Keynotes and Workshops

Our Keynotes and Workshops Cover the Following Topics

Innovative Libraries

Innovative Libraries is not just about the intersection of technology and print, but the shift of patrons from consumer to producer.

Instead of being the place for students to acquire knowledge, it is also an environment for our learners to make meaning of information and create new ideas. Using both the National School Library Standards (AASL) and the ISTE Standards for Students and Educators, Heather helps librarians identify targeted areas of growth and collaboratively develops a plan to address those areas. Heather helps librarians “start where they are” and make intentional, strategic changes to their programs to make the most meaningful impact to the students and teachers they serve.

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Leadership

Leadership is not about being at the front, taking charge or doing all the work. As Simon Sinek teaches, leadership is about

harnessing the talents and strengths of those around us to build trust, grow efficacy, and achieve more collectively than we could imagine individually. Jen and Heather use a strengths-based approach to all leadership-focused sessions, honoring the gifts educators and students bring to the learning and leadership process. They ground the collaborative learning sessions in the principles of adult learning, appreciative inquiry, collective efficacy, and engagement gleaned from their own learning and the research of thought leaders they study including Simon Sinek, Patrick Lencioni, John T. Guthrie, Irene Fountas, Gay su Pinnell, John Hattie, and Michael Fullan.

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Literacy

Literacy is often narrowly defined as reading and writing when it could more accurately be defined as thinking or learning how to learn.

When we broaden our definition of both literacy and text (any content be it visual, audio, tactile) we open up the methods, tools, and mindsets of all learners and educators. Jen and Heather use a strengths-based approach to all professional learning sessions, honoring the gifts educators and students bring to the learning process. They ground their sessions in the principles of adult learning, motivation, and engagement gleaned from their own learning and the research of thought leaders they study such as Richard Allington, Robert Marzano, Simon Sinek, Patrick Lencioni, John T. Guthrie, Irene Fountas, Gay su Pinnell, Marie Clay, and John Hattie.

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Maker Education

Maker Education is so much more than technology and gadgets in a room. Traditional schooling was created in the image of industrialism. Yet, as we continue our movement into the 21st century, there is less of a

demand on rote memorization of facts and an increased demand on collaboration, critical thinking, and complex problem solving. All of these skills demand a high level of flexibility and creativity. So how do we as educators provide opportunities for creativity and collaboration, while still addressing the standards we are required to teach? Fortunately, we are teaching during the age of the maker movement which aims to integrate opportunities for imagination, creativity, and an inventor’s mindset into the K-12 setting. One way to foster this is by developing a makerspace in your school or classroom.

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Motivation & Engagement

Motivation and Engagement is an ongoing topic of conversation and learning among educators. We often consider how to engage our learners (of all ages) in the learning process. Over the last several years

researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders have pushed us to consider the science behind motivation and to reconsider many of our instructional approaches. Carol Dweck, John T. Guthrie, Daniel Pink, Steven Layne, Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels, and many more have pushed us to rethink the use of carrots and sticks, consider student voice and choice, and examine the intersections between what motivates us as adults (autonomy, purpose, and mastery) and what motivates our students. Dr. Jennifer McCarty Plucker’s research has been centered on motivating and engaging adolescent learners in literacy and learning. Her practical case study insight has helped other districts rethink how they create conditions where striving readers and learners can grow as readers, writers, thinkers, and scholars, actually enjoying the process along the way.

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Keynotes

Literacy Rebooted and (RE)defined: Expanding our Thinking for Increased Engagement and Achievement

Is our definition of literacy broad enough to raise the rigor and engagement in our classrooms? While Merriam Webster defines literacy as the ability

to read and write, educators and researchers recognize this definition is too simplistic. When we broaden our definition and wrestle with what it really means to be literate in this 21st century, we open up the methods, tools, and mindsets of educators and learners to engage in becoming a truly literate society. The goal of this presentation is to explore how a change in mindset around literacy and text can increase student learning and engagement.

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Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

From Carrots, Crowbars, and Candy to Options, Opportunity and Ownership: Motivation and Engagement for Adolescents

This session aims to differentiate engagement from compliance. Participants will receive practical strategies backed by the science for engaging

learners in rigorous academic literacy work.

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Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

Print or Digital: That is the Question

In the era of 1:1 many educators (and parents) hold tight to students reading “real” books. Print books bound by a publisher. Others say we need to

“get with the times” and allow our students to be immersed in digital content. But what does the research really say? What is our responsibility to provide conditions for engagement, authentic learning, and balanced brain development? This session focuses on not only the research, but also practical ways to avoid the either/or and land in near perfect balance

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Innovative Libraries, Literacy

Making Sense of, and Building Momentum for, the Maker Movement

“The ‘maker movement’ leads to a new pedagogy – ‘Tinkquiry’ – Tinkering + Inquiry.” – Peter Skillen. Perhaps you’ve read about, dipped your toes

in, or witnessed students inventing in a makerspace. Yet, you are not sure if starting a makerspace is right for your school. Or you have a makerspace in your school but are unsure of your and your students’ connections to it. Perhaps you are concerned it will take away from the standards and content learning students need. Or you are not sure “where” the makerspace would be or “when” it would be available? Who would “teach” it? Who would supervise? How you would find funding to stock it? Perhaps you’re sold on the idea but don’t know where to start. This session will begin to answer those questions and more. In addition to learning the “what” and “why” of maker education, participants will receive tools to begin planning for or improving maker education in their schools and districts.

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Maker Education

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We offer uniquely designed workshops, keynote addresses, coaching, and consulting services. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Fill out our form and we’ll be happy to provide customized programs to meet your needs.

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Workshops

Achieving Equity Through Inquiry, the Workshop Framework, and the Inclusion of a Rich Resource Library (Print and Digital)

The focus of the workshop will be centered on the essential question: How might inquiry and the workshop model using multiple texts allow for a more

inclusive environment where all types of learners can experience literacy growth, high engagement and achievement and authentic community.

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Leadership, Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

Beyond Skimming, Scanning, and Study Guides: Engaging Students in Authentic Reading in Content Area Classes

This session explores how to engage students in texts to read for meaning instead of points, answers to a study guide, or reading check quizzes.

Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

Design Thinking is Literacy

The phrase “design thinking” is making its way from the business world to the education world. Stanford University defines it as, “ a process to stimulate innovation, drawing on methods from engineering and design and combining them with ideas from the arts, social sciences, and the business world.” So how do we bring the techniques of design thinking into our PLCs, Leadership, Classrooms, and Libraries? Participants will be led through the design

thinking process, explore multiple models for design thinking, inquiry, and engineering, and gather tools for taking these techniques back to their everyday educational environments.

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Maker Education, Literacy, Leadership, Innovative Libraries, Motivation & Engagement

Demystifying Nonfiction/Informational Texts

In this session, participants will consider how a constructivist approach to nonfiction and informational text can engage students in not only drawing meaning and learning from the text, but also how they can use that knowledge to create and publish their own ideas.

Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

From Frustration to Freedom: Remedial Reading Reimagined

This presentation aims to bring educators into the shoes of an adolescent striving reader. Participants will explore the challenges students face when struggling to comprehend and consider how students can use their strengths

to grow areas of need. Through the stories of the implementation of a literacy intervention program aligned to the most recent research on adolescent literacy, participants can see how they might (re)design their approach to engage learners, accelerate growth, and foster identity change for so many struggling learners.

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Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

Go Slow to Go Fast: Empowering Teacher Leadership for English/Language Arts Transformation

The high standards for English/Language Arts are requiring educators to make paradigm shifts in how they integrate reading, writing, speaking /

viewing / listening, and language to promote critical thinking and college and career readiness. This session will illustrate how to go slow so teams can consider how to create and implement standards based integrated units using inquiry as a vehicle for instruction, choice, and multiple texts for differentiation and formative assessment in order to focus on learners and learning.

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Literacy, Leadership

Making Sense of, and Building Momentum for, the Maker Movement

“The ‘maker movement’ leads to a new pedagogy – ‘Tinkquiry’ – Tinkering + Inquiry.” – Peter Skillen. Perhaps you’ve read about, dipped your toes

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Maker Education

Literacy and Making: Transform your Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop into a Makerspace

While makerspaces in our libraries, stem labs, and innovation spaces are wonderful opportunities for students to tinker, prototype, make, explore,

and discover, we can expand our thinking of maker education by infusing it into our core literacy curriculum. Imagine students tinkering with text, prototyping messages to be put down in writing, inventing new ways to communicate. Mixing, remixing, gaming, and discovering all while becoming lifelong readers and writers. In this session, participants will consider ways to reinvent their own workshops to include more opportunities for student making.

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Maker Education, Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

Print or Digital: That is the Question

In the era of 1:1 many educators (and parents) hold tight to students reading “real” books. Print books bound by a publisher. Others say we need to

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Innovative Libraries, Literacy

The Power of Picture Books

In this session, we will explore the incredible tool picture books play for learners of all ages in all content areas for accelerating literacy

growth, creating community, and hooking reluctant historians, scientists, and scholars into our units of study.

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Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

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Transformational Services

Creating a Schoolwide (Districtwide) Literacy Vision

Creating a collective vision for a literate school or district community should be a participatory endeavor. The goal of this professional

learning is to provide ongoing facilitation, consultation, and leadership for developing, messaging, and implementing a results-oriented literacy vision.

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Leadership, Literacy

Literacy Leadership: Collective Efficacy for Student Achievement

Most recently Hattie added to his list of evidence-based practices that yield statistically significant results for student achievement. Collective

Efficacy now tops the list for effect size. This session (or series of sessions) provides evidence-based and comprehensive approaches to building high performing learning teams within your organization where collective efficacy can be fully realized.

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Leadership, Literacy

Literacy Program Review: Strengths-Based Approach

Using an appreciative inquiry methodology, involving stakeholders in the process, a comprehensive review of a school or district’s literacy

program is facilitated. Following the process, affirmation for the strengths aligned to balanced literacy research along with recommendations for continuous improvement are provided.

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Leadership, Literacy

Go Slow to Go Fast: Empowering Teacher Leadership for English/Language Arts Transformation

The high standards for English/Language Arts are requiring educators to make paradigm shifts in how they integrate reading, writing,

speaking / viewing / listening, and language to promote critical thinking and college and career readiness. This session will illustrate how to go slow so teams can consider how to create and implement standards based integrated units using inquiry as a vehicle for instruction, choice, and multiple texts for differentiation and formative assessment in order to focus on learners and learning.

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Leadership, Literacy, Motivation & Engagement

Transform Your School Library: Transform Your School

School Libraries and the roles of school librarians must continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of the learners. The quest to remain relevant requires ongoing change. What does this mean? How can the school librarian accomplish this amidst the daily pressures of the profession? You will learn a multitude of approaches that you can take to transform your school library, whether you decide to plan a complete transformation, or take one step at a time.

Innovative Libraries

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