2015 Spring Events Catalog by Solution Tree

Solutions 2015

New events inside! Solution Tree

Join leading experts

Experience powerful learning

Discover must-have solutions

Every year, our experts listen to attendee feedback and then shape their presentations to provide the most relevant content you’ll find anywhere. Check out their bios on our website.

Last year, more than 25,000 educators attended our events—and gave them rave reviews. Now’s your chance to experience an inspiring, empowering event firsthand! Visit our website to find the perfect event type for your team.

Your team will acquire foundational knowledge, explore bold new ideas, and gain practical implementation strategies for sustained improvement. Go online to explore detailed learning outcomes for each event.

Speakers are subject to change.

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Why attend a Solution Tree event? Master your goals

Save as a team

Stream solutions districtwide

Learning doesn’t have to end when the event is over! You’ll leave with a book and binder full of materials to help your team keep the momentum going.

Bring a team of five or more to take advantage of special group discounts, and visit event webpages to learn how you can get exclusive rates on your hotel accommodations.

Don’t want to travel? Stream the learning straight to your team with a hybrid event. Your entire staff will hear full-length keynotes and delve deep into interactive breakout sessions—all from the comfort of your own campus.

888.410.6917

Eliminating the Achievement Gap for Latino Students Phoenix, AZ | September 21–23

Cultivate a learning-rich environment for Latino students. Through this powerful event, you’ll learn best practices and research-based strategies to eliminate the achievement gap. Perfect for leaders, teachers, support staff, and parents, this unique opportunity provides a unifying experience where teams can learn together. Experts will share specific, practical ways to connect with Latino students, ensure they feel comfortable in the school setting, and help them thrive in classrooms. Teams will develop an easy-to-implement action plan that will begin to make a major impact on day one. You’ll leave inspired, energized, and ready to make the future bright for your Latino students.

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Learning Outcomes • Learn practical strategies that schools and districts serving large Latino student populations use daily to increase student achievement. • Acquire district and site leadership practices that work to eliminate the achievement gap. • Discover how to engage and empower Latino students. • Gain targeted instructional strategies and assessment processes for developing academic vocabulary for English learners. • Uncover parenting practices that help create a home environment conducive to 21st century learning. • Determine how to effectively initiate and build relationships with Latino students.

NEW EVENT!

Paving the path to lifelong success

Additional Presenters

Luis F. Cruz

Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch

Anthony Muhammad

Soluciones

Linda Mira Hector Montenegro Laura Reyes Kent P. Scribner Alejandro Segura-Moya Thomas Soto

888.410.6917

COMMON CORE

NOW

Whether you are at a basic or advanced stage of CCSS implementation, a teacher or school leader at the elementary or secondary level, you’ll find sessions targeted to your needs. Network with others like you to find practitioner-tested answers. Observe experts modeling effective instruction in specific content areas. Collect strategies to master your implementation challenges. Join us, and take control of the Common Core!

Sacramento, CA | to July 28–29 Paving the path lifelong

success

Learning Outcomes • Gain up-to-date information on the standardized assessments aligned with the Common Core. • Acquire strategies proven to help students develop criticalthinking and complex-reasoning skills. • Practice highly engaging reading, vocabulary, and writing strategies. • Make sense of teaching for depth through the Standards for Mathematical Practice. • Harness the power of self-assessment to motivate students to own their learning.

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Classroom strategies, leadership solutions

Breakout Strands

Luis F. Cruz

Juli K. Dixon

Maria C. Grant

LeAnn Nickelsen

Mathematics English Language Arts Science Assessment Leadership

Douglas Reeves

Sarah Schuhl

solution-tree.com/CommonCoreNOW 888.410.6917 #corenow

888.410.6917

ASSESSMENT

NOW

Grand Rapids, MI | August 17–19

Learning Outcomes Join an all-star lineup of assessment and grading experts and master practitioners, and get ready to turbocharge learning. Teachers will learn how to spark a growth mindset in students, avoid the most common mistakes in assessment design and analysis, and collaborate in teams to identify specific learning issues for targeted instructional solutions. Leaders will learn how to design structures, protocols, and schedules that empower collaborative teacher teams to develop, score, analyze, and respond to assessment. Making the switch to standards-based grading? Find implementation answers here for classroom practice, reporting progress to parents, and more.

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• Acquire a complete process for creating and using common assessments. • Examine a protocol to help teams talk about data. • Learn how to collaboratively score student work using quality rubrics or scales. • Get strategies to infuse assessment into any instructional activity. • Find out how to design and use homework as a formative assessment tool to impact student learning. • Recognize and write meaningful multiple-choice items at various cognitive levels. • Write constructed-response items that give better information about student learning. • Learn the criteria for selecting complex texts with academic rigor in both ELA and content-area classes, and become a confident writer of text-dependent questions.

Every time I hear Tom Guskey, I leave inspired and ready to change the world.” —Jeanne Walker, principal, Tapp Middle School, Georgia

Motivate students, maximize achievement

Cassandra Erkens

Thomas R. Guskey

Tom Hierck

Chris Jakicic

Angela LaBounty

Maria Nielsen

Tom Schimmer

Sarah Schuhl

Eric Twadell

Nicole Dimich Vagle

888.410.6917

Challenged to train everyone on a tight budget?

Stream a live event straight to your district.

PLC

WORK

HYBRID EVENTS You don’t have to miss out! With our hybrid events, you can stream a PLC at Work™ event live to your staff or choose a location and time that’s convenient for you. Your staff will learn from the same A-list lineup of PLC experts, such as Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, and Mike Mattos. Plus they’ll get customized guidance from a PLC at Work™ associate who will be on-site with your team throughout the event.

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I would not have been able to make it to the live event, so having the opportunity to view this presentation from my hometown was phenomenal.”

In a district with 17 K–12 schools, wide-ranging demographics, and substantially different needs, our facilitator met our specific requests in ways that would never be possible in a larger conference setting.”

—Hayley Gray, teacher, Gene George Elementary School, Arkansas

—Heather Davis Schmidt, executive regional director, Missoula County Public Schools, Montana

This was a FANTASTIC way to get to attend the event without actually being there in person.” —Jennifer Denham, curriculum support provider, Del Rey Elementary School, California

Here are just a few perks of streaming: $ Empowered staff

Customized support

Tremendous savings

Flexible scheduling

Train your whole team in a proven strategy for sustainable, substantive school improvement.

Receive personalized guidance from an on-site PLC at Work™ associate.

Take advantage of a significantly lower cost per person with zero travel costs.

Stream the event live, or choose a date and time that’s convenient for you.

Contact our hybrids team today! solution-tree.com/Hybrids

877.247.8270 11

Loved it, and we are bringing a team of teachers next summer!”

PLC

AT WORK

— Mary Kaye Siebert, director of instructional services, Wamego USD 320, Kansas

I N S T I T U T E S Learning Outcomes • Build the capacity of staff to function as a PLC at Work™.

The Professional Learning Communities at Work™ process is increasingly recognized as the most powerful strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement. You’ll delve deep into the three big ideas of a PLC—focus on learning, build a collaborative culture, and results orientation—to gain specific, practical, and inspiring strategies. These institutes give you and your team the knowledge and tools to transform your school or district into a place where all students learn at high levels.

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• Use the PLC at Work™ process to sustain continuous school improvement. • Create a focus on learning. • Develop systems of intervention and enrichment for students who experience difficulty and for those who are already proficient. • Create a collaborative culture. • Use evidence of student learning to inform and improve professional practice.

St. Charles, MO

Las Vegas, NV

June 4–6 St. Charles Convention Center June 10–12 Caesars Palace

H San Antonio, TX

June 17–19 Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center

H Minneapolis, MN

June 22–24 Minneapolis Convention Center

Tampa, FL

July 8–10 Tampa Convention Center

H Louisville, KY

Springdale, AR

H Lincolnshire, IL

Syracuse, NY

San Diego, CA

July 14–16 Kentucky International Convention Center July 22–24 Har-Ber High School

SOLD OUT

August 3–5 Adlai E. Stevenson High School August 12–14 The Oncenter October 14–16 San Diego Convention Center

Singapore October 17–19 Singapore American School

Charlotte, NC

Salt Lake City, UT H

SOLD OUT

New event!

November 4–6 Charlotte Convention Center November 16–18 Salt Palace Convention Center

Available to stream live as a hybrid event. Visit solution-tree.com/Hybrids for more information.

Build school culture where learning thrives

• Build consensus for change. • Effectively address resistance to engaging in the most promising practices to improve student learning. • Implement the Common Core State Standards for mathematics through the PLC at Work™ process. • Engage in difficult conversations productively.

PLC at Work™ Institutes sell out! solution-tree.com/PLCInstitutes 888.410.6917 #atplc

• Lead the PLC at Work™ process effectively.

888.410.6917

New Orleans, LA Minneapolis, MN

October 5–7 October 26–28

Learning Outcomes What does successful response to intervention look like when all the pieces come together? With access to recognized experts, you’ll discover how to lead the RTI process at the site and district levels. Learn how to create a proactive process to identify students who need help, place them in the proper intervention, monitor their progress, and determine when they no longer need additional support.

• Create a school or district culture that focuses on student learning. • Build a highly effective, collaborative core program. • Focus core instruction on rigorous core curriculum. • Unpack the CCSS into focused student learning targets. • Design, analyze, and utilize common assessments to improve core instruction and guide interventions. • Plan for embedded intervention time. • Engage and empower students in the learning process. • Target interventions to meet individual student needs. • Understand the critical components and implementation of a behavioral RTI system.

solution-tree.com

I appreciated hearing from practitioners and professionals who are actively doing their own research and have real understanding of how these ideas can work in the classroom.” —Jacey Barnes, teacher, Heritage Middle School, Missouri

The key to unlocking powerful interventions

• Utilize a site leadership and intervention team to support schoolwide interventions. • Design master schedules that provide core instruction, interventions, and elective options for students at risk. • Identify effective Tier 3 interventions for students struggling with reading, writing, number sense, and English language. • Determine the best ways to utilize schoolwide support staff in the RTI process, including psychologists, counselors, special education teachers, and intervention specialists. • Use intervention time to extend learning for students that have already mastered grade-level expectations. • Understand the district’s role and responsibilities in the RTI process.

Austin Buffum

Mike Mattos

Luis F. Cruz

Janet Malone

888.410.6917

2-DAY WORKSHOPS Building Common Assessments Daily Differentiation for Tier 1 Cassandra Erkens, Angela LaBounty, Sarah Schuhl

Gayle Gregory, Martha Kaufeldt

Your team will establish a consistent way to effectively monitor student learning, respond to results, implement informed practice, and raise expectations. Leave with a framework for working interdependently to create high-quality assessments and to collect meaningful instructional data that informs interventions and enrichment planning.

San Antonio, TX Orlando, FL Seattle, WA St. Louis, MO

New event!

September 30–October 1 October 12–13 October 19–20 November 16–17

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When learners struggle, teachers must know how to identify roadblocks and provide alternatives—to differentiate their teaching and instructional strategies. At this workshop, you’ll explore the elements that collaborative teams must consider to create powerful Tier 1 instructional programs.

Pasadena, CA December 1–2

HOST A WORKSHOP Looking to bring a workshop straight to your team? Call your director of educational partnerships at 888.410.6917 to find out how you can host a Solution Tree workshop. You’ll be able to choose a topic and location that’s best for your staff, all while enjoying a discounted price.

Go online

for speaker bios, event reviews, and exclusive hotel discounts! solution-tree.com/Workshops 888.410.6917

Mathematics at Work™

On Your Mark Grading

Timothy D. Kanold, Juli K. Dixon, Sarah Schuhl, Mona Toncheff

Tim Brown, Tom Hierck, Tom Schimmer

Achieving excellence in mathematics teaching and learning begins by understanding the thousands of instruction and assessment decisions teachers and teacher teams make. Gain a deeper understanding of the hope for student learning provided by the 10 high-leverage actions of teacher teams.

San Antonio, TX September 28–29 Sacramento, CA October 5–6 Baltimore, MD October 28–29

New event!

The most effective grading practices provide accurate, specific, timely feedback designed to improve student performance. This workshop will challenge antiquated practices and provide you with research-based options for grading and reporting that are fair, motivating, and meaningful to both students and parents.

Sacramento, CA October 7–8 Orlando, FL October 14–15 Baltimore, MD October 26–27

888.410.6917

2-DAY WORKSHOPS RTI at Work™ Austin Buffum, Mike Mattos Learn why bureaucratic, paperwork-heavy, compliance-oriented, test-score-driven approaches fail—and then learn how to create an RTI model that works. Acquire four essential guiding principles and a simple process for bringing these principles to life in your school.

Seattle, WA October 21–22 St. Louis, MO November 18–19 Pasadena, CA December 3–4

solution-tree.com

Go online

for speaker bios, event reviews, and exclusive hotel discounts !

solution-tree.com/Workshops 888.410.6917

CANADA

2-DAY WORKSHOPS RTI at Work™

Transforming School Culture

Austin Buffum, Mike Mattos

Anthony Muhammad

Learn why bureaucratic, paperwork-heavy, compliance-oriented, test-score-driven approaches fail—and then learn how to create an RTI model that works. Acquire four essential guiding principles and a simple process for bringing these principles to life in your school.

Learn strategies that address staff cohesion issues and maximize human potential in schools and districts. Explore the root causes of staff resistance to change, and leave with concrete strategies that will improve school culture and lay the foundation for a powerful learning environment.

Abbotsford, BC September 2–3

Vancouver, BC October 23–24

888.410.6917

PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID SOLUTION TREE

555 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404

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Stream Solution Tree events straight to your district!

PLC

WORK

HYBRID EVENTS Learn more on page 10! solution-tree.com/Hybrids 877.247.8270

I would not have been able to make it to the live event, so having the opportunity to view this presentation from my hometown was phenomenal.”

—Hayley Gray, teacher, Gene George Elementary School, Arkansas