Monday, October 27 - 8:30 a.m.
Harry Wong, Ed. D.

The Effective Teacher
Harry Wong is, arguably, the most motiva- tional speaker in education. His techniques have been adapted by thousands of educators for success in their schools and classrooms, and he is credited with renewing entire schools and rescuing countless frustrated teachers. He is the author of The First Days of School, which has sold three million copies, and writes a monthly column for www.teachers.net.  Harry Wong will explain that the single greatest effect on student achievement is the effectiveness of the teacher. Effective teachers have a classroom that is structured and organized and CONSISTENT in how the classroom is run. He will show what he and others do to ensure student success. He has been called Mr. Practicality for his common-sense, research-based, no-cost approach to managing a classroom for high level student success.

Make-N-Take Mania with the Bag Ladies
Karen Simmons and Cindy Guinn
The Bag Ladies are classroom teachers who present Make-N-Take workshops and create hands-on projects for each of their seventeen thematic units for grades K-6. In this session, you will fill a portfolio full with activities that teach the standards and organize students the Bag Ladies' way!! Across the curriculum, across the grade levels, this hands-on workshop will provide attendees with all new projects to make learning, teaching, and testing fun.

Teaching the Big Ideas in the Elementary School
Melissa H. Lara
Math, science, reading, writing, social studies, art, music…..teach it all and teach it well! How can we do it all in our limited time? One method to meet this challenge is through integrated concept-based curriculum and instruction. During this interactive session, participants will review the research-based support for integrated concept-based curriculum and instruction. Participants will also discover how to develop units based on the NCSCOS and incorporate 21st century skills. Resource information and sample units will be shared.

The Dynamic Duo: Putting the Punch in Math Instruction
Laura Candler
How can you ensure that every math lesson “packs a punch”? Attend this workshop and discover the “dynamic duo” of math instruction: Mastery Learning and Cooperative Problem Solving. Educators who attend this pre-conference session will discover the secrets of the Mastery Learning model, a simple but powerful method that ensures success for all learners. Participants will experience the excitement of cooperative problem solving and will learn how to incorporate these methods on a daily basis. Using fun, hands-on activities, Laura will share practical, easy-to-use strategies to close achievement gaps and enable ALL students to excel in math!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Managing Instruction Sets the Pace!
Kathy Kennedy
Enthusiasm is contagious! Educators attending this pre-conference session will be empowered to foster the emotional intelligence of students in the classroom, thus creating a positive climate conducive to teaching and learning. Current brain research indicates that fear is detrimental to optimal learning and brain development. In this interactive and fun session, participants will learn numerous strategies to improve classroom management and reduce fear by learning how to use kinesthetic symbols, brain breaks, and intelligence shifts. These tools will enable the teacher to effectively manage daily instruction and promote increased student academic success. Don't miss this session....you'll be glad you attended!

Introduction to STELLAR Habits
Liz Warner
Second Language Acquisition Basics
Habit 1: Share the content objective for every lesson.
Habit 2: Focus on vocabulary before, during, and after the lesson.
Habit 3: Facilitate student use of academic English.
Habit 4: Support students in reading challenging text.
Habit 5: Guide students in academic writing.

Application in your classroom: Putting it all in your daily lessons
Objectives:

• I can recognize how practicing five STELLAR habits inform my teaching of ELLs by applying strategies in my lesson planning.

• I can determine the difference in BICS (Social language) and CALP (academic language) by describing my own language to a partner.

• I can practice writing content objectives that differentiate for different levels of language proficiency.

• I can apply vocabulary strategies helpful to ELLs by including them in lesson planning.

• I can orally describe ways the facilitation of student use of academic English in my classroom will help my students learn Academic English.

• I can learn strategies for supporting students in reading challenging text.

• I can learn strategies for guiding academic writing in my classroom