Full Catalog of Upcoming Events

 The following is copied and pasted directly from the GDOE PL site:  "Different languages? No problem. This session will quickly highlight how multilingual learners access and use their full linguistic repertoires in communication and learning, including by using more than one language. The session will also cover technology tools you can use to support the teaching and learning of multilingual learners. To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Laura Canepa-Redondo - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  (30 minutes)

   This is copied and pasted directly from the GDOE website:  "What is the distinction between trauma and grief? Presenters identify the differences and provide practical advice on how to support grieving students. Topics include what not to say, considerations related to grief across different cultures, identifying and addressing guilt, appropriate academic accommodations, and managing grief triggers. Free resources for addressing these issues and many others from the Coalition to Support Grieving Students will be shared. Learning Objectives: Feel more comfortable explaining death to young children and initiating a conversation with grieving children of all ages; Discuss the role of guilt in impacting adjustment to a loss; Describe grief triggers and advise on how to minimize their impact in a school setting, as well as other academic accommodations to support grieving students; Know how to access free professional development resources on bereavement via www.grievingstudents.org." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Molly Sims - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

  The following was copied and pasted directly from the GDOE PL Site:  "Communication Strategies to Address Parents’ School Readiness Concerns; Learn effective strategies to address and alleviate parents’ school readiness concerns." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact." Primary Contact: Brandy Woolridge - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 The following was copied directly from the GDOE PL site:  "Looking for resources to support science? Student-directed science learning doesn’t mean you have to re-invent the wheel. Join this session to see a collection of print and post-ready resources you can use right away. These organizers, sentence frames, and more can fit into your pacing and put students in the driver’s seat of their own learning." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Keith Crandall - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The following was copied and pasted directly from the GDOE website:  "Learn more about recent school safety updates in Georgia such as the Georgia Center for School Safety website, the revised School Safety Plan Guide and Template, Site Threat Access and Response (STAR) Audit, and Georgia’s new Behavioral Threat Assessment Teams." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Jeff Hodges - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The following information was copied and pasted from the GDOE PL site:  "The Office of Whole Child Supports and guest speakers offer updated information on school safety and school safety plans. A representative from Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security discusses the need for current safety plans, drills and exercises, and cyber and social media safety. They share multiple resources and trainings that are available to improve the safety of schools." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Jeff Hodges - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Secondary Contact: Cheryl Benefield - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(Open Education Resources for Science Education PD) This was copied directly from the website:  "We are now posting open education resources for professional development! Our STEM Teaching Tools have been used to support extended professional development (PD) sessions. We are now posting open educational resource (OER) versions of those PD sessions. They include all of the resources that PD facilitators need to adapt and run the sessions—including slides, speaker notes, facilitator guides, and embedded resources. We are starting with PD focused on supporting 3D formative assessment. We will keep adding more over time."

"The NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education and the resulting Next Generation Science Standards include a signature focus on engaging all students in integrated three-dimensional science learning using inclusive instructional approaches. This new vision calls for new approaches to classroom assessment.

This open educational resource provides an introduction to formative assessment that supports equitable 3D instruction. It is designed to provide an introductory professional development session of 60-70 minutes for educators to help them learn about formative assessment and how it fits into the new vision. The module includes all of the resources that PD facilitators need to adapt and run the sessions—including slides, speaker notes, facilitator guides, and embedded resources.

The professional development module supports the following specific goals for educators: Explore how equity and social justice goals relate to the use of formative assessments; Develop a shared understanding of formative assessment purposes and processes; Learn how cognitive formative assessments and cultural formative assessments can build capacity for equitable 3D instruction; Learn about the kinds of professional learning resources available to support the development of 3D formative assessments." Always review materials extensively before using them to align with goals, grade level appropriateness, topics, etc.

 (Open Education Resources for Science Education PD) This was copied directly from the website:  "How is assessing three-dimensional science learning different than past assessments of science learning? How can we design assessment tasks that elicit the core ideas, practices, and crosscutting concepts in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) performance expectations?

There are very few existing examples of elementary and middle school assessments completely aligned to the NGSS. Instead, educators need to adapt their existing assessments.

This open educational resource provides an opportunity for educators to begin building or adapting three-dimensional formative assessments in a 60-70 minute professional development session. The module includes all of the resources that PD facilitators need to adapt and run the sessions—including slides, speaker notes, facilitator guide, and embedded resources.

The workshop aims to help participants identify assessment components that focus on individual practices, core ideas, or crosscutting concepts, and understand how, taken together, the components can support educators as they make inferences about students’ three-dimensional science learning. Through this workshop, participants will review tasks that aim for assessing performance expectations, discuss strengths of these tasks, and gain practice adapting them to better elicit three-dimensional science learning." Always review materials extensively before using them to align with goals, grade level appropriateness, topics, etc.

(Open Education Resources for Science Education PD) This was copied directly from the website:  "How can science instruction be meaningfully connected to the out-of-school lives of students? What role do students’ cultures play in science learning? How might teachers use formative assessments to root science learning in students’ cultural contexts, interests, and identities? This open educational resource is designed to help educators develop cultural formative assessments that build on students’ pre-existing interests, identities, and experiences.

This session highlights cultural dimensions of science learning and showcases a general instructional technique for formative assessment called “self-documentation”—where students collect information related to a particular theme in their everyday lives. It describes an example use case of a self-documentation activity and how it was incorporated into a culturally diverse classroom. The session also highlights different assessment approaches and guides educators in thinking about particular goals for incorporating cultural formative assessment into their own practice.

This resource is designed to be used as a 2 to 2.5 hour professional development session for educators. The module includes all of the resources that PD facilitators need to adapt and run the sessions—including slides, speaker notes, facilitator guide, embedded resources, and sample student work. It may be more useful for educators after they have already participated in the following professional development session: ACESSE A: Introduction to Formative Assessment to Support Equitable 3D Instruction.

The professional development module supports the following specific goals for educators: Learn how to promote equity and social justice as the focal point of NGSS implementation work by focusing on learning and teaching as an inherently cultural process; Develop a shared understanding of how cultural formative assessment can reveal the interests, experiences, and identities of students; Understand how and when to use different kinds of cultural formative assessment to guide instruction — and ‘overlap’ the curriculum with the lives of youth." Always review materials extensively before using them to align with goals, grade level appropriateness, topics, etc.

 (Open Education Resources for Science Education PD) This was copied directly from the website:  "As the educational vision in the NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education is being implemented, it is crucial to design assessment practices to be coherent with its 3D model of learning. This session provides a step-by-step process to support participants as they design a 3D assessment task. Along the way, they learn how to define 3D learning performances for specific lessons—and how to use a range of tools to support their assessment design work. A key goal of the session activity is to improve the connection of intended learning goals to assessment practices.

Participants build their 3D assessment design capacity by following a step-by-step process using supporting tools to design and workshop tasks—before piloting them in their classrooms. The approaches learned in this workshop can be used with any science curricula, at any grade level, and across all domains of science and engineering." Always review materials extensively before using them to align with goals, grade level appropriateness, topics, etc.

(Open Education Resources for Science Education PD) This was copied directly from the website:  "This pair of workshops is designed to introduce you to the process of selecting phenomena that can anchor an entire unit that supports students’ 3D science learning or that can serve as a basis for a multi-component assessment task. This resource can also be used by individuals wanting to refine their teaching practice around phenomena-based instruction. You may have heard a lot about phenomena, but you may also be wondering what exactly they are, and whether using phenomena is any different from how teachers teach today already.

This learning experience will help you: Explain to a peer the role of phenomena and design challenges in science teaching, with a particular focus on equity and justice; Generate working definitions of phenomena, design challenges, and disciplinary core ideas; Identify phenomena related to a bundle of three-dimensional standards; Experience how phenomena can be introduced at the start of a unit, in order to launch a student-driven series of questions.

With respect to the assessment process, this resource supports the task of clarifying learning goals and eliciting evidence of student learning. Specifically, analyzing standards helps to clarify learning goals. In assessment, scenarios present phenomena to students, and then specific prompts are designed to elicit student understanding of core ideas, practices and crosscutting concepts. Once written as a scenario for an assessment, teachers can use the resources introduced in ACESSE Resource B to design specific prompts for their assessments (SEP Task Formats Tool, CCC Prompts Tool). This resource complements Resource C, in that it provides some ways to integrate tools to connect science instruction meaningfully to students’ everyday lives and cultural practices. This workshop has multiple segments, and it is broken into two sessions that last roughly three hours each, which can be organized as a full-day session or across multiple days. " Always review materials extensively before using them to align with goals, grade level appropriateness, topics, etc.

(Open Education Resources for Science Education PD) This was copied directly from the website:  "Students bring a range of intellectual and cultural resources, which they have accumulated in their unique life experiences, into the classroom as they learn science. These resources can be considered different “facets” of student thinking. These resources may relate to their conceptual understanding of natural phenomena, their repertoires of practice when engaging in scientific activity, or their abilities to productively engage with school and classroom approaches to learning. Student’s facets of thinking can be leveraged to help students as they refine their understanding of science phenomena. This session introduces the facet-based approach, then engages participants in identifying facets in a batch of student work and in developing corresponding assessment rubrics, preparing them to use this approach in their own teaching.

This learning experience will help participants: Analyze cognitive formative assessment responses to surface the range of student thinking about science topics and concepts; Guide instruction based on that diversity of student ideas; Design and use classroom formative assessment tasks to support equitable 3D instruction. " Always review materials extensively before using them to align with goals, grade level appropriateness, topics, etc.

(Open Education Resources for Science Education PD) This was copied directly from the website:  "In this workshop, we will build our capacity to identify the range of intellectual resources students use as they make sense of phenomena. Every learner has the right to fully belong in their educational contexts. Instruction should welcome the diverse contributions they bring to sense-making. This resource can help support this goal by helping educators develop an asset-based stance towards the various contributions that students bring to making sense of phenomena. The resource starts by highlighting the rationale for culture-based approaches to pedagogy—and then focuses on how to identify and leverage the resources students use in moments of sensemaking. This learning experience will help participants: Explore equity dimensions of sense-making through the science and engineering practices; Learn to see different ways students contribute to making sense of phenomena—and connect to science; Better appreciate that navigating multiple ways of knowing is the basic human condition—not the exception for some students; Make a commitment to shape instruction to support diverse sense-making. " Always review materials extensively before using them to align with goals, grade level appropriateness, topics, etc.

(Open Education Resources for Science Education PD) This was copied directly from the website:  "In this workshop, we will build our capacity to identify a variety of meaningful phenomena of different types that connect to specific science and engineering learning standards. We will first explore what makes a phenomenon compelling to students and how we can ensure this happens in our classrooms. Then, we will focus on different classes of phenomena, and how using them can promote goals for equity. This resource can also be used by individuals wanting to learn how to allow students to take meaningful action to solve problems associated with real-world phenomena related to science and engineering. Participants will explore different classes of meaningful phenomena (using the framework of Suárez & Bell, 2019): Everyday phenomena, which all students will be able to experience in class or have experienced outside of class; Contemporary scientific phenomena, which relate to current science, most often science that is in the news today because it is unsettled or sparks controversy; Societally relevant phenomena, which relate to science-technology intersections, connects to care and concern and enables students to see connections to social and socio-ecological justice; and Culturally relevant phenomena, which are grounded in the worlds of specific communities in culturally significant ways and allows students to draw on ways of knowing from families and cultural communities. " Always review materials extensively before using them to align with goals, grade level appropriateness, topics, etc.

 The following was copied and pasted directly from the website, "The administrator’s role in supporting co-teaching is crucial. This session will demonstrate the practices administrators must use to support effective co-teaching teams in their district/school. Participants will be able to utilize resources for scheduling co-teaching, state reasons why co-planning is crucial to successful co-teaching, and utilize general supervision tools for supervising evidence-based co-teaching practices in their district/schools." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Susan `Brozovic - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Secondary Contact: Ann Cross - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; As always, participants should review extensively before using. (1 hour)

The following was copied directly from the GDOE PL site:  "This video is part of a series that provides strategies and resources for gifted educators. In this video for educators of kindergarten and first grade students, Jennifer Borngesser from Fayette County defines critical thinking and why it is important, including the relationship to Bloom’s Taxonomy. She also shares some activities for verbal thinkers, quantitative thinkers, and nonverbal thinkers as well as ideas for cross-curricular critical thinking tasks." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Mary Jean Banter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The following was copied directly from the GDOE PL site:  "This video is part of a series that provides strategies and resources for gifted educators. In this video for educators of first and second grade students, Jennifer Borngesser from Fayette County defines critical thinking and why it is important, including the relationship to Bloom’s Taxonomy. She also shares some activities for verbal thinkers, quantitative thinkers, nonverbal thinkers as well as ideas for cross-curricular critical thinking tasks." (1 hour); To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Mary Jean Banter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.;  

 The following was copied directly from the GDOE PL site:  "This video is part of a series that provides strategies and resources for gifted educators. In this video for educators of third and fourth grade students, Shakeerah Brodie from Clayton County defines critical thinking and why it is important including, the relationship to Bloom’s Taxonomy. She also shares some activities for English Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Science, Fine Arts, and Physical Education." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact."  Primary Contact: Mary Jean Banter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The following was copied directly from the GDOE PL site:  "This video is part of a series that provides strategies and resources for gifted educators. In this video for educators of fifth and sixth grade students, Shakeerah Brodie from Clayton County defines critical thinking and why it is important, including the relationship to Bloom’s Taxonomy. She also shares some activities for English Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Science, Fine Arts, and Physical Education." To report an issue with the event link, please email the event contact. Primary Contact: Mary Jean Banter - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Research-Based Strategies professional development provides strategies that can be integrated into any curriculum or program and will raise student achievement. Participants receive:

• 50+ strategies, their explanations, and relevant research
• Interventions that meet the needs of today’s under-resourced learners
• Student behavior chart, extensive references, and strategies categorized by academic, behavioral, and community concerns/challenges

Promo Video: Click here.

 This was copied and pasted directly from the youtube link:  "From Dr. Lovett:

This lecture attempts to explore some of the opportunities that accrue when practitioners and researchers enter one another’s worlds to engage in meaningful dialogue that can reshape the practices of all for the better. Since IDA was formed in the 1920s, there has been great progress in our understanding of dyslexia and reading disorders, and IDA has led many initiatives to facilitate the development of sound assessment and teaching practices. Of great importance, throughout its history, IDA has fostered an enthusiastic alliance between research and practice. Despite the progress, as teachers, clinicians, and scientists, we have many unanswered questions about dyslexia and other reading disabilities—what causes them? How early can they be predicted? Can prediction lead to prevention? How can we describe the important differences among individuals with reading disorders? What makes for effective intervention at different ages and stages of reading development or for children with different profiles of comorbidity? This presentation shares a story of my own career journey in reading-intervention research, a story that spans more than 35 years and started with a basic question articulated by a pediatric neurologist: Was it even possible to conduct rigorous research on the treatment of learning disabilities? Why was there not scientific literature to consult on effective treatment for these children? Closely working with valued colleagues and team members to create, evaluate, and refine approaches to teaching children with severe reading disabilities, we have met with both success and failure in our efforts. But we have always learned new lessons about reading disorders and been able to pose better questions at the end of each intervention study. Lessons learned from our own research findings, along with research evidence on the nature and course of reading disabilities and what a reading brain looks like, can inspire refined interventions. This body of evidence has led us to develop a set of research-based intervention programs for children, teens, and adults with reading problems. This presentation examines some of the principles underlying these programs and the lessons learned from their evaluation. I also raise emerging questions to help us consider new ways to improve interventions to facilitate the many people around the world, children, teens, and adults, still struggling to attain basic literacy skills." After registering, you will receive a link to the youtube video.

 This was copied and pasted directly from the youtube link: "Nancy Hennessy, past president of the International Dyslexia Association, is an experienced teacher, administrator and consultant. She has designed and delivered keynote addresses, workshops and training for educators nationally and internationally. Nancy co-authored Module 6 of LETRs, Digging for Meaning: Teaching Text Comprehension (2nd edition) with Louisa Moats and authored, Working with Word Meaning: Vocabulary Instruction in Multisensory Teaching of Basic Skills (4th edition). Nancy is the 2011 recipient of IDA’s Margaret Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award." The session will address comprehension. After registering, you will receive a link to the youtube video.

 This was copied and pasted directly from the youtube link:

"The diagnosis of dyslexia can be overwhelming for a family. Your child is frustrated from working so hard to read, write, and spell without reaching success. Worse yet, classmates and siblings may be exceling, which only adds to the frustration. The dyslexia diagnosis can be a relief, but what does it mean? What happens next? What does the future hold? It is important for families to have accurate information to understand the diagnosis and intervention. An informed parent is an empowered parent.

About the Presenter: Mary Yarus became a dyslexia therapist following her daughter’s diagnosis of dyslexia. After working eight years in private practice, she joined the Family Support Office at Neuhaus Education Center, later transitioning to the role of Vice President of both Family Support and the Adult Literacy program which provided services for students ranging from 18 to 80. Mary currently trains dyslexia interventionists for the Region 4 Education Service Center in Houston, Texas. As an avid reader, it is difficult to imagine a life without the ability to read a homework assignment, take a driver’s written exam, read a menu, read a simple book to your child, or so many other day-to-day activities that most of us take for granted. Mary is passionate about empowering teachers and students with knowledge about reading to enhance the lives of generations to come. " After registering, you will receive a link to the youtube video.

  This was copied and pasted directly from the youtube link:  "Historically, structured- literacy approaches have been the most effective for remediating language difficulties. The utilization of technology can make this type of instruction a multisensory process that is engaging and explicit while still maintaining the individualization and diagnostic- prescriptive aspects that are its hallmarks. In this presentation, an Orton- Gillingham Fellow and a director of technology share how they have collaborated to include technology as an instructive and assistive tool following the traditional Orton- Gillingham approach in the small classroom setting.

About the Presenters: Theresa Collins is a Fellow of the Orton-Gillingham Academy. Currently the Tutorial Department Director and Director of Orton-Gillingham Training at The Southport School, she has been an Orton-Gillingham practitioner for over 30 years. She first developed her interest in learning differences while pursuing her B.A. in Psychology at Colgate University. She later earned her M.S. in Educational Psychology from the State University of New York at Albany. In the last several years, she has become interested in using technology to enhance multisensory teaching and embedding technology in teacher training to help trainees develop 21st century skillsets for Structured Literacy instruction. At The Southport CoLAB, she provides Orton-Gillingham training at the Classroom Educator, Associate, Certified, and Fellow-in-Training Levels. Ms. Collins has presented at various conferences, including the Annual Conference of the International Dyslexia Association, the New York and New Jersey branches of the IDA, the annual conference of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators, the annual conference of the Assistive Technology Industry Association, Learning Ally’s Spotlight on Dyslexia, and The Southport CoLAB’s Summer Professional Development Series.  

Sharon Plante, an educator with over 23 years teaching experience in special education, currently serves as teacher and Chief Technology Integrator at The Southport School. As a Classroom Educator certified Orton-Gillingham tutor, she uses her training and understanding of technology to empower students with learning disabilities. Sharon is the co-author of Using Technology to Engage Students with Learning Disabilities, which highlights the incorporation of technology through the Universal Design Model to reach all learners. She has presented at International Dyslexia Association, The Dyslexia Foundation, Northeast Association of Learning Specialists, ATIA, Spotlight on Dyslexia and Pennsylvania Department of Education. Sharon is a member of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools Commission on School Growth and Collaboration. Additionally, she was awarded the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award from George Mason University College of Education and Human Development. " After registering, you will receive a link to the youtube video.

  This was copied and pasted directly from the youtube link:  "Android platforms,are effective tools to support structured literacy. This session highlights the use of assistive and instructional technologies for students who struggle with reading and writing skills. This session covers several free or low-cost computer and mobile apps, programs, and devices that can enhance a person’s ability to succeed in the classroom, on the job, or in community situations. This presentation highlights some of the best apps currently available.

About the Presenters: Elaine Cheesman, Ph.D., Certified Dyslexia Specialist, CALT, QI is Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  

David Winters, Ph.D., Certified Dyslexia Therapist, Fellow (AOGPE), is an associate professor in the Department of Special Education at Eastern Michigan University. He has been a classroom teacher, tutor, diagnostician, administrator, and tutor/teacher trainer for more than 30 years and is a member of the International Dyslexia Association Orton Oaks. He currently teaches courses introducing preservice teachers to special education; in addition, he teaches courses in instructional and assistive technology, writing, and assessment in special education for preservice special educators and speech language pathologists. " After registering, you will receive a link to the youtube video.