THE REFORM SYMPOSIUM FREE ONLINE GLOBAL CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATORS | July 29th – 31st, 2011

The Reform Symposium

+ Free Online Global Conference
for Educators

+
Featuring:
International Keynotes including Angela Maiers (US), Principal
Salome Thomas-EL (US), John Davitt (UK), Chuck Sandy
+
+
Contents +
(Japan), George Couros (Canada), Dr. Alec Couros (Canada), Dr.
Pam Bernard (UK / Australia), Kirsten Olson (US)

+ 63 International Presenters

+ Prizes
Invitation 2
+ A Technology Smack Down event

Mentor Program 2 + Opportunities to network with educators worldwide

Continuing Education + Teacher Mentorship Program

Credit 2
+ Social Media/ Professional Development Training Lab

The Open Lab for

Professional Development 3

Confirmed Keynotes 3

If you would like one of our organizers to Skype with you or your staff to talk about
this conference, please email ShellyTerrell@gmail.com!
THE REFORM SYMPOSIUM FREE ONLINE GLOBAL CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATORS | July 29th – 31st, 2011

Dear Educator,
INVITATION +
It gives us great pleasure to invite you to our annual Reform Symposium Online Conference, which will take place
from Friday, July 29th to Sunday 31st, 2011. You can attend this online conference from the comfort of your home or
anywhere you have Internet access. We have some of the best speakers that present in major educational
conferences worldwide. This amazing conference provides you the opportunity to connect with educators and
professionals in the field of education worldwide. Over 4100 educators attended our last conference from 80
different countries.

This year we will focus on interactive presentations that help teachers create engaging and motivating lessons, build
relationships with students, engage parents, integrate technology effectively, and much more. We feature a teacher
mentorship program and an open lab for hands-on support in helping you continue your professional development
on online educator communities. We promise you have never attended a conference quite like this! Join us for one
session or as many as you like! We look forward to seeing you!

Your Organizers,

Shelly Terrell, Kelly Tenkely, Chris Rogers, Lisa Dabbs, Melissa Tran, Clive Elsmore, Mark Barnes, Ian Chia,
Cecilia Lemos, Kyle Pace, Jerry Blumengarten

CONTINUING EDUCATION
MENTOR PROGRAM
CREDIT

Over 50,000 educators worldwide participate in daily
professional development online. Many are veterans
and experts in their fields and would like to support
educators. Please register on the Reform Symposium
site, join the group, The Mentorship Program, and
contact Lisa Dabbs, the main project coordinator.
The requirements for professional development (PD) or
continuing education credits (CEU’s) vary around the
world and within countries. Please visit our PD
information section to download the forms and share
with your local administration prior to working for this
credit.

The organizers of the Reform Symposium conference can’t guarantee that schools and districts will
recognize and accept the Reform Symposium Professional Development Certificate and hours.
THE REFORM SYMPOSIUM FREE ONLINE GLOBAL CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATORS | July 29th – 31st, 2011

The Open Lab for Professional Development

Throughout the conference we will have one room open throughout the entire conference to help you with any
concerns, issues, or technical difficulties you may have throughout the day. We welcome you to drop by this room if
you have questions about any of the sessions or need help creating accounts on social networks.

Throughout the day we will also have online professional development workshops dedicated to showing you how to
connect with other educators through social bookmarking, joining educator groups on Facebook, and on Twitter.
Please feel free to drop in at any time. Kyle Pace and other volunteers will be there to help you!

CONFIRMED KEYNOTES

Salome Thomas-EL is a national education expert and consultant. He was a teacher and
principal with the Philadelphia School District and received national acclaim as a
teacher and chess coach at Vaux Middle School, where his students have gone on to
win world recognition as Eight-Time National Chess Champions. Principal EL is a regular
contributor on “The Dr. Oz Show” and the author of the best-selling books, I Choose to
Stay and The Immortality of Influence. He speaks to groups across the country and
frequently appears on C-SPAN, CNN, and NPR Radio. Principal EL was honored as a
Reader's Digest Magazine, "Inspiring American Icon" and recently appeared on The
Oprah Radio Network.

Kirsten Olson is Chief Listening Officer at Old Sow Consulting, which works with
schools, school districts, and emerging organizations on educational equity, learner
disengagement, and educational transformation. She serves as the president of
board of the Institute for Democratic Education in America, a national grassroots
organization designed to support the transformation of American schools, and is the
author of Wounded By School: Recapturing The Joy In Learning and Standing Up to
Old School Culture (Teachers College Press 2009); Schools As Colonizers (Verlag
2008), and many articles about education. She received a doctorate from the
Harvard Graduate School of Education and an undergraduate degree from Vassar
College.
THE REFORM SYMPOSIUM FREE ONLINE GLOBAL CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATORS | July 29th – 31st, 2011

Chuck Sandy is an internationally-renowned author, teacher trainer and educational

activist who believes that positive change in education happens one student, one
classroom, one school at a time. He co-authored the Passages and Connect Series,
and the Active Skills for Communication Series. He presents at conferences around
the world, and is actively involved in building online learning communities such as
the one found at http://bit.ly/chucksandy. He is actively engaged in spreading the
Design for Change Movement around the world. He currently works in the Graduate
School for Global Humanities at Chubu University, in central Japan.

Angela Maiers is an award-winning educator, speaker, consultant and professional

trainer known for her work in literacy, leadership and global communications. As
owner and lead consultant at Maiers Educational Services, she uses her passion for
literacy and technology to discover creative ways to assist schools and organizations
in meeting their learning and productivity goals. She has spent 22 years working in
Elementary, Middle and University settings as a classroom teacher, reading specialist,
coach, special programs facilitator, and University Professor. She is the co-author of
The Passion-Driven Classroom: A Framework for Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Alec Couros, is an Associate Professor of educational technology and media at the
Faculty of Education, University of Regina. He has given hundreds of workshops and
presentations, nationally and internationally, on topics such as openness in education,
networked learning, social media in education, digital citizenship, and critical media
literacy. His graduate and undergraduate courses help current and future educators
understand how to use and take advantage of the educational potential offered by the
tools of connectivity.
THE REFORM SYMPOSIUM FREE ONLINE GLOBAL CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATORS | July 29th – 31st, 2011

George Couros is the Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning for Parkland
School Division. He resides at the Centre for Education working closely with the Future Team,
Lead Team, Learning Services Department and Information Technology Department where he
pushes the leading edge in implementing Alberta Education’s new Goal Two - Educational
Transformation. In August 2009, George was appointed the Principal of Forest Green School /
Connections for Learning. He additionally co-facilitates Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great
Results leadership training, is a leader on the effective use of social media to improve student
learning. He is a sought after speaker on the topic of advancing student learning and
engagement. George also created the Connected Principals group and blog website.

Dr. Pamela Burnard's career has been woven from a combination of experiences as a
musician, performer, educator, academic and researcher in Australia, USA and England from
where she holds degrees in Music Performance, Music Education, and Education. She is
internationally known for her work in the areas of creative learning and teaching, musical
creativity/ies, assessing creativity and the sociology of music education. She acts as mentor
for the Welsh Educational Research Network (WERN). Pamela is co-convenor of the BERA
Creativity SIG, co-editor of the British Journal of Music Education, Associate Editor of
Psychology of Music and serves on 9 other editorial boards. Pamela manages an extensive
research seminar programme which supplements the Masters in Arts, Culture and
Education, a course she initiated and has built extensive networks which link university,
school and community arts organizations. She’s currently based at Cambridge University.

John Davitt is a writer, broadcaster and a digital toolmaker. He has worked in the education
sector for the last 25 years as an English teacher, senior manager and regional adviser with the
EU Flexible Learning Project. As a journalist he wrote for the UK Guardian, The Times and The
Observer, with a regular feature in the Education Guardian. John has worked extensively with
teachers in schools in UK, USA, China and Africa and he is committed to leveling the playing
field regarding access to new learning opportunities. He is the author of the book “New Tools
for Learning” (2006) a practical guide as to how to make the technology fit the learning need,
and the WordRoot CD an interactive guide to words and their etymology.

Thanks to:

Disclaimer: The Reform Symposium Conference could not take place without many of its sponsors, presenters, and organizers. The views and
opinions expressed are purely those of the presenters/sponsors/organizers. We seek to offer various expressions about education but do not as a
conference recommend any as the solution to education transformation or endorse/sell any product.