Below are samples of some of the services I offer for schools and organizations.
Keynote Presentations
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This keynote focuses on the relationship between assessment, motivation, and confidence, encouraging educators to find new ways to answer the following question: “How do I help students achieve their potential and grow their confidence?” This keynote is great for schools looking for tangible links between brain science and practice.
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Many educators are feeling a sense that student motivation and engagement is dropping, and schools are feeling this through dips in attendance, grades, and enthusiasm for learning. Combine that with the fact that technology and the rise of AI bring about fears of distancing ourselves from students and dehumanizing our practice, and it's clear we are at a tipping point. If we want to rehumanize our system and build student motivation back in meaningful ways, we have to critically examine the foundation of how we approach learning in our classrooms. That foundation? Our assessment systems. This session dives into the what, how, and why around the growing need to shift our assessment practices to better match what we know about student development, motivation research, and how the brain learns. Through stories, research, and practical examples of application, participants will walk away with a clear understanding of why the work matters, where best to focus our efforts, and how to get started.
One-hour Sessions or Two-hour Workshops
The sessions listed below can be done as a one-hour session that is more content-focused or as a two-hour workshop that is intended to give teachers time to build materials and practices to help with the implementation of the content.
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This session dives deep into the motivation research that connects with the assessment practices and the grading practices we use in our classrooms. Participants will walk away with an understanding of key motivation findings as well as how to leverage it in the classroom.
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How do we build scaffolds that students can use to guide their learning, enhance their metacognitive abilities, and build their motivation? That’s where learning progressions come in. This session looks at how to unpack standards, break them down to their smallest components, and then build sequences that support students in taking small steps toward success.
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Are you frustrated that it seems like your feedback isn’t making a difference? This session breaks down some key relationships between research and feedback practices, provides solutions to help students see meaning and patterns in feedback, and offer advice for how to lean on technology to enhance both the speed and effectiveness of feedback.
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Wanting to make a change with grading in your school but unsure where to start? This session is designed for educational leaders, both formal and informal, in school districts that are looking to examine and adjust grading practices to me more effective and equitable.
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Trying to build student can be difficult, so how do we design learning experiences that tap into the motivation students already have? This session focuses on three key elements we can bring in when designing learning experiences to build upon pre-existing motivation and drives that students have.
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Are you interested in moving towards standards-based practices but unsure what it looks like in terms of record-keeping? This session brings up key questions we should be asking about how we design grade books that prioritize learning and give students information they can use.
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While direct instruction holds value and has a place, how to do we introduce other instructional methods that ask students to take a more active role? This session introduces a few different activities that tap into deep levels of thinking to help students develop full, complex understanding of a topic.
One-day Workshops
These workshops go in-depth into topics over the course of a whole day, with the goal of having teachers walk out with everything they need to deepen their practice in the classroom.
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Looking for ways to help students take a more active role in the assessment process? This workshop covers everything from how to gather data so you can use it with students to how to run learning and/or grading conferences with students. The goal is that teachers walk away with a clear plan and resources for how to include students in the assessment process more meaningfully.
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This deep dive into feedback practices examines what we know about the brain, what we know about feedback, and how to make it all manageable in the classroom. The workshop examines feedback portfolios, technology tools to enhance the effectiveness of feedback, and the research behind what effective feedback looks like.
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This session is designed to help teachers learn to make sense of their standards and then turn them into something useful for students. Through the act of identifying power standards, unpacking those standards, building learning progressions, and then turning them into HyperRubrics, teachers will walk away with a set of HyperRubrics that they can use immediately to help students reflect on their learning and differentiate resources.
Long-term Partnerships
These offerings span multiple sessions, months, and years to help support implementation and adjustment throughout the process.
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Looking to get a team up and running with modernizing assessment practices but not sure where to start? This cohort includes six sessions to help educators update their grading practices. The cohort typically runs bi-weekly with office hours in between each meeting.
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Standards-based grading and modernized assessment practices are not something that change overnight. I recommend a three-year program to ensure the vision is clear, the staff is trained, and the community is in the loop. This package includes facilitated cohorts for teachers, implementation and planning support for leaders, and help in monitoring the effectiveness of the changes.
Testimonials
Who I’ve Worked With
Shuksan Middle School
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Enumclaw School District
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Helena School District
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Othello School District
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Everett School District
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Reardan School District
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Kennewick School District
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Auburn School District
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Aurora School District
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Snoqualmie Valley School District
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Shuksan Middle School • Enumclaw School District • Helena School District • Othello School District • Everett School District • Reardan School District • Kennewick School District • Auburn School District • Aurora School District • Snoqualmie Valley School District •