To teach grammar or not to teach grammar is no longer the question! Beginning in the 2012-2013 school year, the Common Core State Standards for English ensure grammar has its rightful place in the K-12 English Language Arts classroom. Grammar, mechanics, and usage standards rate their own Language Strand in the ELA Common Core K-12 anchor standard design. In light of the renewed emphasis on grammar, the question is, are you fully prepared to teach and engage students in grammatical study? If you need a refresher course on grammar concepts and/or support in how to design and engage students in effective, relevant grammar lessons or how to move beyond “drill and kill” worksheets, this workshop is for you. The presenter will provide participants an in-depth review of major grammatical concepts, strategies for building active student engagement, and practical instruction for lesson design with the Common Core standards in mind. Participants will walk away with a grammar primer, a notebook of ready-to-use lessons and activities, and a deeper understanding of how to make grammar instruction relevant and meaningful for students in the context of reading, writing, and speaking. Note there are two sessions, one for K-5 and one for 6-12.

 The presenter for these sessions is Brooke Mabry, secondary instructional coach (National Board Certified) from McDowell County. Participants will receive a certificate for 5 contact hours. If you have questions, contact Dr. Carol Bennett at cbennett@wresa.org or 418-0011, ext. 17.

Registration Fee: $50 (per session)     Registration Deadline: Jan 20    

 

Reading Workshop is a method of instruction in which students choose their own books and confer with their teacher about what they are reading. This method is very flexible and may also include other components such as small guided reading groups, written response, goal setting, and paired-reading. Teachers have been using the Reading Workshop approach successfully for years, but until now there hasn't been a step-by-step guide for implementing the strategies in the upper elementary classroom. Laura Candler's Power Reading Workshop offers an easy classroom-tested method for using Reading Workshop in your own classroom. You'll learn how to motivate readers by providing time for independent reading and reading conferences. As a result, your students will learn to love reading, and you'll improve reading test scores at the same time! Laura’s resources includes a dozen "Power Tools" that allow you to differentiate your reading instruction for all students. This dynamic, interactive workshop bridges the gap between theory and practice. Participants walk away energized, with ideas and materials designed to ensure classroom success.  Participants will receive a certificate for 6 contact hours.  If you have questions, contact Dr. Carol Bennett at 828.418.0011, ext. 17 or cbennett@wresa.org.

 

The presenter for this session is Laura Candler. Laura has presented educational workshops to teachers around the country for over 12 years. She's the author of 10 books for teachers as well as a classroom teacher with 28 years of experience. Laura's dynamic, interactive workshops bridge the gap between theory and practice. Participants experience the power of proven, research-based strategies. They walk away energized, with loads of ideas and materials designed to ensure classroom success.

Registration Fee: $75 (Non-WRESA members fee $175)     Registration Deadline: None    

We teach, but are students learning? This workshop takes a fresh look at Mastery Learning and Cooperative Problem Solving, two powerful strategies designed to ensure math success. Mastery Learning: This method is a simple, yet tried-and-true, approach that enables all learners to master basic skills before tackling complex math tasks. Teachers provide multiple opportunities for students to build the foundation upon which higher order thinking and reasoning skills can be developed. Mastery Learning is a perfect fit for Response to Intervention (RTI) initiatives. Cooperative Problem-Solving: Providing students with daily doses of problem-solving instruction is critical for success in life and on standardized tests. Encouraging students to work with others as they solve problems improves social skills and provides opportunities to deepen mathematical understanding.  Implemented together, these methods all but guarantee that your students will soar through their state math exams! In this workshop, participants will actively explore practical, easy-to-use strategies to close achievement gaps and enable ALL students to excel.

The presenter for this session is Laura Candler. Laura has presented educational workshops to teachers around the country for over 12 years. She's the author of 10 books for teachers as well as a classroom teacher with 28 years of experience. Laura's dynamic, interactive workshops bridge the gap between theory and practice. Participants experience the power of proven, research-based strategies. They walk away energized, with loads of ideas and materials designed to ensure classroom success.

Participants will receive a certificate for 6 contact hours. If you have questions, contact Dr. Carol Bennett at cbennett@wresa.org or 418-0011, ext. 17.

 

Registration Fee: $75; Non-WRESA members fee $175.     Registration Deadline: None   

This day of hands-on professional development will explore inquiry–based science and math teaching, specifically for teachers of young learners (Pre-K through grade 3). Participants will engage in fun hands-on science investigations and leave with simple suggested activities and lesson plans to take back to the classroom. Zula offers rigorous inquiry-based science programs, titled Zula's Exploration Mission Modules™, developed specifically for students in preschool through third grade. They've developed these programs not only to help fill the void of science curricula in some early-education classrooms, but also because they know that a strong science foundation helps students succeed in school. Zula's Exploration Mission Modules™ provide hands-on, interactive, investigative lessons designed to get young children thinking scientifically. The lessons promote the teaching of science as inquiry and support specific state and national science, math, and language arts standards. The presenter will be LAURIE MICHNAL-PECK who is the Director of Educational Training and Development, Zula International. Many of you will recognize Zula from their popular show on PBS. They will also soon be on NBC. You can go to their website for additional information on Zula: www.zula.com
This session will be from 9 to 3 and participants will receive a certificate for 5 contact hours. Lunch will be provided. There is no registration fee for this session. If you have questions, contact Dr. Carol Bennett at cbennett@wresa.org.

Registration Fee: $0     Registration Deadline: Feb 17    

How would you like having free technology brought to your classroom when you requested it?  How would you like having your students engaged and excited about their science and math lessons?  How would you like free resources and labs to use in your classroom?  All this can be yours and more with a day of training courtesy of The Science House of NC State University.   We will use MacBooks, LabQuests and various probes to explore science and math concepts.  After the day's training session, you will be certified to partner with The Science House!  This means a class set of the equipment can be brought to your school for a week at a time for your students to use. Michelle Benigno of The Science House will be conducting this workshop. Limited to 25 Participants.  If you have questions, please contact April Spencer at 828.418.0011 ext. 20 or aspencer@wresa.org. 

Registration Fee: $0     Registration Deadline: Feb 14    

This one-day session focuses on teachers/administrators who have taught 0 – 25 years and want assistance with critical retirement information and decision making before they retire.  This session will review the actuarial implications and repercussions of early-mid career decisions, laws, policies and processes, benefit options and investment plans.  The workshop will be conducted by Robert Ayers, WRESA Retirement Consultant.  The session will be facilitated by Bob Byrd, School Improvement Specialist, and April Spencer, Secondary Education Consultant.  Session limited to 25 participants.   If you have questions, contact Bob Byrd, ext. 23, bbyrd@wresa.org or April Spencer, ext. 20, aspencer@wresa.org. 

 

Registration Fee: $35     Registration Deadline: February 23    

"Reading in the Content Areas” is for teachers of all subjects. This session will teach you low maintenance, high yield strategies that drastically increase academic learning time for all students. These are the formative assessments that you can use immediately, without time lost with preparation or grading, and can be used in place of other assessments. This session will be fast-paced, with several strategies practiced and ready to use the next day! (Appropriate for grade levels K-12, with best results for grades 2 - 8.)

This session will be led by Tamara Houchard, MA Ed, NBCT, 6th grade LA teacher from Mitchell County Schools. If you have questions contact Dr. Carol Bennett at cbennett@wresa.org or 828.418.0011, ext. 17. Participants will receive a certificate for 5 contact hours.

 

Registration Fee: $50     Registration Deadline: March 1    

Feel like you don’t have time to teach science. Let us help! Join us for a day where we investigate matter and energy (from 4th grade NES) with active investigations that weave history, math, reading, writing and fun into lessons! Research shows students learn more when concepts are not taught in isolation. The more connections a teacher helps students make to a topic, then the more connections students make in their brain. Come learn to ‘weave’ and watch students achieve!

This workshop is appropriate for elementary and middle school teachers. The example lessons we will use are from 4th grade. Michelle Benigno and Dr. Carol Bennett will be presenting. If you have questions contact Dr. Bennett cbennett@wresa.org or 828.418.0011, ext. 17. Participants will receive a certificate for 5 contact hours.

 

Registration Fee: $0     Registration Deadline: March 2    

This hybrid mentor training follows the revised mentor standards and includes all new material and activities aligned with 21st century beginning teacher needs. Participants must complete some work on Moodle prior to and after the March 19th session to receive credit (10 contact hours). Presenter will be Karen Sumner, Western Region Education Facilitator. If you have questions, please contact ksumner@wresa.org or 828-418-0011 ext. 26.
 

Class limited to 25 participants.
(New date will be announced soon), 9:00 – 3:00.
Registration deadline:
Cost is $25.00

Registration Fee: $25     Registration Deadline:   

Mike Schmoker, in his book, Focus:  Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning, says that students need to engage in authentic, purposeful  reading and writing activities to improve student learning.   This workshop will focus on meaningful literacy activities that 6 -12 content-area teachers can use to build community, build background knowledge, develop engaged learners, and support students in asking questions and determining importance using real world texts that engage students in discussion and debate. This will fulfill the literacy requirement for renewal purposes. The presenters will be Nancy Reid  and April Spencer. If you have questions, please contact April Spencer at 828.418.0011 ext. 20 or aspencer@wresa.org. 

Registration Fee: $35     Registration Deadline: Mar 13    

UNCA Special Collections has a wealth of digital materials to help teachers of local, NC , Civics and Economics and US History implement the new Essential Standards, and Common Core Standards for Literacy in history and Social Studies. Come to this workshop and let the creators of this teacher-focused website, Helen Wykle and Susan Israel, guide you through the electronic sources.  Reid Chapman from UNCA, and Moira Bradford, an Asheville City Schools teacher, will give you several teaching tools and templates for use with primary source documents. You will leave this workshop with tons of materials that will get your students excited about using primary documents that relate to their own community. Bring a laptop and your thumb drive or other external hard drive to store all these amazing resources. If you have questions, please contact April Spencer at 828.418.0011 ext. 20 or aspencer@wresa.org. 

 

Registration Fee: $35     Registration Deadline: March 9    

The best understanding of what works in the classroom comes from the teachers who are in them. The Common Core State Standards for students in grades 9-12 clearly define the focused and rigorous knowledge and skills students should have to graduate high school fully prepared for college and careers. More than ever it will be important for all teachers to not only know WHAT the standards are, but be prepared to decide HOW best to help students reach those standards. Everyone in the school has to start thinking about literacy and how their students are going to be able to access their texts and graduate prepared to succeed in our global economy and society. This session will provide teachers with a menu of best practices and instructional strategies for a successful implementation.

This secondary session will focus mainly on overall best instructional practices (Reading and Writing) in specifically supporting students in accessing, clarifying, and responding to the complexity of texts across ELA and the Content Areas that will be expected and encountered in the CCSS. Our main targets will be:

* Specifically incorporating reading comprehension strategies and teaching tools specific to both literature and informational texts as they directly relate to the standards/strands of the Common Core. There will be a definite strong focus on the informational texts due to the greater emphasis in CCSS that will be specifically investigated and shared.

* Identifying and planning for Content Area and ELA specific reading and instructional materials and instructional management resources (...groupings, journaling, graphic organizers, academic key vocabulary, student contracts, check lists, accountable talk and work, projects, assessments, hands on tools , etc...) that will allow teachers to better scaffold students to the higher standards in order to raise student achievement across the standards.

This day will be helpful for BOTH ELA and Content Area teachers as we will use both literature materials and content area in this session.  Secondary teachers need to bring some of their current texts that they are using in their classes so that we can specifically dig into those to look at levels and areas of challenges.

If you have questions, contact Dr. Carol Bennett at cbennett@wresa.org or 828.418.0011, ext. 17.  Participants will receive a certificate for 5 contact hours.

Registration Fee: $0     Registration Deadline: April 10    

Feel like you don’t have time to teach science. Let us help! Join us for a day where we investigate forces and motion (from 5th grade NCSOS/NES) with active investigations that weave history, math, reading, writing and fun into lessons! Research shows students learn more when concepts are not taught in isolation. The more connections a teacher helps students make to a topic, then the more connections students make in their brain. Come learn to “weave” and watch students achieve!

This workshop is appropriate for elementary and middle school teachers. The example lessons we will use are from 5th grade. Michelle Benigno and Carol Bennett will be presenting. If you have questions contact Carol Bennett cbennett@wresa.org or 828.418.0011, ext. 17. Participants will receive a certificate for 5 contact hours.

 

Registration Fee: $0     Registration Deadline: March 8    

The integration of technology in classrooms makes it necessary for educators to provide student awareness of the proper use and appropriate behavior when using technology in the 21st Century classroom.  Internet safety and digital citizenship will be the focus as well as major issues a lot of students face daily, both at school and at home, such as cyberbullying, digital harassment and sexting.  Discussions and activities on these topics, using Web 2.0 tools, will take place. Tina Joyner, Technology Coordinator, will be the facilitator.  If you have questions, please contact Tina at 828.418.0011, ext. 19 or tjoyner@wresa.org. Upon completion each participant will receive a certificate for 15 contact hours.

Registration Fee: $35      Registration Deadline: January 27    

Keeping up with new advances in technology is difficult to do, and it can be even more difficult when finding ways to improve student learning.  Are we getting results, or are we just making slick lesson plans with new gadgets?  Questions we will discuss during this course are how access to information through the internet changes our knowledge base, how video games and game theory can improve and effect learning, and what the rapid introduction of new technologies means to how students will learn now and in the future.  This six-week online course will involve a variety of articles using Wikispaces to try and make sense of the world of information that is available to us.  The emphasis will be on our evolving philosophies and end with a shared lesson plan to think about how this affects our pedagogy.  Jason Rhodes, an English teacher at West Henderson High School will be the facilitator.  Participants will receive 20 contact hours when course is completed.  For more information about the course, contact Tina Joyner at tjoyner@wresa.org or 828.418.0011, ext. 19.

 

Registration Fee: $35     Registration Deadline: February 7    

The purpose of this course is to introduce a variety of digital organization tools for use by administrators/teachers and students.  Participants will apply the tools introduced to the development of presentations, lesson plans and technology integration in their content area.  Tina Joyner, Technology Coordinator, will be the facilitator.  If you have questions, please contact Tina at 828.418.0011, x19, or tjoyner@wresa.org.  Participants will receive a certificate for 15 contact hours. 

Registration Fee: $35      Registration Deadline: March 26    

Ag in the Classroom is an educational program designed to provide teachers with quality materials to teach students, through North Carolina competency-based lessons, about the sources of their food and fiber, and the importance of agriculture to the economy. The mission of Ag in the Classroom is to "provide quality materials and instruction to public and private school teachers enabling them to instill in students an appreciation for our state's food and fiber production, the people involved with the various stages of that production, and the industry's statewide economic impact." In this flexible online class, participants will become familiar with the Ag in the Classroom website and the free lesson plans available at each grade level, as well as, the other free agriculture materials available to help them integrate their content in an engaging and exciting manner. Participants will need internet access and will be expected to try some of the lessons with their students and reflect on implementing the Ag in the Classroom goals. Upon completion of the class, participants will receive a certificate for 10 contact hours. If you have any questions, contact Dr. Carol Bennett, facilitator for this online class, at cbennett@wresa.org or 418-0011, ext. 17.

 

Registration Fee: $35        Registration Deadline: March 27

This course will incorporate several literacy strategies that any 6-12 grade teacher can use to get every kid thinking. You will use and create One Page Wonders (OPW) to teach content area reading. The course will be based on Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steinke’s book Text and Lessons for Content Area Reading. You will be required to purchase the book before the class begins. This will fulfill the literacy requirement for renewal purposes. This course will start April 9^th and end June 4^th. It is worth 2 CEUs. If you have questions, please contact April Spencer at 828.418.0011 ext. 20 or aspencer@wresa.org. 

Registration Fee: $35    (Fee plus purchase of book)     Registration Deadline:  March 29, 2012