Keith Pentz
Keith Pentz
National Education Advisor
Kaplan Early Learning Company
Keith L. Pentz has been in the field of education for more than 25 years. Co-author of the nationally recognized literacy- and resiliency-based conflict resolution and violence prevention curriculum Peace by Piece, Keith has trained more than 1,000 teachers, administrators, and parents to use the curriculum. Keith speaks to groups at the local, regional, national, and international level, and his areas of expertise include brain-compatible teaching and learning strategies, early literacy, learning environments, conflict resolution, early childhood curriculum and instruction, and positive discipline models.
Keynote Presentation Title – “Mindfully We Can”
Mindfulness plays a significant role in our successes in life. By being mindful, we can attain goals, transform the workplace, be personally more mindful, apply mindful techniques to everyday endeavors, become aware of the connection between mindfulness and learning, and determine mindful techniques to incorporate immediately into a daily routine at work and also at home.
Breakout Presentation – “Going Beyond Behavior Management: Prevention vs. Intervention”
Classroom management is often identified as the number one issue facing teachers. Due to a variety of factors, children may or may not respond to expectations in a learning environment. If teachers understand that preventive strategies related to behaviors can be put in place to negate the need for interventions, the cause for “control” is no longer necessary. In order for preventive strategies to be effective, simple, and yet profound, guidelines must be taken into consideration: child development, brain/cognitive development, lighting, color, sensory stimuli, task assignment, choices/options, prior knowledge base, language proficiency and vocabulary, number of items to comprehend, instructional design, and positive/negative influences. By establishing a learning environment that does not promote but prevents inappropriate behaviors from occurring, academic, social, and emotional standards, outcomes, and goals can be more readily achieved.
Breakout Session – “Immersing Children in Science and Math—It’s a Daily Thing!”
Opportunities for science and math activities and lessons are numerous and quite readily available to perform throughout a day. The integration of science and math as basic curricular components exists in literature, art, centers/interest areas, outdoor experiences, mealtime, transitions, normal rituals and routines, conversations, and other everyday experiences. Because math and science “looks different” in a preschool setting versus time in later years, teachers, caregivers, and parents can expect to apply and direct activities in a fun yet informative manner. Concepts such as patterns, similarities and differences, cause and effect, grouping, counting, seriation, representations, hypotheses, inquiry, and analysis tend to combine both science and math ideas. This session will provide opportunity to engage in a variety of activities and experiences to demonstrate math and science concepts. In addition, participants will learn how to incorporate those concepts into any curriculum while at the same time using materials that tend to be already available in most classrooms.
