Workshops for Schools

Amy supports curriculum design and implementation, communication, and instruction and assessment work with teachers, staff, and administrators in their day-to-day work with students and colleagues. Workshops can run between 60 and 120 minutes and will offer research-based best practices. Half-day, full-day, and retreat options are also available for more in-depth work. These are hands-on programs, and attendees will have the opportunity to connect practical strategies with their current practice in large-group and small-group breakout sessions. Workshops can accommodate up to 100 people and can be offered on a rotating basis to include more.

*Each workshop is customized

Amy Speaker's Reel

Topics Include:

Curriculum and Instruction using Understanding By Design (UBD)

Amy will help your faculty and administration develop units of study using the Understanding by Design (UBD) framework. This unit will include enduring understandings, essential questions, differentiated learning activities, a summative assessment plan, and a systematic instructional plan with measurable objectives. Learning activities can be standards-based, will include differentiated instruction, will build on one another, and will include authentic formative assessments. This workshop can function as a train-the-trainer model or Amy can walk through the entire curriculum-building process with your team.

Curriculum Mapping

Amy will lead your faculty and administration through the curriculum mapping process. You will learn how to unwrap a standard throughout the curriculum beginning as early as Pre-K and moving through the curriculum as high as 12th grade. Amy will help you to draft essential questions and enduring understandings for each standard at each grade level (with an option to design summative and formative assessments at each grade level). This workshop can function as a train-the-trainer model or Amy can walk through the entire curriculum with your team.

Reflective Practice in Action

The high expectations placed on our students and our schools today can often lead to a disconnect between parents, teachers, and students. This disconnect can lead to a variety of negative outcomes for all stakeholders, including missed opportunities to model effective communication and promote resilience. This interactive workshop will introduce practical strategies to address this disconnect using reflective practice, an established and research-based educational concept. This workshop will include the opportunity to:

  • Discuss research on engagement with learning and student well-being
  • Explore a framework for reflective practice and how to incorporate it
  • Learn and practice strategies to work with parents, students and the school community to embrace achievement without the pressure of performance

Strengthening the Home-School Connection

Teachers and administrators communicate with all stakeholders in a school community regularly. It can be a challenge to meet the communication needs of students, parents, and staff, all while planning, implementing and evaluating curriculum. This workshop will help to address these challenges and will include practical strategies to incorporate:

  • Professional communication
  • Collaboration with colleagues, students, and families
  • Inviting productive parent participation