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Excellence in Every Classroom

Audience:  Leaders and Teachers

Description:  In this professional development opportunity, participants will learn how to create the conditions for every teacher to reach highest levels of excellence in student achievement.  Through this interactive training, participants will discover the components of distinguished teachers and create their own system of supports that incorporate school-wide professional development and digital supports, teacher team collaboration strategies and protocols, and individualized teacher supports.  
  • The Hierarchy of Instructional Excellence:  The 'Excellence in Every Classroom' framework that helps teachers and leaders prioritize the conditions for learning so that teachers will be empowered to personalize their own learning.
  • The Excellence Support System:  This system of supports created by schools and leaders provides 24/7 professional learning, teacher team collaboration, and personalized interventions to help every teacher reach excellence.
  • Connection to Teacher Evaluation Instruments:  Leaders will review the T-TESS (TX), other state teacher evaluation instruments, as well as the Danielson Framework of Teacher Evaluation.  The purpose of this training is to give leaders strategies to help every teacher become proficient or distinguished in every indicator.
Excellence in Every Classroom can be presented in 1 or 2 day sessions.


Put the ESS in T-TESS

Audience:  Leaders 
Will T-TESS be another PDAS system or a powerful tool to ensure that all teachers grow into excellence?  In this training, leaders will learn about the pitfalls of overemphasizing evaluation while devaluing professional learning.  Additionally, participants will learn how to build their every own ESS, Excellence Support System which includes the following:
  • Focused and ongoing professional learning
  • 4 different ways to build collaboration into your school schedule
  • A structured calendar to ensure that leaders make the time to deliver all parts of the T-TESS requirements.
  • Strategies to empower teacher leadership


Growing Excellence through Student Engagement

Audience:  Leaders and Teachers
Time is the constant; how teachers use it is the variable.  Excellent teachers maximize instructional time while struggling teachers unintentionally waste it.   In this session, John will share strategies to create a "Learning Bell to Bell" mindset from his book, "The Leader's Guide to Excellence in Every Classroom"

Participants will gain practical tools to help every teacher optimize every minute of instruction by focusing on the following concepts:
  • Creating lessons that transform passive learning into active learning,
  • Making content relevant to the students' interests, background and experiences,
  • Developing an instructional delivery model which the specific purpose of transferring the responsibility of learning from teacher to students,
  • Ensuring that every minute of instruction results in active learning for all students.
 Additionally, participants will learn about an innovative lesson planning template (powered by Google) that solidifies the excellence mindset by giving leaders and teachers one tool that helps teachers plan for student engagement and helps leaders give prescriptive walkthrough feedback.


Coaching ALL Teachers to Excellence

Audience:  Leaders and Instructional Coaches

Student growth is dependent on teacher growth, and instructional coaches and instructional leaders work together to personalize their supports for every teacher. Based on John Wink's book, "A Leader's Guide to Excellence in Every Classroom" participants will learn how to help all teachers grow through differentiated leadership strategies that include the following steps:
  1. Identify each teacher's present level of proficiency based on the Hierarchy of Instructional Excellence.
  2. Create an Individualized Excellence Plan focused on growth in one specific level within the Hierarchy.
  3. Use the 3 forms of coaching feedback to help teachers move forward in their growth.
  4. Develop strong relationship between principal and coaches that provides consistency and alignment in both responses and supports for teachers.



Data Driven Excellence

Audience:  Leaders
Description:  Participants will learn how to turn Anthony Muhammad's quote, "Data is information, not condemnation" into actionable work.  In this session, learners will discover how to turn static test scores into the following growth goals:

  • Campus Growth Goals
  • Grade Level Growth Goals
  • Subject Level Growth Goals
  • Teacher Growth Goals
  • Student Growth Goals
Data is information not condemnation, and great organizations find unique ways to use data to drive instruction, responses to failure and progress monitoring.  In this training, participants will learn how to use data to transform their mindset from the focus on passing tests to guaranteeing growth in every learner.  To solidify their growth mindset about data, participants will learn how to use standardized data reports and benchmark data to develop growth goals for both teachers and students.  Furthermore, leaders will walk about with an action plan to help their teachers select relevant data with 4-6 reports that will help them isolate their areas for improvement by content, by class and by individual student.


From Rigor to Vigor

Audience:  Leaders and Teachers
Learning at high levels is dependent on two things, the teacher's content knowledge and expertise and his/her ability to transfer that knowledge and expertise to the students .  In this training, participants will learn how transform rigorous intentions into vigorous learning.   Participants will understand the importance of developing content knowledge and expertise and use it to inspire students to own their learning using the following skills that the very best teachers possess:

  • Vigorous Planning and Assessment
  • Instructional Strategies that lead to Student Empowerment
  • Questioning Strategies that pique Curiosity and deepen Understanding
  • Monitoring and Adjusting Instruction based on Student Mastery
Participants will learn how to deconstruct their essential skills from a vertical perspective and use that knowledge to transfer their knowledge and expertise to every student.


Interventions as Easy as 123

Audience:  Leaders and Teachers
Participants will learn the value of strengthening instruction as it is the first form and best kind of intervention.  Intervention begins with prevention and participants will learn how to plan for intervention when planning instruction.  In addition to planning for failure, participants will learn how to leverage collaboration as the first response in the campus' Response to Intervention (RtI) system.  

This training was a featured chapter (chapter 4) in Solution Tree's book, It's About Time: Planning Interventions and Extensions in the Elementary Classroom by Mike Mattos and Austin Buffum.





Transformational Leadership Training

Audience:  District, Campus and Teacher Leaders
Description:  Participants will learn the components of a transformational leadership and develop personal strategies to engage and then empower followers to transform the entire school.
  • The 4 Leadership Styles - Participants will learn about the 4 types of leaders and why Transformational Leadership is the only leadership style that will create a positive school culture and a powerful structure focused on teacher growth which guarantees student growth.
  • 3V Communication - Participants will learn the importance of developing the 3 Vs of communication:  Verbal, Visible, Virtual.  Additionally participants will learn how to leverage their personal organization to more effectively communicate with all stakeholders.
  • Situational Leadership Strategies - Using the research of Bass, participants will learn about the 4 types of followers and how leaders respond effectively to the four combinations of ability and will.
  • The Layers of Leadership - Transformational leaders know that their #1 priority is to build more leaders.  In this section, participants will learn how to build the Layers of Leadership which encompasses leaders from the teacher level, coach level, assistant principal/counselor level and principal level.
  • The Excellence in Leadership Cycle - Participants will learn how leaders accomplish their goals quickly through the use of expectations, learning, monitoring and accountability.




The Layers of Leadership

Audience:  District and Campus Leaders
Description:  Principals are not equipped to lead the entire comprehensive school program in today's school; therefore they must not only identify leaders but empower the leadership capacity of every individual throughout the school.  In this presentation, participants will learn the following concepts:
  • Building the Empowered Leadership Team
  • Creating the Campus Leadership Structure specific to the needs of the campus.  
  • Defining the Roles and Responsibilities needed to transform the campus
  • Providing Leadership Training for Teacher Leaders


Focus on Learning

Audience:  District and Campus Leadership Teams, Leaders and Teachers
Description:  A continuation of the collaborative culture presentation, participants will learn how to leverage a collaborative culture and develop school improvement initiatives that guarantee learning for all students.
  • Guarantee a Viable Curriculum in Every Classroom
  • Empower Teams to Align Instruction & Interventions
  • Design Rigorous Formative Assessments to Match Instruction
  • Develop Targeted & Prescriptive Interventions




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