Keynote Sessions

Look at literacy in a new way with an energetic and humorous view of critical considerations in designing a powerful literacy program at all grade levels.  Using shopping malls as an analogy, ten maxims of effective instruction are highlighted to support teachers in making literacy more brain compatible.  Each maxim focuses on key components of literacy that will serve as a springboard for maximizing the teaching-learning process.  Your teachers will laugh, cry and ponder as they learn how to enhance literacy and support learning in a flexible classroom environment.

Every day, struggling readers enter classrooms that can either promote or inhibit learning.  In the least effective classrooms, students are expected to fit within the confines of the curriculum (My job is to teach the way I'm told and your job is to learn the way I teach.).  In the most effective classrooms, the curriculum is adapted to embrace all children in an inclusive way (My job is to teach the way you learn and your job is to help me better understand your unique way of learning.).

Using the brain research and literacy process as a foundation, Mary will identify twenty powerful strategies designed to nurture each child's capabilities on a daily basis through instructional flexibility and differentiation.  Learn how to change the focus of your teaching from success in school to success in life, a never-ending and joyful process!

The recent explosion of information on the brain has provided a wonderful window into the learning process.  Combined with our extensive understanding of literacy development, this knowledge provides tremendous insight into how instruction can enhance or diminish learning.  This session focuses on creating an instructional environment designed to promote literacy by looking at the learning process through new eyes.  Using ten brains of learning as a springboard to change, Mary will describe important considerations for adapting instructional practices into a powerful tool to maximize learning and empower students by teaching them how to learn as a bridge to new learning.