MTA 2019 New Educator Workshops

planned by MTA New Member Committee 

9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast (1st Floor)

9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Session 1 (1st and 8th Floors)

Beyond the SEI Endorsement: Differentiation for ELLs of All Abilities (in grades 6-12))

Your teacher license has an SEI Endorsement, but "WIDA, ACCESS, and ELL" sounds like an incomprehensible alphabet soup of jargon. Wade through the acronyms and learn helpful differentiation strategies for the English language learners in your room with this comprehensive strategies workshop offered by a veteran ELL teacher. Participants will learn about their legal obligations to the English learners in their classroom and practice strategies to help students become stronger readers, writers, listeners, and speakers of academic English. Most importantly, participants will tackle a public school reality: English learners with greatly varying abilities in the same classroom. By the end of this workshop, teachers will be able to describe and replicate a variety of best practices for a classroom with ELLs.

Techify Your Elementary Classroom

Technology is becoming part of our society, and expectations within schools are becoming tech-centered. Learn how to use technology to pre-assess, engage and post-assess your lesson plans. If you have a device, feel free to bring it as there will be time to start exploring various online programs and applications.

Interactive Notebooks in the Secondary Classroom

Interactive student notebooks have been a staple of elementary and middle school classrooms for years, but these powerful teaching tools aren't just for the little ones. This workshop is designed to help high school teachers use interactive notebooks as a tool that drives a skills-based curriculum and empowers students and teachers to reflect on learning. Participants will leave this workshop with strategies to use student notebooks to document skill development, organize class materials, develop executive functioning skills, manage the classroom, and eliminate busywork. While participants will be able to participate in this session without a laptop or tablet, having one may be beneficial. 

11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. Lunch (1st Floor)

12:45 p.m - 2:45 p.m. Session 2 (1st and 8th Floors)

Crafting Choice: Making Lessons Engaging and Standards-Based

Providing choice to students is often an educator’s first experience when implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into their practice. This workshop will help educators design choices that lead students to becoming motivated, self-directed learners. We will focus on connecting choices to lesson objectives, as well as planning for other obstacles such as limited time and resources. Additionally, we’ll explore the transformation of the educator’s role in a classroom with choice: moving from the purveyor of knowledge to coach, mentor, and facilitator. Participants will walk away with guidelines for providing options, as well as confidence in their ability to design lessons that will break down barriers and engage all students.

High School Classroom Management

In this presentation, participants will share ideas and have small and large group discussions about classroom management at the high school level. Everyone will get a chance to talk about their experiences in the classroom so far to share what has worked for them as well as what has not worked. Participants will also examine case studies to apply their newly learned classroom management common strategies, techniques and approaches. This workshop is designed for high school educators.

Middle School Writing and Speaking across the Curriculum

Middle school is a new chapter in which  students further develop their argumentative skills. In our workshop we will model best practices for supporting student discourse and student writing. You will leave with concrete examples of unit plans for persuasive writing as well as other materials. You will have the opportunity to begin to build your own unit and collaborate with others. 

2:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.        Dessert Social, Giveaways and Wrap Up

Register Now!