P-20 Education/Schools Workshops Listing "aha! Process' work has significantly impacted how our staff explores ways to move every child toward success. Knowing the particular "hidden rules" of each socio-economic group leads to greater understanding for teachers and affords them the opportunity to apply this knowledge in the classroom." Wendy Cohen, Principal Yavapai Elementary School Scottsdale, Arizona A Full Range of Educational Choices What are your goals and needs? aha! Process offers a wide range of more than 100 workshops, academic coaching, and consulting for educators in order to help you become the best school possible. From highly focused and targeted programs to the school- or district-wide Payne School Improvement Model, you now have a partner in educational achievement. We believe in collaboration. To that end, we design our workshops and seminars to be highly interactive, with lots of chances for you to ask questions and give feedback. The presenters are available for one-on-one attention during the event. After the event, we are available for consultations to further support you in your work. Cost varies according to presenter selected. Our cadre of consultants represents diverse backgrounds and areas of specialization, but all are fully qualified to share this life-changing material with your audience. To receive additional information about any of our programs, please feel free to contact us at (800) 424-9484, or use our Contact Us page. For schedule, locations, and pre-registration visit our Training Dates page. Training Workshops A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Day One) Description: Designed to help you connect to your students. How does poverty impact learning, work habits, or decision making? The reality of living in poverty brings out a survival mentality and turns attention away from opportunities taken for granted by people in middle and upper class. If you work with people in poverty, better understanding how different their world is from yours will be invaluable. Most teachers today come from middle class backgrounds. In an educational setting, economic class differences create conflict and challenges for both teachers and students alike. Designed for educators at all levels, but helpful to counselors, administrators, and support staff as well, this seminar provides practical, real-world support and guidance for overcoming barriers and helping others succeed. Designed for elementary and secondary schools of any size. What audiences learn: Impact of economic class differences on communication, interactions, and expectations Symptoms of generational poverty and how they differ from situational poverty Poverty-related behaviors and mindsets that affect learning Identification of the resources and strengths of any student Tips, tools, and intervention strategies proven to increase your effectiveness “Hidden rules” or social cues that differ greatly between the classes   When you book A Framework for Understanding Poverty workshop, we are offering the option to purchase an online inventory that surveys your staff in order to customize the program for your school’s and your teachers’ specific needs. Click here to see a sample survey. Available as a workshop at your school, or check our training dates for seminars with this title. Also available: Trainer certification A second day of training, titled Research-Based Strategies, is an ideal combination Hidden rules material adapted as a 90-minute standalone workshop Keynote address containing portions of this seminar As the first day of Ruby Payne’s two-day workshop (see schedule on website) Length: One-day or two day workshop, overview, keynote, breakout session Prerequisite: None Option: College credits   Begin the booking process  Link: #framework Research-Based Strategies for Students in Poverty and Low-Performing Schools Description: Research-Based Strategies provides educators with hands-on techniques that help them narrow and then eliminate the achievement gap for all students, but especially under-resourced students. Reduce your planning and response time and improve your effectiveness. Develop more immediate, reliable intervention strategies. Address students' challenges before they become overwhelming. We have merged many of the concepts from our titles Understanding Learning and Learning Structures into this totally updated program. This seminar provides strategies that can be readily implemented and integrated into any curriculum or program and will raise student achievement. In this redesign, you will find: 50+ strategies, their explanations, and relevant research A chart of observed student behaviors Extensive bibliographic references A "menu" of strategies that can be used to meet the needs of today’s under-resourced learners New strategies categorized by academic, behavior, or community-based concern or challenge Prerequisite: None Note: Available as well as a workshop at your school in half-day to two-day options. Contact aha! Process for more details, or call (800) 424-9484.   Start the booking process Link: #rbs Assessment Levels of Questions for Student Success Description: Help your students feel confident and succeed on state assessments. This workshop gives you a number of tools and strategies that will help you: Learn specific strategies that target support for student success based on the type of assessment item(s). Save time and energy in planning lessons and creating assessments. Target instruction at the level indicated by the state assessment. Maximize your time to practice identifying and writing questions at the level indicated by the state assessment. Gain the ability to compare assessment levels of questions and Bloom’s levels of questions. Strategies (e.g., vocabulary sketching, plan and label for problem solving, mental models, and step sheets) that correlate with the levels of questions will be modeled. Participants will identify the areas of weakness based on state standards assessed by the state assessment. Based on the areas of greatest need, participants will create a plan to implement strategies for student success. Length: One day Prerequisite: None Audience: Teachers and administrators, grades 1–12 Option: Half or whole day   Start the booking process Link: #questions_studentsuccess Tucker Signing for Early Childhood Reading Description: The first component of this workshop will include discussion of the benefits of American Sign Language, practice of signs for classroom words such as please, eat, drink, thank you, stop, sit down, good boy, good girl, etc., and signing words in children’s songs. The second workshop component will focus on Reading by Age 5, which provides a method so students can decode words easily, accurately—and fast! Using a system of 44 hand signs that prompt associations between letters or word "chunks" and their sounds, readers see the letter(s), make a sign, and say the sound at the same time. This multisensory approach works wonders with students who struggle with regular reading programs. The workshop will include: A thorough review of the signs Discussion of how the strategy can be incorporated into programs that are in use in the district or by the organization Tips for successful implementation of the strategy Practice sessions for participants Discussions of non-phonetically spelled words and words with “tricky parts” A live demonstration of the strategy with struggling readers Length: One day Prerequisite: None   Start the booking process Link: #tucker_childhood Vocabulary and Mental Model Development for Preschool Description: Participants in this workshop will learn an essential strategy for closing the learning gap between low SES and middle-income students. Participants will develop strategies for vocabulary development that can be implemented immediately and efficiently. Participants will learn how to talk to students about acceptable and unacceptable language without eroding relationships. Topics in the workshop will include: Vocabulary Creating Word Awareness Sketching Vocabulary Teaching Vocabulary Generatively Mental Model Development for Organization Spatial Skills Discipline Math Mr. Base Ten (Place Value) Operations Formal Register Length: One day Prerequisite: None   Start the booking process Link: #vocab_mm_preschool Language Development and Relationship Building with Parents and Students Description: This workshop will provide participants with a roadmap for helping students develop thinking skills and intrinsic motivation. Participants will also develop learning experiences that can be used immediately. The workshop components provide an outline of the essential components of each day of a pre-school program. Participants will gain an understanding of meaningful mediation and the types of experiences that develop cognitive skills, as well as how to investigate the essential components of mutually beneficial relationships and learn strategies for building these with students and parents. Participants will learn to use the adult voice, conduct conferences with parents, and implement strategies that demonstrate insistence, high expectations, and support for students and parents. Topics will include: Relationship Building Readiness Skills Discipline Making Choices Impulsivity Control Learning Hidden Rules Motivation Future Stories The Results of Effort Planning Skills Observation Skills Organizing Space Keeping Time Sorting Skills Procedures/Procedural Self-Talk Length: One day Prerequisite: None   Start the booking process Link: #lang_dev_rel_build Under-Resourced Learners Description: This workshop provides immediately useful interventions, best practices, and methods to help your deeply struggling, under-resourced students. Strategies include processes to follow student performance and address AYP, quick checklists for assessing student resources, specific content interventions related to language arts, and more. From understanding today’s students to designing specific interventions that work, this workshop provides a broad base of approaches for your immediate use in today’s classroom. This workshop provides immediately useful strategies such as: six-step process to follow each student’s performance and address AYP strategies to cultivate relational learning in your classroom or building checklists for quickly assessing student resources how to create interventions specific content interventions related to reading, vocabulary, and mental models in reading/writing checklists for calibrating student assignments Length: One Day or Two Half-Days, overview, keynote, breakout) Prerequisite: None. Familiarity with Dr. Payne’s original work, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, is helpful but not required. Audience: K-12 teachers and administrators   Begin the booking process  Link: #under-resourced Raising Achievement with 9 Systemic Processes Description: This is a hands-on workshop where you will be able to walk into your classroom the following day with new, effective tools to use. Learn the nine teacher-friendly processes that are designed to raise student achievement. Simpler processes are key to this collegial model that is designed to take less time and yield strong results. Using the book, Research Based Strategies and the workbook 9 Systemic Processes to Raise Achievement, our presenters will walk clients through a model that creates sustainable excellence. Especially excellent for low performing schools, schools with demographic shifts, schools with students from poverty, and schools struggling to meet AYP with specific subgroups. Benefits of this workshop: Gives structure for embedding concepts and strategies from Ruby Payne’s work Consistently raises test scores and helps schools meet AYP Embeds proven instructional methods into the curriculum and classroom Helps you master assessment, data analysis, and testing to raise achievement Builds relationships with students based on mutual understanding Shifts the dialog toward instruction and shared responsibility Creates a culture of excellence, collaboration, and sustainable achievement Length: One-day, half-day, overview Prerequisite: None Audience: K-12 teachers and administrators Option: Academic coaching for addressing student achievement school-wide or by content area is available   Begin the booking process  Link: #raise_achievement Application of Learning Strategies (Day Three) Description: Additional classroom strategies for developing cognition An extension of Research-Based Strategies using the workbook Putting the Pieces Together, this seminar explores additional classroom strategies to build student cognition and provides ideas for moving students from the concrete to the abstract. While concepts shared are not content-based, the application of strategies focusing on specific subject areas is explored. At the secondary level, the seminar is content specific and includes mental models appropriate for the discipline. This seminar is designed for elementary level educators and core subject secondary level educators. Also available: Content-based secondary offerings including science, social studies, English, and math Academic coaching at your site after participation in the workshop Length: One day or Two Half-days Prerequisite: Framework (Day One) or Under-Resourced Learners and Research-Based Strategies (Day Two) seminars Audience: Teachers Option: College credits available   Begin the booking process  Link: #application_learning_structures Working with Parents Description: Understanding the mindsets of different economic classes can help teachers become far more effective in communicating with the parents of their students. This offers easy-to-understand, quick, and concise information on: Understanding and relating to parents from different economic backgrounds Working with parents from poverty, parents from wealth, and overprotective parents Improving relationships with parents through communication and conflict-resolution strategies Conferencing with parents – a simple, easy form Using case studies to further enhance understanding Involving parents from various backgrounds Using simple interventions that will build student success Length: One day Prerequisite: Must purchase Working with Parents book Audience: Teachers Option: Can be offered as a half day as well   Begin the booking process  Link: #working_with_parents Application of Learning Strategies for Elementary Description: An extension of Research-Based Strategies using the workbook Putting the Pieces Together. Length: One day or Two Half-days Prerequisite: Framework (Day One) or Under-Resourced Learners and Research-Based Strategies (Day Two) seminars Audience: Teachers Option: College credits available   Begin the booking process  Link: #application_learning_structures_elem Application of Learning Strategies for Secondary English Description: This seminar is an extension of Research-Based Strategies designed for secondary level educators in English. We work directly with teachers on the importance of embedding mental models into instruction to improve student learning. Additional classroom strategies are introduced, as well as ideas to move students from the concrete to the abstract. There is an emphasis on the application of strategies specific to the English curriculum. Length: One day Prerequisite: A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Day One) or Under-Resourced Learners and Research-Based Strategies (Day Two) Audience: Secondary English/Language Arts teachers   Begin the booking process  Link: #application_english Application of Learning Strategies for Secondary Math Description: This seminar is an extension of Research-Based Strategies designed for secondary level educators in math. Additional classroom techniques are introduced, with the emphasis on strategies for math courses up to and including Algebra I. Length: One day Prerequisite: A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Day One) or Under-Resourced Learners and Research-Based Strategies (Day Two) Audience: Secondary Math teachers   Begin the booking process  Link: #application_math Application of Learning Strategies for Secondary Science Description: This seminar is an extension of Research-Based Strategies (Day Two) designed for secondary level educators in science. Additional classroom tools are introduced, as well as ideas to move students from the concrete to the abstract. There is an emphasis on the application of techniques specific to the science curriculum. Length: One day Prerequisite: A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Day One) or Under-Resourced Learners and Research-Based Strategies (Day Two) Audience: Secondary Science teachers   Begin the booking process  Link: #application_science Application of Learning Strategies for Secondary Social Studies Description: This seminar is an extension of Research-Based Strategies (Day Two) designed for secondary level educators in social studies. Additional classroom techniques are introduced, as well as ideas to move students from the concrete to the abstract. There is an emphasis on the application of strategies specific to the social studies curriculum. Length: One day Prerequisite: A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Day One) or Under-Resourced Learners and Research-Based Strategies (Day Two) Audience: Secondary Social Studies teachers   Begin the booking process  Link: #application_socialstudies Engage and Graduate Your Secondary Students: Preventing Dropouts Description: Raise your graduation rate! Learn strategies to engage students and graduate them. These strategies help you work with students to create sustainable interventions that will help them attain their goals and lead them to graduation. This workshop offers just-in-time interventions for middle schoolers, freshmen, and sophomores who start disengaging and helps juniors and seniors get back on track. Join us for this two-day workshop for educators working with grades 7–12 who want to design sustainable programs for student success with special emphasis on under-resourced learners. This innovative approach shows you how to achieve success and features the following strategies and topics: Strategies and topics: Cost of dropouts Causes and characteristics affecting decreased student achievement/retention Updated statistics and research Content availability Relational learning Instructional strategies Future story Generation Y characteristics Immigrant student issues Emotional resources and resiliency Bonding and bridging capital School-wide processes to monitor student learning   When you book a Engage and Graduate Your Secondary Students: Preventing Dropouts workshop, why not customize the program to your organizations specific needs by purchasing the Student Engagement Survey? This inventory measures students' perceptions of the practices, culture, and relationships in the building. These results can be used to target needs identified by the key stakeholders, the students themselves. Click here for more information. Register today Available as a workshop at your school, or check our training dates for seminars with this title. Length: One to Two days Prerequisite: None Audience: Educators in grades 7–12 who are involved in or are responsible for school improvement plans.   Begin the booking process  Link: #prevent_dropouts Meeting AYP with 6 Simple Processes Description: In today’s world of accountability, teachers and administrators need simpler processes that give a payoff in student achievement! This workshop will provide you with six systemic processes to do this. You will learn teacher-friendly strategies to disaggregate data and determine their impact on AYP. Quick and highly collaborative curriculum alignment and pacing techniques will be taught, along with alternatives to monitor students' progress throughout the year. Included in this progress monitoring are teacher-developed assessments by grading period so that students who are unsuccessful are identified immediately and interventions can be made at that time. High-quality instruction and specific systemic interventions that can be adapted for any campus are also offered. Finally, you are provided a strategy to establish a plan to embed these processes. You will learn: Teacher-friendly strategies to disaggregate data and determine their impact on AYP Quick and highly collaborative curriculum alignment and pacing techniques Alternatives to monitor students’ progress throughout the year Teacher-developed assessments by grading period Specific systemic interventions that can be adapted for any campus A strategy to establish a plan to embed these processes Strategies for working with staff using this collegial model Step-by-step directions for implementation Sample materials that may be reproduced without cost or copyright violation are included. Come as an individual, or better yet, bring your grade level, department, or campus vertical team, along with a campus administrator! With decreased funding and increased federal and state demands on your already limited time, this workshop gives you everything you need to raise your students’ scores—easily, quickly, and effectively. Materials requirement: Meeting Standards and Raising Test Scores training manual Also available: Academic coaching at your site after participation in the workshop Length: One day Prerequisite: None. Framework (Day One) and Learning Structures (Day Two) workshops are recommended, but not required Audience: Designed for elementary and secondary educators and administrators.   Begin the booking process  Link: #meeting_standards Understanding and Engaging Under-Resourced College Students Description: Strengthening college students’ success A deeper understanding of the challenges—and strengths—that students from poverty bring to college will help faculty, staff, and administration create the conditions that make success achievable, not merely accessible. Based on the book by the same title, this workshop addresses the needs of the under-resourced college student and provides a wealth of strategies for postsecondary education. Based in part on Dr. Ruby Payne’s A Framework for Understanding Poverty and Phil DeVol and Teri Dreussi Smith’s collaboration with Payne in Bridges Out of Poverty, this workshop provides practical solutions and innovative possibilities for those working with under-resourced college students. This professional development moves faculty and staff through a transformational process by first building understanding of the "what and why" of under-resourced college students, then by developing the “how-to” teaching and program design strategies to help students succeed. Participants will learn to: Use teaching strategies to build cognitive ability Develop mental models in their discipline to move students from concrete learning to the abstract thinking and planning required in college Improve retention by building relationships of mutual trust and respect Work with under-resourced students to tap their knowledge and improve institutional policy and procedures Develop high-impact community engagement strategies Redesign programs to better serve students in poverty   When you book a Understanding and Engaging Under-Resourced College Students workshop, why not customize the program to your organizations specific needs by purchasing the Understanding and Engaging Under-Resourced College Students Campus Assessment Survey for Faculty, Administrators, and Support Staff? This inventory helps colleges and universities take an in-depth look at the influences of economic class on teaching and learning in higher education. Click here for more information. Also available: Keynote address containing portions of this workshop Length: One-day, keynotes, breakout, overview Prerequisite: None Audience: Post secondary faculty and staff   Begin the booking process  Link: #college_students New Curriculum for Under-Resourced College Students Investigations Into Economic Class in America Description: Increase retention and success for first-generation, low-income college students Accelerate learning using research-based strategies specific to learners’ needs Engage students in campus and in life Raise the consciousness of students, faculty, and staff about one of the most influential but least addressed barriers to educational achievement—the impact of poverty Consider the impact of economic class on under-resourced college students. In this workshop you will explore materials and strategies that bridge the gap between the students who stand to gain the most from a college education and your institution. Objectives—You will learn how to: Facilitate a course curriculum designed to motivate change, expand personal choice and responsibility, and increase access to power Use mental models to help students conceptualize large amounts of abstract information Respond to students in a way that cultivates mutually respectful relationships across class lines Use mediation to develop abstract thinking and metacognition Build your students’ language skills Foster social capital for long-term student support Establish actionable ties with institutional and community resources to develop the program and support your students   Begin the booking process  Link: #investigations Response to Intervention Description: Learn about the what, the why, and the how of response to intervention (RtI) and the under-resourced learner. This session will cover student intervention teams, the rationale behind the RtI mandate, and the intervention process for student achievement. We will focus on the three tiers of intervention and the progress monitoring of student growth. All of the above are taught in conjunction with the book Research-Based Strategies by Ruby K. Payne. Length: One Day or Two Half-days, breakout, consulting Prerequisite: None Audience: Elementary and secondary educators and administrators   Begin the booking process  Link: #response_intervention The R Rules: A Guide for Teens Facilitator Workshop Description: How do you plan on getting to college? "By car." This session will provide an overview of The R Rules, a curriculum for teens based on the work of Ruby K. Payne, PhD. Resources allow choices. One resource or the lack of it can mean the difference in completing a task, reaching a goal or achieving a dream. The R Rules is an asset model full of information, tools and activities for exploring resources, rules, environments and systems. Students increase awareness, options and skills as they identify and use resources to develop plans and reach the future pictures they create. Length: Two to Three Days Prerequisite: A foundation in concepts from A Framework for Understanding Poverty or Bridges Out of Poverty is strongly recommended. Audience: Secondary teachers of Life Skills, Consumer or Business classes, Freshman Advisory, Secondary counselors or administrators. Also ideal for Framework or Bridges Certified Trainers. Presenter/Author: Betti Souther Options: A One-Day Kick-off for Teens is also available. Ongoing academic coaching is available from our aha! consultants.   Begin the booking process  Link: #rrules Collaboration For Kids: Early Intervention Tools for Schools and Communities Description: This workshop and book describe a simple, straightforward, interactive process for addressing, early in a child’s life, problems that negatively impact education—a process that utilizes the inner strengths of the child and family members. Through the Collaboration for Kids (CFK) training, you will learn a new structure for collaborating with and reaching out to children and families as early as possible in a child’s life. It is new team collaboration in its purest form. Focus is placed on the child who is "unavailable to learn" due to issues outside of school. Emphasis is on the child who is in need of Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions. Positive, proven, long-term changes are the result when this structure is put into place. Some benefits of the CFK initiative: Reduce truancy Improve classroom behavior Diminish juvenile crime Stabilize families Increase academic success Length: The one-day CFK workshop offers an overview of the CFK initiative process, the concepts, the research, the procedures, RtI use, and strategies for meeting success. The two-day CFK training offers all of the day one information and materials, as well as CFK team building, start-up policies and procedures, RtI uses, practice cases, and the “how-to” information involved in personalizing and building your own CFK process. Prerequisite: none Audience: Schools and school boards, community social service agencies, community mental health agencies, judges and juvenile justice agencies, county boards of supervisors, teacher training institutions, community action organizations, land grant cooperative extension agencies, health departments, etc. Presenter/Author: Heatherly W. Conway, Ed.D. Options: Consulting also available   Begin the booking process  Link: #collaboration Conflict Management presented by Dr. Bill Sommers Description: Administrators and teacher leaders in schools say that conflict is increasing in many areas of their professional lives with students, colleagues, and community members. Conflict can occur over change, power, scarcity, diversity, and many other issues. Unresolved conflict can lead to physical and/or emotional violence. This course is designed to teach processes and skills to effectively deal with conflict, especially for people in supervisory roles. These strategies can be used by administrators for school leadership and management, facilitating committee work, and for short- or long-term planning. This course will focus on dealing with unresolved conflict, day-to-day conflict management, how to deal with change, and power issues. Audience: Administrators, principals, central office, teacher leaders, or anyone trying to reduce conflict in their organization.   Begin the booking process  Link: #conflict_management Classroom Sim Workshop: Discipline Strategies - Any Grade Level Description: Customized simulation workshops prepare participants to utilize aha! Process Classroom SIMs: In university teacher education programs In district-level professional development Individually, to practice teaching skills before ever setting foot in the classroom Workshop facilitators guide participants in A tour of the simulated classroom, including normal and disruptive events triggered by students, parents, and the larger system Addressing the events based on rules, procedures, and teacher discretion Analyzing the effects of their decisions in terms of classroom happiness, learning, and behavior Building on Ruby Payne’s accompaniment book, Working with Students, discussions focus on how the aha! Classroom SIMs can Prompt conversations among veteran and new teachers Facilitate interaction between new teachers and their mentors Encourage new and veteran teachers to analyze their classroom management skills Length: Four hours (Introductory or more in-depth workshops can be arranged upon request) Prerequisite: none   Begin the booking process  Link: #sim6-8 Meeting the Educational Needs of African American Boys Description: Examine the hidden rules of African American males and receive methods and strategies for building significant relationships and promoting higher academic achievement. African American males often operate within a “hidden rule system” that is vastly different from the "middle class rule system" that governs America’s schools. Because the majority of public school teachers are female, white, and middle class, rule conflict is often inevitable. This workshop examines the hidden rules of minority males in general and minority males living in poverty in particular. Participants will be given the opportunity to evaluate real-life classroom scenarios and to dialogue about appropriate interventions and approaches. Length: One Day or Half-day Prerequisite: None Audience: Elementary and secondary school audiences Presenter/Author: Rita Pierson, Ed. D.   Begin the booking process  Link: #african-american Understanding Students of Hispanic/Latino Descent and Their Parents Description: Improve the academics and socialization of your Hispanic/Latino students. This population has the highest dropout rate. Many educators and students experience cultural tension in school when behaviors are misinterpreted as rude or disengaged, but are actually a result of cultural upbringing. This workshop provides an understanding of hidden rules in the Hispanic/Latino culture and issues that Hispanics/Latinos encounter in public schools. Length: One Day or Half-day Prerequisite: none Audience: Educators of all grade levels Presenter/Author: Ruben Perez   Begin the booking process  Link: #hispanic-latino Removing The Mask - Identifying Gifted Students from Poverty & - Serving Gifted Students from Poverty (Two Workshops) Description: These workshops’ ready-to-use instruments and procedures help you identify and serve gifted students from poverty. ou’ll also learn how to keep these students in the program and help them to be successful. Does your district’s gifted program reflect the demographics of your campus/district? If not, you may not have equity in your gifted program. Typically, gifted programs serve middle class America to the exclusion of students from poverty. This workshop is delivered in two parts: Identifying Gifted Students from Poverty (Day One): This workshop presents a process, several instruments, and detailed procedures to help school personnel find gifted students from poverty. Participants take away the instruments and know how to use them. Identification issues target K–6. Serving Gifted Students from Poverty (Day Two): This is a follow-up to the first day and deals with how to help students stay in the program and be successful. Topics include suggestions for behavior interventions, support systems to retain students in gifted programs, techniques for working with parents, and the teaching strategies that help. Specifically, this workshop addresses the cognitive, social, and emotional needs of gifted students from poverty in the context of program and curriculum design. Addresses issues in K–12. Both seminars are based on the book Removing the Mask: Giftedness in Poverty by Dr. Paul D. Slocumb and Dr. Ruby K. Payne. Dr. Slocumb is past president of the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented and has been active in gifted education for more than 25 years. This seminar is designed for educators at any level—pre-K through secondary—who want to learn how to identify and serve gifted and high-ability learners from poverty and achieve equity in the identification process. Length: One-day and two-day workshops available Prerequisite: None Audience: Teachers and staff K-12   Begin the booking process  Link: #removing_the_mask Hear Our Cry: Boys in Crisis Description: This workshop focuses on the educational and emotional needs of the boys in our classrooms. Find out why boys account for 85% of the discipline problems in school. They also constitute the largest populations in special education, Title I, and those who have reading and writing problems. Boys are the ones who have committed the violent acts in America’s schools, and they are the most likely to drop out of school. This workshop focuses on the answers behind male behavior in school and what schools can do to begin making school more "boy-friendly." Issues that impact boys who come from poverty, as well as middle class, will be explored in this session. Also note that a parent version of this workshop is available as an evening add-on to this training. See the description below. Length: One day Prerequisite: None Audience: Educators and staff   Begin the booking process  Link: #hear_our_cry Hear Our Cry: Boys in Crisis – Parent Version Description: Creating well-adjusted boys at home and at school Based on his book Hear Our Cry: Boys in Crisis, Dr. Paul D. Slocumb assists parents who want to raise boys to become healthy, well-adjusted men who are successful at school, at home, and in personal relationships. His two- to three-hour workshop focuses on parenting styles and choices parents make in raising boys that affect the men they are to become. This workshop explains the what, the how, and the why behind some of these critical choices. This workshop can be offered as an optional add-on to a day’s training for parents in the evening. Contact aha! Process for details on cost and scheduling (2–3 hours). Length: 2-3 hours Prerequisite: None Audience: Parents   Begin the booking process  Link: #hear_our_cry_parent Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading Description: Want to see your reading scores skyrocket? Boost your students’ reading scores by 15–25%. Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading provides a mental model that students need in order to decode words easily, accurately—and fast! Using a system of 44 hand signs that prompt associations between letters or word “chunks” and their sounds, readers see the letter(s), make a sign, and say the sound at the same time. This multisensory approach works wonders with students who struggle with regular reading programs. aha! Process offers a one-day workshop in Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading for up to 100 participants. The workshop includes: A thorough review of the signs Discussion of how the strategy can be incorporated into programs that are in use in the district or by the organization Tips for successful implementation of the strategy Practice sessions for participants Discussions of non-phonetically spelled words and words with “tricky parts” A live demonstration of the strategy with struggling readers Intended audiences include administrators, teachers or tutors who work with students reading at third-grade level or below, special education teachers, speech therapists, ELL instructors, and parents. Participants are equipped to begin immediate implementation of the strategy by the conclusion of the workshop. Coaching also available: Dr. Tucker can work directly with teachers and their students after the workshop. Read a participant's testimonial Read the National Study on the Tucker Signing Strategies Visit the Tucker Signing Strategies website. Length: One day Prerequisite: None Audience: Elementary teachers and secondary reading, language arts, or special education teachers, pre-school   Begin the booking process  Link: #tucker_signs Reading by Age 5 Workshop Description: See it, sign it, say it, spell it It’s a well-known fact: The area of the brain responsible for language development shares nerve endings with the part of the brain responsible for motor coordination. No wonder young children love to use their hands to communicate! And that’s what makes Reading by Age 5 so revolutionary. Fast results and great fun to teach—for teachers and parents! Ideal for Head Start and early childhood programs. A balanced blend of American Sign Language and Tucker Signing Strategies, the easy-to-follow guidelines in Reading by Age 5 help caregivers teach children as young as nine months to sign words and concepts—the building blocks of reading. In this workshop you will discover a proven, research-based program that helps children: Develop language acquisition, phonetic awareness, and decoding skills Prepare a foundation for reading-comprehension skills Outperform fellow students on a variety of reading and pre-reading measurements Communicate their needs with less stress Bond with caregivers through eye contact and positive interactions Absorb knowledge more readily in other subject areas, as well Couching also available Length: One day Prerequisite: None Audience: Preschool and Elementary educators   Begin the booking process  Link: #reading_age5 Living on a Tightrope Description: This workshop is designed to help principals be successful, which in turn helps the entire school organization be successful. The training is based on the book Living on a Tightrope: A Survival Handbook for Principals, coauthored by Dr. Bill Sommers and Dr. Ruby K. Payne. While instructional leadership has been the principal’s primary role as identified in educational literature, the reality is that the principal’s role has become one of crisis management and an almost judicial approach to legal issues. Written from their experience as principals and based on research from the education and business realms, Bill and Ruby outline practical strategies for the workplace. Among them: data-driven conversations to increase positive results, responding to conflict on individual and organizational issues, and connecting personal identity to organizational goals and self-renewal—sustaining oneself while serving everyone else. Length: One Day Prerequisite: None Audience: Administrators Options: This can be adapted to one consultant but the optimum presentation is two.   Begin the booking process  Link: #living_on_tightrope Math Strategies/Problem Solving for the Elementary Classroom Description: The presentation focuses on a variety of mental models for elementary math. Participants learn that when mental models are taught directly to the students, they are able to learn and retain concepts much more quickly. A problem solving process will be presented which requires the students to plan, label, and sort information. This process is used as a method to control students' impulsivity and thereby increase their success in math. This method of teaching problem solving has been especially effective with students who are struggling in understanding basic math skills. Teaching question-making strategies to students is also included. The workshop is designed for math teachers of elementary school students, with audiences of grades K–2 or 3–5. Read testimonial Length: One day Prerequisite: None Audience: K-2 or 3-5 teachers   Begin the booking process  Link: #math_strategies Think Rather of Zebra: Dealing with Aspects of Poverty Through Story Description: The great teachers in history understood the power of story and storytelling. Through this workshop Jay Stailey, with the use of “story” and the models of those who teach with stories, reinforces the work of Dr. Payne and extends it to a unique level of understanding. Through example and interaction the participant discovers: The power of story to teach Why human beings need and respond to stories Brain research including how stories are processed and used Examples of stories as teaching tools How to use Think Rather of Zebra to reinforce A Framework for Understanding Poverty By virtue of our nature as human beings, we are, all of us, storytellers. Through example and interaction, each of us can discover storytelling skills and how those skills can be applied in teaching/learning settings. Length: One day Prerequisite: None Audience: Teachers and staff K-12 Presenter/Author: Jay Stailey   Begin the booking process  Link: #think_rather_zebra A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Description: This informative and enlightening workshop follows Matthew Seebaum’s book by the same title. Participants will learn useful strategies designed to make learning experiences more meaningful and concrete for children. This workshop is especially helpful for early childhood and special education professionals who struggle with discipline and learning issues associated with children from limited experiential backgrounds. Dr. Seebaum shares his research and practical strategies in this workshop. Participants leave with ready-to-implement, child-friendly materials and strategies to use in the classroom and school setting. This popular workshop is practical for those who struggle with challenging learners. Length: One day Prerequisite: None Audience: Early childhood and special education teachers Present/Author: Matthew Seebaum   Begin the booking process  Link: #a_picture Trainer Certification Workshops A Framework for Understanding Poverty - Trainer Certification Description: Become a certified trainer! This seminar is designed for individuals who wish to become Certified Trainers in order to take the information from A Framework for Understanding Poverty back to their own organizations. The training includes in-depth work on A Framework for Understanding Poverty and Research-Based Strategies seminars. Other topics also include instructional techniques and the power of story—all intended to help trainers prepare the program for their particular organization. In-depth research and training materials are provided. Length: Three days Prerequisite: A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Day One) and Research-Based Strategies (Day Two)   Begin the booking process  Link: #framework_trainer For schedule, all locations and pre-registration, visit our Training Dates page. To receive additional information about any of our programs, please feel free to contact us at (800) 424-9484, or use our Contact Us page.