2009 Friday workshops

Friday keynote

Talk About Teaching, with Charlotte Danielson
Ballroom A
Ongoing informal professional conversations are the key to developing a culture of inquiry, support and professional development, renowned educator Charlotte Danielson believes. She will talk about approaches to better communication that can lead to more effective teaching and improved classroom instruction and student achievement.

Presenter: Charlotte Danielson, educational consultant and author, www.danielsongroup.org

Friday workshop sessions

Please note:

All sessions run from 10 a.m. till noon Friday, Oct. 16, at Saint Paul RiverCentre.
The first three session may fulfill specific state requirements for license renewal.

Understanding the Mental Health Challenges Facing Our Children: Basic Guidelines for K-12 Educators
Rooms 2-3
Child and adolescent mental health needs often reveal themselves first in the classroom to educators who are already overburdened with other responsibilities. This session highlights contemporary mental health issues prevalent in our schools, reviews basic diagnostic categories and provides simple tips for understanding and responding to many of these challenges. This workshop meets licensure requirements for continuing education units in understanding the key warning signs of early-onset mental illness in students.

Presenter: Walter Roberts, professor of counselor education, Minnesota State University, Mankato, http://sbs.mnsu.edu

More Time to Teach: Responding to Student Behavior
Rooms 5-6
Research indicates educators are losing half the teaching day responding to student behavior. At times, these responses can be just as disruptive as the behavior and actually escalate the conflict. Get an introduction to a clear system for responding to student behavior and learn techniques to bring the joy back into your teaching.

Presenters: Jeff Fink and Jon Halpern, founders and educators, ChildSense, www.childsense.net

Reading Relicensure Seminar
Rooms 7-8
Using materials from the AFT Educational Research & Dissemination program, this seminar focuses on the research and exemplary practices that help students acquire strong reading comprehension skills. Examine, discuss and evaluate the appropriate application of a range of instructional strategies, from explicit to implicit, for teaching comprehension skills. This seminar is designed to meet the Minnesota state relicensure requirement for further reading preparation.

Presenters: Carol Dahl and Jean Loerzel, ER&D trainers, St. Francis School District

TALL Turns 10: The Many Faces of Teacher Leadership
Rooms 10-11
Teachers lead in many ways every day. Participants in the TALL program will celebrate 10 years of Teachers as Learners and Leaders and learn more from Charlotte Danielson about the many faces of teacher leadership. Note: This session is by invitation.

Presenter: Charlotte Danielson, educational consultant and author