Data Driven Decision Making

Designed to help schools analyze their assessment data and determine the “what now”.  Better data helps you make better decisions and better decisions yield better results and that’s the bottom line for school systems.

If you’re going to draw conclusions from data that are meaningful and useful, you have to get down under those numbers, break them apart, look at trends, and see how the information crosses grade-levels, schools, classrooms, and kids.  You’ve got to have time to really study data and look at what’s underneath those numbers.  Recommended for all teachers in a building or district.

Encourages teachers to make practical applications of the finding of learning style theorists and neuroscientists.  Imagine raising student achievement simply by meeting the learning style of students and increasing subject matter understanding!  Years of research confirms that certain teaching tools awaken the desire to learn in students by engaging their brains and once the brain is engaged, synthesis and retention of information increases.  Appropriate for K-12 teachers. << Back

Based on Robert Marzano’s book, “Classroom Management That Works, this professional development is designed to establish the importance of rules and procedures in the classrooms, discusses habits of effective teachers, student-teacher relationships, and the importance of starting off a strong school year.  Appropriate for all grades.

Designed to implement a classroom culture based on consistent routines and organization.  Based on the three C’s; Collaboration to help students learn with and from each other; Content that motivates students to learn; and Choices that are given to students about what they want to learn.  Appropriate for teachers of grades K-6. << Back

Total Instructional Alignment means assuring that the material taught in the school matches the standards and assessments set by the state or district for specific grade levels. It is a way of "mapping" the curriculum onto the standards to be sure that the school is teaching the content that is expected. In states that use tests to assess student mastery, schools may also align their curriculum with the content of the test to assure that students have studied the required content before taking the tests.  In this professional development, teachers literally bring all the tools they use to teach with (texts, supplementary materials, etc.) and align their curriculum with the state standards.  Consultants work with teachers to help streamline the and understand the importance of the process.

The ability to take data and use it to inform instruction and close the achievement gap is invaluable as a tool.  This workshop shows how to use each school’s own data to initiate change and increase student achievement.

This professional development is designed to let teachers see that they can provide students with responsive, differentiated instruction without a lot of time and effort.  This type of thinking challenges the “one size fits all” way of thinking.  All students are different and this requires teachers to assess their learning styles and know what students in order to learn.  Appropriate for all teachers.

Do your students have the skill or desire to engage in deep, enlightening discussions?  The benefits and importance of Socratic seminars are widely recognized, but to this point teachers have struggled with just exactly how to make them happen successfully in the classroom. Effectively implemented, Socratic seminars enhance reading comprehension, promote listening and speaking skills, and build better classroom community and conflict resolution skills. As our classrooms and our schools grow increasingly focused on meeting high standards and differentiating instruction for a wide variety of student needs and learning styles, Socratic seminars offer an essential classroom tool for meeting these goals.  Recommended for teachers of all content areas in grades 6-12.

Early Intervention in the Delivery of Curriculum

Includes strategies and activities focused on the math standards as outlined by the Arkansas Math Curriculum Framework.  Hands-on activities, targeted instruction, and strategies for increasing and retaining math concepts and vocabulary is offered.  Teachers are shown how to use everyday materials to increase academic achievement.  Appropriate for K-12 teachers.

This professional development is designed to help (3^rd – 9^th grade) math students with the abstract concept of Algebra in a visual way.  It is designed to help students clearly “see” how to solve Algebraic problems using models of the problem instead of variables.  Upper elementary and Jr. High math teachers will be able to use this method immediately upon returning to their math classes

This workshop is designed to clarify the NCTM Content and Process Standards.  It gives involved strategies to help all teachers in grades K-8 with Algebraic concepts including: Problem Solving, Visual Representations, Processing Problem Information, Memory, Algebraic Reasoning, Self Monitoring, and Using Mnemonics & Graphic Organizers for better recall of information.  Clear examples of the strategies are presented to participants to prepare them to take them to their classrooms after the workshop. << Back

A recent review of the research concluded that there was a positive and convincing relationship between family involvement and benefits for students, including improved academic achievement.  Students with involved parents have higher grades and test scores, enroll in higher level programs, are more likely to be promoted, pass their classes and earn credits, have better attendance, have better social skills and behavior, and graduate and go on to college at higher rates than those with less involved parents.  These finding hold up regardless of income or background.  This workshop focuses on strategies and activities to help teachers and parents become more involved and more willing to share the responsibility for each student.  Appropriate for K-12 teaches. << Back

Strategies for increasing vocabulary and content background knowledge.  Includes four key components of adolescent literacy including motivation, research based strategies, reading and writing across the content areas, and organizational support.  Appropriate for all 6^th and up content area teachers.

Professional development based on the Cris Tovani book “I Read It, But I Don’t Get It”.  Teaching comprehension strategies to older students who may be word callers and can decode text, but still do not comprehend what they read.  Requires teachers to rethink their instructional roles and examine current teaching methods and realize that the very fact that they can read makes them something of a reading expert.  Appropriate for all 6^th and up.

An excellent professional development based on the “Strategies That Work” book by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis.  Shows teachers how to explicitly teach thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers.  Is an active and interactive workshop.  Appropriate for 3^rd grade and up.

Text comprehension strategies appropriate for challenges met by students in grade K-2.  Challenges for young readers include text ( density of propositions, level of vocabulary, length of sentences, organization

According to the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement in their “Put Reading First” publication, because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means.  Fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time. A recent large-scale study by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) found that 44% of representative sample of the nation’s fourth graders were low in fluency.  The study also found a close relationship between fluency and reading comprehension.  Students who scored lower on measures of fluency also scored lower on measures of comprehension, suggesting that fluency is a neglected reading skill in many American classrooms, affecting many students’ reading comprehension.  This workshop provides teachers with strategies for teaching fluency skills that students can use when reading.  Appropriate for teachers of grades K-3.

News flash!!! Because of television, advertising, and the Internet, the primary literacy of the 21st century will be visual. It is no longer enough to read and write text--students must learn to process both words and pictures. They must be able to move fluently between text and images, between literal and figurative words.  Using the insights of Marc Prensky (Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives) as a springboard, this professional development opportunity explores the work of Lynell Burmark and others on the topic of visual literacy.  The information in this session is intended to open our eyes to the fascinating field of visual literacy and show classroom teachers how to use an image-rich curriculum to reach more students and teach them more quickly and meaningfully. Appropriate for all teachers.

Although children learn the meanings of most words indirectly by engaging in daily oral language,

Training in definitions or synonyms for new vocabulary only has not improved students’ understanding of texts that contains new vocabulary words.  In addition, drill-and-practice methods, which involve multiple repetitions of the same type of information about a target word using only associative processing does not appear to have reliable effects on comprehension.  Professional development to provide teachers with strategies to give students opportunities for vocabulary teaching that moves beyond a vocabulary test on Friday.  Appropriate for teachers of grades 4 and up. << Back

Using Technology With Classroom Instruction That Works

Using the insights of Marc Prensky Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives) as a springboard, this session is designed to introduce participants to a variety of ways in which the research-based strategies in Classroom Instruction That Works can be used with such educational technologies as word processing and spreadsheet applications, multimedia, data collection tools, communication software, and the Internet.  Presenters will link the nine categories of strategies from Marzano’s work with common educational technology, offering hundreds of lesson-planning ideas and strategies for every grade level and subject. Discover new educational tools that support research-based instruction, and learn new ways to use technologies you already know.  Recommended for teachers in all content areas of middle and high school. << Back

A professional development designed for a group of teachers, a building, or a district in order to effect change in a writing program.  Step-up is about direct instruction in writing, with modeling, guiding practice, and then moving on to independent practice.   Step-up is a multi-sensory approach using color, word lists, informal outlines, examples, and is about moving in small steps.  This approach implements the steps in the writing process, the traits of good writing such as content, style, sentence structure, etc., and builds a common language and expectations among teachers and across grades and buildings in a district. Appropriate for K-12.

Why early writing?  Because research shows that children who write before they read become better readers than those who don’t.  This professional development discusses the eight rules that make an effective writing classroom.  Appropriate for K-1 teachers.

If this intervention appears in you ACSIP plan, how are you fulfilling your obligation?  This session is designed for teachers who aren’t sure what good writing looks like and need some help setting the bar for quality writing in biology, American history, fine arts, nutrition, health, woodworking, or any other subject area that doesn’t take place in an English classroom.  Participants should bring a text from their content area and be prepared to design practical lesson practical lesson plans featuring Marzano’s top two high-yield strategies.  Step-Up To Writing activities and templates will instill confidence in the reluctant participants.  Recommended for grades 4-12. << Back

It takes passion, persistence, and perseverance to build a professional learning community.  You have to be able to open up, to share, to laugh, and to cry together.  This professional development occurs across time with a facilitator meeting each time with staff and administrators.  Members of the team will learn appropriate strategies for their students, have book studies and book discussions, and come to view each other as valuable professionals rather than just another teacher in the building.  Appropriate for all teachers and administrators.

For decades, Stephen Covey has facilitated positive change in corporations, schools, homes, and individual lives.  This light-hearted session puts a twist on Covey’s 7 Habits approach by condensing the work of highly regarded speaker and author Todd Whitaker and various educational researchers into seven “habits” guaranteed to promote you to the upper echelon of the world’s most rewarding profession.  Successfully internalizing and implementing these habits will change your life both in and out of the classroom. But most importantly, the habits of highly effective teachers will enhance the lives of every student you teach.  For all teachers! << Back

This workshop provides participants with creative and innovative ways to use Marzano’s 9-High Yield Strategies in the classroom.  The Marzano Strategies are research based and provide the most effective way to improve learning, assessment and student engagement in the classroom.  The strategies include: Identifying Similarities and Differences; Cooperative Learning; Cues, Questions, and Advanced Organizers; Homework and Practice; Non-linguistic Representation; Reinforcing Effort and Providing Feedback; Summarizing and Note-Taking; Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback; and Generating and Testing Hypothesis.  This workshop  can be done in either one (1) or two (2) days depending on the depth, clarity, and number of concrete examples given to participants.

This workshop provides teachers who are new to the profession with legal issues that they will undoubtedly face sometime during their career.  It will give the teachers a thorough understanding of both Federal and

This half-day workshop will help prepare teachers and paraprofessionals to work with students of all ages regarding the hazards of drug experimentation and use.  It is a lively workshop that will be useful to teacher (especially in the elementary) grades.  Title IV (Safe and Drug Free Schools) funds can pay for this PD along with the material which go along with the workshop. << Back