In this two day training session participants will not only learn about conducting a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) and writing a Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP), but will have opportunities to practice and  apply the process to an actual student of their own who has behavioural concerns.  Participants will learn what data to collect, how to use the data during a team meeting to identify the function (or purpose) of the student’s behaviour, and finally, how to take this understanding and apply it when developing a collaborative, credible, and supportive BIP. 
Attending as a school team would enable the team to plan collaboratively for a student from their school.

Presenter:      Dawn Reithaug is an educational and behavioural consultant.  She has worked as a classroom, ESL and diagnostic centre teacher, as well as a consultant for Curriculum and Instruction and Student Support.  She has written eleven books, which are being used by educators across North America and Australia, and presents seminars, based on these works, across Canada.
Certification: Administration – Instruction, Special Education, and Counselling

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This session will be of interest to resource teachers and school administrators. Resource teachers play a vital role in providing appropriate education for students with special needs, and school principals are responsible for ensuring many of the regulatory mandates are met. Over the past decade, there have been many changes in the role of the resource teacher, with current emphasis on the consultative-collaborative model. Managing the multiple demands associated with collaborative planning with classroom teachers and educational assistants, consulting with clinical and other services, and completing required paperwork and documentation can be very challenging.  These issues and others will be discussed in an interactive approach, respectful of the diversity of responsibilities assigned to resource teachers across the province.

Presenter:      Dr. Joan Zaretsky, et al.
Joan is a former MTS Staff Officer and worked with resource teachers across the province in that capacity.  She has her doctorate in inclusive special education.

Through a gendered lens, participants will critically examine gender identity and gender expression in a school setting. The session will provide a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary approach to understanding youth who are exploring their gender, who are transgender identified, and/or who are gender non-conforming. Developmental, social and educational implications will be discussed. Some of the topics to be covered include:

• Understanding and identifying homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, heterosexism and heteronormativity
• Recognizing personal and professional bias
• Responding to disclosure
• Perspectives from those trans-identified and/or gender non-conforming and their families
• Inclusion, accessibility and setting policy standards.

Presenter:      Dr. Reece Malone, et al.
Reece is the Education Program Coordinator for the Rainbow Resource Centre. Since 2007, Reece has delivered more than 300 workshops and seminars on gender identity and expression and human sexuality education.
Certification: Administration – Personnel, Special Education

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This two day, highly interactive workshop will open your eyes to the emerging trends in using social media in the classroom. Numerous tools can be effectively used to enhance our teaching and learning environments. Participants will be involved in creating, learning and sharing in on-line environments, and have an opportunity to network with colleagues. “Where there is no sharing, there is no teaching.” (David Wiley) This workshop will change perceptions about sharing in today’s classrooms.

Presenters:  Andy McKiel and Darren Kuropatwa, et al
Andy and Darren are Digital Media Consultants with the St. James- Assiniboia School Division.

Certification: Administration – Instruction

Treaty Education enriches the understanding of the shared history of First Nations, Manitobans and Canadians.  Its importance in further developing the relationships amongst all of our peoples cannot be overlooked.  The role of the principal in furthering this understanding is significant.
This two day workshop is designed specifically for Principals/Vice-Principals/Counsellors/Resource Teachers in Manitoba schools.  Piloting and implementing treaty education in our schools will present all administrators and supporting personnel with challenges and opportunities of various forms. Facilitated discussions and hands-on activities with the Treaty education resources will aid participants as they identify strategies for integrating treaty education into their schools and classrooms.  The Consultants and Elders from the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba will be involved as participants learn about the various resources - material and human - that are available to enhance this significant educational initiative.

Presenters:   Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba – various speakers and elders

Certification:  Administration – Management, Special Education, and Counselling

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

People and relationships are the heart of the school and trust continues to be a crucial ingredient in leading powerful learning communities.  Studies have shown that growth in trust predicts growth in both teacher commitment to the school and student achievement.  Staff members who believe that they are “good but growing” are more willing to take risks inside and outside of the school and work together to become educational innovators.  This interactive and reflective two day workshop will focus on:

• Facing the barriers to trust
• Identifying where camaraderie and laughter fit with trust
• Building personal and interpersonal capacity within and among a group
• Sequenced strategies, with increasing levels of risk, to build from distrust to early trust to mature trust.

Presenters:   Sue Stephenson and Ardeth Staz
Sue has been a teacher and administrator in Ontario for over 30 years, and is the author of many books including Leading with Trust. Ardeth worked in the Educational Quality and Assessment Office in Ontario.

Certification: Administration – Leadership, Special Education, and Counselling

This workshop will help you recognize the unique attitudes, values and behaviours of distinct generations in the workplace (Boomers, GenXers and GenYers). Understanding the differences and how these differences influence people’s view of work, their preferred work environment, and what they expect from work can help bring out the best in a staff. Being aware of each generation’s values, beliefs and attitudes also means you can communicate more effectively and facilitate stronger collaborative learning teams.

Presenter:     Eddie Calisto-Tavares
Eddie is an HR Consultant and President of Options for Success. She has expertise in coaching and performance management and has worked with universities, the Conference Board of Canada, Manitoba Hydro, and others.

Certification: Administration – Leadership, Special Education, and Counselling

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This session moves beyond the basic understandings of gender identity and sexual orientation and provides advocacy tools as well as educational and clinical strategies for working with transgender, Two-Spirit and gender non-conforming youth. An overview of the impact of minority stress, syndemics and social determinants on health will also be discussed. Case studies and scenarios will be included. Some of the topics to be covered include:

• Gender development of children, youth and adolescents
• Understanding the difference between Gender Dysphoria and gender non-conforming youth
• Responding to disclosure
• Inclusion, accessibility and setting policy standards
• Perspectives from those trans-identified and/or gender non-conforming and their families
• Questions and answers from the Gender Dysphoria Assessment and Action in Youth (GDAAY) transgender youth clinic representatives

Presenter:      Dr. Reece Malone, et al.
Reece is the Education Program Coordinator for the Rainbow Resource Centre. Since 2007, Reece has delivered more than 300 workshops and seminars on gender identity and expression and human sexuality education.

Certification: Counselling

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

There is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Manitoba Human Rights Code.  What are the rights enshrined in these documents and why are they there?  Better yet, why is it important for us to be teaching about human rights in all of our classrooms?  In this interactive two day workshop, participants will work through the answers to all of these questions and many others while they explore the resources available to enhance their teaching.  Participate in hands-on activities suitable for classrooms at all grade levels and meet teachers and presenters who are doing fabulous work in schools around Manitoba.
Presenter:     Roland Dion, et al.
Roland is currently on the Board of Directors of Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties as one of the Program Coordinators.

Certification: Administration – Personnel

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

School leaders play a critical role in enhancing the assessment literacy of staff and students, and in promoting the use of assessment practices that support increases in student learning and not just the accumulation of marks for report cards. This two day workshop will explore

• How assessment and instruction are intertwined
• The importance of clear goals and criteria
• The power of feedback during learning
• Collecting evidence of learning to feed-forward and to document achievement

Ways in which teacher leaders and administrators can support these assessment practices will be woven throughout the workshop.

Presenter:   Warren Nickerson
Warren is currently the Program Support person for the Interlake School Division. He also worked as a provincial Assessment Consultant with Manitoba Education for four years with responsibility for the provincial Assessment Initiative.

Certification: Administration – Instruction, Special Education

Relationships, records and referrals are the foundation of a successful and sustainable school counselling program. This two day workshop will engage participants in the exploration of the ethical issues and the development of the processes that are critical to providing counselling services within the school setting.

• Explore the dynamics of relationships with colleagues, students, parents and community supports that are integral to their roles.
• Learn ways to keep confidential records and document the needs of students and teachers in a meaningful way.
• Learn how to manage mulitple referrals and determine when and how the needs of students may be better managed through referrals to other agencies or services.

Presenter: Carolynne Piturra
Carolynne is an instructor in the PBCE program at the University of Winnipeg. She has over 25 years of experience as a school counsellor, with training in Crisis Response, Threat Assessment, and Suicide Prevention.

Certification: Counselling

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Today’s classrooms reflect the diversity of a global world. Developing students’ self-esteem, respect for diversity, and a love for life-long learning in a diverse community of learners has become a paramount challenge for educators. This diversity also means that students vary in what they already know, what they are ready to learn, the pace at which they are able to proceed through curriculum, and the level of adult support they require for success. Universal Design for Learning is an effective approach to planning, instruction, and assessment that allows for different learning styles and strengths to be valued, developed, and integrated in an inclusive classroom.
This two day workshop will focus on the practical “how to” of setting up your classroom in a way that supports individualized and small-group instruction, multi-modal assessment, and a community-based atmosphere that develops students’ self-esteem and social responsibility.  Sample units, lessons, video, and student work will be shared!

Presenter:    Dr. Jennifer Katz
Dr. Katz is an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba in Inclusive Special Education. She has taught in inclusive classrooms from K-9, and served as a resource, special education, and ESL teacher for the last 16 years. She has travelled across three provinces conducting professional development workshops in the areas of Universal Design for Learning, Inclusive Education, Gifted Learners, and Developing Classroom Learning Communities.

Certification: Administration – Instruction, Special Education, and Counselling

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This interactive two day workshop will address the needs of diverse learners in the classroom.  Participants will be introduced to a five-part, research-based framework – CHATS - that teachers can use to help students with English as an additional language, and all students, attain greater language skills and deeper content comprehension. This field-tested framework provides teachers with content reading strategies, higher-order thinking skills, assessment tools, total participation techniques, and scaffolding strategies. Participants will experiment with easy-to-use Total Participation Techniques for cognitively engaging all students in their classrooms.

Presenter: Dr. Pérsida Himmele
Pérsida Himmile is an Associate Professor at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. She has been a teacher in bilingual and multilingual classrooms in New York and southern California and a district administrator in Pennsylvania. Pérsida has a Ph.D. in Intercultural Education from Biola University.  She and her husband are the authors of several books including the ASCD bestseller, Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner.

Certification: Administration – Instruction, Special Education, and Counselling      

This two day workshop offers an in-depth analysis of

• the legal requirements of principals with respect to the supervision and evaluation of teachers
• the difference between supervision and evaluation
• the components of a fair and reasonable evaluation process, and
• the effective communication of performance issues.

Moving from the theoretical to the practical, participants will have the opportunity to discuss what a good evaluation process looks like, as well as review and discuss case studies.
This workshop is suitable for active and aspiring principals.

Presenter:  MTS Staff Officers, et al.

Certification: Administration – Personnel

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

From traditional storytellers in the "oral tradition" to contemporary poets and novelists, Aboriginal critical and creative thinkers have documented a breadth of experiences, philosophies, and imaginations through narrative.  Among other things, these embody long-standing cultural perspectives of struggle, trade, resilience, and empowerment, and reflect people and communities continuously in motion.
In this two day workshop, participants will be exposed to an array of Aboriginal forms of writing and develop critical lenses through which to understand these expressive acts, as well as plan how to utilize these works when teaching Aboriginal issues in their particular educational circumstances.  Participants will also be asked to reflect on their own, their school’s, and their community's role in an ongoing context of enhancing Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal relationships in Canada - a story still being written. 

Presenter:     Niigaanwewidom James Sinclair
James is an Anishinaabe author and scholar, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba, teaching courses in Indigenous literatures, cultures, and politics. This workshop reflects some of his current doctoral research.

Certification: Administration – Instruction, Special Education, and Counselling

Sustainability has become one of the most compelling challenges of our day. Our students are growing up in a global community and face a variety of environmental and socio-political dilemmas. To address issues related to ecological and personal well-being, social justice and global economic equity our students need to develop skills in critical thinking and ethical decision-making. 
In this two day workshop, participants will explore notions about systems thinking, active democratic citizenship, inquiry learning, critical media literacy, and service learning in classroom and school-wide contexts.

Presenters:    A variety of presenters will showcase ways teachers can engage students in interdisciplinary learning and taking action to promote a sustainable and equitable future.

Certification: Administration – Leadership, Counselling

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER