Date: Saturday, May 4, 2013

Win great door

Time: 9 am -12 pm *Registration & Check-in begins at 8:30 am* Location: Irwin Academic Center 329 N. Irwin Avenue Charlotte, NC 28202 Cost: $10 Register today at
http://www.ncelementary.org/region-6/177-region-6conference.html

prizes, including a Kindle Fire!

Network with other local teachers by participating in a mini-conference specifically for elementary educators! Breakfast will be provided. Please contact Nancy Betler or Lisa Pagano with questions. nancy.betler@cms.k12.nc.us lisa.pagano@cms.k12.nc.us

8:30-9:00 am Registration & Check-in with Breakfast 9:00-10:00 am Keynote Presentation with Jill Thompson of Edulum, LLC Leading the Future: Preparing Our Students for the 21st Century 10:10-10:55 am Breakout Sessions Improving Speaking and Listening Through Wordless Picture Books with Peggy Sherman Using Interactive Notebooks in the Content Areas with Jaime Deming A No Excuses Approach to High Student Achievement with Olivia Givens, Julia Neal, Elizabeth Bickerton, Ella Rigoulot & Victoria Loher Word Power: Vocabulary Strategies with Nancy Betler Connecting Formative Assessment and Student Achievement with Jessica Mize-Wilson 11:00-11:45 am Breakout Sessions Developing Analytical Thinking in K-2 Learners with Kelly Kollar Connecting Math to the Real World: Organizing a Math Fair for 3-5 Students with Lisa Pagano & Bryan Harbin Data Notebooks in the Classroom with Jen Sieracki Utilizing Socratic Seminar to Create Literate Learning Communities with Nina Fergusson & Katherine Ruffalo Exhilarating Enrichment Clusters are Elementary! with Emily Foley 11:50-12:00 pm Closing & Door Prize Drawings

Improving Speaking and Listening Through Wordless Picture Books with Peggy Sherman Learn how to incorporate wordless picture books into their instruction. The English Language Arts Common Core State Standards for Speaking and Listening will be integrated into this session. Participants will leave with hands-on activities that are ready to be used!

First Round of Breakout Sessions 10:10-10:55 am

A No Excuses Approach to High Student Achievement with Olivia Givens, Julia Neal, Elizabeth Bickerton, Ella Rigoulot & Victoria Loher Learn how to foster high student achievement by focusing on 7 areas: support for teachers, morale, data, instruction, planning, leadership, and scheduling. Making minor adjustments in each category can result in huge learning gains for students! Prepare to leave inspired and ready to make a positive difference at your school!

Using Interactive Notebooks in the Content Areas with Jaime Deming This session will show you how to effectively utilize interactive notebooks into the content areas to help you differentiate instruction and provide plentiful opportunities for critical thinking and creativity with your elementary-aged students. You will see plenty of student examples and leave the session with plenty of ideas to get you started!

Connecting Formative Assessment and Student Achievement with Jessica Mize-Wilson Are you overwhelmed with progress monitoring, reading conferences, guided reading, strategy groups and mini lessons? Do you feel like you are always assessing? Learn how classroom structures and design can improve your ability to gather formative assessment daily and change student behaviors! Here you will learn simple instructional shifts to assess student understanding by embedding data collection into everyday practice. Ongoing formative assessment will inform your daily instruction, empower students to take ownership in their learning and improve student achievement!

Word Power: Vocabulary Strategies with Nancy Betler Get ready to explore vocabulary strategies for K-12 which can be adapted for content and ability level! Participants will learn about the strategies of word sort and word chain and their components. These strategies are designed to improve student comprehension and sustain growth in reading and in writing.

Connecting Math to the Real World: Organizing a Math Fair for 3-5 Students with Lisa Pagano & Bryan Harbin Learn how to guide students in developing an interest-based, integrated math project that connects mathematics to the real world! This session will show you how to take students through each step of the research process and showcase their hard work at a school-based Math Fair. Connections will also be made to the Common Core Standards, 21st Century Skills, and the McREL Teacher Evaluation Tool.

2nd Round of Breakout Sessions 11:00-11:45 am

Exhilarating Enrichment Clusters are Elementary! with Emily Foley Lets get ready to cluster! This session will show you how you can integrate interest-based enrichment, or clubs, into your school day. You will learn how one elementary school organizes and implements these enrichment clusters to tap into students interests and learning styles. The result is excitement and enriching experiences for their diverse student body!

Developing Analytical Thinking in K-2 Learners with Kelly Kollar Developing analytical thinking skills is crucial in any classroom. Kick your teaching up a notch as you learn how to develop analytical thinking skills in K-2 learners! This session will arm you with easy to implement and practical strategies that you can use to help young learners develop into strong analytical thinkers across all content areas.

Data Notebooks in the Classroom with Jen Sieracki Data! Data! Data! How do you use student data? How do they manage it for themselves? We will dig deeper into data-driven decision making from the teacher perspective, as well as how to utilize these from the student. We will look at notebook management, practical strategies, conferencing with data, and best organizational practices. Take away resources to implement goal setting strategies, setting up data notebooks no matter what time of year, and tangible items that you can use tomorrow! Get ready to participate and significantly impact student achievement in positive ways!

Utilizing Socratic Seminar to Create Literate Learning Communities with Nina Fergusson & Katherine Ruffalo Seminars are extensive conversations that require participants to listen carefully and speak thoughtfully in order to understand the texts they are reading and writing. This process is an effective tool to use with all students. Participants will learn how to choose texts, write open-ended tiered questions, facilitate conversations, and use triangulation of texts to support the discussion. The participants will learn to train students in seminar behaviors and the art of respectful listening.