This workshop will explore the neural underpinnings of stress, trauma, and emotional dysfunction in children, and their effects upon learning. The more that teachers understand these cognitive complexities, the more wisely they can foster emotional growth for all children. Solutions discussed may include early prevention strategies – including mindfulness – appropriate assessment and screening techniques, coping skills, and school-based approaches to enhance emotional wellness and foster healthy development. 

If students don’t pay attention, they don’t learn; it’s as simple as that. This workshop starts by redefining attention: not as one cognitive process, but as the sum of three distinct mental systems. We then consider specific, practical, research-informed strategies that help foster all three mental processes. By thinking differently about attention, and by rethinking the techniques that create it, teachers develop new strategies to promote focus, learning, and understanding.

Teachers want all students to grow, but the press of time, standards, and large class sizes can make this goal seem unattainable. How can differentiation help us meet this complex yet important goal? How can we both support and challenge all our students – from the struggling to the gifted? This workshop offers research-based strategies and uses hands-on activities to make differentiation practical and applicable in real K-12 settings.

Students’ emotions are not somehow separate from other, distinctly “cognitive,” functions. Memory, attention, learning, and emotion all work together as an integrated cognitive system. When teachers understand the relationships between learning and emotions (like stress, boredom, joy, embarrassment, comfort, etc.), they can structure lessons and classrooms that foster resilience, engagement, curiosity, and growth. Drawing on neuroscience and psychology, this workshop includes both research-based insights and practical classroom strategies.

In this workshop, teachers learn a comprehensive model for understanding executive functions, and explore the impact of executive functioning on learning, learning differences, behavior, and classroom function. With research-informed classroom management techniques, teachers can help children with executive function difficulties improve their behavior and academic performance; for instance, by increasing capacity for self-regulation. The workshop also discusses instructional programs to help develop and improve students’ executive function.

Math workshops begin with research into the neurobiological processes behind mathematical thinking. These core concepts underly practical classroom strategies: how teachers can foster curiosity and confidence to overcome math anxieties and foster deeper understanding. Topics may include appropriate learning goals, metacognition, engagement, working memory, executive function, number sense, and automaticity. Teachers will leave with ideas, strategies, and new perspectives on unlocking mathematics in young minds.

When students learn, they create new memories: memories that are accurate, connected, durable, flexible, and useful. This workshop explores many stages of this complex process: initial focus on important information and skills; processing in working memory; encoding, retrieval, and transfer strategies; and ultimately, long-term memory consolidation. Informed by research, we will consider classroom strategies to support individual students, balance memory demands, and foster memory and understanding.

Mindfulness builds emotional intelligence, boosts happiness, increases engagement, reduces anxiety and depression, and soothes the pain of trauma. It helps adults and students – including at-risk youth and those with special needs – focus, learn, and make better choices. This workshop begins with the neurobiology of learning and emotion, shares proven practices – including movement, music, and art – and shows how to integrate them into classrooms and schools.

Dweck’s concept of “Mindset” has often been oversimplified to posters and slogans. A rich, research-based understanding of the topic reveals its true potential, complexity, and power. Students should indeed believe that the right kind of cognitive work increases ability – it does! This workshop further emphasizes the classroom strategies – everything from resilience to metacognition – that help teachers translate this growth mindset belief into students’ academic and personal success.

Learning to read requires the development, interconnection and coordination of multiple skills and neural systems. This interactive seminar examines scientific evidence concerning the development of a reading brain: from the visual processing of letters, to the linking of letters with sounds, to making meaningful connections with a reader’s prior knowledge. This workshop might also focus on children who struggle to read, exploring underlying causes and effective teaching interventions.

Today’s students struggle with a perfect storm of challenges: higher stress, lower intrinsic motivation, less sleep, greater isolation. This workshop offers practical strategies to overcome such obstacles. Specifically, by helping students develop a sense of healthy self-control and autonomy, teachers and schools can reduce anxiety, foster motivation, boost academic success, and strengthen self-esteem. Drawing on decades of research, this workshop offers school-based examples and practical strategies.