Using Neuroscience to Make Standards Work for ALL Students

Vermont Higher Education Collaborative 

Using Neuroscience to Make Standards Work
for ALL Students 

WORKshops Designed by Bill Rich

for Middle & High School Educators & Leaders

Crafting Student-Friendly Learning Targets
Head spinning from all the “new” standards (VT-PBGR, Transferable Skills, Content Standards, Common Core, etc.)? Imagine how our students are feeling! This workshop is designed to help educators unpack standards into student-friendly learning targets that empower students to determine where they are in their learning and what next steps they need to take toward meeting and exceeding the standards that matter most in our setting. (October 7, 2015, Capitol Plaza, Montpelier, VT – Workshop $175)

Designing Performance Tasks to Power Student Learning

Get Your Students Pumped for Practice: What makes athletes engage so seriously during practice? They’re preparing for a Big Game. This workshop will support teachers as they design performance tasks of all shapes and sizes, be it an interdisciplinary performance task a’ la SBAC, a capstone for your school’s graduation requirements, or a simple end-of-unit performance task. After studying models and considering why the brain engages so fully in performance tasks, participants will spend most of the WORKshop designing and creating performance tasks to use with their students, while receiving timely feedback on their work. (November 18, 2015 – Capitol Plaza, Montpelier, VT - Workshop $175)

Getting To (& Surviving) Standards-Based Grading

Most educators recognize that traditional grading practices undermine learning, but how do we make the switch to better grading practices while we wait for our system to make the switch to standards-based reporting? After studying models and considering why the brain learns best when we emphasize standards-based grading, participants will spend most of the WORKshop re-designing their gradebook and writing a letter to their students that describes the why, what, and how of their new approach to grading. (March 10, 2016 – Capitol Plaza, Montpelier, VT - Workshop $175) 

Data-Tools to Keep You in Sync with Your Students
Imagine a suite of simple tools that would organize all your assignments & students’ work in one place, enable you to give more timely feedback to your students, and provide you with summaries of the progress of individuals and classes. After experiencing the power of a range of tools that teachers use to stay in sync with their learners, participants will choose one to learn more about in preparation to use the tool this school year. (May 4, 2016 – Capitol Plaza, Montpelier, VT - Workshop $175) 

Course Option: All 4 workshops + online participation + 1 concluding face-to-face session
Course Cost: $1590  3 credits from Castleton State College
Instructor: Bill Rich
Workshops: All workshops from 9:00 to 3:00 @ $175 each or all 4 for $600
Contact: Bill Rich at redhouselearning@gmail.com

Registration opens August 10th: http://www.vthec.org