Here are some of the topics I have provided professional development for. If there are some not here that you would like, I can tailor a presentation to fit your needs.
Workshops
Can work one-on-one, with small groups, or an entire staff. Workshops are typically half to a full day PD. Can be in-person or virtually.
Differentiating Up
Often times we know how to differentiate down to meet the needs of a student who is struggling, but what about differentiating up for a student who needs challenged? This workshop gives 10 strategies that you can use in order to differentiate content, process, and product to best meet the needs of students who need to be pushed further.
Working with Houston Area Coop on authentic learning strategies.
Authentic Learning
Begins with an overview of what authentic learning is, which is a student-centered teaching strategy where kids are asking the questions and then figuring out how to find the answers. It specifically looks at some of the authentic strategies that can be used such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, and case-based learning, all which fall under inquiry learning. Then participants have the choice to explore one of these strategies in-depth to see how they would use it for themselves.
Toolbox for Working with Gifted Students
There is more than one way to work with gifted students. It is best for teachers to develop a toolbox of strategies that both fits the need of the student and the capability of the teacher. This session looks at 10 of these strategies, ranging from pre-assessment and in-class enrichment options, to outside learning experiences and inquiry learning. Teachers will be able to find the right tool they can use to reach not just their gifted students, but any student looking for a challenge.
Executive Functioning Skills: Crafting Students into Independent Learners
Often times we complain that students do not know how to take any initiative for themselves and work independently of the teacher. The question though becomes, how often are we teaching students the skills to do this? Do we have lessons on how to create a plan of action, manage their time, organize their work, or other executive functioning skills? Instead, we are many times walking students step-by-step through an activity and then are surprised when they do not know how to do things for themselves. This workshop gives you plenty of ideas for how you can deliberately teach executive functioning skills and create independent learners.
Depth and Complexity
Developed by the California Department of Education, these 11 icons act as a thinking platform designed to prod students into pondering more deeply about what they are learning. These icons can be used individually or in conjunction with others, but the inclusion of them pushes students below the surface and helps them to consider possibilities they had not originally considered. This workshop introduces the icons and how you might use them in your own classroom.
How to Construct Objective Rubrics
Rubrics are a valuable way for teachers to assess students for non-traditional, performance-based assessments. However, are the rubrics you are using measuring what you want them to in an objective manner? What if you could create rubrics that were objective, evaluating students for mastery of learning? What if you could create rubrics that are tailormade to the skills students will be demonstrating? Participants will be shown step-by-step how to create objective rubrics that can be used to evaluate student performance. This way the rubrics you are using are specific to student understanding.
Showing folks in Melbourne, Australia how they can use higher level questions to challenge their students and raise the rigor of their classroom.
Developing Higher Level Questions
Often times the questions we are asking our students do not push their thinking or even measure mastery of what we are trying to evaluate. Participants will learn how to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to write different levels of questions designed to challenge students and to raise the rigor in the classroom. Teachers will leave with resources that will allow them to begin asking these questions in their own classrooms whether on assessments, assignments, activities, or even day-to-day conversations with students.
Keynotes
How the Hell Do We Motivate These Kids?
For years, schools have used grades as the carrot to try and get kids to play the game of school. We hold these in front of them, making them compliant under threat of giving them poor ones. This works well for the child who cares about grades or is motivated by them, but what about those who are not? How do we get them excited about learning? We need to approach school as though every student has different things that motivate them and it is our job to figure out what this is, and how to provide it for them
Measure What Matters
According the Pathways for Prosperity, when employers from around the world were asked what attributes they seek in employees, they listed leadership, teamwork, and initiative as their top skills. The problem of course is that because it is difficult to measure or put a grade on such skills, we marginalize them in favor of content standards. We should be focusing on these skills instead of the easy to measure content that meets the requirements of a SMART goal, but does not necessarily prepare our children for the real world. This will develop people that can not only survive in the work force, but thrive because they possess skills that many of their contemporaries do not.
Gifted Students Will Not be Alright, They Need You to Challenge Them
The thinking often is to focus most of the attention on the students who need the most help and that the high ability students will be fine on their own. Unfortunately these students will not be fine. Their talents are being wasted, waiting for others to catch up, waiting to be engaged, waiting to be challenged. This keynote makes the case for why gifted students need just as much attention and differentiation as those at the other end of the spectrum. This takes a certain type of teacher as well as strategies designed to stretch and challenge them.
The Power of Authentic Learning
Engagement levels of students goes down the longer they are in school. What if schools were a place students go to love learning? What if you could empower every student in your classroom through authentic learning? We need to make the learning experiences our students have be more authentic. This means having authentic lessons with authentic outcomes. Most importantly, it means being an authentic teacher who engages students. Authentic learning can be a very powerful way to educate students. It can change the way students learn as well as the way you teach.
The Unopened Gift
Some children are born with gifts but for one reason or another, choose not to develop them. Some of these reasons might be peers, social and emotional issues, home life, fear of standing out, or too much pressure to live up to the expectations. When these gifts go unused some students risk losing their ability to use them. Why do some children choose not to use their gifts? What can be done to identify these students who are not using their gifts? How can we help them to see the value in using their gifts? These are the questions that will be explored in this keynote.
Myths of Gifted Children
There are many myths associated with gifted children such as they love school and get great grades, they will succeed in life no matter what, and have trouble socially fitting in. This presentation seeks to demystify some of these myths and get a truer picture of these children. It also will look at the social/emotional impact a lot of these myths have on students and what can be done to help them deal with it.
Inquiry Learning
Inquiry Learning
Children are naturally curious and want to know more. One of the most effective methods of pursuing this is by allowing them to explore for themselves. And yet in many classrooms we are leading kids by the hand down the path of learning, asking the questions for them and pointing them toward our answers. Wouldn't learning be more natural if we allowed the kids to ask the questions and to chase their answers? This is what inquiry learning allows students to do. They pose the question, they decide how they are going to learn it, they choose the product they will produce to show what they know. They can do this even in the environment of content standards. Following the inquiry cycle allows children to do this and become learners, not followers.
Project-Based Learning
Project-based learning is a hands-on, student-centered pedagogy where students make most of the decisions. It teaches children not what to learn, but rather how to learn. For this workshop, teachers are given templates and guidance to then begin to create their own projects they can use in the classroom. There are also exemplars for teachers who are brand new to the process.
It’s a Problem-Based World
Rarely in life are solutions to problems simple and obvious. Many times several options and perspectives need to be considered and even then there are no guarantees. Using inquiry learning, where students are the ones posing the questions and imagining possibilities, we can teach students how to make educated decisions about real-world problems.
21st Century Skills
The Importance of 21st Century Skills in the Classroom
With the focus on SMART goals where we look at data and measurable growth in education, we have turned our back on some of the hard to measure skills that we once taught regularly. As a result, students are not learning valuable 21st century skills that will allow them to be successful. Skills such as public speaking, working in groups, leadership, creativity, critical thinking, and adaptability. How valuable are these skills though in the work place? Would these not serve students better in preparing them for later in life? If so, we should be purposefully teaching 21st century skills in our classrooms.
Guiding Students to Successful Collaboration
Having trouble motivating students to work successfully in groups? Want to learn strategies for helping your students to do so? Being able to work in groups and collaborate with peers is a valuable 21st century skill. This session with provide tools for facilitating this and give concrete examples to work from.
Performance-Based Assessment
There are several reasons performance-based assessment is important to implement in the classroom. Many performance-based assessments teach valuable 21st century skills that employers are looking for. It also helps with enduring understanding so that students are not just memorizing facts for the test that will soon be forgotten but instead are learning a life-long skill that will make them valuable in the workforce. Teachers will walk away from this session with a general understanding of performance-based assessment and how they can use them in the classroom to help gifted students achieve exponential growth.
Student Motivation
How do we motivate the gifted student?
Using the 5 I’s of interests, independent learners, intellectually stimulating, inquiry, and importance, we can motivate gifted students to want to learn rather than because they have to learn. By creating intrinsic motivation in them, they will be motivated not by the grade but rather because they are having their curiosity challenged.
Profiles of an Underachiever
This session would involve looking at the profiles of gifted underachieving students and the causes for their underachievement. Included in these profiles would be multiple strategies that could be employed to help the student overcome the underachievement. This would be a session for gifted teachers of all grade levels since underachievement can affect even the youngest of children.
Understanding Goal Valuation and How to Motivate Students
Goal valuation involves three motivators; how interesting something is, how important something is, and how attainable something is. Some students need one of these, some two, while others all three. As educators if we can figure out which factors motivate our students, we can use this to engage them in the learning process and develop a love of learning in them.
Effective Feedback
John Hattie’s Visible Learning showed that effective feedback can be one of the best ways to motivate a student. Often times though we give a student back their grade and yet they have no idea why they received what they did. We need to be more purposeful in the feedback we provide to students, both in written and oral form. This session will show what effective feedback looks like as well as providing strategies for doing so with your students.
Developing Grit in Gifted Students
Grit is one’s ability to push through when something becomes difficult. Some students are able to find a plan B or come up with another way, while others let it stop them in their tracks. How do we build this endurance for grit in our students so that they can overcome these obstacles? We have to be purposeful and create a culture in our classrooms where this is an accepted, and expected practice. This workshop will show how to do this very thing.
Diagnosing and Reversing Underachievement
What are the major causes of underachievement for students? It could range from boredom, peers, home life, or not being challenged. Because this is a learned trait, it can also be unlearned. We just have to find the proper strategy to reverse this underachievement? Attendees will spend the time learning these strategies and then developing a plan for how they will approach specific students when it comes to their underachievement.
Leading a workshop on underachievement at North Point ESC in Sandusky, Ohio
Here are some of the venues where I am or have presented:
March 2023 Georgia Association for Gifted Children Columbus, GA
Keynote - A Spectrum of Opportunities
February 2024 NAGC Teacher Summit (virtual)
Academically Challenging vs. Intellectually Stimulating
February 2024 Savannah High School Savannah, GA
Academically Challenging vs. Intellectually Stimulating
January 2024 Twin Rivers School District McClellan, CA (virtual)
Project-Based Learning: Bringing the Real-World to Your Classroom
Differentiating Up
Inquiry Learning: It’s a Problem-Based World
December 2023 Indiana Association for the Gifted Indianapolis, IN
Academically Challenging vs. Intellectually Stimulating
Developing Grit
November 2023 Texas Association for Gifted and Talented Dallas, TX
Executive Functioning Skills
Differentiating Up
November 2023 Tri-County ESC Wooster, OH
Compacting Curriculum
November 2023 Rossford Schools Rossford, OH
Higher Level Questioning
Gifted Toolbox
October 2023 Hancock County ESC - Findlay, OH
Developing Grit in Gifted Students
Gifted Toolbox
October 2023 Gifted Association of Missouri (virtual speaker)
Motivating Gifted Students
October 2023 Sylvania Schools Sylvania, OH
Differentiating Up
September 2023 School City of Hammond Hammond, IN
Consultant for creation of gifted services
August 2023. Ridgefield Schools - Ridgefield, WA
Project-Based Learning Workshop
August 2023 University of North Texas - Dallas, TX
Keynote: The Power of Authentic Learning - Finding Jobs for Students that Don’t Exist
Why Groupwork Sucks
August 2023 Austintown Schools - Austintown, OH
Motivating Gifted Students - the 5 I’s
August 2023 CESA 3 - Fennimore, WI
How the Hell Do We Motivate These Kids workshop
August 2023 Savannah Public Schools - Savannah, GA
Setting the Culture in Your Classroom for Higher Level Questioning
July 2023 Clayton County Schools - Atlanta, GA
Inquiry Learning: It’s a Problem-Based World
July 2023 HACOOP Spring Gifted Presentation - Katy, TX
Strategies for Working with Twice-Exceptional (2E) Students
June 2023 The South Shore Summer of Learning Conference - Hammond, IN
Differentiating Up
Raising the Rigor through Higher-Level Questioning
June 2023 Franklin County ESC Summer Institute - Columbus, OH
How Do We Develop Talent in Students?
May 2023 Napoleon Area City Schools - Napoleon, OH
Differentiating Up
Teachers’ Gifted Toolbox
April 2023 LAUSD - virtual
Differentiating Up
February 2023 California Association for the Gifted Spring Conference - virtual
Using Higher Level Questioning to Raise the Rigor
Developing Grit in Gifted Students
February 2023 Ethiopian Tewahedo Student Services - Columbus. OH
How to Motivate Students Workshop
February 2023 Green Schools - Green, OH
Differentiating Up
How to Motivate Gifted Students
February 2023 Gift-a-Palooza - virtual
Developing Grit in Gifted Students
January 2023 Lorain County ESC - Elyria, OH
Motivating Gifted Students
December 2022 Washington City Schools - Toledo, OH
Blowing the Ceiling Off of Learning - Student Choice
November 2022 Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented - Houston, TX
Building Your Gifted Toolbox
October 2022 Washington Association of Education of the Talented and Gifted - Seattle, WA
Keynote - How to Motivate those Who Seem Unmotivated
October 2022 Newark City/Licking County ESC - Newark, OH
Project-Based Learning with Middle School/High School Students
October 2022 Mahoning County - Youngstown, OH
What Goes In Your Gifted Teaching Toolbox
October 2022 Teach Better Conference - Akron, OH
How the Hell Do We Motivate These Students
October 2022 Hancock County ESC - Findlay, OH
Differentiation with Gifted Students - Leveling Beyond
August 2022 Tipp City Schools - Tipp City, OH
Gifted Professional Development
August 2022 Springfield Local Schools - Holland, OH
Higher-Level Questioning Skills
July 2022 First Educational Resources Book Chat - Virtual
How the Hell Do We Motivate These Kids?
To sign up go to https://www.firsteducation-us.com/motivate-kids
July 2022 Summer Institute for Authentic Learning and Leadership - Upper Arlington, OH
Using Authentic Learning to Motivate Your Students
Measure What Matters
April 2022 LAUSD Clever Conference - Virtual
Project-Based Learning in the Gifted Classroom
March 2022 FLAG Annual Conference - Virtual
Motivating the Unmotivated
Gifted Toolbox
March 2022 OAGC Teacher Academy - Columbus, OH
Toolbox for Working with Gifted Students
October 2021 Lorain County ESC - Elyria, OH
The Gifted Kids Will Not Be OK
Authentic Learning for Student Engagement
October 2021 OAGC Fall Conference - Columbus, OH
Using Academic Extra-Curricular Activities to Grow Gifted Students
July 2021 SENG Annual Conference - Virtual
How Do We Motivate the Unmotivated?
July 2021 WCGTC World Conference - Virtual
Using Academic Extra-Curricular Activities for Enrichment
Using Advisory Groups for Intentional SEL
Toolbox for Gifted Education
July 2021 Learner First Virtual Summit
Causes of Underachievement Amongst Gifted Students and What You Can Do About It
April 2021 State Support Team 12 - Virtual
How Do We Motivate Kids?
February 2021 OAGC Teacher Academy - Virtual
Turning Your Tests, Worksheets, and Homework into Challenging Assignments
February 2021 The Learner FIRST Summit on Social Emotional Learning & Equity - Virtual
Underachievement Amongst Gifted Students
January 2021 Houston COOP - Katy, Texas
Underachievement Workshop
Higher Level Questioning Workshop
December 2020 OAGC Coordinators Conference - Columbus, Ohio
EMIS and the State Gifted Report Card
November 2020 Dayton Public Schools - Dayton, Ohio
Curriculum Development
October 2020 OAGC Fall Conference - Virtual
Engaging Students in a Virtual Setting
September 2020 Mid-Ohio ESC - Mansfield, Ohio
Project-Based Learning Workshop
August 2020 Medina City School District - Medina, Ohio
Authentic Learning Strategies
Promoting Rigor Through Higher Level Questioning
August 2020 Prufrock Webinar
Project-Based On-Line Teaching and Learning
August 2020 Greenfield School District - Greenfield, Ohio
Promoting Rigor Through Higher Level Questioning
July 2020 Dayton Public Schools - Dayton, Ohio
Creating curriculum for the gifted and talented program
May 2020 Prufrock Webinar
Promoting Rigor Through Higher Level Questioning: Practical Strategies for Developing Students Critical Thinking
May 2020 State Support Team Region 12 - MVESC, Ohio
The Importance of 21st Century Skills and How to Measure Them
Project-Based Learning Workshop
April 2020 Prufrock Webinar
When Smart Kids Underachieve in School
February 2020 OAGC Spring Teacher Academy - Worthington, OH
You can view it at https://www.prufrock.com/Webinar-Archive.aspx#ProjectBasedLearning
Workshop on case-based learning
How to write higher level questions to raise the rigor
February 2020 Prufrock Webinar
Webinar on Project-Based Learning
February 2020 Lakewood City Schools - Lakewood, Ohio
Workshop on “How to teach 21st century skills and challenge students”
Parent discussion on underachievement in gifted students
January 2020 Pickerington Innovation Conference - Pickerington, Ohio
“How to raise the rigor by asking higher level questions”
“Creating a toolbox to enrich students in your classroom”
December 2019 North Point ESC - Sandusky, Ohio
Workshop on Reversing Underachievement Amongst Gifted Students
December 2019 OAGC Coordinators’ Conference
“Raising the Rigor with Higher-Level Questioning”
December 2019 Texas Association for Gifted and Talented Fall Conference - San Antonio, Texas
Workshop Using the STEM Process in Your Project-Based Learning
November 2019 Ohio School Improvement Institute - Columbus, Ohio
“Tired of SMART goals, Try Some DUMB Ones”
November 2019 Trumbull County ESC - Trumbull County, Ohio
Innovation Day
“Creating Rubrics for Hard to Measure Skills”
“Making a Case for Case-Based Learning”
“Hooray for Diffendoofer Day: Creating Thinkers in Your Classroom”
October 2019 Ohio Association for Gifted Children Fall Conference - Columbus, Ohio
“Using Rubrics to Grade Hard to Assess Skills”
October 2019 Mercer County ESC - Celina, Ohio
“The Difference Between Bright and Gifted”
“Using Rubrics to Grade Hard to Assess Skills”
“Profiles of an Underachiever”
October 2019 Katy Independent School District - Katy, Texas
“Toolbox for Working with Gifted Students”
Workshop on creating authentic learning strategies
September 2019 WCOAGC - Cox Arboretum, Montgomery County, Ohio
“Raising the Rigor with Higher-Level Questioning”
September 2019 Hancock ESC - Hancock County, Ohio
Workshop on creating STEM Project-Based Learning
August 2019 Lisbon Exempted Village Schools - Lisbon, Ohio
“The Social and Emotional Causes of Underachievement in Gifted Learners”
“Authentic Learning – Methods that Engage Students in the Classroom”
August 2019 Circleville City Schools - Circleville, Ohio
Workshop with middle school staff on writing rigorous short-cycled assessments
July 2019 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children Conference - Nashville, Tennessee
“Underachievement Amongst Gifted Students: How to Diagnose and Cure It”
“Engaging Our Gifted Students Using Authentic Learning”
June 2019 Ohio Leadership Training Conference - Columbus, Ohio
“Qualities of True Leadership”
May 2019 Hawker Brownlow Thinking and Learning Conference - Melbourne, Australia
“Authentic Learning to Create Real-World Experiences for 21st-Century Learners”
“What Does Problem-Based Learning Look Like in the Authentic Classroom?”
“What Does Case-Based Learning Look Like in the Authentic Classroom”
“How to Measure 21st-Century Skills, Creating DUMB Goals for Students”
March 2019 Butler Country ESC
“Enriching the Creative Thinker”
March 2019 North Point ESC– Sandusky, Ohio
“Using Project-Based Learning in the Classroom” Workshop
February 2019 OAGC Teacher’s Academy– Columbus, Ohio
“The Use of Independent Studies in the Gifted Classroom”
January 2019 Pickerington Innovation Conference - Pickerington, Ohio
Workshops on project-based learning and the creation of rubrics
December 2018 Indiana Association for Gifted– Indianapolis, Indiana
“Using the STEM Design Process in Your Project-Based Learning”
December 2018 Ohio Association for Gifted Children Coordinator’s Workshop– Worthington, Ohio
“The Social and Emotional Causes of Underachievement in Gifted Learners”
November 2018 Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented Institutes – Fort Worth, Texas
“Project-Based Learning Workshop”
“Authentic Learning Strategies Workshop”
“The Myths of Gifted Children”
“Tired of SMART goals, Try Some DUMB Ones”
November 2018 National Association for Gifted Children Annual Conference – Minneapolis, Minnesota
“Authentic Learning: Methods for Engaging Gifted Students in the Classroom”
“The Right Tool for the Job: Technology to Promote Curiosity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Problem Solving” (co-presenting)
October 2018 Ohio Association for Gifted Children Fall Conference – Columbus, Ohio
“Authentic Learning – Methods that Engage Students in the Classroom”
September 2018 CSE Ohio High Schools That Work Principal and Site Coordinator Forum– Columbus, Ohio
Provided the keynote “Finding Their Carrot” about how to motivate students.
August 2018 Tri-Village Schools – New Madison, Ohio
Introduction to the book “When Smart Kids Underachieve” which staff is reading as professional development.
August 2018 SENG Conference– Otterbein College, Ohio
“The Social/Emotional Causes of Underachievement”
“Using Advisory Groups and Town Hall Meetings to Meet the Social/ Emotional Needs of Gifted Students”
August 2018 Big Think Event – Hilliard, Ohio
“Tired of SMART Goals, Try Some DUMB Ones – The Importance of 21stCentury Skills in the Classroom”
July 2018 Montgomery County ESC – Dayton, Ohio
“Using Project-Based Learning in the Classroom Workshop”
June 2018 Educators Connect for Success Conference– Polaris, Ohio
“Authentic Learning – Methods that Engage Students in the Classroom”
June 2018 Newark City Schools Workshop– Newark, Ohio
“How to Create Performance-Based Projects in the Classroom”
May 2018 West Central Ohio Association for Gifted Children – Dayton, Ohio
Discussion about the book “When Smart Kids Underachieve”
April 2018 Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented Leadership Conference– Plano, Texas
Game Changers keynote address during the Opening MasterMinds Session focusing on authentic learning and its influence on building passion and purpose in students
“Profiles of Underachievers”
February 2018 Ohio Association for Gifted Children Teacher’s Academy – Columbus, Ohio
“Profiles of an Underachiever”
“Workshop on Project-Based Learning”
February 2018 Bloom-Carroll Schools Workshop – Bloom-Carroll, Ohio
“The Importance of 21stCentury Skills in the Classroom”
January 2018 Delaware Parent Association – Delaware, Ohio
“The Myths of Gifted Children”
January 2018 Pickerington Innovation Conference– Pickerington, Ohio
“Teaching Methods that Engage Students”
December 2017 Ohio Association for Gifted Children Coordinator’s Workshop– Worthington
“How Project-Based Learning Lends Itself to Creativity”
October 2017 Ohio Association for Gifted Children Fall Conference – Columbus, Ohio
“Underachievement Amongst Gifted Students”
September 2017 Columbus Public Schools Workshop– Columbus, Ohio
“Using Project-Based Learning in the Classroom Workshop”
June 2017 OAGC Summer Academy– Westerville, Ohio
“Application of Appropriate Technologies to Support Assessment, Planning, and Delivery”
May 2017 Educators Connect for Success Conference– The Ohio State University
“Empowering Students Through the Use of Project Based Learning”
February 2017 Kentucky Association for Gifted Education – Lexington, Kentucky
“Using Rubrics in the Classroom”
