Mandy is absorbed with studying the world of education. She brings this passionate curiosity to studying how students learn and how teachers teach. Then, as an experienced and insightful speaker, she shares her educational and engaging stories with her audience. She has a propensity for this storytelling. It pulls her audience in by giving them practical insights. Her passion, experiences, and every-day narratives are crowd pleasers for all audiences.
Mandy Froehlich
Director of Innovation and Technology, Author of The Fire Within and Creator of The Hierarchy of Needs for Innovation & Divergent Thinking
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Mandy Froehlich
Biography
Mandy Froehlich is currently a Director of Innovation and Technology and a Google for Education Certified Trainer, but has been involved in education in a variety of positions from teacher to technology integrator, and has also taught pre-service teachers educational technology at the higher education level. Mandy has presented across the United States at various conferences such as TIES, FETC and ISTE on technology integration, effective leadership, and building a culture and climate for learning. She also consults with state agencies and school districts on similar topics and maintains an educationally based blog at mandyfroehlich.com. One of Mandy's fundamental life beliefs is that people's stories shape who they are. Every decision, reaction, or relationship people have or create is directed and defined by their past experiences and how they have reacted to adversity. These stories also shape their engagement in their profession, and their love for learning and students. Her message inspires people to take charge of their stories and determine their own outcomes, and how to become re-engaged in the profession if that has been lost along the way. Her first book, The Fire Within: Lessons from defeat that have ignited a passion for learning, is a compilation of stories from amazing educators who have faced personal adversity head on and have become stronger people for it. They use their new-found strength to support the students and teachers they work with. They are sharing their stories with a hope that others in the same situations might not feel alone, knowing that in our darkest hours, when our situations feel the most hopeless, is when we develop the extraordinary characteristics that make us who we are at our very cores. In addition to the powerful and inspirational stories, there is a chapter included on trauma and how it rewires our brain, as well as the effects of Secondary Trauma, especially as it affects someone who is still dealing with their own fallout from traumatic experiences. This chapter also includes mindfulness activities that support coping and healing. Mandy is invested in determining what needs to be done to launch an environment ripe for innovative change and divergent thinking. She believes that there are steps that can be taken to create conditions that give teachers the best chance to both be innovative and create opportunities for innovation for their students. She has devised a framework called the Hierarchy of Needs for Innovative Thinking and Divergent Thinking to assist districts to assess and implement systemic changes to support this thinking.
Mandy Froehlich
Featured Keynote Programs
Developing Core Beliefs
How to re-engage your love of learning
New initiatives, a focus on compliance, and sheer exhaustion can lead to a disengagement with the education profession. This is where I was several years ago. Using storytelling as the vehicle to guide the audience through this experience, this keynote addresses the journey I took from a disengaged teacher to a passionate professional, the core beliefs I developed along the way, and how educators at all levels can re-engage themselves to be the rockstars they strive to be for their learners.
Additional Information: I have found over the course of being a teacher, instructional coach, and an administrator that one of the biggest challenges are disengaged teachers...teachers who have forgotten why they began teaching in the first place. There are levels of engagement from first-year teacher ready to take on the world to teachers who have become apathetic to the profession in general. I describe my journey from being an excited first-year teacher to my fifth year when I wanted to leave the profession and I was miserable, and the strategies that I used to re-engage myself. I also discuss developing my core beliefs about education and how they hold me up when I question what I’m doing and the decisions I’m making. Finally, I discuss the importance of awareness of the issue, and how personal and professional adversity, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout can all cause disengagement.
Divergent EDU
What is necessary for a district to really grow together into a climate and culture of innovation and support of divergent thinking? That is the million dollar question. In this session, we will discuss the Hierarchy of Needs for Innovation and Divergent Thinking - an organizational structure meant to support teachers in their innovative journey, and what all educators can do to establish these necessary components including changing mindset, climate and culture, creating a common language, and effective support and leadership. Innovation is more than handing out devices. Let’s talk about how we can create the conditions to support teachers and students as they think of new and different ways to learn and grow!
The Show Must Go On
The focus in education has zeroed in on student mental health issues and what mindfulness can do in the classroom, but the topic of teacher mental health still remains taboo. This session discusses the importance of doing body scans and watching for mental health issues, using mindfulness but knowing when mindfulness isn’t enough, and other factors in the classroom that can affect mental health like burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Finally, how we can destigmatize mental health issues and create a culture of understanding.
The Hierarchy of Needs for Innovation & Divergent Teaching
What is necessary in a district to really grow together into a climate and culture of innovation and support of divergent thinking? That is the million dollar question. In this keynote, I will discuss the Innovation Hierarchy of Needs, and what administration and teacher leaders can do to establish these necessary components including creating mindset, climate and culture, creating a common language, and effective support and leadership. Innovation is more than handing out devices. Let’s talk about how we can create the conditions to support teachers and students as they think of new and different ways to learn and grow!