|
The following workshops are available:
Working Smarter, Not Harder: Research-based Strategies for Teaching Diverse and At-Risk Learners
This workshop provides hands-on experiences, simulations, and classroom ready examples of 6 powerful principles for increasing
achievement levels for students with diverse needs. These principles have not only been identified through decades
of research to increase the academic achievement of students at-risk, but also benefit students who achieve at average
and above average rates. Given the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act, these principles are essential in raising
standards of achievement for all students and can aid in leveling the playing field for the 80% to 85% of students who
should be making adequate yearly progess under Response to Intervention guidelines.
If You Just Tried Harder...You Still Couldn't Do It
Motivating the underachieving student can often appear to be an insurmountable task. Telling these students to
try harder is a commonly applied strategy that rarely yields the desired results. This workshop offers research-based
techniques for recognizing the sources of a students' motivational deficits and addressing the origins rather than the
symptom of the problems.
Facilitating the Fourth R: Resilience
Students who are at risk are too often defined by the challenges in their lives. Decades of research on how youth
self-right reveals that (a) all individuals, families, and communities can be characterized by risk and protective factors;
(b) all risk factors do not have to be eliminated; (c) schools are rich in resources that serve as protective factors;
and (d) what educators do and say matters. This workshop provides a brief overview of the research on resilience and
offers educators well researched, classroom-based strategies for facilitating the self-righting potential of all students.
Academic Success through Community Building
State standards, high stakes testing, and other accountability issues often loom so large that it is easy to forget students'
needs to feel connected and engaged as members of a learning community. Attention to students' needs for cooperative,
interdependent engagement with each other and content enhances academic achievement and reduces incidents of behavior problems.
This workshop provides ready to implement strategies for increasing achievment through community building.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The following workshops address Response
to Intervetion (RtI) at the individual, targeted group, classroom, and school-wide levels of behavior management and
utilize the principles of Positive Behavior Support (PBS).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Individual Student Level: Power Struggles - Managing the You Can't Make Me Moments
One of the most basic principles of effective behavior management is consistency; so what is a teacher supposed to do
when a student challenges her authority and refuses to follow a routine direction? Managing those 'You can't make me!'
moments is an essential skill. This workshop provides a brief review of the research on how power struggles evolve,
strategies for avoiding them when possible, and techniques for minimizing the intensity of those moments when they are unavoidable.
Classroom Level: Management - The Basics
Building an effective classroom management plan requires attention to research-based components that are aligned with
the teacher's strengths, the students' needs, instructional goals, district policies and school-wide mandates. A working
framework that can be modified to meet the needs of those for whom it is developed allows the teacher to make optimimal, professional
decisions while maintaining the integrity of the program. The chart illustrates one teacher's success in decreasing
talk outs during instruction with a research-based classroom management strategy.
Classroom Level: Management - Beyond the Basics
The basics of classroom management establish a research-based framework from which the educator can make professional decisions
while maintaining program integrity. Moving beyond the basics allows teachers to understand how healthy, success-oriented
groups begin, develop, and maintain high rates of productivity. This workshop also addresses targeted subgroups that
sometimes form within a class as a whole that create extraordinary challenges to instruction and behavior management.
Tips for identifying potential class leaders and subgroups and strategies for effectively managing them move the teacher from
basic classroom management to mastery.
School-wide Level: Behavior Management - Strategies for Success
School-wide behavior management establishes a foundation for students that enhances the overall climate of the school
and facilitates higher rates of academic achievement. Principles for effective school-wide behavioral support and research-based,
practical applications of those principles are brought to life in this workshop where participants gain the understandings
and tools necessary for building their own school-wide behavior management plan. The following chart illustrates the
decreases in referral rates and out of school suspension rates for an urban elementary school after implementing school-wide
positive behavioral supports:
|
