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Professional Development
J Taylor Education offers a number of professional development services. Whether you are in need of a full-day workshop related to curriculum differentiation strategies or are interested in hosting a Teacher Institute & Demo School, J Taylor Education can personally tailor training to meet your specific needs. Our highly experienced educational consultants’ commitment to delivering quality training geared toward practical applications allows teachers to use learned strategies right away in their classrooms. Participants will enjoy pragmatic, down-to-earth workshops provided by our consultants — all classroom teachers themselves. What could be more powerful than learning and working with peers that have successfully implemented effective instructional strategies in their own classrooms?
Costs, inclusive of all expenses, range from $850/half-day to $1,850/full day. Multi-day contracts will be discounted. Please contact us at 310-739-4394 or by email at info@jtayloreducation.com for more information. We look forward to working with you.
Previous Workshops
Workshops we provide include, but are not limited to
Incorporating Depth & Complexity into the Core Curriculum to Create Differentiated Learning Experiences
Using depth & complexity to differentiate the core curriculum is an effective, proven way to create valuable learning experiences for your students, including gifted, talented, and advanced learners. Explore several classroom-tested procedures for introducing the Depth & Complexity Icons in your classroom. Discover and develop a number of engaging ways to incorporate the Depth & Complexity Icons into your prescribed curriculum, while overcoming obstacles like pacing charts and time constraints. Work in grade-level groups to create differentiated task statements and “Frames” that guide lesson writing and aid in the development of sophisticated content that exceeds Standards.
Taking the Depth & Complexity Icons to the Next Level
Explore using more than one Icon at a time or combining an element of Depth & Complexity with the Content Imperatives to create iconic statements. Elaborate and enhance your core curriculum as we organize the Icons from simple to complex, from patterns to trends, from rules to ethics, and on to a big idea. Guide students who demonstrate exceptional skills or interest in a topic in pursuing that topic in greater detail by determining concepts, generalizations, theories, and considering multiple perspectives.
Using “Frames” as Tools to Differentiate Curriculum for the ELL
The ELL gifted student presents unique challenges for educators. This session will address classroom-tested ways to use “Frames” to differentiate curriculum for the gifted ELL. A number of different types of “Frames” will be explored.
Inductive/Deductive Lessons
Utilize Deductive and Inductive lessons to help students practice creative and higher levels of thinking. These types of lessons will encourage students to develop and prove generalizations related to thematic teaching.
Think Like A…Become An Expert
Encourage your students to gain knowledge of how experts in different disciplines work, learn, and how they think. Students may “think like a” sociologist, philosopher, mathematician, or geographer while analyzing the same piece of content. Thinking like a disciplinarian/becoming an expert will allow your students to make connections across the disciplines.
Tiering Strategies/Curriculum Compacting
Teachers use tiered activities so that all students focus on essential understandings and skills but at different levels of complexity, abstractness, and open-endedness. By keeping the focus of the activity the same, but providing routes of access at varying degrees of difficulty, the teacher maximizes the likelihood that each student comes away with pivotal skills and understandings as well as each student is appropriately challenged. Learn ways to “compact curriculum”, which greatly aids teachers in creating effective and appropriate tiered lessons for students.
Differentiation Tools for Multiple Content Areas
Learn to use a number of non-content based differentiation tools designed to illuminate creative, critical, and analytical metacognitive processes for the purpose of providing educators access to learning pathways for their students. Examples of how to use these differentiation tools with students at various learning levels and in several content areas will be exhibited.
“Flexible” Learning Centers in Your Classroom
Learning centers are areas in a classroom that provide curricular experiences focused on a theme or topic and made available to students working independently or in groups. A learning center may present tasks that range from simple to complex, and provide resources to aid the learning activities needed to complete the tasks. All students, including gifted and advanced learners, can be challenged and benefit from using appropriately constructed learning centers. Various examples of classroom-tested and successful learning centers will be displayed. Use learning centers as a means to differentiate the core curriculum and spend some time preparing and organizing a learning center for your classroom.
Independent Study for Primary Teachers
Independent Study is based on the recognition and acceptance of individual differences among learners. Discuss and familiarize yourself with some proven ways to promote learning according to students’ own level of needs, interests, and abilities. Take some time to plan a few Independent Study ideas for some of your students.
Independent Study for Secondary Teachers
Many distinctive skills are practiced and needed in the development of an independent study. These skills often are inherent in state and district standards and are part of the core curriculum. Discuss and familiarize yourself with some proven ways to introduce and help students master these skills in order to create exciting independent study programs. Share and teach your students the connections between how people pursue interests and knowledge in the real world and their independent studies.
Universal Concepts/Thematic Teaching
“Change can be evolutionary or revolutionary.” Universal Concepts connect content in many areas of study. Through the use of Universal Concepts within a unit, semester, or entire year, students can make more powerful connections across disciplines while they maximize content retention. Explore a number of Universal Concepts and take away some ideas on how to best mesh the use of these concepts within your teaching style.
Tiered Literacy Centers (Grades 2-6)
Supporting learners within a diverse classroom setting can be challenging to teachers. While teachers work with small groups of children, other students in the classroom need independent, rigorous and meaningful ways to interact with literature. This session focuses on providing appropriate reading selections with engaging, tiered Task Cards that are leveled to promote a range of critical thinking skills. Tiered Literacy Centers are ideal for readers who are at grade level, EL’s, gifted EL’s and gifted students in mixed-ability classes. Management techniques, Task Card samples and ideas for management are provided.
Differentiation Strategies for the ELL
The ELL gifted student presents unique challenges for educators. This session will address classroom-tested ways to meet the needs and differentiate curriculum for the gifted ELL, through the utilization of depth and complexity, universal concepts, and the development of a number of useful charts and prompts.
Using Math Icons to Promote Math Concept Development
Discuss the use of graphic representations to promote a deeper understanding of math concepts, extensions and applications. Explore differentiated strategies for learning and practicing math skills and consider inquiry as it applies to mathematical endeavors. Teachers of the gifted will be encouraged to use icons to explore balance, imbalance, conversion, expressions, proofs and strategies. Gifted students will be inspired to ask probing questions, value their new-found concept knowledge, and learn to love math.
The Math Icons and Core Math Curriculum; Implementation Strategies
As teachers, we want students to leave our schools with a strong mathematical foundation so they can compete in an increasingly technological society. While computation and memorization of algorithms are important to success in math, understanding mathematical concepts is also imperative. Making connections between mathematics and the world around us can exhibit how vital math is to our society. This workshop is specifically designed to show teachers how to incorporate the Math Icons into their math curriculum. Team up with teachers from your grade level to create lessons with the Math Icons that will advance your students’ curiosity, appreciation, and knowledge of mathematical concepts.
Mystery Numbers (available for teachers of grades K-8)
Learn how to use mystery numbers to enhance your students’ classroom experience and develop keen number sense. Participants will practice using math warm-ups intended to engage and enthuse fourth through eighth grade students, while at the same time reinforcing the key concepts and standards integral to their future success in mathematics. Explore a number of different strategies for solving the mystery numbers and address learning centers and a differentiated experience for young mathematicians.
Parts to Whole – Fractions Mastery
Treat your students to the type of math practice that promotes the long-term retention of content knowledge, conceptual understanding, and fractions-based skills mastery. Learn strategies intended to provide for frequent and targeted exploration of the basic fractions-related tenets of mathematics. You’ll be reinforcing and expanding math vocabulary, and inciting your students to exercise math reasoning. They will be thinking and learning to love math.