Looking for ways to engage all scholars? Have you asked yourself lately how to motivate ALL learners? Well, this experiential learning session is for you! Student engagement sets the foundation for academic achievement, classroom management and a joyous culture. In this session, teachers will collaborate with other motivated educators to transform bland lesson plans into lessons your scholars will be jumping out of their seats for. From Fish Bowls to Hot Seat, we will explore the many ways to engage all scholars.
In this session we will discuss how to get rid of the element of surprise when scholars find out they are failing. We will identify how to effectively communicate: 1) What a grade is. We will define the word "grade" in the context of Democracy Prep. 2) What the grade means. We will figure out a way to explain what the number value of each grade means within Democracy Prep and the greater academic world. 3) How the value of the grade gets distributed at the trimester and annual level. We will figure out how to explain the meaning behind each trimester grade and how that factors into their overall yearly grade for every class. This is the time in which we will mathematically break-down each trimester clearly so that the weight of each trimester can be understood by scholars. Furthermore, this will be a time in which you will brainstorm with like-minded individuals to come up with a way to build this type of conversation and ways to measure scholar progress into the daily culture at Democracy Prep.
You plan your lessons, create engaging materials, and give clear directions… and there are still scholars who don’t understand what is happening. How do you support scholars who are still learning English? How can you accommodate or modify materials, especially if you don’t speak Spanish (or Mandinka?) Come to learn more about what it feels like to be an English Language Learner at DPPS, and how to support ELLs in the general education classroom, with elementary, middle, and high school break-out sessions to ensure you leave with ideas for specific accommodations and modifications to support our ELL scholars.
Do you believe in hands-on learning, but do not necessarily know how to execute it? In this session, we will discuss the importance of increasing hands-on learning activities, and we will create low-lift activities and mini-labs. By the end of the session, you will have a planned tangible activity and roll-out directions to be successful in the classroom. Please come prepared with your computer and future lessons to edit. Come join this session so you can bring the magic school bus in your classroom!
Want to maximize time for direct instruction? Looking to level-up your guided practice game? It's time to work on building effective guide practice into your direct instruction. When teachers effectively execute guided practice they are helping students activate their current schema for thinking about and through content challenges. When teachers don't execute this effectively, the rigor of instruction drops dramatically. Learn the criteria for successfully planning and executing guided practice. Get some practice in drafting guided practice and leave with some clear feedback.
In this session, we will practice six engaging and fun structures you can use on Monday: Timed Round Robin, All Write Round Robin, Fan N' Pick, Numbered Heads Together, Gallery Walk for mini-presentations, and Sage-and-Scribe.
Kagan Cooperative Learning pedagogy builds ratio so effectively because it relies upon four principles: Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Equal Participation, and Simultaneous Interaction. When these principles are followed, students are most able to take intellectual risks, solve problems creatively, collaborate rather than compete, and engage in rigorous critical thought.
These approaches not only significantly boost both participation and think ratio, they instill values of tolerance, empathy, community, and humor.
You plan your lessons, create engaging materials, and give clear directions… and there are still scholars who don’t understand what is happening. How do you support scholars who are still learning English? How can you accommodate or modify materials, especially if you don’t speak Spanish (or Mandinka?) Come to learn more about what it feels like to be an English Language Learner at DPPS, and how to support ELLs in the general education classroom, with elementary, middle, and high school break-out sessions to ensure you leave with ideas for specific accommodations and modifications to support our ELL scholars.
The clock is ticking, time is running out, and you haven’t gotten to the exit ticket yet. Your scholars are trying to escape the room and you kind of want to too.
Why not play into it? Break the monotony of your lessons and create an escape the room review session. Scholars work together and demonstrate mastery of the content by unlocking puzzles and solving mysteries. This activity promotes critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration.
In this session, you'll have a mini experience of an academic escape the room challenge. Then we will provide you with the structure and tools to plan your own.
Can your scholars make it in 50 minutes? The clock is ticking, and Trimester 1 exams are coming.
Have you ever sat down to grade your papers or exams, and realized that your scholars think that a two-word answer is sufficient for an open response? We have all felt the gap between explaining what high quality work looks like and actually equipping scholars to do high quality work. Come and learn how shared rubrics can help push scholars to write to their full potential in your classroom, and how you can leverage these rubrics to ensure horizontal alignment in your grade level or vertical alignment within your department.
Ok, so that was a bad pun about "normal"...even if it didn't register as such, this session could be for you! Statistics often get a bad rap as an unapproachable and indecipherable subject, but there are some fundamental ideas that can be useful for all adults when they are put into plain English. Understanding how numbers are used and abused is a type of power that we want our scholars to master, but one we also need to master for ourselves. Join us to learn some Statistical concepts that you can apply to your life regardless of background or current occupation.
What do you do with your teach doesn't yield student mastery? RETEACH! Want to maximize instructional time? It's time to get strategic with reteach. Learn the decision points for selecting reteach strategies. Get some practice in drafting reteach plans and leave with some clear feedback.
Have you ever had a student get confused in the classroom? Or run into a wall of misconceptions when teaching? In this session, we will dig into how to best plan for and anticipate misconceptions when doing your own intellectual prep. We will use and practice in-the-moment strategies as tools to respond to unanticipated scholar misconceptions during class.
Have you ever wondered why a scholar is writing strings of letters or doesn’t understand how to raise their hand? If so you have likely taught a SLIFE, scholars who have large gaps in their educational history and may enroll illiterate or at least 2 years below grade level literacy in any language. This session will discuss the academic modifications and the pathways we are developing to ensure SLIFE academic success from an asset-based viewpoint. Staff should be prepared to brainstorm collaboratively and will leave with next steps for supporting SLIFEs on their campuses.
Have you ever had a student get confused in the classroom? Or run into a wall of misconceptions when teaching? In this session, we will dig into how to best plan for and anticipate misconceptions when doing your own intellectual prep. We will use and practice in-the-moment strategies as tools to respond to unanticipated scholar misconceptions during class.
Are you an ELA teacher looking to support STEM, PE and Arts teachers at your school in incorporating close reading into their curriculum? Are you a STEM, PE or Arts teacher looking to bring close reading strategies into your content? If you answered yes, this session is for you! This session is designed to prepare teachers to execute Close Reading Bursts: short durations of Close Reading that occur in the midst of a STEM, PE or Arts lesson. Bursts allow students to practice the key skills of Close Reading—breaking down the language and structure of key lines to establish and analyze their meaning—in a focused and manageable amount of time. Participants in the session will develop understanding and strengthen skills with: How to intellectually prepare to lead a Close Reading Burst; How to write text-dependent questions that help students establish and analyze the meaning of challenging text; How to choose excerpts worthy of Close Reading Bursts from both fiction and non-fiction texts. Join us to get nerdy about cross-curricular close reading!
In this session participants will learn how to use grapple problems (structured exploratory learning activities) to teach essential content. Participants will experience a grapple activity from the perspective of scholars and then work to design grapple problems for their own classroom. Teachers from all content areas and grade levels are welcome. Differentiated lesson resources will be provided. Note: This PD is a slightly revised version of the one I lead from two years ago.
Have you ever sat down to grade your papers or exams, and realized that your scholars think that a two-word answer is sufficient for an open response? We have all felt the gap between explaining what high quality work looks like and actually equipping scholars to do high quality work. Come and learn how shared rubrics can help push scholars to write to their full potential in your classroom, and how you can leverage these rubrics to ensure horizontal alignment in your grade level or vertical alignment within your department.
What do we mean when we say “global competence?” Why is it important for our scholars, both now and as they prepare for college and careers? In an increasingly interconnected world, being globally competent is no longer a luxury but a necessity. This session will explore the value of global education for all scholars, both in service of educational equity and in preparing scholars for a life of active citizenship. We’ll explore resources that DREAM team members can utilize on their campuses and in their classrooms to advance global citizenship across all grade levels. Attendees will leave with concrete ideas and proposals that can be shared with leaders and colleagues to implement with ease back on campus.
Our students are inundated daily with information: powerpoints, grades, handouts, flyers, and so much more. While this information is important, your message will be lost if not delivered in an aesthetically pleasing, succinct, and sticky way that best allows students to internalize and retain the information provided. In this session, you will learn how to make your materials POP, download fonts, add pizzazz to powerpoints (especially lecture heavy classes, town halls, etc.), and jazz up handouts.
What do you do with your teach doesn't yield student mastery? RETEACH! Want to maximize instructional time? It's time to get strategic with reteach. Learn the decision points for selecting reteach strategies. Get some practice in drafting reteach plans and leave with some clear feedback.
