2019 Summer Season
The Connection between the Brain and Social Emotional Learning (Day 1)
This keynote session by Ken Wesson is the continuation of last summer. Going deeper: impact on student learning as a means to facilitate teaching and learning.
Presenter: Ken Wesson
The Connection between the Brain and Social Emotional Learning (Day 2)
This keynote session by Ken Wesson is the continuation of last summer. Going deeper: impact on student learning as a means to facilitate teaching and learning. Ken will guide people through integrating brain-based strategies into their classroom.
Presenter: Ken Wesson
SEL Resources and the LCFF/Whole Child Resource Map
IPD general session
Presenters: Tom Herman & Hilva Chan
IPD general session
Presenter: Charlie Appelstein
Presenter: Ed De La Vega
Trauma Informed Care: Educator Edition
Presenters: Stephanie Guzman & Rafael Gonzalez
Drawing Out the Best in Your Students: How to Engage More of the Brain to Optimize Learning
IPD general session
Presenter: Jon Pearson
Classroom Management through a Social Emotional Learning Lens
Presenters: Paula Kondratko & Tom Kerman
101 Ways to Energize Your Chapter
With 101 different examples of how Union members have built strength through new ideas and initiatives, you will leave with lots of ideas that you can incorporate at your site as soon as you get back to work! No longer will your members say “been there, done that” because there will be new ways to engage your membership as well as talking points on how to ensure you can implement changes for the better. With so many ideas in 90 minutes, get ready to take notes because the ideas are going to be non‐stop!
Presenters: Karmen Ortloff & Nate Williams
In an era of mass online activism, how can we use digital tools and tactics to harness the power of energized allies and members? Join this training for an overview of the tools we have at our fingertips with Action Network as well as a discussion on best practices and tips for helping actions cut through the noise and build power for your local.
Presenter: Rachel Warino
Make Your Membership Soar – A Leader’s Guide to Planning, Processing and Promoting
Zooming through the sky, don’t let this pass you by! All local leaders, membership chairs and site reps play a crucial part in recruiting, engaging and maintaining membership for your local. Come get familiar with the steps, forms and timelines for membership. Learn how to explain CTA’s maintenance of dues, understand your role in member retention and become aware of the benefits important to all CTA members. Discover CTA’s membership resources and tools to aid in developing and executing your member engagement plans.
Presenters: Sam Wu, Zayar Hliathu & Steve Perry
Red for Ed Nationwide Wins and What’s Next
From West Virginia to Oklahoma, North Carolina to Arizona, educators walked out of their classrooms for their students and the profession. “How can WE put students first when YOU put teachers last?” read many of the signs held on the state capitol lawns. Hear about how and why this red tide swept across the country in states that have been traditionally red politically and where in some cases bargaining and strikes are prohibited. What can we learn from this growing movement and where do we go from here?
Presenters: Brian Beallor, Charles Holmes & Mitch Olson
Emergency Response Systems: Help When You Need It
Are you prepared? This session is a presentation between the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the CTA Center for Organizing and Bargaining. Communities we serve, live and teach in have been severely impacted by a series of disasters. Come listen to key learnings and best practices to help you be better prepared to respond to emergencies and to assist school districts, local chapters and members respond to and recover from disasters.
Presenters: Lynne Olson & Arleigh Kidd
2018-19 Winter/Spring Season
Supporting the Inclusion of Students With IEP’s Who Have Behavior Challenges (All Grades)
Do you have students in your class who engage in problem behaviors? Do they distract their peers and interrupt instructional time? Would you like some information on how to support them? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should consider attending this session. Students continue to engage in problem behavior because it has a history of being effective. This presentation will discuss the relationship between function and behavior and what teachers can do to affect problem behavior. We will discuss user friendly strategies to you can implement in your classroom to make the problem behavior ineffective, reinforce replacement behaviors and shape the desired behavior.
Presented by: Janaki Rao
To Your Health (All Grades)
Teaching is the second most stressful profession in America. Participants will learn skills for minimizing their exposure to stressful situations, for increasing their personal resistance to the negative impact of stress, and for reacting positively when stress still works its way in. The session includes audience participation and humor. I have learned over the years of doing this presentation that it is difficult to talk about stress without also discussing sleep, nutrition and fitness. Therefore, those subjects are also integrated into the presentation.
Presenter: Dan Wold
Team Teaching and Inclusion for ALL students (Grades 6‐12)
Districts are routinely recommending the general ed classroom as the default setting for students with disabilities whenever possible and whenever appropriate. This session provides numerous strategies for teachers to implement to support the inclusion of students with special needs in general education classes. Access to Common Core standards do not create roadblocks for students with disabilities, especially when savvy teachers join with a trusted colleague to facilitate co-teaching. Researched based co-teaching strategies along with accommodations for instruction to meet the needs of all students are presented. Co-teaching benefits general ed teachers, special ed teachers and improves access to the curriculum and instruction for ALL students.
Presented by: Ellen Gervase
Universal Design for Learning (Grade K)
Participants will receive an overview of the Universal Design for Learning framework based on educational and brain research. UDL is a flexible teaching approach that can be customized for individual needs. It is a set of principles for curriculum development that gives all individuals equal opportunities to learn. Participants will also have an opportunity to create a sample lesson plan with these principals that can be used in their classroom immediately.
Presented by: Nancy Lara
Dominoes in the Park – Using Games to Build Positive Relationships (Grades 6‐12)
This session will focus on how the use of games, particularly dominoes, helped to build positive, non-academic relationship with students, faculty/staff and the school community and how to create a fun, safe environment that encourage active participation, a willingness to learn something new, and how to apply those experiences into a more focused academic approach in class.
Presented by: Jeff Patterson & Rozmy Miranda
From Brain Science to Instructional Practice (All Grades)
Keynote speaker, neuroscientist Kenneth Wesson, talks about the connection between executive functioning and the social-emotional link to the brain.
Presented by: Kenneth Wesson
Classroom Management Tips and Tricks (All Grades)
Are you looking for ways to improve your classroom management or need new ideas? Whether you are a veteran teacher or a brand new teacher, we have ideas and resources for you.
Presented by: Jennifer D’Antoni
Writing Basics: Are You Playing with a Full Deck? (Grades 6-12)
This session is about how to break down the teaching of deductive writing and allowing the writer to be the decision maker. No more five paragraph essays; as the writers they decide the length. Learn how to teach students how to make the decisions in order to make the right writing moves to communicate and respond to the prompt.
Presented by: Dawn Horwath
March Madness: A Mathematical Competition (Grades 3-8)
The NCAA Basketball Tournament, commonly known as “March Madness,” offers a wonderful opportunity to practice or review computational skills in a competitive setting. In this activity, which can run concurrently with the actual sporting event, each student represents a college and “competes” with another student in his or her bracket. The court of play is math problems dictated by the turn of a playing card. Strategies and luck come into play, but the overall emphasis is on mathematical accuracy. Participants at this session will engage in this exciting event.
Presented by: Michael Stern
Getting to the Core of the Arts (Grades 3-12)
In this session we will learn about the new national core arts standards and how they can be effectively paired with UDL strategies to assist in effective arts-integration and core arts instructional implementation and practices.
Presented by: Robert Bassett
Understanding Universal Design For Learning (Grades K-5)
Why UDL? Universal Design for Learning is a framework based on brain research that helps us understand how to make teaching relevant for our students and guides us in creating flexible learning environments. Come to my workshop as I will share some UDL practices I use in my classroom every day and leave with a UDL lesson ready to try on your own!
Presented by: Nancy Lara
Taking A Closer Look at Fiction Text Elements (Grades K-2)
How do you introduce Text Elements to your students? This presentation will give participants 5-6 weeks worth of material to introduce the elements of text fiction to primary students. Sample charts, book titles and lesson plans will be shared that are intended to engage and motivate students to understand the foundation of fiction.
Presented by: Nancy Lara
What is a union contract? What is collective bargaining? How do these impact new educators? And how do new educators impact them?
Presented by: John Green
Secrets of the Fulfilled Teacher (Grades All)
What do happy and satisfied teachers do to thrive in the profession? This interactive session addresses the socio-emotional challenges facing new teachers and what thriving teachers do to renew themselves in order to continue to give their best. Research findings in the field along with practical advice from long-time veteran teachers will be shared. Teachers will have the opportunity to create an action plan for themselves.
Presented by: Leslie Young
Smarter Balanced Roadmap (Grades 3-8)
This workshop, taught by State Network Educators and Digital Library authors, is designed to take you on journey through the Smarter Balanced Assessment System (CAASPP) and all the components that it has to offer. The goal of this session is to allow participants the opportunity to experience all of the tools, lessons and assessments that are freely available to California educators. As you take this journey with us you will see how the Common Core State Standards and the California Framework directly connect to the Smarter Balanced Assessment System (CAASPP), the Interim Assessment Blocks (IABs) and the Digital Library. We will also explore how each component supports format familiarity while providing teachers with valuable formative assessment data to help with differentiated instruction and resulting in a low stress, highly successful summative assessment experience for educators and students alike.
Presented by: Tonja Parkin & Cassandra Gartung
Educators Empowering Educators: New Educators Sharing Successes and Learnings
What is the link between “women” and “power?” Participants will learn about the sources of power and how to use power effectively.
Grades: All
Presenters: Sandy Thornton
Bullseye! Student-Centered Pedagogy
Students Centered Pedagogy is a strength-based approach to meeting all students’ needs within the constructs in any classroom. The emphasis is on learning over teaching. In the student-centered classroom, the student literally becomes the center of all the learning experiences derived within and through the classroom environment. Keeping the emphasis on student learning is the best way to ensure effective learning outcomes. The strategies we will explore will help attendees create a more student-centered approach to honing innovative educational practices. In this session we will delve into the strengths-based approach of creating and maintaining a student-centered approach to all classroom educational practices.
Grades: All
Presenters: Robert Bassett & Al Rabanera
“If you understand that the problems children cause or the challenging behaviors we see in our schools are often times the evidence and result of experiences they are unable to interpret and process with maturity, then you don’t want to miss The Resilient Teacher workshop! Our focus is on the strengthening of “ADULT” character traits, communication skills and strategies that can be applied across all school-based relationships that will promote positive behavior in the school environment. This session will particularly benefit classroom teachers, interventionist, administrators, counselors, support professionals, safety/discipline teams, classified staff (i.e security, bus drivers, cafeteria, etc.), mentors, parents and all ADULTs to be “responsibly” engaged in a proven practice of relationships and communication principles that help children and youth develop the necessary skills to overcome and manage life circumstances that may get in the way of positive behavior choices.”
Grades: All
Presenters: David Brown & Aisha Blanchard Young
S.H.E. is Me! A curriculum for Girls
S.H.E. (Strong, Healthy, & Educated) is Me! A Curriculum for Girls is a group intervention designed to help girls learn and practice strategies that will help tackle the challenges faced in today’s world. This session should particularly benefit preteen and teen girls through increasing social competencies including the ability to deal with persuasive peer and media messages.
Grades: 9-12
Presenters: Lisa Pynn & Natasha Kohls
Kalonji Saterfield has over 18 years of experiencing working in the field of education at the K-12, community college and four-year university levels. He has been an employee of the Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) for 14 years and currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies for the district’s Santa Ana College campus.
Grades: All
Presenter: Kalonji Saterfield
Student‐led Conferences for Student-centered Education (All Grades)
How can we get students to see the benefits of their education in relation to their own goals so they take greater ownership of their learning? How can we better individualize instruction to increase content mastery? How can we increase positive communication about school between students and their family? How can we more consistently promote reflection and growth? How can we create meaningful speaking experiences for students? How can we do all of this while covering the content? Come join us to learn why we love student-led conferences and then design your own with our fail-proof plans and resources!
Presented by: Marisa Thompson, Brooke Tobia
How to Create Your Own Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Classroom (Grades 9‐12)
This interactive workshop will provide resources to help all educators create their own UDL classroom and implement UDL lessons with their teaching style. UDL is an evidence base platform that is designed to assist teachers with the alignment of curriculum with CCSS & NGSS.
Presenter: Raul Miranda
Gamification: Using MinecraftEdu in the Classroom (Grades 3‐8)
Minecraft is an extremely popular game with many students. This presentation aims to give teachers tools to use MinecraftEdu in the classroom. The goal will be to develop projects to help students demonstrate understanding using Minecraft. Teachers can use Minecraft to asses students in mathematics, ELA, science, and social studies.
Presented by: Christopher Hazelton
Building Empathy Through Global Communication and Collaboration (Grades 3‐12)
Teachers will see how global projects organized around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can encompass Common Core Standards while teaching empathy and compassion. This session will feature a live Skype meeting with educators from around the world discussing such collaborative global projects as Human Differences, Climate Change and Mirror School.
Presented by: Tammy Dunbar
Membership Engagement: Teacher-Led Professional Development
To maintain a strong union presence and to keep our members engaged, an equally important role of a local association is to provide professional development for its members. The Instructional Leadership Corps (ILC) project, a partnership between CTA and Stanford University, is a teacher-led professional development project focused on implementing the California Standards and Assessments. The ILC project has 240 educators spread equally among each of the 4 CTA regions. Come hear how ILC members are engaging our members and building capacity in their local areas.
Presented by: Marlene Fong
Bomb Threats, Intruders, Active Shooters – Be Prepared for an Emergency!
Will you be prepared when the emergency happens? Unexpected incidents, everything from fires and earthquakes to bomb threats and intruders, occur at schools every day. What can you do to make schools safer for your members? This workshop will address strategies for working with school staff, parents and the community to create a safe environment for our school employees and students. Have you ever thought of what you would do in a lockdown? What if it was during recess or lunch?
Included will be suggestions on how you can respond if a crisis occurs in your district and what to do in the event of a lengthy lockdown. The staff will also share examples of assisting members during violent events, natural disasters and other incidents that create a loss.
Presenter: Dave Brown, Dan Kivett
Cultivating Creativity and Building Strong Relationships with IFT Grants
This session will provide an overview of how the Institute for Teaching’s (IFT) strength-based approach has empowered CTA members to transform their classrooms, schools and school communities with innovative ideas and student-centered learning practices. Over the last 9 years, IFT grants have provided over 3 Million dollars in resources to fund the passions that our members feel for their work and their students. The IFT awards grants range from $5,000 to $20,000 for classroom or school site projects. Learn how teachers are building relationships and cultivating change from the classroom level up. Information about the Thrively strength-based Student Assessment will also be included
Presented by: Anita Benitas, Dick Gale
How to Use Social Media to Build Your Personal Brand and Advocate for Education
This workshop will use real-life examples to show how educators are using Twitter and Instagram to build their own brand, personal learning network and participate in national conversations about education issues and advocacy. Learn about what makes a good Twitter bio, education-related hashtags and social media best practices. Educators will leave this workshop with a better understanding of content creation, social media strategies and resources for the classroom. Great workshop for educators who want to learn how hashtags will help build your network and enhance your experience at #CTANEW!
Presented by: Sam DeMuro & Terry Ng
I teach in a low socioeconomic, urban community in southern California. And I want you to know about these kids and the teachers who teach them. This presentation is an intimate look into the lives of us teachers, these students, their family lives and the understanding that we are all connected, regardless of how different our lives may look on the outside; a reminder to all what joy, humor and enlightenment children can bring into our lives.
Presenter: Angela Censoplano Holmes
College and Career Readiness in the Classroom
Creating a college and career readiness culture doesn’t have to be a daunting task. This workshop will provide fun, creative and practical ways to promote college and career readiness in your classroom. Presenter will share activities, lesson plans, and school-wide events that have exposed her students to the college and career exploration from TK-5th grade.
Presented by: Erika Zamora
Teaching Toward “WOW!” The Secret to Student Engagement
Learn practical techniques that work like magic. Teaching toward “WOW!” is teaching toward amazement not just comprehension. It is tapping the wonder and “genius” of childhood itself, when we learned from everything with all of ourselves. It is teaching facts, understanding, and judgment through the senses, imagination, and emotions. It is remembering that the best teaching is always a creative act, a performing art, and a place where imagination builds intellect, understanding thrives on mystery, and students listen with their passions not just their ears.
Presented by: Jon Pearson
So, You Want to Go Into Modeling? (Middle School Math Modeling)
ANYone can do it, with paper! Spark deeper understanding by Modeling with Mathematics (practice 4). These powerful tools represent core middle school concepts of fractions, ratios, proportions and percents. Bar models and double number lines are excellent for building and solidifying students’ concepts of number relationships like fractions, ratios, rates, proportions and percents. They also assist students as a tool in interpreting and modeling relationships in word problems. Spark deeper student understanding by using these models to connect concrete to abstract representations. Also known as tape diagrams, fraction strips, or length models, the only required material is paper!
Presenter: Rebecca Williams
The Secret to Success in the Classroom
In this fast-paced, strategy-filled session, Rick Morris will show you how to create a happy, productive classroom.
Presented by: Rick Morris
In this session, Rick will demonstrate the use of sound makers and music to help you reduce the amount of talking you do during the day while also helping students to become independent, self-directed learners. Additionally, you’ll learn how a handful of classroom gestures can improve the quality of communication during lessons and discussions.
Presenter: Rick Morris
Calming the Chaos on the Playground and Gym
Teaching outside or in a gym, often with extra large classes, presents unique and challenging teaching environments. This sessions offers dozens of proven class management strategies for large groups on the playground and in the gym.
Presented by: Carrie Flint
Student Voice and Choice with Genius Hour
Engage your students with Genius Hour. A time for each and every student to learn and discover what they are passionate about and share it with others. This interactive session will provide avenues for getting started, tools for helping students develop complex questions, and plenty of resources to help the teacher.
Presented by: Karin Barone
A talk about discipline with Q&A
Rick Morris will explain his theories on discipline and take questions from the audience.
Presenter: Rick Morris
This session will explore how one middle school started their “Everyone for Equality” club and highlight the obstacles we faced, how we overcame them, how we have evolved over time, and how we have found success within our student demographics. We determined, on our campus, that we needed a space where students could explore a variety of topics without fear of judgement or ridicule. This session should particularly benefit individuals looking to provide an extracurricular club/activity for students who are interested in social justice/leadership issues specific to the needs of their student populations.
Presented by: Kelly Baraki & Lori Caldeira
This session is for educators familiar with FAIR and who want to move this important work forward in their classroom, school, and district. This secondary collaborative professional learning will work to create standards-aligned grade-level lesson plans that support FAIR and the History/ Social Science Framework. This session should particularly benefit history/ social science teachers and secondary advocates.
Presenter: Melanie Bean
Interpreting the law can be cumbersome and frustrating when others create obstacles for full implementation. Find out what’s new, how to message around the attacks, and how to become a stronger advocate.
Presenter: C Scott Miller
2018 Summer Season
Inspire a Positive Growth Mindset in Your Students and Yourself
What is growth mindset versus a fixed mindset, and how does it directly relate to the Common Core Standards? Come investigate your own mindset and how it affects your teaching and your student’s learning. Experience powerful videos, interactive activities, annotated note-taking strategies and quality questioning techniques that you can use now and for the rest of your career. Inspire your students to persevere through rigorous challenges and enjoy the discovery and learning process!
Presented by: Alyson Hoberect
Emotion, the Brain and the Growth Mindset
Keynote session by neuroscientist Kenneth Wesson.
Social Emotional Learning Competencies/Teaching Practices
Attendees will explore and evaluate themselves using the ten Social Emotional Learning competencies from Teaching the Whole Child from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders. Participants will collaboratively explore real life application of SEL in the classroom and be able to take home ideas that can be incorporated into the classroom on the first day of school.
Presenter: Jennifer D’Antoni
What’s Missing In Our Classrooms
Keynote session by Lee Mun Wah – documentary filmmaker, author, poet, Asian storyteller, educator, community therapist, and master diversity trainer.
League of Extraordinary Learners: Building Teams That Work
Make space for students’ voices and agency build classroom culture and learning around communal (sociocultural) talk and task structures.
Presenter: Angela Der Ramos
Responding to Discriminatory Incidents at School
Bonus session by Lee Mun Wah.
From Enrollment to Engagement – The New Member Lifecycle
Engaging and organizing members is essential and rewarding! It is critical for Membership Chairs and local leaders to know how to sign up a new member, answer the tough questions, know what to do with enrollment forms and understand how to update and share membership information with CTA. Discover CTA’s Association Management tools and Membership Chair resources which will aid locals in their member engagement plans. Also included is a step-by-step guide to successfully committing individuals to membership with the new CTA Commitment Card. This personalized Commitment Card is used by locals to recommit members to the organization. We’ll share success stories and how you can get started in your local.
CTA 360Pro & CTA 360 App – Using the Power of Data to Organize
This session will introduce CTA 360Pro, the updated desktop and laptop access point to CTA’s Association Management System. This game changer for local leaders opens the door to powerful individual information, leadership roles and reports.
