Texas ASCD Annual Conference

If this is your first Texas ASCD conference, please join former Texas ASCD President, Dr. Elizabeth Clark, on Sunday, October 30th, from 11:00 am - 12:0o pm, to learn more about our conference and Texas ASCD's commitment to the educators of Texas

Texas ASCD wants to thank our sponsors and corporate partners for their support.

Platinum Sponsors:

Compass Learning  compasslearning.com

Discovery Education discoveryeducation.com

Data Projections dataprojections.com

Silver Sponsors

Scientific Learning scilearn.com

Visit the exhibits, the place to find new ideas and instructional tools for today's educator.

Scroll to the bottom of this description for a link to the Exhibit Hall map.

This presentation addresses specific strategies for improving schools that are grounded in research and proven in practice.  Despite the overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of these practices, they do not represent the norm in North American schools.  This session will present proven strategies to improve student learning and the obstacles that must be overcome to implement those strategies.

Building on the foundations of the book, the Highly Engaged Classroom, Dr. Pickering will provide specific recommendations for research-based engagement strategies that can be integrated into traditional teaching as well as approaches that transform some aspects of traditional classrooms.  Further, she will describe characteristics of school cultures that lead to implementation of these strategies in a way that focuses teachers on common goals yet honor diversity in teaching styles.

Network with your colleagues and meet our exhibitors at a Welcome Reception / Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for all attendees on Sunday, Octobert 30th, 2011.

Visit the exhibits, the place to find new ideas and instructional tools for today's educator.

Scroll to the bottom of this description for a link to the Exhibit Hall map.

Continental Breakfast is available for all conference attendees.

This interactive learning environment is structured to provide you with facilitated hands-on practice with selected technology tools drawn from many conference presentations. You will actively engage in using these tools while supportive education professionals answer your teaching and technical needs. In addition, you will be invited to join an online community via Project Share that will connect you with teachers and administrators who are implementing these tools in teaching, learning and school activities. Plan to bring the technology tools learning back to your district by practicing, setting up your own ‘site', applying the learning, etc.

This interactive session models research-based, innovative instructional activities which actively engage all students in learning. Facilitators from Victoria ISD and UT Austin's Drama for Schools will share examples from their six year partnership. Participants will learn engaging arts-based instructional strategies which use creativity and imagination to differentiate instruction. The session will include examples from secondary and elementary classrooms and will discuss ways to build instructional capacity through a district-wide master trainer program.

San Antonio ISD began its journey to evaluate our mathematics Response to Intervention with a focus on instruction grounded in our core mathematics program. We'll share tools and techniques that we used to guide classroom instruction (grades 1

Sow Healthy: An Intergenerational Approach to Health and Education Often, seniors and at-risk youth share some of the same health and psycho-social challenges, including poor nutrition and reduced activity, a reduced sense of well-being, and isolation that can lead to physical health problems like obesity, diabetes and more. Sow Healthy was designed as a community partnership between a local health system, the school district, senior groups, Master Gardeners organization and other adjacent non-profits in the community to engage senior and kids in grades 4-5 in a highly-empowering program that connects them with each other, with nature, with the source of their food while encouraging knowledge transfer and new skills development for all.

Save Money! Save Time! CTB/McGraw-Hill Announces LAS Links Online! CTB/McGraw-Hill has again broken new ground! LAS Links Online is a fully TEA approved online language proficiency assessment where students put their headsets on and take the entire test! This will save districts time and money as they struggle to meet the state required 20 day deadline. Just as the LAS was the first test to address language proficiency testing in the 1970's, after Lau v. Nichols, LAS Links Online is the first, and only, language proficiency test to be fully online! Come find out how you can be part of this groundbreaking phenomenon!

Do you need valuable feedback regarding your efforts to improve learning for all students? Do you need to equip yourself with the knowledge and skills necessary to objectively evaluate your curriculum management and make better decisions in your district? The curriculum management audit is a structured approach to organizational analysis, policy direction, curriculum equity and quality, and system use of feedback. In addition, audit training or 50 Ways training can build the capacity of district leaders to examine internal systems and curriculum/instruction/assessment issues.

Participate in a hands-on Shared Inquiry discussion of a complex text and learn how to actively engage even your most reluctant students. The activities will focus on critical thinking during the reading-discussion-writing cycle. Each participant will leave with a lesson plan and story that will allow them to take Shared Inquiry back to their students.

Are you looking to create your own online PD? Are you trying to reach out to teachers in more creative and innovative ways? Building successful Online Professional Development hinges on three factors. Learn how to build effective online modules easily, systemically and at little to no cost! Real examples, easy templates and real results included.

Science class is just not science class without hands on activities.  Getting “down and dirty” in the pursuit of knowledge can bring even the most reluctant student to the table.  Using digital media in conjunction with hands-on activities can really bring your lessons alive your and computer simulations bring experiences not otherwise available to your students.  This session will show you the power of using simulations and digital media to either introduce or reinforce the hands-on experience.  Tying it all together in a nice, neat package that all students will want to unwrap!    

Come take part in small group discussions about current issues in education.  The topics will be determined at the time of the conference to reflect timely issues.

Implementation of the methodology introduced in this workshop has been proven to multiply the time principals spend in classrooms by 500%, reduce their weekly work load by 20 hours, AND generate a corresponding rise in student achievement. This workshop teaches participants management strategies that will free them from front office "administrivia”, empower their staff, and allow them to spend the majority of their time as instructional leaders.

UT Elementary School is a public charter formed in 2003 with the intent of demonstrating research-based best practices produced at the University of Texas. Our mission is to showcase these practices and share them with the educational community. The educators at the school wrote a book detailing the instructional methods used at the school. This book discusses two specific teaching methods that have worked very well on our campus as well as our partner campuses in Austin ISD

Working with adult educators requires engaging the brain and heart. Learn four strategies for capturing their attention, four strategies for processing new information, how to use the nested process to plan your professional learning sessions, whether they are F2F or virtual and the four phases of adult learning. 

Connect, lead and influence is the mantra for the Curriculum Leadership Academy (CLA) that concentrates on enhancing curriculum leaders' knowledge and skills. The yearlong program provides participants with systemic strategies and practical application skills to lead their districts and schools to high performance in curriculum and instruction. Facilitated by prominent curriculum leaders in the field, participants become recognized Texas CLA Fellows after completing an authentic assessment of their learning by a committee of curriculum leaders.

Search Institute's research explains that there are 40 assets that kids need to be successful, yet many children grow up with great voids.  As such, it is up to schools to help instill these skill sets in our kids.  These basic building blocks serve as the foundation for career and college readiness.  Come find out how two principals are changing their school climate to focus on readying students for the 21st century using this framework.

This is an interactive session where participants have the opportunity to view secondary math instruction and discuss ways to elevate lessons to make them more engaging and meaningful to students. Participants will discover and discuss ways to use questioning strategies, rigor, discourse and higher-level thinking to raise the level of student learning.

Come take part in small group discussions about current issues in education.  The topics will be determined at the time of the conference to reflect timely issues.

From West Point to HSBC (the largest bank in the world), one of the most valued skills is to understand different cultural perspectives and points of view.  If we want our students to be competitive in the global economy, we must challenge them to co-create and present to a worldwide authentic audience.  Any classroom can be organized to be a global communications center.  We can design more rigorous and motivating assignments that engage our stuents in global communications.  Expand boundaries of potential and give your students courage to engage with the world.

Meet the Texas ASCD President, Dr. Janis Jordan, at a reception in honor of the President and all Texas ASCD members.

Visit the exhibits, the place to find new ideas and instructional tools for today's educator.

Scroll to the bottom of this description for a link to the Exhibit Hall map.

Continental Breakfast is available for all conference attendees.

This session focuses on elements of a book trailer - planning through finished clips including teacher reflections of the process.  As a culminating activity to literature studies, students completed book trailers through prewriting and storyboarding using critical reading, writing and thinking skills.  Through collaborative inquiry each group worked through the elements they wanted to share and how the sharing would occur. Student products from elementary, middle, and high school will be shared.

Explore how one district is using a Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment (CIA) Process to help guarantee that administrators are focusing on what is most important in enhancing student achievement. Learn how to improve your data disaggregation process, how to set meaningful goals, and benchmark in an effective way. Also examined will be effective collaboration techniques, ways to ensure implementation of district initiatives, and how to make better use of benchmark results to truly impact student performance. Examples of the CIA Rubric and other forms used in the process will be provided.

After attending the Institute on Instructional Rounds at Harvard University, a team from C-FB implemented the Rounds process in the district during the 2010-2011 school-year. A common vocabulary and set of principles guide the Rounds work, such as description before analysis, analysis before prediction, and prediction before evaluation. The Rounds process has resulted in positive comments such as, "This is the best instructional work we have ever done!” As stated in the book Instructional Rounds in Education by City, Elmore, Fiarman & Teitel, "Instructional rounds is a means of moving education from a collection of more or less independent practitioners nested in a bureaucratic structure to a profession, with a shared set of practices, a body of collective knowledge, and a set of mutual commitments that define professional accountability.”

Building a relationship with all students is the key to achieving success at any level of education. Participants will experience several methods and strategies to incorporate a student's culture, deepen the personal relationship of student/teacher, and teach the content's essential knowledge and skills in the classroom. Developing these methods and strategies, based on academic literature on Latino students, are a priority to meet the needs of the growing Latino population.

Leander ISD strives to find a campus support model that will improve instruction as well as transform school culture. Beginning with an Instructional Coaching pilot on one campus in 2007, LISD implemented the model on all 23 elementary campuses over a four-year period. Come hear our lead instructional coach, a campus principal and district administration share the journey that we've taken, the positive changes we've seen and the goals we have for the future.

Product Oriented Education (POE) is an instructional model that is designed to engage and involve students in the learning process as producers of knowledge, not just the typical consumers of a teacher directed lesson. This approach usually involves a problem based learning situation where students resolve a problem and/ or produce a product. The workshop will fully explain POE and describe how to develop the lessons necessary for implementation.

Accurate information regarding the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness is essential to all stakeholders. In this session, participants will learn about free resources available to inform themselves and the entire school community regarding the new accountability system. Participants will leave with accurate, Web-based information for educators, administrators, parents, and students.

Creativity in Every Classroom: This tenet is the key to a thinking curriculum for tomorrow's workforce. Discover how theories by change agents Daniel Pink and Sir Ken Robinson support the teaching of creative skills in building a thinking curriculum for K-12 and higher education. 

Curriculum leaders are presented with a wonderful opportunity to leverage the new state assessment system to maximize learning for students. In this session, participants will receive the most current information about the assessment, examine tools for leading campuses and districts through the transition process, and explore ways to review district curriculum, instruction, and assessment systems to meet new demands. 

Today's interactive technology can now provide teachers with the tools to make personalized learning a part of every student's school experience.This session will focus on practical strategies for using technology to infuse enrichment experiences into any and all curricular areas across all grade levels.  A description of assessment procedures that include factors such as student interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression as well as comprehension levels will be described.  Each student receives an individual learning profile.  The profile is used by a one-of-a-kind search engine that matches information gained from the profiles with a vast array of resources.  These resources are multiply taged by age/grade levels, standards, and the factors listed above.  Examples of how this highly interactive and differentiated instruction has been used to raise student achievement will be presented.  The research that will be reported has shown that high engagement improves achievement.

This presentation describes ways to differentiate and provide a higher quality of instruction for students through the use of mastery learning instructional strategies.  It focuses on the practical issues involved in the classroom application of mastery learning and describes ways to adapt these procedures to personal teaching styles, specific classroom situations, and the needs of particular students.  The goal is to provide participants with a clear understanding of the theory and practice of mastery learning so that they can begin using these strategies efficiently and effectively to help more of their students learn excellently.

Presenters will describe the “best of breed” in school improvement and support at the district and campus level. Planning guides for district use to ensure that all school systems are focused on the new accountability challenges will be discussed. The latest information on a number of statewide activities, such as curriculum, professional development, assessment, textbooks and materials, Project Share, Educator Initiatives and other timely information will be provided.

Student achievement is the bottom line measure of our work. Whether you are directing learning at the classroom, school, or district level, you will find insights in this session to guide your planning and facilitation. You will examine the definition of student achievement that drives your work, identify student and teacher actions that produce achievement, assess how teacher to teacher relationships impact students and consider the leadership actions that support this learning process. Strategies for promoting professional learning communities will be included.

This presentation describes the good, the bad, and the ugly of grading and reporting policies and practices.  Stressing the importance of fairness and honesty in grading, a variety of ways to report student learning progress to parents and the community are discussed, including report cards, alternative formats for parent conferences, newsletters, phone calls, and other reporting tools.  Designing new reporting structures that better communicate and involve parents in student's learning will be highlighted, along with policies and practices that should be avoided due to their negative consequences for students, teachers and schools.

Did you bring a group of educators from your district/school?  If so, stay after the last general session on Tuesday to discuss what new information/ideas you learned during the week and what you should bring back to your school or district.  The Grand Ballroom will be available on Tuesday, November 1st from 12:15 - 1:15 PM for planning and reflecting.