Dr. Samuel Bennett & Dr. Martin Ratcliffe

Featured Videos

• Aim for the Heart: Students are able to perform better in all areas when you reach their heart and work from the inside out. You are able to help them feel better about themselves and then they are able to perform better; academically and socially.
• Encouragement is needed by everyone. When we help our students feel as if they are all VIPs, they will soar to new heights.
• Great Customer Service Builds Great Schools-the first impression is where great customer service begins. You are never able to change or improve on the first impression—Customer Service is vital.
• Teacher of the Year-What does it mean to be selected as the Teacher of the Year? You are not the best teacher in the nation, state, district, or your own school, but hopefully you are the best teacher in your classroom.
• Personalities in the Classroom-when you understand the personalities and characteristics of your students, your school year will run much smoother.
• What teachers want Administrators to Know-“Just give me a breath of fresh air” is one of the ten ideas of what teachers want administrators to know.
• The Importance of Mentoring—“Students do not care how you know until they know how much you care.” The process of mentoring students can be a life changer for you and the students.
• Believe, Build, Become your Dream-students need to develop their dreams into reality. Many people did not become successful because they thought they would, they became successful because someone else thought they would. Help others become successful with their dreams.
• Additional Presentations are available upon request

Put Seven Critical Success Factors to Work in Your School. The Critical Success Factors Correlate with Student Achievement. The presentation is tailored to the needs of the target audience and can range from a brief overview of the seven critical success factors to individual presentations of each success factor, plus the Introduction and Wrap-Up sessions. Each of the seven critical success factors looks at research, case studies, frontline perspectives, and anecdotal accounts. Plus, each success factor presents practical research-based strategies for educators at all levels (superintendents, principals, and teachers). Each presentation concludes with a reflection question.
• Introduction and Research – This presentation lays a research foundation for the exploration of the seven critical success factors.
• Opportunity to Learn and Student Time on Task – “Given sufficient time (and appropriate types of help), 95 percent of students (the top 5 percent and the next 90 percent) can learn a subject up to a high level of mastery” (S.B. Bloom, 1968, p.4)
• Climate of High Expectations – “You can do it if you believe you can” (Napoleon Hill, 1928, p. 18). In order to meet high expectations, one must develop high self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is at the heart of student success.
• Clear and Focused Mission – “The mission serves as the polestar, or guiding principle…” (A. M. Blankenstein, 2004, p. 72). Everyone has a part to play in the mission statement’s success.
• Frequent Monitoring of Student Progress – “People do what you inspect not what you expect” (Lou Gerstner, 2002, p.13.) In this era of accountability, it is imperative that educators frequently monitor student progress and use the data to drive instruction.
• Instructional Leadership – “Involvement in curriculum, instruction, and assessment is considered critical to the concept of instructional leadership” (R.J. Marzano, T. Waters, and B.A. Mcnulty, 2005, p. 53).
• A Safe and orderly Environment – “The learning environment must be psychologically as well as physically safe for all students and must provide students with ‘safe havens in which to learn’” (M.L. Manning and K.T. Bucher, 2003, p. 163).
• Positive Home-School Relations – “The American family is the rock on which a solid education can and must be built” Richard W. Riley, 1994, para 4 (former U.S. Secretary of Education).
• Wrap—up: This session revisits the major themes covered and reminds us to steer our educational ship according to the solidly grounded and researched fundamentals – the seven critical success factors.
• Additional presentations are Available upon Request – for example, presentations on Classroom Assessment, Becoming a Discerning Consumer of Educational Research, and other related presentations, are available upon request.