Breakout Sessions
Here is a list of breakout sessions offered for No Excuses University’s Institutes. Please note, a subset of these breakout sessions (not all of the sessions) will be available at each institute. Sessions are subject to change without notice.
Effective Vocabulary Instruction: Research-Validated Practices for Addressing Common Core Vocabulary Standards
Presenter: Gail Adams
The English Language Arts Common Core Vocabulary Standards require that students acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain specific words and phrases specific for reading, writing, speaking and listening. This presentation highlights the critical role of vocabulary instruction and outlines the components of an effective vocabulary program. Participants will learn a research-validated routine for teaching vocabulary, procedures for selecting words for instruction, practice activities that promote word learning and effective ways of ensuring active student participation.
Getting Up to Speed: Strategies to Meet Common Core Reading Fluency Standards
Presenter: Gail Adams
The Common Core Language Arts Standards for Reading: Foundational Skills K-5 require that students read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. Students in Grade 6-12 must possess appropriate fluency skills in order to read and comprehend history/social studies, science and technical material required of them in the Secondary Common Core Literacy Standards. This presentation highlights the strong correlation between reading fluency and reading comprehension. Participants will learn to implement a daily six-minute model to increase fluency in all students. They will also be introduced to a novel partner routine that can be used as an effective alternative to silent, sustained reading.
Assessments and Data Management: Two Exceptional Systems, One Valuable Result
Presenter: Liz Atkinson
It is often asked, "How can we adjust teaching and learning practices so that we improve student performance?" By developing assessments for learning and assessments of learning, we are able to have the greatest impact on student achievement. This presentation will outline the two exceptional systems of assessments and data management. Data needs to be easily accessible, openly shared and deliberately arranged because as NEU schools, we all speak the language of data. Come learn how these systems work hand in hand for the success of all students.
Changing the Conversation: How to Maintain a Culture of Universal Achievement
Presenter: Liz Atkinson
To be a No Excuses University school requires a Culture of Universal Achievement, so teachers and principals need to purposefully listen to the campus conversations. This session outlines effective strategies to achieve critical mass by zeroing in on what really matters: focusing the conversation and redirecting the “toxic culture” of negativity. Learn how to break through to the silent majority and neutralize the blocking efforts of the vocal minority. These strategies can be implemented at your site tomorrow.
Targeted Instruction Through Standards Alignment: A Turn Around Schools Exceptional System
Presenter: Liz Atkinson
Why is standards alignment so critical? Standards alignment is an objective method of teaching. Learn about the components of standards alignment and how it provides continuity to K-12 instruction. Standards alignment keeps standards at the core of planning and instruction. Discover how standards alignment works hand and hand witkevinh systemic collaboration. Whether you use Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) or State Standards; remember it's not about the standards, it's about the system.
Managing Transitions: Capitalizing on Change on Campus
Presenter: Liz Atkinson
Change is inevitable! Teachers, students, parents, site administrators and the district office have to effectively manage transitions throughout the school year. The most successful schools and school districts learn how to manage transitions and anticipate how to communicate within their organization to keep them performing at optimal levels in the face of a myriad of transitions. What is the #1 reason schools exit the No Excuses network? Change in leadership! Not because the new leadership comes in but because the transition to new leadership was not managed effectively with communication, transparency and paying attention to detail. Come to this session to learn about the variety of transitions (i.e. elementary, middle, high school, staff, parent, management, etc...) and how to effectively manage them.
Llama Training – Exceptional Classroom Management
Presenter: Doug Curry
Teachers are like a herd of llamas, running through the grass. Kids can be vicious tigers, looking for a victim. Are you the slowest llama? Don’t be the slowest anymore! Come learn how to successfully manage your students, whether you are elementary, middle, or high school. The techniques you will learn are meant to empower you to be able to manage your class in a confident and happy manner and to create the best possible environment for learning. These are proven techniques that are being successfully used in schools across the U.S. Run fast, little llama!
Math Made Easy!
Presenter: Doug Curry
Jaime Escalante once said, “Math does not have to be made easy. It is easy.” How come so many students struggle with math if this is true? There are so many of us who unknowingly use techniques that actually get in the way of helping our students to truly understand math. In this session, which is designed for all grade levels, we will examine these types of errors and then explore techniques that will ultimately prove to be more effective. As well as being easy, Math should be fun! We will discuss ways to turn needed math practice from drudgery into entertainment.
Hope or Hopeless - The Deciding Culture of your School
Presenter: Doug Curry
Your school will be whatever the adults of the school want it to be. This is a core belief of the No Excuses University. Who controls the culture of your elementary, middle, or high school? What beliefs are expressed about the students and parents of your school? In every school there is a continuing struggle among the adults as to who will set and control the culture of the school. Do the true believers run your school, or is your school controlled by the naysayers? In this session we will explore the side that controls your school. What would happen in your school if the true believers became the critical mass? Come see and hear about NEU schools that have truly transformed in cultures of universal achievement. Come ready to see what can happen in your school!
NEU in Secondary Schools: Addressing the Entire Community
Presenter: Doug Curry
No Excuses University is for elementary schools only, right? What if you could build a chain of No Excuses beliefs from elementary all the way through high school? What if your local businesses, civic organizations, places of worship, and entire community adopted No Excuses beliefs and exceptional systems? Come see how to make NEU work in practical terms in middle school and high school. Come see how success in these areas can lead to a community-wide focus on college, post-secondary, and career success for ALL children! Learn real and practical ways to make this happen!
Transforming to a Culture of Universal Achievement
Presenter: Doug Curry
Your school is either a school of hope or one of hopelessness. Does your school view students and parents for what they can be, or are they viewed as present or potential failures? What would happen if, in your school, your very best teacher could somehow teach every single class in the entire school? What if that person’s attitudes and beliefs about students and parents were reflected in every single classroom? If this were to occur, you would truly have a “culture of universal achievement.” Come to this session expecting to see what it truly means to become a No Excuses University. Come ready to learn how to go back and transform your school so that lives are changed.
Student Goal Setting: How to Guide Your Students to Maximum Success as You Climb the Six Exceptional Systems Staircase
Presenter: Laura D’Acquisto
In this session, we will explore how to make a Culture of Universal Achievement a reality at your school. Participants will learn how assessments “for” learning can help diagnose the individual strengths and weaknesses of their students in order to focus instruction on crucial needs. We will then discuss how to use this information to actively involve students in making decisions about their learning. Methods for guiding students in setting individual and class goals that help them take ownership of their progress and achievement will be explicitly explored. Witness the class and student goal setting process that has proven to be an effective means for increasing student achievement at NEU schools across the nation!
Little Ways to Get BIG RESULTS
Presenter: Laura D’Acquisto
Have you ever wanted to lead a class of students who were committed to their learning and to each other? Have you ever wanted to lead a class that was so enthusiastic and focused on academic achievements that there were minimal behavioral distractions? Have you ever wanted to share in the success of your students as they recognize how their efforts and hard work have led to tremendous amounts of growth? Have you ever wanted to see your students meet their goals of becoming college graduates? If so, get ready for Little Ways to Get BIG RESULTS! In this session, you will learn about the dynamic strategies used by the teachers of the award winning Los Pen Academy that help them accomplish all of these goals. We will explore strong classroom management techniques, methods to build a culture of success within your classroom, and ways to focus on results that motivate students and lead them towards college readiness!
Are We College-Ready?
Presenter: Emily M. Devor, Ed.D.
Is your school culture college ready? This session will summarize a qualitative multi-case study that investigated teacher and principal perceptions of how a culture of college readiness is achieved. The research specifically investigated three Southern California elementary schools that have adopted the No Excuses UniversityTM approach to college readiness in their attempt to promote college readiness in their school cultures. The study found that the establishing of a strong belief system among staff and the use of common language, providing experiences for students of exposure to college and the use of college symbolism as well as the facilitating of scholarly behaviors were considered important for the successful achievement of a culture of college readiness in these elementary schools. This session will reflect on current practices within your school culture, determine next steps in achieving a culture of college readiness and provide proven strategies that work.
College Conversations: Ways to Engage Students for College Readiness Success
Presenter: Emily M. Devor, Ed.D.
While schools are filled with curriculum, content, and academic standards, these do not ensure that schools are promoting college for all students. Similarly, many schools hang college pendants on their walls, do college assemblies, and do college classroom adoptions, but lack a powerful college going culture. Successful college readiness means that students understand what college is, why college is valuable to them, and how to navigate the college application and admission process. Being truly college ready requires explicitly teaching students lessons on college concepts, the investment of college, character, goal setting, college acceptance, making choices, academic behaviors facing challenges, college commitment, and developing gifts. This session introduces participants to developmentally appropriate college conversations with students from Pre-K – 12th grade that can be immediately implemented into the classroom. Use these conversations to build a college going culture in your school and ensure that all students, Pre K-12, are college ready.
Personalized Graduation Plans
Presenter: Emily M. Devor, Ed.D.
How do you know a student is college ready? Are your students realizing their passions and working
towards a gift? Are your students making academic progress? A Personalized Graduation Plan is a working document between student and teacher to assist in a student’s success in their grade level, and ultimately being college ready. The plan encourages positive relationships with students, goal setting, data collection, and intervention. Students complete portions of the plan, while teachers will use the template to record data on formative assessments to support collaboration and interventions. Finally, the Personalized Graduation Plan is used to assist in class building for the following school year. This session will provide an impactful tool in supporting a culture of college readiness in your classroom.
Creating a Unified School Culture with Clarity and Focus: How to Ensure Equitable Experiences for ALL Students
Presenter: Fran Hjalmarson
Learn how to create a school culture that supports academic success and ensures equitable experiences for ALL students by using the SEE method. In order to learn, students need to feel safe at school. This is possible with effective behavior systems. Participants will learn how to construct a common language that permeates the classroom, playground, and home. School rules, discipline, rewards, and classroom management are linked together to enhance clarity and build a single and focused school culture. Ideas and strategies will be shared that can be implemented immediately to support a Culture of Universal Achievement.
Differentiated Parent Support: Engaging Parents in Unique Ways to Increase Their Involvement in School
Presenter: Fran Hjalmarson
Involved, supportive parents enhance student success. Yet involving all parents can often be extremely challenging. How does your staff define and prioritize parent involvement? How does one connect with that hard-to-reach parent? How can the school remove barriers to increasing parent involvement so that a Culture of Universal Achievement can be positively supported? Schools practice differentiated instruction for students. In a similar manner, learn to support all parents and students through the development of “Differentiated Parent Support”. Innovative and creative approaches to enhance parent programs will be presented to help increase parent participation and effectiveness. Hear about comprehensive community outreach activities being used in No Excuses University schools across the country.
Fundamental Elements for Exceptional and Candid Collaboration
Presenter: Fran Hjalmarson
Collaboration is one of No Excuses University’s Six Exceptional Systems–working together with a common purpose to achieve student success. Fundamental elements for collaboration will be discussed. Part of collaborating is also about being honest. The ability to speak openly and truthfully to create solutions or address concerns with colleagues is vital to student achievement. Candor is often confused with conflict and many people strive to avoid both. Yet in order to be solution focused and create strategies and systems that most effectively support student learning, candid collaboration is essential. How can you be candid, but not insulting? How can you be honest without offending someone? This session will review vital pieces of effective collaboration and introduce some simple strategies to engage in essential conversations that utilize candid collaboration.
SST: Respond to Intervention with an Effective Student Success Team Model
Presenter: Fran Hjalmarson
Do you currently serve on a Student Assistance Team? Does attending numerous meetings and spending hours on questionable documentation frustrate you? If so, this session will present a streamlined and effective model for supporting at-risk students by developing individual action plans in a simple and efficient manner. This model builds on the strength of team members, dividing the workload between them and fostering shared responsibility. Attendees will leave this session inspired by this alternative, and eager to make changes at their school sites.
Building School Success Through Effective Collaboration
Presenter: Damen Lopez
Many sites take on considerable school wide endeavors without developing an exceptional system for the way they collaborate effectively. Because of this, their efforts tend to produce lackluster results. This session will share how Three Tiered Collaboration can instill a model of collaboration that expands the effectiveness and efficiency of your teams. Learn strategies that will help you organize your collaborative efforts in a way that increases standards alignment, supports ongoing professional growth, and ensures balanced responsibility by all team members.
No Excuses Leadership: Nine Bold Choices Exceptional Leaders Make
Presenter: Damen Lopez
Leadership is not a title or a position. Leadership is an action! Every one of us have the ability to lead our classrooms, campuses, and districts in such a way that can dramatically change the lives of our students, but it requires us to take action. It requires us to think differently about how we can follow as well as lead one another. It requires us to be BOLD! Are you bold enough to learn the Nine Bold Choices exceptional leaders make?
Living Intentionally
Presenter: Elia Moreno
Poverty greatly affects the educational environment in academics, discipline, and absenteeism. In this session you will learn how 9 principles in just 90 seconds can allow you a way to build and improve relationships with students living in the crisis of poverty. Incorporated in schools, these principles can establish a sense of belonging for both student and parent by increasing your ability to show others value. This in turn will create an open line of communication that will hopefully prevent other problematic issues at the same time.
Accurately Understanding Poverty
Presenter: Elia Moreno
Because poverty has emerged as one of our most critical issues, our schools and communities must become poverty informed. This session will include insights on the diverse types of poverty and the two styles of communication. Accurately understanding poverty will allow you to work more effectively across race, poverty, gender, and generational barriers. It will also provide a different filter in which to address poverty; a filter without blame or judgment that allows professionals to connect with students in the war zone of poverty.
Compassion Fatigue is Real: Strategies to Give Yourself Permission to Rest
Presenter: Elia Moreno
Often times as educators, we allow our students to miss an assignment or school activity when we see a note from a parent. We allow them to miss school when they give us a doctor’s note.. But in the midst of offering such grace, how often do we allow ourselves that same permission to dial back our own efforts when we too need rest? Sure, we get paid to work hard. Really hard! But it's also important to recognize when we become fatigued and remember to take care of ourselves. In this session you will learn the meaning of Compassion Fatigue and the importance of Self Care. You’ll leave with strategies that allow you to avoid comparison fatigue, improve your coping abilities and find times to re-energize yourself so that you can continue to offer the very best to you students, parents, and colleagues both in and out of the classroom.
NEU 101
Presenter: Frank Nardelli
For all who are new to NEU and for those who want to refresh their understanding of what No Excuses University is all about, NEU 101 will provide you with the introduction you need. The VP of NEU, Frank Nardelli, will share all for the foundational elements of No Excuses University, answer your questions, and provide you with resources you can share with your school community.
Next Steps: Establish Your Exceptional Systems
Presenter: Frank Nardelli
Build Six Exceptional Systems that are driven by what you want to accomplish as a school! “Exceptional” systems are a work in progress and they can serve as the foundation for your school’s success. The VP of NEU, Frank Nardelli, will share a variety of ideas and activities that you will want to bring back to your campus. In this session, Teachers, Counselors, Administrators, and other staff members will learn how to intentionally develop Six Exceptional Systems that continue to drive your school towards the results you want to achieve.
The Power of the Six C’s
Presenter: Frank Nardelli
Create an environment at your school where your Six Exceptional Systems can thrive! It’s time to power up everyone at your school with the Six Essential Characteristics of NEU Pros, a.k.a. the Six C’s. This session is for all Teachers, Counselors, Administrators, and other staff members who want to bring back a wide variety of ideas to your campus that you can share with your colleagues. Learn how to bring the Six C’s to life at your school and you will set your systems up for success!
Making College Dreams a Reality
Presenter: Sarah O’Connor
Research shows that between 2nd and 7th grades, a gap emerges between student’s aspirations (lofty dreams or BHAGs) and their hidden expectations (what they quietly and actually think will happen). Without intervention, that gap persists through high school. This session explores the “aspiration- expectation gap.” Learn how schools at each level can strategically reshape students’ expectations of college access and success, explore the power of the classroom teacher in this work, and walk away being more equipped in supporting your students’ goals of college success.
Understanding Our At Risk Students--Moving Beyond Academic Interventions
Presenter: Sarah O’Connor
What does it mean to be "at risk?" We know that at risk students are more likely to be referred to the office for behavior issues. We know that at risk students are more likely to struggle academically. Emerging research indicates that the causes of the academic and behavior challenges faced by at risk students has less to do with cognitive and knowledge gaps and more to do with the stresses and traumas that these students have and do face every day. This session explores the impacts of stress and trauma on learning and behavior at school, and provides strategies and tools you can start using now with your at risk students to develop the skills and traits that lead to their success in school and in their lives.
College Conversations: Ways to Engage Students for College Readiness Success
Presenter: Sarah O’Connor
While schools are filled with curriculum, content, and academic standards, these do not ensure that schools are promoting college for all students. Similarly, many schools hang college pendants on their walls, do college assemblies, and do college classroom adoptions, but lack a powerful college going culture. Successful college readiness means that students understand what college is, why college is valuable to them, and how to navigate the college application and admission process. Being truly college ready requires explicitly teaching students lessons on college concepts, the investment of college, character, goal setting, college acceptance, making choices, academic behaviors facing challenges, college commitment, and developing gifts. This session introduces participants to developmentally appropriate college conversations with students from Pre-K – 12th grade that can be immediately implemented into the classroom. Use these conversations to build a college going culture in your school and ensure that all students, Pre K-12, are college ready.
Effective Praise and Encouragement– Making Every Breath Count
Presenter: Tina Schuler
Everyone has an emotional bank that gets filled in different ways. Do you know how to effectively fill your students’ bank? It’s not the same for everyone but it’s crucial to learn how, and it’s easy! This workshop engages teachers on how to make their praise meaningful and effective to foster intrinsic motivation in their students and boost self- esteem. You will learn how to encourage students in a way that guides them to owning their successes. This kind of praise offers hope for their future. Students light up and beam with inner pride when given the proper praise. Don’t waste your wisdom – make every breath count!
Nine Planks to Becoming a Bridge Builder
Presenter: Tina Schuler
If you’ve ever been discouraged and/or exhausted over dealing with student behavior, this book and session is for you. When behavior gets between teacher and student the distance can seem so far. Learn how to build the bridge to reach your most difficult students struggling with behavior without burning the planks along the way and falling into what can feel like an eternal pit of doom and gloom. No excuses for students AND no excuses for teachers! We will focus on supporting students who refuse to follow directions, get angry quickly, and are impulsive. Kids today are different, therefore our strategies in reaching them need to be current and meaningful. Start building your bridge today!
Learning and Teaching Powered by Technology
Presenter: Dr. Andrew Shean
Conversations in district offices, administrative meetings, and boardrooms revolve around a few central themes, one of them being technology integration. However, despite the emphasis on adding technology, most schools and classrooms look no different than they did 100 years ago, and we have little data to show any significant gains in student achievement to justify the billions of dollars spent. The problem is clear: People think simply adding a SmartBoard to the classroom or using PowerPoint with their lecture is the silver bullet. I promise you it is not. This session will focus on why this moment in time might be the most important and potentially transformative period in our history, especially for educators. Technology, when leveraged with effective learning and teaching theory, can increase engagement, redesign instructional practice, and break down classroom walls. This session will be divided into three sections. The first will focus on the recent technology boom and its impact on our lives and work. The second will focus on utilizing exceptional systems to drive technology integration. The third will be a discussion of best practices and specific examples of the realized potential of powering learning and teaching with technology.
Download Critical Thinking Handout
Building a Culture of Critical Thinking in Preparation for the Common Core: A Multi-modal Approach
Presenter: Dr. Andrew Shean
Arguably, the most crucial element in the process of learning to think well is exposure to something worth thinking about. To that end, educators must both deepen and enliven the content of discussions and learning experiences. Key steps in doing so are the creation of rich discussion prompts and effective facilitation of the discussions they trigger. In this interactive presentation, we focus on how to use multi- modal learning activities, rich discussion, and practical applications to develop critical thinking, and do so in face-to-face, blended, or online learning environments. Attendees will receive a Developers Guide to Creating Critical Thinking Prompts and engage in dialogue on practices that could be enhanced through critical thinking.
Leading 1-1 Digital Device Programs: Leveraging Technology to Improve the Student Learning Experience
Presenter: Dr. Andrew Shean
The mobile phone you carry in your pocket is more sophisticated than the technology NASA used to put a man on the moon, and yet in most schools a pencil and paper are still the norm. This is changing. Schools are beginning to realize the potential of 1-1 digital device programs and investing in preparing students to learn, live, and work in the modern era. In this session you will learn the basics of setting up a 1-1 laptop program through lessons learned from rolling out 1-1 laptop and mobile device pilots at the Poway Unified School District, as well as unique strategies to increase student engagement. You will also learn how to design learning experiences to optimize research-driven practices that will improve student learning, e.g., flipped classroom approaches, leveraging open educational resources, multimedia strategies that work, social learning approaches, and more.