Events

This session aims to provide upper elementary educators in grades 3-6 with a practical overview of the science of reading. We'll begin by delving into relevant background information, exploring the brain processes involved in reading and essential conceptual frameworks like the Reading Rope. Transitioning from theory to practice, we'll briefly cover phonics basics such as the alphabetic principle, blends, digraphs, syllable types, and multi-syllabic word decoding. Moving beyond fundamentals, we'll delve into vocabulary and morphology instruction, alongside strategies for promoting fluency. Finally, we'll conclude by focusing on facilitating student text engagement and support strategies to maximize reading instruction. Registration will close 4-5 days prior to the event unless tickets are sold out.

Note: This event will be held at Central Jr. High (library) 1801 Central School Rd. Belleville, IL 62220.   This free interactive training session sponsored by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society   https://www.cmohs.org/  (with lunch on site) will provide you with all the tools you need to bring the Medal of Honor Character Development Program into your 6-12 classroom. The flexible, cross-curricular resource, which uses the oral histories of Medal of Honor Recipients and citizen heroes, focuses on how students can use these examples of courage, commitment, sacrifice, integrity, citizenship and patriotism to influence change in their own communities. Middle and high school teachers from all subject areas along with counselors, coaches, and administrators are invited to attend this free training. Participants will need to bring a fully charged device to this workshop.  Spots are limited - registration closes 4-5 days prior to the event date unless tickets are sold out.

How do we help all of our 6-12 students do the work of learning, with care — as best they currently can? I've spent the past ten years of my teaching career reading, experimenting, and interviewing experts about what lies at the heart of student motivation. What I’ve found is straightforward: for our students to flourish long-term and move toward mastery, they need to be motivated from the inside-out. Specifically, they need to believe five key things.

• Credibility: I have a good teacher.
• Value: This work matters to me.
• Belonging: People like me belong in classes like this.
• Effort: I can improve my knowledge and skills through effort.
• Efficacy: I can succeed at the challenges this class presents.

Cultivating these five key beliefs in the heart of each learner doesn't mean becoming a miracle worker or a workaholic. Instead, it takes understanding how the beliefs work in the heart of a learner and what evidence-based strategies most efficiently help them to grow. Participants will:

• Understand how the belief spectrum works to help or hinder motivated student learning;
• Apply simple, robust methods for cultivating the Credibility, Value, and Effort beliefs in every classroom;
• Understand how motivation relates to engagement and why the difference can help us find efficiencies in the face of overwhelming demands on our time; and
• Leave with practical next steps for teaching and learning.

  Advance Reading or Viewing (optional)

• A Micro-Primer on How Motivation Works in People, Why Demoralization is So Prevalent Right Now Amongst Teachers, and What We Can Do About It
• Five Key Beliefs: The Source of Abbe's Superpowers
• Students Won't Read? Start with Their Beliefs
• The Five Key Beliefs that Motivate Student Writers
• The #1 Place in School Where Students' Key Beliefs are Shaped
• When It Comes to Student Motivation, There Are No Novices
• Livestream Recording: A Conversation with Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher re: Motivation Amidst the Closures

     

Dave Stuart Jr.

• Husband and father who refuses to sacrifice family on the altar of professional success.
• Bestselling author of The Will to Learn and These 6 Things — beloved by teachers in dozens of countries.
• Online PD developer on student motivation, teacher credibility, classroom management, and time management.
• Keynote speaker at conferences and events. Spoken in over 45 states and internationally.
• Popular writer on literacy, motivation, and the inner work of teaching; 50,000+ monthly readers.
• Award-winning educator who leads workshops for teachers around the world.

Registrations will close 5 days prior to the event date unless tickets are sold out.

What if the key to increasing the long-term impact of our 6-12 classrooms and schools was doing fewer things much better? In These 6 Things, I lay out a practical, research-backed manifesto for doing focusing on six areas of professional practice for the sake of building sustainable, high-impact classrooms all across the school day. It is my firm belief, and the workshop will be rife with the evidence to support this, that if educators and coaches and administrators, particularly in secondary and upper elementary settings, became experts at these six things, then so much of the rest would take care of itself. From increasing student achievement scores, to moving forward building literacy initiatives, to improving inter- and intra-departmental collaboration, to making the school day a lot more sensible to our students — These 6 Things is a session that can help.   https://davestuartjr.com/

Dave Stuart Jr.

• Husband and father who refuses to sacrifice family on the altar of professional success.
• Bestselling author of The Will to Learn and These 6 Things — beloved by teachers in dozens of countries.
• Online PD developer on student motivation, teacher credibility, classroom management, and time management.
• Keynote speaker at conferences and events. Spoken in over 45 states and internationally.
• Popular writer on literacy, motivation, and the inner work of teaching; 50,000+ monthly readers.
• Award-winning educator who leads workshops for teachers around the world.

Registration closes 5 days prior to the event unless tickets are sold out.

 Join Dana Fredwell, Instructional Technology Coach from Mascoutah # 19 in this interactive session on AI.  This workshop aims to equip secondary educators with the knowledge and skills to effectively integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their teaching practices. Participants will explore various AI tools and platforms tailored for personalized learning, differentiate instruction using AI, and discuss strategies for leveraging AI in the classroom to enhance student engagement and achievement. Please bring a fully charged device with you to this session. Registration closes 4-5 days prior to the event date unless tickets are sold out.

 Join Dana Fredwell, Instructional Technology Coach from Mascoutah # 19 in this interactive session on AI.  This workshop aims to equip elementary educators with the knowledge and skills to effectively integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their teaching practices. Participants will explore various AI tools and platforms tailored for personalized learning, differentiate instruction using AI, and discuss strategies for leveraging AI in the classroom to enhance student engagement and achievement. Please bring a fully charged device with you to this session. Registration closes 4-5 days prior to the event date unless tickets are sold out.

Just because we teach a certain grade doesn't mean all students are reading at that grade level. This full day session about the Science of Reading will equip K-5 teachers with the language knowledge and teaching skills to reach all readers. It will leave you with the right amount of knowledge, urgency and excitement about the English language to put many pieces of evidence-based research in action IN your classroom. Jen is a repeat presenter in our region and teachers love her knack for explaining complex literacy skills into digestible, actionable chunks! Topics throughout the day are: How the Brain Learns to Read & Spell (because just because you can decode doesn't mean you can spell), The Phonemic Awareness and Writing Connection, Learning the Six Syllable Types, Teaching Kids How to Tackle Multisyllabic Words through Syllable & Suffix Coding, Why & How Mapping is Replacing Memorizing Sight Words, and the Power of Decodable Text for Taking Your Brain to the Phonics Gym! Registration will close 4-5 days prior to the event.

The IMSE Impact Morphology Plus 30-hour course is a hands-on, interactive, and personalized class that provides a complete understanding of morphology, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension and how to apply it in the classroom. After participating in this accredited Structured Literacy course, teachers will have an understanding of the structure and foundation of the English language.  Educators will have an understanding of where to begin instruction with students with dyslexia as well as students in all three tiers of RTI. Participants will:

• Gain knowledge about the Science of Reading and the History of the English language
• Gain knowledge about students with reading difficulties including dyslexia
• Understand how EL students can cognate to help learn English
• Administer various types of assessments
• Implement and create structured literacy lessons on morphology, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension

  Attendees must attend all 5 days for the full-time duration. Partial pd hours will not be issued (note lunch is on your own each day). Tickets purchased are pre-reserved and pre-paid for by specific districts.

PDC Member Districts $325.00, Non PD Co-op member districts $375.00 (lunch is included on site). The learning outcomes for the two-day academy include: - Participants will be able to use assessments and measurement models in determining the student growth attributable to individual teachers and to understand how different types of assessments are used for measuring growth. - Participants will be able to use data from the evaluation rubric, other evidence collected and best practices relative to evaluating student growth, to link teacher and school-level professional development plans to evaluation results. - Participants will create, in collaboration with teachers, supportive, targeted professional development plans that consider past results, contribute to professional growth, and assist teachers in aligning professional development and goal-setting to school improvement goals. - Participants will communicate evaluation outcomes and findings in constructive and supportive ways that enable teachers to set goals and improve practice. - Participants will demonstrate a high rate of inter-rater reliability using the required performance evaluation ratings (i.e., excellent, proficient, needs improvement, and unsatisfactory). - Participants will observe instruction competently in multiple subject areas provided to varied and multiple student populations (i.e., English language learners, students with IEPs, students in career and technical programs, etc.) - Participants will use data from the evaluation rubric, other evidence collected and best practices relative to evaluating professional practice, to link teacher and school-level professional development plans to evaluation results. - Participants will know how to create, in collaboration with teachers, supportive, targeted professional development plans that consider past results, contribute to professional growth and assist teachers in aligning PD and goal-setting to SIP goals. - Participants will communicate evaluation outcomes and findings in constructive and supportive ways that enable teachers to set goals and improve professional practice. - Participants will understand sources of personal bias and be able to recognize and control for bias when conducting an evaluation and determining results. Evaluators will be required to complete pre-session learning components for this course. If you do not complete the pre-session learning components in the required time frame prior to the workshop, you will not be allowed to attend the workshop and will still be responsible for the registration fee. This event has a maximum number of 15 attendees. Participants must bring a fully charged laptop to both days of the academy. Registration closes 7 days prior to the event as pre-work must be completed and submitted.

PDC Member Districts $375.00 Non PD Co-op Districts $410.00 (lunch is included on site) This two-day academy is for administrators who are seeking initial training qualification or retraining to be legally qualified to conduct evaluations of principals and assistant principals. The academy provides instruction on implementing a continuous school leader growth model using the School Leader Evaluation Plan, which is based on the School Leader Paradigm developed by the School Leader Collaborative, a group of 14 state principal associations from across the country. The plan is aligned to the Illinois Performance Standards for School Leaders and meets the requirements of 23 Illinois Administrative Code 50 Subpart D: Performance Evaluation Plans: Principals and Assistant Principals.   Registration closes 4-5 days prior to the event unless tickets are sold out. Cancellations must be made 48 hours prior to the event date or the amount is non-refundable.