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Check Out your 2009 IC Program
10.5.2009The NDEA 2009 Instructional Conference is set Oct. 21-23 in Grand Forks. Featured speaker will be Marilee Sprenger, an educator with extensive experience in elementary and secondary and university settings. View the final program.
Sprenger specializes in staff development training that interprets educational research into practical applications and techniques. Since the 1980s, she has actively pursued the goal of remaining current on learning techniques and how the brain functions. As a classroom teacher, she has taken the suggestions of current brain research and applied them at all levels.
Sprenger is currently an Adjunct Professor on Brain Compatible Teaching Strategies at Aurora University, IL.
Her keynote address is entitled: Brain Compatible Teaching: What every educator needs to know.
Sprenger explains we've learned more about the brain and how it functions in the past two decades than in all of recorded history. "Today's imaging techniques allow us to look at the specific brain areas a person uses when recalling a noun versus a verb, or when listening to music versus composing a song," she said. "The more we understand about the brain, the better we'll be able to educate it."
Sprenger will also present to the Gifted and Talented Section. Her workshop is entitled: From Attention to Retention: Seven Steps for Learning and Memory. Memory is the only evidence we have of learning. In this session you will be introduced to seven steps to take information through the various memory processes to create permanent memories. The steps cover attention to retention and there will be an emphasis on the importance of creating emotional memories every step of the way. Strategies will be shared to use immediately with students.
In a Thursday afternoon breakout session, Sprenger's session entitled: Four Ways to Help You and Your Students Remember, will share, model and practice brain rules and brain tools that teachers can take back to their classrooms and use immediately. "As educators, we change brains every day," said Sprenger, "let's wire them for success. Impress your students with your ability to build their memory powers."
Sectionals are also bringing in some top names speakers. For instance, the Art Sectional is bringing in Monte Yellow Bird Sr. Yellow Bird, known in the art world as Black Pinto Horse, is a nationally known artist, cultural/educational consultant, presenter, and storyteller. A member of the Arikara and Hidatsa Nation from White Shield, ND, he currently resides in Great Falls, MT, where he served during the fall of 2007 through the spring of 2008 as the Artist-in-Residence with the Great Falls Public Schools and Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. When he is not performing educational programs throughout the United States, or working in his studio, Yellow Bird hardly misses an opportunity to share his insights, talents and experiences at national and regional events, as well as pursue other art opportunities as time allows.
Black Pinto Horse is devoted to a positive expression of the harmonic balance between humanity and nature. Through his art and teaching, he offers a multitude of gifts, and his optimism shines through in his motto: "We are on this earth for such a short time, if you're going to shine, shine brightly." Rife with symbolism, Black Pinto Horse's visual expressions honor his spiritual roots, indigenous heritage, and modern and contemporary art traditions through a bold use of color and design combined with a pictorial narrative that activates the viewer's imagination. He is motivated by a passionate desire to build connections between the past and the present with a hopeful eye toward a brighter future built around empathy and understanding between the diverse communities of which the nation is comprised.
To learn more about Black Pinto Horse, visit the artist's website, www.blackpintohorsefinearts.com.
Drivers Education Sectional will feature Lou Gervino, Manager of Driver Education & Training, Manitoba Public Insurance, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Gervino's session entitled: The 60-Second Driver is a series of one-minute commercials that covers the rules of the road, driving techniques and general road safety and driving information.
FLAND's presenter, Susan Gross, is an educational consultant and has been invited to consult throughout the US and internationally. She is passionate about teaching, particularly foreign language.
Participants leave her workshops inspired by her dedication and enlightened by her fresh, clear presentation. She shows how to help students learn faster and remember content longer. Her teaching techniques are research-based, effective and most importantly... they work! They are so effective in fact, that it is not unusual for participants to return three or four times!
The Library Media Sectional features Dan Fisher, who is a former banker now author living in Fargo.
Dan started The Copper River Group about a year ago and spends his time as a consultant to financial institutions on technology and payment issues along with writing and publishing books on a variety of topics.
Music's top presenter will be Dr. Chung Park who is music director and conductor of the Idaho State Civic Symphony and Professor of Upper Strings at Idaho State University. He is also music director and conductor of the critically acclaimed Miami-based living music ensemble, Project Copernicus.
Dr. Park has earned accolades as both a conductor and string pedagogue. He recently received the "Distinguished Service Award" from the North Dakota chapter of the American String Teachers Association and his conducting has been lauded as "revelatory" by composer Steve Reich and "masterful" by Lawrence Johnson of the Miami Herald.
Dr. Park has held positions at the Universities of North Dakota, Miami, Chicago, and Indiana University-South Bend, as well as youth orchestra positions in Grand Forks, ND, Miami, FL, and South Bend, IN. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, the University of Illinois, Western Michigan University, and he earned his doctorate at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL. Further studies include the Monteux School, South Carolina Conductor's Institute, Tafelmusik Institute, Aspen Festival and the International Festival-Institute at Roundtop, Texas. Following his master's work at the University of Illinois, Park studied in Hannover, Germany, with violist Hatto Beyerle of the Alban Berg Quartet.
Linda Jenkins, the field-based coordinator for Response to Intervention (RTI) for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, will be presenting workshops on Response to Intervention (RTI).
Her 40-year career in education began in Arizona with Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Arizona. She then taught in Tucson, AZ; Shreveport, LA; Osan AFB, South Korea; Bountiful, UT; and Grand Forks, ND. She was the director of special education for the Grand Forks Special Education Unit for 15 years.
Response to Intervention (RTI) is the practice of providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student need, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and applying student-response data to important educational decisions.
RTI should be applied to decisions in general education, remedial education and special education to create a well-integrated system of instruction/ intervention guided by student outcome data. This session will cover critical implementation components, resources available, research, and wisdom from the field for participants interested in beginning or reviewing the RTI process.
The Alerus will be the site for the main speaker and exhibits, and the Canad Inn (attached to the Alerus) will be the headquarters hotel. Sectionals will be held at Red River High School. During the General Session, Governor John Hoeven will announce the North Dakota Teacher of the Year, which is sponsored by the Department of Public Instruction. Instructional Conference Chair this year is NDEA Retired Member Dan Hinnenkamp.
