PRACTICAL. TIMELY. 
DESIGNED TO PREPARE YOU FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD.

The Institute is an in-depth and practical learning opportunity for practicing and aspiring principals as well as teacher leaders. School leaders will leave with the knowledge and confidence to implement key concepts and new skills. 

Monday, August 1  |  12:00pm - 8:00pm
Set-Up for Success Pre-Con

If you are a new principal or have been on the job for three years or less, this is the place for you. Learning Facilitators Derek Wheaton and Dr. Debbie McFalone will lead this practical day of learning!   Our goal is to provide information to help new and beginning principals start strong and set the stage for a positive and productive year of leadership.

Principals will learn about

• Shaping their vision for leadership
• Managing interactions with skill and professionalism
• Practical strategies for time management and planning productive meetings

You won't want to miss this opportunity to meet other principals and form a supportive network of leaders from across Michigan.

Tuesday, August 2, 2015  |  10:00am - 12:00pm

Keynote Presentation with Dr. Ernest Morrell
Dr. Ernest Morrell is the Macy Professor of English Education and Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME) at Teachers College, Columbia University. Ernest is also past-president of the National Council of Teachers  of English (NCTE), a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and an appointed member of International Literacy Association’s Literacy Research Panel. Ernest was an award winning English teacher and coach in Northern California and he now works with teachers and schools across the country to infuse social and emotional learning, digital technologies, project based learning, and multicultural literature into standards-based literacy curricula and after school programs. Ernest is the author of more than 70 articles and book chapters, and eight books including Every Child a Super Reader (Scholastic, 2015), and New Directions in Teaching English, Linking Literacy and Popular Culture and Critical Media Pedagogy: Teaching for Achievement in City Schools, which was awarded Outstanding Academic Title for 2014 by Choice Magazine of the American Library Association. Ernest has earned numerous commendations for his university teaching including UCLA’s Department of Education’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Morrell earned his Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture from the University of California at Berkeley where he received the Outstanding Dissertation Award.  

Wednesday, August 3, 2016  |  12:30pm - 2:00pm

Keynote Presentation with John Schumacher
Cool, Loud, and Everywhere: Being a Reading Leader
OR Be an Xtreme Literacy Leader for Your Students

John Schumacher (aka Mr. Schu) is a blogger, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs®. You could say every day is a giant book party for this teacher-librarian! In fact, Library Journal named him "The Xtreme Librarian" for the high level of exertion – along with some gears and stunts – he uses to get kids reading, and Instructor Magazine named him a Cool Teacher for redefining what it means to be a teacher-librarian. John served on the 2014 Newbery committee, which named the title Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures "the most distinguished contribution to children's literature." He blogs daily at MrSchuReads.com

Tuesday, August 2, Interactive Learning Sessions
 1:15 pm - 4:15pm (Choose one)

The Transition to Kindergarten: 
Implementing a System that Links Students, Families and Staff
Facilitated by Dr. Pat Cavanaugh, Principal, Warren Consolidated Schools

Are you looking to develop strong relationships with your students and their families before the first day of kindergarten? Do you want to promote a great “first impression” for the new families starting at your school? Are you interested in learning how to encourage positive reading habits at home with your incoming kindergarten families? This presentation will answer these questions and many other questions you may have about the transition to kindergarten. Developing and sustaining an effective kindergarten transition system will transform your family engagement plan. The participants will be motivated to view "Kindergarten Readiness" not just through the lens of what schools can do to prepare their students and families, but also how can schools be prepared and "ready" for the students and families beginning kindergarten. Participants will receive a "menu” of transition activities and resources that include Kindergarten Preview, Kindergarten screening protocol, hosting a Kindergarten Camp, Facilitating Home Visits, Incorporating a Summer Bookmobile, a Parent Resource Library, Family surveys, and many more. In addition, the most current research on the changing nature of kindergarten will be provided for the audience.

Live and Lead Strong! 
Facilitated by Dr. Debbie McFalone, McFalone Consulting and
Derek Wheaton, Derek Wheaton Consulting

A significant body of literature is being written today about the fact that leaders must maintain a healthy balance of mind, body, and spirit in order to effectively serve over time.  Participants in this session will not only be introduced to multiple resources to promote their own personal and professional well-being but learn practical strategies to become more mindful, reflective, and grounded in their own values and guiding principles. Principals will understand the need for authentic self-advocacy, and develop the courage to exercise these attributes of skillful leadership.   Outcomes for this interactive session include: 

• Understanding the importance  for all leaders to consider issues related to stress and learn relevant strategies to manage it in their personal and professional lives
• Develop a stress reduction plan focused on self-advocacy, mindfulness and wellness
• Examine multiple resources to help leaders sustain their commitment to self-care over time

Student Learning Objective: Why, What, and How?
Facilitated by Doug Greer, Ottawa Area ISD

MDE released on September 10 their recommendation to use “Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) to help measure student academic growth.” SLOs are also identified in PA 173 (Ed Eval law) as one way to measure “student growth and assessment data” which will climb to 40% of the evaluation process in 2018/19.  In this interactive session, instructional leaders will learn why we should use SLOs, what is a SLO and begin to see resources for how we might lead teachers to implement the SLO process. 

Wednesday, August 3, Interactive Learning Sessions
 8:30 - 11:45am (Choose one)

Falling in Love with Reading:
One School's Journey through the Lens of a Third-Grade Classroom
Facilitated by Sue Haney and Colby Sharp, Western School District

Get a bird’s-eye view of a reading year at Parma Elementary. Learn how this Michigan school promotes reading through innovative ways such as author visits, book birthdays, booktalks, independent reading, classroom libraries, read-alouds, assembly read-alouds, Skype, book holidays, and more.

Literacy Leadership:
Implementing Essential Instructional Practices in Elementary Literacy Plans  
Facilitated by Molly Funk, Core School Solutions and
Susan Townsend, Jackson Intermediate School District

Principals function as a crucial component to literacy development of students in elementary schools. They are charged with understanding and creating systems to implement researched based practices to help students increase literacy skills and teacher capacity with literacy instruction.  Participants in this session if will collaborate with colleagues to learn how to implement the Essential Instructional Literacy Practices from the GELN Early Literacy Task Force in a coherent framework as part of continuous improvement and build your own skills as a literacy leader.  Participants will understand the Essential Instructional Practices from a leadership standpoint,  learn how to build systems to implement these practices, and how to identify and support them in classrooms for increased student literacy growth.

How High Impact Feedback Can Positively Influence Leadership Capacity
Facilitated by Fiona Hinds and Bethany Zito, Michigan AdvancED

Now more than ever stakeholder feedback is crucial in making informed decisions that positively impact the school community.  Reaching all stakeholder groups can be a daunting task and asking the “right” questions can prove difficult.   Through the use of eProve surveys, institutions now have the ability to create custom surveys, add questions to AdvancED Certified Content, distribute electronic surveys in multi-languages, obtain mobile responses from your stakeholders, benchmark data against AdvancED network averages, generate data-rich reports, access administrative functions from a single landing page and more!  This session will allow participants to not only understand the eProve platform but will provide a hands-on tutorial to allow for a deep dive into building custom surveys and generating reports to make informed decisions in continuous improvement.  As a final opportunity, participants will also discover how utilizing the eleot tool within classrooms can provide timely and powerful quantifiable data surrounding levels of student engagement.  Principals will understand how to see and hear learner-centric environments and analyze levels of learner engagement to support opportunities to increase student success in the classroom.

Emotions Matter! Culture Counts!
Understanding and Implementing Social Emotional Learning to Revitalize School Culture
Facilitated by Karen Gomez and Mary Perfitt-Nelson, Oakland Schools

Principals and school leaders are the key to developing and sustaining a positive school culture and climate. Staff and student development of healthy social emotional skills can be woven into the fabric of your school’s culture to support higher levels of student engagement, academic achievement and further life success. Increasing SEL skills can have direct impact on: attention, memory, learning, decision making, and relationship quality, physical and mental health, school performance and your overall everyday effectiveness. The MDE will be releasing Social Emotional Learning Standards in the 2016-2017 school year along with ESSA requesting that schools thoughtfully monitor the whole child and also observe non-academic measures. Learn what Social-Emotional Learning is; why it matters; how it can enhance your school’s culture and how to assess it.  A positive, proactive and supportive school culture is just around the corner!