Location: Lansing Center, Lansing
Pre-Conference Registration: 3:30 p.m.
Pre-Conference: 4:00-7:00 p.m.
Conference Registration: 7:30 a.m.
Conference: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Pre-registration is now closed for this event. You can still register on site.
Breakout session descriptions.
Featuring Dr. Jonathon D. Saphier
Dr. Saphier is the Founder and President of Research for Better Teaching, Inc., an educational consulting organization in Acton, Massachusetts that is dedicated to the professionalization of teaching and leadership. Since 1979, he and his RBT colleagues have taught in-depth professional development programs centered on the knowledge base of teaching to educators in more than 200 school districts in the United States and other countries.
Dr. Saphier is also the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Teachers 21, a non-profit corporation, focusing on public policy for the professionalization of teaching. Dr. Saphier is an internationally recognized consultant on teacher supervision and evaluation, staff development, teacher induction, core values, as well as on school culture and professional community. He has served as a keynote speaker, panelist and presenter at national and international educational conferences. He is an experienced classroom teacher and supervisor in grades K-12.
Every year, Dr. Saphier continues to do in-depth school improvement projects with individual elementary, middle, and high schools. He also leads teams in systemic district improvement projects.
Beginning in the summer of 2001, Dr. Saphier became a member of the core faculty of the alternative certification program for aspiring urban principals sponsored by New Leaders for New Schools, providing a course and site visits for the NLNS residents on “Observing and Supervising Teaching”. Additionally, Research for Better Teaching is in its third year of providing training on “Observing and Analyzing Teaching” to KIPP principals and all aspiring KIPP teacher leaders.
In 2001, he was appointed a panel member for the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to study the best methods for transferring well-established educational research knowledge to classroom practice. Dr. Saphier is an author and coauthor of eight books, including The Skillful Teacher—now in its 6th edition, How to Make Supervision and Evaluation Really Work, How to Bring Vision to School Improvement, How to Make Decisions That Stay Made, and more recently, On Common Ground and John Adams’ Promise, as well as numerous articles. The Skillful Teacher has sold over a quarter million copies and is the bible of teaching in hundreds of districts around the country. It is used as a text in 60 university teacher preparation programs, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, Middlebury and Williams.
Overnight accommodations are available at the Radisson Hotel Lansing at the Capitol, 111 N. Grand Avenue, Lansing, MI 48933. Individuals can make reservations directly by calling the Radisson reservations at 1-800-333-3333 or with the hotel directly at 517-482-0188. Reservations may also be made by logging on to their web site at www.radisson.com/lansingmi. Use the Promotional Code: MDE127 to receive your discounted group rate of $65 per night.