How do educators maintain a positive learning environment while addressing the increasing challenges in education today? Dr. Debbie Silver discusses how educators can maintain a sense of self as they navigate the current shifts in public and parental support as well as the increasing fall-out from behavioral and emotional issues in students. Through her research and expert understanding of human behavior, Debbie provides insights into how to maintain one’s sanity and sustainability while finding fulfillment in our jobs. Using her well-known candor and sense of humor, Debbie offers participants a genuine and thought-provoking look at how the adults at school can empower themselves.

TIME: 1-3 Hours

Based on her best-selling book, Drumming to the Beat of Different Marchers – Finding the Rhythm for Differentiating Learning, Debbie Silver offers her wisdom and humor to answer the question, “How do we engage students from diverse backgrounds and experiences?” She demonstrates how to capitalize on student strengths and elicit greater achievement gains and higher motivation among students. Dr. Silver shares her view on what she considers a non-negotiable in education – that every student deserves a reasonable chance at success. Participants will leave with great ideas for preparing 21st century learners.

TIME: 1-3 Hours

Do you ever ask ever yourself, “Just how am I supposed to motivate these kids?” The real question, of course, is how do we help them to motivate themselves? Based on extensive research for her book, Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8: Raising and Teaching Self-Motivated Learners, Dr. Debbie Silver offers sometimes surprising new findings about fundamental ways we can change our teaching practices to help kids become self-motivated. Come prepared to have your thinking challenged and to receive a multitude of strategies that help learners develop internal motivation and resiliency.

TIME: 1-3 Hours

For students to thrive in their frenzied, high-speed, hyper-connected environments, it is imperative for them to learn important competencies that go beyond academic standards. In their book, Teaching Kids to Thrive: Building the Other Essential Skills for Success, Debbie Silver and co-writer, Dedra Stafford, explore topics such as mindfulness, controlling executive functions, student agency, resilience, perseverance, responsibility, integrity, empathy, and gratitude. In this thought-provoking presentation, Dr. Debbie Silver examines how educators can help students develop their social and emotional learning (SEL) skills to find success both now and in the future. Debbie combines meaningful points about the importance of Thrive skills with tips on how to seamlessly integrate SEL skills into current curriculum preK-12.

TIME: 1-3 Hours

Classroom Management Through
Positive, Proactive Strategies

This session is a MUST for new teachers, teachers who are having difficulty with classroom management, teachers who need to be “recharged,” or administrators who want to help their staffs work towards being more student-centered. Dr. Debbie Silver offers simple, practical, helpful tips on everything from how to begin the very first day of school to how to trouble-shoot with disruptive students. Included are tips on student-centered discipline along with basic classroom routines and procedures. Teachers in the session laugh, think, and go back to their classrooms with scores of ideas on how to establish a classroom environment that facilitates learning.

Connecting with Parents:
Building Partnerships in the Community

Today, more than ever, schools need parents as partners in the matter of educating their children. In this presentation, Dr. Debbie Silver offers proven procedures and basic, sensible methods for engaging parents at every level. Dr. Silver also explores the dynamics of interpersonal relationships when dealing with parents. She offers a twist in perspective in that she has five very different sons who went through the public school system with varying degrees of success. The importance of professionalism, positive interaction, and compassion are emphasized.

Cooperative Learning for
21st Century Learners

Research clearly demonstrates that students who frequently engage in well-structured cooperative learning settings are better prepared to meet the challenges of future job requirements. This workshop is designed to help teachers set up a learning environment that fosters collaboration and cooperation among class members. In this session, participants work collaboratively on engaging tasks while practicing basic cooperative learning strategies. Beginners gain confidence to try it, while experienced cooperative grouping managers acquire new ideas that are aligned with project-based learning and needed 21st century skills.

Practicing “Safe Stress”:
Finding Passion and Beating Burn-Out*

Are all the changes going on in education driving you crazy? Do you feel that you have been stretched as thin as you’re going to stretch? For educators to have a profound educational and personal impact on the lives of students, they must meet and take care of their own needs. This session offers practical ideas and tips for recognizing and dealing with anxiety and burnout. This empowering, interactive, and entertaining presentation helps teachers discover the keys to honing their personal strength areas and to lowering stress in the work environment. New research, audience participation, and humor are used to illustrate how educators can learn to reduce and manage unwanted stress. Learn to laugh, love, and live a more satisfying life.

Understanding and Dealing
with “Difficult” People

Do you ever think about how much better your life would be if it weren’t for all those annoying other people? Dr. Debbie Silver explores some of the inherent traits people have and explains why they behave the way they do. She discusses learning styles, generational differences, and the differences between introverts and extroverts. This session is fun, insightful, and great for working on a positive school climate. Teacher to teacher, teacher to parent, and teacher to administrator relationships are examined. Come see if you recognize yourself as well as those around you.