Dr. Donna Walker Tileston
Dr. Donna Walker Tileston has served education as a leader in teaching, administration, research, writing, software development, and national consulting for the past thirty years. Her administrative responsibilities have included curriculum development, management, technology, finance, grants management, public relations, and drug abuse prevention programs. For the past fifteen years Dr. Tileston has been actively involved in brain research and the factors that inhibit learning or increase the brain’s ability to put information into long-term memory.
Dr. Tileston’s research has been published through Corwin Press under the titles: Strategies for Teaching Differently (1998) and Ten Best Teaching Practices: How Brain Research, Learning Styles and Standards Define Teaching Competencies (2000, 2005) which has been on Corwin’s Best Seller List since its first year of print.
This research, along with comprehensive research on teaching and learning, brain research, and research on the urban learner, led Dr. Tileston to write a best selling series titled What Every Teacher Should Know (2003, 2008). The research has also been converted into ten three hour courses for Master’s level credit toward a teaching degree or teacher certification and alternative certification at California State University-Bakersfield. What Every Teacher Should Know has been awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing by the American Educational Publishers Association. The series currently consists of the following ten courses and books:
1. Working with Diverse Learners
2. Motivation That Develops Self-Directed Learners
3. Learning, Memory and the Brain: How Learning Occurs
4. Instructional Planning That Develops Self-Directed Learners
5. Teaching Practices That Are Best for Student Learning
6. Classroom Management and Discipline
7. Student Assessment
8. Working With Special Learners
9. Using Media and Technology to Add Value to Learning
10. The Profession and Politics of Teaching
The What Every Teacher Should Know materials are presently being developed into a series of comprehensive state-of-the-art interactive on-line courses. Read course overviews here.
To date Dr. Tileston has made over 500 presentations on her research and materials at state, national and international conferences. Vire more information on her workshops and presentations here.
Professional Services
Presentations
The Strategic Teaching and Learning staff are all highly experienced presenters with extensive background in a wide variety of fields. Let us kick off your conference, with a fast-paced and entertaining presentation or a customized workshop.
Vision
Strategic Teaching and Learning will work with you to collaboratively create realistic, tangible, compelling and achievable visions for the future. Let's move your organization beyond words to action. Use our speaking and workshop facilitation services to move groups beyond the here and now to identify the trends that are changing your world.
Alignment
Educational initiatives are commonly put into place in isolation without considering other critical factors. When put into place in a piecemeal, ad hoc manner, this commonly results in initiatives that work at cross-purposes to one another. In order to effectively use limited dollars, it’s critical to align all elements including student learning goals, state or national standards, instructional pedagogies, curriculum, staff development, infrastructure, policies & procedures, and new technologies. Let Strategic Teaching and Learning help you develop a systems approach for effective implementation of your initiatives.
Leadership
Leaders must be the shepherds of the process rather than the captain of ship. The key to successful implementation is to cultivate a dynamic, collaborative leadership culture. Experience has shown again and again that change doesn't happen just because it's mandated. Strategic Teaching and Learning will help you develop a broad-based leadership culture that cultivates a “we not me” approach to change.
Curriculum & Instructional Design
Effective design requires the development of effective learning models. This entails a 7-step process, which includes how to develop (a) the why or rationale for educational change, (b) what all students need to know, (c) what the research tells us about learners, (d) pertinent new instructional models, (e) engaged learning environments, (f) the building of new instructional models, and (g) the creation of dynamic action plans. Finally, the 7-step process must align with "measurable (quantitative, qualitative, formative, summative) student results" (Bernajean Porter, Grappling With Accountability, 1999). Let Strategic Teaching and Learning help you develop a customized curriculum/instructional model that supports district, state, and/or national standards, while at the same time, addresses the 21st Century literacies often overlooked by standards.
Facilities
Planners often view facility issues and the related costs as an afterthought to instructional design. Such factors are a hidden, but nonetheless important cost that should be factored into all planning and spending equations. Strategic Teaching and Learning will help you develop cost-effective strategies that give you the best value for your investments.
Technical Support
Another element often overlooked is the need for responsive, reliable, and helpful technical support.Technical support or lack thereof can be a make or break element in instructional design. However, it is often one of the most difficult elements to sell to decision-makers. Let Strategic Teaching and Learning help you build a multi-level model of technical support that will meet your needs while at the same time be cost effective.
Assessment
Let us help you assess the impact of your investments in instructional design, staff development, technology and curriculum in delivering measurable student results. High profile investments demand a continuous assessment process to guide decisions and communicate results. Accountability should not be viewed as a punishment, but rather be used as a process to guide groups in articulating their progress and revising their resource decisions.
The Strategic Teaching and Learning Team
The Strategic Teaching and Learning Team creates rich learning media for corporate and educational applications that excite audiences. We work with speakers, facilitators and consultants to design and create videos, CD’s, DVD’s, Web sites, books, kits, instructional media and other materials that articulate their ideas to their client and customer base.
Taking advantage of low run digital production methods, the Strategic Teaching and Learning Team creates high quality short run videos, DVDs, CDs and other products in international formats. From our 6,000 sq ft production facility, we work with graphic designers, Flash artists, web designers, photographers, audio engineers, camera operators, digital compositors, directors, actors and animators to translate your message into a variety of related media.
Part of the initial design and consultation examines the multiple strands and multiple products that may be produced. Our film and video production studio features a range of formats from mini DV to pro DV formats with our twin JVC-500 digital cameras, as well as access to 16mm, super 16mm and 35mm motion picture cameras. We have six digital video editing systems on site as well as access to additional talent and resources.
Our award-winning photographers and designers have worked around the world on a variety of projects and in a variety of styles. We can orchestrate the production of digital masters for audio or video applications or we can take it further and co-ordinate all packaging, boxing, labeling as well as warehousing and shipping in depots throughout North America. No matter how big the project, if you have something to say, we can help it be heard.
Information Services & Customized Research
Every week, Strategic Teaching and Learning scans literally hundreds of on-line articles from a wide range of sources for news and commentary. We identify what we consider to be the best 10 or so articles on educational change, trends, controversy and combine these with new books, web sites, personal commentary and contributed materials and distribute it to more than 10,000 subscribers in more than fifty countries. We can customize this service to meet your specific information needs.
More information:
• Workshops offered by Dr. Donna Walker Tileston
Contact Dr. Tileston:
Email: info@whateveryteachershouldknow.com
