Equity
November 17, 2021 4:30pm CST on Zoom
Culturally Responsive Morning Meetings
With Whitney Carpenter
Do you currently hold morning meetings within your classroom? Morning meetings are a great way to create a safe and accepting environment that is crucial for student success in the classroom. Take time to learn about how to cultivate a culturally responsive classroom community by holding morning meetings inside your classroom. Walk away with activities and meeting topics to implement immediately inside your very own classroom. Participate in morning meeting conversations that focus on accepting differences and that will create a classroom community that focuses on acceptance. Learn ways to dive in deeper with your morning meetings and make your students’ more aware of the world around them.
Objectives:
Participants will:
Identify what a culturally responsive classroom community looks like and why it is important in today’s classrooms.
Discuss and participate in morning meeting activities that will help create a culturally responsive classroom.
Understand the importance of conducting morning meetings that help build a community of acceptance and improve student communication.
Professional development hours are available.
March 2, 2022 6:00 PM CENTRAL TIME on ZOOM
The Culturally Responsive Teacher and Leader Standards
With Kelly Monson
March 2, 2022 6pm Central Time
In March 2021, Illinois adopted the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards (CRTL Standards). The eight broad standards were developed over time by a diverse working group from across the state representing all facets of education stakeholders. The team examined research-based practices that were designed to close the achievement gap and improve student outcomes of all students by engaging future educators in self-reflection, getting to know students and families and providing opportunities for student voice and choice.
Workshop Objectives:
Participants will:
learn about each of the Culturally Responsive Teacher and Leader standards,
explore resources that are available for optimizing a deeper understanding of each of the standards
share current classroom practices and develop new ways to address the standards
Following your registration, you will receive an email from EVENTSMART with a link to join the webinar.
Professional development hours are available.
Student Engagement, Teaching & Learning Practices
February 22, 2022 4:30 PM CENTRAL TIME on ZOOM
IMPLEMENTING SERVICE LEARNING IN THE K-12 CLASSROOM
February 22, 4:30 PM CENTRAL TIME
Service Learning opens the door of the classroom to the community. This mode of learning builds citizenship, and empathy as well as content area knowledge in areas of science, social studies, literacy and/or mathematics.
Explore ways to implement service learning in your classroom with Dr. Barbara O’Donnell, Director of Graduate Education, Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Workshop Objectives:
· Teachers will learn about the principles of Service Learning.
· Teachers will be able to distinguish between Service and Service Learning.
· Teachers will learn how to build productive relationships and activities outside of the classroom based on a community problem or need.
Following your registration, you will receive an email from EVENTSMART with a link to join the webinar.
Professional development hours are available.
March 22, 2022 4:30 PM CENTRAL TIME on ZOOM
THE NEW SOCIAL STUDIES
March 22, 4:30 PM CENTRAL TIME
Social Studies is evolving into the realm of inquiry, the study of themes, and the promotion of truth. Inquiry is moving into early elementary lessons. Teachers will need to know how to use primary sources, how to source an artifact, and how to research and find diverse perspectives and place all of those documents into a context.
Explore the tools and practices advanced by the new social studies standards with Dr. Barbara O’Donnell, Director of Graduate Education, Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Workshop Objectives:
1) Teachers will learn about the full inquiry process starting with building an essential or compelling question and supporting questions.
2) Teachers will use an analysis tool that will support student learning in the inquiry process.
3) Teachers will explore a full inquiry so that they can implement such a process with their students.
Following your registration, you will receive an email from EVENTSMART with a link to join the webinar.
Professional development hours are available.
April 12, 4:30 PM CENTRAL TIME on ZOOM
TEACHING THROUGH INQUIRY
April 12, 2022 4:30 PM CENTRAL TIME
No matter what the content area, inquiry is vital in engaging and making the classroom into a laboratory of ideas. Inquiry can be an integral part of your curriculum, as students learn to investigate the story behind the story in literacy, the science behind investigations in the sciences, the facts behind events in history, and the reasoning behind the mathematics they do.
Explore ways to teach multiple content areas through the use of inquiry in your classroom with Dr. Barbara O’Donnell, Director of Graduate Education, Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Workshop Objectives:
· Teachers will learn how to expand their curriculum in various subject areas so that inquiry is added into their activities.
· Teachers will explore how the study of context plays a large role in helping students understand the themes and content they are studying.
· Teachers will walk through a full-scale inquiry and see how it relates to learning strategies that encompass and integrate all content areas.
Following your registration, you will receive an email from EVENTSMART with a link to join the webinar.
Professional development hours are available.
January 25, 2022 4:30 PM CENTRAL TIME on ZOOM
FOSTERING CREATIVITY
January 25, 4:30 PM CENTRAL TIME
As students progress through the educational system, studies show that they lose the ability to “think outside the box,” to solve difficult problems, and to think critically. How can teachers weave creativity into their lessons? How can teachers promote original thought?
Explore ways to foster creativity with Dr. Barbara O’Donnell, Director of Graduate Education, Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Workshop Objectives:
· Teachers will identify the need to include such attributes of creativity, such as student voice, choice, and grit into their classroom activities.
· Teachers will provide activities that allow students to find and enhance their creative talents.
· Teachers will learn how to create activities that can address the needs of a diverse student population.
Following your registration, you will receive an email from EVENTSMART with a link to join the webinar.
Professional development hours are available.
Technology & Remote Learning
February 8, 2022 7:00 CENTRAL TIME on Zoom
INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM:
FREE SEL WEB TOOLS
February 8, 2022 7:00 CENTRAL TIME
This year has demonstrated how essential social and emotional learning is in the classroom, no matter if the learning space is physical, virtual, or hybrid. In this workshop, you will explore web tools that can be used not only to foster classroom community, but also to meet the Illinois SEL standards.
Explore social emotional learning web tools with Dr. Liz Sturm, Special Education Program Director, Lewis University.
Workshop Objectives:
· Teachers will explore web tools that align with Illinois Social and Emotional Learning Goals and Standards
· Teachers will create web-based SEL tools for their classrooms
Following your registration, you will receive an email from EVENTSMART with a link to join the webinar.
Professional development hours are available.
Social & Emotional Learning
Wednesday, September 22, 2021 at 4:30pm CDT Zoom
Creating a Mindful Classroom Climate
With Whitney Carpenter
Students everyday walk into our classroom and let the stressors of everyday life take over. Some students struggle to control their emotions and need extra help staying focused or learning to cope in a positive manner. Come spend some time learning how to implement mindfulness activities in your classroom to help students manage their stress levels more effectively and create a classroom climate focused on kindness. These activities will help reduce disruptive behaviors, which in turn will lead to more learning time. Research suggests that focusing only a few minutes a day on mindfulness practices can improve cognitive performance and help reduce stress. You will be participating in mindfulness activities that will help increase student focus and concentration and will be easy to take back and implement with your own students. Let’s spend time together creating a toolbox full of coping skills to help those students in need find ways to be successful while learning and creating an environment focused around kindness.
Objectives
Participants will:
Define what mindfulness is and why it is important to implement mindfulness inside the classroom.
Discuss and participate in activities that will help students cultivate self-regulation skills and create a positive classroom climate.
Identify mindfulness strategies that will reduce disruptive behaviors and increase learning time within the classroom.
Professional development hours are available.
December 1st, 2021 4:30pm CDT on Zoom
Let’s Get Gritty
With Whitney Carpenter
Let’s define the word Grit and spend some time understanding why this word is so important in classrooms today. Many teachers ask the question: how can I teach my students to persevere when the going gets tough? When students adopt a growth mindset, they view challenges as ways of progressing toward their desired outcomes. Teaching students to have a growth mindset in the classroom will help cultivate grit in students and help students see that failing at times only helps everyone grow and learn. Come spend time learning how to promote the students within your classroom to have a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. Take away several activities that will be easy to implement right away in your classroom to create a springboard for success. Learn how the focus on growth mindset can change the climate of your classroom and change the future for your students’ success throughout years to come.
Objectives:
Participants will:
Understand what grit is and how a teaching about growth mindset can help set students develop perseverance.
Discuss and participate in activities that will help your students change their mindsets.
Identify strategies that will change your classroom climate and create an environment that focuses on how to persevere during challenging learning situations.
Following your registration, you will receive an email from EVENTSMART with a link to join the webinar.
Professional development hours are available.
Scholarship in Teaching
Multiple dates on ZOOM
ASPIRING AUTHORS: WRITING FOR PUBLICATION
January 25, 6:00 PM Central Time
Aspiring authors are invited to attend the Center’s Professional Development Network Academies that focus on writing for publication in Voices for Educational Equity.
Workshop Description and Objectives
The online workshops will provide a forum for participants to discuss publication opportunities in Voices, as well as other journals, with editor in chief, Jerry Berberet; publisher, Jan Fitzsimmons and editorial board members, Erica R. Davila and Annie Baddoo.
Workshop objectives include:
· to explain the writing for publication process
· to suggest ways to begin to publish
· to explain the breadth of types of scholarly writing opportunities
· to share examples of well written published pieces of writing
· to suggest ways to begin to publish
Following your registration, you will receive an email from EVENTSMART with a link to join the webinar.
Professional development hours are available.