ShiftinEdu

Learning readiness is distinctly different from school readiness. A child is ready to learn when they are cognitively organized, physically calm, and socially connected. Heidi will explain the neurology behind learning readiness along with easy-to-implement, age-appropriate strategies to ready your students for learning.

It is typically easier to discuss a child’s academic issues than behavioral/performance issues with parents. When we talk about a child’s behaviors/choices/social skills, oftentimes the conversation can become contentious or unproductive. In this session, Heidi will provide a clear methodology and helpful tools to discuss student performance issues with parents. You will leave this session confident in your ability to discuss all aspects of a child’s classroom abilities.

Discover the innovative academic model of the United States Performance Academy (USPA), designed to meet elite student-athletes where they are, allowing them to excel in both academics and athletics. This workshop highlights USPA’s personalized, flexible approach, where learning goes with the students, offering more one-on-one time with educators than traditional schools. How can this be?! Using USPA's synchronous/asynchronous hybrid approach to education as the case study, participants will be challenged to think about community building in the next generation of schools.

Based on a chapter of my book, Storytelling With Purpose: Digital Projects to Ignite Student Curiosity (ISTE, 2024), this session helps educators in every subject area solve the challenges of AI and low student engagement with authentic learning projects. Participants will see case studies and sample lessons and begin redesigning an assessment of their own.

Participants will learn about the Project Approach and discover how it is implemented in a high-impact, standards-based, interdisciplinary curriculum with students in grades 1-4. Presenters will share examples of lessons that harness student curiosity using inquiry and experience. They’ll share strategies for creating a classroom culture of learning from one another. Finally, presenters will guide participants to brainstorm a project topic and generate a plan for teaching an in-depth investigation by moving through the phases of the Project Approach.

Participants will learn about the Project Approach and discover how it is implemented in a high-impact, standards-based, interdisciplinary curriculum with students in grades 1-4. Presenters will share examples of lessons that harness student curiosity using inquiry and experience. They’ll share strategies for creating a classroom culture of learning from one another. Finally, presenters will guide participants to brainstorm a project topic and generate a plan for teaching an in-depth investigation by moving through the phases of the Project Approach.

This session will explore essential language learning principles and show how to apply them in the classroom to boost language acquisition. Using examples and interactive activities, we will investigate strategies for encouraging language development in individual and group settings. We will also cover techniques such as effectively utilizing teachable moments and methods aimed at increasing background knowledge, as well as teaching vocabulary through books, games, and music

The following statements are all true:
-each child’s motor development is unique to them
-there are developmental norms for every motor skill
-the CDC recently revised the developmental milestone norms
-in the US, we push the developmental limits of most motor skills
In this session, Heidi provides guidance and parameters on how to manage fine motor development that will help ensure optimum written expression in your students. Every school chooses a handwriting curriculum to best meet the needs of their children. Heidi discusses the pros and cons of commonly used curricula and explores the relevance of print, cursive, keyboarding, and talk-to-text.