Technoloducation

Conferences and Workshops

Global Education Conference
Online November 12-16, 2012
“The Global Education Conference is a collaborative, inclusive, world-wide community initiative involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels. It is designed to significantly increase opportunities for building education-related connections around the globe while supporting cultural awareness and recognition of diversity. Last year’s conference featured 340 general sessions and 18 keynote addresses from all over the world with over 10,000 participant logins. To attend this year’s conference and to be kept informed of the latest conference news and updates, please 
join this network.”

There are plenty of other conferences for the summer with time left for registration, so be sure look here, here, and here. Do you know of any other upcoming workshops or conferences that should be mentioned? Is global education a part of your curriculum?

I think a fair understanding of the teacher trade is that its members are collaborative by nature. There are also a ton of websites now dedicated to sharing our best stuff simply because we value education everywhere. One transitional hump to sharing online could be turning that desire into motivation, and Teachers pay Teachers might do just that. Are you unsure if others might want to use your lesson on a Russian formalist reading of chapter 4 of Catcher in the Rye? Post it to Teachers pay Teachers, and let your earnings serve as quantitative feedback. Then connect it to Common Core for submission to LearnZillion, or make a video of it for Teaching Channel. See what I did there? Have some thoughts about posting plans for profit?

Conferences and Workshops

2012 AASSA Global Issues Network Conference of the Americas
São Paulo, Brazil October 12-14, 2012
“GINs are groups of students and teachers, working internationally, to develop solutions for global issues. GINs challenge students and teachers to immerse themselves in a chosen issue and to interact with peers and other international collaborators to create networks, think and act critically, creatively, and innovatively toward creating solutions to address real-world global issues.”  
Conference Goals
Our goals in planning this conference are to:

• Empower our students as leaders and partners in the planning process
• Have a fully campus-based conference involving the community
• Make the conference as green as possible, as well as to try to minimize the consumption of ‘stuff’
• Strengthen bonds with friends, meet new friends, and collaborate to build alliances around common interests

How do we begin?
Form a GIN group. It is good to begin by reviewing (both ongoing and possible) efforts focused on global issues with these students and teachers. You will choose one or two of these issues for your projects and, thus, your presentation/s. You will closely monitor/document your efforts in the coming months. For many of you, it will not be creating more work but celebrating and sharing your efforts to date.

How do we prepare to attend the conference?
The GIN group should meet regularly. Schools are invited to send a GIN team (or two) to the conference. Each team is made up of 2-6 students from Grades 7-12, so the maximum number of students a school could send would be 12. Two adult advisers must accompany your school’s students, whether you send one or two teams.

(Note: We included Grade 7 students but would like to stress that the younger students must rise to the occasion since they will be interacting with high school students. They must be up to the task both intellectually/academically and in terms of maturity).”

For more information, check out the conference site and the worldwide Global Issues Network site.

There are plenty of other conferences for the summer with time left for registration, so be sure look here, here, and here. Do you know of any other upcoming workshops or conferences that should be mentioned?

Our school has recently adopted the Common Core standards for mathematics and language arts. Fortunately, the entire education world is ready, and resources are abound. LearnZillion is one of those resources. 

“We started LearnZillion at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. because we wanted to solve a problem. We knew what lessons our students needed but we didn’t have enough time to teach each student the right lesson. To create more time, and to share best practices across classrooms, E.L. Haynes’ teachers began to capture their expertise on screencasts. We posted them on a homemade website and coupled them with a short quiz to help us track student progress. Soon the idea grew.

What if teachers from across the country could contribute to the site? What if new teachers could learn the new Common Core standards from the wisdom of experienced teachers? What if students could get a playlist of lessons that matched their needs? What if, over time, the video lessons got stronger and stronger, as more teachers contributed and the data showed which lessons had the biggest impact? Thanks to funding from the Next Generation Learning Challenge, NewSchools Venture Fund, Achievement Network, and others, we are about to find out!”

Combining the ideas of Kahn Academy and , LearnZillion allows teachers to share and benefit from aligned resources that can be used to target the needs of individual students. 

Do you see a use for this in your classroom?

TeachingChannel honestly has so much on it, that there is no proper overview that I can write up in a newsletter article. It just must be seen for itself. 
In their own words,
“Teaching Channel is a video showcase — on the Internet and TV — of innovative and effective teaching practices in America’s schools.
With the help of the Tch community, our mission is to revolutionize how teachers learn, connect, and inspire each other to improve the outcomes for all K-12 students across America.

In order to accomplish this mission, we have three simple goals, all of them reliant on input from teachers:

• Build professional learning resources that teachers want
• Deepen and improve opportunities for teacher learning
• Elevate and celebrate teachers in our society

Our videos are produced by a unique team of professionals—a collaborative effort between video production experts, education advisors, and the classroom teachers themselves.

Our video library offers educators a wide range of subjects for grades K-12. The videos also include information on alignment with Common Core State Standards and ancillary material for teachers to use in their own classrooms.

Teaching Channel Presents, a weekly one-hour program featuring Tch videos, airs on PBS stations in nearly 75 million homes across the United States.”
Do you see something truly inspirational or interesting on Tch?

Standards Talk

The use of standards, which in early models focused on the development of skills and facts, no longer runs counter to conceptual models like the International Baccalaureate PYP and MYP systems. Some standards and conceptual models warn against the faults of content coverage; unfortunately, many people still hold onto the idea that teaching is covering, especially those experts of the classroom (overt sarcasm in 3…2…) - politicians - who neglect that our attention should be on the depth of learning.  For an American school abroad, like ours, conceptual learning is paramount, because the varied cultures within our walls each bring with them unique, yet consistent, human experience, and all of it cannot be taught, but concepts that allow those students to personalize their learning and engagement can be examined with depth.
The issue addressed by Common Core:
“Myth: The Standards only include skills and do not address the importance of content knowledge.

Fact: The Standards recognize that both content and skills are important.

In English‐language arts, the Standards require certain critical content for all students, including: classic myths and stories from around the world, America’s Founding Documents, foundational American literature, and Shakespeare. Appropriately, the remaining crucial decisions about what content should be taught are left to state and local determination. In addition to content coverage, the Standards require that students systematically acquire knowledge in literature and other disciplines through reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

In Mathematics, the Standards lay a solid foundation in whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals. Taken together, these elements support a student’s ability to learn and apply more demanding math concepts and procedures. The middle school and high school standards call on students to practice applying mathematical ways of thinking to real world issues and challenges; they prepare students to think and reason mathematically. The Standards set a rigorous definition of college and career readiness, not by piling topic upon topic, but by demanding that students develop a depth of understanding and ability to apply mathematics to novel situations, as college students and employees regularly do.”

As an American school, do we agree that America’s Founding Documents are critical content? Probably. But definitely if the critical content consists of those documents and explores the importance of similar documents from a variety of cultures and contexts.

The issue addressed by AERO Science:
“Science is a way of making sense of the natural world. Scientists seek to describe its complexity, to explain its systems and events, and to find the patterns that allow for predictions and understandings. Science is the basis for the design of technologies that solve realworld problems. Not all students will become scientists or engineers. But science and technology occupy ever-expanding places in our everyday lives. As citizens, we are asked to make decisions about social issues that involve science and technology. As workers, we have occupations that increasingly involve science and technology. In the 21st century, adults will need to be comfortable and competent in a complex, scientific and technological world. Schools have the responsibility of preparing students for the future. 
Schools must prepare all students — regardless of their future aspirations — to be scientifically literate.
Therefore, all graduates of a school science program should be: 
• knowledgeable about the important concepts and theories of the three major branches of scientific study: earth, life, and physical sciences; 
• able to think scientifically and use scientific knowledge to make decisions about real–world problems; able to construct new knowledge for themselves through research, reading, and discussion; 
• familiar with the natural world, and respectful of its unity, diversity, and fragility; able to make informed judgments on statements and debates claiming to have a scientific basis; and, able to reflect in an informed way on the role of science in human affairs. 
To make this happen, the science curriculum needs to: 
• emphasize understanding, not content coverage; 
• promote learning that is useful and relevant; 
• emphasize scientific literacy for ALL students; and, 
• promote interdisciplinary learning.”

Conferences and Workshops

EdmodoCon 2012
Online August 8, 2012
“Edmodo educators across the globe will gather online for a one-day professional development extravaganza.  Throughout the day, teachers will share, inspire and showcase the creative ways they are using Edmodo and other digital tools in the classroom. Topics may include Professional Learning Communities, Edmodo integration ideas, global classrooms, 1:1 initiatives and Edmodo Apps.

It’s a great day to celebrate being a teacher – and an event not to be missed!  Check out the 2011 archives to learn more. Reserve your spot here!”

There are plenty of other conferences for the summer with time left for registration, so be sure look here, here, and here. Do you know of any other upcoming workshops or conferences that should be mentioned? What are your thoughts about online conferences? 

The ‘B’ Word

Bullying is tough for us. That sounds selfish, so let me explain. Bullying is not always easy to identify. Definitions capture it only partially. Bullying can be excused as a rite of passage, a necessary social experience, or ‘boys just being boys/girls just being girls.’  One teacher’s understanding of bullying might be different than another’s (such as my complete disagreement with the handling of bullying here), as is different from a student’s, as is different from a parent’s. Whose perspective defines the term? We often can’t label it as a collective until it’s already too late. Bullying can reflect behavior that societies deem acceptable by certain classes or ages. Bullying can blend in with elements of culture. Bullying can be excused by tradition, faith, and justified in response to feelings of disgust.
How do we address all of these possibilities, stop bullying, and help kids recognize bullying for themselves, when it can be so blurry even to us? How do we then move towards making appropriate relationship building an element of our instruction? How much of an impact can we have within the social dynamics of students without making things worse?
I think the first step is defining bullying for us as a school. A commonly accepted definition can be found on stopbullying.gov, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services resource mentioned at other times in this blog:

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems. 

In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:

• An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
• Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.

Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

• Types of Bullying
• Where and When Bullying Happens
• Frequency of Bullying

Types of Bullying 

There are three types of bullying:

• Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:
  • Teasing
  • Name-calling
  • Inappropriate sexual comments
  • Taunting
  • Threatening to cause harm
• Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:
  • Leaving someone out on purpose
  • Telling other children not to be friends with someone
  • Spreading rumors about someone
  • Embarrassing someone in public
• Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Physical bullying includes:
  • Hitting/kicking/pinching
  • Spitting
  • Tripping/pushing
  • Taking or breaking someone’s things
  • Making mean or rude hand gestures

This definition will mean nothing if it remains existent only on a page. How does such a definition fit for our student population? Does it work for all grade levels? How can it be made to come alive for students? How can it be built into the framework of learning…and should it?
For IB schools, the learner profile sets a foundation for intellectual and affective growth. What makes these values become dynamic for students? How do we get the words off of the posters to become a part of ethical thinking?


We have to shake ourselves awake. It isn’t about blaming ourselves or the students when bullying escalates, but trying to become more aware of the factors that lead to it, and stopping them - using them as points for character education. We unintentionally allow negative behaviors to become a part of the culture of our classrooms. How often has one student made fun of another in a class, and we’ve laughed along? Is not addressing mockery the same as participating? Is a student making fun of another student even an example of bullying? When? When is it not? We have to be aware of the relationships of our students. That joke might be funny. The student serving as the punchline may laugh along with it. Outside of the classroom, that student may actually encourage the same joke. Alternatively, outside of the classroom that joke you heard may have just been the tip of the iceberg - the part that you’re allowed to see, and that student laughs along because any other response makes him vulnerable. The difference is huge, and we cannot passively know. On the other side of the coin, we cannot expect that because we know the kids, and because we are close to them, that we are experts on their relationships…in fact, proximity could make us even less able to see bullying, because we are able to identify with both victims and bullies (and unfortunately they don’t come with labels, and there’s no such thing as set roles - a victim today can be tomorrow’s bully…or even this afternoon’s). 
We don’t just need to think about the behaviors students exhibit, the possibilities behind those behaviors, when to regulate, and when to teach character, but we also have to think about the examples that we set, unintentionally and intentionally. We impact students in ways we don’t expect. Of course, overtly negative behavior on display for students to see, like abusing the teacher-student power dynamic, is bad, and so is making fun of a student or saying negative things about another teacher (even subtly). What about passive negativity? If a teacher crinkles his nose whenever another specific teacher is around, do kids pick up on it? If one teacher is frequently condescending to another, do kids interpret her remarks as adult bullying? Do we use body language or different tones for certain students? If that tone is harsher or even pitying, are we sending a message to the rest of the class? 
The enrollment of students from varied cultural backgrounds steadily increases among many national systems. International schools are already composites of world diversity, and many of the teachers of these schools are international themselves, making them incapable of fully identifying with the host country’s cultural context. How does this further complicate our fight against bullying? What is a teacher’s responsibility while working within cultures that encourage power imbalance between sexes or between classes (and I’d say portions of the U.S. are examples)? 

Anna Nolin believes we need to “stop the small stuff.” This does not mean we create strict, overbearing classes where nary a joke is heard. In fact, it can mean the exact opposite. Regulating behavior is a part of what we do, but the more important part is providing a framework for behavior that students can internalize as appropriate for themselves. How can they become participants in setting their own behavioral goals? This is the war we fight - kids don’t bully because they are necessarily bad, but because of what their social groups internalize as appropriate and acceptable. 
A behavior rubric that takes into consideration culture, our presence, establishing a framework for exhibiting the positive building of relationships (while acknowledging that relationships work in cycles), and the thoughts and opinions of students, parents, and teachers, could be effective. What do you think? Is a behavior rubric for an entire school feasible? What might get in the way? How can it be done correctly versus incorrectly? Is there a better way?

We know bullying is an important thing for us to be aware of. We know it’s bad. We want our kids to know that bullying is bad. We want them to be good, moral people. Can we define bullying clearly, not just for them, but for ourselves? What is the line that separates the mocking that can be defended as necessary for inclusion and something we can point to as abuse? Do we treat bullying differently for boys than we do girls? Do we evaluate child interactions based on our own remembrances of childhood, even though there is evidence that the impulsive reflex for caring is responsive to more victims today, and increases with each passing generation? What is the limit of our reach? Are we expected to monitor online use of our students to deter cyberbullying? Is bullying, which in large part is governed by empathetic and psychological development, an area for which the school system is responsible? What do students already know (check out this video of kids telling you directly), and where do we even start? Stopbullying.gov is a website from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve as a resource for kids, parents, and teachers. The site helps define bullying, offers ideas for approaching the issue with students, and instructs how to respond when you become aware of the problem. They approach bullying as a community issue, and even take into consideration the role that the internet can play in preventing bullying (tweet #stopbullying to share how you take action against bullying) as a counter to the commonplace vulnerability kids generally face through social networking. Check elsewhere on this blog for a more involved post about bullying.

Just for Fun

Teaching can tend to take our lives over. When we aren’t grading and planning outside of school, we’re looking for professional development to improve our craft. I’m carving out some important me time in the next couple months, and I might try to get the hang of something I’ve always wanted to learn - web and application design and development. Treehouse compiled over 700 training videos and keeps you on track by awarding badges for your skill progression. Badges work for my Battlefield 3 addiction, so I’m feeling pretty confident about this better use of my time. There’s no question that the skill could come in handy as the line that separates education and technology becomes continuously blurry. It has a pretty hefty price tag, so I still need to determine its full worth.
Are you interested in trying this out? How about other methods for learning outside of school? What will you do over the break to keep yourself spry? What motivates you?

Do you have an online presence?

We place deserved concern on student awareness of internet dangers. We want them to feel safe and to recognize that the information they share online can have measurable impact beyond the computer screen, and we can only imagine how such presence will impact their futures. Beyond safety, we should be helping children understand how to market themselves, and use the immense power of the internet for their own good. What about applying these same ideas in our own lives? 
The internet can still be an unsteady, uncomfortable place for some teachers. For others, the internet has been something that we’ve grown up alongside, so the line between appropriate and reputation-killing can be a blurry one. Moving from getting rid of the bad to making our online presence a tool for our own success can be a broad leap, but this is something that may very well be a requirement for survival in coming years. 
First, get rid of the bad!
You have to make sure that you are in control of what can be seen about you, and that includes considering who can see you. If you have a personal social networking account that you use for friends, do not add students! Social networking is such a natural part of our lives, that you will likely post something that you will regret later. In active, face-to-face social circles, we can manage the way we interact with different groups based on the reactions we pick up on from those peers through experience: we can be professional with colleagues, firm yet caring with students, irresponsible and crazy with one group of friends, and intellectual with other groups. When we expose all of the aspects of our personalities in one location to be seen by many different social groups, without regulating ourselves through the use of visual cues, those inhibitors that alert us to compartmentalize our behavior are absent. When we’re making posts, uploading pictures, commenting with friends, etc., our audience receives a full compendium of behaviors that we might not otherwise wish to expose them to. One method for regulating those interactions is to know your network’s privacy settings and methods for organizing your friends into groups based on visibility. If this is the method you choose, be careful! Privacy settings and visibility features can change without you knowing, and you can never be entirely sure that these features are working effectively for long. Another possibility is to not add students at all, or to create a separate profile specifically for students.
What do you have visible to the public that you wouldn’t show kids in the classroom or during a break at school? A profile picture of you with alcohol? Comments about other teachers or negativity about any aspect of the school on your wall? Not only are you sending the wrong message to students, but you’re sending a message that might get in the way of you being hired at your next dream job.
Once you’ve cleaned house, and all of the things that can hurt your reputation are gone, let the internet work for you.

Musts:
The online resume

Love it or hate it, LinkedIn has staying power. If you don’t have a full resume here that you update regularly, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Group membership

There are more educational communities than you can count. Don’t overreach, but find a place that makes you feel comfortable and confident where you can make occasional contributions.

Examples of practice


Many Learning Management Systems (see my other post about them) allow you to make aspects of your course publicly viewable. Practice discretion to make sure that you do not reveal information about your students, but let the world know about the highlights of your practice. Do you flip your classroom? Share your videos. Are you fantastic with bringing your physical classroom to life? Take pictures and share on a blog. Do you have a few lessons that you just know other teachers will love? Share them on one of the many lesson and resource-sharing websites out there! Let all the hard work you already do represent you online by essentially using the internet as your personal portfolio. 

Shoulds:
Share your expertise

Creating and keeping up with a blog is an excellent way to gain presence, and it allows you to store all those Musts from above in a centralized location. Be cautious though: if you choose a blog that encourages discussions with other practitioners (a good one will) don’t get sucked into arguments that you wouldn’t want your boss (current or future) to see in a professional meeting. 

Here I am!

How can people find you on the internet? If you’re using your presence to market yourself, then you want to be found! Sites like about.me give the world a central point for access to your online, professional outlets.
Your email signature is another great point of information - so please, I beg of you, clean it up…no 18-point comic sans in painful colors!

Do you already make the grade and have additional tips to share? Do you disagree with concerns about online presence?

Collaboration Tool

Did you know that the Prezi you love has a collaborative editing feature? Like many other online workspaces - Mindmeister, LiveMinutes, and Vyew - Prezi allows users to simultaneously collaborate and edit presentations in real time. Now, PowerPoint is officially a relic by comparison. They also now have an education community and you can sign in with your teacher email to access more features for less money. Just make sure to avoid these Prezi mistakes.

Do you think you can use Prezi to help kids create together online? Am I too harsh on PowerPoint?

Learning Management Systems

Learning management systems (LMS), or course management systems (CMS), allow teachers to post course materials, link to resources, host lessons and discussions, allow students to submit assignments, allow collaboration and communication between and with students, and depending on the platform, do a whole lot more that matches the necessity of blending technology with education today. The real issue is finding a platform that works for you, creating a culture of its use for yourself and your students, and being consistent and realistic about its presence. The other real issue is that the fight for your allegiance is an all-out war at the moment, with different platforms scrambling for funding from education powerhouses and venture capitalists - then one must consider the struggle many will have in the future with ensuring longevity through the use of models that do not yet led themselves to direct profit. So how do you pick a horse in this kind of race when the finish line is so far away, and that horse has to carry your current and future students on its back?
About two and a half years ago, I stumbled across Edmodo. It was a relatively new system that allowed for communication with students, and allowed them to submit assignments. The beauty of it was (and is) that it had several safeguards in place to ensure that students use the system safely and responsibly. Oh yeah, and it’s free. This was the answer to an attempt I made the year before to reach my students where they spent most of their time - online - by creating Facebook groups. Facebook is insecure, and legitimately blocked at many schools (yes, I know they’re trying to wedge into this market too, but I’m not buying what they’re selling). Edmodo became a method for extending our face-to-face lessons while helping students use the web responsibly.
Edmodo has become the status quo at our school ever since. The kids are great with it, and it is rare that they need support with the system or consequences for inappropriateness. Even still, I’m making the change that I hinted at about a month ago.
It can be difficult to choose from among the free LMS platforms - ,, and  (formerly Coursekit) - that seem to be current leads in the race (Blackboard does have a free version, but I’m not confident it will take off).
Edmodo is becoming a goliath with 7.4 million users and serving over 80 thousand schools. It’s safe, secure, interactive, personalizable (on a school or district level), has dedicated support that’s quick and eager to respond, works across multiple devices, allows for teachers to network and collaborate, hosts its own professional development workshops and certificates, and even has its own annual, online conference. 
Lore is a newcomer, but it’s already getting a lot of support from major financial backers, and is billing itself as an elegant, alternative that allows courses to be more useful and engaging. It’s targeting higher education (and aiming directly at Blackboard), but plans to extend its reach throughout the learning continuum, so that teachers and learners can build portfolios of growth from elementary through university learning. 
Schoology, like Edmodo, has carved out its niche of users over time, and like Lore, is getting a lot of attention from financial backers. It isn’t as beautiful as Lore (although certainly prettier than Blackboard), and it isn’t as secure as Edmodo. So why is this the winner for me? Side by side comparisons make me feel more confident that Schoology is in this race for the long haul, and many of the best features of Edmodo and Coursekit are available with Schoology. They have improved consistently and are good at getting the name out there to the key determiners of survival - bigwigs with big wallets. I can tailor the security settings enough for the students I teach - high school students. For this level of teaching, it also provides a big need that Edmodo just doesn’t - discussion boards. Lore is pretty, but it isn’t compartmentalized and gritty enough that my kids will take it seriously. I’ll always have much love for Edmodo, and I still think it’s the absolute best for students in grades 3-9. Also, since most of my middle and high school uses Edmodo, I have to consider how a change will affect that culture, which is why the change to Schoology will only be for my AP students. 
Check these platforms out and let us know your thoughts. Does one of these (or one not mentioned) stand out to you as a future winner? What will determine (or has already determined) your choice?

Conferences and Workshops

Edmodo for Summer Professional Development - Certificate
Online June 6 or June 13, 2012
“This Edmodo certification is for the gurus who have already gained proficiency for personal use and who would like to help others use Edmodo as a professional development platform. You can register here, and the same link will direct you to a calendar of other Edmodo webinars, workshops, and events, including introductory seminars.”

There are plenty of other conferences for the summer with time left for registration, so be sure look here, here, and here. Do you know of any other upcoming workshops or conferences that should be mentioned?

Conferences

2012 National Conference on Differentiated Instruction
Las Vegas, Nevada July 10-13, 2012
“Pack your toolbox with a wide range of relevant, research-based, immediately applicable strategies that turn powerful theories into best practices.”
They aren’t kidding either. For the insane amount of workshops available, check this PDF pamphlet. 


Summer Institute on Academic Diversity
Charlottesville, Virginia July 9-13, 2012 or July 16-20, 2012
”Each week features Carol Tomlinson [Remember? The guru!] presenting in a morning session, followed by anchored attribute sessions and breakout sessions tailored for individual grade level, subject area, or job specific needs.”


Cultivating Creativity and the Differentiated Mindset in Teachers
Reston, Virginia June 28-29 2012
“This eye-opening and practical seminar for both administrators and teachers will help build instructional effectiveness leading to improved student performance. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore one of the key ingredients to school success.” It’s with Rick Wormeli!



Educators at Work: Differentiating Curriculum and Instruction
London, England June 18-21, 2012
“In this institute, participants examine the principles of defensible differentiated instruction through presentation, discussion and examination of differentiation applied by a broad range of educators. There will be opportunities for direct instruction by the presenter in both large- and small-group sessions, as well as guided practice in applying principles and strategies of high quality differentiation for participants to plans for their own classroom.” 


Differentiating Instruction for Diverse Classrooms
Sioux Falls, South Dakota July 20-21, 2012
“Learn the four basic areas where instruction can be differentiated, as well as over twenty practical methods you can start using on Monday morning that will help you motivate your students, and make your lessons meaningful to each one!”

Do you know of some other differentiation-themed workshops or conferences that should be mentioned here? Do you know of any other workshops that people might want to know about that haven’t already been mentioned here, here, and here?