Dedra will want to learn more about your school in order to tailor a training or coaching cycle to best meet your needs. Below are some examples of PD workshops that Dedra has recently offered in schools:

​The Teacher's Guide to Time Saving with AI
Feeling overwhelmed by endless tasks? Out of new ways to teach the same topics? No time to put together a newsletter or email? Unleash the power of AI to get your work-life balance! Whether you're a tech enthusiast or not, this session is designed to show you how AI can be your time-saving teacher assistant. We'll delve into what AI is, addressing concerns and demystifying its use for creativity in the classroom. Explore innovative ways to leverage AI for lesson planning, writing newsletters, crafting emails, and tackling challenging situations. No need to be a tech expert – discover how easy it is to create differentiated lessons and class activities with AI. This session will get you up to speed on this new technology... but be prepared! Your jaw will drop and your mind will be blown at how quick and easy this AI thing really is!

What Are Your TECH-FIVE?
There is so much edu tech out there that it can be overwhelming. How do you see it all, learn to use it all, and then teach it to kids while getting the pacing guide covered? Dedra says the key to using the technology they crave to teach is simply finding the best of the best. Finding 5 tech tools that work in a variety of ways will simplify your classroom and learning. Dedra walks you through several tech tools that are versatile enough to help you assess, teach, blend, create and document learning. Come get your favorite 5 that do it all.
 
Connecting and Building Classroom Culture with Games
Come play and have fun-- Dedra will lead participants through as many games as possible. Walk away with 15 different quick easy ways to connect and have fun with students in circles, advisory, or classrooms.
 
History Engagement Ideas to Add to Your Toolbox
Dedra gives you NEW ideas for projects, learning techniques, and ideas for teaching social studies. Come in and fill your toolbox with ideas to revitalize your classroom. This session will be a resource session filled with websites, games, lesson ideas, and more. If you have liked Dedra's past ideas... you will love this session.
 
Let it Go to Learn: Gradual Release of Responsibility
How do we help students become independent learners? Gradual Release of Responsibility ---GRR! From “I do & you do” models to a 4-stage method of pedagogy framed around a process transferring responsibility within the learning process, teachers move from holding the responsibility of learning to creating situations in which students assume the responsibility. We will touch on the research but dive deep into the methods, strategies to support the models, and common pitfalls teachers struggle with when they move the learning from the podium to students’ hands. Create a learning environment that honors all learners and allows students to hold the knowledge in their hands for long-term retention with GRR methods and strategies.
 
Burnout to Balance: A Teacher's Guide to a Work Life Balance
Staying balanced is the key to avoiding burnout in the school world. But how do you do that? Come in to this session and be inspired to laugh, love, and balance your life on your way to a long healthy career. Dedra draws on the five secrets she revealed in her keynote and gives real strategies that will help you find your balance.
 
No Worksheet Wednesday- low prep ideas for active learning experiences
Reviewing key concepts doesn’t have to mean assigning another worksheet! This session is filled with easy low prep ideas to turn any worksheet or question set into active learning experiences. The ideas can be adapted for ANY content area. If students are having fun, they are engaged and connected to your content. Use fun as a tool to reach your students and ditch those boring worksheets."
 
Quick Tips for Productive Question Strategies in Instruction
Using questioning strategies in instruction is an effective formative assessment method, if it is done correctly. This session discusses formative instruction via classroom questioning and the most powerful tools that teachers can use. Stop blurt-outs, get quality feedback, and promote quality discussion in peer-to-peer interaction. These easy-to-implement techniques are perfect for any classroom.
 
Instructional Strategies that Move the Needle
Come in and learn about the high-yield instructional strategies that are research-based and shown to have the greatest impact on increasing student achievement. From Marzano to Hattie, Dedra will give a brief description of several strategies and examples for classrooms. Walk away with easy to implement ideas to help students achieve.
 
Games that Make Learning Fun
Need a new way to review material? Tired of playing Trashcan Review? This session will give you several new ways to add a little fun to the typical review. Quick no prep classroom fun to easy technology games, this session has a little of everything.
 
Geography Classroom Active Learning
There is a difference between compliant and active learning. Dedra will demonstrate easy cost-effective ways to get students actively engaged in the geography classroom like never before.
 
Growing Our Thinking About Thinking: Growth Mindset and Self-Efficacy            
Delve into the how-to's of promoting a classroom of thinking through growth mindset and self-efficacy. How can you combat learned helplessness in the classroom? Help students move beyond just trying to "look smart?" Get them to own their own learning? Dedra answers these and other questions while addressing how meta-cognition can be part of any classroom culture.
 
Classroom Management: The Real Secrets to Success!
Uncover and start practicing the real secrets to classroom management success. Dedra shares effective management systems, partner plans, teacher time-savers, and much more. Plus, she shows you exactly how to put them to work in your classroom. Whether you’re a new or veteran teacher, you’ll learn sanity-saving ideas that’ll bring order to your classroom and make implementing differentiated instruction, technology, and RTI seem like a piece of cake.
 
Mindfulness to Gratitude--Activities that Work!
Explore ideas for teaching the social and emotional development skills that sometimes get forgotten in the academics-focused classroom. Dedra presents easy-to-do activities that work in any classroom. Teach your kids to thrive using her strategies for creating we-want-more learning opportunities for your children.
 
Mindfulness in the Classroom: Slowing Down to Speed Up Success
In today's over-stimulating, 24/7, instant-access world, students need time to slow down and learn to breathe, think, and focus. This session is about mindfulness—what it is and what it is not and how to add moments of mindfulness to your classroom. Learn mindfulness practices that can influence attention spans and behavior in children of all ages. Dedra discusses everything from research to classroom activities that you can use tomorrow.
 
Project Based Learning: A Quest for Real-World Knowledge
Learning CAN be real and relevant with applications to your students’ lives outside the classroom. Join Dedra to learn how to guide your students through online projects, web quests, and inquiry-based learning. Discover resources that cover all content areas and develop higher-order thinking skills. And, you’ll be ready to implement this dynamic kind of active and engaged learning in your classroom.
 
Self-Efficacy, Grit, and Mindset: The Keys to Academic Perseverance
Why do some students succeed during challenging times while others struggle? Recent research points to fundamental ways educators can improve our teaching practices to help students develop perseverance and resilience. Come learn about strategies to help both the students who demonstrate learned helplessness as well as those who exhibit a sense of entitlement. Dedra will provide a myriad of ideas, strategies, and tools for helping students “stay the course” in both their academics and their lifelong goals.
 
Creating a Culture of Rigor and Success in the Classroom             
Help your students succeed by teaching them to think critically. In this session, Dedra outlines how to create a classroom where students think deeper and question the thought process. Join her to look at the why and how of learning and Depth of Knowledge in the classroom. Gain the tools to create deeper thinking learning environments infused with rigor.
 
Think Kindness: Building Empathy and Gratitude in Your Classroom        
Thanksgiving gratitude activities and food drives are great, but how can you truly promote gratitude and empathy in your classroom every day? This session introduces activities and learning projects to help you build a kindness culture while creating better students AND better people.
 
Teaching Kids to Thrive
Most educators are familiar with the enhanced positive classroom environment and the improved academic achievement that come from incorporating Social and Emotion Learning (SEL) practices in the classroom. This session is designed to give teachers in grades 5-12th ideas, tools, and activities for integrating self and social skills into their curriculums.
 
ACEs To Hope How Trauma-Informed Classrooms Can Help Students Overcome The Odds              
Trauma impacts students' learning?… of course, it does! But as teachers what can we do about it? This session will be an overview of trauma (ACEs study) and the impact on students' emotional and academic development along with practical strategies that trauma-informed schools share. Walk away with a better understanding of trauma and how a resilient school community can promote the tools all kids need to overcome the hardships they have had to face. Come join the discussion and walk away with HOPE of how you can HELP.
 
10 techniques for Helping Kids Manage Trauma and Anxiety
Just breathe… Seems so simple but how do we de-escalate the escalated child? Every child calms differently so an educator’s bag must be full of tricks. Let’s TEACH kids how to manage the stress of trauma, life, and anxiety with some simple techniques. Students who are angry? Frustrated? Tuned out? Overwhelmed? Stressed? These tools will help you help them.
What Trauma-Informed Classrooms Need to Know
As educators, we may not always know the whole story but we know how it affects the student and learning. Research shows half of the total student population in the United States has experienced some sort of trauma, violence, or chronic stress at home. Events like divorce, incarceration, deportation, neglect, sexual abuse, verbal and physical violence in the home, and death are tied to deficits in academics. Teachers don’t need to become mental health experts to teach in this trauma-filled world but there are things we can know and do to create the optimum environment for kids as they grow and learn. Dedra will provide teachers with an overview of trauma along with practical strategies for trauma-informed classrooms. Walk away with a better understanding of trauma and how you can build a resilient classroom community that is trauma-informed.
 
Active Learning Strategies for any Social Studies Classroom
Create learning in the social studies classroom that brings history alive and puts the information in the hands of your students. Dedra will demonstrate easy cost-effective ways to get students actively engaged in any social studies classroom
 
History Happens!
History is more than a boring lecture and a podium! It's happening every day—get your kids actively involved in it! In this session, discover how to bring history to life through projects and activities that appeal to different learning styles and can be adapted to any time period. After this session, your students will be dancing, drawing, singing, debating, and recreating history right in your own classroom!
 
Hands-on Social Studies/History Learning
Let’s get our students up, moving, and learning social studies! This session will spark your imagination when it comes to hands-on student-created social studies activities. Most activities can be modified to any standard/topic.
 
Snap4Edu- Annotation and History
No Snap Chat required! Use history, and annotations to create a “snap-like” learning experience for your students. Students will analyze primary sources and text to create learning that is authentic but fun. Come in learn the basics, get free resources, and learn how to use several mediums both technology and non-tech to create Snap4edu projects in your classroom.
 
Summarization of Learning for History
If you want your students to learn and REMEMBER, summarization is the key. This session is packed with easy-to-implement learning activities for 5-12th grade history classroom.
 
Websites for Social Studies/History
Who has time to sort through all the best websites for the classroom? This session will be a showcase of the latest and greatest sites that are social studies/history focused. Video, games, lessons, activities, and interactive sites all focused on your subject.
 
Teambuilding for the Rock Star Teacher!              
Need an easy-to-implement team-building activity? The best way to build team unity in school is by getting the kids engaged and understanding why we team. Come to this session, participate, and walk away with several activities that can be used on teams and in advisory programs. The spotlight is on you and you will ROCK with these great activities.
 
Show What You Know! Using Technology to Show Student Learning
SHOW what you KNOW is an awesome opportunity to see what kids learned from instruction. Dedra will walk you through the top 5 sites for students to demonstrate learning in any classroom. Take “show what you know” to a whole new level and revolutionize the way you assess learning. A little technology combined with valuable information equals success.
 
All About Google
Transform your understanding of what Google is and all it can do in your classroom. Dedra introduces innovative ways you can use Google Apps for Education™ to infuse technology into your day. This fast-paced, half-day workshop is packed with hands-on activities and includes advanced search techniques, collaborative web-based applications, and inspirational instructional strategies. Learn how to implement Google Classroom™, Chrome™, Docs™, Slides, Forms, Sites™, and more—to the delight of your students!
 
Chrome Classrooms Create
Effectively integrate Chromebooks into your classroom to create a student-centered, creative, and collaborative environment. In this hands-on workshop, explore strategies for understanding and using Chromebooks, the Chrome browser, and Google Apps for Education™ in meaningful ways.
 
Flipping Classrooms: More Valuable than Flipping Real Estate
See how flipping can work in your classroom! Dedra presents a mock flipped format to demonstrate the components of flipping and what a flipped classroom looks like. Examine the basics of flipping and how it frees up more time for assessment and empowers students to think critically. Then, work as a collaborative team to develop a plan for your classroom. Bring an open mind and walk away with a whole new perspective on flipping!
 
Getting Started with Google for Education
Hey, Google newbies! Join Dedra in a fun journey through the beginning stages of Google Chrome™ and Google Apps for Education™. Explore Google Drive™, Google Docs™, Google Presentations, Google Forms, Google Sites™, and YouTube™. By the end of the session, you'll be in love with Google and all it can do in your classroom!
              
Student Voice and Your Curriculum- A Powerful Combination
Giving your students a voice is a powerful tool in creating learning environments that students of the “YouTube generation” respond to. Students who create authentic assessments using video creations will retain information and tie it to previous knowledge. Teachers can harness the excitement and energy of the viral videos and tie them to the curriculum. Come in and learn easy ways to make this concept reality in your classroom.
 
Twitter This: Websites that make you say “COOL!”
This session is a tech lover’s dream! Come in and learn about the websites that everyone is talking about (or tweeting about). No theory, lecture, or research in this session. It is an old fashion swap party. We will highlight the latest and greatest websites educators can use to teach, learn, and have fun with. You will share your favorite websites and ideas and learn everyone else’s. If you like learning, this is the session you will not want to miss!
 
Very Pinteresting! Classroom Ideas that You Will Love!
Pinterest is SO addicting! In this fun session, Dedra shares 101 (or close to that!) sharing and pinning tips that are classroom-tested and teacher-approved. She'll start with an overview of Pinterest for newbies and then fire off great ideas covering everything from DI management to grouping and assessment. Bring a pencil to this session—you won't want to miss a single DI idea!
 
Dopamine and Depression: Social Media in the Hands of Pre-Adolescents
Insta, Tik-Tok, Snap... Kids are drawn to it but what is really doing? This session will look at recent studies on how social media works in the brain and how pre-teens and teens are affected by likes, clicks, and shares.
 
Low-Prep Differentiated Interventions for Struggling Middle & High School Students
Students in the upper grades often struggle because they have not yet developed the skills to read and comprehend complex text. This session is filled with easy-to-use, creative intervention strategies guaranteed to help these students experience school success. Learn how to motivate and inspire resistant students, help strugglers grapple with complex text, and prevent at-risk learners from disconnecting from the text.
 
Formative Assessment: Fun, Fast & Fabulously Easy
Investigate one of the most important differentiated strategies—formative assessment. Join Dedra in this session to learn how to use formative assessment to keep your students on track. Have some fun and walk away with dozens of essential strategies for getting everyone in your classroom to show what they know.
 
Growing Critical Thinkers
The key to helping our students succeed is teaching them to think critically and develop a growth mindset. In this session, Dedra presents questioning stems, number talks, genius hours, and many more techniques to help your students grow into critical thinkers who thrive and love learning. Expect new insight into how to transform your classroom into a learning environment where creative thinking blossoms!
 
PBL in the History Classroom
Totally engage students in your history classroom using the powerful tool of project-based learning. Dedra demonstrates the basic components of project-based learning and how to easily create project-based learning lessons that teach history in a meaningful, real-world way.

Contact me to learn more about working with Dedra!