SHINING STAR SCHOOL—Academic Improvement, Attendance, Resiliency, and Student Support
Shining Star School Kerman-Floyd Elementary, rural San Joaquin Valley; and special guest Hawthorne Elementary, suburban San Bernardino County

These schools present how they used the SB65 Comprehensive Student Support strategies to make impressive gains in student learning, attendance, resiliency, and student support.

Strand: Best Practices
Grade Level: K–6

SHINING STAR SCHOOLS—Academic Improvement, Attendance, COST, and School Goals
Canterbury Elementary, a large San Fernando Valley school; Glenelder Elementary, San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County

These Shining Star schools present how they used the SB65 Comprehensive Student Support strategies to make impressive gains in academic improvement, coordinated services, attendance, and school goals.

Strand: Best Practices
Grade Level: K–6

In Their Own Words
Lauren Weiss, Teacher & DPS, Sun Valley Middle School, Los Angeles USD, CA

Learn how middle school teachers can start a dialogue about high school with middle school students. Our input helps you demystify fears about high school, teach resiliency, explain the importance of a high school diploma, discuss the CAHSEE, and make the transition to high school seamless for middle school students. Learn about the real- life fears 8th graders from this demographic have regarding high school. See examples of the tools used in real-life scenarios.

Strand: Dropout Prevention Strategies, NEW!
Grade Level: 7–8

Succeeding with Difficult Students
Rick Smith, Author, Trainer, Keynote, Education Consultant, Conscious Teaching, CA

This seminar for K–12 teachers is designed to assist teachers in learning theoretical foundations and practical application of effective behavior management strategies to use with students with serious behavioral or motivational problems.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Capturing Any Student’s Brain: Essential Tools
Cami Hayes, Lead Facilitator, Quantum Learning Network, CA

This session will immediately capture your attention as you learn interesting and fun information every teenager should know about his/her brain. Discover how this new information can instantly result in higher motivation and greater participation. Learn specific strategies you can share with students to easily enhance their memory encoding and recall. Gain brain-based strategies effective for improving classroom management.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

The Power of Video to Open Minds and Hearts: Using Gay Youth to Educate Your Faculty
Pam Walton, Producer/Former High School Teacher, Pam Walton Productions, CA

This workshop for secondary school educators will present the groundbreaking Gay Youth, newly released on DVD. Gay Youth is especially effective as a teacher in-service training tool that can sensitize faculty to an issue too often ignored. The workshop will include specific strategies for reaching out to students, parents, and administrators, as well as time for attendees to share their experiences. Copies of Gay Youth and its 16-page study guide will be available for purchase.

Strand: Safe Schools
Grade Level: 9–12

CSS Toolkit: SST Training
Andrew Stetkevich, Staff Development Specialist/Field Colleague, Riverside Staff Development Center, Riverside USD; Vicki Butler, Coordinator & Field Colleague, Corona-Norco Special Education, Corona-Norco USD, CA

Learn about a powerful process that builds a plan using a student’s strengths for success. Participants will explore best practices in the SST process, including an overview of the process, gaining teacher buy-in, viewing video clips of elementary and secondary SST meetings, strategies to elicit parent and student participation, networking with SST facilitators around the state, nuts and bolts of implementation and recordkeeping, and strategy resources that address the strengths and needs of students and families.

Strand: CSS Toolkit
Grade Level: K–12

This Kid Is Not Someone Else’s Problem: A Coordinated Approach to Educational Options
Dan Sackheim, Community Day School Consultant, Educational Options Office, California Department of Education, CA

Over 12% of California schools are educational options schools, including community day schools, continuation high schools, opportunity education, and county court and community schools. Dan Sackheim, CDE consultant in the Educational Options Office, will present specific means for successfully referring students to educational options schools and programs, supporting their academic and socio-emotional development there, and supporting a successful transition back into traditional schools, if appropriate.

Strand: Collaboration, NEW!
Grade Level: K–12

Kids in Chaos
Ray Culberson, Director, San Bernardino City USD, CA

Do you have the skills to educate the emerging population of students who live with violence, neglect, and poverty? Whether African American, Latino, white, or any other race, Kids in Chaos are in and from all racial backgrounds. In this unique session, you will learn strategies for handling difficult students, as well as techniques for maintaining your own personal sanity as you try to effectively engage families who live in this environment.

Strand: Dropout Prevention Strategies, NEW!
Grade Level: K–12

The Role of Temperament in Teaching Social Skills to At-Risk Adolescents
Vicki Phillips, Director, Personal Development, CA

At-risk students tend to have a distinctive temperament and learning style, one often at odds with the approach favored by the teacher. In this highly interactive session, discover which of the four major personality temperaments is most like you, which tends to dominate mainstream education, and which is typical of at-risk students. Discover how to use students’ need to feel empowered and in charge and channel it in a positive direction—leading to responsibility and self-discipline.

Strand: Dropout Prevention Strategies
Grade Level: 7–12

Building Multiple-Paragraph Essays: ALL Students CAN Write at Standard
Carolyn Hood, Literacy Coach, Learning Headquarters, CA

Help students master those difficult-to-conquer grade-level writing genres. Learn interactive techniques to help students add voice, powerful sentences, and variety to their multiple-paragraph compositions. Leave with proven strategies and research-based organizers for narratives, responses to literature, and persuasive essays. Use these powerful modeling strategies immediately to catapult your students into successful, standards-based writing!

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–8

Handwriting: What Every Teacher Should Know!
Kim Desch, President, WriteEase Products, CA

This workshop shows educators how to get kids writing legibly without spending additional time in the classroom. Attendees will gain the ability and tools to improve handwriting while enhancing the child’s self-esteem. This is not a handwriting program; rather it is a set of techniques and tools that can be started immediately with or without a writing curriculum in use. These techniques can be applied to children of all abilities in all classrooms.

Strand: Instructional Strategies, NEW!
Grade Level: K–6

The Missing Piece: The Parent Component
Janie Hamilton-Marchini and Marla Loew, Teachers, Pearson Elementary School, Modesto City Elementary Schools, CA

Awarded the Promising Practices Citation from CEP and the Golden Ruler Award from ICCE, this interactive presentation includes parent- child activities to develop meaningful dialogues supporting character education, social skills, and curriculum. Parent-student sample assignments focus on developing character traits such as responsibility, respect, compassion, and service learning. These topics, translated into Spanish, validate how parent participation builds a strong relationship between home and school, as well as embracing the community as a learning tool.

Strand: Resiliency
Grade Level: K–6

Brain Drain: The Effects of Alcohol and Other Drugs on the Maturing Brain
Tim Burns, Director, Educare Institute, NM

Alcohol and other drugs have a powerful effect on the brain, especially when it is immature. Since the brain isn’t fully mature until at least age 25, any use of these powerful and toxic substances has a greatly magnified effect on teens. This workshop takes a step-by-step approach to understanding brain growth and development, and the potentially devastating effects of drugs. The workshop is designed to help teachers confidently teach the content to students. Handouts are provided.

Strand: Resiliency
Grade Level: K–12