1. Sustaining Students' Classroom Attention in the Digital, Distracted Age
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Cost: $250 per person
There is much to learn from the multimedia, multisensory information that students find so compelling. For example, knowing what happens in the brain when a player is “hooked” on a video game yields teaching strategies that correlate with the gaming effect to evoke similar neurochemical and metabolic brain reactions and promote increased interest, motivation, perseverance, and memory of the information you teach. You’ll learn how to promote that attentive response without any technology as well as using free interactive technology such as animoto, WIKI, survey monkey, and “clicker” type responses to capture students and sustain attentive focus, engagement, and promote participation.
Judy Willis, MD, EdM, Board-Certified Neurologist, Middle School Teacher; Adjunct Lecturer, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara; Author, Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning (2006) and “Attention: Adding the Science of Learning to the Art of Teaching to Enrich Classroom Instruction” (2005, Journal of the National Council of English Teachers)
2. Teaching Teens and Their Brains in the Digital Age
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Cost: $250 per person (plus $40 materials fee – includes books by presenters)
In this two-part workshop, you will first gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic potential for increasing teen learning through digital media such as social networking platforms, YouTube, Wikipedia, and more. Then you will explore how technology is affecting the structure, function, and development of the adolescent brain. There is a "digital divide" between students who were weaned on technology and students and teachers who are trying to catch up and keep up with the latest developments. Learn how to bridge the gap and manage the teenage techno-brain.
Jessica K. Parker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Education, Sonoma State University; Participant, “the Digital Youth Project"; Author, Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids: Bringing Digital Media into the Classroom, Grades 5-12 (2010)
Marilee B. Sprenger, MA, Adjunct Professor, Aurora University; Former Teacher; Author, Brain Based Teaching in the Digital Age (2010) and The Developing Brain (2008)
HALF-DAY WORKSHOPS
(By advance registration only. Select one of TWO.
Add $25 fee if you are not attending the conference.)
1. High Impact Teaching in the (Generation) XYZ Era of Education
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM Cost: $185 per person
Today’s teachers are facing a truly unique challenge – how to cross the biggest ‘generational divide’ education has ever seen! Gen X and Gen Y teachers, attempting to teach Gen Z students, need a completely different set of skills and choices when designing and conducting their lessons. Simply stated, the students walking into classrooms today are radically different than those we taught 20, 15, even 10 years ago. Having grown up with the internet, digital TV and computer games, even young kids arrive with a very different idea of how they learn and new expectations of information delivery. To draw these learners in, and help them maximize their potential, we need to use instructional strategies that more closely match their fast, exciting and instantly gratifying world. In this practical, energetic, and dynamic session you’ll both hear about and experience unique teaching techniques you can use to seize – and hold! – their attention, such as using today’s music, creating relevance by connecting the material to their world, maximizing their memories’ potential, and many, many more.
Richard Allen, PhD, Educational Psychologist; President, Green Light Education; Former Director, SuperCamp; Author, High-Impact Teaching Strategies for the 'XYZ' Era of Education (2009), TrainSmart: Effective Trainings Every Time (2007), and Impact Teaching: Ideas and Strategies for Teachers to Maximize Student Learning (2001)
2. Building the Reading Brain in PreK-3
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM Cost: $185 per person
Reading with comprehension is the lynchpin for school success, yet no reading pathway is present at birth. Reading is literally an unnatural act for the human brain! In this session, Pat Wolfe will explain how the brain’s plasticity allows it to use structures and circuits originally devoted to other purposes to build the capacity to read. Also discussed will be critical stages in the reading process, causes of dyslexia and what can be done in the years before children start formal schooling to increase the probability that they will learn to read fluently and with comprehension.
Patricia Wolfe, EdD, President, Brain Matters; Educational Consultant: Former Teacher; Author of Building the Reading Brain, PreK-3 (2004) and Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom Practice (2001)
