Saturday, March 18, 2023
9:30 am – 3:00 pm • MU Campus • Townsend Hall • Free Event
Join us for a celebration of teaching! Breakout sessions will cover topics such as motivating and engaging learners, positive classrooms, professional learning, contemporary issues in the classroom, and more!
Schedule at a Glance
Saturday, March 18, 2023
9:30 am – 10:00 am Check-In and Galleries
10:00 am – 10:25 am Conference Welcome
10:30 am – 11:20 am Session 1
11:25 am – 12:15 pm Session 2
12:15 pm – 1:45 pm Lunch
1:45 pm – 2:35 pm Session 3
2:35 pm – 3:00 pm Closing and prizes
Check-In and Galleries • 9:30 – 10:00 am
Get checked in. Say hello to new friends and old. Grab a coffee and breakfast pastry and spend a few moments exploring the display galleries.
BYOB! Build Your Own Bookshelf: Diverse Children’s Literature
Presenters: Kirsten Tivaringe, Cala Huffman, Madelyn Johnston, Margaret Callihan
Location: Townsend Hall Lobby & Reflector
Enjoy a stroll by this visual display of posters and get your hands on diverse children’s literature, new and long-loved.
Give Students the eDGE – Computational Thinking in Games
Presenter: Amber Ernst
Location: Townsend Hall Lobby & Reflector
Learn about the eDGE project grant and what positive outcomes it has for 5th grade math students.
Expanding Online Options for Mizzou Teacher Education
Presenter: Sam Otten
Location: Townsend Hall Lobby & Reflector
This session details the ongoing work in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum to offer online options for teacher certification so that more people can access teacher education.
Conference Welcome • 10:00 – 10:25 am
Session 1 • 10:30 – 11:20 am
Encouraging Math Love in Your Classroom & School
Presenters: Mary Helmuth & Elizabeth Mottaz
Location: 107 Townsend Hall
Do you want to encourage math love to elementary students and teachers in your school? During this session, we will share ideas on how to promote a positive math culture in classrooms and within your professional learning communities (both grade level and vertical math teams). We will also share how to create school-wide math events.
K-12 Resources to Support the Teaching of the Missouri Learning and Priority Standards
Presenter: Debbie Jameson
Location: 109 Townsend Hall
What are the Missouri Learning and Priority Standards? What resources are available through DESE that will help implement these standards? Join this session to learn to use the many available resources designed to support instruction and boost student achievement in K-12 classrooms and across core contents. The Missouri Learning and Priority Standards are directly aligned to the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP and End-of-Course) Assessments. Participants will need to bring an electronic device as we will dive into the DESE web page to uncover these gems. Q/A time will be incorporated throughout.
Meeting the Needs of High Ability/High Achieving Students
Presenter: Beth Winton
Location: 115 Townsend Hall
In 2021, the state of Missouri passed a law requiring all public schools serve their gifted students. At that time, only 39% of school districts had a state-approved gifted program. This session will cover the nature and need of high ability/high achieving students and how to meet them in the regular classroom as well as how to provide targeted services to identified gifted students.
A Multimedia Approach to Multicultural Teacher Education
Presenters: Kathryn Fishman-Weaver, Brian Stuhlman, Lydia Bryant, Charlie Creely, Jack Korde, Lexi Stacy, Taylor Straton, and Kenzie Welsh
Location: 122 Townsend Hall
Teacher candidates from the University of Missouri’s College of Education and Human Development have prepared a multimedia student showcase that celebrates lived experiences and arts integration. Join in this visual discussion based on key themes, including mental health, inclusion, special education, equity, family, and faith. You won’t want to miss this special session on the importance of intersectionality, personal story, and community-engagement in our teacher preparation programs.
So you want to be a teacher? Building Relationships with students
Presenter: Tom Whelihan
Location: 206 Townsend Hall
You’ve taken classes in Behavior Management, Curriculum, Data Collection, and Lesson Planning. All this is GREAT, but what is the number #1 thing you need in your toolbox to be successful? Join this breakout session to find out.
Yoga
Instructor: Leslie Kersha
Location: 205 Townsend Hall
Give yourself the gift of slowing down, breathing deeply, and learning mindfulness and yoga tools to help you cultivate wellness: YOU deserve it! No yoga experience is necessary. In this session, you will be taught self-regulation techniques, setting intentions, be guided through stress relief and mindfulness meditation as well as light yoga stretching to release tension from the mind and body. The ultimate goal is for you to access moments of true peacefulness and leave feeling more grounded, spacious, and at ease.
Session 2 • 11:20 am – 12:15 pm
The Power of Picture Books
Presenter: Taryn Brinlee
Location: 107 Townsend Hall
This session will focus on the importance of the text you choose to showcase with students and the message it sends about their identity.
The Prosocial Classroom: What is it? Why is it important? And how do I design and build one?
Presenter: Nikki Schwartz
Location: 107 Townsend Hall
Understand what prosocial education is and recognize why it is important. You will learn 5 practice strategies for designing and building a prosocial learning environment. This session gives you the chance to discover, or rediscover, the joy and humanity of learning and teaching.
Beyond “Standard English”: Exploring our own home dialects and welcoming students’ home dialects into the classroom
Presenter: Rose Metro
Location: 105 Townsend Hall
Drawing on the work of April Baker Bell (2020–Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy) and Jonathan Rosa (2019–Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad), we will create a space for pre-service teachers, practicing teachers, teacher educators, and anyone who’s interested to explore critical language ideologies. Where did our ideas of “academic” English come from? What does “professional” English sound like? Recognizing that “Standard English” is not a “home dialect” for most of us, what home dialects do we bring into the classroom as teachers and students, and how can these enrich our connections with each other? How can we welcome and value these varieties of English? How and when should we teach Standard English? Come and explore these complex issues in a supportive and collaborative environment!
Data-driven phonics small groups! Learning and using the CORE Phonics survey
Presenter: Kirsten Tivaringe
Location: 122 Townsend Hall
Engage in data-based decision making for small group phonics instruction using the CORE Phonics Survey (best suited for K-6). Participate in assessment administration, calculate scoring, code, analyze trends, and prioritize which phonics strand to teach next.
Talking about the Job Search: A Discussion with Candidates and Employers
Presenter: Sarah Walters
Location: 206 Townsend Hall
Let’s discuss the lived realities of the job search together and then re/imagine a job search that is (more) humane and meaningful. All are welcome to explore these questions and more: What is it like to look for jobs in education today? Experienced professionals, what was it like for you? Teacher candidates, what has it been like for you? What do these shared and differing experiences tell us? What should we all know about the process? What do some of us NOT know in terms of job searches, and what can we do about it? How can employers attract teacher candidates that are best suited for their organizational and community cultures? How can teacher candidates find the best fit in a future employer while doing a job search? How can we, in our various roles, make the job search more humane, connected, and meaningful?
Yoga
Instructor: Leslie Kersha
Location: 205 Townsend Hall
Give yourself the gift of slowing down, breathing deeply, and learning mindfulness and yoga tools to help you cultivate wellness: YOU deserve it! No yoga experience is necessary. In this session, you will be taught self-regulation techniques, setting intentions, be guided through stress relief and mindfulness meditation as well as light yoga stretching to release tension from the mind and body. The ultimate goal is for you to access moments of true peacefulness and leave feeling more grounded, spacious, and at ease.
Lunch • 12:15 – 1:45 pm
Lilly’s Cantina Food Truck
During the lunch hour, join Dr. Linda Helmick for Queering the curriculum through affective assemblage. Come to the Reflector and make an art project to take home at the end of the conference day.
Session 3 • 1:45 – 2:35 pm
Mock Interview Workshop
Presenter: Sarah Walters
Location: Reflector, 201 Townsend Hall
Are you seeking a job in education? Join us for a Mock Interview Workshop! In this interactive session, early careers teachers and teacher candidates will learn a few basic techniques for interviewing and practice interview skills. The Career Services Coordinator will present a brief guide for job interviews and provide helpful resources, then teacher candidates will get to work practicing their interview skills. All levels of preparedness are welcome!
Re-Thinking Behavior: Creating environments that support behavioral growth in students
Presenter: Nick Lazechko
Location: 107 Townsend Hall
“Re-Thinking Behavior” will challenge educators to re-think the way we view behavior of students in our schools. It will equip teachers to create classroom cultures that promote positive behavior and mental health in their students and help educators understand how to better respond to problematic behaviors.
How To Have a Successful Field Experience
Presenters: Jordan Milewczik & Susan Adams
Location: 109 Townsend Hall
This session is targeted toward Pre-Service teachers and current/prospective host teachers in the CEHD. Field Experiences range greatly in effectiveness and can make or break a student’s experience in the program and in their early education. This workshop aims to bring together tips, tricks, skills, and audience involvement to benefit both educating parties that are involved in the field experience systems.
Using Scaffolds to Engage in Complex Text
Presenters: Tara Atchinson Green & Delinda van Garderen
Location: 115 Townsend Hall
In this session we will share scaffolds that were developed as a part of a professional development program to use with middle school students to engage in complex text. We will focus on describing a framework for scaffolding and specific scaffolds that both special and general education teachers can use in their instruction.
Interrogating Depictions of Power in Picturebooks through Visual Thinking Strategies
Presenters: Angie Zapata, Kara Johnson, Whitney Hoffman
Location: 115 Townsend Hall
This interactive conversation will feature visual thinking strategy approaches to support readers’ critical encounters with picturebooks in the classroom. Participants will reimagine picturebook collections and rethink literature instruction as essential, critical work for both literacy development and a broader sense of citizenry among young children.
Literacy Centers for Elementary Educators: In Action!
Presenter: Kirsten Tivaringe
Location: 206 Townsend Hall
Engage in interactive, hands-on literacy centers, play and learn to design and implement differentiated, small-group literacy activities, such as Sound Games, Phonics Fun, Vocabulary, Fluency and more!)
Grab a seat: Yoga for de-stressing anywhere!
Presenter: Brandi Schumacher
Location: 205 Townsend Hall
Yoga is a practice often used to unwind and refocus. In a time when faculty and students are increasingly feeling stressed, learning methods to relax is beneficial. A brief overview of yoga, breathing techniques, and simple chair poses will be shared in this session. Further, suggestions for how to incorporate these methods into classroom routines will be presented. No prior yoga experience is needed; wearing comfortable, loose-fitting clothing is advised.
Conference Closing
Location: Reflector, 201 Townsend Hall
Thank you for spending the day learning with us! Please join us for a conference closing and the opportunity to win cool prizes!