Staff
Development Specializing in Differentiated Instruction
from Pieces of Learning
Janet Aaker Smith's Topics
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Workshop Descriptions
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1. Grade levels: All
GIGGLES AND CHUCKLES: HUMOR IN THE DIFFERENTIATED AND THINKING CLASSROOM
Learning and laughter go hand-in-hand. Humor grabs attention, relieves boredom and stress, and promotes learning that is dramatic and long lasting. This session, anchored in critical and creative thinking strategies, provides a spirited exploration of ways to cultivate humor in the learning environment.
These techniques will motivate and challenge your students as well as promote cooperation and self-confidence.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Leave energized, with a treasure chest full of:
Warm up activities Fun grouping strategies Questioning strategies Using visual stimuli Logic puzzles Problem solving activities Kinesthetic activities for reinforcement and practice How to write content related jokes and riddles Extemporaneous speaking activities Attention grabbers Sponge activities Ways to promote reflectionHUMOR . . . . . . . . .FREE
SILLINESS . . . . . …OPTIONAL
HOT RESULTS . . . PRICELESS
(Higher Order Thinking)
POL recommended book: 90 Instructional Strategies
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RTI and Differentiated Instruction: How They Work Together
What should teachers do to meet the needs of all students, including those who struggle academically or behaviorally? How do we know when interventions are working and when they are not? The RTI approach uses research-based interventions and monitors each student’s progress toward success. Differentiation is a way to design curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of each student. These two concepts are a natural pairing in helping teachers meet individual student needs.
In this workshop, learn how to implement a number of practical differentiation strategies. Find ways to accommodate different learning styles and modalities. Understand how to use pre-assessments to determine individual student strengths and weaknesses and formative assessments to assess and monitor the effect of each strategy on individual students. You will leave this workshop with many strategies and interventions you can use immediately.
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2. Grade levels: K-8 or Elementary
KIDS UNDER CONSTRUCTION! BRAIN COMPATIBLE CLASSROOMSTeaching the way the brain learns best is the focus of this workshop. Practical ideas, strategies, and energizers will provide educators with the necessary tools for creating a brain-based classroom. Using brain-based principles, the audience will actively participate in strategies that:
create the best climate for learning engage emotions to increase attention and memory structure interactions with learning allow for choice and variety create challenge, not stress address how the brain processes information establish a brain-based approach to work in your classroom and foster a love of learning in all your students expand your repertoire of brain compatible strategies to maximize student successParticipants will leave energized!
POL recommended books:
90 Instructional
Strategies for the Classroom
Challenging Puzzles:
Social Studies
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3. Grade levels: 3-8 is best or Elementary
EXTREME MAKEOVER: BRAIN COMPATIBLE DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION (DI)
Imagine an environment where thinking is abstract, complex, respected, and stimulated; where learning is active and never passive and where learners are immersed in the joy of discovery. Differentiated instruction provides a number of different options for learning for students with diverse abilities and needs. DI offers opportunities for your students to learn through many ways of knowing and a variety of ways to express what one knows. In this hands-on practical workshop you will learn research-based, teacher-tested ideas and techniques to ensure that all students are challenged in your mixed-ability classroom.
Participants will leave with a better understanding of:
The basic principles related to differentiation How to modify the content How to vary the process by recognizing the learning profile of each student How to use thinking models How to vary student products by creating choice and a variety opportunities How to modify assessments to meet the needs of all students How to enrich the physical learning environment How to ensure a safe, stress-free classroom climate How to vary presentation techniquesParticipants will leave with practical strategies that you can use immediately
POL recommended books:
90 Instructional
Strategies for the Classroom
Challenging Puzzles:
Social Studies
Activities and Assessments for the
Differ entiated Classroom.
The Best of Nancy
Polette
Research to Knock
Your Teacher’s Socks Off
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4. Grade levels: 5-8 or Middle School
CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE! -THE MIDDLE YEARS OF SCHOOLINGThis hands-on, interactive workshop explores creative ways to support adolescents by enhancing one’s understanding of social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development of 10 -15-year-olds.
The workshop audience will participate in:
- active learning strategies to engage and motivate
- a range of critical and creative thinking strategies
- cooperative learning structures that foster significant learning
- problem solving techniques
- learning styles and Multiple Intelligence strategies
- designing learning experiences that engage and motivate students in the middle years of schooling
Teachers will leave with a better understanding of the developmental issues associated with students in Middle grades along with countless research-based, tried and true strategies to deal with this diverse group of kids.
POL recommended books:
90 Instructional
Strategies for the Classroom
Challenging Puzzles:
Social Studies
Activities and Assessments for the
Differ entiated Classroom.
Demystifying
Differentiation in Middle School
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5. Grade levels: K-8
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND . . . THE GIFTED!
This session focus is on the Nature and Needs of gifted and talented learners. Key information addressed will include:
Characteristics and behaviors and their effect on academic and social settings Characteristics of under-represented groups of gifted and talented children: underachievers, females, learning disabled, children in poverty, culturally diverse children Recognition and identification procedures Models and theories of intelligence Case studies concerning gifted individuals Myths and beliefs regarding gifted childrenTeachers will leave with an understanding of “who are the gifted and talented,” the needs of gifted students, and classroom strategies to help with these concerns. This is an excellent workshop for teachers new to gifted education, educators who would like a refresher course, or Gifted Coordinators who may need to provide professional development to teachers in their school districts on this topic.
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6. Grade levels: 3-8
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO . . . EXTEND, ENRICH AND CHALLENGE! Challenging Puzzles for Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts
Chris Columbus, Abraham Lincoln, and Davy Crockett attended the Gifted and Talented Association Conference to learn more about gifted education. Each chose a different workshop: Giggles and Chuckles, Simply the Best, and You Have the Right, but not necessarily in that order. Find out who went to a workshop on extending standards. But wait! There’s more….. in which hand is the Statue of Liberty's torch? When you walk, does your left arm swing with your right or left leg? ? In this workshop you will use creative strategies and puzzles to extend the Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts standards in your classroom.
Examples of logic puzzles will be provided and modeled throughout the workshop. Teachers will actively participate in writing and solving logic problems linked to subject/content areas and state assessment standards. Logic puzzles are an excellent tool to promote the use of research. Teachers are encouraged to bring content information, such as vocabulary and important concepts about their subject matter, to help in writing puzzles that they can use immediately in the classroom.
POL recommended books:
90 Instructional
Strategies for the Classroom
Challenging Puzzles:
Social Studies
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7. Grade levels: 3-8 or Elementary
SIMPLY THE BEST! INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES THAT WORK!
Tried and true instructional strategies for all students that are energizing and practical will be presented in this workshop based on brain research and best practices. Each strategy will increase engagement and encourage active learning, which is the best way to empower students, develop social skills, and improve learning outcomes. Leave with strategies to use immediately with your students and be prepared to have FUN!
Participants will
Experience a variety of active learning strategies Recognize each activity’s link to brain research and its connection to learners Learn the best ways to promote the use of creative and critical thinking Discover ways to motivate student learning Enhance the joy of learning in the classroom Maximize student engagementThese brain- linked strategies include:
Activating prior knowledge Challenge and problem solving Engaging emotions Feedback, reflection, evaluation Mind-body links Pattern seeking Social interaction Attention and focus Choice Multiple memory pathways Humor Novelty PracticeEducators will leave with a plethora of strategies to motivate even your most reluctant learners.
POL recommended books:
90 Instructional Strategies for the Classroom
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8. Grade
levels: 3-8 or 2-6
Length: One Day Max Audience: 50
APTITUDE, ALTITUDE AND ATTITUDE: ON THE STRAIGHT AND LEVEL , OR NOT!
Fasten your seatbelts; we are cleared for takeoff! Time will fly in this workshop that is packed with strategies and activities to differentiate science curriculum that are applicable to ALL disciplines. Learn about Life’s Runway, Amazing Aerobatics, and Dead Reckoning Math. Come Fly in style! No jetlag guaranteed. The content that will be addressed in this workshop includes differentiated strategies that can be used with gifted students in special programs or with all students in a regular classroom. This workshop is based on learning/brain processing theory and principles of differentiation.
As a result of participating and fully engaging in this workshop participants will have a better understanding of
the concept of learning styles and how to use this theory to create differentiated activities the research in brain-compatible learning and its correlation to learning styles instructional strategies that match individual learning style multiple pathways of memoryPOL recommended books:
90 Instructional Strategies for the Classroom
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9. Grade levels: K-8
GIFTED STUDENTS, COOPERATION, AND PROBLEM SOLVING
This session addresses the role of cooperative groups and activities appropriate for gifted and talented learners with an emphasis on cooperative learning techniques for developing students’ problem solving skills. Participants will learn, practice, and refine several strategies for incorporating collaborative activities designed to increase student retention and ownership over their learning. Participants will leave with strategies to use with gifted students in the regular classroom or in special programs.
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ENGAGING STUDENT LEARNING THROUGH THE USE OF CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING STRATEGIES
Let’s hook our students into the learning by using strategies that are challenging, novel, and emotionally charged with fun! This active workshop will involve participants in ways to “hook” students into thinking and teach them the language of thinking. Critical and creative thinking are essential ingredients in productive problem solving and mindful decision-making. By deliberately focusing attention on both the critical and creative nature of thinking, students are encouraged to dream and imagine new visions as well as critique present choices. Teachers will leave with strategies to establish a classroom environment for thinking that will ‘Hook’ the kids into learning the first day of school.
POL recommended books:
90 Instructional Strategies for the Classroom
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10. Grade levels: K-8 or Elementary
CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS
Humor , risk taking, trust, respect, and cooperation - these are a few of the elements of a successful classroom environment. Recent discoveries in cognitive neuroscience suggest that in order for students to connect with curriculum concepts and new information they must be in a positive state that enables them to connect new information to previous learning experiences. This active session includes strategies and exciting activities to establish the best learning environments for our students and how to manage classrooms more effectively beginning with the first day of school. This fast-paced and theory-based workshop will address:
Classroom procedures The importance of wait time Safe risk taking Hooking students into the learning The best learning states Constructivist learning theory Critical and creative thinkingTeachers will leave with practical strategies that can be used in their classrooms the very next day.
POL recommended books:
90 Instructional Strategies for the Classroom
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11. Grade levels: K-8 or Elementary
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES THEORY
How are you smart? This workshop addresses how the theory of Multiple Intelligences can be used to maximize student learning and academic confidence. Participants will learn how to use the MI framework to develop lessons while enhancing their skill in instructional design and authentic forms of assessment.
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KEYNOTES
Humor in the Classroom
What is more contagious than a cough, sniffle, or sneeze? LAUGHTER! Janet, former Director of the Minds Unlimited Gifted Enrichment Program at the University of Melbourne, Australia, author, and staff development presenter for Pieces of Learning, shares gifted humor in the classroom and explores techniques that motivate and challenge. Come prepared to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and boost your immune system while giggling and chuckling!
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My Top 10 List of What I Have Learned from Teaching Gifted Students - But I only Remember 5!
Janet will share the most important lessons she has learned from 25 years of working with gifted students, their parents, and teachers. This session will leave you thinking and reflecting on the power of one: not the teacher, but the student.
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Everyone has a brain. Where did I leave mine?
Increase your brain’s activity! Active brains keep you young, help with memory loss, and reduce stress in our everyday lives. Former Director of the Minds Unlimited Gifted Enrichment Program at the University of Melbourne, Australia, author, and staff development presenter for Pieces of Learning, Janet Aaker Smith will present recent neuroscience research related to teaching and learning that will keep you and your students feeling good all over. You’ll CELLabrate.
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PARENTS
LIFELONG LEARNING – Model it!
How do you support and facilitate your child’s talents and interests? What skills are important in the journey of lifelong learning? This workshop will provide strategies to support your gifted child at home and school. Are you a lifelong learner?
www.piecesoflearning.com
www.differentiatedresources.com
© Copyright 2009
Pieces of Learning
Division of Creative Learning
Consultants, Inc.