Every workshop is tailored to the needs and goals of the school and teachers.

Workshops include:

Instructional Strategies for Achieving Rigor and Relevance
Effective teaching is not about discovering the perfect instructional strategy. Effective teaching requires developing a full repertoire of strategies and selecting one or more that will be most successful based on the needs of students and the particular learning objectives. This workshop reviews instructional strategies to use based upon rigorous and relevant learning. Staff development activities to help teachers expand their competence in multiple instructional strategies will also be described. The workshop is based on the International Center's resource kit: Instructional Strategies: How to Teach for Rigor and Relevance.

Linking Disciplines - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Raise Student Achievement
Knowledge is interdependent. The world integrates knowledge so completely that it is the whole that is comprehended, not ideas stemming from discrete disciplines. Education should mirror this interconnectedness. All too often, however, instructional activities present a series of non-integrated experiences that require students to create their own transitions. This session will focus on the purpose, benefits, and research claims of interdisciplinary curricular approaches. Participants will become familiar with various interdisciplinary models and learn a procedure for developing interdisciplinary instructional units.

Website Design for Teachers: Making the Tech Connection
The Internet can help link students, teachers, administrators and parents as education partners. This session will offer a non-technical introduction to Web design, resources, management, policy recommendations, staff development strategies and samples of effective teacher-designed Websites. Participants will learn how to harness the power of the Internet to extend teaching and learning beyond the classroom.

Using Technology to Increase Rigor and Relevance in the Classroom
This session is designed for faculty members who want to change their classroom curriculum to integrate more technology and project-based learning. Participants will evaluate current levels of technology in the classroom, take steps to increase their skills and knowledge of technology, become familiar with examples from classrooms that use technology across all subjects and develop goals for implementing step-by-step changes in existing curriculum. Teachers will leave with a plan of action for their classrooms.

Determining the Essential Skills Using the International Center's Curriculum Survey
The International Center created the Curriculum Survey of Essential Skills in 1998 to help schools deal with the pervasive problem of too much content in their curriculum. This session will show how to use the survey to engage faculty and community in a discussion about what should be taught in the schools. The potential impacts and benefits of the Curriculum Survey will be explored. The workshop is designed to prepare the district to administer the Curriculum Survey in order to gather the data needed to drive curricular decisions.

Reading Across the Curriculum
For students to achieve success in school, educators at all levels must recognize the essential elements of teaching reading with a focus on the "guided reading" component. This session will identify the components necessary to enable all students to become independent readers. Hands-on examples of strategies to use with elementary, middle and high school readers will be shared. Topics include how to use textbooks to increase comprehension, strategies for reading in all content areas and using the Lexile Framework to select the right reading materials.

Rigor and Relevance in the English Language Arts Classroom
In order to make the English language arts curriculum more rigorous and relevant, teachers need to expand upon the traditional literature and composition focus to incorporate technical writing, technical reading, speaking, listening and relevant literature into their classrooms. In this workshop, teachers will learn how to use practical teaching strategies and methodologies to make English class enjoyable and relevant to all students.

Rigor and Relevance in the Mathematics Classroom
Participants will learn how to plan lessons that center around real-world applications of the curriculum and how to create and use scoring guides to improve the quality of student work while preparing students to be successful on high-stakes tests. Many examples will be made available, and participants will design performance tasks and activities to use in their own classroom.

Rigor and Relevance in the Science Classroom
To help students meet workplace requirements and acquire a broad-based, practical scientific literacy, schools must develop a new approach to teaching science - one that combines rigorous training in the scientific principles with their practical applications. This approach to creating rigorous and relevant learning in science will be modeled, with emphasis on making students feel that science is important to them. Steps to achieve relevancy will be outlined, including instructional strategies, assessment techniques and resources.

Improving Student Achievement in English Language Arts
The International Center's Rigor/Relevance Framework will be used as a tool to examine and improve on current instructional practice. Consideration will be given to the many ways to modify teaching in order to make instruction relevant to today's world to satisfy community expectations as well as rigorous enough to meet state standards. Participants will work backward by examining state standards and tests to answer the question: What cognitive skills and knowledge do students need to meet standards or to pass tests? Sample lessons will be demonstrated and analyzed, and participants will revise current lesson plans.

Informational Writing: A Classroom Component of School Reform
In too many classrooms, students' writing practice is confined to copying notes from the chalkboard, writing short answers on worksheets, and composing essays with the teacher as audience. Yet almost all states' English language arts standards include writing for information and understanding. Students must be able to write about real-world topics for real-world audiences in appropriate formats. This session will explain how to fit informational writing into an already crowded curriculum and share some strategies for teaching and evaluating informational writing in any subject

Improving Secondary Science Education
This workshop focuses on teaching and learning science from a content and performance standards perspective. The roles of rigor and relevance in science instruction will be viewed from a performance basis in problem solving, decision making and inquiry. Emphasis will be placed on developing science curricula and assessments that are aligned with state standards and assessments. Participants will also explore various methods to integrate the sciences by reviewing models already in use.

Improving Social Studies Education
Successful social studies programs clearly define where students should be at each grade level. Comprehensive assessment determines if standards are being met, and strategies exist to remediate where necessary. The focus shifts from specifying what the social studies teacher does to defining what students should know and be able to do. This workshop will examine how to create a cohesive K-12 program that fosters creativity, initiative and collaboration among teachers. Participants will learn about ideas, resources and techniques to begin transforming their social studies programs.

Rigor and Relevance in the Elementary Classroom
This workshop will provide information and hands-on activities designed to help elementary educators redesign the delivery of curriculum to provide relevance and rigor while adhering to state standards and curriculum guidelines. Examples will be provided from actual elementary classrooms that can be directly applied in participants' own classrooms. The workshop will include an overview of the Rigor/Relevance Framework, activities to extend lessons into real-world problem-solving applications and samples of curriculum integration units across grade levels.

Using Technology with Vocational/Technical Programs
To increase the rigor of vocational-technical programs, schools are searching for activities that bring academics into the classroom and laboratory. The inclusion and expansion of technology bring a dimension to learning that inspires and excites both students and teachers. Teachers must be comfortable with the technology to assist their students. In this workshop, participants will receive hands-on experience with the applications of science, mathematics, communications and technical technology.

Designing a English Language Arts Curriculum for Student Accountability
Recognizing that state standards and tests require sophisticated reading and writing skills, teachers in all disciplines and curriculum specialists will work together to discover ways to include English language arts skills in all curriculum areas in order to raise academic levels and expectations. The workshop will provide resources, techniques and strategies that the faculty can use immediately. Following a demonstration of ways to add rigor and relevance to the curriculum, teachers will rewrite existing lessons to make them more demanding and consistent with the English language arts standards .

Total Quality Management
Today's schools are challenged to do more with less as they try to meet the complex and changing demands of society. Educators are finding that the traditional methods of managing their classrooms and transmitting knowledge and skills are inadequate to prepare students to deal with accelerating change. In order for all students to achieve the highest standards, teachers must foster an approach to education that initiates change, encourages diversity and builds a foundation for continuous, innovative learning. This workshop demonstrates how Total Quality Management theory and practice can enable educators to achieve these goals.