1. The Motivation Equation: Lighting Fires in the Minds of Youth - this workshop is SOLD OUT

This workshop starts with a short, fast and funny video called “Ned’s Gr8 8” which introduces an adolescent brain (named Ned Cephalus) explaining the conditions for motivation and mastery. Identified collaboratively by students, teachers, and NSF learning scientists and grounded in social cognitive theory, a simple but powerful framework is created in this video to help us better understand teen learners. Kathleen Cushman will discuss the conditions needed for motivation and mastery in teens and how they are affected by past learning experiences, how and why teens may and may not experience those conditions, strategies to heighten those conditions, and how to create an action plan to strengthen those conditions in your own context as an educator.

Kathleen Cushman, BA, Consultant; Co-Founder, What Kids Can Do; Author, The Motivation Equation:Designing Lessons that Set Kids’ Minds on Fire (2013); Co-Author, Belonging and Becoming: The Power of Social and Emotional Learning in High Schools (2015)

2. Transformative Teaching: Changing Today's Classrooms Culturally, Emotionally and Academically - this workshop is SOLD OUT

This workshop will explore student needs in three key areas: emotional, cultural and academic. These three areas are interconnected with facets of a student's whole self and must be addressed equally if students are to thrive and survive in our classrooms and in life.  By understanding each of these three areas, coupled with some quality teaching practices based on brain science that build students' mindsets and their skill sets, you will be able to integrate all three components in simple and doable ways to transform your classrooms so all learners can succeed.

Kathleen M. Kryza, MA, President, Infinite Horizons; Co-Author, Transforming Teaching: Changing Today’s Classrooms Culturally, Academically and Emotionally (2015), Developing Growth Mindsets in the Inspiring Classroom (2011) and Differentiation for Real Classrooms (2009)

3. The Science and Practice of Mindfulness and Compassion Meditation

- this workshop is SOLD OUT

The goal of this experiential and didactic workshop is to introduce specific intrapersonal and interpersonal skills to enhance psychological flexibility, self-regulation and well-being. We will engage ina variety of contemplative practices aimed at illuminating attention regulation, emotional awareness, emotion regulation, empathic listening, equanimity and common humanity through a series of mindfulness and compassion practices (individual, dyadic, group) infused with current scientific evidence from neuroscience and psychology to support the understanding of how, why, and when to implement these tools at home and work, as well as with ourselves and others. A review of preliminary evidence of how these skills work in school settings will be provided.

Philippe R. Goldin, PhD, Assistant Professor and Founding Faculty, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, University of California, Davis; Co-Creator, Search Inside Yourself and Emotional Intelligence Program at Google; Co-Author, “Emotion Beliefs and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder” (2014, Cognitive Behavior Therapy) and “Beliefs About Emotion: Links to Emotion Regulation, Well-being and Psychological Distress” (2013, Basic and Applied Social Psychology) 

4. Core Knowledge for Practitioners on the Neuroscience of Reading Development and Difficulties - this workshop is SOLD OUT

This workshop will provide cutting-edge research updates on the science of reading for students who are typicallyand atypically developing readers. Research insights will span topics of identification, remediation and compensation. Attendees will learn about the promise, potential and limitations of neuroscience as it informs education ideas and practice. Dr. Christodoulou will also discuss what the future may hold for identification of reading difficulties, how intervention impacts brain systems and whether neuroimaging can predict who will improve reading skills. Bruce McCandliss will discuss his researching showing that different instructional methods for reading change the brain's structure and neural networks in ways that can aid in identifying reading interventions.

Joanna A. Christodoulou, EdD, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Massachusetts General Hospital; Research Affiliate, Gabrieli Lab, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Co-Author, “Auditory temporal structure processing in dyslexia” (2013, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience)

Bruce D. McCandliss, PhD, Professor, Stanford University Graduate School of Education; Faculty Affiliate, Center for Mind, Brain and Computation, Stanford University; Author, "Foundational Changes in Number Representation Induced by Early Elementary Education" (2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science); Co-Author, "Hemispheric Specialization for Visual Words is Shaped by Attention to Sublexical Units During Initial Learning" (2015, Brain and Language), "The Emergence of ‘Groupitizing’ in Children’s Numerical Cognition” (2014, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology) and "Educational Neuroscience: The Early Years" (2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

5. Managing the Inner World of Teaching: Positive Mindsets, Emotions and Actions - this workshop is SOLD OUT
 

Expand your ability to maintain a positive mindset in the classroom by cultivating a deeper awareness of your emotions, interpretations, and responses as a teacher. In this workshop, Robert J. Marzano and Jana S. Marzano will combine their backgrounds in educational research and psychotherapy to present a comprehensive model of how the human mind operates. The heart of that model involves three dynamic processes: (1) our emotional responses, (2) our interpretations, and (3) our actions. Each of those processes affects the moment-by-moment decisions that teachers make in the classroom. This workshop is ideal for teachers who want to better understand emotional responses and how they affect interpretations and reactions as well as understand the power of negative emotions and how to mitigate their effects. You will leave with mental strategies that encourage mindfulness and patterns of positive thinking.

Robert J. Marzano, PhD, Leading Educational Researcher; Co-Founder/CEO, Marzano Research and Jana S. Marzano, MA, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist; Co-Authors, Managing the Inner World of Teaching: Emotions, Interpretations and Actions (2015)

6. The Educators’ Guide to Brain and Psychological Research: How to Responsibly Bridge the Gap Between Research and Practice - this workshop is SOLD OUT

Learn how to navigate the facts and findings of neuroscience and psychological research in an era when the quality of scientific content that educators come across varies dramatically. This workshop, through lecture, self-reflection and group discussion, is designed to prepare educators to strategically evaluate scientific claims and make informed decisions about the value they may bring to their personal and professional decision making. You will be presented with new ideas and content that is foundational to fostering key scientific literacy skills.  The workshop leaders will help create a space for educators to recognize their current patterns of behavior and bias and to facilitate understanding of the cultural and psychological mechanisms that may underlie those patterns.

Stephanie Fine Sasse, EdM, Researcher & Educational Program Developer, Harvard University; Executive Director, The People’s Science, a nonprofit organization dedicated to public access to scientific research and Maya Bialik, MEd, Researcher; Editor, Center for Curriculum Design; Associate Director, The People’s Science