All sessions can be delivered as keynotes or as workshops from 60 minutes in length to a full day. Sessions will be customized to meet the needs of your group or conference theme.

Differentiated Instruction for Adult Learners

When we differentiate instruction, we are being both generally effective with the group and specifically responsive to the individual. That is a tall order for the classroom teacher and an even greater challenge for the school or district administrator called on to provide instructional leadership and support to staff.

In this session we will look at how leaders can differentiate their instruction so that adult learning is deeper and more meaningful regardless of the topic being studied.

Creating and Sustaining an Evidence-Based Culture

An evidence-based culture is a culture of inquiry, continuous improvement, continuous learning, collaboration, and accountability.

In this workshop participants experience simple processes that can be easily applied in a school, department, district, or professional learning community to help people learn to analyze data, interpret data, and take effective action.

Helping Teachers Make Sense of Assessment

In recent years teachers have been called on to shift their focus from grading student work to ongoing use of a wide variety of assessment tools that will inform instruction.

This workshop provides school and district leaders with the knowledge and strategies needed to support teachers in the acquisition of a new set of assessment skills.

Signs of Success

Vital behaviours are the specific, high leverage actions that are required for successful implementation of a new practice or innovation.

In this session participants will use backward design to identify the specific vital behaviours necessary to success in their work environment. Then we will explore the actions leaders can take to develop, assess, and celebrate the existence of these behaviours in their schools, departments, and districts.

Teacher Talk that Makes a Difference

Socrates and his colleagues so fervently believed in the power of the group to advance thinking that they established principles of conversation that would maintain a sense of community. These principles were referred to as Koinonia which means “spirit of fellowship.”

In this session, we will look at four Koinonia—three from Socrates’ time, and one added for the 21st century. And we will consider supports for teacher talk from post-it notes on the wall of the staffroom to tweets and discussion forums.

Tuned in Teachers → Tuned in Learners

Few educators would dispute these two research findings:

1. Engaged students experience higher levels of achievement than disengaged students.

2. With very few exceptions, if teachers aren’t engaged, their students won’t be either.

As school leaders or district facilitators of adult learning, you have both the responsibility and the opportunity to create and sustain conditions that are supportive of teacher and student engagement. These conditions can be summarized under 5 C’s: competence, creativity, community, context, and challenge. In this workshop, we will examine processes and structures that can be utilized in each of these areas. The workshop will be differentiated to address the role-specific needs of participants.