Resources for Practical and Compelling Educational Change
Virtual Professional Development

Wow, this is a challenging time, and teachers are hungry for professional development as student learning, progression, and well-being become paramount. Many of Rick’s presentations are appropriate for our current realities, working well as professional development webinars using Zoom, GotoMeeting, GotoWebinar, Webex, and other platforms. Rick is comfortable customizing content and timing to meet your faculty’s needs. Options include session lengths of 60-90 minutes, two hours, half-day, full-day, and multi-day.
In our remote instruction situations, though, creativity is key: A full-day seminar, for example, might be provided more wisely as two, half-day sessions, so that teachers have the other half of the day for instructing students or conversing about content. This would be conducted for the same price as one full-day session, even though it’s spread over two days. Sometimes, teachers have to play with ideas while working with students before forming helpful questions, so you may want to ask Rick to present one half-day or full-day session on a topic, then join your faculty virtually for two, one-hour, “Q and A,” sessions at later dates to help teachers clarifying thinking.
Topics on which Rick does training that work particularly well for virtual professional development Rick include:
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Accurate/ethical grading
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Assessment fundamentals and myth-busting
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Formative/summative assessment
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Re-learning/re-assessing
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Summarization techniques for any subject
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Metaphors and analogies for instructional use in any subject
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Teaching young adolescent students
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Cultivating tenacity, motivation, and self-discipline in Students
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Minimizing cheating/copying/plagiarizing among students learning at home
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Descriptive feedback principles and techniques
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Differentiated instruction: principles and practices
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Tiering assignments and assessments
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21st-century homework practices
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Reflective coaching for teachers
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Cultivating professional creativity in teachers
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Cultivating intellect and professionalism among teachers
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Shifting school culture for differentiated instruction
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Shifting school culture for standards based grading
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Being principled first, practical second
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Emancipating english language learners in the regular classroom
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Finding time to work with students
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Getting to know our students so we can differentiate instruction
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Practical cognitive science principles
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Sponges and warm-up activities
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Rubric design
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Teaching gifted students
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Building executive function skills in students
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Vocabulary acquisition
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Writing education articles/manuscripts for publication
Rick is also happy to discuss effective follow-up experiences you or he can provide following the content sessions he delivers with professional development planners. As far as pricing goes, shorter virtual sessions cost less than longer ones, obviously. Consider how in-depth you’d like to dive into the principled and practical nature of the topic, and plan accordingly. Send Rick an email to inquire about pricing. Such an inquiry does not put you on any mailing list, nor does it obligate you to book time with Rick.
This is a tough time for educators, and professional development needs to adapt to the challenges. Rick’s willing to work with you to make that happen.