A Principal's Vision for a Positive Action School
In this session, principals will learn about Positive Action, a recognized research-based program that helps principals create a shared vision and a positive school wide action plan for improving behavior and academics. Positive Action builds intrinsic motivation in everyone to be their best: physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally. It develops a safe interactive learning community.
Location:   Room 201C, Anaheim Convention Center
Speaker:   Carol G. Allred, President/Developer, Positive Action, Inc.

Thriving in a Positive School Climate
A veteran principal will present a wide variety of classroom and schoolwide activities, proven to be successful in improving school community as well as complementing and enhancing the school curriculum. The session will be an interactive, skill-building session.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center,
Speaker:   Norman M. Cason, Retired Principal

Get a Life! Survival Skills for the Principalship
School principals are bombarded with an onslaught of demands and pressures upon their time, energy, and resources. With an expanding workload and increasing high stakes accountability, the pace of the job and the expectations for positive results continue to escalate. Where in their busy day can school administrators find the time for self-care, self-reflection, and self-affirmation to keep them on the track to achieving their goals? If school principals are to meet the increasing demands of the job and survive, then they must master a new level of wisdom and skills by implementing the "3 Rs" of leadership-Resiliency, Renewal, and Reflection.
Location:   Room 204B, Anaheim Convention Center
Speaker:   John Blaydes, Brea, CA

Utilizing Your School's Diversity to Create Safer Schools
By using the new multicultural educational video, "That's A Family!" as a starting point, this presentation will give participants an opportunity to explore how an academic environment that respects, discusses, and values family diversity can help promote school safety for all and prevent prejudice.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speaker:   Bob Kim, Director of Outreach and Training, Women's Educational Media

Challenging Students, Challenging Behaviors, Challenging Times: Strategies that Work
This presentation will present sample strategies for educators to use with students who demonstrate challenging, confrontational, and potentially out-of-control behaviors. We will also share information about the Nonviolent Crisis Intervention training program as well as services and resources available from the Crisis Prevention Institute.
Location:   Room 204A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Randolph M. Boardman, Training Coordinator for Crisis, Crisis Prevention Institute, Inc.; Terri Howard, Crisis Prevention Institute, Inc.

Sunday, April 13

Juicy Staff Meetings!
Three top presenters from Youth Frontiers, Inc. and one extraordinary musician will lead a fast-paced workshop that will engage, inspire, and entertain. Participants will learn ways to infuse freshness, generate motivation, and create fun at the typically lifeless staff meeting. Humor, poignant stories, music, wild activities, and handouts will leave participants both salivating and satisfied. Youth Frontiers, founded in 1987, is a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis. The company leads faculty workshops nationwide, supporting its mission to transform communities by improving school climate.
Location:   Anaheim Convention Center, 204B
Speakers:   Rob Kesselring, Director, Youth Frontiers, Inc.; Joe Cavanaugh, Director, Youth Frontiers, Inc.; Jane Leyden, Director, Youth Frontiers, Inc.

Welcome Every Student and Build a Learning Community
This dynamic seminar is designed to offer participants new, highly practical ideas and strategies in an engaging, interactive setting. the session will combine lecture, discussion, demonstration, and role-playing techniques.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Richard Curwin, Education Consultant, Discipline Associates; Allen Mendler, Discipline Associates

Writing Education Comes of Age
If your students' writing achievement is not as high as it should be, come to this session to learn what an effective, skills-based, and schoolwide writing instruction program looks like, and how to get one going in your school.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speaker:   Marcia S. Freeman, Educator

Dealing with Difficult Students: What to Do When Nothing Else Works!
This presentation will help participants understand challenging children and develop skills and techniques to work with them. Through a combination of role playing and other active participatory methods, coupled with a PowerPoint presentation, participants will learn how to implement these practical and effective strategies into their program to deal with the most challenging children. The presenter will be providing handouts that provide specific strategies that principals can disseminate to their staffs.
Location:   Room 204B, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   William J. DeMeo, Psychologist, Cincinnati Public Schools; Joe Witt, Principal Investigator, Professor, Louisiana State University

Monday, April 14

"The Explosive Child"--Strategies that Work
This session will review the key components of the Collaborative Problem Solving Model as developed by Ross Greene, author of the The Explosive Child and describe ways in which administrators and teachers can implement the model in their schools. Participants will learn about specific strategies that work in classrooms, entire schools, and at home.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speaker:   Sheryl Goffman, Director of Elementary Education, Mineola Public Schools

Motivating Students Who Don't Care
With the ever-mounting pressure to achieve standards driving our schools, ways must be found to inspire and sustain motivation among students who have become turned off to learning. This session will present a framework for educators that help re-awaken students to the excitement of learning. The presenters will share the essential characteristics of educators and schools that inspire learning, along with five keys to achieving success with poorly motivated students.
Location:   Room 201D, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Richard Curwin, Education Consultant, Discipline Associates

Improve Students' Social Behavior: A Four-Step Process
The principal's vision for improving students' behavior requires staff to effectively prevent and respond to students' behavior problems. This session will inform participants about the challenges of getting reluctant staff to work together, provide practical examples of how staff initiated implementation responsibilities, and share outcomes related to students' social behavior.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Timothy J. Gulley, Principal, Windsor Manor Elementary School; Ray V. Burke, Program Coordinator, Girls and Boys Town; Michele Hensley, Program Coordinator, Girls and Boys Town

Best Practices in Behavior Support and Violence Prevention
This session will present an alternative vision of school discipline based on effective, empirically based practices. These practices have been shown to improve academic achievement, increase teacher job satisfaction, and reduce turnover. Participants will learn to identify current discipline problems; implement data-based, schoolwide interventions; and evaluate the effectiveness of such interventions.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Marcie W. Handler, Assistant Director, Positive Schools, The May Institute, Inc.; Robert F. Putnam, Educational Consultant, The May Institute, Inc.; Jannett Rey, Educational Consultant, The May Institute, Inc.

Cooperating with Uncooperative People
Do you struggle to get others to see your vision? Does your intent not become your outcome? "Team Vision(c)" is a new Diana Day program where you will: Learn how to have more personal influence and power; capture five powerful points to improve your communication; discover what personal barriers you may have to overcome to get your point across; and find out your conflict resolution style and what to do if it is counterproductive to your success. Leave feeling great about yourself, having the ability to work with people no one else can stand!
Location:   Room 207A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speaker:   Diana Day, Author, Day Publishing & Training

Meeting the Challenge of No Child Left Behind
The presenters will model the use of the interactive approaches that are expected to be seen in their school's classrooms, using data sources that can be used effectively at any campus. Materials will be available to help participants utilize the information in their own schools.
Location:   Room 204C, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Sue St. Clair, Principal, Morton Elementary School; Fredda Schooler, Retired Principal

Tuesday, April 15

Creating Highly Successful Schools in At-risk Communities
This presentation is the story of two very different schools with a common bond: Their students did not pass state-mandated standardized tests. In the white light of accountability, the lack of student achievement was frighteningly clear. It will be demonstrated how a paradigm shift from what teachers are teaching to what students are learning changed their buildings from at-risk learning environments to award-winning and highly respected schools.
Location:   Room 204C, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Rima Vesilind, Woodley Hills Elementary Math and Science Focus School; Mary Ann Ryan, Annadale Terrace Elementary School

Two-way Immersion 101
This session provides an overview of two-way immersion education, an increasingly popular approach that integrates native English speakers with native speakers of another language (usually Spanish). All students are educated in both languages so that they will develop bilingualism, bi-literacy, and cross-cultural understanding in addition to demonstrating grade-level academic achievement.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Elizabeth R. Howard, Project Director, Center for Applied Linguistics; Donna Christian, Center for Applied Linguistics

How Basic School Philosophies Cross Borders
This session introduces two Basic Schools: a public elementary school in Louisiana and a private American school in Paraguay. Their sister-school relationship enhanced student learning, promoted an exchange of best practices, and built common educational goals. Participants will receive a listing of software and PC cameras; and names and addresses of other Basic School network schools and steps to get started.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Beth Pfannl, Elementary Principal, The American School of Asuncion, Paraguay; Bonnie Lord, School Librarian and Grant Writer, Cherokee Elementary School; June Hudgens, Librarian, Cherokee Elementary School

When Bad Becomes Good!
For years, West Elementary had been considered the low-performing school in the district, a school with many challenges. Learn how all of this has changed. Shared vision, leadership, resources, professional development, common purpose, and a hard working staff enabled the "bad" school to become "good!"
Location:   Room 204A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speakers:   Paul Young, Principal, West Elementary School; Jeromey Sheets, Language Art Consultant, North Elementary School; Kay Brallier, Language Consultant, Santa Clara University

Increasing School Pride: One School's Journey
School pride, positive relationships, and schoolwide expectations for the daily demonstration of respect and responsibility ensure an orderly and safe climate for learning. The speaker will provide the participant with a packet of transferable ideas to share the success her school has achieved in drastically reducing office referrals over a two-year period.
Location:   Room 201A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speaker:   Caroline H. Bloxom, Principal, Pocomoke Middle School

The Affective-Effective School: A Journey to Quality
In this session, the speaker will present a number of programs he and his staff developed to involve students and parents in a positive school experience. These programs resulted in McFall School being named a "Quality School" by the William Glasser Institute.
Location:   Room 206A, Anaheim Convention Center
Speaker:   Bill Rich, McFall Elementary School