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INVESTed – amazing value conference in Gippsland

I’m madly reading up on phonological awareness so I can say interesting things about it at the InvestEd Inverloch conference on Saturday 29th February (an extra day, hooray for leap years). The full title of this conference is INVESTed: Sharing Best Practices, Supporting All Students, and it will be at the RACV Inverloch Resort by the beach in South Gippsland.

Like last year’s Sharing Best Practice conferences in Melbourne and Sydney, all the organisers and speakers are volunteers, to keep registration costs low at $88 concession/$99 full. A whole day of high-quality PD for under $100! TV advertisers would call it mad ape bonkers.

Here’s a summary of the agenda, more details are here:

• 8.30 Registrations
• 9.00 Welcome, Welcome To Country
• 9.10am Getting your school moving & improving through the power of instructional leadership with Stephen Dinham, Emeritus Professor, Melbourne University Graduate School of Education.
• 10.00am: Three options:
  • Practical phonological awareness with me, Alison Clarke, mere Speech Pathologist.
  • Decodable and predictable texts reflect theories about how to teach reading with Associate Professor Tanya Serry, who now (excitingly) works at the La Trobe University School of Education.
  • Orton-Gillingham Math(s!) with Ron Yoshimoto, Orton Gillingham International Trainer.
• 11.10: Three options:
  • Sharing what works: the common elements of evidence-informed instruction with Steven Capp, Principal of Bentleigh West PS.
  • Better problem-solving with Catherine Scott, Psychologist, education academic and networker-organiser extraordinaire.
  • Evidence-based mathematics instruction: from concrete to pictorial to abstract with Dave Morkunas, high-performance Teacher at Bentleigh West PS (watch him in action here).
• 12.00 noon: Three options:
  • Changing practice, changing people: moving towards whole school structured literacy with Amanda Craig, Psychologist and Nellie Wilmot, Primary Teacher.
  • Why spelling matters with Maureen Pollard of Little Learners Love Literacy.
  • Cognitive Load Theory in Action with Oliver Lovell, Secondary Teacher, blogger and podcaster.
• 12.45pm: Delicious lunch.
• 1.15pm: Three options:
  • Orton-Gillingham Literacy with Ron Yoshimoto, Orton Gillingham International Trainer.
  • Overview of the highly effective Direct Instruction reading, language, phonemic awareness and spelling programs with Claire Scott, Teacher Trainer and Coach.
  • Supporting students with working memory and processing speed difficulties with Kate Jacobs, Psychologist. Note that this will be a double session so…
• 2.05pm: Three options:
  • Supporting students with working memory and processing speed difficulties with Kate Jacobs, Psychologist (continued).
  • Writing: Can Balanced Literacy have impact? with Lyn Stone of Lifelong Literacy.
  • Advocating for individuals with language and learning challenges: a parent and teacher perspective with Heidi Gregory of Dyslexia Victoria Support and Olivia Connelly of Gameplan and DVS.
• 2.50pm: Cognitive Load Theory and learning disorders: is there a connection? With Mandy Nayton, Psychologist, AUSPELD President and DSF WA CEO.
• 3:55 Thanks and close.
• 4.00pm Drinks and networking in the groovy-sounding Zenith Lounge.

I am absolutely kicking myself that I can’t stay for the afternoon, as my tiny primary school at the other end of the state is having its 150th celebrations that night.

Registrations for INVESTed close on 20th February, and if you’d like to make it part of a weekend at the beach, please book your accommodation soon, before it fills up. You might also like to stay on for two days of multisensory math(s) with Ron Yoshimoto. Ron will also be presenting courses on Orton Gillingham Basic in the week of 2-6 March and Orton-Gillingham Advanced (morphology) on Saturday 7th March (for which the Basic course is a prerequisite).

Finally, a huge THANKYOU and massive credit to Kerry Harvey, Catherine Scott and the other South Gippsland Learning Differences volunteer organisers.