NJPSA/FEA/NJASCD
2011 FallConference
Re-imagining Learning: A Leader's Challenge
October 13-14, 2011
Don’t forget to register for NJPSA’s Fall Conference, October 13 and 14. We’re
planning exciting and informative workshops on topics ranging from celebrating music via poetry through the
administrator’s role in intervention, and much more in between. This year’s keynotes will
be delivered by Milton Chen and Charlotte Danielson.
If you're an Active, current member of New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, you are entitled to use your Star Advantage certificate to pay for the conference, making the cost to you nothing at all! You can read the details here
This year's exciting lineup of workshops includes:
Keynote Presenters
- October 13 Milton Chen
- Milton Chen is Senior fellow and Executive Director Emeritus of The George Lucas Educational Foundation.
- October 14 Charlotte Danielson
- Charlotte Danielson is an author and former economist and an educational consultant based in Princeton,
New Jersey.
Workshops
Thursday, October 13
Morning
- Q & A Session
- Milton Chen
- Milton Chen will expand upon the themes of his keynote, provide additional resources and films, and engage the group in a discussion of how to implement the “edges of innovation” in New Jersey schools.
Strand: Technical Innovations.
- Engage and Empower All Students Through Technology
- Sharon McCarthy
-
It’s a wonderful time to be alive! The tools of technology enable the classroom to be the center of engaged participation. In this playful workshop, we will explore and practice the use of technologies, by both teachers and students that increase:
- Novelty and curiosity
- Prediction for Participation
- Tracking Progress
While decreasing:
- Boredom and its accompanying stress—manifested as flight, fight, or freeze
- Participants are encouraged to bring laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. so as to get started right away!
Strands: Struggling Students and Technical Innovations
- The workshop will be both informative and interactive.
- The Common Core Standards at Work: The NJASCD Curriculum Project
- Marie Adair
- Eight school districts in New Jersey have joined a curriculum design project with NJASCD to create new curricula based on the Common Core Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics. This session offers an overview of the Common Core Standards, components of curriculum design, a format/template that focuses on the Common Core and 21st-Century skills, and uncommonly good curriculum samples.
- Strand: Instructional Leadership
- Using Feedback to Increase the Quality and Value of Teachers’ Assessment
- Jennifer Borgioli
-
- Teacher preparation programs do not always provide teachers with the kinds of experiences
and knowledge that are necessary for them to create sound classroom assessments. When reviewing these assessments,
administrators recognize that something isn’t quite right, but may lack the language or experience to provide teachers
with useful and meaningful feedback. This session will include an overview of psychometric terms, examples of common errors
in assessment design, and guiding questions to increase the quality and value of teachers’ classroom and program assessments.
-
Strand: Observation/Evaluation
- Education and Law Enforcement—the Right Formula to Address Cyberbullying
- Robert A. Bianchi, Esq., Morris County Prosecutor, Mark L. Castellano, Detective/Supervisor, Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, and Philip Patire
- The presenters will address the circumstances that surround the ever-increasing problem of cyberbullying. Strategies and suggestions will be offered to assist administrators and supervisors in handling this timely and important issue.
- Strand: Leadership Challenges
Session 2 - Afternoon
- A Literacy Revival has Arrived, and Technology is Bringing it Alive!
- Kimberly McLeod
- Technology is the new teacher, but when not used effectively, it doesn’t yield quantifiable results. This workshop focuses on higher-order cognitive processes that support positive academic achievement on standardized assessments by concentrating on both individual and family literacy development. Explore cutting-edge technological activities integrated with various tools of social media that enhance academic achievement and significantly improve parental involvement and family literacy while supporting a need for scholarly professional development opportunities for practitioners. This is not your typical workshop in computer technology; it intentionally builds higher-order thinking skills with achievement-related transferability.
- Strand: Technical Innovations
- Creating Coherence through PLCs
- Patricia Wright
- Learn about a powerful way to connect the new Common Core State Standards, student learning, professional learning, and teacher and leader effectiveness to the work of professional learning communities (PLCs). This session will provide an overview of a framework that enhances learning, teaching, and leading rather than focusing just on compliance. The framework integrates the development of PLCs with curriculum, assessment and shared leadership in a way that ensures student achievement. This is an excellent way to build your staffs’ understanding of the new Common Core.
- Strand: Instructional Leadership
- Toward Win-Win Evaluations
- Robert Fisicaro and Patricia Haney
- Research declares that if teacher observation and evaluation are completed in a manner that is consistent with modern educational theory, tremendous potential exists for elevating current performance levels among teachers and maintaining accountability. This presentation will help school leaders clearly focus on integrating four key components as part of a teacher evaluation system: Formed in a Partnership, Part of an Ongoing Cycle, Considerate of Student Learning Outcomes, and Differentiated Based on Need and Years of Experience.
- Strand: Observation/Evaluation
- Leading with Social Media
- Eric Sheninger
- The digital age in which we now live provides many tools that school leaders can leverage to become more effective and efficient, but many are skeptical of their value. Participants will learn practical strategies that will enable them to harness the power of social media and web 2.0 technologies.
- Strands: Technical Innovations and Leadership Challenges
- Clearing the Hurdles of Education
- Robin Moore
- This presentation will touch on the many educational challenges facing leaders. It will also present many solutions—those that worked, and those that didn’t. Challenges, such as making AYP, parental involvement, increasing student achievement, making the most of professional learning communities, and more will be addressed.
- Strand: Leadership Challenges
Friday, October 14
Morning
- Leading Response to Intervention in Middle School
- Presenter: Joanne Acerba
- Response to Intervention can be effectively implemented in middle school to ensure high levels of learning for all students in a professional learning community. Learn how to lead school improvement through the implementation of a Pyramid of Interventions designed to address the academic and behavioral needs of middle school students.
- Strand: Struggling Students
- Happy Writing Teachers + Happy Writers = Happy Administrators
- Suzanne Klein
- Suzanne Klein, former teacher and national presenter, will share well-designed Common Core-compliant writing lessons that help create happy teachers and happy writers. Learn how these practical strategies and lessons increase test scores and create a high-success atmosphere that improves the writing of all students. During this high-energy session, you will receive staff meeting handouts, evaluation tools, and teacher reflection sheets.
- Strand: Instructional Leadership
- Rounding it Up: Implementing Instructional Rounds to Increase Meaningful Evaluations in Our Schools
- Joseph Ricca
- The goal of this interactive session is to provide school leaders, with an introduction to Instructional Rounds (IR). The session will center on the fundamental necessities of creating an IR team and the advantages that can be achieved with regard to inter-rater reliability and increased evaluative effectiveness. Additionally, the session will outline and cover common misconceptions and pitfalls associated with the implementation of IRs and provide the school leader with practical knowledge to avoid these issues.
- Strand: Observation/Evaluation
- Utilizing Google Documents to Facilitate Effective, Sustainable, and Inspiring Professional Learning Communities
- Christine Miles and Michael Ritzius
- PLCs are proven to foster collaboration and collegiality in education. To build these communities effectively, one needs to employ tools that enhance communication and sustainability. Through the use of Google Documents, educational leaders provide a means for enhancing collaboration, collegiality, and community, while overcoming the challenges of scheduling and location.
- Strands: Technical Innovations and Leadership Challenges
- 21st Century Skills: Teaching a New Generation of Learners
- Susan Young and Linda Rourke
- Collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking—how prepared are we to lead our schools in providing an education that enables all children to develop these complex 21st-century learning skills? This presentation will engage administrators in thinking and talking with one another about ensuring high-impact literacy instruction for every learner.
- Strand: Instructional Leadership
- A Place for Us: Supporting Sexual Minority Youth in Schools
- Adam W. Hackel and Bill Robbins
- The goal of this workshop is to provide administrators a basic understanding of the needs of, and potential support for sexual minority youth, and share resources to best meet the needs of the school, the teachers, and students. This workshop will discuss the relevant issues faced by sexual minority youth in New Jersey schools today and discuss strategies, plans, laws, and activities administrators can use to make their schools better for all students.
Friday, October 14 - Afternoon
Keynote Address
- Assessing Teacher Effectiveness
- Charlotte Danielson
- Charlotte Danielson will present an overview of the current "scene" with respect to teacher evaluation and will offer guidance on how to design systems of teacher evaluation that are based on clear standards of practice. She will also discuss how to engage teachers in demonstrating their skills, participating in those activities that promote professional learning.
- Inspire Writing through Instructional Technology Integration in a Differentiated Classroom
- Eileen Daggett and Doug Walker
- In this session, the presenters will discuss technology tools to enhance the differentiated instructional paradigm within the general education population to meet the demands of the special education students as they participate in the general education setting. The central focus will include technology and Universal Design for Learning to enhance writing performance.
- Strand: Struggling Students
- Fostering Exemplary Learning Environments: Instructional Leadership in a New Age of Accountability
- Brian P. Chinni and Matthew Murphy
- High-quality instruction is the primary factor in ensuring academic success for all students. Unfortunately, our schools have long struggled to achieve consistency in the provision of high-quality instruction across all classrooms. In order to achieve this goal, we must first determine what actually defines exemplary instruction and ensure the implementation of an effective model for teacher evaluation and supervision, comprised of the essential elements that, in the end, will best serve to promote individual student academic success. To this end, instructional leaders must consider and pursue answers to the following essential questions:
-
- What does exemplary instruction look like?
- What does rigor look like within classroom instruction?
- What is the most important factor in effective supervision and evaluation?
- Strand: Instructional Leadership
- Formative Assessment and the Common Core Standards
- Presenter: Nancy Richmond
- Assessment is the process of gathering evidence of student learning to inform instructional decisions. The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning by providing information needed to direct the modification and refinement of instruction to better meet student strengths, needs, and interests. This workshop will examine a wide range of assessment practices that help to inform instruction—understanding summative, formative, common, and benchmark assessment; examining data that can inform instruction; adjusting instruction through quality questioning and strategic feedback; and helping students self-assess and set goals. Participants will receive sample activities and materials from the highly successful SMARTmove program.
- Strand: Instructional Leadership
- Great Schools Don’t Just Happen, They Are Made
- Presenter: Michael Vinella
- The development of an online portal via Moodle has expanded East Brunswick’s ability to become a 21st-century learning organization where all stakeholders are engaged. Teachers access student data, interactive curriculum guides, lesson plans, assessments, presentations, and more. Students and parents access specific online classrooms that further learning outside the instructional period.
- Strands: Technical Innovations, Leadership Challenges, and Instructional Leadership
- Making the Most of Resources: Alternative Strategies for Funding Innovation while Keeping to Your Mission
- Linda Eno and Marc Natanagara
- Approaches used at the Monmouth County Vocational School District’s Career Academies and Hazlet Township Public Schools to seek alternative funding and to fund innovative programs, will be presented. Workshop participants will engage in activities to help identify priorities, leverage past successes, and match action with mission.
- Strand: Leadership Challenges
2011 Award Recipients
Zina Duerbig, Principal, Howell High School, Howell Township, NJ
NJPSA Visionary High School Principal of the Year
NASSP/MetLife Principal of the Year
Tracey Severns, Ed.D., Principal, Mt. Olive Middle School, Budd Lake, NJ
NJPSA Visionary Elementary School Principal of the Year
National Distinguished Principal (sponsored by NAESP in cooperation with the US Department of Education and VALIC)
Thomas Storer, Vice Principal, Highland Regional High School, Blackwood, NJ
NJPSA Visionary High School Assistant Principal of the Year
NASSP/VIRCO Assistant Principal of the Year
Alphonsina Paternostro, Supervisor, World Language/Bilingual Education
Linden Schools, Linden, NJ
NJPSA Visionary Supervisor of the Year
Dorothy S. Strickland, Ph.D. Samuel DeWitt Proctor Professor Emerita, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Dr. Ernest L. Boyer Outstanding Educator Award (sponsored by NJASCD)