to know and express their rights. See how computer-generated Tiger TV encourages critical and creative thinking. Receive handouts of lessons that build responsible and respectful citizens in a middle school.

Levels: Middle or Junior High   50% Interactive
2346T     Study Small but Deep

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Patricia Hanratty, George Washington Elementary School, Mahwah, NJ

Description: Lesson Study, a Japanese model of professional development, creates professional learning groups where "small things are studied deeply." In this session, learn how to transform your elementary school pedagogically.

Levels: Elementary   40% Interactive
2350T     Staff Compliance to Staff Commitment: Leading with Emotional Intelligence

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Bobby Moore, Jonathan Alder Schools, Plain City, OH

Description: In this session, learn the importance of recognizing and dealing with a staff's emotions during turbulent times and school reform. The presenter--an author, an emotional intelligence coach, and the principal of a nationally recognized middle school--will explain how to use emotional information in the leadership process and how administrators can move staff members from stages of compliance to higher levels of commitment.

Levels: All Levels   10% Interactive
2353T     School Improvement via Action Research

Session Available Sun March 15 at 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Emmett Shaffer, Fulton County Schools, Atlanta, GA

Description: Action research is becoming increasingly popular and is being used by both teachers and administrators to improve schools. Action research can identify problem areas, ameliorate the problems, and evaluate the solutions. This multimedia, interactive session will review the components of action research and provide a framework to enable participants to conduct action research studies in their schools to improve student achievement. Handouts will be provided.

Levels: All Levels   45% Interactive
2403T     Cogitate @ Northgate: Tapping into District Creativity Using Open Space Technology

Session Available Sun March 15 at 04:45 PM - 05:45 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Michael Grote, Adrienne Carter, and Tonya Milligan, Columbus City Schools, OH

Description: Open Space Technology is a highly effective way to hold meetings through an interactive process for dealing with complex issues. It allows participants to garner ideas, gain suggestions from multiple perspectives, and manage their own agenda through dialogue that meets their individual needs. The presenters will share how their district has uniquely used this strategy to bring educators together from across their large urban district to brainstorm, problem-solve, collaborate, and revitalize enthusiasm.

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
2408T     Building Leadership Teams That Take Responsibility for the Community

Session Available Sun March 15 at 04:45 PM - 05:45 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): LaQuanda Brown, King-Danforth Elementary School, Macon, GA

Description: This session will provide research-based information on how to effectively build leadership teams to take responsibility for the entire school community. Participants will learn about insightful, relevant, effective, and doable methods to embrace a poverty-stricken community, as well as realistic techniques to engage the students in ways that motivate them to love school. The presenter, an elementary school principal in an urban community, has successfully built a school leadership team that has vision; understands how to communicate the vision, how to sustain the leadership team for effective school change, and how to stop making excuses for low student achievement; and takes action to boost student achievement to higher levels each and every school day.

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
2410T     From the 'Hood to Higher Education

Session Available Sun March 15 at 04:45 PM - 05:45 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Albert Gonzales, DifferenceMakers, Albuquerque, NM

Description: This interactive session will focus on proven strategies that empower students to overcome risk factors and achieve academic success. Participants will explore keys to building resiliency, strategies for building a parent partnership, and the symbiotic relationship between schools and community partners. The presenter has 20+ years of outreach experience and success at linking underprivileged students within the community to academic paths of success.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   60% Interactive
2431T     Using Web 2.0 Tools for Authentic Assessments

Session Available Sun March 15 at 04:45 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Bill Sheskey, School District of Oconee County, Walhalla, SC

Description: This hands-on session will investigate Web 2.0 learning tools teachers can use to develop authentic assessments that allow for the development of higher-order thinking skills and collaborative problem solving. Educators will have the opportunity to participate in a live experience of dynamic, interactive document sharing, collaborative writing, and class presentations that can be created using wikis and document-sharing platforms. Laptops are encouraged for this fast-paced, living-document experience.

Levels: PreK-12   90% Interactive
2438T     Leading Implementation of Differentiated Instruction: From Imagination to Reality

Session Available Sun March 15 at 04:45 PM - 06:15 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Susan Demirsky Allan, Grosse Pointe Public School System, MI

Description: Because diversity among students is increasing, the need to shape curriculum and instruction to maximize learning for all students is more urgent than ever. This session will focus on how 16 years of transforming a district's culture to plan for each learner's success has produced successes to celebrate and failures from which to learn. The presenter will share descriptions of systemic strategies, including teacher support and curriculum integration, interspersed with actual experience. Basic knowledge of differentiation will be assumed.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
3101T     Creating an Online Professional Learning Community for Out-of-School-Time Leaders

Session Available Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 09:00 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Jennifer Brady, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Description: More qualified professionals are needed in the field of out-of-school-time (OST) leadership to support the positive development of the whole child. This session will share the opportunities and challenges encountered as the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University has worked to develop a unique online graduate certificate program to address this need. The program fosters a professional learning community for OST professionals across age groups, experience levels, and geographic locations to strengthen after-school and summer programming available to kids.

Levels: Higher and Adult Education   25% Interactive
3102T     Getting SMART About Student Engagement

Session Available by phone only Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 09:00 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Cathleen Chamberlain, Oswego City School District, NY; Mary Beth Fierro, Oswego, NY

Description: This session will describe how one school district enhanced effective instructional strategies with the use of SMART Boards, the SMART Senteo interactive response system, the StudyZone, interactive educational games, and SMART software. Participants will discover how the district's K<\#208>12 initiative has yielded impressive results in engaging students, enhancing academic performance, and exciting an entire community. The presenters will actively engage participants as they demonstrate the SMART Board and related technologies.

Levels: All Levels   70% Interactive
3106T     Strategies for Creating Culturally Significant Lessons

Session Available Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 09:00 AM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Robin Quick, Gannon University, Erie, PA

Description: Too often, popular lesson plans that address diverse or marginalized cultures are oversimplified or inaccurate, perpetuating the spread of stereotypes that can be baseless and hurtful. Lesson planning should reflect other cultures in ways that are meaningful, not trivialized, and should ensure that classroom activities and celebrations are culturally appropriate and academically based. This session will offer strategies teachers can use to communicate the importance of respecting the values, beliefs, and customs of diverse cultures.

Levels: All Levels   70% Interactive
3122T     The Dynamic Trainer: Leaving No Brain Behind

Session Available by phone only Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 10:00 AM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Laurie Kagan, Kagan Publishing & Professional Development, San Clemente, CA

Description: The dynamic trainer engages the multiple intelligences and aligns presentations with how the brain best learns through cooperative learning. The result: active engagement, meaning, retention, relationship building, and transfer. In this session, learn to create workshops where no participants can hide. Experience easy-to-implement, brain-based, cooperative, multiple intelligences structures to use immediately in any training. Receive an extensive, idea-packed handout. Don't be left behind!

Levels: All Levels   65% Interactive
3125T     The Brain-Based Administrator: Teaching, Learning, Leading, and the Brain

SESSION IS FULL Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 10:00 AM     (2.0 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Tom Lindsay, Mannheim District 83, Franklin Park, IL

Description: What does an administrator need to know about the brain that affects teaching, learning, and leading? What information can be learned and immediately applied to teacher behavior, classroom strategies, and leadership practice in an effective school? Come and learn 20+ applications that you can take back to your school and immediately use to recharge, rejuvenate, and reactivate your staff and yourself on the basis of what we now know about the brain and its functioning.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
3126T     Mindful Leadership: Strategies for Improving Student Learning

Session Available by phone only Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 10:00 AM     (2.0 hour) Session Available by phone only

Presenter(s): Joanne Quinn, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Michael Dickmann, Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI

Description: How do leaders influence meaningful learning improvement in today's complex and challenging environment? Breakthroughs in knowledge about how the brain enables intelligence can help leaders challenge minds to engage and move beyond the boundaries of traditional thinking. In this session, explore a framework for aligning leadership behavior to the powerful nature of human capacity. Leave with practical strategies for cultivating compelling purpose, building a learning community, and expanding the use of informed practices that improve student learning.

Levels: All Levels   70% Interactive
3128T     Thinking Our Way to Phenomenal Levels of Latino Student Achievement

Session Available Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 10:00 AM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Alejandro Segura-Mora, Mind Growers, Alta Loma, CA; Socorro Shiels and Diann Kitamura, !MPACT, Lodi, CA

Description: Have you ever wondered how some educators are able to lead Latino students to high levels of academic achievement but others are not? The key is mind-set. The nature of our thinking can either doom us to our current reality or lead us to greater results. Join this session's presenter for a highly interactive role-playing experience that can help sharpen your tools and propel your Latino students to unprecedented levels of academic achievement.

Levels: All Levels   70% Interactive
3130T     26th Annual Critique of Teacher Evaluation Instruments

SESSION IS FULL Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 10:00 AM     (2.0 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Robert Morris, University of West Georgia, Carrollton; Marie Holbein, Kennesaw State University, GA

Description: In this session, participants will bring 20 copies of their school district's teacher evaluation instruments and work in subgroups of eight to critique the construction of the instruments. One professor of supervision and one school administrator or supervisor will serve as consultants to each group; five groups will work concurrently. The number of participants for this session is limited to 40.

Levels: All Levels   95% Interactive
3132T     Music, Movement, and the Mind: Creatively Developing the Whole Child

SESSION IS FULL Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 10:00 AM     (2.0 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Ralph Barrett, New Dimensions High School, St. Cloud, FL; Debbie Fahmie, Cypress Elementary School, Kissimmee, FL

Description: Florida's Elementary Music Teacher of the Year and Florida ASCD's Past President will share their expertise on how using music and movement has helped students enhance their mental and physical fitness. Participants will experience the ultimate brain-compatible learning activities that have led to students' attaining higher test scores and lower weights. Sing and move with the presenters, and take something home that you can use to develop the whole child.

Levels: All Levels   60% Interactive
3137T     From Board Rooms to Classrooms: Leadership Beyond Accountability

Session Available Mon March 16 at 08:00 AM - 10:00 AM     (2.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Tim Waters, McREL, Denver, CO; Robert Marzano, Marzano & Associates, Centennial, CO

Description: The effect of leadership on achievement is second only to the effect of classroom instruction. Based on McREL's newest study, we know the effects of teacher leadership, along with specific teacher leadership responsibilities and practices that add value to classroom instruction. In this interactive session, the presenters will "connect the dots" of instructional leadership responsibilities and practices from board rooms to classrooms. The session will map the dimensions and the profile of instructional leadership beyond accountability.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
3144T     It's Five O'Clock Somewhere!

Session Available Mon March 16 at 08:30 AM - 10:00 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Stephanie Sandifer, Houston Independent School District, TX

Description: In this session, learn about tools that allow you to collaborate globally with other educators or with other classrooms. The presenter will introduce a selection of easy-to-use, free tools that make global communication and collaboration possible and include strategies for developing a personal learning network with other educators. She will highlight some successful classroom projects that have allowed students to collaborate with other students around the world. BYOL (bring your own laptop)!

Levels: All Levels   50% Interactive
3160T     Increasing Student Motivation in Single-Gender Classrooms

Session Available Mon March 16 at 08:30 AM - 10:00 AM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Lynn Harrill and Diane Harwell, University of South Carolina, Columbia; Scarlet Black, Cherrydale Elementary School, Greenville, SC

Description: This interactive session will introduce a variety of instructional strategies that have been proven to increase the motivation of students in single-gender classrooms. Working together to determine the most effective and engaging learning activities for both boys and girls, a South Carolina elementary school faculty and a team of professors from the University of South Carolina have identified methods and approaches that serve as a foundation for best practice in single-gender classrooms.

Levels: Elementary   50% Interactive
3163T     Interventions That Work: Closing the Gap for At-Risk Learners

SESSION IS FULL Mon March 16 at 08:30 AM - 10:00 AM     (1.5 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Marci Reeves and Monica Evans, Belleville East High School District 201, IL

Description: With NCLB ramifications, it has become crucial for schools to identify and implement effective interventions to meet the needs of at-risk populations. Belleville East High School (Illinois), a U.S. News and World Report bronze medal recipient, has developed and implemented a variety of intervention strategies and has achieved adequate yearly progress. This session will address proven math and reading interventions, along with the development, implementation, and maintenance necessary for quality results.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   40% Interactive
3201T     Digital Language Arts: A 21st Century Approach to Instruction

Session Available Mon March 16 at 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): James Maxlow, Shannon Panko, and Nicole Sneddon, Riverside Elementary School, Newport News, VA

Description: Bring the read-write-Web of the 21st century into your classroom with a totally integrated language arts instructional model. This session's presenters will demonstrate how to effectively and efficiently combine discussion boards, blogs, digital movie making, graphic organizers, and online critical-thinking tools to achieve success with reading and writing curricula. Free tools will allow your students to collaborate electronically and will engage them in their digitally native world.

Levels: Elementary   20% Interactive
3206T     Finding Out What Works: Using What Works Clearinghouse Research Results

Session Available Mon March 16 at 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Jill Constantine, Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, NJ

Description: Educators today are looking for research information on programs, policies, and practices to increase their effectiveness as teachers and administrators and better enable schools to reach NCLB goals. But few resources exist to help differentiate high-quality research from weaker studies. The U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is designed to connect educators with the best research on effective interventions and practices. Find out about research findings on reading, math, early childhood curriculum, and dropouts, and learn about products with demonstrated effectiveness.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
3220T     Turn Your School into a GreenSchool!

Session Available Mon March 16 at 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Al Stenstrup and Kathy McGlauflin, American Forest Foundation, Washington, DC

Description: GreenSchools! is a new initiative that combines professional development, environmental school audits, and GreenWorks! service learning grants. In this session, learn how one school unified its faculty, boosted student achievement, and saved itself from closure. Review Project Learning Tree curriculum resources and school environmental audits. Learn how your school can become a GreenSchool! too. Potential projects could include recycling programs, gardens and outdoor classrooms, and energy conservation projects.

Levels: PreK-12   80% Interactive
3223T     Effective and Genuine Connections with the Parents of Young Adolescents

Session Available Mon March 16 at 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Cherie Major, University of Idaho, Coeur d'Alene; Tom Kane, Manasquan, NJ

Description: Early adolescent development both befuddles and bemuses parents. Principals and staff members can help parents understand the dynamics of early adolescence and foster real communication through a systemic Parents Institute such as the one that this session's presenters will describe. The institute's two-year sequence of workshops covers topics such as living with 10- to 15-year-olds; talking about sex, suicide, and drugs; setting limits; and community resources for kids. Parent attendance, using staff expertise, and creating a Parent Resource Center will also be addressed.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   50% Interactive
3224T     Seven Steps for Planning, Developing, and Implementing an Effective Dual Language Program

Session Available Mon March 16 at 12:30 PM - 02:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Patricia Gómez, University of Texas at Arlington

Description: This presentation will provide information on the most essential components for designing and implementing an effective long-term dual language program. The information presented will help any school district looking to move their existing bilingual program into a dual language program. The presenter will discuss current research and share a dual language program questionnaire and a long-term program planner.

Levels: All Levels   20% Interactive
3253T     Ethical Uses of the Internet

Session Available Mon March 16 at 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM     (1.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Susan Leavey, Virtual High School, Maynard, MA

Description: Knowing what is acceptable to "borrow" in light of the sheer volume of and easy access to material on the Internet can lead to confusion. If we as educators are not sure what can and cannot be used, how can we expect our students to know the difference either? Join this session's presenters in a discussion about copyright, plagiarism, accessibility, and the impact each has on the delivery of classroom and online instruction.

Levels: All Levels   40% Interactive
3268T     Presentation Skills 101: How to Engage All Participants

Session Available Mon March 16 at 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM     (3.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Adrianne Roggenbuck, The Bob Pike Group, Eden Prairie, MN; Linda Vann, Area Education Agency 267, Marshalltown, IA

Description: Do you ever get pre-presentation jitters? Does your heart pound, your stomach do flips? The key to overcoming fear is to rechannel that nervousness into productive and engaging energy. In this interactive session, you will identify your personal fears and select fear fixers to address them. Come explore presentation myths and truths, and practice varying your voice and using gestures. Leave with a list of 51 ways to involve your entire audience.

Levels: All Levels   70% Interactive
3277T     Special Effects: Discover the Secrets of Making Movie Magic at Universal Studios

SESSION IS FULL Mon March 16 at 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM     (3.0 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): John Ceschini, Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance, Baltimore

Description: In this off-site session, sponsored by the Arts in Education Network, participants will learn, hands-on, about the arts and sciences used to create some of the most spectacular special effects in motion picture history. An interactive tour of Universal Studios will showcase what it took to re-create those effects in some of the theme park’s most popular attractions.

Levels: All Levels   100% Interactive
3278T     Behind the Adventure: A Science and Technology Tour of Universal’s Islands of Adventure

SESSION IS FULL Mon March 16 at 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM     (3.0 hour) SESSION IS FULL

Presenter(s): Staff, Universal's Islands of Adventure, Orlando, FL

Description: In this off-site session, participants will discover the science involved in creating the world’s most technologically advanced theme park. Universal staff will showcase the physics, technology, horticulture, and general sciences that went into designing and building the state-of-the-art Islands of Adventure theme park.

Levels: All Levels   100% Interactive
3281T     EdSim Lab: Virtual Classroom Management

Session Available Mon March 16 at 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM     (3.0 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Lisa Dieker, Mike Hynes, Charles Hughes, and Eileen Smith, University of Central Florida, Orlando

Description: In the University of Central Florida’s new virtual training tool, teachers will practice classroom management with computer-simulated students (and one hidden actor). University faculty will discuss the background and development of the EdSim Lab tool, as well as recent research findings. Participants will see the program in action--and even test themselves in the simulator.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
3331T     Motivating, Educating, and Empowering the African American Male Learner

Session Available Mon March 16 at 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Baruti Kafele, Jersey City, NJ

Description: The plight of the African American male learner continues to pose a major challenge for educators at all levels. This powerful, thought-provoking session will provide educators with practical information as well as specific strategies to confront this challenge head-on. Participants will leave with the necessary tools to effectively motivate, educate, and empower their African American male learners.

Levels: All Levels   25% Interactive
3336T     Building a Positive Learning Climate Through Cultural Accommodations

Session Available Mon March 16 at 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Linda Noel-Batiste, Virginia State University, Petersburg; Tiffany Toledo, James River High School, Midlothian, VA

Description: Reaching at-risk secondary students remains a monolithic challenge for teachers today. With so much emphasis being placed on high-stakes tests, many of these students are electing to drop out of school; in some instances, they are being pushed out. Their academic failures have created a sense of helplessness that teachers must break through if they are to re-engage these students in the learning experience. Making meaningful, mutual cultural accommodations can make at-risk students feel it's safe to learn again. This session will identify some of these accommodation strategies.

Levels: Middle and Secondary   60% Interactive
3338T     Different High Schools for Different Students

Session Available Mon March 16 at 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM     (1.5 hour) Session Available

Presenter(s): Frank Kelly, SHW Group, Houston, TX

Description: Over the last century, our world and students have changed enormously, but high schools have not. This presentation will outline a process for planning high schools and explore 10 models that integrate instruction, technology, time, architecture, and funds in different ways to serve students with diverse backgrounds, interests, and learning styles--thus showing that there is not one, but many types of high schools. Participants will discuss the models and reflect on constraints to changing schools.

Levels: Secondary   33% Interactive