Art. Play. LEARN.
Educational Institutions
Thought-leadership for 2020 and beyond
Professional
Development
These live, online sessions are more than just presentations. I will engage your teachers and staff in the same ways I engage my students so that they come away with experience applying the objectives.
Masterminds
An on-going opportunity to receive personalized support from peer outside of your organization.
Professional Development
Effective Lesson Plans for Remote Learning
Keeping students engaged.
Learn the best practices, tools and the science behind why they work. This professional development workshop takes teachers on an experiential journey that gives them not only the tools but the necessary experience of how to use the tools that will equip them for any scenario in the fall. Strategies and tools for both synchronous and asynchronous courses are included.
Nobody knows what the fall will bring but we can be prepared in a way that wasn't possible in the spring. Our students need us to be able to teach new material. You can do it. You just need the tools
Give your teachers the training they need to meet your educational goals for all students.
Thank you very much for all the information you shared with us. That was amazing. I certainly learned a lot.
Communicating with Students and Teachers During Remote Learning
Prevent conflict so you don't have to resolve it.
Communicating is more difficult when you cannot see or hear the other person. This course will give you the tools and perspective you need to communicate with students and parents in a way that prevents conflict, keeps them engaged and keeps everyone working together.
This course serves administrators and teachers.
Meredith is so approachable. She is so knowledgeable.
Integrations for Maximum Effectiveness and Efficiency
Maximize your class time. Reduce learning loss.
Any subjects can be integrated. We know that the act of applying skills and knowledge creates stronger brain pathways to those skills and that knowledge. By immersing students in the material we want them to learn, they acquire it more effectively and efficiently. Learn how to integrate just about any combination of subjects you can think of and probably a few that would never occur to you. Accomplish more in less time. Create better student engagement. Get better retention, longer term recall and higher test scores.
At last! A comprehensive approach to eliminating bullying in your educational institution. This program teaches social and emotional learning to your entire educational environment. It incorporates training in positive, peaceful student behavior management for all staff and the surrounding community. Everybody who influences a child needs to know how to do so in a productive, healthy way. When we eliminate adults modeling aggressive behavior, we will eliminate bullying among our students. This innovative program is like nothing you have ever seen.
Why Me?
I have pursued a 3-prong career path over the past 25+ years in education, theater performance and business administration. The pursuit of training and experience in these three areas has lead me to understand just how connected everything is!
As an educator, I have taught just about every subject at some level. My areas of expertise are definitely language acquisition, writing and performance arts. In my quest for developing the best teaching techniques, I read voraciously. Any kind of research that could potentially be relevant to learning that crosses my path gets a read through. Consequently, through the years my teaching style and curriculum development has changed fairly drastically. My feedback from students and their parents is my guiding light, along with my continually changing understanding of neurology, cognitive science, psychology, anthropology and sociology.
My background in theater has given me insight into education that might not be obvious to those who have not been professionally trained in acting. As we train to become professional track actors, we learn how to engage our authentic selves bravely and publicly, how to be publicly vulnerable, how to identify and name our feelings, how to think through why we might be feeling those emotions, how to express them fully and productively. The way we express feelings in theater does differ from the optimum way we can express feelings in the classroom or home to and around young people, but the skill of being able to be intentional with that expression is very useful in an educational environment. My experience teaching acting as a skill and coaching professional actors has given me the tools to teach educators these vital skills.
As a business leader, I have had to apply my communication skills learned from my acting training to a corporate environment. When I was acting full time, there were times when I needed to earn money by temping in order to sustain my life during the process of auditioning to land my next acting job. Those opportunities were priceless. I was able to see many different organizational structures and cultures over the years, to learn about many industries and to learn many skills. Looking at each organization through the eyes of an actor (one who constantly studies people), I was able to pick out what characteristics and behaviors made each environment more or less effective, productive and healthy to work in.
I apply all of these experiences, skills and knowledge to my professional development. My mission in life is to change the world by solving education problems through creative, innovative interventions. Let me help you reach your goals.