Framework for Understanding Poverty
Ruby Payne, Ph.D., President, Author, Consultant, aha! Process, Inc., TX

This session will be a follow-up in-depth look at Dr. Payne's keynote.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students; VetORC
Grade Level: K–12

Improve Motor Skills, Accelerate Progress for ADHD and Other Learners
Cindy Roth Pahr, Founder, EduClime, CA

Today's students are struggling with motor skills. Find out what you can do about it! Many ADHD students' motor difficulties are misunderstood, resulting in negative school experiences and failure. Learn fun, effective strategies to help students with fine motor, gross motor, visual tracking and sensory skills. You can employ these strategies on Monday morning and have a repertoire of ideas to share with teachers who need assistance with students in these areas. Handwriting emphasized.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: K–6

Paving the Way to Student Success: Increasing Your Odds with Reluctant Learners!
Cristal McGill, Ph.D., Education Consultant, ASU Faculty Associate, Teacher Education Programs, CO

Discover how to set the stage to motivate your students and get them charged up for learning. You will also leave with a tool to increase your students' accountability. This session is designed to renew your energy and excitement for teaching while building your repertoire of effective teaching moves in a fun, fast-paced environment. Participants will gain an increased understanding of practices that foster resiliency and mastery in children, youth, and families enduring the effects of multiple risk exposure. We will identify practices that positively alter the social climate of classrooms, which can lead to a reduction in aggressive and violent behavior.

Combining these techniques with teaching practices creates a blast of focused, productive energy, which propels groups quickly and easily towardsachieving the desired objectives. Come expecting to “play to win.”

Strand: NEW!, Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: K–12

Rebels with Applause: Brain-Compatible Approaches for Motivating Reluctant Learners
Grace Dearborn, Educational Consultant, Conscious Teaching, LLC, CA

How do we address our “rebel” students who seem to have the hardest time paying attention and getting work done? This lively, fun, and interactive session will provide teachers and staff developers with dozens of practical brain-based strategies they can use to help get “rebel” students of varying abilities and learning styles involved and motivated, and help them retain more.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: K–12

When Consequences Don't Work: Succeeding with Difficult Students
Grace Dearborn, Educational Consultant, Conscious Teaching, LLC, CA

Consequences are often a last resort that don't resort to much! What are the keys to developing and implementing invisible but powerful classroom management skills? In this lively, interactive session for K–12 staff developers and teachers, receive dozens of practical, immediately implementable strategies for managing difficult students effectively, focusing on both prevention and intervention. Learn individual and whole-class approaches that will help get difficult students to become class allies, rather than class disruptions. NOTE: Strategies shared in this session will be different from those shared in the companion session titled, “Conscious Classroom Management: Bringing Out the Best in Students and Teachers.”

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: K-12

A New View of ADHD: Hands-On Tools for Non-Traditional Learners
Frank Kros, Executive Vice President, The Children's Guild, MD

So what's new about ADHD? The invention of noninvasive, highly practical scanning technologies now makes it possible to observe the structure and function of the brain as never before! These observations have produced a new view of what actually happens in the ADHD brain during learning, concentration, stress, and emotional trauma. Based on this research, 14 practical, hands-on strategies are provided to enhance the effectiveness of your teaching, improve the quality of your therapeutic interventions, and strengthen your helping relationship with ADHD students. Highly interactive, this “learn and do” workshop incorporates brain scans, film, music, art, manipulatives, and movement to transform your thinking about and boost your skills with ADHD students.

This workshop is designed for educators and parents of ADHD students. Principals will also find the effective, low-cost or no-cost interventions very useful as school-wide strategies.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: K–12

REFOCUS™: The Most Powerful Solution to Problem Behavior
Greg Solomon, Inst. Music Teacher, Vista Heights Middle School, CA

At the core of the nationally acclaimed Time To Teach! program is the strategy of REFOCUS™, and it is unquestionably the most powerful solution to problem behavior ever developed for the classroom teacher. By effectively using REFOCUS™ the classroom teacher will have fewer disruptions to teaching, more Time To Teach, and more energy and fun than ever before. You will learn that when behaviors are addressed early and consistently, without giving multiple requests and repeated warnings, your classroom will run more smoothly than you ever thought possible!

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: K–12

The Art of Sequential Learning for Kids in Chaos
Ray Culberson, Director, San Bernardino District Office, CA

Growing numbers of children come to school from an environment of crime and neglect, often suffering from depression, anxiety, conduct disorder, ADHD, and a host of other emotionally charged issues. In this 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 these families.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: K–12

Building Respect, Responsibility, and Resiliency in At-Risk Adolescents
Vicki Phillips, M.Ed., Director, Personal Development, CA

Learn how to teach students who “don't want to be told what to do” to want to be responsible and respectful–by using their need to feel powerful as the foundation for developing character, resiliency, and emotional intelligence. Vicki Phillips, principal of an alternative school for 22 years, will share the underlying philosophy from her one-semester curriculum, Personal Development, purchased by almost 1500 secondary schools to date.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students; Foster Youth & Juvenile Detention
Grade Level: 7–12

You Can't Make Me! Managing the Oppositional Defiant Student
Ernest Mendes, Consultant/President, Mendes Training & Consulting, Inc., CA

This interactive session will help you better understand the oppositional defiant student. ODD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, will be addressed as well as general opposition in the classroom. Teachers will learn to flow with resistance through a specific set of environmental and interpersonal strategies designed to reduce defiance in the ODD child.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: K–12

Empowering Discipline: An Approach that Works with At-Risk Students
Vicki Phillips, M.Ed., Director, Personal Development, CA

Most school discipline plans are based on the need to control student behavior. With those at-risk youths who see no future and feel they have nothing to lose, “control” becomes counterproductive, and they spiral downhill. Vicki Phillips, author of Empowering Discipline and Turning Them Around, calls for a new approach toward discipline– one that works with at-risk youth. Learn how to handle disciplinary situations with those students who “don't want to be told what to do.”

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students
Grade Level: 7–12

Meeting the Needs of At-Risk Students through Foster Youth Services Programs (FYS)
Michelle Lustig, MSW, Ed.D., Coordinator, Foster Youth Services, SDCOE Student Support Services, CA; Pamela Hosmer, Program Mgr./Homeless Liaison, San Diego District Office, CA; Jeni Mendel, Child Welfare & Attendance, Educational Services Division, Grossmont UHSD, CA; Karen Alexander, Homeless & Foster Youth Liaison, LMSV District Office, CA

San Diego COE Foster Youth Services Program (FYS) endeavors to respond, assist, and empower all systems that support foster youth achieving academic success. FYS programs are designed to prepare foster youth to become successful, self-sufficient, and independent adults. FYS programs across California, in 57 counties and 6 core school districts, achieve the goal of closing the achievement gap for students in foster care through thoughtful collaboration across systems. Session participants will learn about FYS programs both locally and statewide.

Strand: NEW!; Engaging At-Risk Students; CASCWA; Foster Youth; Juvenile Detention
Grade Level: K–12

On Playing a Poor Hand Well: Recent Advances in Our Understanding of Human Resilience and of the Limits of Emotional Endurance
Mark Katz, Ph.D., Learning Development Services, CA

Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Life is not so much a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” Why is it that so many children and youth who struggle in school manage to succeed decades later in life? And what can we learn from their life experiences? During this presentation, we will explore the sources of resilience, important protective influences, and wide-ranging turning point experiences in the lives of successful individuals who struggled during their years in school. We will also share specific ways in which schools can use these lessons learned in ways that can reverse the developmental trajectories of children, youth, and young adults who currently struggle with similar school-related problems.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students; Foster Youth; VetORC
Grade Level: K–12

Truth or Consequences: Keeping It Real for the At-risk Youth
Scott Charles, Trauma Outreach Coordinator, Temple University Hospital, PA

In many American classrooms, “teaching to the test” has taken priority over the teaching of life's lessons. Few have suffered the consequences of this shift more than the at-risk student. Because there is so little in their lives that can be adequately captured with a #2 pencil and a bubble form, the classroom offers fewer opportunities to use the tools with which they have been equipped as a function of their experiences. This session will suggest opportunities to empower at-risk students–and showcase their gifts–by having them address the real-world/real-life problems that exist in their communities.

Strand: NEW!, Engaging At-Risk Students; VetORC
Grade Level: K–12

Welcoming Diversity in Our Schools: Acknowledging and Supporting Students of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Parents
Lisa White, Amanda Litwin, Family Services Program–Family Advocate, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, CA

This interactive workshop will address the unique issues facing students with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) parents, outline specific strategies and best practices for creating safe and welcoming classrooms and schools for all students, and provide space for educators and parents to explore their own fears, challenges, and concerns about incorporating LGBT families into existing diversity curriculum.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students; VetORC
Grade Level: K–12

Boosting Adolescents' Social Skills, Emotional Management & Academic Motivation
Julea Douglass, Ph.D., Co-Author & Associate Director, School-Connect, MD

Ninth grade is a critical transition year; many students struggle with the personal and academic challenges of high school. This session will focus on strategies for (1) creating a supportive learning community, (2) helping students overcome self-defeating attitudes about schoolwork, and (3) promoting student-driven learning. These strategies can be used in freshman seminars, advisory programs, and school-wide. Special attention will be paid to models that support the needs of incoming freshmen..

Strand: NEW!, Engaging At-Risk Students; Foster Youth
Grade Level: K–12

The Joel Bridgman Mentor Program
Gayle Green, Author/Resource Specialist; Julie Marion, Special Educator/Resource Specialist; Amy Kraft, Title I Reading Teacher/Asst. to Principal, Oakdale Elementary School, CA

This workshop includes a multimedia presentation that highlights how to set up a successful mentor program at your school. This mentoring program is highly successful in the K–6 setting but may be adapted to fit any school setting. Mentoring strategies will be discussed as well as the nuts and bolts of setting up your own mentor program using your school staff. Mentoring is a powerful and effective way of creating meaningful relationships with students at your school site.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students; Foster Youth
Grade Level: K–6

Connecting Homeless Students and Families with School
Sarita Fuentes, Hope Region Principal/Monarch School Project CEO, SDCOE Juvenile Court & Community School District; Loretta Middleton, Senior Director, SDCOE Student Support Services, CA

This session will address the special needs of homeless youth and families and how best to keep these families connected to school. Learn key strategies for supporting homeless youth in staying in school and find out how to tap into the unique resiliency of each family. This session will address the McKinney-Vento law as it pertains to the services schools must provide and the rights it affords to parents & students in homeless situations. Sarita and Loretta have spent years working with homeless families and will provide essential information for you to be aware of as you work with this growing group of students. They will share practical tools and answer your questions so that you can create a better bridge between school and the rest of life for these families.

Strand: Engaging At-Risk Students; Foster Youth & Juvenile Detention; VetORC
Grade Level: K–12