BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Friday March 28
Session I
Venue: Hart Theater Lounge (the Egg)
Title: Strategies in Action
Presenters: Kandie Antonetti and Lisa House (City School District of Albany)
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Assessment, Language Development and Literacy; Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
The audience will observe the demonstration of strategies being taught to a group of 6th grade students from Philip Livingston Magnet Academy in Albany. Participation of the audience will be encouraged.
Kandie Antonetti and Lisa House are teachers on the 6th grade team at Philip Livingston Magnet Academy in Albany. The have been involved with the National Urban Alliance since its inception in Albany and are currently NUA coaches for their building.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Classroom A/B (Museum)
Title: Using NUA Strategies in the High School Classroom
Presenter: John Deer (City School District of Albany)
Audience: Grades 9 - 12
Conference Theme: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
This session will model and show off materials from various lessons that have been done at the high school level in the fields of Social Studies and Math.
John Deer has been a teacher at Albany High School for two years and has worked in the City School District of Albany for the past four years as a teacher’s aid and substitute teacher as well. He currently teaches Global History to 9th and 10th graders.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Huxley Theater (Museum)
Title: The Effects of Students’ Exposure to Violence on Teacher Practice
Presenter: David Hatch
Audience: PreK - 8
Conference Themes: Learning Needs of Boys; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation
This presentation will show the relationship between students’ exposure to violence (specifically media and bullying) and teacher practice. It will include the presenter’s own and related research findings as well as recommendations.
David Hatch earned his PhD from Oregon State University. He has been teaching at Eastern Oregon University for three years. His passion for children has led him to study the effects of violence on the classroom and the perspective of teachers.
8:30 - 9:40 A.M.
Venue: Clark Theater (Museum)
Title: Learning by Laughing: Practical Ways to Turn School Work into Play
Presenter: Tracy Bailey NUA Mentor
Audience: 9-12
Conference Themes: Learning Needs of Boys; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms
What engages reluctant learners? How can educators find more meaning in their work? What can ignite a flame of curiosity and high intellectual performance in our schools? Fun. Receive practical tips on infusing your school community with play, joy and sense of hopefulness while increasing academic rigor. Find out how one area, single-gender, ninth grade center inspired students and reinvigorated teachers using this simple approach.
Tracy Swinton Bailey is a dynamic public speaker, poet, researcher and educator, whose work has taken her to urban communities around the nation. For over a decade, her energy, passion and zest for learning has inspired students and friends to strive for personal excellence.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 1
Title: Connected Comprehension Instruction
Presenter: Amy Rindal
Audience: PreK - 8
Conference Themes: Assessment, Language Development and Literacy; Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
In this session, teachers will see the importance of explicit comprehension instruction and experience techniques using conversations that springboard into natural curiosity and new learning. Participants will learn to spark thoughtful reflection on a text regarding the application of a specific comprehension strategy, highlighting the fact that reading is a thinking activity.
Amy Rindal, M. Ed., is the National Consultant for Rigby Professional Development. As a Reading Specialist and licensed Master Reading Teacher, she has provided teacher support and literacy instruction at nearly every grade level in K-6. Her focus is empowering students through the individualized instruction and consistent opportunities for success.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 2
Title: Why It Matters to Find Out What the Students Believe as Well as the Teachers!
Presenter: Jeanne Zehr
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Educator Preparation; Leadership and the Challenges of the 21st Century
Feuerstein and Dweck are two psychologists whose work synergistically impacts the other. Feuerstein offers a theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability for educators. Dweck provides compelling evidence that students also need to know this theory to provide motivation to learn. This workshop will present the facts on “fixed” versus “growth” mindsets and how young it all begins! Dweck’s work offers even more reason to embrace Feuerstein’s theory and programs. Better yet, participants will leave the session with specific strategies to immediately begin developing energized learners.
Jeanne Zehr, Ph.D. has been a teacher, principal, and area administrator over the last thirty-two years. Her degrees range from elementary education, special education to a doctorate in educational leadership. Along the way, she acquired certification as a Trainer for Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment. Her life’s passion has been to develop a deep love for learning in all whom cross her path
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 3
Title: Color Me Love - Personality Impacts Learning
Presenters: Bertha Richardson and Paul Hanna (NUA Mentors)
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation
This interactive and engaging session provides foundations, research and strategies that improve classroom dynamics (climate, discipline, relationships and academics) and intellectual success for all children. Looking for ways to spark motivation and enthusiasm with students? Look no further, learn how personality impacts learning.
Bertha Richardson, Ed. D., an internationally recognized educator has over thirty-two years of educational experience. She served as the Teaching Specialist and classroom teacher in the School District of University City, Missouri for over twenty-nine years. She is the published author of many curriculum materials with a character education focus.
Paul Hanna is best described as “teacher.” He is the Reading Specialist in South Callaway School District, working with students in kindergarten through sixth grade and teachers of all levels. He is an Adjunct Instructor of Education at Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri, and consults nationally, training, groups in personality theory and literacy strategies.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 4
Title: A Co-teaching NUA Integrated Math Classroom
Presenters: Tracy Battles and Nancy Viall (City School District of Albany)
Audience: Grades 4 - 8
Conference Theme: Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms
This session will feature an integrated math classroom implementation of the NUA beliefs and strategies in an urban middle school. Participants will be exposed to and participate in an NUA driven 8th grade math unit. Included will be the collaborative planning process between a math and special education teacher and the NUA strategies that were utilized to create a culturally competent setting. The presentation will offer hands on experience for the participants so that they can view learning activities that model how to achieve the goal of high intellectual performance for all students.
Tracy Battles has been teaching in the City School District of Albany for over twenty-five years. As an integrated Special Education teacher she has totally embraced NUA strategies and philosophy. She believes NUA has enhanced instruction and team collaboration with student achievement always at the forefront.
Nancy Viall has been a Mathematics teacher in the City School District of Albany for five years. She tries to provide a stimulating learning environment that encourages students to trust their opinions, while fostering confidence that allows students to realize their full potential. In her classroom, Nancy uses NUA strategies that facilitate higher-level thinking. She has found that students not only retain the information longer, but they also become more confident in their own abilities.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 5
Title: Teacher, Have You Recognized My Mathematical Ability? Culturally Competent Instructional Delivery in the Mathematics Classroom
Presenter: Denelle Wallace
Audience: All
Conference Theme: Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms
Mathematics is the “gateway to technological literacy and to higher education” (Schoenfeld, 2002). This session will provide educators with ideas for restructuring district policies to increase the involvement of underrepresented student populations in higher level mathematics courses, research-based instructional strategies that promote cultural competency in the classroom, and professional development activities and lesson plans that acknowledge the impact of cultural competency on the academic success of a diverse student population for all levels of mathematics.
Dr. Denelle Wallace has a B.S. in Elementary Education, a M. Ed. in School Counseling, and a Ph.D. in Urban Services. Utilizing sixteen years of experience in public education, Dr. Wallace has provided sessions on cultural competency and research-based instructional strategies at the annual conferences of AERA, ASCD, VASCD, and VCTM.
Session III
Venue: Hart Theater Lounge (the Egg)
Title: Teaching Struggling Learners
Presenter: Peter De Witt and Kristen Card
Audience: PreK - 3
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; |Learning Needs of Boys; Educator Preparation; Leadership and the Challenges of the 21st Century
Teaching struggling learners is a presentation given by Poestenkill Elementary School (upstate New York) Principal Peter De Witt. In his presentation, Peter explains what a struggling learner looks like, and how teachers and administration in his school district use multiple methods of instruction to help educate their students.
Peter De Witt is the Principal of Poestenkill Elementary School (upstate New York). Before becoming principal, Peter taught primary school for eleven years in several city school districts in New York State. In addition to his administration and teaching duties, Peter is a children’s author.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Classroom A/B (Museum)
Title: Believing and Achieving High Intellectual Performance in Urban Schools
Presenters: Sheila Fridovich, William Tinkler, Greg Pacific, Betsy Sisson and Diana Sisson (NUA Mentor and NUA Partner School)
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation; Leadership and the Challenges of the 21st Century
This presentation highlights the Bridgeport/NUA partnership, as implemented in two schools. Principals, coaches, teachers and NUA mentor will, interactively, review NUA professional development, strategies, and underlying NUA beliefs that elicit high intellectual performance. The audience will be involved in several strategies that simulate NUA professional and the NUA classroom. They will be making connections to make learning relevant and specific NUA strategies will be taught to demonstrate learning.
Sheila Fridovitch has been working with NUA for ten years. She has been helped implement the NUA training and program in New York, Indianapolis, Albany, and Bridgeport. She has been interested in language development and brain research, as they affect the affect the learning processes. She graduated from Hunter College in NY with a degree in Speech Pathology. She has s Master’s degree in Audiology form the University of Maryland.
Mr. William Tinkler is the principal at James J. Curiale School in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Mr. Greg Pacific is an eighth-grade language arts teacher who has found creative approaches to implement National Urban Alliance strategies to meet the diverse needs of his students.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Huxley Theater (Museum)
Title: Need Based PD: How do you provide balance for diverse communities?
Presenter: Christopher Leone
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation; Leadership and the Challenges of the 21st Century
In an era where more accountability is shifting back to schools, this presentation will examine ways to establish meaningful diverse professional development to meet the needs of urban schools. This presentation will allow teachers and administrators a way to create a professional school culture and climate that directly impacts instruction.
Christopher Leone is the current CEO of YOU Instruction and former school principal. A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University Professional School or Business and Education, Mr. Leone has presented at national and international conferences including AMS, ASCD and NMSA.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 1
Title: Turning Passive Readers into Active Learners
Presenter: Kimberly Nix
Audience: Grades 4- 12
Conference Theme: Assessment, Language Development and Literacy
At this session, participants will learn how to engage struggling adolescent readers by learning how and why students become passive learners by the time they get to the middle grades. The session will highlight strategies that can be considered to enable students to learn again:
Finding out what the latest research in adolescent literacy says about choice, control, and active learning for struggling readers;
Discovering a variety of learning activities designed to engage passive learners and teach them to use active thinking processes (black line masters will be provided for participants to take home);
Discussing effective classroom techniques for promoting active learning in the reading intervention classroom; and,
Realizing how the gradual release method and scaffold instruction can enable students to learn and how the use of flexible grouping can help differentiate instruction for students
Kimberly Riley Nix, a National Reading Consultant for McGraw-Hill's Jamestown Reading Navigator Adolescent Intervention Program, is a former secondary reading teacher, coach and coordinator specializing in meeting the needs of Title I teachers and students. She has published several articles and recently authored a book on the use of flexible grouping to help address the needs of adolescent learners.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 2
Title: Using Dynamic Assessment to Ensure that No Child Will Be Left Behind
Presenter: Lou Falik
Audience: All
Conference Theme: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
The session will provide a description of the goals, structure, and process of the Learning Propensity Assessment Device (LPAD) that identifies the potential for cognitive modifiability and the ways in which mediated learning experience (MLE) addresses deficient functions and builds cognitive competencies. This will be illustrated and demonstrated through samples of the Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) program. Discussion will be directed to the relationship of these activities to the acquisition of academic skills.
Professor Lou Falik has been ICELP’s Clinical and Training Associate since 1988. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the Wayne State University in the US. Since 1966 he has been teaching at the Department of Counseling, School of Education, San Francisco State University. He was the Acting Chair of the Department, in 2000-2001 academic year. The primary focus of his teaching was mental health counseling, clinical skills practice, legal and professional practice, marriage and family counseling. Professor Falik was a visiting scholar at the Michigan State University, visiting professor at Konan University, Kobe, Japan, and visiting lecturer in special education and counseling at Haifa University, Israel. Professor Falik conducted training workshops in the Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) and Instrumental Enrichment in North America, Europe, Asia (India, Singapore, and Indonesia) and Australia. He has published extensively on learning disabilities, counseling and dynamic assessment. Many of his articles and book chapters are co-authored with Professor Reuven Feuerstein.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 3
Title: Texts for HIP: The Civil Rights Movement
Presenter: Elaine Hill (NUA Partner School District)
Audience: Grades 9 – 12
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms
This session will show how using texts that focus on The Civil Rights Movement will stimulate all students to strive for high intellectual performance. The facilitator will provide sample lesson plans with suggested learning activities using a variety of texts. The session will be interactive with participants performing the activities.
Dr. Elaine N. Hill is Executive Director of Professional Development & Grants, Birmingham City Schools. Her experience includes twenty-six years teaching high school English and six years working in curriculum and instruction. Currently, she is responsible for coordinating the TRUST Initiative, which includes the professional development services of NUA. She is the project director for Tapping Academic Potential, a federally funded grant to increase student’s participation in Advanced Placement Courses and college readiness. Dr. Hill is the chair of the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), Alabama, a human rights organization whose mission is to promote respect and understanding for all people.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 4
Title: HIP HOP into the primary grades.
Presenters: Sally Bruce and Donna Finks (City School District of Albany)
Conference Theme: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
This presentation will focus on useful NUA strategies, and how to present them in a fun and friendly manner to younger children. Participants will be invited to create their own materials that can be brought back to their own classrooms for immediate use.
Sally Bruce received her BS in Social Work from SUNY at Plattsburgh, and an MS in Elementary Ed from The College of St. Rose. She also has her Reading Recovery Certificate for NYU. She has been teaching in the Albany City School district for seventeen years.
Donna Frinks received her BS in Elementary Ed from SUNY at Geneseo, and a MS in Reading from the College of St. Rose. She also has her Reading Recovery Certificate from NYU. She has been teaching in the Albany City School District for seventeen years.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 5
Title: Leadership for a Time-Strapped Faculty: The Importance of Coherence in Staff Development
Presenter: Elaine Roberts
Audience: All
Conference Theme: Leadership and the Challenges of the 21st Century
School and district leadership should consider the role of professional development as part of the leadership vision, but also examine the importance of building coherence into short- and long-term staff development plans. Such coherence may ultimately enable teachers and teacher-leaders to examine concretely the correlation between what is planned, what is actually taught, what is assessed or evaluated and how in context of the standards-aligned curriculum.
Elaine Roberts, Ph.D. has been involved in higher education and professional development for nearly twenty years. As a lifelong learner, Dr. Roberts is constantly seeking opportunities for her own professional growth. That and a background as a former systems analyst makes it somewhat easy for her to help others examine their own systems, processes, and content to build short- and long-term plans for sustained yet organic growth.
Session V
Venue: Hart Theater Lounge (the Egg)
Presenter: Deborah Scherle (NYSUT Presentation)
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Assessment, Language Development Literacy; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation
Participants will experience high quality multicultural children's literature selections with emphasis on evaluating literature for bias, stereotype and tokenism. Strategies to utilize this literature in best practice while supporting a multicultural global classroom will also be shared
Deborah Scherle is the NYSUT instructor teaching Multicultural Children's Literature for the Masters in Literacy program offered through Mercy College. In 2007, at Skidmore College, she wrote the curriculum and trained twenty-three NYSUT instructors from all over New York State to teach the curriculum for NYSUT's Education and Learning Trust.
4:05 - 5:15 PM
Venue: Classroom A/B (Museum)
Title: Hip Hop in Education: How to effectively integrate this genre of music to motivate, empower, and educate our children.
Presenter: Jeremy Dudley (City School District of Albany)
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation; Leadership and the Challenges of the 21st Century
This presentation, will give examples of how to effectively integrated Hip Hop music into a classroom to enhance student learning. The session will highlight how students have used NUA strategies to create original songs that will be shared. The participants will also assist in the creation of an original song using NUA strategies.
Jeremy Dudley is both a teacher in the Albany City School District, and a local Hip Hop artist who has been voted best hip hop artist in the capital region for the past three years. In his eight years of teaching 5th grade at Giffen Elementary School, he has become know for his dedication to his community and his dynamic classroom instruction.
4:05 - 5:15 PM
Venue: Huxley Theater (Museum)
Title: Beyond Multiculturalism: The Challenge of Preparing Teachers for 21st Century Schools
Presenter: Steven Jongewaard
Audience: Grades 4 - 12
Conference Themes: Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation
Participants will learn about a pre-service teacher training program with an exclusive focus on urban schools. This program is designed to provide new teachers with the confidence and competence to work successfully in highly diverse, urban classrooms.
Dr. Steve Jongewaard has worked in urban education for more than three decades, first as an elementary classroom teacher and alternative school director in Minneapolis. He then began working as a teacher educator at Hamline University in St. Paul. He is married and has three grandchildren.
4:05-5:15 PM
Venue: Room 2
Title: Transformational Leadership: Creating and Sustaining Professional Learning Communities
Presenters: La Verne Flowers and Mary Oberg (NUA Mentors)
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Leadership and the Challenges of the 21st Century
How can we create and sustain a professional learning community in every school? How can school leaders inspire teachers to teach for high intellectual performance? The partnership between NUA and the West Metro Education Program in Minnesota has been making great strides in transforming schools as places of learning for students and teachers. Join this interactive and engaging session as the presenters share the building blocks for transformational schools. Learn practical techniques that lead to new insights in shared leadership and how you can transform your own school.
Dr. La Verne S. Flowers currently serves as the WMEP/NUA Director in Minnesota which includes eight school districts and forty-one schools. With over thirty-three years of experience in New York City at the school, district and central board level, she now works on a national level with NUA.
Mary Oberg is a career educator with over thirty-four years experience as a classroom teacher, resource teacher, administrator, and coordinator of programs for preK-12 students in Minneapolis Public Schools. She has served as consultant in the areas of diversity, organizational development, leadership, staff development design, curriculum design, instructional strategies, cognitive coaching, and assessment. Mary is currently the National Urban Alliance Coordinator for the West Metro Education Program (WMEP), a consortium of eleven urban and suburban school districts dedicated to leadership and implementation of a voluntary desegregation program. She is co-author of the book, “Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms.”
4:05 - 5:15 PM
Venue: Room 3
Title: What’s in Your Backpack?
Presenter: Dotti Shelton (NUA Mentor)
Audience: Grades 4 - 12
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Educator Preparation
This interactive and engaging seminar uses Mel Levine's latest article "The Essential Cognitive Backpack" to provide teachers with varied cognitive strategies that promote high intellectual performance that they can then pass on to their students who can take them from class to class and grade level to grade level.
Dr. Shelton earned her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction through the University of Houston. She has been actively involved with the National Urban Alliance for four years after working as a teacher at local schools and a professor in regions in Texas. She is enthusiastic about and dedicated to improving education for all teachers and students.
4:05 - 5:15 PM
Venue: Room 4
Presenters: Constance McNally and Melissa Hasty (City School District of Albany)
Audience: PreK - Grade 3
Conference Themes: Assessment, Language Development and Literacy; Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
See successful NUA strategies in action! This presentation will showcase hands-on cross-curricular activities based on quality literature and expository text. Children are encouraged to access prior knowledge and ask questions while exploring the world around them. Special attention will be placed on building language skills and further developing an awareness of print in a literacy rich environment. Highlighted will be methods of teacher communication and collaboration to enable high intellectual performance for all learners. Attendees will make and take activities as well as receive materials to bring to their classrooms.
Melissa Hasty has been a Kindergarten teacher at North Albany Academy in the Albany City School District for ten years, and was trained as a Reading Recovery teacher.
Connie McNally worked as a Title I Reading Teacher with 16-21 year old students for eight years. She has been an AIS/Reading Teacher at North Albany Academy in Albany for the past thirteen years, with experience in grades K – 8. She is currently the Elementary NUA Coach.
4:05 - 5:15 PM
Venue: Room 5
Title: Key Word Note Taking
Presenter: Sarah Beers et al (City School District of Albany)
Audience: Grades 4- 8
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation; Multilingual Education
This session will explore utilizing the practice of using the key word note taking strategy across multiple disciplines at the middle school level. This strategy helps students read carefully and put information into their words. Students pair up and read part of a short text individually. Then they share what they have read. After discussing, they decide collaboratively on a sentence, to summarize what they have read. This strategy also serves as a tool for English language learners and students who have special needs.
The presenters are a 7th/8th grade middle school team working in the only pre-k-8th building in the City School District of Albany. We are a young team composed of different core subjects that has been working together for the last three years. The presenters are the only middle school team that works in conjunction with elementary students and the only team whose students loop. This setting allows them to really know our student’s strengths and weaknesses. |
