Get Involved Archives - Learning Forward Kansas

Yes, We Can!! Tips, Tools, & Protocols to Engage Your Team/Staff in Meaningful Learning

Yes We Can!!!

Tips, Tools, & Protocols to Engage Your Team/Staff in Meaningful Learning

A one-day workshop provided by Learning Forward Kansas and Smoky Hill Education Service Center

Workshop Details

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

8:30 am – 3:30 pm

Facilitators: Vicki Bechard & Dayna Richardson

$125.00 Registration for 1 LFKS Member
$100.00 Registration for Teams of 2 or more LFKS Members
$150.00 Registration for 1 Non LFKS Member
$125.00 Registration for Teams of 2 or More Non LFKS Member

Includes light breakfast, lunch, light snack

Location: 605 E. Crawford, Salina

About the Facilitators

Vicki Bechard
Email: bechardv@hotmail.com
Phone: 913-796-6241

Dayna Richardson
Email: daynarichardson45@gmail.com
Phone: 620-921-5775

Vicki Bechard is the secretary for Learning Forward Kansas (LFKS) and owner/lead consultant of Teaching and Learning Consulting Network, LLC. In addition, she is an adjunct instructor for the graduate program at Baker University.

Dayna Richardson is the Executive Director of Learning Forward Kansas (LFKS) and President of Kansas Learning First Alliance (KLFA). She is actively involved in education and promoting professional learning, serving on Learning Forward’s State Affiliate Committee at the national level and on the Kansas Education Commissioner’s Professional Learning Task Force for KSDE. In addition, she is an Educational Coach and Consultant.

Workshop Description:

JOIN US as we learn together! This session targets any educator who leads professional learning with their team, building or district. During this interactive session, participants will experience protocols (strategies) that lead to greater engagement and deeper conversations while doing relevant work and creating teams/schools where ALL learners flourish. These protocols will focus on specific tools that can be used with any topic/content being presented as we “walk our talk” by increasing the kind and quality of professional conversations around new learning, data analysis, studying student work or learning new content/strategies.

During the transition from a “checklist” accreditation to a continuous school improvement accreditation model with true collective responsibility, many leaders are hungry for tools/strategies/protocols that will allow all educators to EXPERIENCE LEARNING. No longer will individual teaching excellence be sufficient to produce critical gains for ALL learners. Teachers working in isolation lack the collective resources for spreading good ideas and refining patterns of practice within their buildings and across their districts. We learn in a community of practice.

This session will demonstrate protocols (walking our talk) that all leaders can use. We will make connections to the Standards for Professional Learning, especially Learning Designs. Each participant will leave with resources to use with a team, building or district. Again, JOIN US as we learn together!

Workshop Flyer:

Join Us as a Sponsor or Partner

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Tips, Tools, & Protocols to Engage Your Team/Staff in Meaningful Learning

KSDE Pre-Conference

Tips, Tools, & Protocols to Engage Your Team/Staff in Meaningful Learning

A one-day workshop provided by Learning Forward Kansas in conjunction with the KSDE Pre-Conference

Workshop Details

Monday, October 24, 2016

8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Registration Deadline: October 19, 2016

Facilitators: Vicki Bechard & Dayna Richardson

$125.00 Registration for 1 LFKS Member
$100.00 Registration for Teams of 2 or more LFKS Members
$150.00 Registration for 1 Non LFKS Member
$125.00 Registration for Teams of 2 or More Non LFKS Member

Includes light breakfast, lunch

Location: Hyatt Regency/Century II, Wichita

About the Facilitators

Vicki Bechard
Email: bechardv@hotmail.com
Phone: 913-796-6241

Dayna Richardson
Email: daynarichardson45@gmail.com
Phone: 620-921-5775

Workshop Description:

Workshop Flyer:

On-Site Support for Professional Learning

Change is coming to YOUR school! … and WE CAN TOO !

LFKS is now available to come to your school! We can facilitate a one-day work session that is based on the initiatives you want to implement.

Download PDF (1 MB)

A Message from the LFKS President

As a former middle and high school football coach, I gave my share of pregame pep talk speeches. We gathered the team in an endzone or locker room and helped them focus on the game. 13 to 18-year-old athletes needed basic reminders of who was on kickoff but inspirational words also helped to set the early tone of the game. I always tried to emulate the message that Jimmy Valvano described in his 1993 ESPY speech in which he describes the three things every person should do every day. Early in the season, we would outline the three priorities of the team and these traits focused any speech for my athletes. This fall I have challenged the Learning Forward Kansas (LFKS) board to focus on three simple concepts:

Go Big, Stay Calm, Be Positive.

Obviously, to “go big” one must have goals and aspirations, but the concept is larger. Too often educators are hesitant to attempt something different or push back against a new initiative. To go big means to refuse to let fear of the unknown stop our efforts. For years I have prescribed the concepts that Marainne Willamson outlined in her quote highlighted in the movie Coach Carter. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that frightens us.” Many educators tend to ”play it safe” and while we always want research-based methodologies, we stop short of achieving our ultimate greatness. Perhaps we fear how great our impact might be; we fear our light. Over the next year, LFKS will strive to go big and find new ways to spread the “how” of professional learning.

Teaching during a pandemic, one can become overwhelmed easily. Teachers are balancing students in quarantine along with worrying about their own health. Educators throughout the state will need to remember to stay calm. I have always liked the analogy of a duck on water. On the surface, educators will look graceful and calm, even when the world spins too quickly.

In a TED Talk, educator Rita Pierson challenges teachers to be the hero that every student deserves. These words and concepts inspired the idea to be positive. We challenge you to be positive and confident and you will make a difference this year. Strive to impact students at higher levels and be assured that you have the skills to make a difference.

Eric Shipman, President
Learning Forward Kansas

KSDE Pre-Conference

KSDE Pre-Conference

On the Right Track:
Determining Your Road for Success

A one-day workshop provided by Learning Forward Kansas in conjunction with the KSDE Pre-Conference

Workshop Details

Monday, October 26, 2015

8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Registration Deadline: October 19, 2015

Facilitators: Vicki Bechard & Dayna Richardson

$125.00 per person

Includes light breakfast
Lunch included

Location: Hyatt Regency/Century II, Wichita

About the Facilitators

Vicki Bechard
Email: bechardv@hotmail.com
Phone: 913-796-6241

Dayna Richardson
Email: daynarichardson45@gmail.com
Phone: 620-921-5775

Workshop Description:

In this day-‐long session, participants will explore the complex changes facing our schools today (accreditation [5 Rs], educator evaluations, 1 to 1 initiatives, PLCs, etc,) and experience strategies that support district and building leaders in implementing desired changes.

Are you on the right track? Keys to successful implementation begin with understanding change and its effect on your building/district, plus the design and delivery of effective professional learning (HOW) that supports your change. Bring issues relevant to your school and leave with new insights and tools to make change happen! JOIN US!!

Acquire skills, strategies, and resources to USE as agents of change,
Work with team members on current, local situa0ons involving complex change in your organization, and
Study and apply change models and Standards for Professional Learning as a framework for leading change.

Who should attend:

Teacher leaders, administrators, instructional coaches, and building/district leadership teams.

Workshop Flyer:

Leaders Matter Institute

Leaders Matter: Leading Change for Success

This one-day institute is a partnership between LFKS and KELI

Kansas Educational Leadership Institute (KELI)

Date: ~~December 2, 2015~~ We hope to reschedule for Spring 2016
Location: Central Community Church, 6100 West Maple, Wichita, KS
Facilitators: Vicki Bechard and Dayna Richardson

View and Download Flyer

Online Registration OR Printable Mail-in/FAX Registration

A challenge for principals, superintendents, and other district administrators is prioritizing the changes they are responsible for leading and facilitating during the coming school year. These include KESA, Educator Evaluations, Instructional Frameworks, 1 to 1 Initiatives, Construction and Building Projects, and other initiatives that are specific to an individual district.

For this workshop session, please bring your change challenge and then learn and experience strategies to plan and implement for success.

Explore Change information including Models, Best Practices, and Strategies
Use Change Strategies to Inform/Shape Practice
Learn from Kansas Practitioner Leaders from the Field
Create a Plan to go from Knowing to Doing

About the Facilitators

Vicki Bechard
Email: bechardv@hotmail.com
Phone: 913-796-6241

Dayna Richardson
Email: daynarichardson45@gmail.com
Phone: 620-921-5775

Dayna Richardson is the Executive Director of Learning Forward Kansas (LFKS) and Chair of Kansas Learning First Alliance (KLFA). She is actively involved in education and promoting professional learning, serving on Learning Forward’s State Affiliate Committee at the national level and on the Kansas Education Commissioner’s Professional Learning Task Force for KSDE. In addition, she is an Educational Coach and Consultant.