Conference Sessions

Thursday, February 7

Session A 10:00 AM–12:00 PM

Session B 1:15 AM–3:15 PM

Friday, February 8

Session C 9:30–10:45 AM

Session CD 9:30 AM–12:15 PM

Session D 11:00 AM–12:15 PM

Session E 2:15–3:30 PM

Saturday, February 9

Session F 9:30–10:45 AM

Session FG 9:30 AM–12:00 PM

Session G 11:00 AM–12:00 PM

Support for Teaching and Learning

C2

SSP: Funding for New Advanced HS Programs
Barbara Weiss, Education Program Consultant, High School Initiatives/Career Education Office, California Dept. of Ed., CA; Pam Carter, Principal; Sara Leibman, SSP Coordinator, Santa Susana High School, Simi Valley USD, CA

Specialized Secondary Program grants provide comprehensive high schools with start-up funds to design and implement new advanced programs. This funding often touches the forgotten average students who drift through school with no purpose. Hear about exciting programs currently being funded, and learn how to tap into this grant opportunity.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

CD3

Supporting Equitable SLCs
Johnna Timmes, Program Advisor; Erin McGary-Hamilton, Senior Program Advisor, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, OR

How do schools make their SLCs accessible and rigorous for all students? What supports are necessary for both students and teachers? Teams will review existing SLCs, learn instructional strategies to reach & engage all students, and plan for increasing equity throughout campus.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

CD4

Interdisciplinary SLC Program Design
Katie Whitney Luers, Senior Program Advisor, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, OR

This workshop engages SLC teams in program design that aligns SLC theme and high academic standards. Teams develop a clear idea of what they want their students to know and do as a result of intensive learning in their SLC and consider ways for students to demonstrate mastery of these interdisciplinary proficiencies. Participants leave with an action plan for collaborating on coherent curriculum.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

CD5

Set-up for Success: Ninth Grade Transition, Special Education Inclusion, and Interdisciplinary Teams
Patrice Zalesky, Assistant Principal; Jacqueline Daly Brown, Sp. Ed. Teacher/Career Ed. Coordinator; Missy Jabens, Special Education Teacher, Papillion-La Vista South High School, Papillion-La Vista Public Schools, NE

This session will provide the audience with a myriad of ideas to assist ninth grade students in becoming successful high school students. An intense pyramid of interventions will be provided to assist professionals in meeting the needs of individual students, including Special Education students. Participants will receive handouts that provide the groundwork for developing their own pyramid of interventions for their classroom, team, or school.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

D2

Schools Like Ours: Creating Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Martin Shapiro, Ed.D., Educational Consultant, Past President, CAT Prog. Coord., National Consortium for Specialized Schools of Math., Science & Tech., FL; Pete Oberg, SLC Coordinator, Center for Advanced Technologies, Lakewood High School, FL

This session provides a road map for the creation of specialized schools to meet the need for leaders in mathematics, science, and technology. Through presentation and discussion, participants will discover the possibilities for developing specialized schools in their unique setting. Discussion will be organized around a context for change, getting started, the organization of your school, and sustainability of specialized schools.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

E3

Guiding Student Research: An SLC Cross- Curricular, Integrated Approach to Enhancing Student Inquiry
Martin Shapiro, Ed.D., Educational Consultant, Past President, CAT Prog. Coord., National Consortium for Specialized Schools of Math., Science & Tech., FL; Pete Oberg, SLC Coordinator, Center for Advanced Technologies, Lakewood High School, FL

This session is for every teacher who leads students to ask a question, to seek a new and novel solution to that question, and to communicate that discovery to the world. It is the intent of the presenters of this session to provide a roadmap that will lead to the development of research skills and enhance research opportunities for their students using a cross-curricular approach.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

E4

Changing Attitudes, Changing Lives: Motivating Students for Higher Academic Achievement
Wendy Bingham, Certified Trainer, Academic Innovations, UT

Making a successful transition from middle school to high school is critical to a student’s lifelong success.Wendy Bingham explores how schools across the country integrate comprehensive guidance into the 8th or 9th grade without sacrificing achievement, academic rigor, or content standards. She’ll discuss and distribute the NEW Course Standards for Freshman Transition Classes from George Washington University—an invaluable planning resource for your high school redesign efforts.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

E5

Crossroads: A Ninth Grade Transition Course Featuring the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
Mary Holden, Resource Teacher; David Holden, Instructional Coach, Mar Vista High School, Sweetwater Union HSD, CA

Crossroads is an award-winning, yearlong transition course for ninth graders. Its basic purpose is to help students do better in school and provide them with direction, decision-making skills, and purpose. The class is focused on Sean Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. During this session, you will learn about the importance of having a freshman transition course and how we designed and implemented Crossroads.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

E6

Professional Learning Communities: A Key Strategy for Affecting Student Learning and Achievement
Keith Greer, Principal, Casa Grande Union HS, Casa Grande Union HSD, AZ

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) are an Conference sseessssiioonn EE ddaayy t 2wo 16 2:15–3:30 P.M. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2008 session E 17 effective, cost-efficient way for educators to learn what changes are necessary to improve their classroom practice. This presentation will review how a “low performing” large rural high school affected student achievement and staff interaction through a highly focused school-wide PLC.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

E8

Systematic Supports for High-Quality Teaching and High Achievement in SLCs
Rose Owens-West, Sr. Project Director; Ralph Baker & Gerald Wolfe,WestEd, CA

This session will guide the participants to think about systems for information, finance, personnel, communication, and technology and why these are important for supporting teaching and learning. Participants will engage in table discussions about their current systems and receive strategies on leading teamwork to improve their systems. They will also be provided background readings and resources to take with them.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

F3

Think Inclusively! Tapping Students’ Cultural Literacy to Increase Academic Performance
Lucinda Kramer, Asst. Professor, National University, CA

All students possess the knowledge and skills to participate competently in their specific cultural context. Often cultural literacy is addressed in education only in relation to how it might impede a student’s academic progress.We will address the other side of cultural literacy—how it can be leveraged to increase a student’s ability to acquire new learning and participate more competently in the classroom. Specific instructional strategies will be shared.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

F6

Incorporating AVID and AVID Strategies into SLCs
Julie Elliott, Associate CA Director, AVID Center; Arlene LaPlante, Director, ConnectEd: The California Center for College & Career, CA

AVID is a college preparation program for students in grades 4 through 12 who are in the academic middle.AVID strategies can also be used to support all students school wide, and there are several models for incorporating AVID into SLCs. This session will discuss AVID strategies and philosophy, various scheduling and organizational models, and how to provide AVID support within the parameters of participants’ individual school designs.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

F14

Healing the Healer Within
Victor La Cerva, M.D., Consultant, Speaker and Writer, NM

Because of the nature of their work, many teachers do not take care of themselves properly. This interactive workshop explores tools for balancing the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of ourselves; ways to reduce stress in the moment; the anatomy of anger and how to become more emotionally fluent; and techniques to avoid burnout and still make a difference.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

FG4

Support for Teaching and Learning: Creating a Critical Friends Group
Sean Delgado, Assistant Principal, Chino Hills High School, Chino Valley USD, CA; Cuahutemoc Arroyo, Categorical Program Coordinator, LAUSD Categorical Programs, Los Angeles USD, CA

In this session, participants will learn how to use protocols within Critical Friends Groups to look at student work, as a way of improving instruction and developing collegiality. Participants will then engage in a mock protocol to look at authentic student work. Participants will then debrief about the process, and leave with a variety of different protocols to use for Critical Friends Groups at their own site.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

FG5

Reaching and Teaching Every Student
Judith Ann Pauley, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Cal State San Marcos, CA; Joseph Pauley, Lecturer, George Washington University, MD

A science teacher in an inner-city LA high school was having problems with her students. They had no interest in school and intended to drop out. The teacher began applying the concepts of Process Communication in her classes. Student motivation improved; they started doing their homework; their grades improved and they stopped their acting out behaviors. Participants will learn these concepts so they can reach every student.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

G3

SLC: Creating a Structure to Support Student Achievement
Larry Tash, Director, Office of School Redesign, Los Angeles USD, CA

This is a practical presentation with field-tested materials that will help you, your school, and your district to move toward SLCs in a way that provides support to students, parents, and school staff. Your active participation in this presentation will be a worthwhile learning experience.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning

G6

Reprogramming High Schools with Programs of Study
Maureen Gevirtz, Ed.D., Project Director, Grossmont/Cuyamaca College Auxiliary, CA

Programs of study are developed through collaboration across educational levels and with input from business and industry. They can be a key tool in high school reform. Attend this session to receive draft samples of programs of study in biotech, business finance,multimedia, merchandizing, manufacturing and processing, and public safety.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

G7

Tascosa High School Freshman Orientation
Debbie Thompson, Teacher; Susan Brown, Teacher, Tascosa High School, Amarillo ISD, TX

The transition from middle to high school can be a difficult and often frightening thing for both students and parents.We will use PowerPoint®, music, photographs, and personal testimony from those involved to give you an idea of how to plan, prepare, and present a freshman orientation for both students and parents that will ease their minds and help make the first year of high school a successful one.

Strands: Support for Teaching and Learning, NEW!

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