Behind Closed Doors: Facilitating Classroom Learning Activities
Cristal McGill, Ph.D., Education Consultant, ASU Faculty Associate, Impact Learning, Inc., CO

Effective instruction means finding ways to keep students physically and emotionally engaged in the learning process. This fast-paced, innovative, and dynamic in-depth session explains why, while simultaneously demonstrating how to put these ideas into practice. Walk away with a “neural explosion” of ideas guaranteed to lift any activity or game to an entirely new level.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

REFOCUS™: A Powerful Solution to Problem Behavior
Greg Solomon, Inst. Music Teacher, Vista Heights Middle School, Moreno Valley USD, CA

At the core of the nationally acclaimed Time To Teach! Program is the strategy of REFOCUS™, unquestionably the most powerful solution to problem behavior ever developed for the classroom teacher. When behaviors are addressed early and consistently, without giving multiple warnings and repeated requests, your classroom will run more smoothly than you ever thought possible!

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Differentiating for English Learners in Content-Matter Classrooms
Rose Mary Vilchez, Staff Development Specialist; Michelle Mitchell, Instructional Support Specialist; Riverside District Office, CA

Participants will experience and participate in interactive strategies that provide students with opportunities to engage in content matter and academic language. Interactive strategies serve as a scaffold to support students’ language and content learning.

Strand: NEW!, Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Framing Your Thoughts: A Student-Friendly Writing Program
Andrew Stetkevich, Staff Development Specialist/CSS Field Colleague, Riverside Staff Development Center, Riverside USD, CA

Participants will learn a meta-cognitive, multisensory approach to teaching writing. The presenter will demonstrate how to apply these strategies to help students succeed on class and state writing prompts. Teachers and support staff will leave with practical strategies to engage students in the writing process and help them to become independent writers.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Finally…Time to Teach! We Don’t Pay Students to Behave
Melanie Lattimer, Teacher, Park Hill Elementary School, San Jacinto USD, CA

In this session, you will walk away with powerful, proven, and practical strategies to eliminate 90% of low-level misbehavior today! Educators everywhere are using these strategies K–12 because they are time-tested, research-based, and they work. Not just theory for thought, these are the tools of tomorrow…giving you more time to teach!

Strand: NEW!, Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

The Importance of Humor in Education
Cristal McGill, Ph.D., Education Consultant, ASU Faculty Associate, Impact Learning Inc., CO

Humor strengthens the relationship between students, teachers, and staff, enhances communication, reduces stress, makes a course more interesting, increases retention of subject matter, and could raise test scores. This interactive workshop will help you see, hear, and feel what effective strategies are all about. Come expecting to be physically engaged and mentally stimulated throughout this high-powered session.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

The Rock ’n’ Roll Classroom: The Magic of Music in the Classroom
Cristal McGill, Ph.D., Education Consultant, ASU Faculty Associate, Impact Learning Inc., CO

This creative (and frequently hilarious) session will provide a hands-on overview of how to use music to influence engagement, boost attention, understanding, and recall of key concepts, as well as create a non-threatening, collaborative learning climate. Attend this workshop only if you like lots of music and you are ready to “rock and roll”!

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

Thinking Maps™: Guaranteed to Improve ALL Students’ Critical Thinking, Test Scores, and Writing Skills
Bill Deeb, Principal/Educational Researcher/Field Colleague, Creekside Elementary School, Alisal Union ESD, CA

This session is an introduction for schools that are contemplating adopting Thinking Maps™ or who simply want more information about the program. Thinking Maps™ are not “mind maps” or typical visual organizers. Each Thinking Map™ mirrors an essential thinking process that forms the basis for success in school, at work, and even at home: describing, sequencing, comparing and contrasting, illustrating cause-and-effect relationships.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Strategies That Build Rapport and Connections and Motivate Students to Stay in School
Nancy Blackwell, President, Longevity of Success, CO

Learn to positively influence the student relationship with practical application and practice. Become aware of the difference between the influence of power and the power of influence. Also, receive strategies such as music, modeling, paired shares, and discussions. Learn how to have more time to do what you entered the profession to do—teach.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: 9–12

Student Engagement Now
Ernest Mendes, Consultant/President, Mendes Training & Consulting, Inc., CA

This session will exemplify how to create anticipation, curiosity, enthusiasm, confidence, and cooperation in the classroom. Increase in your own short-term memory and learn how to open the gates to long-term memory recall! This brain-based training will teach participants how to deliver and ifferentiate instruction through four memory paths and four of the brain’s natural learning systems.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Body in Motion, Brain in Gear—Using Movement to Enhance Attention and Improve Learning
Tim Burns, Educator/Author, Educare Institute, NM

This informative, enjoyable, and fast-paced workshop blends research and practical application within a framework of brain maturation and development, focusing on those areas of the brain that tie together movement, attentional systems, and learning readiness. You will gain knowledge and tools you can use immediately for the benefit of all students. Handouts will be provided.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Creating Powerful Writers: Research-based Strategies to Integrate High-Level Vocabulary and Sentences
Carolyn Hood, Master Trainer, Learning Headquarters, CA

Learn meaningful techniques and strategies proven to help all students access higher-level vocabulary, build powerful sentences, employ sentence variety, and extend the complexity of writing. Participants will learn to promote academic and descriptive vocabulary through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic pathways. Teachers will leave with a plethora of techniques to assist all students in writing at standard!

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–6

“My People Are…Youth Pride in Mixed Heritage”
Jilchristina Vest, Tarah Fleming, Co-Directors, Multiethnic Education Program, CA

This workshop uses the 20-minute film “My People are…Youth Pride in Mixed Heritage,” which features young performers sharing their pride in culture, history, and ethnic roots through theater, spoken word, interview, dance, rap, and song. The Action Booklet that accompanies the film features interactive activities that explore the issues raised in the film.

Strand: NEW!, Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: 5–12

Energizers Galore—A Playshop for the Not-So-Serious
Tim Burns, Educator/Author, Educare Institute, NM

Ready for some full-on fun? Want to move, play, laugh, and learn? Then attend the Energizers Galore workshop. Come ready to move, play, and participate, and leave with activities you can use in any setting. The aim of the workshop is to provide you with activities you can use immediately for the benefit of students and colleagues.

Strand: NEW!, Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Building Multiple-Paragraph Essays: ALL Students Can Write at Standard
Carolyn Hood, Master Trainer, Learning Headquarters, CA

This exciting session features a standards-aligned writing system designed to help all students master grade-level writing genres. Learn interactive techniques to differentiate instruction and motivate students to add sensational sentences, smooth transitions, rigorous content, and genre-based structure to their multiple-paragraph compositions. Leave with research-based organizers proven to engage students in writing powerful narrative, response to literature, and persuasive essays.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–8

Conscious Classroom Management
Grace Dearborn, Educational Consultant, Conscious Teaching, LLC, CA

This lively, fun, and interactive session gives K–12 teachers a framework for seeing and practicing the often invisible skills of effective classroom management and organization. Participants will leave with a refreshed outlook and with ideas they can use the next day in classroom management, lesson planning, and stress reduction.

Strand: Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12

Building the Social-Emotional Foundation for Success in High School
Julea Douglass, Associate Director, School-Connect; Caryn Michaels, Safe Schools Coordinator, Canoga Park High School, Los Angeles USD, CA

Many ninth grade students are unprepared for the personal and academic challenges of high school. This session will focus on three pathways linked to academic success: (1) creating a supportive learning community, (2) addressing thoughts and emotions that interfere with learning, and (3) promoting student-driven learning strategies. Special attention will be paid to models that support the needs of incoming freshmen.

Strand: NEW!, Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: 9–12

From Simple Sentences to Powerful Paragraphs: Creating At-Standard Writers
Shannon Vargas, Master Trainer, Learning Headquarters, CA

This dynamic presentation features research-based techniques to help all students develop well-written narrative and descriptive paragraphs. Learn to scaffold instruction so every student can create an at-standard paragraph that hooks the reader, stays on topic, includes vivid details, and concludes with sentences that clearly restate, not repeat, the topic. Leave with strategies, tools, and blackline masters to use immediately.

Strand: NEW!, Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–3

Positive Action Equals Positive Results and Success for All
Karen Wilson, Prevention/Intervention Specialist, Positive Action, Inc., CA

Research has shown that schools using Positive Action have verifiable improvement in standardized test scores for reading, writing, and math as well as reductions in violence, disciplinary referrals, and drug, alcohol, and tobacco use. Come see what 15 minutes a day can do to change the way your classroom, school, and neighborhood operate.

Strand: NEW!, Marketing Session, Instructional Strategies
Grade Level: K–12