Pre-Convention Workshops

Create a VisionTransform Your School

Gain in-depth knowledge from the experts, practical ideas to implement, and answers to the challenges you face by attending a pre-Convention workshop. The individual fee to attend a pre-Convention workshop is noted with each session listing. The workshop fee includes related hand-out materials, and drink refreshments. The fee does not include lunch. Pre-Convention workshop fees are in addition to the NASSP Convention registration fee and must be paid at the same time. You will not be able to register for a pre-Convention workshop on site.

Note: Please allow 10-15 working days to receive a written confirmation of your Convention and workshop registration. If a workshop is oversubscribed or canceled, notification will be sent to those registered. A refund of the fee will be sent after the Convention.

To register for a pre-Convention workshop of your choice, simply complete the appropriate information included on the online Registration and Ticketed Events Payment Form. Remember: The workshop fee must be included with your Convention registration fee.

1Rebels With Applause: Brain Compatible Approaches for Motivating Reluctant Learners

Friday, February 27, 2004
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Orange County Convention Center
Fee: $170.00

How do we address our students who seem to have the hardest time paying attention and getting work done? What are the possible causes of this behavior, and what are some possible solutions for these "rebel" students?

Prepare to laugh and learn in this lively interactive workshop. You will collect dozens of practical "brain-based" strategies to help your teachers get kids involved and motivated, and help them retain more.

And many of the strategies modeled here will work great for enlivening staff meetings and motivating reluctant teachers.

Presenter
Rick Smith, Educational Consultant, San Rafael, CA

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2Changing Minds and Hearts: Enhancing Teacher and Student Success

Friday, February 27, 2004
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Orange County Convention Center
Fee: $170.00

The majority of innovations and change efforts in schools are less successful than anticipated. Many are dismal failures. In this workshop, participants will examine the reasons for success and failure of school-based reform. Unless student and teacher attitudes and actions are altered, nothing changes for the better. School administrators hold "keys" to unlock the doors to successful change. Both visionary leadership and practical management are critical for meaningful change to take place so that teachers and students achieve success.

Participants in this interactive and up-beat workshop can expect:

• Understanding of the pressure for change placed on middle level and high schools



• Essential "vision" for leading change



• Practical day-to-day management skills that support and drive successful change



• Stories of school-based success and failureunlocking the mysteries



• The importance of "critical mass" in promoting change



• A tool to measure the current status of change initiatives in your school



• Opportunity to collaborate and interact with colleagues

With broad experience in teaching, school administration, and leadership, presenters Gerry Hopkirk and Rod Campbell bring their ability to make theory practical and to engage workshop participants in collaborative, laughter-filled learning communities.

Presenters
Rod Campbell, Superintendent of Education, School District 6, Rothesay, New Brunswick, Canada

Gerry Hopkirk, Coordinator of Graduate Studies in Education, Faculty of Education, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

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3Schoolwide Student Discipline: Helping You and Your Staff Establish Respect and Responsibility

Friday, February 27, 2004
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Orange County Convention Center
Fee: $170.00

The most effective instruction and the greatest amount of learning take place in the classrooms of schools where students and staff have a mutual understanding and acceptance of a system guiding interactions and behavior. Such a system is composed of well-defined, realistic rules and specific consequences for inappropriate behaviors. In this pre-Convention session, Todd Johnson will share his proven approach for developing discipline plans for each classroomand for the entire school.

The major emphasis of the session will be on specific techniques, not theoretical approaches. This session will provide strong reinforcement of the good things you, and your staff, are currently doing regarding the development of student discipline and provide you with new ideas and skills to enhance the positive learning environment in every classroom in your school.

In this workshop you will learn:

• the difference between rules and guidelines



• how to develop realistic consequences for inappropriate classroom behaviors



• how to gain staff, student, and community acceptance of a school-wide discipline plan



• techniques for working with students who continue to break established rules



• how to eliminate "put-downs"



• other ideas that really work.

Presenter
Todd Johnson, Behavioral Consultant, Rivertown Consultants, Grandville, MI

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4Building An Ark: Best Data Practices Learned from No Child Left Behind

Friday, February 27, 2004
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Orange County Convention Center
Fee: $170.00

School principals need data-leadership skills to facilitate, engage, and build ownership for meeting the requirements of No Child Left Behind legislation. This session will focus on soft and hard data resources and how to apply these resources in a school setting with students, staff, and parents. Participants will be actively engaged in creating, sustaining, and enhancing a school culture embracing student-achievement data and establishing the skill sets to make data real, meaningful, and focused on student success.

Too often, school leaders feel awash in a flood of data without user-friendly data skills to not only disaggregate scores, but also to give direction to teaching, learning, and improved student achievement. As captains of the ship of data leadership, principals will be able to help their staff chart the waters of adequate yearly progress and use desegregated data to focus curriculum and instruction to keep students first.

Presenters
Lynda E. Irvin, Projector Coordinator, Bill and Melinda Gates Grant, School Administrators Development Institute; and Adjunct Professor, Department of Educational Administration and Foundations, Illinois State University, Normal, IL

Don White, Superintendent, Pekin Public Schools, District 108, Pekin, IL

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5Supervising Teacher Performance for Improved Instruction

Friday, February 27, 2004
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Orange County Convention Center
Fee: $170.00

This workshop will focus upon improving teacher performance. The four presenters have over 100 years of administrative experience at the middle and high school levels. Through participation, attendees will learn how to:

• Establish mentoring and other supports for new teachers and underperforming veteran teachers,



• Conduct informal classroom walk-throughs using specific look-fors,



• Capture data in a classroom observation that provides evidence of performance,



• Develop an improvement plan for an underperforming teacher,



• Prepare a presentation for a dismissal hearing.

Participants will be given the opportunity to apply these outcomes to a current case on which they are working.

Presenters
Robert L. Bastress, Director, Administrative & Supervisory Professional Growth System, Office of Staff Development, Montgomery County Public Schools, Germantown, MD

Phillip Gainous, Principal, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD

Ida Lou Polcari, Principal, Benjamin Banneker Middle School, Burtonsville, MD

Karen Rabin, Principal, Tilden Middle School, Rockville, MD

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6Middle Level Long Conference
Highly Effective Middle Schools and How They Got There

Friday, February 27, 2004
8:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Orange County Convention Center
Fee: $135.00
Includes copy of A National Study of Leadership in Middle Level Schools, Volume 2

Have you ever wondered how really high-performing middle level schools achieve what they do? If so, come to the 2004 Long Conference to hear principals of the high-achieving middle schools that are featured in A National Study of Leadership in Middle Level Schools, Volume 2, discuss their schools. The featured schools represent a variety of communities and settings including rural, suburban, and urban. They vary in size from "very small" to more than 1,500 students.

Participants will have the opportunity to interact in small groups with these principals, and with each other, about Turning Points 2000 and other criteria used to identify high-achieving middle level schools. The panelists will facilitate these small-group discussions.

Moderator
Jerry Valentine, Professor and Director, Middle Level Leadership Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Presenters
Cathy Andrews, Principal, Becker Middle School, Las Vegas, NV

James Fernandez, Principal, Julius West Middle School, Rockville, MD

Tim Hadfield, Principal, South Shelby Middle School, Shelbina, MO

Sharon Neuman, Principal, Lawton Chiles Academy, Lakeland, FL

Clara Sale-Davis, Principal, Freeport Intermediate School, Freeport, TX

Ed Vittardi, Principal, Independence Middle School, Independence, OH

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7Advocating for Education in Your Community

Friday, February 27, 2004
1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Orange County Convention Center
Fee: $110.00

Directed at building administrators, team leaders, and teachers, this half-day workshop defines the various aspects of educational advocacy and delivers practical, concrete suggestions for promoting middle level education, establishing oneself as a recognized educational expert in the community, and gaining support for team and school-wide programs. In an interactive, hands-on session, you will begin to develop practical, proven initiatives for becoming an advocate for education and gaining community support.

Presenter
Earle G. Bidwell, Assistant Executive Director, Connecticut Association of Schools; and Editor and Writer for IMPACTConnecticut's Journal for Middle Level Educators, Cheshire, CT

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