Conferences and Workshops

WORKSHOPS COMPLETED 2009-10

February 26, 2010 - Building Capacity for Teacher Leadership: Teachers as School Leaders and Coaches - Part 1
Presenter: Dr. Laurie McCullough
Location: Charlottesville, VA
This workshop is intended for teachers and others in leadership roles. The day will focus on developing the skills necessary to serve as effecive instructional leaders for colleagues. The session is appropriate for instructional coaches, department chairs, team leaders, mentors, and also for administrators who wish to enhance their coaching and negotiation skills. Communication and coaching will be the primary focus areas. The session will also address the most important aspects of leading change, such as goal definition, building consensus, managing decision-making, and measuring and celebrating progress. Case studies and interactive experiences will be used to practice problem-solving and reflection. Dr. McCullough presentered this workshop in 2009 and is back by popular demand. Also participants of this workshop and last year's workshop will receive registration information on Part 2 of the workshop which will be held on March 23, 2010.

October 16, 2009 - The Middle and High School Principal's Role in Creating and Maintaining Strong Literacy Programs at the Secondary Level
Presenter: Virginia Bowerman
Location: Charlottesville, VA
This workshop is designed specifically to provide clear and concise strategies for secondary principals, assistant principals, and curriculum leaders in building and strengthening a culture of literacy achievement for all students by creating a school-wide literacy program. The presenter will review current trends in adolescent literacy achievement. Research-based, essential literacy components for every classroom and best practices in literacy education for middle and high school will be addressed. In addition, the roles of literacy personnel and the use of data to impact literacy achievement will be discussed. Strategies for improving vocabulary acquisition, understanding instructional levels, and using texts will be provided. Also participants will learn about intervention programs available for working with struggling and ELL students, including Response to Intervention. Administrators will have an opportunity to talk with other principals about their efforts to increase literacy achivement.

October 21, 2009 - Creating Independent, Strategie Readers and Writers in Middle School and High School
Presenter: Sue Beers
Locatiion: Charlottesville, VA
In this workshop, participants will learn practical classroom strategies for helping students become better readers of content area text and better writers. A model for understanding the overall reading process, including the reader, classroom climate, the reading task, text features and processing strategies will frame specific classroom tools that can be used to improve student comprehension of reading tasks. Tools and strategies for pre-, during and post-reading comprehension activities will be modeled and shared as participants learn how content area teachers can improve the reading comprehension of all students while students also gain and retain a deeper understanding of the content itself.

September 22-24, 2009 - Guiding Your Students to Higher Achievement with the New Math SOL (9/22 K-3; 9/23 Grades 4-8; 9/24 High School)
Presenter: Dan Mulligan
Location: Charlottesville, VA
November 4-6, 2009 Location - Hotel Roanoke, VA
This activity-based workshop will feature the latest information on the impact of revisions to Virginia’s mathematics SOL. Participants will become familiar with SOL changes, new expectations for student understanding, ideas for the revision of existing assessments,
and new instructional strategies related to the challenges presented by the requirements of the new SOL and related yearly testing in mathematics. During each workshop participants will learn about:

•essential components of curriculum, instruction, and learning
to better align with critical knowledge, vocabulary and skills;
•adjustments to current pacing guides and curriculum maps; and
• ideas and strategies to focus division, school, and classroom programs
on both formative and summative assessments.
Each participant will be provided with a toolkit of new resources
to assist Virginia’s educators in effectively preparing for implementation
of the new mathematics SOL.

July 19-22, 2009- Summer Leadership Conference 2009
Edustat University 2009 in Charlottesville, VA: A Partnership among Albemarle Public Schools, the Curry School, the Virginia School University Partnership and SchoolNet, Inc

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Conference Theme: Education's Role in Re-Imagining America's Future
Audience- Executive level staff of Curriculum, Technology, Instruction,
Assessment, Professional Development, and Education Technology Leaders, Principals, and Teams of Principals and at least 2 members Leadership Teams and/ or SchoolNet Project Teams

Proposed Keynote Speakers
Jay McTighe: Schooling By Design
Tony Wagner: Motivating the "net generation" to excellence
This collaborative forum will spark innovation and solutions for educators preparing the digital generation to excel in the rapidly changing global society.
Conference topics include:
Integrating critical thinking, creativity, and effective communication skills into our expectations of K-12 learners.
Designing school improvement processes that support result-oriented goals.
Facilitating frequent data-dialogues focused on ensuring that all students achieve desired results.
Who Should Attend:
Principals and Teacher Leaders
Assistant Superintendents
Chief Academic Officers
Chief Information Officers
Directors of Education Technology
Directors of Professional Development
SchoolNet Project Teams