8th Annual New Directions in Education Conference
Join us for a day of inspirational keynote speakers and engaging breakout sessions - FREE!
Inspirational Keynote Speakers
CHANELLE WALKER - Morning Keynote.
SEL for You and Me: Prioritizing educator social and emotional wellness too! Meet the founder and CEO of Professional Inspiration, Chanelle R. Walker. Chanelle, who is known as the Teacher Wellness Guru, inspires educators across the country to live a life of wellness, purpose and greatness. Chanelle’s passion to inspire educators to be well and stay connected to their passion began long before the Covid-19 pandemic drew attention to teacher burnout. Chanelle, who has 20 years of experience as an educator, 10 of which were as a middle school ELA teacher, brought her advocacy for teacher wellness and burnout prevention to the TEDx stage in 2019 in a talk titled, “The Elephant in the Classroom”, which now has over a quarter of a million views. Since then, Chanelle has inspired and taught thousands of educators from New York to as far as Hawaii on topics such as growth mindset, burnout prevention, mindfulness and motivation. |
DAMON WEST - Afternoon Keynote.
Overcoming Adversity: The Damon West Story
In this intimate and personal presentation, Damon shares his cautionary tale and message of hope in a brutally honest presentation. Damon takes his audience on an emotional journey from childhood sexual abuse, adolescent addiction and living with ADHD, playing Division 1 football, working in the United States Congress and ultimately working for one of the biggest Wall Street banks, UBS, before being introduced to meth. His nightmare life of meth-addicted crime and receiving the maximum punishment (Life) is vividly described. The survival stories on the life-sentence building inside a Texas maximum security prison and the lessons he learned while incarcerated, which ultimately delivered him into recovery, are spell-binding and riveting. Additionally, Damon will end with a Call To Action, to be like the coffee bean from his story. At the conclusion of the event, Damon will field questions from the audience on any and all topics he discussed.
Overcoming Adversity: The Damon West Story
In this intimate and personal presentation, Damon shares his cautionary tale and message of hope in a brutally honest presentation. Damon takes his audience on an emotional journey from childhood sexual abuse, adolescent addiction and living with ADHD, playing Division 1 football, working in the United States Congress and ultimately working for one of the biggest Wall Street banks, UBS, before being introduced to meth. His nightmare life of meth-addicted crime and receiving the maximum punishment (Life) is vividly described. The survival stories on the life-sentence building inside a Texas maximum security prison and the lessons he learned while incarcerated, which ultimately delivered him into recovery, are spell-binding and riveting. Additionally, Damon will end with a Call To Action, to be like the coffee bean from his story. At the conclusion of the event, Damon will field questions from the audience on any and all topics he discussed.
Engaging Breakout Sessions
MORNING (10:35 - noon)
CHANELLE WALKER: A Growth Mindset for You and Me: The Educator mindset needed for SEL to be impactful
DR. ETHAN LYNN: An Overview of the Science of Reading
LOCAL LAW FIRM: Lawyer Panel and Q&A
DAWNE TURNER: Adult SEL
JAMIE WASSER: Classroom Mindfulness Strategies
LUNCH ON YOUR OWN
AFTERNOON (1:00 - 1:55)
CHANELLE WALKER: This is Your Brain on Stress: Understanding the Impact of Stress on Social and Emotional Wellness and Strategies to Reverse the Harm
DR. ETHAN LYNN: Application of the Science of Reading
DR. TRACEE WELLS: Affinity Teams
DR. BRANDI KELLY: H.O.P.E. Leadership
ERIN ASHER: SEL Classroom Strategies
CHANELLE WALKER: A Growth Mindset for You and Me: The Educator mindset needed for SEL to be impactful
DR. ETHAN LYNN: An Overview of the Science of Reading
LOCAL LAW FIRM: Lawyer Panel and Q&A
DAWNE TURNER: Adult SEL
JAMIE WASSER: Classroom Mindfulness Strategies
LUNCH ON YOUR OWN
AFTERNOON (1:00 - 1:55)
CHANELLE WALKER: This is Your Brain on Stress: Understanding the Impact of Stress on Social and Emotional Wellness and Strategies to Reverse the Harm
DR. ETHAN LYNN: Application of the Science of Reading
DR. TRACEE WELLS: Affinity Teams
DR. BRANDI KELLY: H.O.P.E. Leadership
ERIN ASHER: SEL Classroom Strategies
Funded by the Area 5 SEL Hub