South of the River Learning Academy

1. Humor is a Tool. Have You Sharpened Yours?

Instructor: Stevie Ray
Grade Level: General
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

The ability to create laughter can make teaching easier and much more effective. The act of laughter reduces stress, improves retention, and smoothes communication. It may seem like some people are just born with the gift of humor, not true. You can learn the fine art of creating laughter. Stevie Ray is the only person in the country to create an actual college degree to study humor and author of, “What We Laugh At…and Why.” In this fun and interactive session you will learn secrets of the Four Laws of Laughter, the Three Conditions of Humor, and the most common mistakes people make when using humor.

2. Setting Kids Up for Success in Algebra

Instructor: Bob Hazen
Grade Level: K-3
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. This will be a true WORKSHOP! You will walk out really knowing something helpful or practical about teaching arithmetic with algebra in mind¬—practical, enduring, multi-sensory ways to teach elementary math in ways that set up kids for success in algebra. Use kid-tested, user-friendly math principles that connect elementary math across grades and across topics. Learn how to have a high degree of connectedness for you and your students among what is done with manipulatives, what is said with words, and what is written with symbols.

3. The Daily Five

Instructor: Carrie Sauber
Grade Level: PreK-2
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

This class will focus on the Daily Five: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, Spelling/Word Work. Learn five daily and effective techniques to meaningfully engage students during your literacy block. The Daily Five is easy to incorporate, realistic and teacher friendly. Note: If you own the book, Daily Five, by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser “The Sisters”, please bring it to class with you. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

4. Energizing Classroom Success: The Nurtured Heart Approach

Instructor: Pat Bethke
Grade Level: Pre K-K
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

The Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA) is based on strategies that will positively transform even the most challenging behaviors in children. The NHA shifts classroom culture through the appreciation of positive student behaviors. In turn, students develop inner wealth, which generates resistance to negative behaviors. It creates a respectful and cooperative learning environment in which students become invested and engaged in the learning process. This is an approach that truly nourishes all children and young adults. This session addresses the behavior licensure requirement.

5. Put the POW! In PowerPoint

Instructor: Shawn Brandt
Grade Level: K-6
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Anyone can create a PowerPoint… the trick is creating an effective presentation. Learn how to enhance presentations with pictures, transitions, animation, hyperlinks, video, and narration. Use review games and project-based learning to assess student learning. Participants will receive hands-on instruction, step-by-step tip sheets, and a website resource containing links to PowerPoint project ideas and templates.

6. Using Question-Answer-Relationship to Enhance Comprehension & Test Taking

Instructor: Kristin Scherman
Grade Level: 4-6
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

This class will explore ways to embed QAR into classroom discussion. The embedded QAR vocabulary gives teachers and students a language for talking about the largely invisible process that involves listening and reading comprehension across grade and content areas. Participants will walk away with a framework for implementing QAR within their instruction. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

7. Writer’s Workshop: Creating the Ultimate Writing Experience for Kids

Instructor: Becky Gainey
Grade Level: 3-6
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

This session will provide you with the tools needed to teach writing in the workshop format. Learn the elements of Writer’s Workshop as well as ways to plan for a year of writing. Discover how important it is for teachers to write themselves, and the power of keeping a writer’s notebook. You will come away with many practical ideas to take back to your writing classroom!

8. ADD/ADHD: Ask the Dynamic Duo/About Difficult Happy Dudes

Instructor: Jill Kuepker & Sara Murr
Grade Level: 5-8
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Come join this session led by a currently practicing middle school social worker and a grade 6-8 English/social studies teacher. Acquire information about the common learning problems children with attention difficulties face and what a pivotal role educators play in these students’ academic success. Leave this workshop with practical interventions and accommodations that will benefit the many children who struggle with focus issues in school. Time will be made available to answer questions and to discuss your concerns. This session addresses the behavior or accom/mod licensure requirement.

9. Cornell Notes, Philosophical Chairs, and Socratic Seminars

Instructor: Melanie Smieja
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. This class will introduce you to strategies that have proven useful in a diverse classroom. These strategies provide our students with a chance to improve organization, study skills, and higher-level-discussion techniques. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

10. Music and the Mind

Instructor: Kyle Pederson
Grade Level: General
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. You've heard that music, rhythm, and song can be powerful teaching tools for any content area. Now experience these strategies first hand, and learn how to incorporate them into your teaching. Come to this low-risk, low-stress, high-reward session to expand your repertoire of methods and spur your creativity. Explore the following strategies (among others): chanting, supermemory, music, echo echo, lyric look, and flashcard rap. This session addresses the accom/mod licensure requirement.

11. The Art and Science of Social Emotional Learning

Instructor: Char Myklebust
Grade Level: General
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

This session will explore evidence-based curricula demonstrated to increase academic achievement, student engagement, and empathy. Participants will experience and practice core lessons from the Hawn Foundation MindUP Program; designed to increase focus and attention and to reduce student stress. Highlighted strategies are effective with regular and special education students alike. This session incorporates positive psychology and the neuroscience of joy. This session addresses the behavior licensure requirement.

12. Guided Math: Ideas to Differentiate Small-Group Instruction During Math

Instructor: Carrie Sauber
Grade Level: K-3
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

This course will provide strategies for educators to manage classroom time and provide resources to support small group math instruction. I will also be using some CGI examples, talking about assessment and how it fits into the flexible grouping of these groups, tips for how to keep the rest of the kiddos engaged during the small group instruction time and how to get kids to think, and talk about math. This session addresses the accom/mod licensure requirement.

13. Writer’s Workshop: Creating the Ultimate Writing Experience for Kids

Instructor: Ann Griffin
Grade Level: K-2
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Together we will look at beginning the year with a strong Writer’s Workshop identifying the rituals and routines that help students become independent writers. We will look at various units of study that can be used throughout the year: Small Moments, Writing for Readers, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Realistic Fiction, and Letter Writing.

14. The Reading-Writing Connection

Instructor: Patti Greene
Grade Level: K-6
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. It makes sense and saves time to teach reading and writing concurrently. The thinking strategies taught in the two subjects enhance each other. Readers ask questions while reading; they wonder about the writer's message. Writers anticipate questions their readers may have while composing text or revising. Through guided practice, these thinking strategies will become a habit of mind for students. Writing from the perspective of a reader and reading from the perspective of a writer, gives a student the literate edge. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

15. Cool Tech Tools: Engaging Students for Academic Achievement

Instructor: Tracey Borup
Grade Level: K-6
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

See what technology tools can be brought into your classroom to engage students and improve academic achievement. You can use document cameras, Air Liners and interactive whiteboards to increase student engagement. Projects come to life with tools such as flip cameras. As student assessment changes, consider responders to collect formative data. Other tools like LiveScribe Pens, iPod Touch, and Digital Readers will also be shared.

16. Introduction to the Responsive Classroom® /Responsive Designs™ Approaches

Instructor: Origins Presenter
Grade Level: K-6
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. In a rush for academic “accountability,” schools have placed high priority on academic content, "time on task," test-taking, and development of basic skills, without setting a context for basic accountability. Goals of academic excellence and individual and school accountability can be accomplished only within a social context that includes cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control. A clearly integrated academic/social curriculum helps build classrooms and schools into learning communities where high social and academic goals are attained. In this overview of the Responsive Classroom approach, you will learn the basic principles.

17. Fractions and Decimals with Flair

Instructor: Shannon Gilmore
Grade Level: 3-5
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

If you can't remember which fraction to flip, or when to flip it, this session is for you. Our focus will be on fractions and decimals for grades 3-5. Participants will engage in activities and use a variety of concrete models that can be taken back to the classroom to strengthen students' understanding of these concepts.

18. Grammar, Mechanics, Oh, My!

Instructor: Jane St. Anthony
Grade Level: 4-8
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Jane, a published author, will share strategies to authentically help your students improve grammar and mechanics in their writing. Learn what the experts are saying and what really works to make a difference.

19. Embracing Difficult Text: Content Area Reading Strategies

Instructor: Sara Murr
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Monday Jun 21 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

How do we help students comprehend challenging text in our secondary classrooms? How do we encourage them so they are able to go beyond the 5 W questions? In this session you will learn how to model reading strategies which will bolster your students’ confidence, so they are willing to read and reread for understanding in your content area. Join this lively workshop full of practical ideas and rich discussion addressing secondary comprehension issues. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

20. Bullying 24/7: In the Age of Technology Students Can't Escape Bullying at Home or School

Instructor: Sara Loechler
Grade Level: General
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009 with additions to the topic. Through discussion, videos, and group activities, participants will explore the following aspects of bullying: 1) types of bullying, including information on cyber-bullying 2) types of victims, affects of bullying on them, and strategies to assist them; 3) how online bullying can actually affect kids at school 4)reasons why bullies act the way they do and how to help them stop; 5) how to enlist bystanders to help stop bullying from continuing; 6) how to help your classroom be a safe place for everyone; and 7) when should schools be getting involved in issues of cyber-bullying. This session addresses the behavior licensure requirement.

21. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Instructor: Cindy Stevenson
Grade Level: General
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Is it really possible for every one of our students to reach high achievement levels? That may depend on whether they have a “growth mindset” or a “fixed mindset” about learning. A recent study, by developmental psychologists Carol Dweck and Lisa Sorich Blackwell, of struggling students indicated that training students to adopt a growth mind-set about intelligence had a catalytic effect on motivation and grades. Participants in this session will explore language and strategies to turn struggling students into successful learners.

22. Infusing the Arts into Literacy Learning

Instructor: Ann Griffin
Grade Level: K-2
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. How can music, drama, movement, and visual arts enhance your students’ literacy learning in purposeful ways? Many ideas begin with favorite books and authors and the children bring their natural creativity to their own learning. This multi-sensory approach will especially benefit kinesthetic learners and ELL students. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

23. Beyond Words: A Celebration of Literacy and Art

Instructor: Becky Gainey
Grade Level: K-5
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Learn how words and visual images work as a complementary process to spark imagination and stimulate literacy development. We will discuss creative approaches to lesson ideas, introduce children's literature as a form of inspiration, and explore the meaningful connections between art and literacy. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

24. Behavior Management Magic

Instructor: Susan Zukowski
Grade Level: PreK-6
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Is dealing with that child who constantly challenges you and disrupts your class really getting to you? What kind of "magic" will it take to effectively cope with this problem? Join us in this session to add to your bag of tricks--techniques and strategies designed to help students manage their own inappropriate behaviors. This session addresses the behavior licensure requirement.

25. Reading Conferences: How to Confer with the Reader, Not the Book

Instructor: Patti Greene
Grade Level: 2-6
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

The rewards of watching a student think as she processes and problem solves while trying to make sense of text leads to your best teaching. In this session, we’ll investigate how to confer for many tomorrows and not just today. Once data and observations are recorded, individual goals surface and small groups can be formed. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

26. Turning Interactive Whiteboards into a Dynamic Learning Tool

Instructor: Jen Legatt
Grade Level: K-8
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Are you curious but cautious about SMART technology? If you are a beginner and have heard how interactive whiteboards can become a vital tool in teaching, join us for this introductory session. You will have the opportunity to see this technology in action, and be introduced to a variety of interactive resources that bring learning to life on the whiteboards. Come explore the features of interactive boards to engage learners in a dynamic classroom environment.

27. Read, Relate, Rap, & Rejuvenate: The New 4 R’s

Instructor: Sara Murr
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Where do we begin to get adolescents more engaged with their learning? By getting them to do what comes naturally–talking. Improve your students’ critical thinking skills by teaching and modeling various discussion strategies focusing on inferencing, analyzing and supporting your opinion. You will leave this session with classroom-tested, adolescent-approved activities that will assist your students to comprehend text and concepts at deeper levels. Let’s get ready to rap! This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

28. Addressing Mental Health: Teen Depression and Anxiety

Instructor: Kelly Peterson
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Mental health problems/disorders are often associated with poor academic achievement and social functioning. In this session, you will learn how to identify key warning signs and symptoms of mental illnesses including depression and anxiety. In addition, you will be provided with strategies to promote positive mental health and the means to assist students in functioning more successfully in a school environment. This session addresses the mental health licensure requirement.

29. Managing PARENT Behavior: Empowering Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

Instructor: Renee Carlson
Grade Level: General
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Regardless of your tenure, parent behaviors and relationships can be tricky. This session will offer you practical strategies to manage some of the most common behavior challenges you encounter with parents. In addition, we will explore a different but effortless approach to building effective parent relationships.

30. Culturally Responsive Teaching: Increasing the Academic Success of All Learners

Instructor: Stacy Wells
Grade Level: General
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Culturally responsive teaching can bring students of diverse backgrounds to high levels of achievement by promoting engagement through activities that reflect the values, knowledge, and structures of interaction that students bring from the home. This session will bridge theory to practical application by discussing how culturally responsive teaching is integrated in to the curriculum, infused in the classroom, and how assessment is addressed. This session addresses the accom/mod licensure requirement.

31. Get Focused on Reading

Instructor: Ann Griffin
Grade Level: K-2
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

How does guided reading fit into reading workshop? How do I manage the rest of the classroom while I have guided reading groups? How do I efficiently teach students in a short amount of time? How do guided reading groups look different across different reading levels? Come to find out how to use guided reading to help students accelerate their reading levels while developing independent reading strategies and stamina. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

32. 101 Web Sites to Energize your Classroom!

Instructor: Rick Bell
Grade Level: K-6
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

This is an exciting time to be a teacher! Never, in the history of education, have teachers and students had such an abundance of free tools and resources at their fingertips. Discover new websites and interactive tools you never knew you needed. Participants will have time to explore a variety of websites and receive support materials for classroom use.

33. Reader’s Response Notebooks

Instructor: Patti Greene
Grade Level: 2-6
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Get to know the reader inside each student by maintaining Reader’s Response notebooks. A reader’s response notebook is not only a placeholder for a student’s thinking, it’s also a way to assess a student’s understanding and give a student feedback to nudge him to dig deeper with a text. How to get started, as well as management and scaffolding tips will be shared in this session. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

34. One of These Things Is Not Like the Others: Math Vocab Strategies

Instructor: Shannon Gilmore
Grade Level: 3-5
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

This interactive session will focus on a variety of math vocabulary strategies. Video clips of real classrooms will provide a glimpse of how vocabulary can be effectively developed to support student understanding of mathematics concepts. Participants will experience these strategies in small groups, with partners, and as individuals.

35. Simply SMART: Advanced Interactive Whiteboards

Instructor: Jen Legatt
Grade Level: 4-8
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Are you already experienced with using an interactive whiteboard but want to spice up your presentations? Continue to explore strategies for bringing interactive elements into your lessons to get students directly involved and actively engaged in higher-level thinking. This presentation will be in the SMART software, but strategies will be applicable to other platforms, too. Work time included in the computer lab.

36. R.E.SC.U.E. the Striving Readers in Your Classes

Instructor: Jessica Crooker & Jennifer McCarty
Grade Level: 4-12
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, at least one in every five students is reading two or more years below grade level, yet texts are often written at or above the grades in which we teach. What are we to do? This session will focus on defining the striving reader, exploring barriers they tend to put up to avoid difficult reading. Specific strategies for engaging reluctant, striving, and resistant readers in content area classes will be shared. Participants will receive strategy instruction and will leave with activities they can try immediately within their classroom. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

37. Early Warning Signs of Mental Illness and Classroom Interventions

Instructor: Char Mykelbust
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Tuesday Jun 22 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. This multimedia and interactive presentation will examine brain-based causes of a variety of mental health disorders. The prevalence, early warning signs, and impact of these disorders on behavior and learning will also be discussed. The work of a variety of researchers has been synthesized to provide you with some practical supports and interventions appropriate for use in secondary education programs. This session addresses the mental health or accom/mod licensure requirement.

38. Building Responsible Listeners/Learners

Instructor: Linda Pruden
Grade Level: General
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Feel the magic of working with students who consistently listen both to you and to their peers, constantly share their ideas, and unfailingly assume responsibility for understanding by asking clarifying questions! Create a safe classroom environment where students value their own learning, as well as the learning of their peers. Initiate strategies that empower students to assume responsibility for learning. Discuss how listening is a skill, not a behavior. This session addresses the accom/mod licensure requirement.

39. Number Sense and Sense of Number - Huh?

Instructor: Julene Oxton
Grade Level: K-3
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

My students can compute but do they really understand? In this session, participants will have the opportunity to analyze sub-skills that are necessary for emergent mathematicians to make sense of numbers and compute with understanding. Teaching strategies for whole group and intervention groups will be modeled and techniques such as subitizing, flashing, and screening will be shared. Join us and get involved with ten-frames, bead racks and hundred boards in a different way!

40. Primary Writing Workshop

Instructor: Grace Trewick & Beth Verkinderen
Grade Level: 1-3
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Want to "jazz"up your students’ writing? We will explore the in's and out's of a writing workshop format by showing you how to start up and establish a literature-rich writing experience for your students. We will cover 6 traits, mini lessons, author's chair, and the heart of writing workshop–conferencing. Actual classroom video will show you what writing workshop really looks like. You will walk away with practical examples and materials to get started enriching your students’ writing experiences.

41. Proactive Behavior Strategies with Autistic Students

Instructor: Kelly Peterson & Amy VandenBerg
Grade Level: K-6
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. There was a time it was believed that many autistic children simply couldn't learn. Today it is understood that with knowledgeable teachers and some modification in technique, these students can not only learn but can usually learn in a typical general-education class. In this session, you will explore practical, proactive management and teaching strategies to help children with autism spectrum disorders to be successful in your classroom. This session addresses the accom/mod or the behavior licensure requirement.

42. Google Tools: It's More than a Search Engine

Instructor: Shawn Brandt
Grade Level: K-6
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Google is the world’s most popular search engine… but it is so much more! Explore the wide variety of Google applications that teachers are quickly adding to their toolboxes. Teachers are using these tools to search the Internet more efficiently, stay current with curriculum content, and collaborate with colleagues. Explore iGoogle, Google Gadgets, Alerts, Reader, Books, Docs, Sites, Calendar, and more.

43. Ready, Set, Modify: Modifying Curriculum to Meet the Needs of Each Student

Instructor: Susan Zukowski
Grade Level: 3-6
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Participants will explore tools useful for adapting curriculum resources, instructional strategies, and assessments for learners who need alternative learning paths within the regular classroom. Innovative adaptations based on brain research will be demonstrated. Participants will create materials and receive printed copies of practical resources. This session addresses the accom/mod licensure requirement.

44. Fluency Strategies and Interventions

Instructor: Rachel Gens & Julie McDonell
Grade Level: 3-8
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

“Robot Readers” and “Lawnmower Readers”- both of these terms describe disfluent readers. “Robot Readers” read word-by-word without connecting the text into meaningful phrases. “Lawnmower Readers” plow through the text, reading quickly but without expression. Both types of readers struggle with understanding what they read because fluency is the link between decoding and comprehension. This session will provide an overview of what reading fluency encompasses and what current research says about its role in literacy development. It will also focus on a variety of research-based strategies for helping students develop accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. Finally, it will provide guidelines for selecting the most appropriate intervention for students struggling with fluency. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

45. Power Tools for Harnessing Brain Potential

Instructor: Judi Tomczik
Grade Level: 4-12
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Brains learn by making connections. This session will focus on how teachers can help students make connections between the concrete and the abstract, prior knowledge and unfamiliar concepts, and language and image—by strategically teaching new concepts through metaphors, analogies, and other types of comparisons. Research and examples that demonstrate how these processes can electrify learning in every subject and at all grade levels will be presented, and participants will be given the opportunity to develop their own classroom power tools. This session addresses the accom/mod licensure requirement.

46. Aligning Assessments and Instruction

Instructor: Andrea Rients Tessar
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

You can create truly effective assessments to use in your classroom. Participants in this session are invited to bring materials for a unit of choice (instructional materials, curriculum, assessment tools) to work with as you learn to apply test development strategies that align daily objectives and essential questions with assessments. Guided work time will be provided for you to apply test specifications to create your own classroom assessments.

47. Honoring You: A Gift to Yourself and to Your Students

Instructor: Louise Griffith
Grade Level: General
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Take the opportunity to renew and refresh yourself as both person and educator. Add new skills to your personal and professional tool bag as you remember and focus on why you went into education. Participants in this session will develop ways to connect with others by learning how to step through someone’s wall of resistance, drawing upon their latent reserves of cooperation and productivity. Through the use of poetry, music and experiential activities, you will walk away with practical applications in the areas of self-esteem, communication and interpersonal relationships.

48. Reading Clubs for the Little Guys

Instructor: Patti Greene
Grade Level: K-2
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

According to Kathy Collins, author of Reading for Real, reading clubs are different than literature circles or book clubs. Qualification for a reading club membership: -Select books of interest that you CAN read Define your own intentions for reading -Integrate reading strategies -Think deeply about topic chosen -Talk about the texts Whether students participate in non-fiction or character reading clubs, they will experience another approach or structure that matters to their reading lives. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

49. Art MATHterpieces!

Instructor: Kristin Cayo
Grade Level: K-3
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

In this session teachers and students will actually create art in math class ! We will directly tie mathematical concepts into artwork! We will work with geometry, addition, tesselations and fractions! Even the teachers of the youngest students will get ideas to use to engage students in learning math and evidence to hang on the wall!

50. Mental Health Disorders: Focus on Anxiety

Instructor: Susan Zukowski
Grade Level: PreK-6
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental health disorder in children, affecting as many as 10% of young people. In this session we will explore many of the different anxiety disorders that impact our students. Participants will leave with information about the different disorders and symptoms to watch for and with strategies to use to address the needs of students with these disorders. This session addresses the mental health licensure requirement.

51. Making Meaning Through Reading Comprehension Strategies

Instructor: Leah Johnson & Michelle Johnson
Grade Level: 1-5
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Have you ever wondered how to teach comprehension strategies in ways that engage and excite your students? We will provide you with techniques and a common language to teach comprehension strategies through explicit instruction, modeling, and classroom discussion that will allow students to interact more deeply with text. You will leave with specific examples of modeled lessons for inferring, asking questions, making connections, visualizing, determining importance in text (fiction and nonfiction), synthesizing information, and nonfiction text features. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

52. Engaging All Math Learners

Instructor: Julie Montgomery
Grade Level: 4-8
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Raising the math understanding and achievement of every one of your students is a great goal. How to do just that is a big question. Participants in this session will walk away with instructional strategies to develop deep understanding and get students engaged in learning. We will explore many hands-on activities including some from Char Forsten’s 8-Step Model Drawing and Dinah Zike’s, Big Book of Math Foldables. Also, Accessible Mathematics, 10 Instructional Shifts That Raise Student Achievement by Steven Leinwand and the NCTM publication, Mathematics for Every Student, Responding to Diversity will be used for discussion.

53. Building Success by Boosting Academic Vocabulary

Instructor: Judi Tomczik
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Educators know there are many outside factors that impact student success. Research demonstrates that one factor in particular—academic vocabulary—is one of the strongest indicators of how well students will learn subject area content. Participants in this session will learn why insufficient background knowledge is a key contributor to low achievement and will discover and practice a six-step, research-based vocabulary teaching process that can help rescue low achievers, close achievement gaps, and boost the academic performance of all students. This session addresses the reading or the accom/mod licensure requirement.

54. Interaction and Collaboration through Social Media Tools

Instructor: Kara Osmundson
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Harness the power of social media to enhance and energize your instruction. Collaborative tools that you might use everyday in your personal life can also be integrated into classroom practice. Participants in this session will explore a variety of technologies and learn how to use them effectively in the classroom to engage today’s learners. Topics include strategies to publish collaborative documents, create collections of websites using social bookmarking sites, create interactive online presentations, build easy websites, and utilize RSS feeds. Tools include Google Docs, PBWorks, Delicious, Diigo, Voice Thread, and Google Reader, among others.

55. I’m Here, Now Deal with It

Instructor: Sara Murr
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Wednesday Jun 23 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Teaching teens takes a tremendous amount of energy- their’s and your’s. Let’s work with our students by creating conditions in which they can be successful. Come to this session to learn additional strategies that help adolescents focus on their learning while you focus on your teaching. Build positive relationships with these fun-loving teens. This session addresses the behavior licensure requirement.

56. Strategies for Teaching Respectful and Responsible Behavior

Instructor: Louise Griffith
Grade Level: General
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Build more positive teaching moments into your day! Drawing on the Cooperative Discipline model, you will leave this session with intervention strategies for the moment of misbehavior as well as encouragement strategies that can redirect misbehavior and call forth innate strengths of children. An added bonus will be an exploration of how your inner dialogue in six specific areas supports successful decisions but can also foster failure, both personally and professionally. Be the change and be the bright shining light that YOU are! This session addresses the behavior licensure requirement.

57. A Mind at a Time by Mel Levine: Book Study

Instructor: Jayme Pelerine & Sue Zapf
Grade Level: General
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. We all know that no two kids learn the same way, so how does a teacher manage all of these brains that are "wired" differently? Dr. Mel Levine's book, A Mind at a Time, introduces you to some strategies that may help you in that process. While this book cannot be considered an "easy read," it will provide you with insights into the educational world that you may have not considered. Special focus during this book study session will be given to how the brain learns to read. A requirement of this session to read the book before coming to class. You may earn a total of 10 CEUs that address the Minnesota reading or accommodation/modification licensure requirements for the work you do before coming to this session and participation in the book discussion. For details, go to the Book Study Information link on the SORLA web site.

58. Seven Strategies of Assessment FOR Learning

Instructor: Jason Molesky
Grade Level: General
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Current research strongly suggests quality formative assessment can lead to significant gains in student learning. This session seeks to build an understanding of research-based classroom assessment practices that improve student motivation and achievement. Participants will explore classroom strategies for setting clear learning targets, providing effective feedback, and offering opportunities for self-assessment and revision with the goal of helping students answer the questions "Where am I going?", "Where am I now?", and "How can I close the gap?"

59. Guided Reading Live!

Instructor: Julene Oxton
Grade Level: 2-3
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Observe a guided reading lesson with real students! Follow a guided reading lesson designed for fluent readers from start to finish. Discussion and handouts will include ideas on how to prepare for a lesson, guide students through a text, and reflect on observations. The instructor will prove there is no perfect guided reading lesson, only real kids with real text. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

60. Simply SMART: Advanced Interactive Whiteboards

Instructor: Beth Flottmeier
Grade Level: K-3
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Are you already experienced in using a SMARTBoard, AirLiner or e-Beam? Continue to explore strategies for creating interactive lessons using Notebook software. Bring a flash drive, and you will create and leave with some cool projects to use in your classroom. This presentation will be in the SMART software, but strategies will be applicable to other platforms, as well. Work time in the computer lab is included in this session.

61. Identifying Mental Health Issues in PreK-6

Instructor: Susan Zukowski
Grade Level: PreK-6
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Twenty percent of American children suffer from mental health problems, and the number is growing rapidly. In this session, we will discuss mental health and investigate mental illness and its effects on your students. Learn how to identify key warning signs and symptoms, and learn strategies to more effectively help students function successfully in your classroom. This session addresses the mental health licensure requirement.

62. If I had a Hammer: Strategies for Stocking Your Science Toolbox

Instructor: Lee Schmitt
Grade Level: 3-6
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

How can you keep science fun, rigorous and manageable? Experience some simple strategies for engaging students in scientific inquiry and engineering within the context of the science concepts you teach. Take a closer look at integrating science lessons to include appropriate inquiry and engineering investigations for students while addressing the skills and content of the new Nature of Science and Engineering Standards (2009). How does engineering blend with the science standards you teach?

63. Building Background Knowledge Through Differentiated Texts

Instructor: Sara Murr
Grade Level: 5-8
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

Brain research supports that comprehension is more likely to happen when a new concept or skill is hooked to students’ prior learning. This is difficult when we are expected to use the district-adopted texts and one-third of our students can’t read them. It is also difficult to link past learning when children come from various backgrounds and experiences. In this session a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts and strategies will be shared that can assist children in understanding the required content and state standards. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

64. SIOP Strategies: Success for all Students, Part One

Instructor: Andrea Tessar Rients
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

The 8 components of the SIOP Framework: Preparation, Building Background, Comprehensible Input, Strategies, Practice and Application, Lesson Delivery and Review and Assessment are good instruction for all students, but a necessity for ELL. Participants will focus on lesson and unit preparation centered on the components of SIOP. This 2-part session is designed for making grade-level academic content (e.g., science, social studies, math) more accessible for English language learners while at the same time promoting their English language development. Participants should bring curriculum maps or guides, textbooks, current assessments, or any other materials they will need in order to help develop lesson plans that incorporate key language features and strategies that make the content comprehensible for students. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

65. Digital Storytelling

Instructor: Shawn Brandt
Grade Level: General
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Discover the elements of and a proven 7-step process for high quality digital storytelling. Learn why it works! Then practice with several free applications. You will receive hands-on instruction, step-by-step tips sheets, and a website resource containing links and notes from the presentation. A requirement of this session is to bring a digital camera.

66. Taking Steps Toward an Arts-Integrated Residency

Instructor: Statewide Artist in Education Consortium*
Grade Level: General
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Experience an arts integrated lesson and discuss the benefits and logistics of planning an artist residency in your classroom. Participants will come away with ideas and resources for accessing artists and possible arts learning funding. During this workshop, participants will do the following: discover the important role the arts can play in deepening student learning: gain new insight and increase their comfort level with integrating the arts into curriculum;  participate in hands-on activities that model classroom experiences;  participate in activities in how to plan, reflect, and collaborate with resident artists to improve individual practice and deepen student learning; and access the resources available through the various partners, including how to work with artists in your classroom. * COMPAS/ Young Audiences of Minnesota, Minnesota State Arts Board, Perpich Center for Arts Education, and VSA arts of Minnesota

67. Guided Reading Live!

Instructor: Julene Oxton
Grade Level: K-1
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

68. Dabbling in DIBELS

Instructor: Beth Flottmeier
Grade Level: K-5
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Back by popular demand from 2009. Whether you’ve DIBEL’d already or are just plain curious about this familiar screener, find out how to use the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency benchmarks and Progress Monitoring passages to guide your instruction. Participants will walk away with specific strategies to strengthen oral reading fluency. This session addresses the reading licensure requirement.

69. How to Turn on Your Child’s Brain to Learning

Instructor: Jack Olwell
Grade Level: K-6
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

This session will discuss the results (improvement in reading level: 5 times the national average and 2-3 times that of their peers) of North Trail Elementary School's early a.m. LiteracyPE class, the recent brain research that supports these results, as well as other academic studies in which activity has been linked to academic improvement. The session will also include some of the activities (vigorous games with imbedded cognitive challenges) used in this class.

70. I Think Therefore I Read: Integrating Science and Literacy

Instructor: Peggy Knapp
Grade Level: 3-6
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

Experience some simple strategies to use with science units so students will develop vocabulary, improve literacy skills, and deepen their understanding of critical science concepts. Take advantage of the “structured messing around” that is the hallmark of science inquiry by adding depth, meaning, and interest to literacy lessons as students describe, observe, question, explore, and explain the world around them. Learn how to engage your students in science processes that spark their curiosity and add meaningful content to the literacy lessons you teach.

71. Writing: Invitations to Revision

Instructor: Patti Greene
Grade Level: 3-6
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

When a writer loves a piece of his writing and craves to make it better…that’s revision! When a writer wants to play with the potential in his writing…that’s revision! Let’s explore a series of revision mini-lessons that can be embraced as part of the writing process.

72. SIOP Strategies: Success for all Students, Part Two

Instructor: Andrea Tessar Rients
Grade Level: 6-12
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30

73. Guided Math: Ideas to Differentiate Small-Group Instruction During Math

Instructor: Carrie Sauber
Grade Level: K-3
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 8:30 - 11:30

74. The Daily Five

Instructor: Carrie Sauber
Grade Level: PreK-2
Date: Thursday Jun 24 2010
Time: 12:30 - 3:30