New Workshops from WOIS

Registration is now available for three new workshops sponsored by WOIS.

The three workshops are:

• Dependable Strengths for Educators
• Creating Schools with Heart and Soul (Where Students Want to Be)
• How the WOIS Electronic Portfolio Supports Advisories, Navigation 101 and Culminating Projects

Details about each workshop are listed below.

1. Dependable Strengths for Educators, two-day Workshop
January 15-16, 2009, Bower Learning Center, Olympia, WA
8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day
Presenters: Allen Boiven-Brown, Center for Dependable Strengths and Tami Palmer, WOIS

This two-day workshop will prepare educators to incorporate the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process (DSAP) in their schools.

The aftermath of the school experience leaves many students believing they have little value and a dismal future. Even those students who do well in school have little awareness of their own unique strengths. How do we help all students realize their inherent, unique value; believe in themselves; find direction for the future; increase their hope; appreciate and respect the uniqueness of others; and become motivated to be their “best self”? The DSAP is a proven tool for moving students toward these outcomes. Through research at the University of Washington, the DSAP has been shown to increase self-esteem, motivation and internal locus of control, plus increase respect and appreciation for others.

You will experience highlights of the DSAP to identify your own Dependable Strengths; then receive a special version of the Dependable Strengths curriculum, age-appropriate for your students. With assistance from workshop leaders, you will develop plans to use the DSAP in your school. Information and materials for creating a strengths-focused school will be included.

• Identify your own Dependable Strengths
• Receive a DS Curriculum manual at no additional cost (a $135 value)
  
• Experience and practice Dependable Strengths activities that you can turn around and use with students
• Experience the Internet version of the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process (DSi)

2. Creating Schools with Heart and Soul (Where Students Want to Be), one-day workshop
January 27, 2009, Bower Learning Center, Olympia, Washington
8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Presenter: Cal Crow, Center for Learning Connections

If we hope to raise achievement levels, we must change the way students experience school. This means being able to create positive emotional experiences for all students and ensuring that they can make meaning of what is being taught. It means touching their hearts and souls as well as their heads. This workshop will look at school from a student’s perspective and show how providing relevance and relationships, as well as rigor, in curriculum and instruction can improve achievement, increase student motivation, and eliminate many student-related concerns confronting today’s educators.

Educators who attend this workshop will learn how to

• Engage students in conversations that motivate them to learn and achieve.
• Increase students’ self-efficacy, a major correlate of success in school.
• Help students tap into their natural resiliency, enabling them to overcome obstacles that prevent them from succeeding in school.

Who Should Attend?

Anyone seeking new, more effective ways of addressing learning, motivation and achievement. Educators from Navigation 101 schools, and those wishing to increase WASL scores and/or reduce their student failure rate, will find this workshop especially helpful.

About the Presenter: Cal Crow has conducted dozens of workshops in many parts of the world, all designed to help young people use their educational experiences to achieve successful futures. He believes strongly that we can improve learning and motivation by creating programs and activities that positively affect the way students experience school.

3. Using the WOIS Electronic Portfolio to support Advisories, Navigation 101 and Culminating Projects – two dates to choose from
January 8, 2009, Bower Learning Center, Olympia, Washington
February 24, 2009, Bower Learning Center, Olympia, Washington
8:30 a.m. to 12:00
Presenter: Tami Palmer, WOIS

Are you using the WOIS Electronic Portfolio for advisories, Navigation 101, Culminating Projects, or do you simply want to fully utilize its capabilities for supporting and tracking students’ career and educational planning progress? If so, this is the workshop for you! In this workshop you will learn how to:

1. Create group managers (teachers, counselors, advisors) and assign students to their groups.
2. Populate class lists and career pathways or clusters, so students choose the subjects available at your school when doing their high school and beyond plans.
3. Provide links within the student portfolios to important instructions and documents.
4. Track and manage student portfolios efficiently and effectively.

Register for any of these workshops online at our event registration page. To pay with a credit card, call Tami or Sarah at the WOIS office, 1-800-700-WOIS (9647).

If you are interested in any of these workshops coming to your area, please contact Tami Palmer to submit a request. Questions about any of the workshop can also be addressed to Tami.