​​Data and Planning

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• Know Your Why - Data-Informed Decision Making  (1-2 hours) Website ​

• Which Way is UP?  (1-2 hours)

  • ​​​Analyzing academic and non-academic data to identify strengths and weaknesses and setting improvement goals to improve student learning.  Website

• Continuous Improvement Planning and Monitoring (2-4 hours) Website

• What Does a Grade Mean to You?  A Discussion about Standards-Based Grading and Equity of Grading (3 hours) Website

• ACIP - Beginning of Year, Mid-Year, and End-of-Year Sessions (1-3 hours) 

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Leadership

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• Developing Leaders for Rapid School Improvement - AASB Conference (1 - 1.5 hours) Slides

• Engaged Leaders...Engaged Learners

  • ​Join  Melissa Shields to explore promising practices to cultivate a rigorous and engaging classroom culture across the curriculum.   Discussions will include leadership strategies to inspire, monitor, and celebrate high-yield instructional and whole child supports for student success. (3 hours) Slides 

• Alabama Coaching Framework

  • Overview session or series of sessions to explore the Alabama Coaching Framework as it relates to audience (school and district leadership, instructional coaches, ESL teachers, lead teachers, etc.).    Framework PLC Website  Overview PPT ​

• Cultivating 21st Century Leaders

  • ​The key skills for today's school leader include teamwork, high emotional quotient (EQ), and focus. Let's explore what that looks like and strategies and tools to cultivate these critical shifts.  Slides

• Leading from the Front (1-2 Hours) PPT

  • ​We all know to inspect what we expect, but what does that look like? Join fellow school leaders to talk about facilitating more seamless structures that both build capacity and better ensure the integrity of instructional programs.  

• Using ATLAS in Leadership Roles  (1-2 hours) Website

  • Content Standards, Vertical and Horizontal Teams, Look Fors, Instructional Rounds, etc. ​

• Know Your Why - Data-Informed Decision Making  (1-2 hours) Website ​

• Cultivating 21st Century Leaders (2-3 hours)

  • Promising Practices  to create an active community of 21st Century leaders and teachers at your school/district. Website

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English Language Arts & Literacy Across the Curriculum 

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• ELA - Engaged Learners Achieve, grades 6-12 (3-4 hours) Website 

• Reaching Reluctant Writers, grades 5-10 (3-6 hours)

  • ​This session will demonstrate "tried and true" (and fun!) strategies that help bridge the gap for today's learners in the integrated language arts classroom. The presenter will share best practices for teaching poetry, narratives, nonfiction, grammar, and punctuation that both engage and challenge students to become better writers, especially those who are most reluctant to write. Handouts will include helpful links, student samples, and ready-to-use classroom activities/projects. Student web publishing tools will also be provided. Website

• A Picture Writes 1000 Words, grades 4-10 (3-4 hours)

  • ​Capitalize on your students' visual learning styles and create a classroom of exceptional readers and writers. Melissa will demonstrate several successful image-based lessons that engage and challenge students, including those most at-risk. Those lessons include warm-up activities, journaling, response to literature, literature circles, life graphs, and other project-based lessons. Melissa will also demonstrate Harry Noden’s successful “Brush Stroke Writing” strategies, also known as “Image Grammar.” Using images to stimulate thinking and word choice, students learn how to layer their writing with varied word structure and deliberate uses of different parts of speech. Participants will receive hands-on training, as well as ready-to-use classroom presentations and lessons to begin implementation in their own 4th-9th grade language arts classrooms. Website

• My Students are Poets, and They Know It!, grades 6-12 (3-6 hours)

  • ​Dr. Shields will share robust, engaging activities, tools, and strategies to cultivate the art of reading and writing poetry,  as well as meet the individualized needs and interests of our students, such as using pop culture and music. Participants will receive hands-on training (writing several poems themselves!), as well as ready-to-use classroom presentations and lessons to begin implementation in their own language arts classrooms. Many student samples will be provided as well. Website

• The Art of Writing with Expression, grades 5-12  (3 hours)

  • ​Helping our middle and high school students express themselves through writing is critical, both through instructional and whole-child lenses.  Dr. Shields will share robust, engaging activities, tools, and strategies to nurture the art of expression in writing, as well as meet the individualized needs and interests of our students. Participants will receive hands-on training, as well as ready-to-use classroom presentations and lessons to begin implementation in their own language arts classrooms.  Website

• How About a Little One-on-One?

Personalizing the ELA Classroom, grades 6-10 (2-4 hours) Website ​

• Taking the Blah out of Informational Writing, grades 6-10 (2-3 hours)

• What about Me? grades 6-10 (2-3 hours)

 ELA lessons and strategies that address and celebrate our students' uniqueness.  

• Authentic Assessments, including Portfolio Assessments, in the ELA Classroom, grades 6-10  (2-3 hours) Website

• Writing & Reading Across the Curriculum, grades 7-12 (2-3 hours)

  • Helping our middle and high school students express themselves through writing across the curriculum is critical.  Dr. Shields will share robust, engaging activities, tools, and strategies to facilitate content literacy, as well as meet the individualized needs and interests of our students. Participants will receive hands-on training, as well as ready-to-use classroom presentations, rubrics, and lessons.  Website 

• Engaged Learners Achieve  (focus on Differentiated Instruction), grades 7-12 Website

• #WritingWellMatters - Preparing for the ACT and Beyond, grades 9-12 (3-5 hours) Website

  • Join Dr. Melissa Shields as she reviews the English, reading, and writing sections of the ACT and PreACT.  She will also share resources and engaging strategies to help students succeed in these critical areas now and later, including a discussion on research writing and utilizing the “brush stroke” technique to layer prose.  ​

• Impactful Literacy Practices for ELA and Social Studies (2-3 hours) Handout​

• TWIRL (Think, Write, Investigate, Read, Listen) to ACAP Readiness (2-3 hours) Slides

• TWIRL (Think, Write, Investigate, Read, Listen) to ACT Readiness (2-3 hours) Slides

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Teaching and Learning (All Content Areas)

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• TWIRL to ACAP and ACT Readiness  - A Focus on Thinking, Writing, Reading, and Listening Across Disciplines (2-3 hours)  Slides 

• Engagement

  • Student Engagement (4 sessions - 1-2 hours each)

    • ​1. WHAT ROLE DOES ENGAGEMENT PLAY IN THE CLASSROOM?

    • 2. WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS ABOUT ENGAGEMENT?

    • 3. EVALUATING A LEARNER’S ENGAGEMENT?

    • 4. CREATING ENGAGING LESSONS

  • Engaged Teachers = Engaged Learners (2 hours)  PPT

  • Student Engagement and Rigor - Creating and Engaging and Rigorous Classroom Culture (2-3 hours)

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• What Does This Grade Mean?  A Discussion about Standards-Based Grading and Equity of Grading (2-3 hours) Website

• Green Means Go.  Pressing the Pedal of Meaningful Lesson Design and Grading (1-2 hours) Website 

• Rock the Block (2-3 hours)

  • Teaching Strategically on a Block Schedule ​ Website 

• Authentic Formative Assessments  Website (2-3 hours) Website

• Teaching with a Trauma-Informed Lens (2-3 hours), all grades Website  PPT

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National Board Certification 

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• National Board - Getting Started (1-3 hours, depending on scope) Website

• Using ATLAS for Professional Learning (1-2 hours) Website

• National Board Renewal/MOC Process (1-2 hours) Website

• Alabama NBCT Boot Annual Boot Camp Website 

• Candidate Support Provider / Mentor Training (2-3 hours) Website 

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Learning Supports

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• Workforce Development Data and Resources (1-2 hours) Website​

• Addressing and Reducing Chronic Absence (1-3 hours) Website

• Serving the Whole Child - Mental Health and Social Emotional Learning (2 hours) Website

• What Does a Grade Mean to You?  A Discussion about Standards-Based Grading and Equity of Grading (3 hours) Website

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Technology ​

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• Cultivating 21st Century Leaders (2 hours) Spring 2020

  • ​The key skills for today's school leader include teamwork, high emotional quotient (EQ), and focus. Let's explore what that looks like and strategies and tools to cultivate these critical shifts.  

• Cultivating 21st Century Leaders (2-3 hours) 2019

  • Promising Practices  to create an active community of 21st Century leaders and teachers at your school/district. Website

• ​Formative Assessments  (with a technology focus), grades 5-12 (2-3 hours) Website

• Social Media Tools and Ethics for Educators  (1-2 hours) Website 

 

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