Keynote Addresses

Dr. Marcia Tate - Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites

Marcia L. Tate, Ed. D. is the former Executive Director of Professional Development for the DeKalb County School System, Decatur, Georgia.  During her 30-year career with the district, she has been a classroom teacher, reading specialist, language arts coordinator, and staff development director.  She received the 2001 Distinguished Staff Developer Award for the State of Georgia and her department was chosen to receive the Exemplary Program Award for the state.

Marcia is currently an educational consultant and has taught over 250,000 administrators, teachers, parents, and business and community leaders throughout the world.  She is the author of five best-sellers. Participants in her workshops refer to them as the best ones they have ever experienced since Marcia uses the 20 strategies outlined in her books to actively engage her audiences.

Dr. Tate will be presenting the following sessions at the 2010 Mighty Peace Teachers’ Convention:

1. Keynote: Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites - "If students don’t learn the way we teach them, then we must teach them the way they learn. Experience 20 brain compatible strategies that maximize understanding and memory. Use music, metaphor and movement to increase academic achievement for all students. Explore research that shows why these strategies are preferable to others.  Ensure that brains retain key concepts, not only for tests, but for life! ” Download the 20 Strategies bookmark.

2. Shouting Won’t Grow Dendrites: Techniques for Managing a Brain-Compatible Classroom - “Would you like to eliminate at least 50% of your behavior concerns just by the way you use color, music, lighting, and seating to create a brain-compatible physical environment?  Would you like to eliminate an additional 40% by developing a proactive classroom management plan consisting of procedures, celebrations, and consequences?  How about the most challenging 10%?  Experience techniques for dealing with your most chronic behavior problems.  Learn to manage all students without raising your voice.”

What are the skills and mindsets needed for the next generation of students entering the workforce? What are the demands we should make upon them so that they can reach their goals, leverage their innate skills and make smart use of technology? How can we move beyond our current pre-occupation with standardized assessments and large-scale testing programs in order to achieve a holistic approach to teaching and learning? What are the wicked problems and challenges that we should be using to bring out the talents and focus our teaching so that students can be successful, not only at school but in the community? These questions provide the starting point for this exploration of the nature of twenty first century learning - real learning for the real world.

Stephen Murgatroyd is an experienced educator who has taught in schools, Colleges and Universities and worked with a variety of organizations in the fields of educational research, leadership development and organizational change. A former Professor of Management and Applied Psychology at Athabasca University and founder of the world's first online MBA, Stephen has authored over twenty five books, several hundred articles and book chapters and has worked as a management consultant for Governments, business and non profits around the world.

Good education is become a hidden treasure that policy-makers are searching for around the world. Dr. Sahlberg uses four main dimensions of high performing education system in his presentation about the Finnish experience in education reform. These are high overall participation at all levels of schooling, good learning
outcomes, wide-spread equity and reasonable education spending. His main message is that it is possible to build a good education system using alternative education reform principles that differ from competition and testing-driven reforms, and to do that with reasonable cost. He concludes by discussing the question: What counts as learning in Finland?
Born in Finland, Dr. Pasi Sahlberg taught and researched at the University of Helsinki and worked as a senior policy analyst with the Ministry of Education. In 2003, Sahlberg worked as a senior education specialist for the World Bank in Washington, DC. He has worked in more than 35 countries where he has trained teachers and leaders and helped governments to improve education policies and implement system-wide education reforms. Since June 2007, Sahlberg has worked as a Lead Education Specialist with the European Training Foundation, in Torino, Italy.

Ken Valgardson - Observations Of A Chalk Dust Encrusted Polyester Clad Educator

Since 1978, Ken’s years of teaching in rural Alberta has given him an inside look at the humor of Education. He has taken the point of view of School as a student, teacher, and as his daughter goes through school, a parent. Ken has entertained as a standup comedian across Canada and even entertained U.N. troops in the Middle East.
Ken’s presentation will motivate teachers to look at the positives of the profession and will be a great way to end this year’s convention. You will laugh as Ken says publicly what you have been thinking or only saying in the staff room. Ken’s message is a simple one; we are all in one of the best professions in the world and we must try our best, but along the way we must stop to laugh.