A letter from the desk of Bart Teal

BLUE RIBBON SCHOOLS OF EXCELLENCE
Instilling the passion to learn

Blue Ribbon Institute in Texas - UPDATE

Texas Institute – September 29-30, 2009
Gaylord Texan Resort, Grapevine, Texas

Dr. Phillip Schlechty will deliver the keynote speech in our opening session September 29 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center. Phil is the founder and CEO of the Center for Leadership in School Reform and the author of numerous publications including Inventing Better Schools: An Action Plan for Educational Reform; and Schools for the 21st Century: Leadership Imperatives for Educational Reform.

Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence – Bart Teal, President/CEO, and Dr. Steve O’Brien, Director of Assessments, will discuss the Blueprint for Excellence, a comprehensive school assessment designed to assist all schools at all levels. This positive, collaborative school reform process assesses the quality of school programs and assists in developing a school-wide action plan to ensure measurable student achievement and school improvement.

SMART (TM) Technologies – Discover new ways to integrate technology into your classrooms to engage students and help them achieve better results. As a sponsor of this national institute, SMART will be offering a wide variety of professional development workshops, tips on content creation, and instructional practices for using technology in math, science, and ESL lessons.

Thinking Maps® - Educators and practitioners will be delivering sessions on visual teaching tools that foster and encourage life-long learning. When implemented systemically, all students benefit from use of this common language for learning as it promotes stronger relationships, greater relevance, and higher levels of rigor for students in whole schools and districts.

2009 Blueprint for Excellence Conference - December 8-12, 2009
Disney's Contemporary Resort, Florida

REMINDER: Early bird registration deadline: August 30.

Learn more about Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence
Find out what drives Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence and how we can help schools turn dreams into reality. View specific videos on the Blue Ribbon Conference and Assessment along with perceptions of highly acclaimed educators from across the country.

How is your school doing? (Really doing?)
View this video on the assessment process and find out how a Blueprint for Excellence can help your school determine how well it is doing.

Blue Ribbon Lighthouse School Award
The Blue Ribbon Lighthouse School Award is a recognition program for schools of excellence and is not designed as a typical application process. Schools are identified and selected for this award based on achievement of excellent performance in all nine major categories of the Blueprint for Excellence assessment.

Social Networking Sites
Join Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence at these social networking sites:
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Facebook
Twitter

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Blue Ribbon Schools Blueprint for Excellence Conference
December 8-12, 2009 at Disney's Contemporary Resort

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS – Do you have a fabulous program or best practice in education that you would like to share with the rest of the world? Be a Blue Ribbon Presenter!

CALL FOR STUDENT PERFORMERS – Celebrate the magic of Disney with student performers. We are now accepting applications for K-12 student groups to perform in different venues on December 9, 10, & 11.

Please visit our website to register online and find additional information.

If you would like to be added to our email list, please send an email to lindsay@blueribbonschools.com