Workshops

Donna is available to present at your conference or in your district. See below for a sampling of topics that she has presented. Contact Donna for presentations tailored to your needs.

Keynotes

Listen to Your Heart
Remember why you become an educator! Be inspired to share laughs and maybe a tear or two with Donna as she reminds us all of the importance of touching children. The triumphs and tribulations of being a teacher are humorously explored!

Building Bridges
Building Bridges to parents, standards, colleagues & children are at the heart of teaching! Donna reminds us of how we can overcome the challenges and gain the "tools" we need to "get to the other side"!

The ABC's of Change
Educators and children are wrought with CHANGE. Come and discover how change can become an opportunity for success. You will see that the saying "when one door closes, another opens" does represent the goodness in dealing with new challenges and change in our own lives and careers.

Good for All…Imperative for Some!
Each day educators face the challenge of meeting the diverse needs of a diverse student population. In this lighthearted, thought-provoking keynote, Donna will share current research that explores the "best practice" strategies associated with differentiated instruction. Each teacher will leave with ideas that can be used immediately in their classroom to promote higher achievement and enable all students to better learn.

Full Day Sessions

RTI and Dimensions of Reading
Response to Intervention is aimed at systematic, research-based instruction and interventions for struggling learners. This workshop is designed to identify and teach strategies for both Tier I and Tier II levels of the RTI model. Classroom teachers will learn to move general curriculum to small groups with targeted activities to ensure the success of all students. The essential five components of reading will be addressed, along with the answer to the question, "but what if they aren't getting each one?" Each component will be outlined and best practice interventions introduced. Every teacher will leave with lessons and strategies for reading interventions that address modeling, guided practice and independent practice to ensure mastery. Donna will give you the tools to empower you to easily transition to targeted skills for the children who are struggling with the core reading program. Time and management factors will be explored and solutions provided to enable each teacher to address the needs of all students. You will leave this workshop knowing how to "fit it all in" by the use of independent learning opportunities, collaborative work and finding support to ensure that every child succeeds.

Writing ~ Making it Happen!
Come and share a day all about writing with young children. Learn dozens of activities and strategies to create a writing program for all levels of learners. Explore how shared, modeled, interactive, and independent writing strategies can support and improve students' writing skills. You will gain activities and mini-lessons to best utilize each of these components of writing to create the best possible writers in your classroom. Donna will guide you through the assessment of students' writing and how you can develop a plan to address diverse student needs based upon those assessments. Best of all you will leave with ideas for engaging writing strategies and stations that can help motivate students to practice and master newly learned skills starting tomorrow morning.

Teaching without Disruption: Strategies for Promoting Positive Behavior in Young Children!
Come join Donna and take advantage of motivating strategies to help young learners connect positive behavior with rewarding consequences. Encourage all your students to take responsibility for their own learning and actions. Discover how to teach students in ways they learn best-and create a classroom that supports learning without a focus on the management issues. Learn developmentally appropriate solutions you can use to prevent and reduce common misbehaviors and develop the skills to become a "coach" in redirecting inappropriate student behavior when it occurs. Explore ways to reduce power struggles and handle behaviors in ways that leave a student's dignity and self esteem intact. Donna will share the four cornerstones of great discipline that will allow you to turn a disruptive environment into one where communication and learning are the focus. Teach the gift of self-discipline and create a classroom where children learn to get along, take responsibility for themselves and for their work.

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Mini-Sessions

Mini-Sessions can be mixed and matched for a full day

Creating Successful Writers
Explore ways to easily integrate writing into every aspect of the school day. Learn to effectively develop and utilize Writing Folders to create independent, responsible writers. Utilize themes and units of study as vocabulary builders as you facilitate children in creating tools for independent writing.

Using Journals in the Classroom/Journals
Learn to use journals as an interactive teaching tool. Explore the many ways that journals can enhance reading and writing within your classroom. Discover the learning opportunities for literacy when journals become an integral part of your day.

Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness best predicts reading success. Come and explore the facets of teaching phonemic awareness and its affects on student writing and reading achievement. Discover a variety of hands-on activities; props and materials that can help promote developmental phoneme awareness in your students. Utilize children's natural enjoyment for playing with language using nursery rhymes, poems, songs and stories to teach phonemic sense.

Inspiring Children to Succeed
Engage and inspire your students like you never thought possible! Now you can take advantage of unique, classroom-tested strategies for creating a classroom of motivated learners. You'll discover ways to connect the classroom with your students' world. Plus, create a positive environment that will guarantee academic success for all children.

Empowering the Brain!
Educators know more about the brain and how it learns than every before. Let's put this research to work in our classrooms. How do children learn? What determines what kids will learn successfully? Explore ways to answer these questions with the creation of child-friendly, brain-compatible classrooms where all children can learn and grow.

Coaching Struggling Readers and Writers
Explore techniques and strategies for aiding your struggling readers and writers to achieve success. Learn ways to develop and provide tools to students that facilitate the mastering of those key skills so vital to literacy achievement.

Struggling Reader First Aid
Learn intervention strategies to use in your classroom immediately. Help your struggling readers with activities to build motivation to read. Also, share strategies for fluency, phonics, sight words and more. Be ready to return to your classroom with tools that support your struggling readers.

Comprehension and Fluency Puzzle
Come and share strategies for "putting the pieces" of reading together. Leave with ideas that you can put into practice in your classroom tomorrow morning to build fluency and comprehension skills. Explore fun and motivating lessons that will aide your students in reading success!

Positive Behavior in the Classroom and Beyond
If your goal is to develop positive behavior in children that is based upon respect and self-control, you won't want to miss this session. Explore the key components to managing a classroom where children take responsibility for their own behavior. You'll learn new classroom management strategies that nurture positive behavior today and far beyond.

Morning Meeting/Afternoon Wrap-Up
Investigate the importance of beginning the day as a group of learners. Effectively utilize morning meeting to connect children with the classroom. Also learn the importance of adding closure at the end of each day. Donna will share a variety of closing activities that encourage children to answer that parent question, "What did you do in school today?" with more than "nothing!"

First 30 Days
Start the school year with routines and management tips that are sure to help you create a successful learning environment. Donna will share her ideas on facilitating a class of students who are independent problem-solvers. Less Interruptions + More Independence = Greater Learning! Explore strategies for creating a classroom with a "love of learning".

First & Last 30 Days of School
Start the year with routines and management tips that are sure to help you create a successful learning environment. Share strategies that can be easily transferred into your own classroom. Ending the year can be just as challenging as the beginning. Come and find ideas and themes for "wrapping it all up". The kids will love it and you will find the motivation to end the year with a BANG!

Work Smarter/Not Harder
Take advantage of this special networking opportunity to share creative ideas, timesaving tips and classroom management solutions! This information-packed, interactive session will help you stock-up on classroom-proven teaching tools to streamline classroom set-up, establish family connections, use the internet and much more.

Easy to Develop/Easy to Manage Learning Stations/Centers in a Snap
Learn how to create and manage effective learning stations for your classroom. Explore stations that address multiple learning levels and styles. Come and share ideas that can be immediately implemented in your own classroom. Make learning independent, hands-on and lots of FUN!

There's More than One Way to READ!
Explore the components of reading with children, reading to children and allowing children to read by themselves. Learn strategies that address multiple levels of readers while building motivation to be a reader. Come and discover how to put more literacy learning into your busy day.

Games that Teach!
Activate higher-order thinking skills with kid-tested games that teach! Create daily learning opportunities. Motivate and empower children across the entire curriculum. And, have a great time with your students while you build skills and reinforce concepts. Plus, take advantage of great ideas for hands-on center activities, too!

Teacher's Toolbox for Differentiated Instruction
Discover the tools you will need to successfully teach all levels and learning styles within your classroom. Gain instructional strategies that aid in motivating children and lead to increased achievement for all. Learn approaches you can use tomorrow to create a student-centered classroom where all children can succeed.

Inclusion For All
Explore the strategies of inclusion teaching that benefit every child in your classroom. You'll learn effective techniques to help you carefully and thoughtfully consider every child's needs and create ways to reach your entire classroom. Plus, you'll learn to provide more options in the classroom so that all children discover success.

Social Studies ~ The Missing Piece
Come and discover how social studies topics can be transferred into multiple learning opportunities throughout the school day. Explore lessons that teach children about themselves and their world. Find ways to put social studies into reading, writing, listening, speaking & viewing instruction each and every day.

Vocabulary Builds Success
Language development is at the heart of our education system for reading and writing. Communications skills can be taught that allow children to better succeed in our classrooms. Learn fun ways to introduce, practice and extend activities that build vocabulary and language skills.

Phonics Fun!
Discover songs, poems and games that will help children "break the code". Teaching children phonics transfers into more independent reading and writing. This is your opportunity to gain strategies that you can put to use in your classroom starting tomorrow!

Teach…the way they learn!
Imagine lessons and strategies that key into the way the youngest students learn best. Explore how visual learning opportunities can empower every child in the classroom to acquire skills for reading and writing. Plus, discover how these fun learning opportunities can motivate your learners.

Everyday Science
Take advantage of those everyday opportunities to integrate science into your curriculum. Use science as a learning block that is present throughout the day. Donna demonstrates topics that you can extend each and everyday to ensure that science is an integral part of the students' learning experiences.

Balanced Math
Examine the basic components of math that enable children to become "math wizards". Gain effective techniques for ensuring that all children are practicing and gaining mastery of important math concepts. Facilitate children in becoming problem-solvers and independent thinkers.

Literature Circles Alive! Grades 1-3
Come and take advantage of this opportunity to explore and discuss strategies for creating successful literature circles. In this session you will become an active member of a group in order to determine how best to utilize individual roles to further group discussions. Discover techniques for conferencing and using reader response journals. You will leave with tools to use in your classroom the very next day as you build an exciting literature environment.

50 Teaching Tips K-2
Come and share ideas and activities that will boost your daily classroom schedule. These quick and easy teaching tips will add time, fun and energy to your day. Leave with simple organizational tools and strategies that will lead to learning success each and every day.

The How's and Why's of Connecting with Your Students K-2
Come and share ideas and activities that will boost your daily classroom schedule. These quick and easy teaching tips will add time, fun and energy to your day. Leave with simple organizational tools and strategies that will lead to learning success each and every day.

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© 2008 Donna Whyte & TheSmartieZone. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated July 1, 2008