“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch
One of my passions is training and collaborating with teachers. In my roles as both an educational consultant providing trainings and a teacher receiving trainings, I have experienced the profound value of sharing new ideas and strategies to bring about continuous improvement in classrooms, schools and districts.
It is always my fervent goal to deliver highly engaging professional development that will light the fire of creativity, and spark the search for deeper knowledge and understanding.
Listed below are several in-service trainings that I currently offer. I have extensive experience conceptualizing, planning, and executing dynamic, engaging trainings that inspire and entertain.
INSERVICE OPPORTUNITIES FOR EDUCATORS:
Fostering Literacy Through Creative Bookmaking: Wrinkle, Crinkle, Crease
Bookmaking cultivates readers and writers, promotes a love of reading and books, and provides readers and writers a way to express their creativity while enhancing literacy skills. This hands-on workshop will introduce basic skills, materials, project ideas, and resources needed to incorporate bookmaking into your curriculum. Attendees will create a book sample during the session and come away with a variety of easy-to-implement bookmaking project ideas that can be recreated in their classroom or school library in no time.
Dynamic Differentiation: Teaching With Texts Sets
Text Sets are powerful tools for developing critical readers at any grade level. By developing a list of texts from varying genres and readability levels around a singular theme, students begin to construct deep knowledge of a topic. In this workshop, attendees will learn important criteria for developing effective Text Sets and review the FIVE KEY CATEGORIES into which Text Sets can be most effectively arranged.
Bye-Bye, Boring Spelling. Hello, Wondrous Word Sorts!
Understanding spelling as a developmental process is critical to success in spelling growth for students. In this workshop, attendees will review the FIVE STAGES of spelling development with comprehensive techniques on how to assess their students’ current stage of development. Participants will leave with instant activities for use immediately upon return to the classroom to sharpen spelling knowledge through wondrous word sorts.
How Do We Learn to Read: Foundations of Reading Instruction
Workshop attendees will understand reading as a process that occurs in stages and builds upon prior experiences. They will understand the six components of early reading and learn ways to develop and integrate these essential components into an early learning curriculum. Materials, resources, and strategies to help build reading fluency will be shared and discussed.