Convention 2022 Schedule

Visual art can be a powerful communication tool especially when it is hard to describe things using words. During this session you will see how a lesson can be built to encourage students to express themselves in ways in which words can't.

One morning, you notice one of your students arrive who is usually energetic and cheerful, but who seems down and disengaged today, and then disruptive. How will you engage him? After working through scenarios with him, on the next day, one of your students makes fun of another in a very public way. How will your address it?

Phenomena are essential to drive the inquiry-based science teaching that is foundational to the NGSS at all grade levels. But what if all phenomena aren’t equally relevant to kids? How can you pick the best ones? Come learn about Iowa PBS resources centered on local phenomena and gain insight into why local phenomena create an opportunity for more authentic learning.

In this simulation, you are the school leader for a growing school district that is considering adding another elementary school. You will need to anticipate and address the impact this may have on financial and geographical segregation. How will you manage the dialogue with stakeholders across the district to elicit perspectives and optimize a solution?

It's been said that "whoever is doing the talking, is doing the learning." Do you ever wish you could get more learner participation in class discussions or activities (and not just the same five people every time)? Do you have any classes that have difficulty staying on-topic? Do you wish you could lead your meetings with more creativity? Do you think every learner's voice is worthy of being heard? Enter protocols! In this session we will participate in and learn about a mirad of classroom protocol activities that will engage and empower ALL learners (teachers, students, and administrators alike!) to share and engage in their learning. These instructional strategies will help you break out of your lecture rut and encourage every learner to be heard.

This session will be guided by participants. It will offer YOU strategies to support students that are struggling with behavior, mental and academic concerns. Also very practical suggestions that will allow you to teach and engage all students with little or no interruption to learning.

If you're concerned about behavior and disruptions & want to create a focused learning environment, this session will empower you with things to DO and NOT TO DO in your classroom management.

What feelings and emotions come to mind when you reflect on one-minute math fact fluency checks? How do your students respond to these types of assessments? Many times we teach students to build their accuracy and efficiency when learning their math facts. In this session, we will also work on teaching flexibility with how to solve problems. Students will work on developing an understanding of relationships between numbers in contextual situations rather than just memorizing facts in isolation. In this session, we will work together to learn how to help students develop number sense on the way to developing math fact fluency by participating in image talks, anchor problems, tool talks, contextualized practice problems, number talks, and games for purposeful practice. (This session is most appropriate for grade levels K-2, but is also applicable for intervention in grade levels 3-5.)

You are responsible for special education in a district with a relatively new school in a growing district. You have been a teacher, a school counselor and are now working with teachers who have Tier 3 students. The recent shift to a virtual environment necessitated by the pandemic has had a significant impact on most students, but more especially on several of your special education students. A parent of one of your students wants hour-for-hour compensation for time when her son was not receiving in-person services.

In this session, I will give a brief introduction to Nearpod, a student engagement platform that allows you to create a digital lesson, akin to an interactive PowerPoint. Nearpod can be used for a variety of topics, math and non-math, but we will use it to examine key features of the graphs of functions. We will also explore the graphing of functions using a Desmos activity. Please bring a laptop if you have one so that you can play along (a phone will also work).

The movement of school choice funding across the country brings with it an abundance of opportunities as well as real risk. The session will develop practical strategies to lead your school through the funding decisions that should be made as school engage and participate in opportunities to receive public funding.

You are a leader in a TfT school. You know the TfT core practices, but how do you practically live them out in a school leadership or administrative role? In this session you will be invited to dig deeper into the framework, nutured to grow in your skills through simulations of some real-life TfT school scenarios, and empowered to create a plan of action for living and leading TfT well.

Given the question, “What communication skill would you most like to improve?” one of the most common responses is along the lines of “Being able to talk in groups of people.” Knowing what to say, when to say it, and whom to say it to can be overwhelming for a lot of people, and some studies have suggested this fear or anxiety is increasing every year. To address this issue, the topic at the center of this session is “Small Talk.” The main objective is to provide teachers with a lesson or unit on how to do small talk more effectively, and to discuss why this important along the way. Real life skills that the students will find easy to comprehend and apply. (Designed especially for junior and senior classes in high school.)

Ah, classroom management. Every single teacher's favorite part of teaching, right? HILARIOUS. We all dread these two words because no matter how good of a teacher you are, there will be those years and those students that make it impossible to manage your classroom. So how do we assemble a positive classroom environment that is a place where everyone feels safe, respected, and ready to learn? It's the small moments that make the big picture. So let's explore those small moments, and see what landscape we can create.

What is the key to student learning? Is it great curriculum resources? Is it the latest technology or pedagogical strategy? Is it the structure of the schedule? Let's never overlook the importance of relationship in the classroom. Together, let's talk about how we build an environment where each person (even you the teacher!) is seen, known and loved. Please bring your best ideas for building relationships so we can grow together!

Learning can be hard; learning the English language can be even harder. In this session we will look at best practices for teaching English Language Learners in your mainstream classroom. Helpful, engaging, and practical strategies will be given to implement in your classroom right away!

This hands-on class covers many of the basics of conducting, including posture, arm and hand position, breath, left- and right-hand independence, articulation, fermatas, among others. Every class member will have ample opportunity to conduct and grow in clarity and expressiveness as a conductor.

As educators with Christian worldviews, we seek to affirm God’s sovereignty through all existence. As artists and writers, and more specifically as storytellers, we offer this workshop as a way to practice, appreciate, and teach perspective as an exploration of God’s creation and the subsequent creative practices of His people. Neither perspective as a method of drawing nor as an ideological vantage point are new to our fields; however, their overlap leaves much to ponder and explore. This workshop will be both a presentation and activity, in which we encourage participants to dive into the overlap of words and images, and visual and linguistic angles, to show how an interdisciplinary perspective of storytelling can be an advantage point from which we learn and teach.

In this session we will look at the National Core Arts Standards for music (specifically for creating) to gather fresh ways of inviting our students into the joy of Beauty Creating in our music rooms. This session will be part presentation, part collaboration, and a whole lot of making music together!

One of the greatest tools for learning is REFLECTION. As teachers design formational learning experiences the desire is to see the experience connect to the content and guide students to deeper learning. In this session we will explore how to invite students into action that helps them see their place in God's story and build connections through reflection practices.

This hands-on class will build on the basics of Part One and continue with more advanced techniques. As with Part One, every class member will have ample opportunity to conduct and grow as a conductor.

Knowledge, Exploration, and the Visual Arts (KEVA) come into focus when students get to work with KEVA Planks. These simple wooden planks offer a multitude of opportunities in problem solving, critical thinking, engineering, designing, and creating for students (and teachers) of all ages. You will get hands-on experience through “guided creativity” during this session as I share examples, activities, and challenges that you can do with your own students. This session is open to teachers of all grade levels (and all creativity levels 🙂

"Success is moving from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill. This session will dive into ACE's (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and Resiliency, focusing on 3 main learning targets. First, that you will be able to define ACE's and understand the background of it's research. Secondly, that you will gain an awareness of how ACE's affect future health outcomes. Thirdly, that you would develop a deeper understanding of resiliency and ways to support the students you interact with daily in your classroom.

This session is a LIFE CHANGER! We will discover the 4 T method as outlined Mike Michalowicz in the book Clockwork. Get the skills to take you from stressed & frazzled to prepared & energized.

There are many excellent technology tools and apps that teachers can use to inform instruction. The assessment tools can help a teacher ask follow up questions, create error-analysis opportunities, and to differentiate small group instruction after the mini-lesson.

The world of collegiate forensics is often hidden to many people. Even its official name, “forensics,” causes confusion! However, thousands of students across the world participate in college-level speech and debate events every year, giving them opportunities to hone their speaking skills for their careers and their lives … not to mention winning shiny trophies. During this hour, you’ll learn more about the opportunities for college speech and debate, what effects being on a forensics team has on studies and career preparation, and strategies to help prepare students for success on the college level. (Designed for all schools, whether or not you currently have a debate program.)

Have you ever wondered WHY you act or feel a certain way (in comparison to others around you)? Have you ever wished that you could grow in understanding yourself and how God made you uniquely? In this session, we will be discussing some resources that are available to better know ourselves. We will also recognize how the strengths in others can fill our weaknesses.

Looking for fun & unique ways to develop your student's grasp of various concepts? Discover some of the ways the fun game of chess can be leveraged to achieve these outcomes! With a variety of examples that you can immediately start applying in your school, expect some hands on ENGAGING activities as part of this workshop (NO prior chess experience necessary!)

Integrating movement into classroom activities helps keep students alert and involved, as well as improving cognition. Strategies will be provided to help include meaningful ways to get students moving for brain breaks and reinforcing content.

Moving from one lifestyle to another can be full of stress and anxiety. Whether it’s moving from one country to another, going from homeschooling to classroom schooling, or even making the transition from middle school to high school, a complete world change can be disconcerting, to say the least. One particular label given to this situation is “culture shock.” Today we have two objectives: 1) to provide each other with lesson plans and ideas on how to discuss culture shock in our classrooms as a way to introduce empathy and understanding in our students, and 2) to provide each other with resources in how to recognize culture shock in our students and what we might be able to do about it. The results might just … shock you.

Attendees will be invited into a variety of poetry and plays that can be used in the classroom with students aged 6th grade through high school. The session will include book talks, video clips and a spiral bound book full of fun yet practical strategies.

Would you love to network with other Early Childhood teachers? Come share, network, and connect with other early childhood educators about social-emotional learning, teaching strategies, and teacher self-care.

In this session, we will discuss the following points: 1. The advantages of live streaming an event. Why livestream and when to livestream? 2. The advantages of recording & editing an event before it becomes public. (When is recording an event a better option?) 3. What is the process to livestream an event and equipment needed? 4. Advantages of multi-camera livestream broadcast productions 5. What dollar amount should a school budget to produce quality livestream broadcast productions? 6. Suggest working with local colleges or Universities to pay college students to help with your major productions. 7. Importance of paying close attention to copyright laws when live streaming an event?

You don’t need to look far to see that before, during, and after the pandemic, young people are navigating unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and suicide. This webinar equips you as an educator and mentor with proven and practical answers to your pressing questions of why we’re seeing this surge in young people, and how your classroom and school can offer the hope and help your young people and community need.

Effective middle level educators are essential to the flourishing of our young adolescent students. We will explore effective practices and structures for teaching grades 5-8, as well as the blessings and ongoing challenges of being called to the middle.

Creating and maintaining positive school culture and discipline can be difficult in a Christian school. This session will aim to give a framework and strategies in build and foster positive school culture and disciple within a school. Using research, scripture, and best teaching practices we will look at how to change and shape school culture to fit your school's mission and values.

One of the most challenging things we do as music educators is to decide what we will play on any given concert. There are many variables that we must consider. The educational development of our student musicians is the centerpiece for all that we play, but we also want to play music that our audience will enjoy. What is the perfect mix for any concert? When we find that wonderful new contemporary sounding work, how do we program it without losing a certain cross section of our audience? Every director knows that to fill the auditorium you must draw more than just the parents of your students. When a program flourishes, word travels and everyone in the community wants to hear the amazing music that is being made. They also bring with them community support and financial backing. This makes concert programming one of the most important things we do as a director of bands. I have struggled with these same questions over my career. The formula I have found is so simple that I am embarrassed that I had never thought of it myself. The perfect mix of music for any concert is: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue…and a march! It could not be any easier.

"Kids today just aren't very curious." Have you heard this? Maybe even said this yourself? Not so fast! The human brain thrives on novelty, and adding a little mystery to your teaching can leverage students' capacity for wonder and engage even the most reluctant learner. In this session, we will experience mysterious pedagogy firsthand! Come ready to explore covert, cryptic, clandestine strategies you can use to capture curiosity and creative thinking.

Come and join us for a fun and interactive session about why Bible League International is committed to producing easy to understand Scriptures and how you can use them too, so that “We can all understand what they are saying about the great things God has done.” (Acts 2:11, ERV)

PBS LearningMedia is a massive bank of educational content that many teachers do not know about. Come learn with an Iowa PBS educator about PBS LearningMedia and have an opportunity to explore an area that is relevant to your subject matter!

A podcast is a series of audio files that is made available for listeners to access online or through a mobile app. Though the concept of podcasting has been around for a few decades, it is now finding its way into education thanks to the proliferation of digital tools that help with creating, sharing, and listening to these audio recordings. IN THIS FIRST OF TWO SESSIONS, I will share resources for finding podcasts for you and/or your students to listen to, as well as reflection activities for students to complete during podcast lessons.

A podcast is a series of audio files that is made available for listeners to access online or through a mobile app. Though the concept of podcasting has been around for a few decades, it is now finding its way into education thanks to the proliferation of digital tools that help with creating, sharing, and listening to these audio recordings. IN THIS SECOND OF TWO SESSIONS, we will look at tools and techniques for creating audio recordings and podcast series. Participants will get hands-on practice with recording, editing, and sharing audio files.

We will have a 75 minute practice that will involve all aspects of the game of basketball.

Interested in starting a chess club in your school OR want to find ideas for making your current club more FUN & ENGAGING for all ages/skill levels? Attend this workshop and you'll come away with practical tools you can start implementing right away. These tips & tools come from Elliott Neff's experience bringing chess to thousands of classes over the last 20+ years. Expect some hands on learning & fun at this workshop! (NO prior chess experience necessary!)

A panel of coaches and athletic directors who coach and lead with a transformational approach in Christian schools.

How can reading teachers use protocols and strategies to empower students to go deeper and discover more about His Story and their role in it? In this session you will be introduced to a variety of strategies and protocols you can use with any whole class novel to deepen students' understanding and connection with the novel. This will give you the tools to dive deeper into novel connections to God’s Story and students' role in it. Some ideas being explored will be one-pagers, hexagonal thinking, CFRR connection, children’s literature pairings, and more. You will come away with a toolbox of reading strategies and protocols to use with multiple reading units that will engage your students as active learners.

What is CRT? What do “anti-CRT” laws mean for Christian teachers? What can I teach about race? Are there books I shouldn’t teach? With the passage of a recent law in Iowa, the fight over CRT has hit close to home. Using the Iowa law as an example, this session will define CRT, discuss current political situations regarding CRT, and explore how reformed theology and Christian education are uniquely situated to teach about race to our students. “Abundant life” means embracing the full range of responses to the sin of racism: confession, lament, repentance, forgiveness, and restoration.

How do you deal with angry kids? We transformed our classroom from a reaction-based environment of student escalations and behavioral disruptions by developing a therapeutic approach that improved the atmosphere for both students and teachers. In a post-COVID world, we have discovered that students have more anxiety and fear than in the past. How do we deal with this? Our goal is to share some strategies that build confidence, relieve stress, and create connections that dissolve anger and anxiety so that students can achieve success.

We will explore some new ideas for our Christian school libraries. Have you tried dynamic shelving or genre based shelving in fiction or non-fiction? What ways can you accelerate your circulation? If you want to learn more about accelerating circulation come and join us as we listen for ideas that will improve our student's love for reading!

As media creators, students have the opportunity for their voice to be heard. But for many Iowa schools, technology is a barrier from making this happening. It doesn’t take the most expensive and technologically advanced equipment to create awesome videos and podcasts! Rather, with the use of a few simple techniques and inexpensive tools, student devices can be transformed into media creation machines. Come learn how you can utilize or improve the quality of student produced media in your classroom and set them free to capture how they’re living the abundant life in your class.

How many times have you heard, "I don't get it!" when having student work on solving problems? Teachers generally jump in and rescue their struggling students by telling them what to do. Yet, students learn best when they are the ones doing the thinking. So how can teachers get their students doing the thinking? Peter Liljedahl has written a book called "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics" which highlights 14 teaching practices for engaging student learning. This session will focus on a handful of these teaching practices to improve student thinking and the connections to Social Emotional Learning (SEL). This combination creates student mathematicians!

Cognitive Coaching can be one of the most powerful tools in a leader's toolkit. Effective coaching can bring about long-lasting growth and change in your faculty, as well as build trust and collegiality. These powerful, thought provoking conversations are essential for those who want to lead through relationship, the empowerment of others and build community. In this session, You will learn basic coaching techniques and walk away equipped with tools, strategies and structures to begin implementing a coaching program at your school.

Individual responsibility to save adequately for retirement is more important than ever. Whether you are 3 years away from retirement—or 30 years--in this session we’ll discuss the amount of income needed in retirement. The sources of and the ways to achieve that income will also be presented, as will be retirement benefits and features of the CSI Pension Plan.

In this session, you will learn about the Iowa STEM Council's Programs available to you. I will also share with you NW STEM Resources including our checkout Kits available for FREE! STEM kits will be available to explore at this session as well as STEM Challenges you can implement in your classroom tomorrow!

This session will discuss the many uses that Google Docs provides. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of how Google Docs works and how they can utilize the program more effectively.

In this session we will go through jmc's Competency Based Gradebook to show teachers an option for tracking student progress on standards while giving students and families actionable feedback with research inspired calculation options. Submit end of term results onto a Standards-Based Report Card or generate a course grade for any K-12 situation.

An encore presentation from last year's convention, here is last year's session description: Have you been struggling to come up with a plan to talk to parents, students, or even colleagues about LGBTQ+ and CRT (and maybe some controversial things) without starting a fight? This session will give some ideas and perspectives on how to go deep without losing friends...by leading the discussion according to a Biblical model.

Would you love to network with other Early Childhood teachers? Come share, network, and connect with other early childhood educators about social-emotional learning, teaching strategies, and teacher self-care.

As educators with Christian worldviews, we seek to affirm God’s sovereignty through all existence. As artists and writers, and more specifically as storytellers, we offer this workshop as a way to practice, appreciate, and teach perspective as an exploration of God’s creation and the subsequent creative practices of His people. Neither perspective as a method of drawing nor as an ideological vantage point are new to our fields; however, their overlap leaves much to ponder and explore. This workshop will be both a presentation and activity, in which we encourage participants to dive into the overlap of words and images, and visual and linguistic angles, to show how an interdisciplinary perspective of storytelling can be an advantage point from which we learn and teach.

This session will demonstrate and give lots of "hands on" activities to do with preschool and elementary-aged children. Ideas and activities for the months of January - June. (Part 2 will include activities for the months of July - December.) We will be singing, moving, doing rhythm activities, playing musical games and using music incorporated into children's literature. You will leave this session with fun, quick activities to integrate into your program whether you are a music or classroom teacher.

This session will demonstrate and give lots of "hands on" activities to do with preschool and elementary-aged children. Ideas and activities for the months of July - December. (Part 1 will include activities for the months of January - June.) We will be singing, moving, doing rhythm activities, playing musical games and using music incorporated into children's literature. You will leave this session with fun, quick activities to integrate into your program whether you are a music or classroom teacher.

NBA coach Gregg Popovich communicates three things to his players. 1. You are part of this team. 2. We have really high expectations. 3. I know you can reach our expectations and we will help you get there. This approach created one of the most successful team environments in recent history. What does this look like in education? How do we create a team of educators who love to succeed together? We will explore strategies for setting expectations, working as a team to reach those expectations, and building a culture where everyone is growing together. This doesn't happen top down. Learn how a staff can come together and become the team everyone wants teaching their own kids.

Every educator knows who THOSE kids are, and we all have stories of how they have disrupted our classrooms. In this session we will look at some of the causes of disruptive behavior as well as some of the strategies and best practices to help us provide as inclusive an environment as possible for even the most difficult of our students.

With recent Refugee Resettlement efforts along with increasing immigration of culturally and lingually diverse families, the student demographic in many Christian schools is changing. Do you have a student(s) in your class(es) for whom English is not their first language? Are you looking for new strategies to better serve these students? If so, let's talk. Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (S.I.O.P.) is a researched best practice that will provide a structure for the pedagogical choices we make in our lesson plans and units. This sectional will include an introduction to the S.I.O.P. framework, ideas you can apply directly to your lessons, and resources to grow from there.

In this session I first explore the concept of video games through a Reformed theological lens: what they are, potential issues, and to examine possible biblical concepts to help guide us in interpreting them as cultural artifacts. Second, I will discuss our gaming project at Dordt and how video game programs might be used in Christian education to further equip students as kingdom citizens.

In this session you will be invited to explore the question, “How can Christian schools create a culture that nurtures social-emotional skills, academic support, and spiritual formation in elementary and middle school settings?” We will engage how it looks to have a structure in place that creates community building relationships, accountability, academic progress monitoring, and fostering belonging among all students as they find their place in His Story. This session will give practical examples of the structure, activities, and tools of how the crew framework can be lived out in an elementary or middle school classroom.

This session will provide an overview of the Erikson Institute’s publication Big Ideas of Early Mathematics: What Teachers of Young Children Need to Know. Participants will become familiar with the key concepts that lay the foundation for lifelong mathematics learning and thinking. They will compare and contrast types of activities for effectiveness and learn to embed math instruction into classroom routines. This session has great application for preschool teachers, but would be valuable for K-3rd grade teachers as well.

Life is hard. Teaching is hard. When they are both difficult at once, we can feel incredibly discouraged. This session will be a spiritual encouragement to stay close to Christi and how to be practical about faith when your emotions are reeling.

Dr. Shawn Scholten, a frequent past presenter at the Heartland Convention, and Dr. Dayton Vogel offer a combined total of 60 plus years of licensed mental health counseling. In that span of time, they've worked with many young people and their families for a myriad of situations and continue to do so today. They invite you to send questions related to young people and mental health ahead of time to the Heartland email address, so they may assess some of the questions which participants would like addressed. They will also take questions ahead of the session that day and at later points. Possible question topics might be dealing with anxious and depressive students, young people with behavioral challenges, and coping with blended family situations in the classroom. This will be an informal presentation to address pertinent questions of teachers and administrators in the field by some seasoned, professional therapists who have worked with scores of young people and their families, as well as who are parents of adult children themselves.

Not all of us teach Bible classes, but all of us are Christian teachers. This class is intended for YOU primarily, and then tangentially for the students that you teach. Unity students are notorious for carrying our Christian discussions with them into other teachers' classrooms. How do you answer the deep questions students have about their faith when they come to you? How do you answer your own questions and doubts? This Crash Course session in Christian Apologetics can't answer every question, but my deep hope is to leave you with some answers, strategies, resources, and (most hopefully) greater confidence in your personal faith journey.

Directing a play or musical is no easy task: rather, it's an adventure of trying on a thousand different hats, learning something new every day, and trying to unite children under an artistic vision. But how can we advance beyond simply putting on a show? How do we truly create art with our students, and more than that, how do we GET them to want to create art with us? Come with me on this journey to help student actors be honest on stage (and in their lives), and to create a company of artists who perform not for personal glory, but for the glory of God. SPECIAL NOTE: If you would like to come with a memorized monologue, please do as I am hoping to have some time at the end to model my coaching style!

Participants will be actively engaged in Reading and Spelling activities that coordinate with the 6 syllable rules of phonics education.

Using engaging, hands-on activities is a great way to begin a new unit or topic in your science classroom. Come explore hands-on learning first hand in this session. We will talk about and experience how to let your students learn while they explore. Hopefully, you will leave with fresh ideas that inspire fun in your classroom.

This session helps us to understand the essentials for early education and the impact they have on young children. Specific attention will be given to the quality requirements for preschools in Iowa, but there is great application for anyone working with preschool through third grade children. Come and actively participate as you gain understanding for how to keep learning alive for our most malleable students.

Thinking is the key to mathematics. Every mathematician knows that problem solving and critical thinking is the foundation of new discoveries, but getting students to think and problem solve in the math classroom is always a challenge. In this session, we will dive into how to flip the lesson instead of the classroom to develop a culture of collaboration, thinking, and problem solving in the math class. We will take a look and experience the "Experience First Formalize Later" (EFFL) lesson framework. This session is geared for high school and middle school math teachers.

This session will give classroom teachers a variety of ways to include the masters in their art curriculum. Information on the artists, some samples of their work, and some art projects to try in your own classroom will be shared.

Why would we purposely choose to live and teach with less when we have access to just about everything a person could ever want? Well, how do less stress, more focus, and better relationships sound? If you have been craving a slow down in life and in teaching, this session will give you encouragement and the tools to get started.

Teachers are often in the front lines of identifying and helping anxious students. In this session, you will learn about the science behind the anxious mind and strategies to help you work with these students. Techniques and interventions will be shared to help students gain confidence inside and outside of the classroom. Advice for how to work with families and outside providers will also be discussed.

In this session we will describe what a School Information System is and the advantages of using jmc's Message Center, MTSS solutions such as the Flex Scheduler and the Family and Admin mobile Apps to help unite administrators with the families that they serve.

In this session we will describe what a School Information System is and the advantages of using jmc's Message Center, MTSS solutions such as the Flex Scheduler and the Family and Coach/Advisor mobile Apps to help unite teachers with the families that they serve.

Are you looking for new and meaningful teaching ideas to enhance high school students’ learning in your Health classes? This session will provide practical teaching ideas. Participants will also have an opportunity for networking to share some of their favorite Health class teaching ideas.

Each Iowa county has a Naturalist that has resources and activities to connect your students to nature. Become a student and learn hands-on what a County Naturalist has to offer at a variety of age groups.

Once the draft is written, how do you make it better? Learn from professional writers, that's how! In this session, you will learn a powerful and effective strategy to use mentor texts to teach students to see things in a new light, which they can use to directly improve their work. You will leave with everything you need to put this powerful practice immediately to use in your classroom.

Are you confused by all of the Mental Health diagnosis? Are you needing help on how to best help these students? Come and find out a number of interventions that may help. During this workshop you will gain insight on a variety of strategies to best serve children with mental health disorders.

Parents are exploring school options and considering whether the tuition is worth the cost. Christian schools need to be able to give clear evidence of the value of Christian education, and how it is fulfilling its mission. Kent Ezell will share practical ways to gather and share this evidence.

This session is open to ALL TfT teachers of every grade and experience level as a time to design and collaborate on any of the core TfT practices. Whether you are interested in deepening your classroom storyline, want help reframing a new unit, or seek assistance in planning a new FLEx, TfT instructional coaches will be available to help you meet your goals. Come ready to collaborate, and leave with some concrete plans in hand!

Have you considered storytelling as a classroom management tool? Storytelling is one of the most compelling and gracious devices for shifting behavior, yet this approach remains largely untapped because we lack the confidence or skills for telling great stories. Powerful But Not Pushy explores the brain connectivity that occurs between effective storytellers and their listeners. It also investigates tips for crafting stories that shift mindsets and redirect classroom behavior.

Many schools have some sort of cross-cultural learning experience for their students, often along the lines of exploring a particular country for a set amount of time. What we’re doing in this session today is exploring one specific model of cross-cultural learning: Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Theory. While it does have its criticisms (which we’ll cover) this model can provide a very accessible springboard for understanding people from a wide variety of cultures. We’ll discover all the ins and outs of the theory, as well as propose various ways it might influence how we talk about other cultures and people.

Through observing the work of Rich Villodas and Latasha Morrison, participants will be invited to engage in pursuing racial righteousness, grounded in scripture.

Solfege is not only for choirs. This session will explore ways to use solfege with your music ensembles as a tool to improve music literacy AND musicality.

Public speaking can be a scary thing for a lot of people. In fact, it’s often listed as primary fear for many Americans, often above other fears like spiders, heights, or even death. But it doesn’t have to be scary. Today we’ll be looking at reasons why developing public speaking skills is so important for people of all ages, but especially for middle school and high school students. In addition, we’ll have access to a wide variety of specific games and activities that foster the learning of this crucial life skill. Come prepared to learn, to practice, and to share effective techniques for this fascinating area.

Many common myths are still rampant surrounding dyslexia and need to be debunked. Can you identify the signs of the dyslexic students in your classroom this year? As a parent of a dyslexic student and dyslexia advocate, I will share a unique perspective into the fascinating and often frustrating world of this very common neurodiversity.

Each time we select a work to do with our ensembles, we must begin one of the most important aspects of being a conductor/teacher: Learning and internalizing the score. Many of us, as young teachers and conductors, learned the score along with the ensemble. This is a very ineffective way of acquiring the knowledge that is needed to lead a group in preparing for a performance. It also does not allow for us to make vital decisions BEFORE we begin working with the musicians, in addition to limiting the amount of pedagogical teaching that we can accomplish. It is important that we know each note, articulation, orchestration, dynamic, and tempo, before we have the first reading. Every ensemble teacher has a slightly different process for this, however they all are similar in that we must have a way to interpret the music and internalize the composition, in advance of rehearsing the ensemble. If you already have a score study process, hopefully this will offer you a few more ideas that will help make it more fruitful. If you have never spent time studying a score, this is one of many ways to do so. I hope it gives you a great place to begin developing your own process of score study. As you proceed through this process it will be very tempting to take shortcuts and not apply the needed time to master each step. With that in mind, I offer this quote from my mentor and teacher Russel Mikkelson, Director of Bands at The Ohio State University, “never withhold information from the musicians!” In order to give our musicians all of the essential information, we must have ALL of the written music and our interpretation of it, mastered before we step on the podium for the first rehearsal.

Participants will learn to identify the 4 unconscious goals of misbehavior, attention, power, revenge, and proving inadequacies. They will also gain understanding into the 3 conscious goals of misbehavior, getting, self-elevation, and avoiding. They will work through various scenarios to identify clients’ goals of misbehavior. Participants will also explore skills and techniques to help their clients make changes.

The best way to support your highest flyers might surprise you! Gifted student have some unique needs, and in this session you will learn some approaches and techniques that will up your teaching game to better serve not only them, but all your learners. We will also be discussing ways to identify and assess gifts, as well at touch on the topic of twice exceptional learners (gifted with learning challenges).

Ever schedule professional development time only to realize half (or more) of the attendees forced to be there have no interest in the topic since it isn't relevant to them? Switch up your professional development to provide personalized and meaningful activities to allow teachers to grow in areas that interest them. Then, give them a badge as a reward!

Through observing the work of Rich Villodas and Latasha Morrison, participants will be invited to engage in pursuing racial righteousness, grounded in scripture.

In this session you will be invited to explore the question, “How can Christian schools create a culture that nurtures social-emotional skills, academic support, and spiritual formation in elementary and middle school settings?” We will engage how it looks to have a structure in place that creates community building relationships, accountability, academic progress monitoring, and fostering belonging among all students as they find their place in His Story. This session will give practical examples of the structure, activities, and tools of how the crew framework can be lived out in an elementary or middle school classroom.