What To Do About Professional Development and Budgets

With budgets being so tight, how can your district or school receive the professional development needed?  October 30 - November 1, you can address all your needs in one location; with nationally known keynotes, specialized specific special sessions and many concurrent sessions from educators across Texas…Texas ASCD has it all.

Rick DuFour will be kicking off the conference with his keynote on New (and not so new) Insight for Improving Schools.  Join Rick as he goes in-depth on professional learning communities (PLCs), formative assessment, student learning, and new/ improving strategies to improve schools.  Following Rick DuFour is Debra Pickering.  Debra will present on Leading and Supporting the Highly Engaged Classroom. Debra Pickering will discuss how planning and executing specific tasks will get your students engaged in their learning. You don’t want to miss this keynote address.  Douglas Reeves will be presenting on Leadership at Every Level: From the Classroom to the Boardroom.  This session applies to every educator from teacher to superintendent.  He will address relationships, technology, grading, priorities and practices. You will be able to apply immediately!  Join Alan November as he takes us on an adventure through global communication in his keynote address on Empathy: the 21^st Century Skill.  Thomas Guskey will be closing the conference with his session on Grading and Reporting Student Learning: Effective Policies and Practices. Tom will talk about purposes and solutions for grading students, as well as letter grades, percentile grades and best practices.   Join these five nationally known keynotes as we address Bridging the Future to…NOW.

Other informative sessions that can be attended at the conference are the variety of the special sessions.  Ervin Knezek will discuss the most up-to-date information on STAARs, Ann Smisko will be talking about school improvement and TEA, Steve Barkley is discussing teacher collaboration and student improvement, Thomas Guskey will not only be doing a keynote but also a special session on differentiated instruction, while Joe Renzulli talks about the high tech approach to personalized learning.

Texas ASCD doesn’t stop there.  There will also be 4 set times for educators to learn from one another during the concurrent sessions.  During this time you will learn best practices in areas such as curriculum, innovation, readiness, collaboration, relationships, assessment/accountability and change.

Texas ASCD can’t wait to learn, network, and explore new ideas in the Exhibit Hall with you!  If you haven’t signed up, you still can!

See you October 30 – November 1 at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin!